Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the video. Some exciting news! #1: Exactly 24 hours after this video goes live, at 7pm BST, October 6th on www.twitch.tv/nocturnalfudj, I am beginning a fully streamed playthrough of Breath Of The Wild! I adore this game, haven't played it in years and can't wait to just hang out and chill and talk to some people whilst replaying one of my all-time favs. From Oct 6th onwards I'll be streaming it 3 times a week every week until it's done so come hang out and stay updated by following me on Twitch or on Twitter - I'll also be advertising all my streams before the fact via TH-cam Community Posts so keep an eye out for those! :) #2: I've mentioned it in a couple of community posts already but in case you missed it - I recently became a contributor for Hard Drive Magazine (@HardDriveMag on Twitter). If you're interested, check out my latest satirical article about Steve-O attempting a Pokemon Emerald Kaizo Nuzlocke for Jackass; I think you'll get a kick out of it, lmao. hard-drive.net/pokemon/jackass-5-to-feature-45-minutes-of-steve-o-attempting-a-pokemon-emerald-kaizo-nuzlocke/ Be sure to check out The Lame Design Conference if it seems like your sort of thing; th-cam.com/play/PLxGDOO2WMLacEu957_dRzay35K5eLGYBR.html And maybe give your boy some love on Patreon? :) www.patreon.com/nocturnalfudj That's it for me, if I don't see you in my streams then I'll probs be back with another video in like - a month or so. No spoilers; but I imagine it might be quite MONSTROUS.
A really great video essay, Fudj. And if I could recommend an indie game that deserves some love, it would be Freedom Planet and it's sequel. The latter of which just got released about a month ago.
The way big business works imo, is, if you have something to say, you are representing the whole of the business, especially if you are market. Your words, your opinions, are not your own, they are the sole property of Ubisoft, EA, or Nintendo.
Yeah china’s pretty fucked up in the way that they do things over there, and I thought Russia government was bad, china’s just a whole empire lol thanks for making this vid fudj, you’ve taught me things that I would’ve never learned in my community college.
Can’t believe you managed to get a Lame Design conference sponsorship. This man is goated This video shows exactly why I support small indie companies like Nintendo
Three minutes in I was like "This video goes hard as hell. Lemme check how much of the video is left. If I'm lucky it'll be a 15-minute deep-dive." Can you imagine my ELATION when I noticed just now that it's almost an hour long?
Yet another banger; having been around since the Pokémon days, this was simultaneously a fun nostalgic run and also more importantly, another great demonstration of your analytical skills.
For someone who hates video essays, I genuinely think you are one of the all time best, and this video only further shows it by diving into such a big and elaborate issue in such a personal and emotional way. Your content is always full of emotion, research, and well thought-out and insightful points and commentary. Thanks for all the amazing work you do.
This video is helping me get through a very boring day while my supervisor is out of office so thank you very much Fudj. I know you're not a fan of the video essay format so I appreciate you doing this
6:03 while that rule is vague enough to ban anyone for hypothetically any reason, I'm pretty sure it was written that way so they could ban someone specifically like they did here in this situation, without specifically having a rule saying "don't shittalk china"
Lots of good to say, but suffice it to say... Well done. I think you handled this all extremely well. On video game monetization/games as a service, I've seen three companies do it well. Crytek - Hunt: Showdown. They are actively trying different things, and being open with the community about what they are doing every step of the way. Klei Entertainment - Don't Starve Together. I was super late to this one, and was really bummed out when I saw how much DLC there was. That disappointment became excitement when I learned it was a couple optional characters (With the majority being free) and the rest were just cosmetics. Cosmetics that can be earned by playing by the way. Ghost Ship Games - Deep Rock Galactic. Not a lot to say aside from primarily free content, and only optional payment stuff, no pay to win etc.
Psyonix has historically been praised by the rocket league community for their communication and their implementation of community ideas, however some will argue that since they were bought by epic, the charm and overall quality has been lost to an extent
You forgot about Terraria. Other than Redigit (the main dev) definitely being one of those "stop having fun guys"( he's patched nearly every exploit and cheese strat imaginable, which makes the game less fun and approachable) the game is amazing and has gotten consistent updates and support since 2011 when the game first launched.
Props to you for devoting part of the video to saying "support indie games/devs" Also SPIRITFARER I cannot define my love for that game...it's just perfect...no game has made me cry until this game, a d I cried multiple times during that game
Another addition to the great indie games is No Straight Roads! It’s a Malaysian game where all enemies and bosses have attack patterns synced up to the soundtrack. The game has a sort of old God of war style feel to it with its combat, with combos and spectacular bosses. It’s a very quick game to play and the ost is very pleasing to listen to out of game as well as in.
I really want a pair of commentators end an ESports tournament some day with "And for one last announcement: Human rights are awesome! Good night, everyone!"
I'm always impressed with your script-writing capabilities! Your joke writing style is unique from what I have seen, and your ability to incorporate nuanced perspectives on a variety of things never fails to be immaculate. I hope your work begins to fill your wallet with more money before too long, since your work is quite unique and impressive!
What you said about the view of derivative works in japan is interesting. My main exposure to that is through the Touhou project and Doujin media in general, and best I can tell in those subcultures the idea of a derivative work being insulting is either not present, or not as present. But this is the perspective of an American.
I played spiritfarer early this year and I has to be one of the most lovely and touching gaming experiences ive had in a very long time. As the corporate money machine perpetually cranks out disappointing AAA titles, smaller indie titles that make you actually feel something are where I find myself getting the most enjoyment out of the gaming hobby
I never knew the Japanese saw iteration as disrespectful. If so what’s the general consensus on video game remakes eboots? Are they all considered bad no matter what? What would be considered a respectful iteration if it’s possible?
THANK YOU! Finally someone made a response to everyone saying it was better when Iwata and Reggie were there. I’ve seen people say this whenever Nintendo does something bad.
you might not make video essays often, but you gotta admit you're damn good at it. perfect balance of funny and engaging but also informative, serious and passionate. almost choked up at the end. goddamn, brad. i'm proud of you.
I'm going to preface this comment by saying that I normally really enjoy your work and look forward to your videos, so I hope you can believe that I'm coming at this in good faith. Now, having said that - I'm a minute in and have already had to pause. Framing the Hong Kong protests as "against an extradition bill that would give the CPC more control over Hong Kong" is a huge oversimplification of the actual situation. The bill was introduced to allow the various parts of China (i.e. the PRC, Taiwan and Macau) to extradite people when needed, the catalyst for which was when a man killed his pregnant girlfriend while on holiday in Taiwan and then returned home to Hong Kong where...he couldn't be tried. The reason for which was because way back in 1997, when Britain's colonial ownership of HK was due to end, we basically rushed through some extra laws to stop extradition, which never got overturned specifically because the PRC wanted it to be a gradual return rather than immediately switching them to an entirely new government. On top of which, if you actually check the list of crimes that you could be extradited for, none of them had anything to do with any potential concerns over free speech. Some of them however, were to do with things like tax evasion - things the Hong Kong bourgeoisie did not care for, which is something to bear in mind when thinking about why people were protesting (not to mention all the money the US funneled in via the NED to try to destabilise the mainland). You cannot talk about Hong Kong without also talking about its colonial history, the fact it was a Chinese territory until Britain stole it at the end of the Opium Wars, and that the remnants of that colonial history still exist today in the form of "One Country, Two Systems". It's still a region run by the bourgeoisie, regardless of anything else, and they are the ones terrified of the CPC - to which I say, good, the bourgeoisie should always be scared. I'm gonna tap out because this comment already took me like an hour to write and confirm the info for. I'm still gonna look forward to your next video, but I don't think I can handle this one lol
Cork this was proper cinematic, really enjoyed this one a lot. I don’t know how I’ve entirely dodged this Hearthstone story but the video certainly spoke generally enough to not be solely named after it, truly I hope one day people can better separate developers from the roles they don’t fulfill and the world might just be a slightly happier place
Indies seem to thrive so much on streamer and content creator output getting the good word out. The ones that don't make for good react video's naturally won't likely see as much success. Its that feedback loop, with popular indie titles getting more coverage thus getting more people playing them. (also, Spiritfarer is dope. It broke through my disinterest for farming/town sim type games)
If we're talking about good indie games with a lot of passion, Rhythm Doctor. I can't tell people about it enough, it's a wonderfully charming and extremely creative indie game. A one button rhythm game that can give Rhythm Fever vibes, with one particular level that's probably my favourite ever moment in a videogame. It was my personal GOTY, beating out any AAA game that came out and that was only its early access launch.
This was a great video, and a great return. You really took me on a journey here! You covered a lot of topics but it all came together really well. I think you avoided the pitfalls of the video essay genre you mentioned, as this was a great balance of runtime vs how much ground you covered. I think a testament to the value and art in indie games is the fact that the moment you transitioned the soundtrack to undertale I felt my heart in my throat. I don't blame you for bringing it up even as predictable as it may seen, I had the opposite experience of going in at launch so blind I didn't even know the concept was that you didn't have to kill in battles, so I think it's crazy awesome that feeling is shared across a variety of experiences. You've completely sold me on spiritfarer, it sounds like exactly the rare and unique type of experience I come to indie games for. Plus... I'm a sucker for media that makes me cry, I seek out beautiful feelings the same way an adrenaline junkie seeks out exciting experiences. I'm broke right now, so I heeded your recommendation about steam wishlists. I'm gonna have to look more into that, as I genuinely had no idea that did much of anything. I generally don't keep a wishlist because I don't really discover games via steam browsing, but I think I'll make the effort to add stuff when I hear about it. Great stuff, and be safe this winter.
3:20 as someone who is (unfortunately) American, I just wanna thank you for being so gracious. Anyways it's been a while since I tuned into this channel, can't wait to dive into the backlog between then and now, and your taste in background-footage games and music is as fcking _stellar_ as ever! You have no idea how much my heart lit up when you brought up that last game. Thunder Lotus are one of my two favorite developers alongside Supergiant, being a fan of each all the way back with the release of JOTUN and Bastion respectively.
Reggie didn't do as much for Nintendo as Iwata by any measure. Iwata wasn't good for online creators, but he was definitely the most consumer friendly president any of the big corporations have had. He didn't raise prices of games with the transition to HD, leaving most Wii U games at $50 a pop, $20 Nintendo Selects ended with his death, the Switch has nowhere near the hardware endurance of prior systems like how he said the DS had to survive a fall from the average adult's chest pocket height (though admittedly a lower standard than the tank of systems that were the N64 and GameCube, but still effort that no longer exists within the company). He also took a pay cut when the 3DS had a launch failure and the Wii U, and convinced other management to follow him in that decision. I'm not saying he was infallible, there are clear improvements in some areas since new leadership has come in, but this is also the first era since Iwata started where the system has virtually no customization, prices have dramatically risen for controllers and the such, bundles are at an all time low, and incomplete games being launched with promises of "post launch content" has gone from being a Splatoon exclusive experiment to the go to for any game with online multiplayer, and the side content and mini games have been all but totally eliminated from most games. Heck, even Smash Ultimate didn't have a Smash Run or Event mode equivalent, and home run contest came way after launch. Though, I somewhat forgive that one as a trade off for getting and rebalancing literally every character from the series history. Sakurai is no slouch, but it definitely lost some of that old charm being so focused on the one central mode, something that was becoming less during Iwata's final year, but really hit after he died. The game output also just dropped. We still aren't getting anywhere near as many games as we uses to get when Nintendo had 2 separate consoles and you counted both together
Some indie games I would highly recommend because made me cry: - I Was a Teenage Exocolonist - If Found - A Year of Springs - Coffee Talk - Highway Blossoms - Ikenfell - Cross Code Some indie games I would recommend because they are just fun/weird: - We Know the Devil - Sayonara Wild Hearts - Just Shapes and Beats - Patrick's Parabox (I intentionally left out more well known titles because if you are interested at all in indie games you will already have heard of stuff like Celeste, Hollow Knight or Hades)
Love how the video naturally shifted from being informative about a negative subject into being more opinionated on a positive subject at the end. Really quick, I also want to mention my favorite moment from any video game: the ending of Mother 3. I believe a person experiences Mother 3 ending at three separate times. Once at the emotional climax, once when you think the game is over, and the ending means nothing, and one final time when you realize the ending actually means everything. I'm getting emotional enough just thinking about the ending that I'm already crying while typing out this comment. If you haven't played Mother 3 yet, please play it through the end. When I say the ending means everything, I mean that without a hint of exaggeration. It's heart-rending, it's strange, it's funny, but most importantly, it matters.
As someone that's been a part of a community of a smaller, IP-based game that's recently reached the end of its confirmed content updates (Hot Wheels Unleashed), I'm sad to see so many people immediately quitting the game. Honestly it did pretty well for itself (no microtransactions, all monetization came from the release of DLC cars, most of which were based on crossover IPs so were generally unpopular as a result), and I still like playing the game with peeps online. The dev team is still committed to bug fixes and QoL, so I hope there's still more life in the game, even after corporate's had enough of it...
I completely agree about service games feeling less like art. The infinite money hole is a pure manifestation of corporate greed, and it really distracts from the rest of the game even if everything else is beautiful. No good artist wants you to spend literally all of your money. That can only be motivated by a "make money no matter the cost" mindset, and it just casts a shadow over the rest of the work.
This video might be one of the more challenging to swallow for average viewers, but you weave discourse, humor, and solutions so elegantly that by law of TH-cam, it will receive a strike from Tencent and get less than 100K views when everyone who plays video games consistently should watch it several times. To circumvent this issue and provide funds for your next videos, I suggest a partnership, there's a really great RPG with console graphics, 700 champions, and portability called Raid: Shadow Legends.
Hello fudj. I haven't watched your videos in a long time, (not that you would care much I'm just a commenter) but this video brought me back, especially the section on indie games. My favourite game, is one too. ZeroRanger is a shmup that has touched me like nothing I played before or since. And yet, barely anyone has played it. So here is my heartfelt reccomendation.
Some Indie recommendations from me: OneShot: A short but clever, emotional, and downright beautiful game where you have to guide Niko, a cat person with a lightbulb, through a dark world of interesting characters. Ib: A horror game themed around paintings, where you play as a young girl that gets pulled into one. Wobbledogs: A fun little breeding sim game where you can create monsters made of some kind of wobbly tofu substance. A fun little pet sim that's simple but playable for a long time. A Short Hike: A 3D, pixel style game where you play as a bird that goes for a trip to an island and attempts to get to the top of the mountain in the middle. The length of the game varies depending on how focused you are on getting to the top, but I suggest stopping to smell the roses for the best experience. I also highly recommend romhacks and fangames just because they tend to be very passion fueled given that the creators in most cases are at risk of cease and desist takedowns. They're the least corporate way to enjoy series that might feel less passion fueled in the modern day, or are forgotten. Pokemon Uranium and Pokemon Insurgence are amazing Pokemon fangames, with Crystal Clear being my personal favourite out of any of them; and I've heard good things about some of the fangames from other series as well.
By the way, the Taiwanese situations origin is where Taiwan is the old government of China but after a civil war the government evacuated to the island of Taiwan ever since. Both China and Taiwan claim each overs land.
I watched this in my car during my school lunch break yesterday and I was so entralled with it that I didn't realise I was late for my next class when it finished. Few things are able to distract me to that extent. This video is a mastapeece
Spiritfarer is genuinely one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had. Don’t think I’ve ever cried as much over any other piece of art except maybe Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Wow. Something about that segment about indie games, especially spirtfairer in particular just kinda… Struck me. Almost made me tear up a little lol. What a beautiful video, my man you are so fucking underrated..
Spiritfarer is a game I've reccomended to pretty much everybody who will listen. I played it at launch and I can't wait to replay now that there are new charachters once its a little less fresh in my mind.
"China has decided they own it (Taiwan), they don't" is probably the best summary of this geopolitical quagmire I've heard in a while and I will be sending this clip to the next person who asks about it.
I had a similar moment in ELDEN RING ( I am talking about the moment you had with Spiritfarer). I played on and off over like 5 months and the characters almost started to feel like real people to me and when the Roundtable Hold started to get empty I almost shed a manly tear (no homo)
God, I kinda forgot about Spiritfarer after it ended on a kind of sour note for me (100% being blocked due to an oversight) but that's such a beautiful game
Indie games for sure are the free art and expression of video games, but there is also an argument to be made for the value having insane corporate money provides. Even if you dont care for pro esports lobbying and the benefits that has provided for video game players around the world - Arcane would never have happened without the addictive cash cow that is league of legends. While former animation giants like disney drift further from allowing their creative minds push the envelope and express themselves I'm glad the tencent owned riot was able to fund something that wouldnt pass chinese censorship board
Absolutely excellent video. I absolutely agree with the point at the end that satisfying endings are great and you definitely didn’t fall into that trap of bad video essays that you described at the beginning. Theres only one small thing that bugged me which is when you mentioned reggie’s thoughts about crypto technology just because i feel like its very easy to just say that ‘crypto is bad’ as an overall statement so a lot of discussion about crypto technology on the internet glosses over a lot of nuance in the situation which leads to people only have a very oversimplified understanding of it (not saying I understand crypto that well) and you didn’t really go in depth about what his thoughts were so it wasn’t really as strong a point as the others in that section. Still agree with the point you were making but that mention just slightly bugs me, overall a great video
based video apart from thinking liberals are the opposites to conservatives (where are the socialists) (btw the labour party is meant to be socialist it’s not a yikes word) (also they are called the “Chinese Communist Party” but aren’t actually communist so only use the word communism if referring to their official name)
the last AAA series to make me feel something genuine and was meant to be engaged with as art was the Bungie era halo's. That's when I was 14, and I'm 23 now. Thank god for indie games tbh, Hollow Knight is currently my favorite game I've had the privilege of experiencing.
One of the reasons i love video games is that unlike film and music you can become massively successful with little or no help from big business. This is almost impossible for film makers and musicians.
I think a another indie masterpiece that fits the final message of this vid perfectly is Outer Wilds. Without any spoilers, one of the things that makes it so special is that it ends, and how it does it. If you’ve played it you know what I’m talking about, and if not, GO PLAY THE GAME!
Not gonna get "into it" at the moment about your overarching assessment of communist china, but I would ask you to reëxamine more closely the idea that an issue uniting the interests of our ruling class is a signal that we should follow their perspective, rather than adopt a heightened scrutiny of it.
The thing about spirit farer vs animal crossing I think is why people like games like stardew valley and story of seasons so much, because when done well the characters are more memorable than any game that wants you to play it forever, same with jrpgs and other finite games that focus on story
24:54 I would actually look at the fact the Smash community and it's players have a TERRIBLE reputation. Also, Overwatch 2 skin prices are high but not unreasonable if you buy a singular skin you like per character you play. Other than that, good video :)
On the one hand, I understand them not wanting E-Sports to be politicised, but on the other hand freedom of speach. Also, retracting the prise money seems like theatht to me.
43:49 im sorry WHAT?! MMOs and Animal Crossing are NOT trying to suck money out of you?! They have value as long-term escapism?! That is honestly the most outlandish thing youve said in the whole video. I was largely on board with most of it until that moment. Sucking money out of a player is THE WHOLE POINT of ANY and i do truly mean ANY games as a service. That means Animal Crossing, ANY MMO where you either need to buy each expansion, renew your subscription or need to pay2win in whatever activity you are doing. That means Warframe, Godfall, Destiny, Babylons Fall, Overwatch, Hearthstone... Even Pokemon is basically a live-service franchise since the release of Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Home; 2 subscription services for pokemon cloud storage. Retaining your users IS "sucking out money" from them. If it wasn't no business would do it. You make it seem like paying for things is inherently a bad thing and make it sound like FF14 is not literally Square's biggest cash cow just because its pretty fair to its players. Thats good marketing and good business. Just because a business model is fair to the consumer doesnt make it not-predatory, and just because you have to pay for something doesn't make it predatory. MMOs and Animal Crossing are ABSOLUTELY making a ton of money on those playing the games, and the longer those people play, the more the developers and publishers make from them. Theres really no exceptions unless you wanna account for smaller MMO games like Meadow that are more of an indie experiment than anything else.
Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed the video. Some exciting news!
#1: Exactly 24 hours after this video goes live, at 7pm BST, October 6th on www.twitch.tv/nocturnalfudj, I am beginning a fully streamed playthrough of Breath Of The Wild! I adore this game, haven't played it in years and can't wait to just hang out and chill and talk to some people whilst replaying one of my all-time favs. From Oct 6th onwards I'll be streaming it 3 times a week every week until it's done so come hang out and stay updated by following me on Twitch or on Twitter - I'll also be advertising all my streams before the fact via TH-cam Community Posts so keep an eye out for those! :)
#2: I've mentioned it in a couple of community posts already but in case you missed it - I recently became a contributor for Hard Drive Magazine (@HardDriveMag on Twitter). If you're interested, check out my latest satirical article about Steve-O attempting a Pokemon Emerald Kaizo Nuzlocke for Jackass; I think you'll get a kick out of it, lmao.
hard-drive.net/pokemon/jackass-5-to-feature-45-minutes-of-steve-o-attempting-a-pokemon-emerald-kaizo-nuzlocke/
Be sure to check out The Lame Design Conference if it seems like your sort of thing;
th-cam.com/play/PLxGDOO2WMLacEu957_dRzay35K5eLGYBR.html
And maybe give your boy some love on Patreon? :)
www.patreon.com/nocturnalfudj
That's it for me, if I don't see you in my streams then I'll probs be back with another video in like - a month or so. No spoilers; but I imagine it might be quite MONSTROUS.
Thanks for the content Fudj!
A really great video essay, Fudj. And if I could recommend an indie game that deserves some love, it would be Freedom Planet and it's sequel. The latter of which just got released about a month ago.
The way big business works imo, is, if you have something to say, you are representing the whole of the business, especially if you are market. Your words, your opinions, are not your own, they are the sole property of Ubisoft, EA, or Nintendo.
Yeah china’s pretty fucked up in the way that they do things over there, and I thought Russia government was bad, china’s just a whole empire lol thanks for making this vid fudj, you’ve taught me things that I would’ve never learned in my community college.
Btw ea took out loot boxes out of swbf a few years ago
Can’t believe you managed to get a Lame Design conference sponsorship. This man is goated
This video shows exactly why I support small indie companies like Nintendo
They call me Big Money Brad for a reason baby
Three minutes in I was like "This video goes hard as hell. Lemme check how much of the video is left. If I'm lucky it'll be a 15-minute deep-dive." Can you imagine my ELATION when I noticed just now that it's almost an hour long?
Yet another banger; having been around since the Pokémon days, this was simultaneously a fun nostalgic run and also more importantly, another great demonstration of your analytical skills.
For someone who hates video essays, I genuinely think you are one of the all time best, and this video only further shows it by diving into such a big and elaborate issue in such a personal and emotional way. Your content is always full of emotion, research, and well thought-out and insightful points and commentary. Thanks for all the amazing work you do.
Contrarian moment
How is this video any different than other video essays though lol
@@aturchomicz821 Lack of reading comprehension moment, I was talking about Fudj disliking video essays despite being excellent at doing them.
@Jacob It's not, I was talking about Fudj consistently doing a great job with them despite disliking them as he said in this
very video.
This video is helping me get through a very boring day while my supervisor is out of office so thank you very much Fudj. I know you're not a fan of the video essay format so I appreciate you doing this
6:03 while that rule is vague enough to ban anyone for hypothetically any reason, I'm pretty sure it was written that way so they could ban someone specifically like they did here in this situation, without specifically having a rule saying "don't shittalk china"
You're damn good at this, an essay as occasional as enjoyable. Thanks for the 48 minutes break.
Lots of good to say, but suffice it to say... Well done. I think you handled this all extremely well.
On video game monetization/games as a service, I've seen three companies do it well.
Crytek - Hunt: Showdown. They are actively trying different things, and being open with the community about what they are doing every step of the way.
Klei Entertainment - Don't Starve Together. I was super late to this one, and was really bummed out when I saw how much DLC there was. That disappointment became excitement when I learned it was a couple optional characters (With the majority being free) and the rest were just cosmetics. Cosmetics that can be earned by playing by the way.
Ghost Ship Games - Deep Rock Galactic. Not a lot to say aside from primarily free content, and only optional payment stuff, no pay to win etc.
Big fan of DST - very underrated imo!
Psyonix has historically been praised by the rocket league community for their communication and their implementation of community ideas, however some will argue that since they were bought by epic, the charm and overall quality has been lost to an extent
@@NocturnalFudj Klei is now owned by tencent , which sucks
You forgot about Terraria. Other than Redigit (the main dev) definitely being one of those "stop having fun guys"( he's patched nearly every exploit and cheese strat imaginable, which makes the game less fun and approachable) the game is amazing and has gotten consistent updates and support since 2011 when the game first launched.
Props to you for devoting part of the video to saying "support indie games/devs"
Also SPIRITFARER
I cannot define my love for that game...it's just perfect...no game has made me cry until this game, a d I cried multiple times during that game
I’ve been subbed to you for 2.5 years and this is your best video yet.
You are only growing stronger as a creator.
TH-cam needs more real people like Fudj
Another addition to the great indie games is No Straight Roads!
It’s a Malaysian game where all enemies and bosses have attack patterns synced up to the soundtrack. The game has a sort of old God of war style feel to it with its combat, with combos and spectacular bosses. It’s a very quick game to play and the ost is very pleasing to listen to out of game as well as in.
I really want a pair of commentators end an ESports tournament some day with "And for one last announcement: Human rights are awesome! Good night, everyone!"
I'm always impressed with your script-writing capabilities! Your joke writing style is unique from what I have seen, and your ability to incorporate nuanced perspectives on a variety of things never fails to be immaculate. I hope your work begins to fill your wallet with more money before too long, since your work is quite unique and impressive!
I know it wasn't the point of the sponsorship section, but I am glad more episodes of Lame Design Conference is coming :D
What you said about the view of derivative works in japan is interesting. My main exposure to that is through the Touhou project and Doujin media in general, and best I can tell in those subcultures the idea of a derivative work being insulting is either not present, or not as present. But this is the perspective of an American.
Brilliantly done as always. Long-form video Fudj is undefeated
I played spiritfarer early this year and I has to be one of the most lovely and touching gaming experiences ive had in a very long time. As the corporate money machine perpetually cranks out disappointing AAA titles, smaller indie titles that make you actually feel something are where I find myself getting the most enjoyment out of the gaming hobby
I never knew the Japanese saw iteration as disrespectful. If so what’s the general consensus on video game remakes
eboots? Are they all considered bad no matter what? What would be considered a respectful iteration if it’s possible?
Hello fellow hourish-long-content-creator. Your ending was very impressive you must be very proud.
yeah it was alright I guess
THANK YOU! Finally someone made a response to everyone saying it was better when Iwata and Reggie were there. I’ve seen people say this whenever Nintendo does something bad.
Not everything was beautiful and pretty when both of them were still around cuz they were DMCA strikes when they were still in charge as well
Absolutely agree with everything in this video. Perfectly summarises how I feel about the gaming landscape in a clear way
you might not make video essays often, but you gotta admit you're damn good at it. perfect balance of funny and engaging but also informative, serious and passionate. almost choked up at the end. goddamn, brad. i'm proud of you.
I'm going to preface this comment by saying that I normally really enjoy your work and look forward to your videos, so I hope you can believe that I'm coming at this in good faith.
Now, having said that - I'm a minute in and have already had to pause. Framing the Hong Kong protests as "against an extradition bill that would give the CPC more control over Hong Kong" is a huge oversimplification of the actual situation. The bill was introduced to allow the various parts of China (i.e. the PRC, Taiwan and Macau) to extradite people when needed, the catalyst for which was when a man killed his pregnant girlfriend while on holiday in Taiwan and then returned home to Hong Kong where...he couldn't be tried. The reason for which was because way back in 1997, when Britain's colonial ownership of HK was due to end, we basically rushed through some extra laws to stop extradition, which never got overturned specifically because the PRC wanted it to be a gradual return rather than immediately switching them to an entirely new government. On top of which, if you actually check the list of crimes that you could be extradited for, none of them had anything to do with any potential concerns over free speech. Some of them however, were to do with things like tax evasion - things the Hong Kong bourgeoisie did not care for, which is something to bear in mind when thinking about why people were protesting (not to mention all the money the US funneled in via the NED to try to destabilise the mainland).
You cannot talk about Hong Kong without also talking about its colonial history, the fact it was a Chinese territory until Britain stole it at the end of the Opium Wars, and that the remnants of that colonial history still exist today in the form of "One Country, Two Systems". It's still a region run by the bourgeoisie, regardless of anything else, and they are the ones terrified of the CPC - to which I say, good, the bourgeoisie should always be scared.
I'm gonna tap out because this comment already took me like an hour to write and confirm the info for. I'm still gonna look forward to your next video, but I don't think I can handle this one lol
This is fantastic. When you do make video essays you make a great ones!
This was an incredible video. Thank you.
Cork this was proper cinematic, really enjoyed this one a lot. I don’t know how I’ve entirely dodged this Hearthstone story but the video certainly spoke generally enough to not be solely named after it, truly I hope one day people can better separate developers from the roles they don’t fulfill and the world might just be a slightly happier place
Indies seem to thrive so much on streamer and content creator output getting the good word out. The ones that don't make for good react video's naturally won't likely see as much success. Its that feedback loop, with popular indie titles getting more coverage thus getting more people playing them. (also, Spiritfarer is dope. It broke through my disinterest for farming/town sim type games)
If we're talking about good indie games with a lot of passion, Rhythm Doctor.
I can't tell people about it enough, it's a wonderfully charming and extremely creative indie game. A one button rhythm game that can give Rhythm Fever vibes, with one particular level that's probably my favourite ever moment in a videogame. It was my personal GOTY, beating out any AAA game that came out and that was only its early access launch.
I don't often see someone start a 50 minute video essay by saying they don't like video essays lmao
Here we goo.
Love these video essays, even if you don lt care for them that much your a great contributor to the medium!
This was a great video, and a great return. You really took me on a journey here! You covered a lot of topics but it all came together really well. I think you avoided the pitfalls of the video essay genre you mentioned, as this was a great balance of runtime vs how much ground you covered.
I think a testament to the value and art in indie games is the fact that the moment you transitioned the soundtrack to undertale I felt my heart in my throat. I don't blame you for bringing it up even as predictable as it may seen, I had the opposite experience of going in at launch so blind I didn't even know the concept was that you didn't have to kill in battles, so I think it's crazy awesome that feeling is shared across a variety of experiences.
You've completely sold me on spiritfarer, it sounds like exactly the rare and unique type of experience I come to indie games for. Plus... I'm a sucker for media that makes me cry, I seek out beautiful feelings the same way an adrenaline junkie seeks out exciting experiences.
I'm broke right now, so I heeded your recommendation about steam wishlists. I'm gonna have to look more into that, as I genuinely had no idea that did much of anything. I generally don't keep a wishlist because I don't really discover games via steam browsing, but I think I'll make the effort to add stuff when I hear about it.
Great stuff, and be safe this winter.
Hot-take: The entire trading card game genera is inherently pay-to-win.
i dont think anyone is gonna debate that? like i thought everyone already knew that they were just gambling with extra steps?
3:20 as someone who is (unfortunately) American, I just wanna thank you for being so gracious.
Anyways it's been a while since I tuned into this channel, can't wait to dive into the backlog between then and now, and your taste in background-footage games and music is as fcking _stellar_ as ever! You have no idea how much my heart lit up when you brought up that last game. Thunder Lotus are one of my two favorite developers alongside Supergiant, being a fan of each all the way back with the release of JOTUN and Bastion respectively.
Reggie didn't do as much for Nintendo as Iwata by any measure. Iwata wasn't good for online creators, but he was definitely the most consumer friendly president any of the big corporations have had. He didn't raise prices of games with the transition to HD, leaving most Wii U games at $50 a pop, $20 Nintendo Selects ended with his death, the Switch has nowhere near the hardware endurance of prior systems like how he said the DS had to survive a fall from the average adult's chest pocket height (though admittedly a lower standard than the tank of systems that were the N64 and GameCube, but still effort that no longer exists within the company). He also took a pay cut when the 3DS had a launch failure and the Wii U, and convinced other management to follow him in that decision. I'm not saying he was infallible, there are clear improvements in some areas since new leadership has come in, but this is also the first era since Iwata started where the system has virtually no customization, prices have dramatically risen for controllers and the such, bundles are at an all time low, and incomplete games being launched with promises of "post launch content" has gone from being a Splatoon exclusive experiment to the go to for any game with online multiplayer, and the side content and mini games have been all but totally eliminated from most games. Heck, even Smash Ultimate didn't have a Smash Run or Event mode equivalent, and home run contest came way after launch. Though, I somewhat forgive that one as a trade off for getting and rebalancing literally every character from the series history. Sakurai is no slouch, but it definitely lost some of that old charm being so focused on the one central mode, something that was becoming less during Iwata's final year, but really hit after he died. The game output also just dropped. We still aren't getting anywhere near as many games as we uses to get when Nintendo had 2 separate consoles and you counted both together
Some indie games I would highly recommend because made me cry:
- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
- If Found
- A Year of Springs
- Coffee Talk
- Highway Blossoms
- Ikenfell
- Cross Code
Some indie games I would recommend because they are just fun/weird:
- We Know the Devil
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Just Shapes and Beats
- Patrick's Parabox
(I intentionally left out more well known titles because if you are interested at all in indie games you will already have heard of stuff like Celeste, Hollow Knight or Hades)
We Know The Devil is fantastic
Google sent me a survey asking how much fun I had watching this video and I said
"The most fun I've had all week"
Love u fudj
Love how the video naturally shifted from being informative about a negative subject into being more opinionated on a positive subject at the end.
Really quick, I also want to mention my favorite moment from any video game: the ending of Mother 3.
I believe a person experiences Mother 3 ending at three separate times. Once at the emotional climax, once when you think the game is over, and the ending means nothing, and one final time when you realize the ending actually means everything. I'm getting emotional enough just thinking about the ending that I'm already crying while typing out this comment. If you haven't played Mother 3 yet, please play it through the end. When I say the ending means everything, I mean that without a hint of exaggeration. It's heart-rending, it's strange, it's funny, but most importantly, it matters.
Well, now I'm sold Spirifarer.
As someone that's been a part of a community of a smaller, IP-based game that's recently reached the end of its confirmed content updates (Hot Wheels Unleashed), I'm sad to see so many people immediately quitting the game. Honestly it did pretty well for itself (no microtransactions, all monetization came from the release of DLC cars, most of which were based on crossover IPs so were generally unpopular as a result), and I still like playing the game with peeps online. The dev team is still committed to bug fixes and QoL, so I hope there's still more life in the game, even after corporate's had enough of it...
Supposed to get notifications, asked for a reminder at release, still didn't see this. You tube robots need a double check.
I completely agree about service games feeling less like art. The infinite money hole is a pure manifestation of corporate greed, and it really distracts from the rest of the game even if everything else is beautiful. No good artist wants you to spend literally all of your money. That can only be motivated by a "make money no matter the cost" mindset, and it just casts a shadow over the rest of the work.
This video might be one of the more challenging to swallow for average viewers, but you weave discourse, humor, and solutions so elegantly that by law of TH-cam, it will receive a strike from Tencent and get less than 100K views when everyone who plays video games consistently should watch it several times. To circumvent this issue and provide funds for your next videos, I suggest a partnership, there's a really great RPG with console graphics, 700 champions, and portability called Raid: Shadow Legends.
Hello fudj. I haven't watched your videos in a long time, (not that you would care much I'm just a commenter) but this video brought me back, especially the section on indie games. My favourite game, is one too. ZeroRanger is a shmup that has touched me like nothing I played before or since. And yet, barely anyone has played it. So here is my heartfelt reccomendation.
Some Indie recommendations from me:
OneShot: A short but clever, emotional, and downright beautiful game where you have to guide Niko, a cat person with a lightbulb, through a dark world of interesting characters.
Ib: A horror game themed around paintings, where you play as a young girl that gets pulled into one.
Wobbledogs: A fun little breeding sim game where you can create monsters made of some kind of wobbly tofu substance. A fun little pet sim that's simple but playable for a long time.
A Short Hike: A 3D, pixel style game where you play as a bird that goes for a trip to an island and attempts to get to the top of the mountain in the middle. The length of the game varies depending on how focused you are on getting to the top, but I suggest stopping to smell the roses for the best experience.
I also highly recommend romhacks and fangames just because they tend to be very passion fueled given that the creators in most cases are at risk of cease and desist takedowns. They're the least corporate way to enjoy series that might feel less passion fueled in the modern day, or are forgotten. Pokemon Uranium and Pokemon Insurgence are amazing Pokemon fangames, with Crystal Clear being my personal favourite out of any of them; and I've heard good things about some of the fangames from other series as well.
Played through Spiritfarer with my wife and man, that music hits hard once you've completed it and think you will never hear it again. Good shit
By the way, the Taiwanese situations origin is where Taiwan is the old government of China but after a civil war the government evacuated to the island of Taiwan ever since. Both China and Taiwan claim each overs land.
He's isn't aware or doesn't care mention this yet has such strong opinions. This video fucking sucks
I watched this in my car during my school lunch break yesterday and I was so entralled with it that I didn't realise I was late for my next class when it finished. Few things are able to distract me to that extent. This video is a mastapeece
Spiritfarer is genuinely one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had. Don’t think I’ve ever cried as much over any other piece of art except maybe Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Wow. Something about that segment about indie games, especially spirtfairer in particular just kinda… Struck me. Almost made me tear up a little lol. What a beautiful video, my man you are so fucking underrated..
May the almighty algorithm bless you and this video
Ok so great video, completely agree, but also 31:43 G's theme goes so hard man
I was trying to guess which game you were going to place in the end and I was not disappointed, excellent choice and excellent journey of a video.
Most MMOs (as you say at 43:50) are subscription games meaning they are actively "trying to suck money out you".
Spiritfarer is a game I've reccomended to pretty much everybody who will listen. I played it at launch and I can't wait to replay now that there are new charachters once its a little less fresh in my mind.
21:32 The switch is out in China, but with very few allowed games
Great video fudj!
I dont even like fudge but this is one tasty treat
(Fudj on the other hand is funny n maybe even good looking....haha jk unless)
Spiritfarer developers must have noticed your video, the game went on sale just now on Steam at 66 percent off.
"China has decided they own it (Taiwan), they don't" is probably the best summary of this geopolitical quagmire I've heard in a while and I will be sending this clip to the next person who asks about it.
I had a similar moment in ELDEN RING ( I am talking about the moment you had with Spiritfarer). I played on and off over like 5 months and the characters almost started to feel like real people to me and when the Roundtable Hold started to get empty I almost shed a manly tear (no homo)
God, I kinda forgot about Spiritfarer after it ended on a kind of sour note for me (100% being blocked due to an oversight) but that's such a beautiful game
I literally picked up a carrot a split second before you told us to
yo really great job on this one. engaging and thoughtful throughout
thanks! :)
The Muppet RPG is something I will unironically dream about for years to come. That game sounds absolutely wonderful.
That Undertale transition was smooth af
Been here since Pokémon, and I believe this is your best video yet. Great work.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEASE everyone play Going Under. It's an incredible indie roguelike and beautifully written critique of capitalism.
Indie games for sure are the free art and expression of video games, but there is also an argument to be made for the value having insane corporate money provides. Even if you dont care for pro esports lobbying and the benefits that has provided for video game players around the world - Arcane would never have happened without the addictive cash cow that is league of legends. While former animation giants like disney drift further from allowing their creative minds push the envelope and express themselves I'm glad the tencent owned riot was able to fund something that wouldnt pass chinese censorship board
This was an excellent watch and listen. Thank you!
Let me ask the CCP what I should say about this
The soundtrack you used reminded me: Have you continued learning Undertale music on the guitar?
I love the undertale music at the end and the conclusion ❤
Great video, Fudj
I’m going to buy Spirit Farer now! You sold me :D
I'm glad you didn't mention hearthstone / blizzard etc in the title of this video. I wouldn't have watched this video otherwise
Beautiful. Can't wait to try out Spirit Farer when I get some free time
Absolutely excellent video. I absolutely agree with the point at the end that satisfying endings are great and you definitely didn’t fall into that trap of bad video essays that you described at the beginning. Theres only one small thing that bugged me which is when you mentioned reggie’s thoughts about crypto technology just because i feel like its very easy to just say that ‘crypto is bad’ as an overall statement so a lot of discussion about crypto technology on the internet glosses over a lot of nuance in the situation which leads to people only have a very oversimplified understanding of it (not saying I understand crypto that well) and you didn’t really go in depth about what his thoughts were so it wasn’t really as strong a point as the others in that section. Still agree with the point you were making but that mention just slightly bugs me, overall a great video
based video apart from thinking liberals are the opposites to conservatives (where are the socialists)
(btw the labour party is meant to be socialist it’s not a yikes word)
(also they are called the “Chinese Communist Party” but aren’t actually communist so only use the word communism if referring to their official name)
the last AAA series to make me feel something genuine and was meant to be engaged with as art was the Bungie era halo's. That's when I was 14, and I'm 23 now. Thank god for indie games tbh, Hollow Knight is currently my favorite game I've had the privilege of experiencing.
One of the reasons i love video games is that unlike film and music you can become massively successful with little or no help from big business. This is almost impossible for film makers and musicians.
I think a another indie masterpiece that fits the final message of this vid perfectly is Outer Wilds. Without any spoilers, one of the things that makes it so special is that it ends, and how it does it.
If you’ve played it you know what I’m talking about, and if not, GO PLAY THE GAME!
Fudj is back with another banger!
Not gonna get "into it" at the moment about your overarching assessment of communist china, but I would ask you to reëxamine more closely the idea that an issue uniting the interests of our ruling class is a signal that we should follow their perspective, rather than adopt a heightened scrutiny of it.
I'm already laughing at "blind barber victim" 😂
I loved that speed painting segment. So good.
I vibe with vg journalism fudj, this is a good arc for you, proud of you :)
nothing but Tea was spilled on this day
Love the mystery dungeon music
thanks for playing the pmd music, i'd be playing it in the background anyways but this makes it easier for me
helluva thumbnail fudjie. five thumbs up.
Hey loving the classic video, thanks for making a statement with this one :)
The thing about spirit farer vs animal crossing I think is why people like games like stardew valley and story of seasons so much, because when done well the characters are more memorable than any game that wants you to play it forever, same with jrpgs and other finite games that focus on story
The rpg idea is hilarious
24:54 I would actually look at the fact the Smash community and it's players have a TERRIBLE reputation. Also, Overwatch 2 skin prices are high but not unreasonable if you buy a singular skin you like per character you play.
Other than that, good video :)
Thank you so much for touching on the incredibly unfair treatment of nickelodeon all star brawl.
Beautifully done.
On the one hand, I understand them not wanting E-Sports to be politicised, but on the other hand freedom of speach. Also, retracting the prise money seems like theatht to me.
43:49
im sorry WHAT?! MMOs and Animal Crossing are NOT trying to suck money out of you?! They have value as long-term escapism?!
That is honestly the most outlandish thing youve said in the whole video. I was largely on board with most of it until that moment. Sucking money out of a player is THE WHOLE POINT of ANY and i do truly mean ANY games as a service. That means Animal Crossing, ANY MMO where you either need to buy each expansion, renew your subscription or need to pay2win in whatever activity you are doing. That means Warframe, Godfall, Destiny, Babylons Fall, Overwatch, Hearthstone... Even Pokemon is basically a live-service franchise since the release of Pokemon Bank and Pokemon Home; 2 subscription services for pokemon cloud storage.
Retaining your users IS "sucking out money" from them. If it wasn't no business would do it. You make it seem like paying for things is inherently a bad thing and make it sound like FF14 is not literally Square's biggest cash cow just because its pretty fair to its players. Thats good marketing and good business.
Just because a business model is fair to the consumer doesnt make it not-predatory, and just because you have to pay for something doesn't make it predatory. MMOs and Animal Crossing are ABSOLUTELY making a ton of money on those playing the games, and the longer those people play, the more the developers and publishers make from them. Theres really no exceptions unless you wanna account for smaller MMO games like Meadow that are more of an indie experiment than anything else.
19:58 “thank, you”
If there's a series you like, and it hasn't gotten a new/good release in years, chances are there's an indie game for you