00:00:00:08 - 00:00:13:08 Phil Because, you know, it'll be on your skeleton when you're dead. And I went. Sold. I want one of those. I want one of those. And it's about the same price, you know, depending on market value. It's just that people want one that'll blend in. And sure. 00:00:13:08 - 00:00:13:22 Kevin That makes. 00:00:13:22 - 00:00:19:22 Phil Sense, you know, for other ones. Yeah. Let's, let's, let's have it blend in. But for this guy gold, I want it for this guy. 00:00:19:22 - 00:00:27:10 Kevin You just got to. You know what? Sometimes in life, ladies and gentlemen, you just need a gold tooth. 00:00:27:10 - 00:00:30:08 Phil You need a gold tooth, man. Yeah, tooth. 00:00:30:18 - 00:00:32:11 Kevin And you know what else is gold? 00:00:32:21 - 00:00:33:08 Phil What's that? 00:00:33:23 - 00:00:47:11 Kevin Hey there, everybody. Welcome back to Pixelate. My name is Kevin. With me, as always, is Phil. And today we are finishing up Eco Castle in the Mist. And it's solid gold, baby. 00:00:47:17 - 00:00:48:11 Phil Beautiful. 00:00:49:04 - 00:01:00:02 Kevin It's a beautiful book. Beautiful book with beautiful cover. And it's I. I thoroughly enjoyed our time with this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. You know, I. 00:01:00:02 - 00:01:05:12 Phil Certainly like right off the bat just just to get it out there. Really enjoyed this book. 00:01:05:22 - 00:01:16:05 Kevin Yeah. Yeah. So where did we. Where do we last leave off. What, what, what had just happened when we left off. 00:01:16:06 - 00:01:50:07 Phil That's a really good question, actually. Where did weekly cloth because let me say it because because we started we got into part three which is all about your to and I believe that's the name of of chapter three all about your to know all about yourself. You. No we left off when she went to the top of the tower and she viewed out over the ocean and saw for the first time the petrified merchant vessels and that sort of thing. 00:01:50:11 - 00:02:01:17 Phil Yeah. Nearby kingdoms that can been coming, trying to see them and basically basically saw for the first time, you know, the, the work of. 00:02:01:17 - 00:02:03:21 Kevin Her half the queen rot. 00:02:03:23 - 00:02:09:19 Phil Exactly. Exactly. So we get in this kind of the. 00:02:10:06 - 00:02:43:04 Kevin Yeah, yeah, we're picking up pretty much just kind of speed. Yeah. And it's the end of chapter three and just after your to it's is three out ten and this is basically just after your is in her room doing her spyglass fun times yeah it's a conversation between her and a Zuma and Zuma is telling Yorta that what she saw was an emissary from the zoo grand dorsal empire that had been sent to her mother's kingdom as just like, hey, let's, you know, let's chat. 00:02:43:04 - 00:02:48:00 Kevin And her mom was just like, Yeah, and it's going the mom. 00:02:48:00 - 00:02:50:13 Phil Yeah. 00:02:50:13 - 00:03:23:02 Kevin So she wants to your to basically she wants to get inside of the Tower of wind and basically, oh, Zuma is like, you know what, you're probably going to need something so that the shades don't attack you, some sort of mark to identify you. And this is it's not it it's not a direct tie into the mark that ego wears, but it's kind of using the same verbiage to describe like, oh, okay. 00:03:23:02 - 00:03:29:12 Kevin Yes. This is the thing that ego is wearing is, is kind of doing something similar to this. Yeah. 00:03:29:14 - 00:03:30:21 Phil So there's a parallel there. 00:03:30:23 - 00:03:59:19 Kevin There's a parallel here. Yeah. So you're to praise to her father like, hey, pops, I need you to I need you to help me out one more time. And she sees she goes to the trolley and she sees her father and two other ghosts standing in one of the trolley platforms. And she recognizes that the two other ghosts are two of his advisors that disappeared around the time that her father died. 00:03:59:19 - 00:04:11:01 Kevin And she thought nothing of it. And she's like like she has this dawning realization of horror that like, oh, once my father died, these two guys were just killed. 00:04:11:14 - 00:04:25:09 Phil Right, right. It's kind of hilarious because her, like, assumption is like, well, yeah, he stopped being king, so they had to move on with their lives and they were going to advise the next king. The next king wants to have their own advisors. That's just how this works. It's like, Oh. 00:04:25:17 - 00:04:27:01 Kevin Oh, boy, you really. 00:04:27:01 - 00:04:28:22 Phil We're putting the blinders on, kid. Yeah. 00:04:29:04 - 00:05:00:15 Kevin So, yeah, she's. It's all confirmed that, you know, they're ghosts standing there. As she approaches, the ghosts kind of disappear. And what's left behind is her dad's signet ring. And the ghost of her father then tells her telepathically, I think, or ethereal Lee. However, yeah, however the voice comes first. Talk. Yeah, ghost talk. Yeah. That this is probably the last time he's going to be able to talk to her. 00:05:00:20 - 00:05:07:04 Kevin And also yeah, shit, be crazy in the tower of Wind. So, you know, be careful. 00:05:07:19 - 00:05:12:07 Phil Yeah. Which at this point I think we all gathered. I think we all. Yeah, yeah. 00:05:12:10 - 00:05:12:16 Kevin We all. 00:05:12:16 - 00:05:16:01 Phil Gather. Thanks for the thanks for the heads up. And I think we figured that out. 00:05:16:01 - 00:05:41:18 Kevin Thanks for the heads up pops, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So, chapter 3.11 Zuma breaks down to order what the Book of Light is. And she's like, Well, that must be the thing in the Tower of Wind. So to the the plan basically in it, Nathan Felder basically coming in with all right the plan right. 00:05:42:07 - 00:05:42:12 Phil Yeah. 00:05:44:00 - 00:06:15:03 Kevin You're going here's what we're doing yada is going to enter the Tower of Winds while Zuma puts on a dazzling show at the tournament trying to keep everybody's attention on him. And she wears the signet ring on a little necklace and she begins to she gets into the tower and she begins to climb the tower because there's a cage up at the top, much like every time we've seen the tower in past, present and future, there's always this cage up at the top. 00:06:15:20 - 00:06:44:14 Kevin And she begins to climb the tower. There's stairs that are breaking and shades that are appearing, but the signet ring manages to keep the shades at bay, and then she lowers the bird cage down to the ground and she finds her father's bones. And inside the skull is the Book of Light. Yeah. And she grabs the book of light and the skull begins floating and attacking her. 00:06:44:18 - 00:07:09:02 Phil Yeah, this. This, by the way, this is the most jarring moment for me, because I remember reading this, and I was just like, oh, like, when you realize that her father has been kept in this, you know, fuckin gibbet cage for, like, however long, she, like, sees, like, a wisp of his hair sticking out of one end of the robe and realizes that her father's corpses in there. 00:07:09:02 - 00:07:21:15 Phil And you're like, That's actually it's really effective and really spooky and really sad. And like finding her father's corpse and then also having the skeleton come to bite you and it really. 00:07:21:20 - 00:07:22:18 Kevin Just killing me. 00:07:23:00 - 00:07:30:02 Phil Yeah, it's just the biting skeleton I that's the alarm system by the skeleton. 00:07:30:09 - 00:07:33:07 Kevin It's. She's just like dodging and the the skeleton bites. 00:07:33:07 - 00:07:49:01 Phil Her shoulder just keeps chopping on edge. It's not rare, like, just which. Look, that's got to be like, I'm sure magic skeleton do powers right but that's still got to be an inconvenience at best. It's like fucker get off like oh yeah. Just she's. 00:07:49:07 - 00:07:51:17 Kevin She's like it's trying to bite my throat. 00:07:52:00 - 00:07:54:20 Phil Yeah. Yeah, that's right. You realize it's, it's going for throat. 00:07:56:08 - 00:07:56:21 Kevin Which is. 00:07:56:21 - 00:07:57:19 Phil Funny, really bad. 00:07:57:19 - 00:08:03:05 Kevin Bruce It reminds me Shadow Keep had a had a moment with a floating skeleton. 00:08:03:06 - 00:08:13:21 Phil Yes. The Lich I thought of the same thing that was there. Very. But that one he didn't like attack them or did it forget it shut. Yeah. These are beams out of its eyes or. 00:08:13:21 - 00:08:16:11 Kevin Something like that. It's sharp laser beams or there's a. 00:08:16:11 - 00:08:17:16 Phil Little more outlandish. 00:08:17:19 - 00:08:28:20 Kevin It was a little bit more outlandish than just a skeleton. And in my head I just imagined it, just like it's like a 1950s horror movie and you can kind of see the wire that the skull. 00:08:28:22 - 00:08:32:12 Phil This is this that that little glimmer of it. Yeah. 00:08:33:02 - 00:08:35:11 Kevin It's just like I remember I remember just. 00:08:35:11 - 00:08:51:12 Phil Ed Wood style or it's like a black background. And if you look closely, you can see the black, like, glove of the hand in the puppet. Yeah, well, I want to. I want to read this. All practical effects. It was a better time. It was better. Better back then, man. 00:08:51:13 - 00:08:56:12 Kevin There was a better when there was practical effects are were 100% flawless. 00:08:56:12 - 00:09:00:23 Phil Did CGI make a bitey skeleton quite like that? I do not think so. No, I. 00:09:00:23 - 00:09:03:20 Kevin Do not think so. It would not it would not be real. 00:09:04:01 - 00:09:05:03 Phil Oh, man. It's not set. 00:09:05:03 - 00:09:11:06 Kevin Not set. Not the same. Not the same. So she fights off the baby bitey skeleton. 00:09:12:15 - 00:09:13:12 Phil She sure does. 00:09:14:03 - 00:09:46:07 Kevin She sure does. She uses the power of the ring to destroy the skull shatters. And then there's, like a bell, bright light. And then basically this. This skull is back. Back where it was. And the book is just sitting on top of her father's corpse. And she grabs it. And once she grabs the book, like all the ghosts up here and start flying away and she's like purified the tower and and she gets a, you know, a if you build it, they will come moment with her. 00:09:46:07 - 00:09:46:19 Kevin Dad. 00:09:47:03 - 00:09:51:08 Phil Yeah. Dad shows up again. Good luck. 00:09:51:20 - 00:09:59:21 Kevin He just kind of floats away into the into the air. And that's that's picture wrap. An old king dead guy. 00:09:59:21 - 00:10:01:02 Phil Oh, king, dad. 00:10:01:22 - 00:10:02:18 Kevin King, dad. 00:10:02:23 - 00:10:07:23 Phil King dad is I think, yeah, like his souls now at peace and he can. 00:10:07:23 - 00:10:33:10 Kevin Souls at peace. It's gone into the ether. The the void. So oh, by the way, that there's one of the next Marvel movies, The Thunderbolts are rumors. I heard rumors. Speaking of the void, that the century might be the villain. 00:10:33:10 - 00:10:45:04 Phil Oh, now, geez. All right, now. All right, if they're going to do the sentry, are they going in like the full Bendis? Like he's a comic character. Like they a myth, like that whole thing, right? 00:10:45:05 - 00:10:59:15 Kevin Like so maybe I think that would be kind of that's kind of interesting where basically he was he was he actually was one of the original Avengers. But everybody's like basically everybody's mind memory of him was wiped away. 00:10:59:16 - 00:11:04:01 Phil Right? Right. And it's just he just exists as a fictional comic book. 00:11:04:08 - 00:11:10:14 Kevin He just exists as a fictional comic book character because that's the only way people actually remember his existence. 00:11:10:14 - 00:11:17:11 Phil That would be interesting because that's like you do a lot of wall breaking with that kind of shit. That's fun. So fun, for. 00:11:17:11 - 00:11:53:07 Kevin Those of you who don't know, is, uh, what we're off topic now. But for those of you who don't know, okay, the century is he is he's basically the Marvel Universe is version of Superman. Yeah, but, uh, and I know Superman fans really know Superman Strong's real. Okay, century would fuck them up on a good day. Like that's the thing about Century is that he could easily destroy everybody and the universe with the level of power that he has. 00:11:53:12 - 00:11:56:06 Kevin The problem with him is he's a big, old, sad boy. 00:11:56:14 - 00:12:02:08 Phil Right? He's completely cracked. He's he's he's sitting in suffers from. 00:12:02:08 - 00:12:09:22 Kevin From anxiety and depression. Yeah. And agoraphobia. So he's afraid to go outside. So it's. 00:12:10:00 - 00:12:34:04 Phil And I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. You're saying, Kevin. Phil, if I, with all of my anxiety and depression, had infinite godlike powers, we would not be here just out of a completely random panic attack that I had, you know, over something that my dad said when I was eight years old and and the be too. 00:12:34:12 - 00:12:35:11 Phil So yeah. 00:12:36:04 - 00:12:37:21 Kevin Now you're getting why he's a. 00:12:38:14 - 00:12:39:14 Phil Why he's a threat, right? 00:12:39:19 - 00:13:06:23 Kevin He's a he's a he's a there's also the the void is basically the evil version of the century. It's not like it's not like moon night where moon night has this dissociative identity disorder. The void is basically just a mirror version of him, right. That exists because he exists. Yeah, but it's also him. It's weird. It gets it. 00:13:06:23 - 00:13:08:17 Kevin So it's super metaphysical. 00:13:08:17 - 00:13:21:02 Phil But I tell you though, that Bendis run of New Avengers is friggin great. I really, really liked that. That was. Yeah, that was the last time I think that I was really keeping up. Yeah. With comics on a weekly basis. 00:13:21:02 - 00:13:30:09 Kevin Yeah. I was just talking to somebody that the last time I was keeping up with comics was there was a arc. Basically, Emma Frost was in charge of the X-Men, right? 00:13:30:10 - 00:13:34:23 Phil Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get the occasional trade here and there for speaking. 00:13:35:13 - 00:13:43:18 Kevin Occasionally dip back in. I think it's more important to just occasionally have a character that you want to, you know, occasionally dip back in to. 00:13:43:21 - 00:13:46:04 Phil Check back in on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:13:46:04 - 00:13:56:21 Kevin That is. Check out, get some trades. Yeah. You know, and none of this has been brought up because I am hopelessly addicted to playing Marvel snap. 00:13:57:04 - 00:14:05:09 Phil I Yeah. I can't stop. It's stunned. Almost done with the Black Panther storyline. The last chapter opens tonight. 00:14:05:13 - 00:14:07:09 Kevin Yep. I know what I'll be doing. 00:14:07:14 - 00:14:29:16 Phil That was. That was $10 well spent, by the way. Yeah. Like that bought me. They are truly like like really holding it back when it comes to monetization here. Like they were like, hey, it's the new challenge for November and it's ten bucks to take part and you get all these, you know, more, you play more, you unlock these cool things. 00:14:29:16 - 00:14:45:00 Phil You just need to give us ten bucks and you're in. I'm like, Yeah, sign me the fuck up. Oh, great. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, that's friggin awesome. That's a great way to go about it. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm still really enjoying that game. 00:14:45:18 - 00:15:04:15 Kevin Yeah. Yeah. And anyway, we're talking about you go and you go, which is excellent. Then we like, you know, like, you know, classic, classic text of video game adaptation. Eco. Yes. All because one of us said void is that's all it takes. 00:15:04:15 - 00:15:24:18 Phil 60800 We really are just God, yeah, we need to we need to, you know, if we ever open a patron, we need to do like the, the non ADHD version where we do the episode a second time. But after we've like taken you know, ADHD medication or something like that and they'll be like 20 minutes long. 00:15:25:01 - 00:15:28:03 Kevin I'll just read, I'll just read straight through my notes and. 00:15:28:13 - 00:15:33:04 Phil That's really tight. And every now and then, you'll hear me go. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. That happened. 00:15:33:15 - 00:15:34:11 Kevin Yep, I agree. 00:15:35:21 - 00:15:42:18 Phil Okay. See you next week for BioShock Infinite. You know, like so. 00:15:44:00 - 00:16:12:02 Kevin Yorta Yorta leaves the tower of wind and whoopsie daisy. There's. There's Mommie Dearest. She's standing on the other side of the bridge to the tower. She's got her black cloak on. She is. She's none too pleased. They, they tried some words and then Yoda uses the book on her mom. The her her mom basically dissolves and disintegrates into the air and then everybody tries to kill Yorta. 00:16:12:16 - 00:16:18:00 Kevin Yeah, because the enchantment is now broken. Yeah. And the city. 00:16:18:05 - 00:16:24:15 Phil And all the, all the people start there like she's basically or she dissipated. It's like a mist and it's like. 00:16:24:21 - 00:16:46:04 Kevin Yeah. And then absorbs herself into everybody. Like their eyes go completely jet black because and now she's controlling them and they're all chanting, Kill Yoda. And then everything looks lost, right? And then Osama comes running the rescue. And I love this little detail where it says, assume it's just cutting people down. 00:16:46:09 - 00:16:59:21 Phil Yeah, right. Yeah. It was almost like, yeah, I can't save them, by the way, that fuck it. Like like it's like no at no point is like these are actually just seconds ago these were innocent peasants and people and she. 00:16:59:22 - 00:17:02:00 Kevin Was like, Nah, fuck it. Got to cut them down. 00:17:02:00 - 00:17:07:20 Phil They're in my way. It's part of that. They're part of the darkness now. They're vampires. 00:17:08:03 - 00:17:38:04 Kevin They're vampires now. Zuma catches up to her and he's like, Well, only one thing left to do. And they jump off the bridge and we finally come back to present day and eco. Basically, all of this has been one gigantic vision that Eco has been hit with all at once. So he's basically absorbing all of your Tas memories and your Tas like, remembers who she is and she's like, Oh, this is the boy, all that stuff. 00:17:38:11 - 00:17:57:08 Kevin And we're moving to chapter four and Eco now with all of her memories and locked, he begins to start like talking to himself. He's like piecing the story together of what happened next because the point at which her memories stopped being transferred to him still left. A lot of questions, you know, like, yeah. 00:17:57:15 - 00:18:13:08 Phil Yeah, the story isn't over at that point because yeah, at first when I, when it ends like that because they jump into the water and it's like, yeah, that's it. And, and we go and I was like, So wait, did they travel? Like, Yeah, but then you read what happened? Yeah. Yeah. 00:18:13:08 - 00:18:14:13 Kevin So a whole lot more happened. 00:18:14:13 - 00:18:17:13 Phil Got a whole a whole lot more happened, as it turns out. 00:18:17:21 - 00:18:19:09 Kevin And he gets a little. Yes. 00:18:19:19 - 00:18:25:08 Phil Actually, the author went, oh, maybe I'll just maybe I'll stop doing a flashback and show them. 00:18:26:06 - 00:18:46:01 Kevin Yeah, let's just move. Let's move and groove and Eco does some math for everybody who's wondering. The emperor who led the attack was the fifth emperor of this grandest solar empire. The current emperor is the 18th. So, you know, it's a fair number. 00:18:46:01 - 00:18:47:08 Phil So for. 00:18:47:08 - 00:18:48:07 Kevin A number of years. 00:18:48:07 - 00:18:55:11 Phil You know, five, five generations at least. So yeah. Yeah. 150, 200 years. Yeah. 00:18:55:18 - 00:19:13:04 Kevin Maybe depending on on the average lifespan of the yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, give or take, give or take. So the shades, the shades continue attack to attack. And they're basically playing the whole, you know, you should just let us take your too. 00:19:14:00 - 00:19:14:16 Phil Yeah, but yeah. 00:19:15:20 - 00:19:17:08 Kevin Buddy. It's her fault. 00:19:17:21 - 00:19:38:08 Phil Pal. Yeah, they they move on like his. At first they were like, Hey, you're one of us. You should be like, on our side, which is kind of sad and vague. But now they start going, Hey, dude, she's an asshole. Like they actually start, Fuck her, dude. Like, do you know who you're helping? Have you seen her Twitter account from last year? 00:19:38:08 - 00:19:39:21 Kevin Like, God. 00:19:40:03 - 00:19:44:12 Phil It was such it was such a fake apology. I didn't buy it at all. 00:19:44:21 - 00:19:50:02 Kevin Hashtag cancel culture and right shades, my fellow shades. 00:19:50:11 - 00:20:03:15 Phil This fucking W's. I swear, is a that's like the way that tasted in my mouth. I didn't even like that as a joke. 00:20:03:21 - 00:20:35:05 Kevin Didn't even come out right. You know, it just kind of not there. Yeah. So, yeah, the shades, they're doing their thing and in your to seems to kind of be blaming herself as well as to why she she takes the blame as to why the queen one and then they keep moving and they reach a cistern eco jumps down into it and he has another vision and the vision is of prisoners. 00:20:35:05 - 00:20:53:08 Kevin This is a chapter 4.2 now, the prisoners at the castle. And while he's in the vision, a knight taps him on the shoulder and starts speaking to him about once the enchantment was broken, everybody in the castle started killing each other. Yeah. 00:20:54:09 - 00:21:04:22 Phil Like you guys got out of there and they didn't just go, Oh, good, they're gone. Now we can get back to our lives as normal. Yeah, no, no. 00:21:04:22 - 00:21:41:03 Kevin There's fights. There were mass, mass executions, and everyone died. And this actually ties. Ties back to the earlier scene where Echo is in the room with a chandelier, where there is there is all those people just hang being hung off the ceiling. And the queen did this so that she could feed off of the malice that was generated by them killing each other and became more powerful after basically she grew in power once all of this happens, yeah. 00:21:43:12 - 00:21:52:23 Kevin In chapter 4.3, they continue on. Echo has another vision of a woman killing herself. Handmaiden. Things just get darker. 00:21:53:11 - 00:22:09:16 Phil It gets. Yeah, it's it's you know, the difference between the first half of this book and the second half of the book is, is that just because it opens? It's you know, it's always got a little darkness, but it's this kind of charming playing of age. It's like. 00:22:10:07 - 00:22:19:15 Kevin Yeah, it's like coming of age here and the the, like, dark undertones here. And then it's like the second half. It's like. 00:22:20:19 - 00:22:27:02 Phil Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's bleak. It's really, it's really bleak. 00:22:27:22 - 00:22:56:08 Kevin Um, the shades attack again while they're off, while they're running through an area and echo at this point, having listened to the shades, having seen and heard about the prisoners all killing each other and the people all killing each other, and the suicides and the executions and all that stuff. He sees the shades surrounding your TA and he's on the other side of a jump that he just made and he's like, she can make it. 00:22:56:08 - 00:23:08:16 Kevin And then he's he sees the shades and he's like, maybe I should just let them take her. Like, he actually starts to think like he really does. Maybe, maybe she is the bad guy. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this. 00:23:08:23 - 00:23:27:15 Phil Right for the first time. He's just like an actress, actually. Is this is he finally thinks is this juice worth the squeeze? Like after all of this bullshit, which is a fine question to ask ten year old. Finally, you got there. Finally. What are you proud of? 00:23:27:15 - 00:23:28:01 Kevin Your buddy. 00:23:28:03 - 00:23:28:15 Phil Jack. 00:23:28:15 - 00:23:49:13 Kevin And then Zuma from Beyond speaks to ego, ethereal, and basically gives him the slaps him on the face from from from the afterlife. Yeah. And says, no, you better save her you fucking asshole. 00:23:49:13 - 00:23:51:12 Phil What the fuck. And then he starts. 00:23:51:17 - 00:23:56:10 Kevin Out and then as Zuma makes ego's horns feel like they're on fire. 00:23:56:17 - 00:24:02:17 Phil Yeah, it's fucked up. So you're like, Hey, dude, you've got horns, too. You know how fucked up this is? 00:24:03:05 - 00:24:25:07 Kevin Nico's like, Fine, fine. He we get. He saves your time. They continue on. They they get down to the arena and they find a echo. Finds his sword in the arena. I didn't actually get understand this particular moment about the sword. I don't know if it was like a translation issue, but it's like they finally found a sword. 00:24:25:07 - 00:24:47:08 Kevin Somebody was trying to prop open a window to reflect light onto one of the globes that opens the gates. And then there's. Yeah, there is a there's a line about there's a streak of light in the sky that the the shades wouldn't dare touch or something like that. And I was like, I feel. 00:24:47:08 - 00:25:11:07 Phil Like this must have been some sort of translation of one of the puzzles in the game. Sure. I've, I've watched through some of the game. I haven't played it and I certainly didn't watch all of it on the long through I saw it. But it felt like this felt like if this was not in the actual game, like using one of the old light reflection puzzles. 00:25:11:08 - 00:25:31:12 Phil Yeah, yeah, yeah. If that is, I would be very surprised if that wasn't actually directly out of the game because yeah, it's, it gets very specific. Suddenly it's like, alright you're flashing the light off the sword, bouncing off onto the globe, etc. etc.. That feels like a translation from, from the game itself adaptation rather. That's, that's my guess. 00:25:31:12 - 00:25:34:01 Phil That's, yeah, it feels, yeah, it feels like a mirror puzzle. 00:25:35:10 - 00:25:56:15 Kevin Yeah. Yeah. So, I don't know, I, I didn't get it but they continue on so it's, yeah, it was just a brief paragraph but it, it threw me for a loop because I was just trying to figure out what exactly was referring to. And we go, we're in Florida for now. Eco is noticing that Yoda is not looking too hot. 00:25:57:00 - 00:26:10:08 Kevin She's, he's like her skin is looking waxy. Like she's she's she's got the flap sweats, you know, her hair hasn't been brushed in eons. You know, it's. 00:26:10:08 - 00:26:16:01 Phil Just a mess. You think she'd like, you know, run a comb through her hair or something? She's got company over. 00:26:16:01 - 00:26:21:00 Kevin She's got a company over. This is her house. Like, what is she doing? You know, you're too. Come on. 00:26:21:00 - 00:26:22:13 Phil Babe. Dignity. She's. 00:26:22:20 - 00:26:27:11 Kevin I shouldn't call her babe. 00:26:27:11 - 00:26:30:02 Phil Yeah. Come on, sweet cheeks. Get on with it. 00:26:32:12 - 00:26:34:00 Kevin Just to take a bite of my apple. 00:26:34:09 - 00:26:43:12 Phil Delicious apple. Nutrition, nutrition, something. Something that you order and her stringy goddamn hair clearly hasn't hasn't had any access to. And I. 00:26:43:12 - 00:26:48:23 Kevin Mean your page your to probably has a mild case and scurvy. 00:26:49:11 - 00:26:54:06 Phil I would have to yeah I think yeah I think we got loose teeth you know. 00:26:55:00 - 00:27:02:08 Kevin We get some falling out. Yeah, yeah. We got some scar tissue that's not not behaving properly. Right. 00:27:02:08 - 00:27:09:05 Phil Not sexy red hot chili pepper scar tissue. Just just all kinds of keloid bullshit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:27:09:19 - 00:27:11:12 Kevin Case of the scurvy, he said. 00:27:11:13 - 00:27:12:14 Phil Anyway, she got the. 00:27:12:14 - 00:27:38:15 Kevin Service, she got the scurvy. They continue. They arrive in what appears to be the Queen's Throne Room. Yeah, there's a chair upon a dais while they're looking around. Yoda just sits down on the. On the throne and and he goes like, what are you doing? And then he's saying he sees a vision of the past of Osama and the priest. 00:27:38:15 - 00:28:15:07 Kevin King standing over the Queen. Mm. The Queen in air quotes and Zuma chops her head off and you're to just kind of stands there and doesn't say anything because it wasn't the queen, it was the chief handmaiden made to look like the queen. So, oh, Zuma and the priest King's victory is all for naught. Because, uh, your dad basically doesn't say anything because she still thinks that she can protect or save her mother. 00:28:15:18 - 00:28:22:22 Kevin That's. That's her thing that your believes deep down, that she can save her mother if given the chance. 00:28:23:00 - 00:28:26:04 Phil Yeah. Yeah. So she just keeps her mouth shut on that one. 00:28:26:08 - 00:28:45:16 Kevin She just keeps her mouth shut and uh, uh, the, the Yorta Yorta is then possessed by the Queen and she takes hold of ego and, and chapter 4.5. We have a pre showdown. Showdown. 00:28:46:01 - 00:28:49:12 Phil Yeah, yeah, yeah. Warm up showdown. 00:28:49:17 - 00:28:50:19 Kevin The warm up showdown. 00:28:50:19 - 00:28:52:01 Phil The talky showdown. 00:28:53:02 - 00:29:28:10 Kevin So ego and the queen speaking through your to have a debate about what love is and what family means. And I thought this was actually a really interesting thing discussion they have because ego was like it's like that your your biological family is not the thing that matters. It's the people who love you. Because I have I'm and he's like, I'm adopted and they love me and they are my family. 00:29:28:10 - 00:29:39:05 Kevin And the queen is like, love doesn't exist. The only thing that matters is blood or something like that. There is no such thing as as love you silly, petulant child. 00:29:39:05 - 00:29:40:19 Phil Facts don't care about your feelings. 00:29:40:19 - 00:29:43:03 Kevin Yeah, she's a real Ben SHAPIRO. 00:29:43:03 - 00:29:47:22 Phil She's got, you know. Yeah, she's like Cissy. Let's just say let's just. 00:29:48:02 - 00:29:50:06 Kevin Say let's just say authentically. Hypothetically. 00:29:51:10 - 00:29:52:13 Phil They'd be family matters. 00:29:52:17 - 00:29:54:10 Kevin That I could turn you to stone. 00:29:54:16 - 00:30:17:22 Phil Yeah. Let's say let's just say yeah, yeah. It's a it is a big it's a very talky showdown. I did find it really interesting and it's funny because as it as it started, I started to go, oh, how are we doing? Like because, you know, just the big stretches of dialog in, in other books in the past have always bummed me out. 00:30:17:22 - 00:30:42:11 Phil But it's just like a lot of things I remember in playwriting class, you know, one of my earliest playwriting classes, they said, you know, you don't write monologues, don't write monologues. And and then someone, you know, I correctly think think correctly said, well, what? You know, what about all these other plays that have monologues? And I'm like, why, if we're not meant to write monologues, you know? 00:30:42:11 - 00:31:08:20 Phil And the professor basically said, Well, they earned that like you trust me when I say that you do not need to write monologues right now. Just write your damn stories. And eventually you'll get to a point where a monologue is necessary and you'll know what to do with it. And it's because a monologue can be so it can destroy, you know, everything and write long, rambling, philosophical conversations have absolutely ruined stories and books in the past. 00:31:08:20 - 00:31:09:15 Kevin They have. Yeah. 00:31:10:03 - 00:31:17:08 Phil This is not one of those situations. Oh, no. I was genuinely intrigued and kind of. 00:31:18:07 - 00:31:53:08 Kevin Yeah, it's, it's restating the two sides. Yes. Where it's the one side is saying it's, it's the power of love. It's your found family. It's the people you love and you cherish. That's what matters. And the other side is saying the only thing that matters is hierarchy and which is, you know, a very we said Ben SHAPIRO, but it's also like Jordan Peterson. 00:31:53:11 - 00:31:57:05 Kevin Yeah. I mean, it's actually, you know, talking about fucking lobsters. 00:31:57:20 - 00:32:26:02 Phil You're absolutely right. You know, I can't believe I missed that. I can't believe I went with the easy SHAPIRO when I should have gone with the intermediate. Jordan You're has that degree of difficulty. Yeah. Yeah, I think you fucking nailed it. Like, that's absolutely true. Like, the parallel there is absolutely true. She is she she's arguing for that hierarchy and people need to kneel and the strong need to rule and right. 00:32:26:08 - 00:32:44:13 Phil And she even argues in terms of like, you know, think, you know, think of all the cruelty in the world that, you know, can be avoided and etc., etc.. It's like, you know, clearly self-serving, but it's one of those arguments that can be intoxicating to all the wrong people where it's exactly I can save people. If you would only kneel. 00:32:44:22 - 00:33:05:01 Kevin Yeah, yeah. The and I have been listening to it recently on Behind the Bastards. Robert Evans It's a good show. It's a good podcast. Robert Evans Where we're here, we can we can guests. We can do a guest spot on behind the bastards whenever you want. 00:33:05:01 - 00:33:12:20 Phil Buddy know you want us to. Come on. All right. You got a bastard there. Plenty of bastards in the gaming industry. There's probably even more in the publishing industry. 00:33:13:02 - 00:33:20:08 Kevin Yeah, we can. We can. We can sit down and have you talk to us about, you know, the bombing, the Great Lakes. 00:33:20:16 - 00:33:27:14 Phil I mean. 00:33:27:14 - 00:34:02:03 Kevin Yeah, so on. And the recent episodes of Behind the Bastards, he'd been talking about billionaires and this concept of long term ism. Yes. It's like a philosophy where they think and I'm trying to remember the other name for the philosophy. Basically, it's billionaires think that they are predestined to be the ones that save the world. Ultimately. And they don't believe that the small things like basically their everything, they filter everything through like bullshit trolley problems. 00:34:02:03 - 00:34:26:20 Kevin Right. Well, it's it's better to terraform Mars than it is to save this planet. Right? Right. Like everything. It's like they they step everything up. They're like, well, we could save the planet, you know, like, I could save this city, you know, from. From having lead in their water, or I could save the planet. But how about. How have I could see, instead of saving the planet, I could terraform a new planet. 00:34:27:02 - 00:34:28:20 Kevin Right? You know what I mean? And it's. 00:34:28:20 - 00:34:32:11 Phil Ultimately it's sexier and more interesting and sexier. 00:34:32:11 - 00:34:53:00 Kevin And more interesting. And it's like it's going to save the world. And that's what. Right. So Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and all these fuckers, this is what they believe in and that's why they are terrible people. And that's why. And that is why. Yeah, that's why they're bad. And that's why the Queen is bad in this book. 00:34:53:00 - 00:34:54:09 Kevin Tying in that back around. 00:34:54:09 - 00:34:57:16 Phil Yeah. Oh we tried for too long there. 00:34:57:22 - 00:35:17:12 Kevin The Queen, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, uh, or Teal, I think. Jordan Peterson, Ben SHAPIRO. Just a litany. Yeah. Fucking assholes who do nothing good for nobody. 00:35:17:17 - 00:35:18:05 Phil Nothing. 00:35:18:17 - 00:35:24:16 Kevin Nothing. Fuck all of them. Listen, guys, I don't get political here. 00:35:24:19 - 00:35:40:07 Phil I don't. Yeah, I don't. I know that. I know that we get off on rants and everything like that and everything. But do you remember? Do you remember? Not too long ago, when it took us five episodes to get through the first Resident Evil book, we haven't proved we are way better. 00:35:40:14 - 00:35:51:05 Kevin We are way better. We are efficient machines. We and and and part of that efficiency is you got to give us these rats. 00:35:51:05 - 00:35:59:11 Phil Yeah, yeah. Not we don't we don't we just, just, just a, just a little bit of fat to make the just the state taste so good. 00:35:59:11 - 00:36:24:04 Kevin Just a little bit effect because you know what? You know what the best burger is actually a mixture of different fat content, ground beef. Right. You got your you got your 90% and you're you're 70%. I want to say, you mix them together. One provides the flavor, the other provides the structure. Yes. You ever, ever cook up a burger and it shrinks up into like a little ball and you're like, why the fuck did it do that? 00:36:24:04 - 00:36:33:23 Kevin Why do the burgers? It's because you're not using the right mixture of ground beef. You're just like the queen in Pico. 00:36:34:09 - 00:36:51:22 Phil You ever you ever look at a steak and you see that marbling those little veins of fat that go through, if you look really close at the veins of fat, what your what you what you that actually is is rants from two chubby white guys talking about why Ayn Rand is stupid. 00:36:52:09 - 00:37:00:09 Kevin Yep. That's it right there. We provide flavor. All the flavor and all the steaks and all the world are from the rants in this podcast. 00:37:01:12 - 00:37:04:05 Phil You're welcome. You're welcome. Welcome. 00:37:05:06 - 00:37:09:21 Kevin So the Queen admits to destroying the old. 00:37:09:21 - 00:37:27:23 Phil Yeah, this is where we really need, like, commercial breaks. Scott does it right. Like he even before it was probably not aliens before they even got sponsors. Like we probably we could probably use a sting here where we like. 00:37:27:23 - 00:37:33:23 Kevin Testing here and then we'll pick it up after work. No, baby, we're. We're too good for that. 00:37:34:02 - 00:37:34:18 Phil We don't have it. 00:37:35:00 - 00:37:39:09 Kevin We don't have a producer. This is I have a producer in our year. Just tell. 00:37:39:13 - 00:37:40:17 Phil Us just to. 00:37:41:05 - 00:37:43:23 Kevin To stop talking about bombing the Great Lakes. 00:37:44:03 - 00:37:57:16 Phil Picks. I think it is the is the is the one shot the one cut shot of of Goodfellas wandering through the back of the the restaurant and making your way out to the show. 00:37:57:16 - 00:38:00:11 Kevin Exactly, exactly. Exactly. 00:38:00:11 - 00:38:01:20 Phil Cause more references. 00:38:01:22 - 00:38:03:14 Kevin More of his more references. 00:38:03:14 - 00:38:18:15 Phil I may have spent I may have spent the Thanksgiving holiday with me and Kevin's partner, killer, who is the king of making obscure pop culture references. He is similes and metaphors. 00:38:18:15 - 00:38:21:17 Kevin He really is. And we love him for that. 00:38:21:17 - 00:38:22:20 Phil I absolutely. 00:38:23:01 - 00:38:30:17 Kevin You know who else loves him for that? The queen admits to destroying the old capital of this credit. 00:38:30:17 - 00:38:35:20 Phil So just go. Just go mad. Just go, go. 00:38:36:00 - 00:38:56:13 Kevin Which. So the old capital became a the stone city. The Stone City that we see earlier in the book is the original capital, those grand of Soul Empire. And she also reveals to echo that she turned Toto to Stone in the city, which is a real heartbreaking moment for ego. 00:38:56:14 - 00:39:04:04 Phil Sam It's so sad and probably a really bad idea like that. Maybe she may be. Should have left that one. Left she left. 00:39:04:04 - 00:39:04:22 Kevin That one alone. 00:39:04:23 - 00:39:06:06 Phil Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:39:06:18 - 00:39:37:16 Kevin And then she also reveals a double twist that it was the priest king of those the grandiose soul empire who used the spell on your to to stop time in the castle to prevent the Queen from enacting her plans and the sacrifices were not from the Queen, but were from the priest king and a Zuma basically a Zuma cursing his own bloodline to out of guilt for the part that he played in the failure to stop the Queen's tyranny. 00:39:37:20 - 00:39:56:01 Kevin And it's because they ended up having to use Yoda as this pawn to, to freeze time in place. Yeah. And then the queen basically is like, well, you can join me. You know, we can, we can go rule the world together. And then she's like, I'll let you think on that. And she leaves. And that's like. 00:39:56:04 - 00:40:03:02 Phil Your dad's a real asshole, huh? Like your great, great granddad. What a dick. I think it over. Talk to you later. 00:40:03:06 - 00:40:06:00 Kevin Talk to you later, pal. All right, here's the Black Flag record. 00:40:06:00 - 00:40:06:15 Phil Listen to that. 00:40:08:07 - 00:40:11:17 Kevin He's like, I'm going to I'm going to leave some Elliott Smith playing beforehand. 00:40:11:17 - 00:40:12:18 Phil Yeah, yeah. Before I. 00:40:12:18 - 00:40:13:03 Kevin Go. 00:40:13:03 - 00:40:14:03 Phil Soak that up. 00:40:14:08 - 00:40:20:16 Kevin You know, it's. You're going to have a good cry with Angela's. No, you. 00:40:20:21 - 00:40:21:05 Phil Know. 00:40:22:01 - 00:40:34:03 Kevin So she goes and the last line of this section is Echo was alone, the dark truth, his only companion of it. 00:40:34:14 - 00:40:39:23 Phil This fucking Alexander Smith is such a good translator. I yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:40:40:12 - 00:40:47:14 Kevin Yeah. It's beautiful. So after 4.6, after moping for a bit, Echo apologizes to the shades. 00:40:48:02 - 00:40:50:00 Phil Yeah, yeah. 00:40:50:19 - 00:41:10:19 Kevin And then he has another vision of a Zuma, and he begins to follow it. And we. We learn a little bit more that a Zuma returned and remain because he believed that there was love at the castle once before and with the assumption of and there could be again question mark never really said. But that's what he he's like. 00:41:11:02 - 00:41:19:07 Kevin I believe in the power of love is is his his thinking and he tells me, go, go find the sword. 00:41:19:07 - 00:41:20:21 Phil Just listen to the rhythm of my heart. 00:41:21:07 - 00:41:23:11 Kevin Just listen to the rhythm of my heart. 00:41:28:14 - 00:41:37:07 Phil Stone All right, all right. The pixelate and I don't know the darkness was listening in the. 00:41:37:07 - 00:41:47:13 Kevin Darkness was have randomly listening. Yeah. 00:41:47:13 - 00:41:52:22 Phil Every day. 00:41:52:22 - 00:42:14:05 Kevin So Echo realizes that he's never going to be able to find the sword by going through the castle. Because it's because the queen is the castle. Yeah. And it's like, how would you be able to find the sword walking the like, I'm, I don't, I didn't write down the exact metaphor. It's like walking on a giant's palm or something like that. 00:42:14:05 - 00:42:25:04 Kevin Like, right, you're in their hands, you're never going to be able to. So he makes an executive decision and he fucking jumps off the bridge. 00:42:25:07 - 00:42:28:16 Phil Yeah, which is fair enough. 00:42:28:20 - 00:42:51:20 Kevin Fair enough. Because you know what? I got to get out of the castle, and he does. So he gets out of the castle and he lands in the water, washes to shore, and he starts finding his way through several areas of caves and platforming sections, which I believe were probably written in because they were from the game and there's this really good moment. 00:42:51:20 - 00:43:22:02 Kevin I mean, the beginning of the chapter is like, okay, yeah, he's getting through, all right, whatever. But then he finds the sword and it's this really amazing moment where the sword begins to reflect memories back to him. And some of them are his own. But then he starts seeing that they're not just his own. They are the memories of each of the sacrifices that had made their way to the castle and it's it's interesting. 00:43:22:03 - 00:43:49:19 Kevin Like, it's memories of their foster families, of their lives. Before going to the castle, the sword had saved and entrusted the memories of all of the shades so that they weren't lost to time like it remembered all of the sacrifices because nobody else was really necessarily going to as like, okay, that's that's that's a pretty, pretty great. Yes, that's a that's a good moment. 00:43:50:00 - 00:44:10:07 Phil Yeah, it's a good moment. And it and it helps him to further appreciate that these shades, these sad ghosts have been fighting with him that have been like blocking his path and that that they're all each one of them. He sees them smiling. He sees them working in the fields and living their lives. And they all each one of them has a story. 00:44:10:07 - 00:44:11:10 Phil Each one of them has. 00:44:11:17 - 00:44:14:14 Kevin Each one of them has a story to tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:44:14:14 - 00:44:17:21 Phil It's a really cool moment. It's really, really cool. 00:44:17:21 - 00:44:35:19 Kevin So Eco takes the sword, and for him, it's as light as a feather, as opposed to earlier in the book, when the knight took it to to cast that spell, he couldn't he could only drag it along the grounds, you know, because it wasn't meant for him. 00:44:37:00 - 00:44:39:21 Phil Yeah, it's so minor. Middle, near kind of. Kind of, yeah. 00:44:40:02 - 00:44:53:16 Kevin Yeah, a little, little mill. NEARY So Eco, we're in for about eight now, and Eco arrives back at the chamber with the sarcophagus, sarcophagus and or sarcophagi. 00:44:53:16 - 00:44:55:18 Phil A kind of sarcophagi. 00:44:55:22 - 00:45:20:08 Kevin Sarcophagi. And they begin to drain him and the sword of his energy, they got some weird snake emblems on them. And they're they're they're described even though they're just stone sarcophagus. They're like they're described as like animals with these moors that are just sucking in the energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 00:45:20:13 - 00:45:21:08 Phil It's yeah, they're. 00:45:21:08 - 00:45:27:05 Kevin Leeches, you know? Also finds Yoda has been turned to stone, which, you know, that's a bummer. 00:45:27:13 - 00:45:28:05 Phil Now. Yeah. 00:45:28:14 - 00:45:54:19 Kevin So ego, uh, decides to he he breaks out of his trance, too, because he wants to do something for the shades, right? And he begins to destroy each sarcophagus with his sword. And they're just. He's just able to smash them apart. One after the other at the other. And like that, the shades begin to, like, help him. He, like, falls off a ladder at one point, and one of the shades catches them. 00:45:55:04 - 00:45:59:17 Kevin He puts them down. Down on the floor, and he destroys all of them. 00:46:00:18 - 00:46:03:09 Phil It's a real link with clay pox. Kind of a moment. 00:46:03:15 - 00:46:04:04 Kevin Yeah. 00:46:04:09 - 00:46:05:08 Phil Wreck shit and. 00:46:05:08 - 00:46:26:14 Kevin There just wreck shit. Get those rupees. Yeah. And so and then the shades kind of like surround the statue of Yoda while he continues on into the throne room and he gets to the throne room. The Queen's like, hey, you know, you okay? You say you've chosen to do this, you've chosen to fight me. And they begin their final battle. 00:46:26:14 - 00:47:06:19 Kevin And it's basically the queen just keeps blasting him with this winds that can turn things to stone. It knocks the sword out of his hand. Ego gets bruised and battered and tossed about. And then, um, his the shades and this is, it's thematically the shades begin to surround echo and act as a barrier between the queen and him and there are four he refers to them he thinks of them as the army of sacrifices, and they're getting killed by the Queen's like stone spell. 00:47:07:04 - 00:47:16:14 Kevin But he's able to advance on to the Queen. And it's like it's thematically appropriate because like, okay, it's that found family. It's the power of love. It's all that. 00:47:16:14 - 00:47:19:02 Phil Stuff. Yeah, it's true sacrifices. 00:47:19:02 - 00:47:35:06 Kevin And true sack. True sacrifice. Self-sacrifice. Yeah. Selflessness and ego is able to get close enough to the Queen to give it a give the old whack with Lizzie Borden. Zax. Yeah, and 30. 00:47:35:06 - 00:47:39:00 Phil Whacks with what noodle. 00:47:39:00 - 00:47:41:11 Kevin And, uh. And she dies. 00:47:41:18 - 00:47:42:15 Phil Um, now. 00:47:43:08 - 00:47:52:03 Kevin She's gone and all the energy is released and the shades disappear. They vanish and eco passes the fuck out. Yeah. 00:47:52:13 - 00:47:59:16 Phil Yeah. And rightfully so. I think he's earned it. He's had quite, quite the day or year or however long he was. 00:47:59:17 - 00:48:29:14 Kevin However long. This has been really clear. It's not super clear. No. And then the castle starts becoming undone because the only thing holding it together really was the Queen's presence. And she is dead. A Yoda is wakes up, she is free from the stone and she finds eco and she carries him down to the water and finds like a plank to put him on and kind of like pushes him down the river and she decides to stay at the castle as it falls apart. 00:48:29:23 - 00:48:56:01 Kevin And we get a nice moment of, oh, zouma's statue. Nothing. It doesn't break at all. It just. It just falls off into the ocean. Like whole cloth. Yeah. Falls into the ocean as opposed to, like, shattering or whatever. We cut over to the stone city and we get some positive news. Every all the other everything starts crumbling in the stone city except heroin. 00:48:57:01 - 00:48:59:09 Phil Oh yeah. Shop. Yeah. 00:48:59:14 - 00:49:07:04 Kevin And is like the, the horse heroin is like, okay, what the fuck. I'm running and just starts running back to the town. Yeah. 00:49:07:07 - 00:49:11:18 Phil You go games they, they those they really can't stand to let a horse suffer. 00:49:12:01 - 00:49:12:06 Kevin No. 00:49:12:12 - 00:49:20:10 Phil Between this and Shadow of the Colossus, they got a good theme of being like, Oh, the horse is fine. Those fine horses do anything wrong. We're not going to punish the fucking horse. 00:49:20:14 - 00:49:54:05 Kevin We're not going to punish the horse. Horses are great. So the the wind that is released start like the the bells in the capital city start ringing and all they like the windows blow open where the priests are. And back in town Toto wakes up from being stone. Now and then we get an epilog of eco waking up on the beach, unable to remember what happened at the castle. 00:49:54:17 - 00:50:03:16 Kevin And he walks and he finds Yorta on the beach. He's pretty sure he knows her and he helps her to her feet. And that's the end of the book. 00:50:04:14 - 00:50:19:15 Phil And you know what? Good not the end of the book. I mean, but like, I'm glad that Eco didn't have to like that poor kid. Like, the least he could get is a clean slate where he doesn't have to think about friggin she just let him be a stupid kid, for God's sake. Yeah. 00:50:19:18 - 00:50:27:23 Kevin He doesn't have to remember what happens. He's all that shit. Yeah, he's earned it. He's earned it. So, Phil, final thoughts on the. 00:50:27:23 - 00:51:16:14 Phil Boat was great. No, it's great. I think I still have a minor to moderate quibble with the choice of the whole hundred and some odd page flashback chapter. Sure with your to I think that's it was was still great stuff like I said last episode I question the way that we got it in one big lump like that and it and getting back to the world it did take a little doing because of that but outside of that I mean this is seriously one of the one of the best eggs, in my opinion, one of the best examples of how to do a good job with expanding on your source material. 00:51:16:14 - 00:51:46:18 Phil Because eco the game does not get into this detail. The stakes are far simpler. Right. You know, and and that game studio is known for telling wonderful stories with very little active storytelling, if you will. Right. And so to take all of that and there's a clear respect for the source material, it's not just for a paycheck. It's it's not a suspiciously. 00:51:47:06 - 00:52:07:02 Phil And I was already working on this kind of thing, even though it could have been because so much of it is original work. Yeah, the game. Yeah. I mean, gosh, the vast, vast majority of this is original to the game. You are not getting a walk through of all the puzzles in eco with this game with some great narration over it. 00:52:07:02 - 00:52:21:09 Phil I thought it was terrific. I think the translations great. I think the tone throughout keeps with the game. I think it's wonderful. It's, it's, it's in my top, top five of the books. 00:52:21:09 - 00:52:35:20 Kevin Oh he's very easily at the top five of the books that we've read. Yeah. Where it falls, I mean where it falls in the top five for me personally I'd have to think a little bit about. Yeah, yeah. About you know what, what else is in that top five. I know this is in if it comes. 00:52:35:20 - 00:52:37:11 Phil Out apples and oranges at that. 00:52:37:11 - 00:53:02:14 Kevin Point. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you know ranking is ranking is more of a, an exercise. You do for fun rather than for whether any real crit to critical measure of of a of a work. But you know we will probably do some sort of tier episode, tier maker episode at some point. But yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with a lot of what you said. 00:53:02:14 - 00:53:31:17 Kevin I, I was, I think I was a little bit more fine with the flashback just only because it gave only for the sake of giving your to more agency rather than just kind of like a princess that is, you know, the princess in the castle. I think that was it was probably a very conscious decision by the the female author of of the work to kind of like a you're two years your to doing stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah. 00:53:32:03 - 00:53:34:22 Phil Oh and I think that's great too. It's just the pacing of it. 00:53:34:22 - 00:53:47:19 Kevin The pacing of it was it was a bit of a change up. It was a bit of a the change up here. Whereas the rest of the book was all fastballs. And this was kind of. Absolutely that chapter was a bit of a change up. Right? 00:53:47:19 - 00:53:49:08 Phil Right, exactly. Exactly. 00:53:49:16 - 00:54:16:00 Kevin But yeah, no, I totally agree. I think it's it's a wonderful book. And before we read it, you and I were talking about how this book is one of the ones, one of the video game novel adaptations that everybody says is one of the best ever. And I can see why. I can totally see why people say that, because it it it's the prose is is wonderful. 00:54:16:00 - 00:54:49:22 Kevin You know, some of that is a lot of that is going to be with the intentions that Niobe wrote it with, but also the translation by Alexander Smith. You know, there's a there's a great style and since the prose into the the way the characters are written, they're fleshed out. You you understand how they're written. Each character speaks in a unique voice, which is something that we don't necessarily call out too often. 00:54:50:05 - 00:54:53:10 Kevin But coming off of Dark Souls, mask of vindication. 00:54:54:18 - 00:54:56:10 Phil I think it's I think it bears. 00:54:56:10 - 00:55:17:15 Kevin It's it's warranted. You know, I think it's it bears pointing out that, you know, it's it's good with with that. So, um, yeah, I'm I'm I'm glad that we read this and I'm yeah. And happy I'm happy we have this one. We have this one down in our catalog. 00:55:18:11 - 00:55:21:02 Phil Absolutely. What a, what a treat. Really enjoyed that one. 00:55:21:02 - 00:55:29:18 Kevin What a treat. Now, speaking of treats, Phil, I got I got one question to ask you. Go on. What do you playing. 00:55:30:05 - 00:55:33:17 Phil Oh, well, I am. I have I love. 00:55:33:17 - 00:55:35:21 Kevin Every time I ask it. You're surprised that I. 00:55:35:21 - 00:55:57:22 Phil Oh, well, it's just such a delightful question to ask. I'm always surprised to hear the the merchant here in the studio with us. I have been playing mostly despite dropping a small chunk of change on the steam autumn sale here, whatever the sale was, the Thanksgiving sale. 00:55:58:02 - 00:55:59:01 Kevin Oh, God. Too much. 00:55:59:13 - 00:56:18:06 Phil Too much money. Yeah. I invest in a few games that are going to it's. I've got this little to play playlist on my steam account and I and my goal is to have it there in front of me to hold myself accountable. So I whittle down these games that I pay for and it just, it just it's not going anywhere. 00:56:18:06 - 00:56:42:19 Phil It's only getting bigger. So but no, I've, I've, I still playing against the storm. I've actually logged in a lot of hours in it. It is fucking great. I am just so satisfying. It's great. The roguelike elements are fantastic when you when you start to get the hang of the city builder and what everything, you know, you got it. 00:56:42:19 - 00:57:09:15 Phil You got to just fail several times. It's got to be worth it to you to fail ample time just to figure it out. Right. But when you get the hang of that, it just really starts to flow. You start to get into rhythms and you know, you know, I'm an achievement guy. And the achievements are basically built into how you get power ups for future eras of your kingdom and everything for that roguelike element of it. 00:57:09:21 - 00:57:38:21 Phil So you look at it and go, okay, this round, I should try to do this, this and that. So I can earn some points, right? And eventually you get the rhythm going and you want to up the difficulty a little. And you can do each individual settlement at different, difficult things. So you can test out a higher difficulty level without investing the entire game in that which is really cool and, and I think going to be valuable for people who are just, you know, trying to get used to the game in general. 00:57:40:07 - 00:58:07:09 Phil I can't recommend enough. I freaking love it. I'm up to like 20 hours in it right now and I'm really enjoying it. I did, however, take a little bit of time and go over to play Model Builder, which is I think I learned something about myself when I play my model, model builder. Yeah, that one came out last year and it's, it's exactly what I said. 00:58:07:09 - 00:58:30:21 Phil It's a sim where you, you have inherited a kick ass kind of geek shed that has all the paints and clippers and air brushes and files and, you know, all the stuff that you want and display cases. And you enter contests and put together toy soldiers and airplanes and, you know, Warhammer style figurines and shit like that. 00:58:31:03 - 00:58:33:04 Kevin Yeah. Together extremely. 00:58:33:04 - 00:59:00:08 Phil You very it's very big. You got to follow the instructions and you know, do it just so and you can win contests and then you can display, you know, the figures and everything and I'm going to go back into it. But the thing is, I've played a lot of these kind of SIM games. I did a review not that long ago, I guess, of lawnmower simulator, which I really enjoyed. 00:59:00:10 - 00:59:22:04 Phil Sure. And it's and this whole a whole thing for me and I think for a lot of people started with years back when zero truck simulator came out right just trucking across Europe and that kind of thing and listening. It was just this kind of these sims were like great ways to kind of waste some time. Listen to your podcasts and dull your senses for a little while. 00:59:22:14 - 00:59:49:17 Phil And and, you know, the, the joke everyone makes is it's kind of like the same thing as Guitar Hero when that was popular. People you like, why don't you just learn how to actually do the things like, well, no, it's it's not that simple. You know, obviously, this is right. Right. Meant to waste a little time. Yeah. Model builder for me might be too similar to what I actually do, what I'm. 00:59:49:17 - 00:59:51:00 Kevin Is it a bridge too far. 00:59:51:21 - 00:59:52:17 Phil For me for. 00:59:52:18 - 00:59:54:11 Kevin Me to go over the line. Yeah. 00:59:55:09 - 01:00:23:10 Phil I think some people I think some people will really enjoy it if you like, always wanted to like put these things together and you want to like fantasize about that kind of thing. You don't already have a desk with paint and fucking minis and like, you know, clippers and all the shit that you, the old accouterment if you haven't already invested in that, I can see where it would be a lovely way to, to, you know, get a good feeling about that sort of thing. 01:00:24:11 - 01:00:37:04 Phil But I it, for me it was the first time with one of these SIM games when I was playing it or I'm doing it and I was like, what am I literally it's got like hundreds of dollars. I just got a delivery. The fucking. 01:00:37:20 - 01:00:40:17 Kevin Yeah, the darkest dungeon that models and it's a paint. 01:00:40:21 - 01:01:06:09 Phil This has models upon models upon models. This is just one of the boxes. I got two boxes and this just models and it's got so freaking many of them I would open up, but it's got like boxes and boxes and boxes and it's like hundreds of models in this thing. And I, I, for the first time ever with these SIM games, I truly felt guilty of like I could just. 01:01:06:09 - 01:01:12:05 Phil Why not? If I want to listen to a podcast and paint some miniatures, why don't I sit down and paint some of. 01:01:12:10 - 01:01:15:23 Kevin The miniatures that you actually bought and pen. 01:01:16:08 - 01:01:26:21 Phil And. Yeah, exactly. And so I will never criticize anyone for enjoying this game and playing this game and or but for me personally. 01:01:26:21 - 01:01:56:10 Kevin I just have an image of you sitting there playing the game and like stacks of, like, of like models like that need that are just like ready to go the way that I need to paint and like the paints and all the, all the tools and like your wife walking in and seeing you playing a digital version of building models while you have your actual models, like collecting dust, gathering dust right next to you. 01:01:56:10 - 01:02:06:17 Phil It would be a tough one to explain. And it's already, you know, when you when you marry a non gamer or something like that, there's already like some explanations. 01:02:06:17 - 01:02:21:17 Kevin There's a level of of of disconnect. But in explaining things because it becomes a little hard to be like, okay, well they it and you realize that you, you don't have the bridge to cross. No. 01:02:21:17 - 01:02:35:19 Phil And they explain it. This is probably the only time that if she looked at me and said, why? You know, if I if we were playing guitar here or something like that, and she was like, Why don't you just play guitar solely because I don't play this well. And it's it's a power fantasy and it's just a party game. 01:02:35:19 - 01:02:53:06 Phil Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not meant to be work, you know, you could do that kind of. But if you came in and said, Why are you playing this model? Build a game when there's literally like this hawk sitting next to you that you've been meaning to paint for a month and it's got nothing. You're going to have to brush the fuck out of it because it does actually have dust on it. 01:02:54:03 - 01:02:56:07 Phil Like what I, I don't have. 01:02:56:07 - 01:02:58:16 Kevin You would not have a good, good explanation on. 01:02:58:16 - 01:03:21:20 Phil That situation. And I realized that with one simple thing there is, you know, when you get the model, you open it up, it's in a box. And just like with most models, it's on little spruce and you've got your clipper thing. And if you've been modeling for a long time, you realize you don't go you don't necessarily go in as close to the screw connecting to the model as you can. 01:03:22:01 - 01:03:45:05 Phil You go a little further out and then you use like, you know, a X-Acto knife or something like that to get the rest of it off so that it just it's a cleaner edge there and it's not as obvious. And you're painting it and and so with it, I have my clippers in the game and my sprue. And so it's like, you know, they appear to dispatch it from these things. 01:03:45:05 - 01:04:04:12 Phil And I go, okay, so I get it just right in. The mouse is kind of sensitive, so I'm getting it just right where I would clip it. Yeah. And, and when I do it just automatically clips it flush to the thing. So I'm way over. This isn't for me. I don't think this is not for you. I don't think this is for me. 01:04:05:01 - 01:04:26:03 Phil And then the painting sections, I was like, Oh, this will be interesting. And it's very, it's, it's terrific. It's, it's a lot of fun if you've never if you just if you're interested and you've never done this kind of thing before, it's a fun little time waster. I think it might not be my thing. I think I think I might be I think I may have barked up the wrong tree. 01:04:26:03 - 01:04:28:03 Phil I may have flown too close to the sun a. 01:04:28:03 - 01:04:30:05 Kevin Little bit too close to the sun, a little. 01:04:30:05 - 01:04:30:19 Phil Too close. 01:04:30:19 - 01:04:34:14 Kevin So that's model of Icarus in your model of De Atlas. 01:04:34:14 - 01:04:36:14 Phil Ah, yeah, yeah. 01:04:36:18 - 01:04:40:06 Kevin Were too close to the sun in the paint field right off of them. Right. 01:04:40:12 - 01:04:50:19 Phil Right. I think other people might enjoy this. I can't, I can't. I can't justify it for once. I can't justify the time I just get. Yeah. So, Kevin, what are you playing? 01:04:50:21 - 01:05:02:14 Kevin Oh, I have. I have a whole I have a whole thing. Okay, so, but between we didn't I, I didn't talk about immortality last episode, did I know. 01:05:02:14 - 01:05:15:09 Phil But you guys have been talking about it in the chat. Yeah. And I, I was, I watched a Jacob Geller's video on it. Yeah. I am very intrigued. I am very, very intrigued. 01:05:15:09 - 01:05:37:08 Kevin It is. So I was like, here's the thing is like I saw I saw Jacob had released the video. I was like, I knew it was going to spoil a little bit of immortality. And I was like, All right, I want to I'm just going to play the game. It's been on my to do list. So immortality is it's a tremendous, tremendous game. 01:05:38:06 - 01:06:04:11 Kevin It's an FMV game. Basically, you play the part of you assume some sort of digital archivist who is looking through old film scores on a movie all. And when you go to the when you're looking through the clips, you can click on something in the clip and it takes you to another clip, like a match cut of that in another clip. 01:06:04:11 - 01:06:26:03 Kevin So like, all right, I'm going to click click on a cup and it like, all right. And it takes me to another clip. When you discover another clip that has a cup with at like the same angle or what have you, and you're unspooling the story of what happened to this actress named Marissa Marcel and and why? What happened? 01:06:26:03 - 01:07:00:03 Kevin Where did she go? Why she she was in three feature films. None of them got released. And it was like in the late sixties and in 1999 were the were the three films. And it's amazing. And the amount of work that Sam Barlow, who is the creator and his team did to create three films that thoroughly replicated the styles of the eras that they were shot in. 01:07:00:13 - 01:07:27:13 Kevin So the film is called Ambrogio. It's like an erotic thriller, like post code, European erotic thriller, about a who is tricked by the devil into having sex and and lusting and all that stuff. And it's directed by this guy who's like, kind of like a Hitchcockian kind of guy with his misogyny and all that stuff. 01:07:28:07 - 01:07:29:01 Phil Sure. Yeah. 01:07:29:12 - 01:07:59:07 Kevin You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And he and it's shot in in like the in full frame. Right. So it's got kind of like that four by three aspect ratio because it was shot in full frame, um, 35 millimeter. And then the next one is a detective story, you know, about an art, about a murder in the art world in Manhattan. 01:07:59:11 - 01:08:23:20 Kevin And it's shot in like the Cinemascope type that you would find in like a 1970 early 1970s movie. Yeah, the 235 to 1 aspect ratio and all that stuff. And then the final one is shot on. Like it's like regular 16 by nine it was shot in like it was like 1999 and it's lit like, you know, you'd find like a, a movie in 1999. 01:08:23:20 - 01:08:24:15 Kevin It's, it's. 01:08:25:04 - 01:08:29:01 Phil Just that in that film, students dream. It's yeah. 01:08:29:08 - 01:09:11:08 Kevin It is. That's just the esthetics but and that's the thing is I don't even want to get too far into the story because there is stuff in the story that absolutely blows your mind and I think it's worth kind of like discovering it for yourself when you when you go through and play it. So once you go, once you play it, go and watch Jacob Geller's video on immortality, which does a tremendous job, kind of re like analyzing one particular scene and and and describing what the the nature of the game is to you. 01:09:11:08 - 01:09:32:21 Kevin So immortality, it's not that long. It only takes a few hours to play through. And I was being pretty precise, like I was, I was clicking on every scene and all that stuff and I didn't even find all the scenes right. You don't have to find everything to, quote unquote beat the game. You just kind of complete the story. 01:09:34:00 - 01:09:41:11 Kevin So that's immortality. The other thing that I've been playing is signals. Um, which. 01:09:41:11 - 01:09:47:16 Phil I'm so glad you. I just got that. I was reading about it and it sounds fucking great. I'm looking for it. 01:09:48:03 - 01:10:23:10 Kevin Yeah, it's. It's really good I'm playing. So it's like, the best way to kind of describe it is if you took old school resident evil in terms of tone and survival horror ness and like lack of resources. And you matched it with Metal Gear, solid one in terms of like camera angle and you'll understand as soon as you play it, you're like, Oh, okay, yeah, yeah. 01:10:23:13 - 01:10:31:12 Kevin Like there's actually like little labels, like the way little thing, like the inspect thing pops up. You're like, is that the metal gear solid font. 01:10:31:20 - 01:10:32:11 Phil Right? Yeah. 01:10:33:11 - 01:11:08:16 Kevin I love, you know, and and some of the sound effects and all that stuff. But I also like the, the general camera angle. It feels like Metal Gear solid one. It's really good. I, I have been enjoying my time. It, I actually, I actually ended up restarting it because it was one of those moments where I was having a lot of trouble and I basically realized I'd wasted way too much ammo, like in my initial run as like I'm going to go back through and just basically save ammo. 01:11:08:16 - 01:11:45:18 Kevin Yeah. Once you learn how to run around things, you're like, you get more healing items than you do ammunition. So it's like it's like balanced more towards avoid. Yeah. And maybe take the occasional hits rather than kill everything, you know. Right, right. So yeah, that signals, signals, whatever. I'm also trying to install on my steam deck. I don't know if the episode will be out by the time on bullet time. 01:11:45:18 - 01:12:01:05 Kevin By the time this comes out, it might actually be like the following week. I'm trying to install Die Hard Vendetta. Oh, Deck, which was a stew game, right. And I'm doing it all illegally. 01:12:01:16 - 01:12:10:15 Phil Uh huh. Oh, I know. Know. I think it's weird that you felt the need to even say that. I Think. I think we all assumed that you were. 01:12:10:21 - 01:12:39:05 Kevin Yeah, it's all above me. So all above board. Yeah. Yes. So a diehard vendetta. I got it running on my steam deck. It's a god awful game. But, you know, James, James said, well, you know, people call Die Hard Christmas movies, so let's play a shitty die hard game. Yeah. For the Christmas episode of Bullet Time. So me and James and the Snake are, uh, are playing it, and it's a great. 01:12:39:05 - 01:12:45:06 Kevin It's a great game. It's wonderful. Yeah, it's, it's very, very good. 01:12:45:20 - 01:12:46:18 Phil All right, all right. 01:12:47:03 - 01:12:58:04 Kevin And Marvel, snap, marvel, snap. Just kidding. Yeah, and that's just that's just kind of a oh, no. I have to mention marvel snap again. It's it's just it's just in my mobile game rotation. 01:12:58:12 - 01:13:22:12 Phil It's it's really kind of funny because I don't I haven't, you know, I haven't had a cigaret and over two years now and and I most of my mobile gaming was done while having cigarets I don't reports or something like that. So I actually haven't played a lot of mobile games. And Emily, on the other hand, loves her little mobile games. 01:13:22:12 - 01:13:46:13 Phil She loves that stuff she plays Sudoku and stuff like that all the time while we're watching movies. And I think there has been this happiness coming from her while we watch a movie and I'm playing Marvel Snap or something like that, because I think she feels guilty being the only one watching the movie over her phone. Yeah. And so when I do it, she's like, she actually said she's like, I think it's awesome that you like this game so much. 01:13:46:15 - 01:13:48:18 Phil I was like, Thank you. I guess I. 01:13:49:13 - 01:13:50:00 Kevin Don't know. 01:13:50:01 - 01:13:50:17 Phil What that means. 01:13:52:14 - 01:14:10:09 Kevin Yeah, I know, I agree. We did the same thing. I mean, April, I basically will do that, will sit up, chill out and you know, we'll have something like 99% of the stuff that we watch is not like a necessary to to be 1,000% paying attention to every single shot, you know. Yeah. 01:14:10:09 - 01:14:13:09 Phil Yeah, I do indeed know what you mean. Yes. 01:14:13:14 - 01:14:30:22 Kevin So it's like like yeah, we have, you know, we'll she has she'll have her switch out and she's playing, you know, tending to her animal crossing islands and. Right. You know, I've got I've got snap out. Ooh. I think the new new the new week just dropped for Marvel. 01:14:30:22 - 01:14:37:16 Phil Oh yeah. I think it did. Yeah, it sure did. Okay, great. Oh, here we go. 01:14:37:21 - 01:15:00:00 Kevin Here we go. And on that note, we'll wrap it up here. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, kings, queens and vampires. It is. It's been fun talking about eco next episode, we're going to have a guest on to talk about BioShock Mind in Revolt, I believe, was the title of it. 01:15:00:07 - 01:15:02:15 Phil So one shot. It's a short story. 01:15:02:16 - 01:15:26:05 Kevin Short story, real brief. Um, so until then, please follow us on Twitter, which is still standing at pixelate pod on Instagram at Pixel Pod. Go ahead to our website, pixelate pod dot com. And from there you can find our steam curator page. You can find a link to our discord. You can also subscribe to our newsletter and people or subscribe to our newsletter. 01:15:26:14 - 01:15:41:19 Kevin Get the episodes a little bit early, then everybody, just people incentives, subscribe to newsletter, get the episode early and early will vary from week to week early. 01:15:42:09 - 01:15:44:06 Phil We don't really have a system here or anything. 01:15:44:07 - 01:15:50:10 Kevin You don't have a system. It's not like I have an editor on hand, but early equals when I'm done editing it. 01:15:50:14 - 01:15:58:03 Phil So yeah, maybe a couple of days, maybe four months, maybe. That's how far in the future we are. 01:15:58:09 - 01:16:06:03 Kevin That's, that's, that's how rolls baby ends and fill it. We're on Goodreads now. 01:16:06:15 - 01:16:30:13 Phil We are on Goodreads. It occurred to me that it's awesome that we have a Steam Curator page where we can, you know, talk about the games that were planned or in what you're already playing. Segment and everything like that. And I thought we really should be on Goodreads so we can actually officially share, you know, just the, the reviews and links, and everything like that. 01:16:30:19 - 01:16:57:14 Phil So right now there's no proper, like backslash pixel type thing. But if you go to Goodreads and search for pixelate, you will find us I'm going to be working on getting back the backlog in there, so to speak, along with and I think this is going to be fun. We're going to have the want to read section there, which will be a big collection of other video game adaptations that we have talked about doing. 01:16:57:14 - 01:17:13:18 Phil We thought about, we've seen and lists, etc.. So it'll give you an idea of what might be coming down the pipe from us, and I'll give you an idea of maybe things that we haven't heard of, and you can reach and say, I noticed that this game is not on your list and you need to read it now. 01:17:14:04 - 01:17:24:13 Phil Yeah, just what we want. So come and find us and good reads, you know, because it's a we're just the wave of the future here with with social media. 01:17:24:13 - 01:17:41:13 Kevin Wave of the future. Oh, that's I mean, ghost of future. The the ghost of future past wave. The past. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some would do it. Screw some bucket. 01:17:41:23 - 01:17:42:10 Phil Yeah. Okay. 01:17:42:17 - 01:17:44:20 Kevin Well, we're good anyway. Have a good night everybody. 01:17:45:03 - 01:17:53:13 Phil Can I.