I think a random twitter user said it best: "It feels like the artists and animators went super hard to make the game as good as they can, and then whoever coded it didn't go the extra mile the game needed to go"
I feel like the cow comes from the idea that aliens abduct cows from farms, so the twist is that the cow is the one in charge. Idk, that’s where my mind went. This game had potential, it’s a shame about the level design. There’s clearly a lot of work and love that went into this ❤️
In cuphead, in Esther Winchester boss fight (cow boss) code you can find unused UFO and alien references but that idea was scrapped and changed to whole sausage , meat idea
The problem with the game isn't the coding like people are saying. To me it appears the game was made without a game designer. Has programmers and artists, but no games designer.
Yeah, the game has a good art style, it could do better with the coding but the main problem is that its all over the place, like going from a spaceship to a cow to a temple to a crab. Right now its like ia toddler imagining a story...
@@synneke i do think the cow isnt the biggest shark jumped, clearly they made a point to try to do unexpected boss fights, but the cow... i mean, MILKY WAY, cows getting abducted by aliens is a theme, theres some sliver of sense there. the hermit crab pirate ship was truely the least expected thing i encountered in videogames so far. however, the random level/world jump to me (space, jungle, spoopy) to me is just very similar to games like the crash bandicoot (the time travel one) and spyro era where some videogames "didnt need sense" in level theming... apparently but other people pointed out stories being a theme... oh no please we are creating THEORIES ALREADY
Honestly this game looks like it could have been amazing if they'd given any thought to anything beyond the artstyle. Cuphead worked because it was a stellar, tough as nails platformer boss rush that *also* took influence from 1930's animation. Just from watching this video, it honestly seems like they were trying to coast by on the animation, qithout understanding why it worked for studio mdhr. Everything from the uninspired level themes, procedural levels, generic music, random stills between levels, stiff controls, and stock punch sound effect for *every* impact, screams "who cares, people will buy it because it looks like cuphead"
not to mention we know nothing about these pro-tags other than that they are wizards. In cup head the opening cut scene sets up both Cup Head and Mug Man's personalities and their weaknesses along with establishing a clear goal and the obstacles they must over come. Additional level design and cut scenes also establish the personalities and themes of each boss. Here we have two generic wizards who created a portal and gut sucked dropping strait into the first level. The boss also just pop after some time with no set up. Two other problems I've noted with this game is the lack of hub world so there is no immersion like we got with Cuphead, and they gave you all you abilities right away instead of letting you unlock them so the game lacks that intermittent reward system most games use to keep you engaged.
@@rendratvandonkereschrijver2912 With how limited the team was, being just two people, I can understand that they probably wouldn’t of been able to do some things like Cuphead did. Such as a hub world and such. But it doesn’t excuse how non-existent the plot is. All we really get of a story is that two wizards, make a portal, get lost and try and find their book. Lacking any charm it could have had. There’s no context for anything, just one ‘cutscene’ to the next
@@spaceusagid00dles I lack sympathy for oh it was just two people or a really small team. Single person developers gave us Another World, Undertale, Cave Story, Stardew Valley, and even Mindcraft.
Absolutely One of many things that bugs the player is about 3 elements, all seem to do tze sale damage but only wind is unique with a splitshot How about ice shatters on impact into more projectiles Fire does more damage or burns over time?
matpat not knowing the euphoria meme "is this play about us?" and the lack of acknowledgement of ash's "have you watched euphoria?" is so unnecessarily funny lmao
The thing I don’t like aside from what has already been said is that cup head had some dialogue to get you motivated into the game, but there isn’t much to go one on; and them not explaining the controls unless you actively find it. Cup head shows you it, and gives you controllers; which to me I feel needs it as well!!
I mean, can you blame him? The game doesn't make anything clear about what you can do, the tutorial is garbage and there's no GUI to give you any idea of what you have as an ability. And lord knows the level design doesn't give you instances where you think "Oh, I need this thing" especially when you never actually learn about it.
@@redkingrauri3769Sure… but he still refused to use the shield even after adjusting the controls and then found the block button again sometime later. only to proceed to never using it and facetank everything. There was also the big “How to Play” button under the control settings when he adjusted the controls and just ignored it. Maybe it would’ve helped or maybe it’s useless. I don’t have the game to check. It’s fine to fault the tutorial for not really teaching anything at all other than you can attack enemies. But he did saw a How to Play section, ignored it, then proceeded to ask questions on how to play. Still, it being tucked away in settings instead of the main pause menu and the lack of tutorial is quite a horrid design.
@@anon7730 Well for starters forgetting you have a mechanic isn't refusing to use it. And again this game does not convey how to play well. I didn't even see that How to Play section so it could be he just missed it. That's not how you do a tutorial. If you have to have a tutorial for your tutorial, you've failed. The tutorial in Cuphead is perfect for this type of game: These buttons do this, this is the type of place you should do them, give it a try right here, here's a reward at the end. This doesn't even tell you what buttons to push for the 2 things it tells you you can do during it. That's an utter failure. I had high hopes for this game but between the procedural generation, no variety, REALLY awful tutorial, and generally weak animations compared to the ones we were expecting from the trailer (those bats in the cauldron level are literally 2 frames) there's just no excuse. They'd have to redo this from the ground up.
@@redkingrauri3769 20:39 “I’ve got a kind of shield thing. That’s good to remember”. Proceeds to facetank all of the enemies 22:38 “I should be play more carefully because I wouldn’t be dealing with everyone attacking me at once.” And then never uses the shield again. Unless he’s got a memory of a goldfish, he just outright refusing to use the shield after stating he should use the shield more two minutes prior.
@@ENDI8089 2 4ths at least. Maybe it's the optimist in me but the flaws in this game feel like a lack of skill rather than effort. Like, most of the designs feel good but lack anything lack out, the viruses being weakest. On paper the levels seem fine but the layout falls short and the enemy placement needed more thought put into. The transitions between levels was a cute idea but they didn't make it clear enough that the portals caused most of those transitions. The tutorial tells you most of the basics but now how to do them. And the music is... fine. But kind of... generic. When I say 2 or 3 4ths what I mean is a lot of the elements for a good game or there, they have a decent foundation but everything just falls slightly short and when everything falls slightly short the product as a whole... well...
@ENDI8089 I agree on 3/4ths. The game has a charm, it knows what it WANTS to be like, it has a decent game play concept. But the main issue is the level design and boss design. Compare the levels to a single Run N Gun from Cuphead: the procedural generation hurt it bad. Cuphead has super solid levels and boss design, that's what Enchanted Portal really need. If they had a third who took care of the level design, this would be a great game.
I didn’t have great expectations for it but after seeing the whole game I feel like if they just had kept cooking it, it would’ve actually been a pretty good game
The sound design and music could be really worked on. It would feel much more immersive if everything didn’t sound like it came out of a free 2010 sound library website that is full of pop-ups
ash, i feel you. i often tell myself "brick and mortar" and giggle whenever thinking of rick and morty. another one i've seen people bring up in regards to it is "rigor mortis"
This is very carrot before the stick to me, they made some really cool, clearly Cuphead inspired art/animations/assets, and then realized they didnt know how to plan out a game and thought "If they die a lot its hard, and if its hard its good, cuz Cuphead was hard and it was good"
as somebody who studies game design, level design is, in my opinion, the most important part of a game. You might have good mechanics, but if your levels don’t use them well, you won’t have a good game. Having procedurally generated levels is one of the hardest things to get right. In a run and gun game, it just cant work. These games are built to fail and learn from that, so, randomized elements aren’t ideal. The bosses are probably the best part because it is SUPPOSED to be random, applying this to a level can’t really work.
Really goes to show how originality is an important step for any creative process... This game looks so souless, it lacks polish, it feels like something you would see in a TV series, the animations are somewhat... off. Cuphead was a labor of love, it's a simple and short game that took YEARS to release because so much care went into it. This is just a game that came way to late to capitalize on the popularity of Cuphead. If these devs just took their time to think about something that THEY want to do, something THEY want to idealize, instead of just copying an already established masterpiece, i'm sure the game would be so much better
That's just retroactive. Whenever something works, its a passionate labor of love. Whenever it doesn't, its soulless cash grab. When in fact, its equally just work.
This game took them 5 years to make, I wouldn't call it souless, it just fails on a game design level... The game has a lot more originality to it than you're giving credit, it's taking more from what inspired cuphead than cuphead itself, but with only 2 guys making it and 2 failed kickstarters this looks to be as close as they could get to what they wanted to make
This game most definitely does not *look* soulless. I think that both the art and audio tracks are stellar. Unfortunately, the glaring issue seems to be the unpolished gameplay loop.
@@stephenkrahling1634 cuphead was developed by two brothers... hollow knight was developed by three friends. A small team is a challenge, sure, but it's no excuse for this level of bad. Seriously, this is barely acceptable as a flash game, nevermind a paid one
This is not soulless or uncreative, it is just poorly designed. The devs just failed to understand that part of what made cuphead fun was the intentional design of the levels and the fact all the mechanics were communicated clearly from the beginning.
It feels like this was made by a huge team of super passionate artists and animators... and 1 game designer who kinda just threw it all together half asleep, and then the audio was just a last second afterthought I mean clearly they wanted to make this good considering they took 5 years to make it, and how authentic the visuals are. If it were a easy "quick cash grab" like people were calling it when they first announced it, they would've cashed in when Cuphead was at it's most popular, and the visuals here are actually original in that there's more inspiration from the actual source materials than Cuphead itself... but I would think if you were going to go through all this effort you'd want to make sure the rest of it is just as polished
There may not have been enough money to allow this game to reach it's full potential. It has two failed kickstarter attempts, which most likely failed because people just couldn't stop comparing it to Cuphead and deriding the game as shovelware that was trying to be cuphead instead of a cuphead inspired game.
@@nendymion That's fair, and honestly that's probably it. The trailer they showed 5 years ago had a lot of this in it, mostly just the bosses, so it's likely that they needed the money to get some people on their team that could actually piece it together and just never got it But yeah it's a shame, because this genuinely has a lot of soul in it, but it's clear from the procedurally generated levels that they just don't have the toolset to make the game portion of it
I do think this game has a lot of potential. It is very rough around the edges but with a few polishes it can be quite decent. I hope the devs listen to the feedback they are being given even if some are quite harsh
Ash, you are so good at your job. I can totally see the brick and mortar connection. I like it, but I cannot begin to imagine how it could fit into the theme of Rick and Morty.
Honestly this game could have been _reaaaally_ good with how good the visuals are, it just got *heavily* dampened down with the coding. I absolutely love the style, but man even at the very start with the bats randomly robotically gliding to spots that don't make sense and *_never even turning around_* absolutely took away from the quality
It looks like paint to me. Gameplay, about a 6/10, design 10/10, coherence between where you are and what you expect to show up-beyond out there and unexpected XD
@@TheCool_Man lol it’s a old series of movies about a Saint Bernard and it’s mischief lol. My head canon now for that boss is that it’s that dog but in a tuxedo playing classical music
I thought id perfer the orange couch, but it turns out i much perfer the blue couch. The orange washes out the wallpaper and majes the whole background look muddier. The blues make the room look cozier and makes the subject (mat) pop when in frame. It also makes the artwork pop more. It makes the view when the game is up much less distracting and strenuous on the eyes (the blue couch, the orange couch is the opposite)
I remember when this game was first announced and launched on Kickstarter before going quiet for a long time. I was surprised when it resurfaced, even more so that its release date was so soon. I think another half year or so of polish would have made a world of difference.
Oh I saw this game trailer a while ago and it looked cool. MatPat you should try ULTRA custom night! It has over 500 official fnaf characters including YOU! It also has a whole story mode for you to try.😊
Well, it was entertaining to watch you play, Mat, even if the game left something to be desired. The sad thing for me was that the character/enemy animations while playing are really good, but then the cutscenes aren't even animated :( Plus the boss phases not having defeat animations and just fading out and back in super quick was really jarring.
If y'all need some games with plenty of lore potential, I'd recommend West of Loathing (western-style RPG) and Shadows Over Loathing (more horror-themed RPG with heavy emphasis on cosmic horror). Both are delightfully silly, clever, and much more in-depth than you'd first guess (and where choices very much matter and cannot be undone without starting over, so try to think things through).
Matpat is sitting on duct tape residue. Also Ash, validation is here. I hear what you're hearing with Brick and Mortar vs Rick and Morty. I don't think that was an inspiration, but I do think that the familiar sound of Brick and Mortar probably did factor subconsciously into Rick and Morty being named the way they were and the show being named the way it was.
I find, after watching the game for a bit, it seems, at least to me, seems to come from a place of passion, at least to an extent. The team itself must be fairly small, but only has the skills in a small department. The devs are artists and animators in the first place, and learned quite a bit using the engine to animate. However, in every other aspect of game development, it is sorely lacking. Programming, design, music, it's not up to the same standard as the art. As a programmer, I get that. It's a very difficult discipline, and seems to take both formal education and applicable experience in high regard. Not to mention the sheer amount of man hours that coding takes compared to art and sound. What one artist can do in a day can have so much more progress than what five programmers can do in that same time frame. It feels like the devs bit off more than they could chew. Their scope of development is too big compared to their experience in programming and design. I hope any future projects they want to do will be much smaller in scope.
":What one artist can do in a day can have so much more progress than what five programmers can do in that same time frame." You also don't have to look for errors in art that takes hours of painstaking looking through your work.
THANK YOU for mentioning the music. While I was watching this I was constantly thinking about how this game, despite its many flaws with coding, could be actually fun to watch if there was a decent soundtrack to it. Personally I always loved Cuphead for its music alongside everything else, so seeing how this game seemed to completely disregard it as an important aspect made me a bit upset.
I think it's kind of a disservice to call it a clone. The assets, animations, level design, etc. do look original. However, that doesn't mean they're good, and it is definitely trying to be Cuphead. You shouldn't try to emulate something that's perfect because you'll always fall short and be known as "that mediocre game that was kinda like ______."
I saw a clip of a boss who plays the piano to attack the player and it sums up what's wrong with the game: The boss has a classical theme that plays in the background but NONE of the boss' attacks go along with the theme. The attacks don't even make a little song by themselves, the boss hits random, one piece notes that clash with the background music. The entire game just feels like it was made by amatures. I can only hope that if they continue, that they learn what went wrong.
World 4 is a fairly tale world where the boss is a princess that turns into a frog. World 5 is a mash up of the old west and a modern day city where there's 2 bosses a bunch cow boys riding on a bull and a chicken dressed like a character from Grease ,than a gladiator,than a cave man. World 6 is just a random hodge podge of bosses 1.a piano player resembling Mozart 2.Cerberus with the heads of 3 regular dogs each a different breed 3.the book itself,a tree,and a mage.
I know what that stain is! More to the point I know how it was probably caused as well, someone put something like a box/book/magazine or something in that spot, then moved whatever it was, it probably was stuck to the material of the couch and took bits of the color with it, or left some ink stains behind.
39:00 I see some radioactive cans (maybe "plutonium"?) next to the flux capacitor as well. 41:00 nice screen of Space invaders and what looks like a little Xenomorph being 41:20 Pong with a NES controller and "blue screen of death" But anyway, looks like this game could've been much better but guessing maybe something happened (money or other issues) and it turned out like this. Also based on their twitter. The game was made by 2 people.
I highly recommend Fear and Hunger if you want a hard game with theory potential. It’s an action horror RPG and one of the darkest and cruelest games you’ll ever play.
Do you mean Fear and Hunger? And YES! There's already a big theory community for the games, and I'm certain a few of them collaborating with the Game Theorists could make for a great few videos, as well as help bring a new audience to the game!
I'd say Mat did pretty well, considering his absolute, adamant REFUSAL to use the lock-on key. Considering how haphazardly he assigned it, he probably forgot it was there.
Matpat that isn't bird poop. bird poop gets hard and washes off leather/vinyl and hard surfaces easily. That sir is the "leather/vinyl" itself where the orange paint/film stuff has come off. My mom had a spinny rocking reclining chair with that fake vinyl/leather film and when it peels off its a grey like fabric underneath. Its simply a bit of damage. Not a stain, not bird poop, it's basically a few tears in the couch. If you have a pet it could have been caused by their nails. If its not that, then it's probably paint.
This game is nice. The only issue is the audio, the ambiance tracks and music are too classical and were a bit dull, would definitely benefit with some swing. and the shooting and enemy defeat noises are harsh
I haven't watch the whole video yet so I don't know if they come back to this but Rick and Morty's names were originally inspired from doc and Marty from back to the Future Edit: also, Ash, you're so right about the tinnitus thing.
oh Ash I love your carotic energy but this one go out to you: Rigor mortis is a postmortem change resulting in the stiffening of the body muscles due to chemical changes in their myofibrils.
When I saw the trailer for the game my reaction went from "CUPHEAD RIPOFF!" to "Wait, that means more cuphead like gameplay and I love cuphead. YAY! CUPHEAD-LIKE!" Then it went silent for years. Then it stealth dropped and I saw reviews and went "Oh. Oh no." Even the animations for a lot of the bosses that weren't in the intial trailer made me think that they used a B-team or something after that cuz they don't feel as polished. This is definitely going on the "Disappointing" pile.
I think from what I've seen, we came to the same conclusion: It looks neat, but there's no real soul. It's a cuphead copy, but without any mechanical understanding behind WHY cuphead works (Like, the high difficulty and how it's implemented) Things... Exist, but there's no real why or how. It's got a cartoon graphical style without knowing what makes "cartoons" look and feel the way they do (Vanishing monkeys, instant fireballs etc etc). And from what I see: The attack from the player is completely uncapped, meaning to abalance it out, enemies need WAY more health, meaning a lot of bosses become sponges you just need to endlessly hurt before you "snap" into the next scene. There's no sense of victory, no sense of transition. Just "You finished a level, here's a card, now immediately into danger. In other words: If you're going to copy something, at least understand why things are being used in the target you're copying.
They really should have designed three great Cuphead-style bosses and sold the game for $1.99. Charging $20 for repetitive run and gun levels accented by horrible game mechanics is a recipe for disaster. Toree and Macbat 64 and other games have proved that people will pay a couple bucks for an hour of fun or so.
2:37 the origin of the name Rick and Morty is the Back to the Future movies. The creators wanted to explore the grittier possibilities of a premise like that in Marty and Doc’s relationship. The names “Rick” and “Morty” are supposed to be evocative of the names “Doc” and “Marty” without arousing suspicion or copyright claims. It’s also why time travel is so outlawed in Rick and Morty
I feel like at a certain point the different attacks just kind of became worthless, and health bars for the bosses could have gone a long way. But watching MatPat play this game was truly... an experience.
It lurks in the shadows, out of His spotlight, His view. He dances on the stage, weaving a web of lies. But you must venture beyond the cage, and find where It cries. Find the truth.
I would like to recommend playing a nancy drew game. Especialy now that they are making a small arg for their next game. They are detective point and click games. I would specifically recommend the ghost of Thornton hall. It's an amazing game, and I would love to see your reaction to it.😊
51:00 ASH thank god you said something about the tinnitus bc i thought mine was just going crazy but i paused the video and realized it was the game lol. yes, yes there is tinnitus background music in this game
There's a song called Ribs by The Crane Wives which has the line "Brick and Mortar between my bones" and I swear to God it sounds like "Rick and Morty between my bones"
It's a little strange, but also pretty funny for Mat's "logic-obsessed/realism-based" brain trying to comprehend the wacky transformations and creativity of both Cuphead and this game. Rubberhose and other early cartoons were so fun and random, but also wonderfully creative in their ways of displaying the action and reaction that took place within the cartoon. :)
I'm sure someone else has told Ash by now, but just on the off-chance they haven't: Rick & Morty actually started off as a Back To The Future spoof called Doc & Marty. But when the creators were looking to turn it into an official series, they were told by Universal and Robert Zemeckis that such a thing would never be allowed to happen, so they changed it juuust enough so that they wouldn't get sued.
If this game was just bosses instead of having no direction with the level design the programming team couldve done a way better job, cause its got the art emphises with no game direction.
I'm filled with a mix of thoughts every time I turn on a GTLive video. On one hand, when Style Theory dropped, the biggest turn off for me was that it had no intro music. I know it has an intro, but that intro has never actually been used in a Style Theory video, and I wouldn't recognize it if I heard it right now. Soon after noticing that, I noticed that all of the new videos on the other channels have abandoned their intros. This makes me a little sad, because Game Theory and Film Theory in particular were so recognizable and enjoyable. It'd be like if The Simpsons stopped doing their opening credits gags, like the intros used to be a part of the video. At times they were even edited to actually be a significant part of the video. I miss those days. GTLive is the only channel still using their intro, which I appreciate. Even more so since it's the only way we get to see Steph anymore (as a parent to a 16 month old, I get it). But even then, we were told months ago that GTLive had a new intro, basically ready to go, and it just hasn't. I know Music Theory isn't an option for a fifth channel, but I would really appreciate it if the existing channels would start using their musical intros again.
its because the "analytics" say intros are bad for views and "viewer retention" so they cut the intros. which i personally disagree with but i dont see the data they do
I think a random twitter user said it best: "It feels like the artists and animators went super hard to make the game as good as they can, and then whoever coded it didn't go the extra mile the game needed to go"
I know right
Correction, It was made my 2 people not a team.
true
@@user-bi3tt7mo9onote the word "feels"
@@JTRockYT Your the Object Show guy right? I didn't know you were a Cuphead fan.
I feel like the cow comes from the idea that aliens abduct cows from farms, so the twist is that the cow is the one in charge. Idk, that’s where my mind went. This game had potential, it’s a shame about the level design. There’s clearly a lot of work and love that went into this ❤️
I thought so too! But the hermit crab was and witch was really random…
Cows are aliens
@@arcticlion8116 nah the witch was kinda expected from level 1
agreed
In cuphead, in Esther Winchester boss fight (cow boss) code you can find unused UFO and alien references but that idea was scrapped and changed to whole sausage , meat idea
The problem with the game isn't the coding like people are saying. To me it appears the game was made without a game designer. Has programmers and artists, but no games designer.
Yeah, the game has a good art style, it could do better with the coding but the main problem is that its all over the place, like going from a spaceship to a cow to a temple to a crab. Right now its like ia toddler imagining a story...
@@synnekemaybe thats the point? i mean theyre chasing after a book, maybe its just a mismash of a bunch of different storied
@@synnekeI mean, that is the point to be fair, them chasing the book into different worlds
yea, i couldnt formulate the feeling i had at first but floppy, you put it into better words then i managed to have after this experience.
@@synneke i do think the cow isnt the biggest shark jumped, clearly they made a point to try to do unexpected boss fights, but the cow... i mean, MILKY WAY, cows getting abducted by aliens is a theme, theres some sliver of sense there.
the hermit crab pirate ship was truely the least expected thing i encountered in videogames so far.
however, the random level/world jump to me (space, jungle, spoopy) to me is just very similar to games like the crash bandicoot (the time travel one) and spyro era where some videogames "didnt need sense" in level theming... apparently
but other people pointed out stories being a theme... oh no please we are creating THEORIES ALREADY
Honestly this game looks like it could have been amazing if they'd given any thought to anything beyond the artstyle. Cuphead worked because it was a stellar, tough as nails platformer boss rush that *also* took influence from 1930's animation. Just from watching this video, it honestly seems like they were trying to coast by on the animation, qithout understanding why it worked for studio mdhr.
Everything from the uninspired level themes, procedural levels, generic music, random stills between levels, stiff controls, and stock punch sound effect for *every* impact, screams "who cares, people will buy it because it looks like cuphead"
I think this one comments sums this game up entirely.
not to mention we know nothing about these pro-tags other than that they are wizards. In cup head the opening cut scene sets up both Cup Head and Mug Man's personalities and their weaknesses along with establishing a clear goal and the obstacles they must over come. Additional level design and cut scenes also establish the personalities and themes of each boss. Here we have two generic wizards who created a portal and gut sucked dropping strait into the first level. The boss also just pop after some time with no set up. Two other problems I've noted with this game is the lack of hub world so there is no immersion like we got with Cuphead, and they gave you all you abilities right away instead of letting you unlock them so the game lacks that intermittent reward system most games use to keep you engaged.
@@rendratvandonkereschrijver2912 With how limited the team was, being just two people, I can understand that they probably wouldn’t of been able to do some things like Cuphead did. Such as a hub world and such. But it doesn’t excuse how non-existent the plot is. All we really get of a story is that two wizards, make a portal, get lost and try and find their book. Lacking any charm it could have had. There’s no context for anything, just one ‘cutscene’ to the next
@@spaceusagid00dles I lack sympathy for oh it was just two people or a really small team. Single person developers gave us Another World, Undertale, Cave Story, Stardew Valley, and even Mindcraft.
Absolutely
One of many things that bugs the player is about 3 elements, all seem to do tze sale damage but only wind is unique with a splitshot
How about ice shatters on impact into more projectiles
Fire does more damage or burns over time?
matpat not knowing the euphoria meme "is this play about us?" and the lack of acknowledgement of ash's "have you watched euphoria?" is so unnecessarily funny lmao
The thing I don’t like aside from what has already been said is that cup head had some dialogue to get you motivated into the game, but there isn’t much to go one on; and them not explaining the controls unless you actively find it. Cup head shows you it, and gives you controllers; which to me I feel needs it as well!!
I just love how matpat found a shield button and just REFUSE to use it
I mean, can you blame him? The game doesn't make anything clear about what you can do, the tutorial is garbage and there's no GUI to give you any idea of what you have as an ability. And lord knows the level design doesn't give you instances where you think "Oh, I need this thing" especially when you never actually learn about it.
he also found a lock on button, but doesn't even mention its existence
@@redkingrauri3769Sure… but he still refused to use the shield even after adjusting the controls and then found the block button again sometime later. only to proceed to never using it and facetank everything.
There was also the big “How to Play” button under the control settings when he adjusted the controls and just ignored it. Maybe it would’ve helped or maybe it’s useless. I don’t have the game to check.
It’s fine to fault the tutorial for not really teaching anything at all other than you can attack enemies. But he did saw a How to Play section, ignored it, then proceeded to ask questions on how to play. Still, it being tucked away in settings instead of the main pause menu and the lack of tutorial is quite a horrid design.
@@anon7730 Well for starters forgetting you have a mechanic isn't refusing to use it. And again this game does not convey how to play well. I didn't even see that How to Play section so it could be he just missed it.
That's not how you do a tutorial. If you have to have a tutorial for your tutorial, you've failed. The tutorial in Cuphead is perfect for this type of game: These buttons do this, this is the type of place you should do them, give it a try right here, here's a reward at the end. This doesn't even tell you what buttons to push for the 2 things it tells you you can do during it. That's an utter failure.
I had high hopes for this game but between the procedural generation, no variety, REALLY awful tutorial, and generally weak animations compared to the ones we were expecting from the trailer (those bats in the cauldron level are literally 2 frames) there's just no excuse. They'd have to redo this from the ground up.
@@redkingrauri3769 20:39 “I’ve got a kind of shield thing. That’s good to remember”. Proceeds to facetank all of the enemies 22:38 “I should be play more carefully because I wouldn’t be dealing with everyone attacking me at once.” And then never uses the shield again.
Unless he’s got a memory of a goldfish, he just outright refusing to use the shield after stating he should use the shield more two minutes prior.
Games you should definitely play and theorize about.
1. In sound mind
2. Killer frequency
3. Cult of the lamb
4. Darkwood
5. Scp containment breach
containment breach? hasn't that already been done? (not by matpat, but the community found everything already)
SCP theories from MatPat would be the coolest thing lololol
Darkwood is so good
Matpat is a scp 😱
I'll throw in the Remedyverse games: Control, Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and Max Payne
This game makes me appreciate the level design and how important good music is like Cuphead.
The stuff on the couch looks like paint or nail polish. But hey, that's just a theory. A COUCH THEORY.
That’s what I was also thinking it looks like dried paint or polish for sure! I know that type of peeling anywhere.
That would make so much more sense than bird poop
I look at this and I get the vibe of something that is three fourths of the way to being good.
1 4th of the way
@@ENDI8089 2 4ths at least. Maybe it's the optimist in me but the flaws in this game feel like a lack of skill rather than effort.
Like, most of the designs feel good but lack anything lack out, the viruses being weakest.
On paper the levels seem fine but the layout falls short and the enemy placement needed more thought put into.
The transitions between levels was a cute idea but they didn't make it clear enough that the portals caused most of those transitions.
The tutorial tells you most of the basics but now how to do them.
And the music is... fine. But kind of... generic.
When I say 2 or 3 4ths what I mean is a lot of the elements for a good game or there, they have a decent foundation but everything just falls slightly short and when everything falls slightly short the product as a whole... well...
@ENDI8089 I agree on 3/4ths. The game has a charm, it knows what it WANTS to be like, it has a decent game play concept. But the main issue is the level design and boss design. Compare the levels to a single Run N Gun from Cuphead: the procedural generation hurt it bad. Cuphead has super solid levels and boss design, that's what Enchanted Portal really need. If they had a third who took care of the level design, this would be a great game.
I didn’t have great expectations for it but after seeing the whole game I feel like if they just had kept cooking it, it would’ve actually been a pretty good game
The sound design and music could be really worked on. It would feel much more immersive if everything didn’t sound like it came out of a free 2010 sound library website that is full of pop-ups
ash, i feel you. i often tell myself "brick and mortar" and giggle whenever thinking of rick and morty. another one i've seen people bring up in regards to it is "rigor mortis"
This is very carrot before the stick to me, they made some really cool, clearly Cuphead inspired art/animations/assets, and then realized they didnt know how to plan out a game and thought "If they die a lot its hard, and if its hard its good, cuz Cuphead was hard and it was good"
as somebody who studies game design, level design is, in my opinion, the most important part of a game. You might have good mechanics, but if your levels don’t use them well, you won’t have a good game. Having procedurally generated levels is one of the hardest things to get right. In a run and gun game, it just cant work. These games are built to fail and learn from that, so, randomized elements aren’t ideal. The bosses are probably the best part because it is SUPPOSED to be random, applying this to a level can’t really work.
Matpats control scheme is going to give me an aneurism I swear.
It's so cursed that I like it
I thought I was hearing things when he openly said “yeah set that one to slash and let’s make that one semicolon” I couldn’t stop thinking about it
That's what I was thinking, like Matpat, what are you doing!!!
OMG this outrageous moment needs to reach the subreddit. and before anyone makes it about age, im about his age and im dumfoddled by this heresy!
Really goes to show how originality is an important step for any creative process... This game looks so souless, it lacks polish, it feels like something you would see in a TV series, the animations are somewhat... off.
Cuphead was a labor of love, it's a simple and short game that took YEARS to release because so much care went into it. This is just a game that came way to late to capitalize on the popularity of Cuphead. If these devs just took their time to think about something that THEY want to do, something THEY want to idealize, instead of just copying an already established masterpiece, i'm sure the game would be so much better
That's just retroactive. Whenever something works, its a passionate labor of love. Whenever it doesn't, its soulless cash grab. When in fact, its equally just work.
This game took them 5 years to make, I wouldn't call it souless, it just fails on a game design level...
The game has a lot more originality to it than you're giving credit, it's taking more from what inspired cuphead than cuphead itself, but with only 2 guys making it and 2 failed kickstarters this looks to be as close as they could get to what they wanted to make
This game most definitely does not *look* soulless. I think that both the art and audio tracks are stellar. Unfortunately, the glaring issue seems to be the unpolished gameplay loop.
@@stephenkrahling1634 cuphead was developed by two brothers... hollow knight was developed by three friends. A small team is a challenge, sure, but it's no excuse for this level of bad. Seriously, this is barely acceptable as a flash game, nevermind a paid one
This is not soulless or uncreative, it is just poorly designed. The devs just failed to understand that part of what made cuphead fun was the intentional design of the levels and the fact all the mechanics were communicated clearly from the beginning.
Cool to see this game came out, even if it is pretty….rough around the edges.
I feel like you're making a joke about something but I don't know what it is..
@@opfu1237 same, ima continue3 wqatching to fined outtte
@@opfu1237No joke here, the game is just rough around the edges
Is really appealing in looks
But the sound effects need a better punch
I can't comment on the gameplay as I have not played it
@@personexisting123 I thought that the first part was the set up and after the ... was the punchline XD. I was so confused lol
It feels like this was made by a huge team of super passionate artists and animators... and 1 game designer who kinda just threw it all together half asleep, and then the audio was just a last second afterthought
I mean clearly they wanted to make this good considering they took 5 years to make it, and how authentic the visuals are. If it were a easy "quick cash grab" like people were calling it when they first announced it, they would've cashed in when Cuphead was at it's most popular, and the visuals here are actually original in that there's more inspiration from the actual source materials than Cuphead itself... but I would think if you were going to go through all this effort you'd want to make sure the rest of it is just as polished
There may not have been enough money to allow this game to reach it's full potential. It has two failed kickstarter attempts, which most likely failed because people just couldn't stop comparing it to Cuphead and deriding the game as shovelware that was trying to be cuphead instead of a cuphead inspired game.
@@nendymion That's fair, and honestly that's probably it. The trailer they showed 5 years ago had a lot of this in it, mostly just the bosses, so it's likely that they needed the money to get some people on their team that could actually piece it together and just never got it
But yeah it's a shame, because this genuinely has a lot of soul in it, but it's clear from the procedurally generated levels that they just don't have the toolset to make the game portion of it
The worst part of being a Polish matpat fan is fact that is 1:01 am for me and im not sleeping just to watch the video
Seems like we're somewhat in the same boat. Just from a different place. We should get some sleep.
@@giganticscout6665 we definitely should.
it's 4am here
@@Eldr1tchGl1tch man go to sleep 😭
The video will still be here in the morning! :)
MatPat giving Ash validation brings me such joy
I do think this game has a lot of potential. It is very rough around the edges but with a few polishes it can be quite decent. I hope the devs listen to the feedback they are being given even if some are quite harsh
Ash, you are so good at your job.
I can totally see the brick and mortar connection. I like it, but I cannot begin to imagine how it could fit into the theme of Rick and Morty.
this orange couch is really reminding me of OG brown couch GTLive days
Honestly this game could have been _reaaaally_ good with how good the visuals are, it just got *heavily* dampened down with the coding. I absolutely love the style, but man even at the very start with the bats randomly robotically gliding to spots that don't make sense and *_never even turning around_* absolutely took away from the quality
So you know: the game has no save progress, so you lose your save if you exit out of the game.
Your pfp might be their reaction when they find out
That is completely unacceptable in modern gaming.
It's also like some other games, but they are still better than enchanted portals@@Annnoura
This game is like a CoolMathGames version of Cuphead
Honestly props to the Mat for giving this a chance , yk how you hate watch stuff, this is how you hate play a game I guess.
Ash was so happy to receive validation, I love it!
It looks like paint to me. Gameplay, about a 6/10, design 10/10, coherence between where you are and what you expect to show up-beyond out there and unexpected XD
Yeah the designs def looks 10/10 but the animations is just so stiff
Yes@@littleghast32
Vividly imagining Matpat hosting last week tonight and just ending each show with ‘tell your folks I says hi’
Matpat:
In loving memory, of the man who died in the tutorial.
Press 'F' to pay respects
Who gave it a good review
Loving that cow thought 😄 I hope this game gets polished up a bit more
If you think the bosses couldn't get weirder, they do, I'm pretty sure one is Beethoven
Even weirder that I don’t know if you mean the guy or the dog 😅
Wait... Beethoven? Like composer Beethoven? Oh dear Lord now I have to see this 😂😂
@blackmage4483 😂 i did mean the composer, I didn't know there was a dog called that until now
@@TheCool_Man lol it’s a old series of movies about a Saint Bernard and it’s mischief lol. My head canon now for that boss is that it’s that dog but in a tuxedo playing classical music
@blackmage4483 I'm not sure if that would be weirder or not to be honest, 😆
Ash singing the outro was such a cute little inside look on what the production of these are like!
It's the orange couch! The background looks a bit more green now.
Right?? It washes the whole scene out and makes the colors muddier!
I would like to validate Ash's Brick and Mortar, but I would also like to raise them Rigor Mortis.
I thought id perfer the orange couch, but it turns out i much perfer the blue couch. The orange washes out the wallpaper and majes the whole background look muddier. The blues make the room look cozier and makes the subject (mat) pop when in frame. It also makes the artwork pop more. It makes the view when the game is up much less distracting and strenuous on the eyes (the blue couch, the orange couch is the opposite)
I agree, however I like orange
I remember when this game was first announced and launched on Kickstarter before going quiet for a long time. I was surprised when it resurfaced, even more so that its release date was so soon. I think another half year or so of polish would have made a world of difference.
Oh I saw this game trailer a while ago and it looked cool.
MatPat you should try ULTRA custom night! It has over 500 official fnaf characters including YOU! It also has a whole story mode for you to try.😊
I second this
Hopefully the artist will be recognized and contacted for other more legit projects
Well, it was entertaining to watch you play, Mat, even if the game left something to be desired. The sad thing for me was that the character/enemy animations while playing are really good, but then the cutscenes aren't even animated :( Plus the boss phases not having defeat animations and just fading out and back in super quick was really jarring.
You like food theory 👉👈
35:04 ash representing literally every gen z
Thank you, Ash! Thank you for everything you do!
If y'all need some games with plenty of lore potential, I'd recommend West of Loathing (western-style RPG) and Shadows Over Loathing (more horror-themed RPG with heavy emphasis on cosmic horror). Both are delightfully silly, clever, and much more in-depth than you'd first guess (and where choices very much matter and cannot be undone without starting over, so try to think things through).
They played West of Loathing quite a few years ago, I believe.
Ah, I was looking forward to hearing Ash read the Steam reviews.
Matpat is sitting on duct tape residue.
Also Ash, validation is here. I hear what you're hearing with Brick and Mortar vs Rick and Morty. I don't think that was an inspiration, but I do think that the familiar sound of Brick and Mortar probably did factor subconsciously into Rick and Morty being named the way they were and the show being named the way it was.
I find, after watching the game for a bit, it seems, at least to me, seems to come from a place of passion, at least to an extent. The team itself must be fairly small, but only has the skills in a small department. The devs are artists and animators in the first place, and learned quite a bit using the engine to animate.
However, in every other aspect of game development, it is sorely lacking. Programming, design, music, it's not up to the same standard as the art. As a programmer, I get that. It's a very difficult discipline, and seems to take both formal education and applicable experience in high regard. Not to mention the sheer amount of man hours that coding takes compared to art and sound. What one artist can do in a day can have so much more progress than what five programmers can do in that same time frame.
It feels like the devs bit off more than they could chew. Their scope of development is too big compared to their experience in programming and design. I hope any future projects they want to do will be much smaller in scope.
":What one artist can do in a day can have so much more progress than what five programmers can do in that same time frame."
You also don't have to look for errors in art that takes hours of painstaking looking through your work.
🥰 pfp
THANK YOU for mentioning the music. While I was watching this I was constantly thinking about how this game, despite its many flaws with coding, could be actually fun to watch if there was a decent soundtrack to it. Personally I always loved Cuphead for its music alongside everything else, so seeing how this game seemed to completely disregard it as an important aspect made me a bit upset.
It's kinda adorable to see matpat trying to defend a shameless asset-flipped cuphead clone.
I think it's kind of a disservice to call it a clone. The assets, animations, level design, etc. do look original. However, that doesn't mean they're good, and it is definitely trying to be Cuphead. You shouldn't try to emulate something that's perfect because you'll always fall short and be known as "that mediocre game that was kinda like ______."
@@thephony1651"you shouldn't emulate something that's perfect" cuphead ain't perfect
How exactly is it an asset flip...?
@@spicypeachdev Ask the jimquisition.
matpat just desperately wants to be positive about everything he plays, except hello neighbor
Never been this early to anything in my life
Yooo I knew MatPat loved Cuphead, glad he's checking this game out!
I know he would make another cuphead game☝️
I saw a clip of a boss who plays the piano to attack the player and it sums up what's wrong with the game:
The boss has a classical theme that plays in the background but NONE of the boss' attacks go along with the theme. The attacks don't even make a little song by themselves, the boss hits random, one piece notes that clash with the background music.
The entire game just feels like it was made by amatures. I can only hope that if they continue, that they learn what went wrong.
World 4 is a fairly tale world where the boss is a princess that turns into a frog. World 5 is a mash up of the old west and a modern day city where there's 2 bosses a bunch cow boys riding on a bull and a chicken dressed like a character from Grease ,than a gladiator,than a cave man. World 6 is just a random hodge podge of bosses 1.a piano player resembling Mozart 2.Cerberus with the heads of 3 regular dogs each a different breed 3.the book itself,a tree,and a mage.
Keep in mind Mat Pat asked for this so don't come complaining to me about spoilers.
I know what that stain is! More to the point I know how it was probably caused as well, someone put something like a box/book/magazine or something in that spot, then moved whatever it was, it probably was stuck to the material of the couch and took bits of the color with it, or left some ink stains behind.
Y'know, it might not be the most polished game, but it was actually *really* satisfying to watch MatPat play it
39:00 I see some radioactive cans (maybe "plutonium"?) next to the flux capacitor as well.
41:00 nice screen of Space invaders and what looks like a little Xenomorph being
41:20 Pong with a NES controller and "blue screen of death"
But anyway, looks like this game could've been much better but guessing maybe something happened (money or other issues) and it turned out like this.
Also based on their twitter. The game was made by 2 people.
I highly recommend Fear and Hunger if you want a hard game with theory potential. It’s an action horror RPG and one of the darkest and cruelest games you’ll ever play.
Do you mean Fear and Hunger? And YES! There's already a big theory community for the games, and I'm certain a few of them collaborating with the Game Theorists could make for a great few videos, as well as help bring a new audience to the game!
The content in fear & hunger is definitely not something they'd feel comfortable showing on this channel.
DJ COWWED!
(Get it? DJ Kaled? DJ Cow-wed?
12:30 that control mapping he doing feels like an Unforgivable Curse
I'd say Mat did pretty well, considering his absolute, adamant REFUSAL to use the lock-on key. Considering how haphazardly he assigned it, he probably forgot it was there.
He also forgot to block
Matpat that isn't bird poop. bird poop gets hard and washes off leather/vinyl and hard surfaces easily. That sir is the "leather/vinyl" itself where the orange paint/film stuff has come off. My mom had a spinny rocking reclining chair with that fake vinyl/leather film and when it peels off its a grey like fabric underneath. Its simply a bit of damage. Not a stain, not bird poop, it's basically a few tears in the couch. If you have a pet it could have been caused by their nails. If its not that, then it's probably paint.
This game looks actually good but I guess the cons overshadow it. :/
It looks good, but it has some major problems. It feels kinda unfinished….
if you mean "looks" then yes it is visually good, just not in gameplay both mechanic and design wise
@@BeeCygNus yeah I meant visually
@@Average_Grilledcheese_fan can see cph enchanted a really 👍 game its good game
I think it's faux leather peeling
"Oh, it's symbolic of the FEDS who are always watching you through your webcam!" Funniest line I heard all day😂😂😂
This game is a reminder that programming is also a form of art
This game is nice. The only issue is the audio, the ambiance tracks and music are too classical and were a bit dull, would definitely benefit with some swing. and the shooting and enemy defeat noises are harsh
finally.... FINALLY MATPAT RECOGNIZES THIS WONDERFUL DESIGN... (and bad coding)
Matpat if you don't know Me from discord or your team I just wanted to say nice work and great edting and yeah keep making good theorys.
I love the Euphoria reference. 😂😂😂 "Is this f****** play about us"
8:03 That distant but clear "No I am not" gives me life. ❤
I haven't watch the whole video yet so I don't know if they come back to this but Rick and Morty's names were originally inspired from doc and Marty from back to the Future
Edit: also, Ash, you're so right about the tinnitus thing.
Please play more games like this for the gameplay, not just the lore. As much as I like LORE, I do miss episodes like this.
oh Ash I love your carotic energy but this one go out to you: Rigor mortis is a postmortem change resulting in the stiffening of the body muscles due to chemical changes in their myofibrils.
The coach “stain” almost looks like the original coach color coming out.
GTlive please play Lost Ember! beautiful indie game that made me cry, super cool shape shifting mechanics & lore ❤
When I saw the trailer for the game my reaction went from "CUPHEAD RIPOFF!" to "Wait, that means more cuphead like gameplay and I love cuphead. YAY! CUPHEAD-LIKE!"
Then it went silent for years.
Then it stealth dropped and I saw reviews and went "Oh. Oh no." Even the animations for a lot of the bosses that weren't in the intial trailer made me think that they used a B-team or something after that cuz they don't feel as polished. This is definitely going on the "Disappointing" pile.
I think from what I've seen, we came to the same conclusion:
It looks neat, but there's no real soul.
It's a cuphead copy, but without any mechanical understanding behind WHY cuphead works (Like, the high difficulty and how it's implemented)
Things... Exist, but there's no real why or how.
It's got a cartoon graphical style without knowing what makes "cartoons" look and feel the way they do (Vanishing monkeys, instant fireballs etc etc).
And from what I see: The attack from the player is completely uncapped, meaning to abalance it out, enemies need WAY more health, meaning a lot of bosses become sponges you just need to endlessly hurt before you "snap" into the next scene. There's no sense of victory, no sense of transition. Just "You finished a level, here's a card, now immediately into danger.
In other words: If you're going to copy something, at least understand why things are being used in the target you're copying.
Matpat might not be able to enchant these portals
But he enchants us with theories, merch, happiness, & diet coke
Love your videos keep up the good work ❤️
16:52 anyone else thought of Luigi's mansion 3?
You: Mom, can we have Cuphead?
Mom: No. There is Cuphead at home
*Cuphead at home....*
They really should have designed three great Cuphead-style bosses and sold the game for $1.99. Charging $20 for repetitive run and gun levels accented by horrible game mechanics is a recipe for disaster. Toree and Macbat 64 and other games have proved that people will pay a couple bucks for an hour of fun or so.
Someone else mentioned it, but id love for you to play In Sound Mind. Its a great horror game with a great story and cool design choices.
2:37 the origin of the name Rick and Morty is the Back to the Future movies. The creators wanted to explore the grittier possibilities of a premise like that in Marty and Doc’s relationship. The names “Rick” and “Morty” are supposed to be evocative of the names “Doc” and “Marty” without arousing suspicion or copyright claims. It’s also why time travel is so outlawed in Rick and Morty
I feel like at a certain point the different attacks just kind of became worthless, and health bars for the bosses could have gone a long way. But watching MatPat play this game was truly... an experience.
It lurks in the shadows,
out of His spotlight,
His view.
He dances on the stage,
weaving a web of lies.
But you must venture beyond the cage,
and find where It cries.
Find the truth.
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, play no fun.
so... since Matt made ONE code lyoko reference in a theory before... can we get a code lyoko theory?
"spider in the coner"
*sees two bats hanging upside down* hmmm definitely "spider"
I would like to recommend playing a nancy drew game. Especialy now that they are making a small arg for their next game. They are detective point and click games. I would specifically recommend the ghost of Thornton hall. It's an amazing game, and I would love to see your reaction to it.😊
The controls gave me a lil' bit of a breakdown but well. He really went through all that hah. I somehow found the ending fun
51:00 ASH thank god you said something about the tinnitus bc i thought mine was just going crazy but i paused the video and realized it was the game lol. yes, yes there is tinnitus background music in this game
This is reminding me of that old Costume Quest game, which I played every Halloween for YEARS, and now I really want MatPat to play it
Yeah, the difference is costume quest is good lol
There's a song called Ribs by The Crane Wives which has the line "Brick and Mortar between my bones" and I swear to God it sounds like "Rick and Morty between my bones"
It's a little strange, but also pretty funny for Mat's "logic-obsessed/realism-based" brain trying to comprehend the wacky transformations and creativity of both Cuphead and this game.
Rubberhose and other early cartoons were so fun and random, but also wonderfully creative in their ways of displaying the action and reaction that took place within the cartoon. :)
I'm sure someone else has told Ash by now, but just on the off-chance they haven't: Rick & Morty actually started off as a Back To The Future spoof called Doc & Marty. But when the creators were looking to turn it into an official series, they were told by Universal and Robert Zemeckis that such a thing would never be allowed to happen, so they changed it juuust enough so that they wouldn't get sued.
I love the idea of a cow as the boss of a ufo level, considering what ufo's are known for abducting...
Couch is the material of the skin. Most couches have a silver like material under them so no Matt it’s not bird poop 😂
From what I hear, for max enjoyment, play the game on easy. Makes things less tanky. Won’t help with the jank though😅
If this game was just bosses instead of having no direction with the level design the programming team couldve done a way better job, cause its got the art emphises with no game direction.
I'm filled with a mix of thoughts every time I turn on a GTLive video.
On one hand, when Style Theory dropped, the biggest turn off for me was that it had no intro music. I know it has an intro, but that intro has never actually been used in a Style Theory video, and I wouldn't recognize it if I heard it right now.
Soon after noticing that, I noticed that all of the new videos on the other channels have abandoned their intros. This makes me a little sad, because Game Theory and Film Theory in particular were so recognizable and enjoyable. It'd be like if The Simpsons stopped doing their opening credits gags, like the intros used to be a part of the video. At times they were even edited to actually be a significant part of the video. I miss those days.
GTLive is the only channel still using their intro, which I appreciate. Even more so since it's the only way we get to see Steph anymore (as a parent to a 16 month old, I get it). But even then, we were told months ago that GTLive had a new intro, basically ready to go, and it just hasn't.
I know Music Theory isn't an option for a fifth channel, but I would really appreciate it if the existing channels would start using their musical intros again.
its because the "analytics" say intros are bad for views and "viewer retention" so they cut the intros. which i personally disagree with but i dont see the data they do