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[WRITE-IN] Firelink Episode #73 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-26 18:04:06
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey all! Today's podcast is going to be all about the deluge of good new games that've hit over the past few days -- Death Stranding 2, Rematch, Persona 5: The Phantom X, and Ruffy and the Riverside.

Send in your thoughts/questions on those games, or whatever the hell else you might want us to chat about, and we'll pull some of them to read on the show.Submissions close at 5pm CT on Thursday, June 26th.

Files

Comments

Ryan Petron

I’d love to hear the Persona fans on the pod try to sell the series to all of us, I see all the hype but don’t get it myself

Nyx

What's the update on how you three are doing now that it's mid year with your game draft?

Ryan Betts

Can we get an update on the game release fantasy draft? Did anyone have Mindseye???

Cameron Ehteshami

Kojima creates memorable and fantastical characters. Often to the point where they are more caricatures that entertain me than characters I connect with. I felt this was especially true with Death Stranding, who was the most entertaining secondary character in On the Beach and was there anyone you felt particularly fleshed out to connect with?

Inverse Skies

I don’t think I have a specific question this week, but just wanted to wish you guys a good podcast in general.

Mrjaco12

I was thinking earlier how good this year has been for high quality games with Split Fiction, Clair Obscur and Death Stranding 2 all rated 90+ on OpenCritic and a bevy of 89s in there as well. Then I looked back at 2024 and 2023 and in both years, the lowest score in the top ten was 91. Obviously, numbered scores are not the end all be all of game quality measurements but I was shocked at the ratings over the past few years. In y'alls opinion how is 2025 stacking up to the last couple of years at this mid point?

ImmenseCookie

I'm an Xbox Ultimate subscriber - with so many games joining the service each month I resort to choosing from the 'Leaving soon' list to force me to make a decision, and it gives me a set time to play through it. If I like it enough I'll buy the game to continue playing. Any other non-'games are my job' gamers use this method?

Ishterical

I just want to know if Marty got a Fat Chocobo?

Mopman43

Any thoughts on the rumored Xbox layoffs?

Micheal Stewart

System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary is out today, I'm looking forward to playing through the game again... Hopefully many more gamers will learn of the glory of Shodan

TooManySpreadsheets

Steam's Summer Sale is on, which means I'm about to lose all financial self-control ;) Any recommendations for good small games to pick up? Ruffy's definitely on my list. Separately, I'm kinda glad as a non-PlayStation owner that DS2 is an exclusive for now -- I'm anticipating loving it, but relieved to wait for the PC release while I play through my backlog.

Embrace_the_Jank

Outrider Mako came out this week--wasn't KC championing this game a few months ago? Looks cool. In other news, I spent a few days with my niece and nephew last week and learned a lot about life outside my bubble of cynicism and cheese, like Labubu dolls, but more shocking, Grow a Garden on Roblox. This--thing--had over 21 MILLION concurrent players last week! That's more than the first 30 most-concurrent-players on Steam list combined! I'd like to know, especially from the game devs at SW, what could it be about this game that has made it a viral sensation. To dismiss it as peer pressure and teen/pre-teen FOMO seems like a miss. My niece and her friend genuinely love this game, and she did assure me that she has spent no real-world money in speeding up gameplay results.

Embrace_the_Jank

Starstruck Vagabond is 50% off! Tell your friends and neighbors

Brad L

Marty, how is Persona the Phantom X? Maybe others could give their thoughts on how one should approach gatcha games in general. Is there a middle ground between paying nothing and feeling like you’re paying to win? I want to give devs money for their game. I just don’t want it to feel sleazy.

Blistered Soul

Never beat DS (had launch ps4 copy) but put a ton of hours in. Is it worth buying pc/ps5 directors cut, blasting through it then playing the sequel?

Dean Pearson

Hey Marty, I fucking dare you to sum up the plot of Death Stranding to refresh me for the sequel.

Tom Saxman

(tl;dr below) Lately I've been thinking about how weird it is that much of gaming is a competitive art form - a type of art where one competes against either other people or oneself. PVP or self-improvement. Do you have any thoughts on the subject, topical or not? This comes from a personal discovery made last week when I finally accepted that I don’t actually suck at games. I’ve been calling myself shit for over a decade, mostly because I’m terrible at online shooters and mobas. This epiphany happened when I accepted that I just don't care about competing against other players. Sure I might momentarily be sucked into a gnarly game of say Marvel Rivals, but really, honestly, I don't give a flipping de_dust2 about the metas, three-click-combos, or what settings I should be playing on to increase my chances of winning. I have been playing video games for over 25 years. Even when I play competitive online games, I just vibe. Some of them just happen to have good characters, lore, mechanics or loops. Some of them are surprisingly immersive and deep on a personal level. I would much rather, if only for a moment, do something kinda cool as Loki in Rivals and feel like Loki the character, than know what type of crosshair works best *with* him. And I kinda think that's okay… Even though my current teammates and the people discussed in the Folding Ideas video "Why It's Rude to Suck at Warcraft" might disagree with me. And in no way am I saying my way is better. Really, each to their own. I even recognize it might be a chicken-or-egg situation where maybe I don’t like competing BECAUSE I’m not very good at PvP. Maybe it's my cope? So-o-o, I was just wondering if you have any thoughts on the subject and if you can come up with any other forms of art where there's such a fundamental difference in how it is enjoyed, experienced, shared or practiced. Is gaming the biggest entertainment industry in the world because it's actually a thousand different forms of art and sports and general entertainment lumped together? What word is used to describe something bigger than a medium? tl;dr - Isn’t it weird that gaming is essentially an art form in which people compete? Isn’t it weird that gaming is a hobby where the sliding scale of experience is: Completely immersed in my vampire dating sim <----------------> Making excel sheets about crosshairs to improve my kdr. And whatever people in EVE are doing right now.

Noah

Can I play DS2 without playing DS1? I can’t imagine it would be less confusing…

TooManySpreadsheets

I don't have a ton of thoughts about competitive multiplayer stuff (I prefer co-op if I'm playing with other people), but I do appreciate that more single player games are adding accessibility options that let players experience the story with much less friction. Another Crab's Treasure is one of my favorite examples, giving you a gun that can one-shot any enemy in the game, including bosses. I do like the feeling of gaining mastery in a challenging game, but that experience isn't for everyone. I'm an advocate of "find your own fun" in games -- there's very little to be gained trying to enjoy the experience based on how other people tell you you're supposed to be playing. As far as other art forms with sliding scales of experiences, I think live theater can often have pretty big differences depending on casting, direction, stage design, etc. You could have a show where the cast is having an off night and it doesn't hit as well, and another when their family is in the audience and they're working extra hard to put on a good performance. There's something special and ephemeral about seeing live theater, knowing that even if you saw the same show again, it wouldn't be exactly the same experience. I think some games are like that too, where your first experience with it can't be perfectly replicated.