How do you make a moogle darker and edgier?

Take a deep breath of that fresh Grasslands air as we step out into the wide open world that is Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. We unpack the massive first two chapters in this episode as we climb radio towers, collect trading cards, and get frustrated at Chadley and Mai's incessant nattering.

Try to keep Kalm, as we keep it spoiler free this episode and limit break our plot discussion to chapters 1 and 2 (with minor nods to the overall content of the original Final Fantasy VII).

And now to leave you all with a classic haiku straight outta Wutai:

Dogs on Chocobos
Who mixed this darn audio?
Cloud plays Yu-Gi-Oh! 

Welcome back adventurers for another exciting dive into the Dunce dungeon. Sarah was unexpectedly stuck on another plane of existence, so that leaves Buzz and Will to reminisce about previous TTRPG experiences and the struggles of finding a solid group to actually play with.

We get a little meta this episode, as we talk about the importance of a good session 0, how the best DM/GMs operate, and what can make or break a player's experience at the table.

Of course, we also manage to chat about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth right there at the end, but  we avoid sharing any spoilers.

We tune in for the latest Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase and express our sincere gratitude to Nintendo for bringing us a boatload of trailers and release dates...for software we can look forward to on other platforms. (Like, if they are doing an upgraded re-release of SMTV, why wouldn't I get it on current gen hardware?)

Then, do your best impression of the Frizz and shout "Seat belts everyone!", as Buzz takes us for a spin with "Pacific Drive" from Ironwood Studios and Kepler Interactive. It turns out survival mechanics are more fun when you are literally a mechanic.

Final-ly, listen as Will scrambles to consume as much Final Fantasy VII lore before the release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth this week.

Also, Sarah goes on her apology tour and we buy front row seats.

It's the episode that almost wasn't! Not to be too dramatic about it, but we were plagued with audio issues during both our recording and editing. Find it in your heart to give us a bit of a break on this one.

As for the actual content of the episode, Buzz seems to rant incessantly about Persona 3 Reload, which is a darn good remake but could have included a bit more of the lessons learned form P3P (we promise Sarah was interjecting with thoughts and questions during this segment originally).

Then we turn to a game that really did learn lessons from its predecessor, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Amazingly, Buzz doesn't take up the whole episode talking about what a perfect game it is, even though it is, you know, perfect.

Finally, we go gaga over the exceptional first portion of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo available for the PS5. We can only wonder what the open world portion of the demo holds later this week.

Moving on from there, we get all serious and business like as we turn to the potential rumblings and rumors around Xbox (This was meant to air before the big Official Xbox Podcast, so yes, we are now aware they plan to still invest in the hardware arena...).

And actually finally, Sarah gives her review on the making of documentary included with The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

Grab a torch and your explorer's pack and join us in kicking off our new sub-series (spin-off, mini-series?) Dunce (Dunce) Dungeon!

We leave the dice in their box to do a bit of table talk about various Dungeons & Dragons elements. We wanted something iconic for this episode, and since Buzz had to spin up a Wizard for another campaign recently, it only felt right to start with the character class that claims mastery over the arcane.

Take a short rest while we talk about disintegrating your fellow party members, trying to achieve that lofty goal of lichdom, and the stress of having to choose new spells each level-up.

Of course, we are such major nerds we end up having a sub vs. dub debate about the Netflix anime adaptation of "Delicious in Dungeon" at the tail end of the episode. Either way you prepare it, it's a great series.

If I could turn back time / If I could find a way ... for us to have less audio issues this episode. Despite being plagued by recording troubles, we manage to scrape together two whole thirds of an episode just for you!

Even though Sarah's audio is lost to TIME, Buzz and Will manage to finally pick apart what the phrase "Pokemon with guns" really means as they look into the recent Palworld early access content.

Then we flip the hourglass over as we delve into another entry in the TIMEless Prince of Persia series, which we think could have used for a little more TIME in the oven, but is still ultimately a pretty great platformer. And we save just a little bit of TIME to talk about the upcoming Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, the importance of offering players demos, and the grievances we have with day one DLC.

What a TIME to be alive!

We take serious Umbreon with the two latest Pokemon DLCs on the Switch. As it turns out, sometimes putting content behind a paywall can be a Gastly affair, especially when that content is a bit Trubbish when compared to other games in the series.

On the Plusle side, we at least get to take a trip to the Platinum Corner and talk about Yakuza 6: The Song of Life. And we didn't even have to master a mahjong minigame this time.

Games we natter about this episode include Pokemon: Scarlet and Violet, Pokemon: Sword and Shield, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, and Yakuza 6: The Song of Life.

In another completely original episode format, we sit down and look ahead at the old dusty trail of gaming in 2024. While Q1 looks to be chock full of big titles to satisfy the RPG appetite, what does the rest of the roadmap have in store?

Even though our futures remain shrouded in mystery, we manage to drum up some titles we are looking forward to and temper our expectations for some new console announcements.

Games we imagine will be great include: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Persona 3 Reload, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Hades II, The Last of Us Part II Remastered, Pacific Drive, and Unicorn Overlord.

We've got a real web-head on our hands in this episode, as Buzz is joined by Porter to explore the tangled web that was Marvel's Spider-Man 2. Actually, it' s not all that tangled, but rather a delicately woven and generally outstanding game if you haven't played it yet.

We also start thinking with portals as we discuss our hands-on experience with Sony's PlayStation Portal. You had better hope your home WiFi is up for the challenge.

Games we lament in this episode include: Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Crisis Core - Final Fantasy VII - Reunion, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.

Co-hosts were asked to prepare a top ten for the games they played in 2023, and not only did they cheat on some of their answers, but they only managed to scrounge up a measly five entries! In a year as packed as 2023 no less!

Worry not though, Buzz not only came with ten solid entries, and the most accurate takes out of the lot, but he even had some honorable mentions, so perhaps the universe really does work to balance itself out.

By the way, Buzz wrote this description if you couldn't tell.

We won't spoil the fun by listing the games we discuss here, so join us in the terrible suspense! I hope it will last...