Stay ConnectedWhat’s good, Internet? Join Waypoint’s Rob Zacny, Patrick Klepek, Renata Price, Natalie Watson, and Ricardo Contreras two times a week, as they break down the biggest stories in video games, talk about their favorite media, and unfairly compare everything to Dark Souls.
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This week on Waypoint Radio we're getting political. Patrick, Cado, and Austin are all playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and we get into who picked the right house. Who's to say whether a monarchy or a ruling class is better? Rob's got some ideas that seem to be backed by historical knowledge, but Cado thinks it's Sophie's choice, honestly. We also discuss the messy tutorialization: why does it explain a combat mechanic during downtime? What's with all of these unexplained mechanics? Why do they turn off the enemy's attack range after the first mission? Then Austin and Cado talk about the games and panels they saw as last weekend's Game Devs of Color Expo. Come for the surreal RPGs, stay for the rubber fish controler. Rob's computer then breaks so the rest of the crew discuss the wild story of how Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 was translated by fans over the span of 20 years.
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It's anime day here at Waypoint Radio, as Austin is here to lead Patrick and Cado through his time with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. We then dive into the Joy Con Drift situation and Switch Model Number discourse. Patrick is playing super quick Mario Maker levels and checking out (the totally anime) Wolfenstein Youngblood, and we try our best to find Evangelion Mac n Cheese. Does it exist? (if it does please send to @a_cado_appears on twitter!)
Discussed: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Joy Con drift, Super Mario Maker 2, Nowhere Prophet, Griftlands, Wolfenstein Youngblood,
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Content Warning for this episode: discussion of suicide throughout.
Evangelion is a messy series. For all the craft and care put into the characters and arcs in the first half of the show, which was uneven in it's treatment of women even then, the back end has higher peaks and even lower valleys. And while lore dumps and twists are being deployed it's Evangelion's female characters that end up with the brunt of the low points. For as shocking as the reveal is that Rei was a series of clones all along, tied to it is the unfortunate flattening of Ritsuko's character, to a woman motivated solely by her relationship to a man. We see this same story played out with her mother, and this repeated cycle implies some greater hidden truth to the actions these characters have taken. Instead of allowing these characters to have a sense of agency they're locked into repeating the same mistakes, because "that's just how women are." We discuss this uneven treatment, the overly dramatic lore dumps, and that shower scene in this episode of Waypoints.
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It's a hot one as Rob, Danielle, and Cado are doing their best to cope. Rob's apartment is starting to ferment, Danielle's breaking legs, and Cado has been hiding at the movies but they've also made time for games. Danielle and Rob have both spent more time with Night Call and how you build a good mystery, while Cado is increasingly frustrated by the worldbuilding of Nowhere Prophet. Rob, meanwhile, tried to learn Coimbra, a complicated Euro-style boardgame, while slowly overheating.
Discussed: Night Call, Nowhere Prophet, Fireball Island, Coimbra
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With Austin still away on vacation, Patrick, Rob, and Cado decided to dive in to the question bucket and fish out the weirdest questions we've been sent. Little did we know that we'd be faced with questions that shake the very foundations of our beliefs. We question the nature of order and chaos, the ethics of jumping off of a Yoshi to save yourself, and wonder out loud what ever happened to Need for Speed? And finally, we enter into that eternal debate, one that's been asked and answered for as long as podcasts existed: Knife or Bat?
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Content Warning: Discussion of suicide from around 1:48:00 through 1:52:00 and 1:59:00 through 2:04:00
Neon Genesis Evangelion is often touted as a "thinking person's anime." Despite it's unevenness, it does tend to stay away from a monster of the week narrative and will often devote entire episodes to the mental states of it's main characters. What sometimes gets conflated with this fact is that all of this deep introspection lands or has narrative weight every single time it happens. At its best the show weaves plot and themes effortlessly, but sometimes just asking existential questions isn't enough to hand wave the ways characters have acted or been treated throughout the show. Can an existential line of questioning feel earned even if it ignores previous character growth? Does it cheapen earlier plot points when thematic elements begin overpower literal narrative? We tackle these questions and more as we discuss Episodes 20-21 on this week's Waypoints.
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There's a certain feeling that seems specific to modern Fire Emblem games, a sense of pride when you go into battle with your carefully leveled squad. You've come to know these characters intimately, watched their relationships with each other mature, and come to think of them as family. However, amongst the expansive cast of characters in Fire Emblem: Awakening, one particular character sticks out for having a great arc, and that's Donnel.
A farm boy wearing a pot on his head, he starts out so weak most people might ditch him for some of the game's heartier characters. The people that stick with him though get to watch their good good farm boy grow up to be an absolute killing machine. His arc becomes the best example of the way you come to feel pride for these characters, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, is doubling down on this feeling with its totally new structure. We discuss the new Fire Emblem game, the noir narrative game Night Call, and new deckbuilding roguelike Nowhere Prophet on this episode of Waypoint Radio.
Discussed: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Night Call, Steamworld Quest, Super Mario Maker 2, Nowhere Prophet
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Do you remember when we said “wouldn’t it be cool if game franchises got traded every year?” Well, two community members (@RevRyeBread and @regresssion) decided to write a short fantasy draft game that we’re gonna play! Tune in as Austin, Patrick, Rob, and Cado choose their platforms and vie to fill out their rosters with the best gaming franchises. There’s drama, tension, and lots of dubious math! Stick around after the game as Austin and Cado do a nearly frame by frame breakdown of the new Gundam Battle: GUNPLA WARFARE trailer.
Played: bit.ly/videogamedraft
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We've returned this week revitalized by a new batch of episodes that, it turns out, we actually liked! The Waypoint Radio crew discusses the existential and physical horror of episodes 14-19 and ask, what is an Eva? Is it just a big Human? Is Gendo the original Wife guy? Why does their teacher just keep talking about the Second Impact? What are the Dead Sea Scrolls, and who is the Human Instrumentality Council? We discuss all this and more on this episode of Waypoints!
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It was a long weekend and that means we were all staring at our phones: Which is alright, because it turns out those have games on them now. Cado briefs us on the Capcom card game Teppen, the, uh, DOTA Autochess DOTA Underlords, and Austin is terrified of what an upcoming Gundam-builidng gacha game will do to his credit score. Back on consoles and PC, Patrick is disappointed by Sea of Solitude, while Rob offers high praise for F1 2019 and dire warning about Total War: Three Kingdoms: Do not pursue Lu Bu.
Discussed: Teppen, DOTA Underlords, Sea of Solitude, F1 2019, Total War: Three Kingdoms, Pokemon Sword and Shield, Lucah: Born of a Dream
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