Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Show Notes

This was the final part in our trifecta of Lost in Cult related episodes from late 2021 - to see all of the episodes relating to both Lost in Cult and [Lock-On], click here - and we wanted to end with a bang. So who better for that than the big boss himself: Jon Doyle. Jon is the designer and owner of Lost in Cult, and the man who brought us [Lock-On].

As Jay pointed out:

Which is actually wrong, as you can hold 256 values in a byte of data. You'd have thought that Jay would know this stuff. But none of that matters, because we have Jon Doyle on the show. As we've said before, this wasn't Jon's first appearance on the show. But he and Jason Maddison where on a bonus episode from March, 2021 called "lock-on Volume 1 - A Discussion on Passion - at the time of writing, that bonus episode doesn't have a show notes page, but we're working on it

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If you're brand new to the show - why not subscribe? It's completely free to do so - then you might be interested in our previous episodes about [Lock-On] which you can find here. This contains the interviews with Andrew Dickinson, Jason Maddison, and our bonus interview with Jon and Jason from March, 2021

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But what _IS_ Lost in Cult:

And what is [Lock-On]?

At the date of recording - September 21st, 2021 - both Squidge and Jay had had their copies of Volume 001 for around two months and neither of them had finished reading them, cover to cover yet. 

And that is entirely by design, as Jon had decided that each piece in the publication had it's own design and colour pallet.

We recorded this episode just three weeks after the kickstarter campaign for volume 002 had ended but Jon wasn't resting on his laurels, as he was already planning articles for Volume 004 - after we'd gone off the air, Jon showed us a preview of the cover art for Volume 003. No, we're not going to tell you what's on there. He swore us to secrecy; with real swear words, too.

And that's not to say that the Kickstarter JUST ok, either:

Which lead to a discussion on how difficult it can be for projects to gain traction on social media sites without actually paying large amounts of money to the social media sites - they actually pick up on when something goes viral, and artificially block or slow it down, then ask for money to release it again.

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, and some links to related things.

Have you seen the kickstarter campaigns for [Lock-On]? Did you back volume 001 and/or volume 002? Are you looking forward to Volume 003?

Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, leave a comment on the show notes or try our brand new contact page.

Links

Here are some links to some of the things we discussed in this episode:

• Jay & Jay Media
• Jay & Jay on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Jon on Twitter
• Lost in Cult
• lock-on Volume 1 - A Discussion on Passion
  • aka Jon's previous appearance on the show
• Some photos of Squidge's Volume 001
• Lost in Cult store
• CultCast
• Lost in Cult on Steady
• Lost in Cult's Patron Prints store

And have you left us a rating or review? We really like to hear back from listeners about our show, so check out https://wafflingtaylors.rocks/our-podcast/ for links to services where you can leave us some wonderful feedback.

The Waffling Taylors is a proud member of Jay and Jay Media. If you like this episode, please consider supporting our Podcasting Network. One $3 donation provides a week of hosting for all of our shows. You can support this show, and the others like it, at https://ko-fi.com/jayandjaymedia

Intro

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Before we , we’re a week late with the look back this month. The reason for that is super simple: I edit everything, and a fair few podcasters have reached out to have me edit their shows; including one who will be producing a physical product - which is exciting.

Anyway, tell the people what we released last month Jay

Episode 125 - Chief Andrew is Lost in Cult

This past month - September 2021 - we put out two brand new episodes. The first episode was an interview with friend of the show

We didn't release a teaser for this episode, because it would have been exceptionally difficult to distil all of the humour and deep game narrative analysis (sometimes happening at the same time) into a 2 minutes clip. Squidge actually tried to to this, and it ended up being a copy of the episode - in all its 95 minute glory.

Andrew Dickinson. We called this episode Chief Andrew Is Lost in Cult, as it was all about Andrew’s many, many, many many projects. These range from being the Editor in Chief of the Lost in Cult publication Lock-On, to being one of the hosts of Lost in Cult’s official podcast (Cult Cast), and writing volume two of his Dreamcast Years book and hosting the podcast of the same name.

We discussed the games we’d been playing recently, MiniDisc players (because both Andrew and I are fans of the format), the SteamDeck, and we gave him a chance to revisit the Thunder Plains and swap some of the games he’d be taking with him - this is due to the recent controversy with Activision, Ubisoft, and others.

We also came up with a long list of podcast ideas - all of which are in the show notes, so do give them a look. The last time I checked, there were around 13 new ideas in the episode.

Episode 126 - Locked On with Jason Maddison

Next up was an interview with another friend of the show Jason Maddison. Jason is the Technical Director at Lost in Cult

Indeed Russell.

Anyway, the episode with Jason was called: Locked On with Jason Maddison. It was the first episode to include a wonderful intro performed by our friend Morgan .

Keen listeners to the show will know that we’ve already spoken to Jason about Lock-On. Back in March, we had a chat with him and Jon Doyle in a bonus episode we called Bonus: lock-on Volume 1 - A Discussion on Passion.

But in this episode we discussed how Jason got involved with the Lost in Cult crew, his piece “I Have Lived” and how close to home it felt for both Jay and myself, and the phenomenon of some people not wanting to read their physical copies of Lock-On for fear of somehow destroying them.

But before we could get on to that, Jason and I had this exchange:

Once we’d figured out that philosophical problem, we asked Jason to give us the low down on the “I Have Lived” piece.

Coming up This Month

We thought we’d give a little teaser on what’s coming up this next month (October, 2021); remember to subscribe if you haven’t already.

First off, we’ll be finishing out trifecta of our interviews with Lock On folks with an interview with the big boss himself: Jon Doyle. In this episode, we’ll be talking about how Lost in Cult came to be, covering a little on his passion for design, and we’ll be talking about some of the exclusive goodies that the backers of Volume 2 will get when it drops - this was news when we recorded, and some of them have stayed exclusives to our conversation. So definitely be on the look out for that episode when it drops.

After that we’ve got a super spoopy episode for Spooptober. We’re keeping the subject a secret for now, as we don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, or should that be skull out of the cauldron?

MWA HA HA HA HA!

We think you’ll agree that this coming month’s episodes are looking and sounding great. Keep an eye on the podcast feed or our YouTube channel for the trailers when they drop.

Wrapping Up

So that’s what we put out in September, and a little on what we’ll be putting out in October. Keep an eye open for more of these retrospective episodes each month, that way you’ll know about the episodes that you may have missed.

Music Credits

All music included in this episode is fully licensed and remains copyright of their creators/publishers. The music used was (in order of appearance):

• Abstract Vision #6 by Muz Station Productions
• Casual Arcade Track #3 Muz Station Productions
• Among The Stars by Muz Station Productions
• Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)

Did you catch all of our episodes in August? Which was your favourite? Do you have any favourite episodes from 2021 so far? Did you stick around and listen to the bloopers? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, or try our brand new contact page.

And have you left us a rating or review? We really like to hear back from listeners about our show, so check out https://wafflingtaylors.rocks/our-podcast/ for links to services where you can leave us some wonderful feedback.

The Waffling Taylors is a proud member of Jay and Jay Media. If you like this ...

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Show Notes

Squidge had a philosophical question for us all, as the episode opened:

Something for the great philosophical minds to ponder on, for sure. It's also a point that Jason - our illustrious guest for the episode - brings up:

Why was everyone - except for Jay - tired? Because it we recorded this episode on a Monday morning. Perhaps we should have recorded this episode in bed. Who can say?

Our guest this week is Jason Maddison, one of the people behind Lost in Cult, and an all-round nice guy. We've actually chatted with Jason earlier this year, in a bonus episode that we put out called "lock-on Volume 1 - A Discussion on Passion"

Back then (March 20th, 2021), the kickstarter for volume 001 was just coming to a close and we'd asked both Jason and Jon Doyle to talk with us about the passion that they have for preserving physical media, [lock-on], and what they had in mind for it.

At the time of recording this episode, the kickstarter for volume 002 was wrapping up, so we wanted to get Jason back on the show to talk about it, his piece from volume 001 (called "I have lived"), and what volume 002 might have in store.

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If you're brand new to the show - why not subscribe? It's completely free to do so - then you might be interested in our previous episode: Chief Andrew is Lost in Cult. This was an interview and catch-up with our friend Andrew Dickinson, who also happens to be the Editor-in-Chief for Lost in Cult.

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We wanted to let Jason describe what [lock-on] is, in his own words:

And after a lengthy discussion on the genesis of the project, Jason asked for our viewpoints on the project. 

But what about the future of the publication? Well, the kickstarter campaign for volume 002 was still on going at the time of recording - it has since closed, rather successfully - and it was on track to do much better than anyone had imagined:

Wow! Just wow!

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Jason's Article: I Have Lived

We wanted to talk to Jason about the piece he had penned for volume 001, called "I Have Lived" and how impactful it was on both of us to have read that article

For those who haven't read his piece, Jason describes it as

And he is completely right. #weHaveLived

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The following is a promo-spot for Jay's appearance on the Gamerhood Podcast. Reach out today, if you'd like your promo included in a future epi...

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Show Notes

His go at hosting the show in our previous episode - Mad Max in Bright Colours with The B - might have gone to his head, as Squidge decided to start this episode off in a confused place.

And we started the conversation off with discussion of Jay's moustache, which looks somewhere between Yosemite Sam and Freddie Mercury. But this episode wasn't just about Jay and Squidge, they were joined by... let's quote Jay, actually

And that might just be his official title. Andrew was most recently on the show in the second part of our discussion on Resident Evil Apocalypse - here's a link to that - but that wasn't the last thing that the three of us were on together. Both Squidge and Jay were invited onto an episode of the Dreamcast Years podcast - it was episode 12 actually - and it was a complete blast. So definitely check that out, if you haven't already.

Catching Up with Andrew

We couldn't have Andrew on the show without talking about the positive things that have happened with him recently. Some of these things include:

• Dreamcast Years Volume Two is well on the way
• Lost in Cult has started, and Andrew was made Editor-in-Chief
• Lost in Cult volume One has shipped
• Lost in Cult Volume Two has started production, too

at the time of recording this episode, the kickstarter campaign for volume two was still active. Please bear that in mind as you listen to the episode

• CultCast has launched

Recent Games

The Recent Games segment will not be new to listeners, but in case you're new to the show here's how it goes: we go round the table and discuss one or more games that we've been playing recently, and whether we think it's worth the listeners checking it out. We continue to do this until we've run out of games to discuss.

Of course we were interested in what Andrew had been playing recently. So it was only natural that we would ask him what he had been playing recently.

Andrew's Recent Games

• Mario Golf: Super Rush

This title had reminded Andrew of Wii Sports Club, for the Wiiu - remember when Wiiu's where a thing?

• Resident Evil: Village

Which Andrew had completed within a few days of it being released, and he thoroughly enjoyed.

Squidge's Recent Games

• Resident Evil: Village

Squidge was part way through RE: Village when we recorded this episode actually. He has since completed the game and unlocked, pretty much, everything.

• Diablo III
• Samurai Warriors 5

He's also been playing "Surviving Windows Updates", a perilous game which involves getting angry at how everything on your computer seems to break shortly after installing the latest Windows Update

Jay's Games

• Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee!

Squidge was kind enough to let Jay borrow his copy of this wonderful remake of the 1st gen games, and he had a lovely time playing it.

• Samurai Warriors 5

Both Squidge and Jay are huge fans of the Koei Warriors games; it's always a tonne of fun to drop into a virtual battlefield with an almost unlimited supply of enemies and button bash your way out.

• Mafia II: Definitive Edition

This game was plagued with issues on it's initial release - the HD remaster, that is. The original game was pretty much flawless - and Jay had been battling with getting it up and running for a few days, but he eventually triumphed and can now run it on his Linux-based computer.

SteamDeck

Naturally our conversation turned to the (at the time of recording) recently announced SteamDeck. With Jay wanting to eventually get one so that he can run RetroArch on it

pro tip: Jay is going to wait until after they are released so that he can buy one used, from someone who wasn't expecting it to run a Linux-based operating system

and Squidge brought up the point that it looks like the GameGear's younger brother.

The Thunder Plain Games

For those who are new to the pod, we have a section called "Thunder Plain Games" which might be vaguely reminiscent of a certain programme on BBC Radio 4 - but for copyright reasons, it is completely different.

Imagine that you are in Final Fantasy X, and the Thunder Plains) is a place that you get banished to. And what we're going to do is we're going to open a portal to the Thunder Plains and, very nicely and politely, boot you through it. You will get help, maybe it will be tomorrow, maybe it will be in a week, maybe it will be in an hour.

To stop you from getting bored, we've said that we'll keep the portal open and we'll throw through up to three video games and everything you need to play them - including an Internet connection. The only rules are that you can't ask for help, because help is on the way, and you can't tell anyone that you're in the Thunder Plains.

So our question is: were we to do throw, boot, or yeet you through the portal, which games are we throwing through with you?

We had already taken Andrew to the Thunder Plains in a previous episode - in fact, it was during his first appearance on the show, back in March of 2020. But what we wanted to know was, with everything that has gone on in the world since then, had he changed his mind about some of the games that he would take? He had previously decided to take:

• Power Stone
• Crazy Taxi
• Resident Evil: Origins Collection
• Call of Duty: Warzone

But with the recent happenings with Activision - and others, including Ubisoft - we gave Andrew another chance to talk about what he would take with him. We wouldn't want him to be trapped in a fictional place with titles that he was now against.

So he decided to swap CoD: Warzone for Fortnite.

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Intro

We usually do these Look Back episodes together, but Squidge was quite ill when we were planning to record it and ended up having to bow out in order to get better. So it's just me and RUSSELL this week folks. Anyway, roll the intro music RUSSELL.

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

One quick note: we ended up putting out fewer episodes than we'd planned last month. We went into the reasons for this in our previous Look Back episode - so definitely give that a listen if you'd like to know why.

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Make sure that you check out the show notes which should be showing in your podcatcher. There are a tonne of links in this episode, and they'll all be right there in your podcatcher. You can also read along with the episode if you wish.

We're also going to be doing something a little different with this month's Look Back, so stick around to find out what.

Episode 123 - Ten Minutes of TV Time with Morgan Ritson

This past month - August 2021 - we put out two brand new episodes. The first episode was an interview with a new friend of the show: Morgan Ritson; we called it Ten Minutes of TV Time with Morgan Ritson. Morgan is one heck of a funny guy, and we tried not to edit out too many of his jokes and skits.

We didn't release a teaser for this episode, because it would have been exceptionally difficult to distil all of the humour and deep game narrative analysis (sometimes happening at the same time) into a 2 minutes clip. Squidge actually tried to to this, and it ended up being a copy of the episode - in all its 95 minute glory.

Like I said, Morgan is an exceptionally funny gentleman; but he's also a very deep thinker. We met Morgan on the discord server for [lock-on] - a new gaming journal from the folks over at Lost in Cult. As a side note, if you've not heard of them then you should listen to our interview with them, from February.

Anyway, we talked about Sekiro and the lack of narratives which focus on reluctant footsoldiers, the Final Fantasy series as a whole and the trope of the tragic villain, Dragon Quest and the birth of the JRPG genre, and we dropped him off at the Thunder Plains for a spell.

Morgan is also a talented voice artist, and you should consider hiring him. You can contact Morgan on twitter: @MorganRitson

You'll definitely have to give this episode a listen if you haven't already, because it was so much fun to make and listen back to. Check your podcatcher for a link.

Episode 124 - Mad Max in Bright Colours with The B

🎵Gotta catch 'em all, doo dee doo.🎵

A week after Morgan's episode, we got together with The_B and tackled the fact that Pokémon turned 25 this year.

We had one heck of a conversation with The_B about the global phenomenon that is butterfly catching... I mean Pokémon. We called this episode Mad Max in Bright Colours with The B. And when I say episode, I really mean it: the final edit of the episode was 2 hours and 12 minutes. But don't let the length of the episode put you off, it's split into easily digestible chunks.

We had Squidge run this episode, because he knows WAY more about Pokémon than I do. At the time of recording the episode, I had only played Pokémon Blue for the GameBoy. We recorded this episode on July 4th, and since then I've had the joy of playing through the majority of Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee!

In this episode of the 'cast, we reached out to some friends and Pokémon fans for community comments, and we weren't disappointed. Among the people who go back to us where:

• Mr. Ray of the $2 Creature Feature Podcast
• MazGamingUk
• Friend of the show, and us both: Sakura
• Unaffiliated JZ of the Coding Blocks podcast
• Grand Rapidian Willie

But what did we actually talk about? Everything Pokémon related. From the games (and how there have been 122 of them so far) to the TV shows, and from the movies (plural) to the effect that TV show's intro song can have on a room of 1000+ people.

🎵It's you and me, something something Caterpie!🎵

Those are the words, right?

Looking Back on the Year

As of the release of this episode, we're slightly more than two thirds of our way through 2021 - the year is almost over, folks. And because of that, we wanted to take a look back at some of our favourite episodes from this year. Squidge and I discussed the criteria for this, and rather than just saying:

we wanted to bring our own reasons for picking two episodes each. We'd encourage you to go back and give these episodes a listen. If you're not already subscribed, you can do so for free by checking out wafflingtaylors.rocks/our-podcast.

As a reminder, because Squidge was unwell, I've recorded his parts for this.

Woah, hold up Russell. First, we have this:

the following is a promo-spot for the Starfleet Leadership Academy podcast. Be sure to check out their show, and listen out for a promo of ours, appearing on an episode of the Starfleet Leadership Academy soon.

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Pokémon turned 25, and it made both Jay and Squidge feel really old. And because misery loves company, we asked The B to talk about it on the show. We also reached out to the Pokémon community for comments and questions.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

There are a couple of bleeped swears in this episode - because bleeped swears are funnier, right?

At 01:15:03 The B says:

There's also a potential spoiler for the first Pokémon movie at 01:58:03, check your podcatcher for chapter markings for this.

And there is one mention of a certain type of disease, at the _VERY_ end of the episode - like, within the closing minute of the episode

Please listen responsibly

Show Notes

Welcome back to another episode of our podcast! This episode is all about Pokémon - that's right, the game which took butterfly catching and made it into a video game - and we don't mean that creepy intro bit to Resident Evil: Code Veronica, either

Pokémon turned 25 this year - 2021, in case you're listening from the future - and it made us feel super old. So we got together with The B to talk about just how old it makes us feel.

As a bit of a break from the norm, we handed over the hosting privileges to Squidge for this episode - mainly because he knows WAY more about Pokémon than Jay does.

In fact, the actual cast for this episode was:

• Backpacker Squidge
• Beautiful Lass Jay
• Hex Maniac B

As you can see, it was one heck of a cast.

10,000 ft View of Pokémon

We started the episode by asking everyone to give their own 10,000 ft overview of the Pokémon games. You know, in case someone listening had never heard of it.

And some of our interpretations of the games are... interesting, to say the least. It included theories as to who the main character is, where the human hospitals are, why Professor Oak can't remember his grandson's name - worst grandpa ever - whether Professor Oak and Rick (from Rick & Morty) are the same person, why normal RPG rules don't apply, and whether social services should have been involved.

And of course Jay's description of Pokémon was provided via interpretive dance - making it harder for Squidge to edit into the episode

Way to keep up those positive waves, B.

Community Comments #1

We reached out to the wider Pokémon community ahead of recording this episode, and asked for comments on what Pokémon meant to everyone. We had quite a few comments, so we wanted to pepper them throughout the episode, and these were the first set of comments.

First up was Mr. Ray, and he had this to say:

Next up was Sakura, and she had this to say:

Both of these comments are wonderfully wholesome, we're sure that you'll agree.

And as B points out, both Tomb Raider and Pokémon have this uncanny ability to bring communities together. And of course we couldn't let B mention this without referencing out previous anniversary episode - which was on Tomb Raider; here's a link

Famous Firsts

No one can talk about Pokémon without talking about their firsts, and being the investigative types that we are, we wanted to know what everyone's first Pokémon game was.

• Jay: Pokémon Blue

In fact, his first exposure to Pokémon was not the games, the TV shows, or the movies. But a high school maths class - which is something he goes into later in the episode, when a special guest appears

• The B: Pokémon Yellow

Which had more references to the TV show; with the main character been called Ash and there was a Pikachu which followed you around the game overworld.

• Squidge: Pokémon Blue

Squidge got into Pokémon through friend of the show Ik - and one of Squidge's childhood friends, along with The B - got him into it, back in his high school days.

Famous First Starters

Just like our famous first games, the choice of your first starter reveals a lot about someone. As such, we wanted to know which Pokémon we each chose as our first starter.

• Jay: Bulbasaur

Which lead to Jay calling out both Facebook and Twitter on whether he is right or not.

• The B: Pikachu

Because B started with Pokémon Yellow, he had no choice over his starter Pokémon. But had he played any of the other 1st generation games before Pokémon Yellow, he would have picked Charmander.

• Squidge: Charmander

Squidge let's us know that Charmander is essentially hard mode, and that he managed to brute force his way through the game with a team leader who was a fire type.

Keeping The Starter in Your Team; Yay or Nay?

Just because you pick a Pokémon at the start of the game doesn't mean that you have to use it all the way through to the end of the game. So did anyone keep that starter around all the way to the endgame?

• Jay: Yes

• The B: Yes

B has a similar strategy to Jay: keep the starter in the team and get them to level 100 - or whatever - before the end of the game. But he ...

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Voice actor extraordinaire, all round good egg, and fellow Lock-On backer Morgan joined us to talk doing homework to get TV time, the world and characters of Sekiro, and the trouble with homework and American TV.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

There were a few swears in this episode, but we've bleeped them all - bleeps are funnier than swears anyway - We've thrown the trigger warning claxon in at the following timestamps, as the subjects we talk about could be a upsetting to some listeners:

• At 27:20, Morgan mentions a certain something that happened during the Second World War
• At 41:16, Morgan mentions self-gratification, but only in passing 

Check your podcatcher for chapter markings which will help you to skip these sections, should you wish.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

Even though Squidge is very special - and I'm sure you'll all agree that he is, indeed very special - our guest for this episode was Morgan Ritson. Morgan describes himself as:

When introducing himself, we have a conversation about how we should always be positive around each other. We use the example of Morgan being told that his ability to write things down wasn't great, and how one of my professors at university has dyslexia and dyspraxia, but both are great people who are achieving great things - please don't tell someone that they can't do something because they are x, have y, or don't have z. Just be positive to them, and support them if you can

One thing to note: because of the gap in our schedule - as explained in The Lookback: July 2021 - we had recorded this episode quite some time ago.

But after that, we wasted almost no time getting to one of Jay's favourite topics:

Recent Games

The Recent Games segment will not be new to listeners, but in case you're new to the show here's how it goes: we go round the table and discuss one or more games that we've been playing recently, and whether we think it's worth the listeners checking it out. We continue to do this until we've run out of games to discuss.

And, of course, we shared ours too. Would we recommend the games that we've all been playing? Or course!

Morgan's Recent Games

As is tradition, we asked our guest to go first.

• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Morgan tells us that he is drawn to games which are greater than just person-vs-person, and the first game on his list is one such game. Both Sekiro and Bloodborne as spiritual off-shoots of Dark Souls, with one (Bloodborne) being more about taking the next step as humans, whereas the other (Sekiro) being more grounded in traditional Japanese mythology and being related to fighting for what you care about.

And this lead us into ta discussion on how there aren't many games - or books and films, for that matter - which explore the stories of the foot-shoulder who has never had to fight before, and how this isn't THEIR war but that of someone else's.

And the discussion on interesting characters leads us to a conversation about how villains have the potential to be much more interesting than heroes. The examples we used are Xande (from Final Fantasy III) and Hans Gruber - these two villains are arguably more interesting than the heroes who oppose them.

This lead us into a discussion with Morgan about how he's looking to pen an article for Lost in Cult's Lock-On series of journals - we've interviewed Jon and Jason from LiC about Lock-On previously; here's a link to that

• Final Fantasy XIV

We talk about the Final Fantasy games a lot - and not just when Lulu is on the show

But that one of the down-sides of playing RPGs is that the biggest resource they take up is time, and how that's one of the few resources that we can't renew. And he's not wrong.

Talk of Final Fantasy brings up hacking, which brings up Red Mages - trust us, there's a link - which brings us to Maurice Leblanc and the video game Thief.

Jay brings up a great point when talking about Final Fantasy only RPGs - of which there have really only been two. He asked Morgan whether he'd seen "the TV show", referring to Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light, but Morgan thought he was referring to Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV - at least it wasn't Final Fantasy Unlimited; which does have a banger of an intro song.

Seriously though, Dad of Light was really good actually. If you have the chance to watch it, please do.

We then take Morgan to...

The Thunder Plain Games

For those who are new to the pod, we have a section called "Thunder Plain Games" which might be vaguely reminiscent of a certain programme on BBC Radio 4 - but for copyright reasons, it is completely different.

Imagine that you are in Final Fantasy X, and the Thunder Plains) is a place that you get banished to. And what we're going to do is we're going to open a portal to the Thunder Plains and, very nicely and politely, boot you through it. You will get help, maybe it will be tomorrow, maybe it will be in a week, maybe it will be in an hour.

To stop you from getting bored, we've said that we'll keep the portal open and we'll throw through up to three video games and everything you need to play them - including an Internet connection. The only rules are that you can't ask for help, because help is on the way, and you can't tell anyone that you're in the Thunder Plains.

Full Show Notes

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