Frame Trap - Episode 39 "The Price of Nostalgia"

Hey, just a heads up, if this is intended to be a question for the next podcast, then you will need to send it in by e-mail. askeasyallies@gmail.com

BeatenDownBrian

hi allies, hi ben, I really liked this frame trap, especially the email discussion about portraying religion in games. I especially liked the brief sidetrack about game makers taking on controversial topics in a meaningful way. that leads me to a follow up question: do you think gun violence or gun control could be commented on in a meaningful way in a video game? or would that seem hypocritical? and how would you envision such a game play? love and rsspect, stefan

Really enjoying this format and as always frametrap is awesome

Richard Goetz

Kind of agreeing but I don't watch streams (no time!) so it only gets annoyin when Ian use a souls reference whenever he's gotta talk about level design, difficulty or... well anythin ah ah. Love Ian btw, it's just his gimmick...

Térence Caron

I wish there was more cuphead in this FT but maybe next week someone else will have played it ? (Saw the group stream too, a bit chaotic in the audio with everyone shouting but good fun)

Térence Caron

I always thought the old format of the show was good, but I'm really liking this new format even better! Keep it up! L&R!

Great show as always, I'm knee deep into Monster Hunter stories, divinity 2, and battle chasers nightwar right now since I've been able to comfortably put destiny 2 down for awhile. Divinity 2 is a lot better than I was expecting, but I think I'm a bigger fan of Pillars of eternity/tyranny for the customization and gameplay opposed to how divinity 2 is handled.

ZyloWolfBane

P.S. I wanted to use examples from newer games, but decide against it not wanting to ruin some new players' day through spoilers, please forgive me if I did so anyway through my examples above.

BHL

As for religions in games, I personally have little encounter with "real religions" in games at all, even in series that has Gods in their lore. Think of it this way, if a game forces you to attack or even kill a "God", this "God" is usually either false (as in they were never real, for example Yu Yevan in FFX) or a tyrant (which is no longer a religious issue, but more akin to political or power struggles, for example Wilhelm in Xenosaga who really has no religion or even religious ties, his own followers only submit to his power rather than loyal through faith and believe), in fact most true Gods in gaming are either so remote from human concepts that they are effectively independent from human judgement or worship(for example the Aedra and Daedra Elder Scrolls) or so neutral that they only work when there is extreme threat to the world (like the Life Stream from FF7 and Philemon from Persona, not really someone you pray to for safety or good luck in any case) not someone who you will get to fight with at all. In conclusion, I believe that video games as a medium barely ever really touch upon the subject of religion at all, so any negative connotation that one may feel from games against religion is way overblown in my opinion.

BHL

The first flaw is weapon and special acquisition, this game's difficulty is very situational based, without the right item and weapons it is easily several times harder in any given situation, the problem is that there is only brief description of an item and weapons before purchasing, most not enough to give the player the big picture of how or what they really do, since there are limited coins in game (just enough to buy everything) more than once I come to regret my purchase much later in game. Having every item and weapons in game purchasable from the beginning (there are no uber gun or gear they are all situational, so why hide some behind the others is beyond me) and having a practice mode in the shop for trying out new gear with will remedy this situation handily even better if you can see life bar on some enemies in the practice mode so we may assess the damage difference between weapons effectively.

BHL

Cuphead has two critical problems and two lesser flaws in my opinion keeping it from being truly great, the first critical problem is foreground obstructions preventing the player from seeing enemies and their attacks, making the game somewhat unfair. Second being no check point system in levels and boss fights, now I understand if some player would be against a check point system in game, but hear me out: these kind of skill and memory based games require much practice to get the player enough knowledge and skill necessary to proceed, without a check point system the area gets the most practice will be the first sections of both levels and boss fights leaving the remainder and usually more difficult parts of the fights under-trained, also think about what do the player have to prove by having to go through areas that they have proven to be skill to get through already again and again? Of course, the game must impose a penalty so that one may not get true completion unless they go through every level in one go, but the option should be there for the player's benefit.

BHL

While listening to the lastest Frametrap episode (which was great), I created a new Frametrap game. I try to determine which ally will spend the most on games when the recording stops due to being so excited about the games discussed in the "what are you playing" segment. I'd say usually it'll be Ben, but Huber was some serious competition this episode

Greg Kettering

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd has a (fairly jolly) priest as its protagonist, which struck me as a refreshing change from the normal jrpg approach. I think the series as a whole deals with religion via the Septian Church in an interesting and even-handed way.

Divinity Original Sin 2 has 80k players last night on Steam but its ok because we get....Danganronpa. lol I'm joking around. I love hearing about games I might not have otherwise heard about. DoS 2 is so far the best reviewed game of the year. Good luck reviewing that beast! Fantastic podcast! Really impressed that you listened to the feedback last week and I really think it paid off. Flowed so well! Excellent job as alway Ben!

ComboBreaker

I like: going game by game instead of by person, having three people instead of four, the show coming in under three hours, emails last

Great podcast as always. Although at this point I'd up my pledge for a new podcast titled "FrameTrap but we won't talk about Dark Souls" Kidding of course! Mostly! The podcast is better when they talk about whatever they want. But man... 1+ years after the last souls game, and we're getting a retrospective, Blood is streaming it, a FrameTrap segment a couple months after Ian's last DS3 FrameTrap segment - not to mention all the other spontaneous discussions - and it's not like any EZA member ever disagrees or criticizes it. So there's never a fresh, interesting take. It's always just "yes, I also think it's good." Not that I'm frustrated in any way since I enjoyed the podcast and the timestamps let me skip what I don't. It's just... in a year with no From game and SO many other great games to talk about, I was hoping the Soulsborne discussions would ease off at least a little. But alas

Adam

--2 of the biggest causes of conflict are beliefs (ex religion and race supremacy) and money. Those are generally seen as things of power over others. Religion has a huge amount power over others. One could simply say God said do this and people would follow. Cults exploit that often in real life so it works perfectly in a game. Another reason religion isn't used in a more positive light is that there is less conflict in a positive portraile so it limits possibilities.-- --As for the Switch game prices. Didn't multiple games come out less digitally on Switch saying physical cost quite a bit to produce?-- --Even if PCs are more expensive then consoles they have far better and extensive backwards compatibility. You spend far less rebuking games. You also get mods to help older games look a bit newer.--

Chris H

Some Switch games supposedly cost more than other console counterparts, because the devs claim they have to pay more for carts large enough to fit the games on them than it would cost to print to a similar size disc. When you account for having to write disc-based games to your harddrive and thus needed an expanded size harddrive on Xbox or Playstation, the cost evens out.

MBUN

Not a criticism, just curious, why are Huber and Bloodworth always paired together, even on different podcasts?

Robert A Iglehart

Huber, where do I get that shirt?

Ooooh hanging out in the Patreon comments section is roomy and... Elite.

See You When I Get There