00:00:00
Speaker 1: Oh listen.
00:00:24
Speaker 2: The true tragedy of this game is that there is absolutely no way to introduce it that would be better than the game introduces itself. This game has the greatest introduction ever in a video game, Like I like, people hounded me to play this game for years.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: And I was like, this looks so stupid, Like I just don't want to do it.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Man, I'm old and I have a beard. I've had a beard since I was born. I've always been this way. And I played the intro and man talk about winning somebody over on. Yeah, it's incredible. Hi, shipheads, welcome to another episode of one Osmanship. I'm your host Adam Ganser. Today Mike has gone off to sail the galaxy and form a star cluster of his own. And with me are two of my favorite star Warriors slash rollers. Please introduce yourselves.
00:01:20
Speaker 3: Friends.
00:01:21
Speaker 4: Hi, I'm Starline Hodge. I good bye, star I'm friends. I'm friends with you all.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: That's right, yep, that's right, old pals.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: In fact, we go all the way back to the Overwatch episode and before that to Cracked After Hours. We've in friends for a very long time, and my other celestial colleague.
00:01:43
Speaker 5: I am Hannah Michaels.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: You slow rolled me. I knew you're gonna do it. You slow rolled me.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: Welcome Hannah of Pokemon snap fame or infamy.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: I guess I should say, well.
00:01:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, every time I guessed on a podcast, it's always Hannah is a DeMont, she killed the dinosaurs, and she's the worst human being in the world. Three stars, three stars.
00:02:07
Speaker 3: I like how many stars you got though?
00:02:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I'm always how many stars I managed to get with being just like Hitler.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: Whatever it is, say Hitler three starts. Yeah, honestly, that goes on your tombstone. Yeah, that's that's the review that you get from the Afterlife.
00:02:29
Speaker 2: That's a pretty good one anyway. So glad you guys could join me to talk about this game. So let's roll right into this and pass our very first checkpoint, in which we will do tell me like I'm a bit I think you guys are You guys have been on previous episodes, but as I said, it's a new segment in which we explain to somebody who's never heard of this game, what is it and kind of what's it all about?
00:02:58
Speaker 3: And uh, one of you volunteered to do it? Which one of you decided to tell everyone.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: I did Star, I did.
00:03:05
Speaker 3: Oh love it all right, Star hit.
00:03:07
Speaker 4: It all right? So Katamar DEMANSI. It begins with the King of all Cosmos getting real drunk and destroying all the stars in Earth's solar system. And he begs his son, but not really begs, demands that his son, this tiny little prince of an alien, to go to Earth and roll up everything he can at various different sizes so that he could put it back in space and replace the stars that he destroyed. And your task is you were the prince, and you roll things up, and if you don't do a good job, the King of all Cosmos yells at you and is real mean. And so your goal is to get your dad to love you. And that's the game.
00:03:58
Speaker 2: Yep, that's rights as so gigantic, Yes, Like it's not a small thing for.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: Him to be angry at you, Like my God is a huge man.
00:04:09
Speaker 4: And I believe there's a little like b plot of like the Earthlings, Like there's a family you follow on Earth who's experiencing like the chaos, the prints rolling everything up. It's like every time you beat a level, you get a little bit more of like this family story, but it's not as important as you trying to get your King Cosmos Daddy's love. That's the game.
00:04:32
Speaker 5: Yep. Yeah, and it's it's very very hard to earn his love.
00:04:37
Speaker 4: Oh really incredibly, he's very.
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Very It is hard. Yeah, it is hard. Thank you.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: Excellent summary. Also, if you're confused about what this game is, don't worry. You'll never understand what it is. You'll play it and never understand, so hopefully that gives you some relief. It's time for us to pass our very next checkpoint and get right into the gamer rants, in which we all three come in with our scorching hot takes, like our white Dwarf takes, you know, like that kind of that's the hottest stars?
00:05:13
Speaker 3: Am I wrong? If I don't, I could be wrong. I don't know what the hottest star is, but let's say it's a white Dwarf, that hot of a take. I can go first, or if one of you has it ready? Does anybody want to go first? Do you want me to? No?
00:05:25
Speaker 4: You go, you take it?
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll go first, Okay, great, all right? Player one Adam ganzer logging in okay, Katamari Damassy is Tetris. That is what this is, and what I mean by that is this is a game that is fun purely because it figured out a mechanic and did perfectly this thing that no other game has done as well. And that mechanic is a physics engine that makes it difficult but rewarding to collect other objects and changes the nature and dynamic of the ball you're rolling around. It is really that simple. It's like an evolution of those old school like Marble madness games, if you will. And the reason I call it Tetris is because Tetris is a perfect loop that was designed so perfectly and simply that it doesn't need more to be satisfying. And I think that Katamari Domasi is exactly the same. It doesn't need any more to be satisfying than just the loop that it creates. It's such a strong loop in fact, that the game never fundamentally changes. It is the same game from minute one to minute finish, and it's fun the entire time. It's always fun. It's that deep of a loop that this creator made, and that's incredible in this time period, Like it's such an amazing idea and it's one of a kind now to add to that, part of what makes it such a winsome game, like, part of the packaging of this loop that makes it so WinCE is that it's also very zany and silly, and it embraces that.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: It knows it's silly. It knows it's zany, it knows that it's got a world that is.
00:07:13
Speaker 2: Just sort of joyfully illogical and doesn't care to explain itself, doesn't feel the need to explain itself. So, like, you start as this tiny little prince who's like rolling up a ball of like, you know, dominoes, you know, stuff that's really small, like the paper clips and e.
00:07:29
Speaker 3: Racers and stuff like that.
00:07:31
Speaker 4: Candies.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, little tiny things.
00:07:34
Speaker 2: And by the end of the game, you're rolling up like entire neighborhoods and stuff.
00:07:38
Speaker 3: You're like, you're rolling up all.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: Of human civilization and it's and it's always fun. Every new thing that you're able to stick to the ball as it gets bigger adds an element of fun and it makes you laugh. And I don't know, I don't know what genius understood that those two things were that deep of a reservoir fun. I didn't look up who made this game I should have it, but that person is one of the greatest video game designers ever, like one of the greatest ever. And I say that because like they made a new toy that stands on its own. It doesn't need a whole new thing. It doesn't need a shiny gloss of paint. This game never needs a remix. It just needs to be able to run as is forever. Just like Tetris. They make lots of new kinds of Tetris. They can make lots of new kinds of Katamari Domasy and I'll play them all.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: They'll be fun. But it doesn't need to be anything more than what it is. It is. It is a.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: Contained, perfect little loop well done. It is so impressive, and it won over my old grumpy heart.
00:08:42
Speaker 3: That is my rant.
00:08:46
Speaker 4: The creator's name is Kaita taka Hashi.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: By the way, thank you now.
00:08:51
Speaker 2: I will send that person a thank you card because they have deserved one. You want to go next, Hana sure.
00:09:00
Speaker 5: Katamari Domici is kind of It's absurd yet relatable. If you have workaholic parents and or roll a bunch of things, roll a bunch of trash into a ball regularly, either of those things very relatable game in those regards. I think the absurdity really adds to the fun. And there's some absurdity in what you can roll up and how things react when you try to roll them up, how people and animals react when you hit them with your ball of everything. It's, uh, it's pretty adorable. And yeah, it's a very simple mechanic that doesn't really need much. If they did make a new game, it would basically be the same. The cut scenes would be different, but it would basically it would basically be the same game with different different cut scenes. I think there is a reroll a version that's not on uh Switch, Sorry, yeah it's not on switch.
00:10:16
Speaker 3: Yeah there was a sequel. The sequel I don't think is on Switch if I'm not mistaken.
00:10:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly not, I'm sorry. Reroll is the a remaster of it, the remaster of the game. Yeah, uh forever Katamari Forever. I think it's a sequel, and yeah, it's basically the same thing, only the king is so you cannot wake him up. He's so black, I'm drunk. You can't wake him up. So you have to create this robot king that doesn't really work right, and is the opposite of the real King. Instead of getting down on you, he gets down on himself all the time. But it's basically the same game.
00:11:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, wonderful. Is that is that it is at the end of your rant?
00:11:04
Speaker 5: Uh, yeah, pretty much. It's it's fun and simple.
00:11:09
Speaker 3: I agree with you, Okay, great star.
00:11:14
Speaker 4: My my Catamari rant is that I love how this game gives you the power of the gods. You are a tiny little god like rolling everybody up, doing whatever you want essentially, and even then it's still not good enough. I like the idea of a being that is essentially all powerful in a way, and yet like it's they are still kind of so humanized in that sense of like, no, someone's still gonna yell at you, and even the person yelling at you is not a perfect being. They also suck. So it's okay to just you know, do your best and like just get what you want to get done, because I know at some point when I played the game my goal was just to like I just want to hit the marks, trying to overachieve for this like King of the Cosmos, who's just gonna yell at me? It like made me not want to do it. So I just really Yeah, for me, it was just a matter toward the end of the game. In the beginning, I was very much trying to get all the praise. But then just as you keep going, like those were so far in few in between that I was just like, you know what, I just want to succeed. I want to be proud of me. So I like that the game kind of kind of it. At least for me, it reinforced that. And yeah, I like that, like you're this all powerful being and you're still just like I just I'm just trying to do my best. That's so much, my little rant.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: I love it so much. I love this. I love you.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: Guys both said things I could never have said because just the things that you connect about it or things that I haven't even thought about.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: So I love it. I love it so much. I'll tell you what. Let's get into it after we roll up just a tiny little neighborhood, just real quick, roll up a neighborhood, take a little break, get a couple of ads in our system, and then come back and you know, we'll take on most of Silver Lake after the break.
00:13:30
Speaker 2: Okay, get ready Echo Park because we're back and we're about to roll up most of that overpriced real estate. Get prepared. Let's pass our next checkpoint and get right into game on.
00:13:41
Speaker 3: And I kind of.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: Wanted to ask you guys both a question. Now, I normally don't do this, but I'm just sort of curious because mostly because you guys haven't been on the show since we went to iHeart, but also I think it's just fun for everybody. Can you guys each named a few of your favorite games?
00:13:57
Speaker 3: Like what?
00:13:58
Speaker 5: Like?
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Just give me a sense of like the games you gravitate toward. Oh yeah, maybe, Hannah, I'll put it on you first, a couple of your favorite games.
00:14:10
Speaker 5: I mean, I do like your game Nemesies, which are turn based strategy games. I know, I know they're evil. Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed Inscription, and I like Pokemon.
00:14:28
Speaker 3: Yeah Pokemon okay great? But but Mario Kart, right, aren't you into like Mario Party?
00:14:33
Speaker 5: I love racing and fighting games, so they're simple and fun, and I love those as well.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're a sole Caliber.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: In fact, you stream often Sole Caliber, in which you play a sexualized horse person.
00:14:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker 5: I wish I could get back to that. Yeah, it was Boldo's move so too, which is always fun.
00:14:53
Speaker 2: You could get back to that sexualized horse person streaming place. It is a great place. I completely understand. Okay, great Starr, What about you? What are some of the games that you gravitate toward.
00:15:03
Speaker 4: Okay, so I have at least I have four Overwatch one, not Overwatch two. Overwatch two is kind of horseshit right now.
00:15:13
Speaker 3: I was gonna ask you about that. Okay, great, but.
00:15:15
Speaker 4: Overwatch one Kingdom Hearts love that weird shit. It's just weird. Yeah, oh man, what did I just I just had it. I was Overwatch Kingdom Hearts Portal, the Portal series, absolutely love and adoring that. And more recently, I've been playing Breath of the Wild, oh yeah, and Horizon Horizon Zerra Down those those are my Jamy Horizon, mostly for the crazy Apocalypse story. I think it's just really well told. And for Breath of the Wild just currently, like I don't know, it's just it's almost relaxing, like it's just a beautiful game and it's just chill, and I like helping, like I like all the little side quests as I go along, and I like that you can kind of just do whatever you want.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I think I Actually that is also why I love Breath of the Wild more than the major overarching narrative pieces of it that people like. I like the chill out game vibe of it. I totally agree with you on that. So people who've been listening to podcasts know a litany of games that I'm into, But in general, in general, I tend to like the Triple A first person shooters, and I do like Breath the Wild. I do, I do, Like you know, Red Dead, La Noir is kind of rocketing up one of my favorite games.
00:16:49
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, the Resident Evils are kind of rocketing up my list the more I play them. But I play many many games, as you know.
00:16:57
Speaker 2: And the reason I'm bringing this up at all is that this game, I think, managed to get all of us into it for entirely different reasons, and none of us are exactly the esthetic of this game, Like I feel like they're I don't know who I think this game is designed for aesthetically, but I would say like none of us are an exact fit for what this is.
00:17:19
Speaker 3: Is that unfair?
00:17:21
Speaker 6: Right?
00:17:21
Speaker 3: Like? If? It?
00:17:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of more of like a mobile game, like if you a game that you would have on your phone, which I don't, yes, realize that, yes, that also counts as gaming, but I don't think about my phone games when I'm thinking of like, oh, what games do I like?
00:17:36
Speaker 3: You know, right, phone games sort of occupy forgiving how phone games occupy an interesting real estate, which is usually filling time when you're doing something else mm hmm, you know, and like right now, we still think of video games, although I think Switch is changing this a little bit as being like an activity in itself, you know, like it's like I now I'm gonna go play video game. That's the thing I'm doing. Yes, and mobile games are kind of not that interesting, Hanna. Do you feel like this game fits neatly into any of our aesthetics or like, do you feel like it was designed for you or that it's weird that you like it?
00:18:12
Speaker 5: I think the absurdism was kind of designed for all of us. But yeah, the gameplay I or the graphics or any other element of this game. I don't think that you could necessarily point to any one of us that would resonate with it. We just happened to all like it.
00:18:31
Speaker 2: Well, I would say we didn't all just happen to I would say it's actually that's how good it is that it can sort of get past the kinds of games you would like and draw you in because it's tone. There are very few games that are like purely joyful, very very few, and the ones that do it are, you know, great games when they really achieve. And I think that's one of the reasons why we all love Mario games so much, is that they're actually joyful.
00:19:05
Speaker 3: Yes, and this game is joyful.
00:19:08
Speaker 2: You I mean, you guys talked about the plot in a way that's funny because I never even thought about the plot. But the tone of it is pretty joyful, wouldn't you agree.
00:19:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're you're a little man just trying to trying to save the universe in a real weird way. But ultimately yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker 3: Like.
00:19:25
Speaker 6: It's like, yeah, you're like you're saying to the universe, but you're also just like rolling up chairs and cats stuff, Like you're just adding people's lives to this little like glava goo that you're pushing around.
00:19:39
Speaker 3: Like maybe we haven't even described very clearly exactly what this game is.
00:19:43
Speaker 5: You're harnessing the power of gravity in a very specific way. To stick eventually very large objects on this tiny little ball. But at first, you know, the gravity as a force is proportional. It will only you will only be able to roll up the things that are smaller than that tiny little ball that you start with.
00:20:05
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:20:06
Speaker 2: And so there's a puzzle to every single level in this game. And the puzzle is how can I, before time runs out, get the ball big enough to capture all the main objects in it so that they all roll up into my little you know, star bundle. And because you like, you can't just roll go up to the biggest thing and have it stick, like you need to have enough mass in the ball that you're rolling up to get the bigger objects to stick to it, you know. And it's a very simple puzzle, like that's the same puzzle every time, but it's, uh, it does require a little bit of thought. Like it's not a thoughtless game. It's you can't turn your brain off entirely, no, I still need to pay attention to it.
00:20:48
Speaker 4: And the music definitely keeps you hooked in because it's absolutely delightful. The soundtrack. I still listen to the soundtrack when I'm cleaning.
00:20:58
Speaker 5: It's good cleaning music that makes sense.
00:21:02
Speaker 3: Oh that would be good cleaning me.
00:21:04
Speaker 4: It's like you're like, man, I really I really got to tackle a room and yeah I'm moncy soundtrack and you're like, I'm right back in it, and.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it kind of gets your heart rate up. But it's also like, but I'm having fun. It's uh, it's what I imagine cocaine is. Like I can't say, but it's what I imagine. It's like, Uh, okay, Hannah, tell me a little bit about why if you what you said something about if you were a kid whose parents weren't around or something.
00:21:37
Speaker 5: Like parents were workaholics. Yeah, absolutely nothing is ever good enough for the dead in this game, and the rest of your life, much like, uh, the rest of your gaming experience with Katamari will be making peace with that. And just like Star was saying, just making yourself.
00:21:57
Speaker 3: Proud, that's great, you guys both can to that.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: Like I just find that incredible, Like because I didn't even I didn't give a shit what the guy said. I was like, hey, I'm just getting the ball. It's all good.
00:22:07
Speaker 3: But you guys both really connected to this dad's story.
00:22:11
Speaker 4: I mean, like I have I have like Daddy issues. So it's it hit me in a very strange like, oh, like suddenly like this father figure you know, is just like very demanding when in like my actual life, my father was not around. So I was just like, who the fuck are you? And I also still like, you know, like that little kid men tell me I want I want adults to like me. And so you're instantly in this game being told as a little kid you're not good enough. And there was like a weird mix of like what do you but I did what you told me to do. I don't what what.
00:22:48
Speaker 3: Do you want for me? I make it the best star, It's got all the good stuff in it.
00:22:52
Speaker 4: I did it. I did it in the time. What do you mean it's not big enough? I don't.
00:22:58
Speaker 5: Specific tests? Yeah, and when you actually do it perfectly, like with the crab one and I got like one hundred something crabs and I got a response that was yuck, too crabby, And it's like, what what you asked for? Crabs? You literally ask for crabs?
00:23:18
Speaker 3: You chaotic, rollheaded fuck like just like live my life. Uh, it's so this is I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh at your pain. Please forgive me if that's how this is coming off. I'm just it just thrilled so.
00:23:32
Speaker 5: Much laughs it laughs at like productivity, guilt and pain, and it's it's great for that.
00:23:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually think there's something sort of deeply profound about that that like the game kind of uh trivializes it in a way that makes the act more meaningful, Like it like how do I say this without getting too philosophical, Like it's almost like, well, it's almost like in a way, you're sort of rolling up the concern for those kinds of things, like it's equally artificial and also sort of sticks to this ball that you can dispose of at the end, because at the end, all you really have is the thing that you made. You know, like his approval kind of doesn't change what happens in.
00:24:16
Speaker 3: The game, m you know what I exactly So like in a way that like there's something and there's a lot of like little clues that the family life of the universe is a little bit fractured here, and you're actually sort of disposing of that, like you're sort of this is a very silly version, but you're sort of like purifying the galaxy, if you will, of all this extraneous stuff that doesn't need to be there, you know what I mean, Like, I mean, that might be a little bit too poetic of a rendering of what this game is about, But I don't think it's not there. Have I gone too far? Hannah? Have I reached through the stars and fallen short?
00:24:57
Speaker 5: I don't think so. I think that because the framework is so simple, it allows for that kind of interpretation inherently, and I think it probably knows that. Yeah, And because the framework is so overreaching, while the gameplay is so simple, it does touch on a lot of absurdities in our lives.
00:25:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to read some of the quotes that you get from the King of Cosmos. So like if you barely achieve something in like with your star, he'll say something like, we'll force this into a constellation, but make it, but do it fresher next time. Or while you're playing, sure, yeah, while you're playing. Sometimes he'll just say like, perk up, lose your prints, but why why would you do that? Or he'll just be like is your body green yellow? Make up your mind already? Which, by the way, as a little prince, you are like a green yellow like tennis ball colored little alien man. Oh my god, yeah, he goes, ah, you're so so small, You're as small as ever you like, just it's just the mean asshole dad. He sucks.
00:26:16
Speaker 3: I guess he does suck.
00:26:18
Speaker 2: I always yeah, man, I just blew right past this, Like I never really thought about it.
00:26:23
Speaker 3: I was like, that's funny.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: Uh so for real, Like I always thought the King of All Cosmos, well that's stupid.
00:26:28
Speaker 3: That's literally all I ever thought about it.
00:26:31
Speaker 2: And now I'm like, man, I really considering what this game is about in a new way. Uh like's what do you make of his voice being a record scratch?
00:26:42
Speaker 3: Like, since we're like dissecting the narrative.
00:26:43
Speaker 4: Here, I do like that. I like that it keeps it like it's since he's supposed to be godlike not really understanding him. Is That's how I like interpreted that, Like, oh my little human ears can't even decipher what he says.
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Okay, apparent according to Wikipedia, he has a true voice that is, like that sings a song called the Song for the King of Kings. Uh Like, so he does have a voice. I think the record scratch is more of an approximation. Uh it's this fucking banana.
00:27:19
Speaker 3: But like like what come?
00:27:21
Speaker 2: What came to mind for me is I was like thinking about him and the record scratch voices, like, uh is that Lauren Hill video Everything is everything? Mm hmm, you know the one I'm talking about where like it's the entire city of New York is on a turntable.
00:27:37
Speaker 4: Mm hm.
00:27:38
Speaker 2: You know, and I like I kind of feel like in a way like that's the conceit of this universe. Like it's not a turntable exactly, but there's a kind of musicality, like a sort of a whimsical musicality to it, and everything is based around the idea of rolling things up or spinning them around, you know, Like there's a there's a motion to.
00:28:00
Speaker 5: Kind of goes in tune with the soundtrack.
00:28:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, so like uh yeah, it's this.
00:28:07
Speaker 2: It's almost this sort of like uh, the simplification of the universe into like these very simple, digestible pieces.
00:28:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, but they still have meaning.
00:28:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like it the game shrinks. As much as the game complains about like oh, your your clumps are not big enough, they're still like it's making the universe way smaller, Like does that make sense?
00:28:34
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:28:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no it is, that's right. You are growing bigger and the universe is getting smaller.
00:28:40
Speaker 3: That's right. Uh yeah, And.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: It's like like there's a lot of stuff kind of happening in the background that the more you think about it, the more it's like, is the game entirely nonsensical or is it actually trying to say something that's like somewhat profound.
00:28:54
Speaker 3: And I'm kind of like right in the middle of those two. Would you call this game profound? Hannah? Is that too far?
00:29:02
Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't I don't know the intent behind this game. I think it can be interpreted that way for sure.
00:29:15
Speaker 3: Interesting what about you Star? Is it?
00:29:19
Speaker 4: My instinctual thing to say would be like no, because it is such a simple, like it's very clearly like they came up with a really good like game dynamic, like oh, you're a small thing that rolls up something big, and then they made a story around that, you know, Like I feel like they came up with how to play first, and then they're like, well, how do we turn this into a game after? So I think in that sense it's not that profound, but they did choose to like make these characters the way they are and in such a way that does like trigger these emotional, you know, little like moments. So so maybe I don't it's such a simple game. I don't want to give it all that much more credit. But at the same time, maybe it deserves it. I don't know.
00:30:15
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it is fascinating to think that they decided to make the antagonist of the game, who is your father, gigantic, right, and the game is fundamentally about you growing to be his size, you know, and to do that you need to basically subjugate or minimize everything else. Yeah, to become part of the star.
00:30:39
Speaker 3: I don't know how much.
00:30:40
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, like creative writing prompt you know, that's what this could be if we really wanted to and find interesting meaning in it. But like it's not nothing, right, you know, like it's not purely nothing, And I think if it was purely nothing, we wouldn't like the game as much.
00:30:56
Speaker 3: You know.
00:30:57
Speaker 2: The thing that actually makes it so enjoyable is not just that things go in ball ball get bigger that good.
00:31:04
Speaker 3: It's like what.
00:31:05
Speaker 2: You're like that eventually you're able to like roll up living beings like people and cows and cats are just part of the ball. You just sucked them up and that's it. Now, Trees they're part of the ball. Now you know, homes they're part of the ball. And then like there's something really fun about that, you know, like uh like the lego pieces almost.
00:31:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just I just look that the meaning of what Kamar DEMANSI actually like the translation, and it's means clump yep, and DEMANSI can either mean like spirit or soul, So it's like clump soul and m I think that kind of ties into the what you were saying was like, does this have a lot of death? And it's just like, well, it's a clump with a little bit of spirit, and you know it's in the end there there's something there. But it's still a big ball trash.
00:32:01
Speaker 3: It is still a big ball of trash. Let no one deceive you.
00:32:05
Speaker 2: You are making a big ball of trash. So I want to talk a little bit about the game mechanically if we can.
00:32:13
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't want to. I'd like us to talk about all of our father issues, so please don't feel like you have to stop, but I want to talk a little bit about it mechanically. So earlier I said that this game was Tetris, and I think we're all going to agree that the game is fun, right, Like it's pretty much always fun. Yeah, Okay, I want to describe for the audience who may or may not have played this game, like what actually happens, because I don't think it's totally clear.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: So, like what happens is you, your character is You're you're sort of piloting your character around, and your character you can basically sort of rotate them in a three hundred and sixty degree angle around this ball that you're pushing forward, right like you're very much like almost like a dung beetle push.
00:33:01
Speaker 4: You're only using little the little knobs. You don't use any buttons.
00:33:04
Speaker 3: Correct, there's no buttons this game. It's just sticks. And the level itself is just a bunch.
00:33:11
Speaker 2: Of weirdly shaped versions of everyday objects pretty much, you know, arranged in a very twee way. Like there's there's like robotic looking boxy mice running around having a great day. There's like, you know, food, there's golf clubs, there's milk bottles, there's you know, uh, there's pails and buckets and just you know, depending on what the what the theme of this level is there's a bunch of stuff that may or may not fit into that strewn around, and your job is to get it to stick to the ball and then to to manage how that thing affects the physics of the ball.
00:33:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you gather up, you want to keep the ball as round as possible because at some point, if you grab something that's like really irregular shaped, right, it will really fuck up the way the ball moves. So you're not trying to like and if something hits you, you could knock things, get things knocked off your ball, and then that's a mess too.
00:34:12
Speaker 2: So how often did you have to actually take stuff off the ball to like fix how it was like built?
00:34:18
Speaker 4: Oh, I just kept rolling with it, awkwardly moving. I'm like, well this is this is now.
00:34:25
Speaker 3: It's like a bullet wound in your leg. It's like, well, I'm living with this, I guess I.
00:34:29
Speaker 4: Think eventually as long as you keep picking up more stuff.
00:34:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, there were definitely like three or four moments where like I had shaped my ball so foolishly that I couldn't get to the next part of the level, Like there was a chair sticking out or something, and it legitimately like yeah, you know, laugh and you should because what a shitty ball I was making.
00:34:51
Speaker 2: Uh And like you legitimately couldn't navigate the thing got hard to move around, like it became kind of unwieldy. But the game is designed perfec where it's always a little unwieldy, like it's never easy to operate this thing, like it's a little you feel a little bit like you can't totally control.
00:35:08
Speaker 4: It if you go backwards. It's so slow.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's right.
00:35:12
Speaker 2: It punishes you for for making a mistake, like it's like no, no, you always got to be moving forward.
00:35:20
Speaker 3: And uh, I thought there was. There's something brilliantly frustrating about losing anything attached to the ball, like anytime you lose a single thing, like that fucking cat is coming back, like it.
00:35:33
Speaker 4: Moves, especially if it's like a moving thing like if you catch a bird, Oh my god.
00:35:37
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Also there's so many thrilling discoveries of things that are going to stick to the ball, right, like this isial When you first start the game, you don't necessarily think these living creatures are going to become part of the ball. Yes they are. They're all it's all going in uh.
00:35:54
Speaker 2: And it's a great moment the first time you capture a bird and it's sitting there fluttering helplessly.
00:35:59
Speaker 3: In its doom. If you're like, nah, man, you're part of the ball. Sorry, the ball, part of the ball, bros. That's how it goes. When did you first play this game? Guys?
00:36:08
Speaker 4: I want to say, I think I just moved out to la I feel maybe older than that, but I want to say, it's like, when did this come out?
00:36:24
Speaker 3: Originally? It was in the early two thousands.
00:36:26
Speaker 2: I want to say, I'm going to not conspicuously type words into my computer and see if it will tell me exactly when it came out.
00:36:35
Speaker 3: It was for the PlayStation two. It came out in two thousand and four, March two and four for Japan.
00:36:42
Speaker 4: I'm remembering now. I was definitely just out of college at my first job, because I became a little obsessive about the game, and my coworkers printed me out a tiny prince and I had it up on my.
00:36:55
Speaker 5: Desk.
00:36:55
Speaker 4: So yeah, around that, just out of college is when I first played this game.
00:36:59
Speaker 3: Incredible, Hannah, what about you?
00:37:03
Speaker 5: I only played the rebooted version. I had seen. I used to watch actually videos of people like other people playing the PlayStation versions to go to sleep because it's very kind of soothing in a weird way. But I'd never actually played it until like maybe four years.
00:37:20
Speaker 3: Ago, Okay, so fairly recently. Interesting.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also only played it recently because it had gotten like I had just heard so many people who gave me like the down their nose look, you know, just like you haven't played Catamari, Damasey, what are you some kind of a son of a bitch, you know, like just just some just they like it's sort of I guess assumed among the the known video game elite, Like you gotta play this game.
00:37:48
Speaker 3: And I got to tell you. Once I played it, I could see why. Yeah, it's it's.
00:37:53
Speaker 4: The perfect game of Oh I have half an hour to kill. I'd like to play a video game and not get like super involved either, And it's like I'm just gonna pop in for like a little minute before i have to go do something else.
00:38:07
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:38:07
Speaker 2: And I think it's it's rare in art in general that you get to play something that feels like a unique person made this and like this is their personality.
00:38:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:38:17
Speaker 2: And I'm enjoying it for all of its sort of effervescent individuality. This game is This game and its creator, I assume are are inextricably linked, and it's a product of one brain, and that it's a marvelous brain.
00:38:34
Speaker 3: You know.
00:38:35
Speaker 2: It's just such a that's a thrilling thing when you get to see something like that for the first time.
00:38:41
Speaker 4: A quick rundown of the from the from the creator, like just a great quick summary. So Takahashi artist who went to university for sculpting.
00:38:53
Speaker 3: He's a sculptor, Okay, sure makes sense.
00:38:56
Speaker 4: He came to the philosophy that his art needed to combine practical elements along with whimsy and humor. So, like going to school, that was his whole deal. Everything I make needs to have whimsy and humor. Then he got hired by Yeah, Then he got hired by Namco, who at the time I think was just making like fighting games and yeah, yeah, and so he was assigned to come up with like these silly games, and he developed the characters for Katamari. First, they were supposed to be in something else, Like they were supposed to be hammers, which is why their heads are that shape.
00:39:27
Speaker 2: That makes sense I was always gonna like, I wondered if there'd be an answer to why are their heads so weird?
00:39:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, so they were originally supposed to be like hammering, and it like the game had like the classic kind of like the King's the wife, the queen was kidnapped and the king told the prince to go get the wife because he didn't want to do it, which there was still always the element of that dad sucks and they like put akebash on that because you know video game industry. And eventually he was put in charge of another like come up with something for all these introns that we just hired to do, and he thought of that simple like what about just a mechanic of going from small to big? And they're like, great, love it. Let's get all these newbies on this game, so we give them something to do. And that's how this game started. It was just and they told him to go use those characters from that old game and wow. So so yeah, he's just a dude who's simple concept, wanted to make something kind of fun and lighthearted and got a team of just fresh out of college game designers who wanted to bake something with him.
00:40:36
Speaker 3: It seems this.
00:40:36
Speaker 2: Didn't seem like every cool story for a thing is like some college student who just had a cool idea, Like it doesn't he just feel like like there's just like a window where like, man, uh, we should we should be letting more talented youths that are between the ages of twenty two and thirty two just try a thing if they can.
00:40:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, apparently almost didn't release it. They were weren't sure about it because it was such a weird game, but they took it to like some convention, like a gaming convention in Japan and like teased it and people were like, this is the best one is this coming out? And so namcos well, oh fuck, we should release this, and then they did, and then on a I guess then and then because of how successful it was in Japan, they kind of were like, Okay, let's just release it elsewhere, and they did, but they didn't like there wasn't a lot of people in the OG game like knowing what this was in the US, because they did. Sure, you know, it's a weird ass game.
00:41:35
Speaker 3: I think, And also like we can't underestimate how how cautious an audience probably is when everything about the packaging of it is like this is weird and foreign, you know what I mean. Like, like, I think we've all seen that audiences are initially reluctant to embrace things that they don't immediately connect to, And this game makes absolutely no apologize for its uh, for its strangeness, you know, and I love that about it.
00:42:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I love about it too. I think the reason we a lot of these stories are about young people is not because it's not because they have like purer, simpler ideas, it's that they are willing to go with those ideas with their whip points.
00:42:28
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:42:29
Speaker 5: I think there's a lot actually in this game about how like self doubt becomes ingrained through society and stuff, or I don't, I don't know how like just messages we get that we internalize from a dumb ass king character or whatever.
00:42:46
Speaker 3: It is, or would internalize if we weren't all so old.
00:42:52
Speaker 4: Uh. Apparently apparently the King's last message at the end of the sequel was don't expect an that sequel. Live in the moment. This is one of the most important lessons in life.
00:43:03
Speaker 3: So he like turned it all around.
00:43:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, So he ends the game with a like I guess like hopeful message, you know, but it's also like you're still a dick, though I wouldn't.
00:43:16
Speaker 5: Like, Yeah, how dare you put me through these entire games and then tell me to live in the moment, you asshole?
00:43:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, with your starhead, your stupid star head. I agree, the Dead is a stupid star headed asshole. And let's take that moment. Let's take that thought and contemplate it a moment as we run into our break and on the other side we will decide whether this game belongs on the Celestial hard drive.
00:43:43
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for that.
00:44:00
Speaker 2: And we're back and unfortunately there's a giant ball it's going to roll us wiggling into it as so we only have minutes to live. But it's fine because you know what a fun intro song. By the way, I feel like the intro song is like a pretty good test for whether somebody is a psychopath. Like it's like, just sit them down and play this song, and if they're not having a good time, Like if you can't tell they're having a good time, that's something's wrong with them. Cause like right that game, like it's such a winsome intro. It made me instantly love this game. Can we get this done?
00:44:33
Speaker 3: In psychology, I.
00:44:36
Speaker 4: Think I read somewhere or like a long time ago, like the soundtrack was made with they hired very popular like jazz musicians and voice actors, but they hired them like when out of their prime, Like they used to be popular and people still like them, but since they're not at their peak, Like that's the people he hired. So it's like very talent, but we're available.
00:45:02
Speaker 3: Essentially, Yeah, the ill considered the discarded.
00:45:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so that's why I like the soundtrack is so good because it's like very talented jazz musicians and like voice actors and stuff who were just like waiting for another gig.
00:45:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of meaning in this little, uh, this little ball of fury that's being collected slowly, and I think we've done a pretty nice show. Do you guys have any last points you want to bring up before we pass our final checkpoint?
00:45:33
Speaker 3: Anything? Send? Ready to go?
00:45:37
Speaker 5: I feel dad's kind of suck.
00:45:40
Speaker 4: That suck.
00:45:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, some good ones, but most of them, they they they're just not great.
00:45:51
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, okay, all.
00:45:54
Speaker 5: Right, Like as a group, there there are good dads, but.
00:46:02
Speaker 3: Why are they mostly bad?
00:46:04
Speaker 2: I want to know, incredible As a person who's never knowingly fathered a child, I can't answer for that.
00:46:15
Speaker 5: But I also always tell doctors I've never had any kids that I know of, and they never laugh. Yeah. Dead.
00:46:25
Speaker 4: Just to be slightly contradictory with this as well, but in the game, you rarely see like his mother who definitely does exist.
00:46:33
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right.
00:46:35
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know what her deal is. I don't know if she's also abandoned this little prince. Who knows, but she's an absence mom.
00:46:48
Speaker 2: Who could deal with him for that long, you know what I mean. She's like, look, I gotta live for me. I gotta be queen of my own cosmos.
00:46:53
Speaker 3: You know.
00:46:55
Speaker 5: Then take us with you, Yeah, take take take the.
00:46:58
Speaker 4: Little prince with you, Like you find out later there's a bunch of cousins too, who are also adorably designed. But yeah, like, no one's watching out for these little ones. And maybe it's just the culture of these space beings to be like this is how you raise tiny ones. But I mean, maybe I'm not going to give the mom and this props either.
00:47:19
Speaker 2: I know, I'm not really giving anybody props because let's be honest. You are committing genocide. Okay, this's what's happening here. You are destroying entire civilizations as part of your quest to please Dad. So you know, nobody comes out a winner here except the player who has the best time of their life.
00:47:41
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:47:42
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess we're gonna pass our final checkpoint. Then ruminating on the failures of our fathers, and decide does this game deserve to be put forever enshrined on the celestial hard drive so aliens can see it, you know, as long as it doesn't get rolled up into a ball of weird crap.
00:48:00
Speaker 1: What do you think, Hannah, I think considering that this game would be kind of how aliens perceive not just our civilization, but our family dynamics.
00:48:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:48:18
Speaker 5: And it would be super meta to kind of roll this up and put it into space. I would definitely put it there.
00:48:27
Speaker 2: Love it great reasons. I'm all in love. I love your reasoning.
00:48:31
Speaker 3: Uh. Starr, what about you?
00:48:34
Speaker 4: I I like, if it's to preserve things like as a time capsule, I would say yes, Okay. If we're doing it to communicate with aliens, absolutely not. Do not want to give them ideas?
00:48:50
Speaker 3: Good point.
00:48:50
Speaker 4: I don't would not want them to come over and be like, oh, they want us to come roll them up.
00:48:56
Speaker 2: I think I think what we're learning is that both of you take your video game. Now rative's extremely seriously.
00:49:01
Speaker 3: Like absolutely very serious about them, which I love. I think that's great.
00:49:07
Speaker 4: But if it's Time Capsule purposes, then yeah, absolutely put this thing in there, like especially the soundtrack.
00:49:13
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, definitely. Since since we don't currently know in the aliens and therefore it's hard to target specifically to an alien's point of view, I think Time Capsule is probably a more useful way to think about what this is. I think, honestly, it's one of a kind, and there just aren't that many games that are one of a kind. There's lots of games that invented new things, and there's lots of games that were important in shaping what video games are.
00:49:48
Speaker 3: I don't know of any.
00:49:48
Speaker 2: Other games that learned stuff from Katamari Domasy, like I don't see a lot of like games imitating or copying it so much. But it's also a unique world that is brilliant and simple and beautiful. Actually, and especially because I was not emotionally harmed by this poor father figure. I think it absolutely belongs on the Celestial Art Drive. I honestly, I think it's a great game and a great example of what the art form can be, and it totally belongs, And I think Mike would agree. But he's welcome to argue in a hard Drive episode if he doesn't degree, He's welcome.
00:50:27
Speaker 3: To do that. Friends, what a joy having you on. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:50:35
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
00:50:37
Speaker 5: This is fun.
00:50:38
Speaker 2: Thank you, It's always fun to have you guys on star Where can people find you and your gorgeous artworks that deserve to be known and shared?
00:50:48
Speaker 4: You could find my art at starline arts dot com. That's my Etsy shop where you could purchase a sticker or two. You could also find me on Twitter at starline x and on insta as star Line also pronounts Starlene, but for spelling purposes, star Line is the easiest way to go about that.
00:51:08
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Hannah. What about you?
00:51:10
Speaker 2: Where can we find your comedy stylings?
00:51:15
Speaker 5: My soon to be short lived or at least check mark removed. Twitter is at Hannah Michael's h A N A M I C H E L S. I put the most things on there. Because I don't like to show my face, but I'm gonna have to if I have to pivot to TikTok or Instagram. They're the same handles.
00:51:34
Speaker 3: So okay, yeah, are you gonna pivot to TikTok and Instagram?
00:51:38
Speaker 5: I mean, I feel like it's gonna have to be It's gonna be inevitable at some point, like unless someone comes up at the suitable replacement platform that enough people to get on.
00:51:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, but something might come up. I mean, we used to have live journals in myspaces. There's got to be a new one eventually.
00:52:00
Speaker 3: I had the best MySpace star. You wouldn't even believe it like I had, Like, okay, I had all it was black background, purple text.
00:52:07
Speaker 4: What was your song?
00:52:08
Speaker 3: Thank you for asking?
00:52:10
Speaker 2: It was Little Eyes by Yola Tango. Look, it was a real vibe up in Gansas MySpace.
00:52:15
Speaker 5: Man.
00:52:17
Speaker 2: Also, Hannah, I just want you to confirm for the audience before we actually go, I would look excellent in the forties. You wouldn't admit it, and I'd like you to admit it on the podcast. I would look good at nothing that.
00:52:28
Speaker 5: I wouldn't admit it. All I said was we would all look excellent in the forties because we don't have radium poisoning. I'm not saying you wouldn't be exceptionally excellent.
00:52:38
Speaker 3: Thank you would thank you, thank you.
00:52:40
Speaker 2: That's all I needed. I should have been in the forties. The best outfits for me. Somebody else said I'd look good in the sixties. No, I'd look ridiculous. The forties are the only other time I could have lived.
00:52:52
Speaker 3: Big suits, Yeah yeah, big suits.
00:52:55
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I see it is that hats.
00:53:00
Speaker 3: The hats. They had fucking incredible hats in the forties. You know.
00:53:05
Speaker 2: There were bad things going on, I'm told in the forties, but outfit yeah, outfit.
00:53:10
Speaker 3: Wise, I would have done quite well.
00:53:12
Speaker 2: Hey, listen, if you haven't checked out this game and at our our celebration of it and making fun of it and stuff hasn't convinced you, please let me encourage you.
00:53:23
Speaker 3: This is a one of a kind experience. It's great. It's a great and fun video game.
00:53:27
Speaker 2: It's actually fun to watch, it's fun to play with your friends and stuff, Like I like taking turns. This is that kind of game. I would say it deserves your time. Give it a shot. If you enjoyed this podcast. I would like to hear my voice along with Mike's voice on other podcasts that are not just about video games, but stuff like I don't know movies, like what directors do, like what Friendship's about, how to deal with depression, what's up with dinosaurs? All that kind of stuff. You can go over to our Patreon, which is patreon dot com, forward slash small beans and get just an earful of all of that. If you like it, stick around, throw us a couple of bucks. You'll get even more special stuff, things like talking about the multiverse and others. So thanks so much to our shipheads for listening in.
00:54:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:54:16
Speaker 2: Do you have any last confessions you'd like to put on Mike, Hannah or her star.
00:54:20
Speaker 4: I'm going to read one last quote from from the Dad, which was we'd make it much bigger.
00:54:29
Speaker 3: Hannah anything, any crimes you like to commit to or confess to.
00:54:33
Speaker 5: What did you get something in the mail recently? Did someone put a flaming bead on your doorstep? What is happening?
00:54:43
Speaker 3: No? That is that coming.
00:54:47
Speaker 5: Controlling you? And you continue to treat me as though I am still trolling you. It's almost like I have permanently traumatized your nervous system.
00:54:59
Speaker 3: It is almost like that you're my king of all cosmos.
00:55:02
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, Hanna, you've become the king of a cosmos.
00:55:05
Speaker 3: I just every time she talks like this, yere oh God, I swore I would never become my father work completely h
Speaker 1: Oh listen.
00:00:24
Speaker 2: The true tragedy of this game is that there is absolutely no way to introduce it that would be better than the game introduces itself. This game has the greatest introduction ever in a video game, Like I like, people hounded me to play this game for years.
00:00:43
Speaker 3: And I was like, this looks so stupid, Like I just don't want to do it.
00:00:46
Speaker 2: Man, I'm old and I have a beard. I've had a beard since I was born. I've always been this way. And I played the intro and man talk about winning somebody over on. Yeah, it's incredible. Hi, shipheads, welcome to another episode of one Osmanship. I'm your host Adam Ganser. Today Mike has gone off to sail the galaxy and form a star cluster of his own. And with me are two of my favorite star Warriors slash rollers. Please introduce yourselves.
00:01:20
Speaker 3: Friends.
00:01:21
Speaker 4: Hi, I'm Starline Hodge. I good bye, star I'm friends. I'm friends with you all.
00:01:27
Speaker 3: That's right, yep, that's right, old pals.
00:01:29
Speaker 2: In fact, we go all the way back to the Overwatch episode and before that to Cracked After Hours. We've in friends for a very long time, and my other celestial colleague.
00:01:43
Speaker 5: I am Hannah Michaels.
00:01:46
Speaker 3: You slow rolled me. I knew you're gonna do it. You slow rolled me.
00:01:50
Speaker 2: Welcome Hannah of Pokemon snap fame or infamy.
00:01:54
Speaker 3: I guess I should say, well.
00:01:55
Speaker 5: Yeah, every time I guessed on a podcast, it's always Hannah is a DeMont, she killed the dinosaurs, and she's the worst human being in the world. Three stars, three stars.
00:02:07
Speaker 3: I like how many stars you got though?
00:02:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I'm always how many stars I managed to get with being just like Hitler.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: Whatever it is, say Hitler three starts. Yeah, honestly, that goes on your tombstone. Yeah, that's that's the review that you get from the Afterlife.
00:02:29
Speaker 2: That's a pretty good one anyway. So glad you guys could join me to talk about this game. So let's roll right into this and pass our very first checkpoint, in which we will do tell me like I'm a bit I think you guys are You guys have been on previous episodes, but as I said, it's a new segment in which we explain to somebody who's never heard of this game, what is it and kind of what's it all about?
00:02:58
Speaker 3: And uh, one of you volunteered to do it? Which one of you decided to tell everyone.
00:03:03
Speaker 4: I did Star, I did.
00:03:05
Speaker 3: Oh love it all right, Star hit.
00:03:07
Speaker 4: It all right? So Katamar DEMANSI. It begins with the King of all Cosmos getting real drunk and destroying all the stars in Earth's solar system. And he begs his son, but not really begs, demands that his son, this tiny little prince of an alien, to go to Earth and roll up everything he can at various different sizes so that he could put it back in space and replace the stars that he destroyed. And your task is you were the prince, and you roll things up, and if you don't do a good job, the King of all Cosmos yells at you and is real mean. And so your goal is to get your dad to love you. And that's the game.
00:03:58
Speaker 2: Yep, that's rights as so gigantic, Yes, Like it's not a small thing for.
00:04:04
Speaker 3: Him to be angry at you, Like my God is a huge man.
00:04:09
Speaker 4: And I believe there's a little like b plot of like the Earthlings, Like there's a family you follow on Earth who's experiencing like the chaos, the prints rolling everything up. It's like every time you beat a level, you get a little bit more of like this family story, but it's not as important as you trying to get your King Cosmos Daddy's love. That's the game.
00:04:32
Speaker 5: Yep. Yeah, and it's it's very very hard to earn his love.
00:04:37
Speaker 4: Oh really incredibly, he's very.
00:04:40
Speaker 3: Very It is hard. Yeah, it is hard. Thank you.
00:04:45
Speaker 2: Excellent summary. Also, if you're confused about what this game is, don't worry. You'll never understand what it is. You'll play it and never understand, so hopefully that gives you some relief. It's time for us to pass our very next checkpoint and get right into the gamer rants, in which we all three come in with our scorching hot takes, like our white Dwarf takes, you know, like that kind of that's the hottest stars?
00:05:13
Speaker 3: Am I wrong? If I don't, I could be wrong. I don't know what the hottest star is, but let's say it's a white Dwarf, that hot of a take. I can go first, or if one of you has it ready? Does anybody want to go first? Do you want me to? No?
00:05:25
Speaker 4: You go, you take it?
00:05:27
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll go first, Okay, great, all right? Player one Adam ganzer logging in okay, Katamari Damassy is Tetris. That is what this is, and what I mean by that is this is a game that is fun purely because it figured out a mechanic and did perfectly this thing that no other game has done as well. And that mechanic is a physics engine that makes it difficult but rewarding to collect other objects and changes the nature and dynamic of the ball you're rolling around. It is really that simple. It's like an evolution of those old school like Marble madness games, if you will. And the reason I call it Tetris is because Tetris is a perfect loop that was designed so perfectly and simply that it doesn't need more to be satisfying. And I think that Katamari Domasi is exactly the same. It doesn't need any more to be satisfying than just the loop that it creates. It's such a strong loop in fact, that the game never fundamentally changes. It is the same game from minute one to minute finish, and it's fun the entire time. It's always fun. It's that deep of a loop that this creator made, and that's incredible in this time period, Like it's such an amazing idea and it's one of a kind now to add to that, part of what makes it such a winsome game, like, part of the packaging of this loop that makes it so WinCE is that it's also very zany and silly, and it embraces that.
00:07:05
Speaker 3: It knows it's silly. It knows it's zany, it knows that it's got a world that is.
00:07:13
Speaker 2: Just sort of joyfully illogical and doesn't care to explain itself, doesn't feel the need to explain itself. So, like, you start as this tiny little prince who's like rolling up a ball of like, you know, dominoes, you know, stuff that's really small, like the paper clips and e.
00:07:29
Speaker 3: Racers and stuff like that.
00:07:31
Speaker 4: Candies.
00:07:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, little tiny things.
00:07:34
Speaker 2: And by the end of the game, you're rolling up like entire neighborhoods and stuff.
00:07:38
Speaker 3: You're like, you're rolling up all.
00:07:39
Speaker 2: Of human civilization and it's and it's always fun. Every new thing that you're able to stick to the ball as it gets bigger adds an element of fun and it makes you laugh. And I don't know, I don't know what genius understood that those two things were that deep of a reservoir fun. I didn't look up who made this game I should have it, but that person is one of the greatest video game designers ever, like one of the greatest ever. And I say that because like they made a new toy that stands on its own. It doesn't need a whole new thing. It doesn't need a shiny gloss of paint. This game never needs a remix. It just needs to be able to run as is forever. Just like Tetris. They make lots of new kinds of Tetris. They can make lots of new kinds of Katamari Domasy and I'll play them all.
00:08:29
Speaker 3: They'll be fun. But it doesn't need to be anything more than what it is. It is. It is a.
00:08:35
Speaker 2: Contained, perfect little loop well done. It is so impressive, and it won over my old grumpy heart.
00:08:42
Speaker 3: That is my rant.
00:08:46
Speaker 4: The creator's name is Kaita taka Hashi.
00:08:49
Speaker 3: By the way, thank you now.
00:08:51
Speaker 2: I will send that person a thank you card because they have deserved one. You want to go next, Hana sure.
00:09:00
Speaker 5: Katamari Domici is kind of It's absurd yet relatable. If you have workaholic parents and or roll a bunch of things, roll a bunch of trash into a ball regularly, either of those things very relatable game in those regards. I think the absurdity really adds to the fun. And there's some absurdity in what you can roll up and how things react when you try to roll them up, how people and animals react when you hit them with your ball of everything. It's, uh, it's pretty adorable. And yeah, it's a very simple mechanic that doesn't really need much. If they did make a new game, it would basically be the same. The cut scenes would be different, but it would basically it would basically be the same game with different different cut scenes. I think there is a reroll a version that's not on uh Switch, Sorry, yeah it's not on switch.
00:10:16
Speaker 3: Yeah there was a sequel. The sequel I don't think is on Switch if I'm not mistaken.
00:10:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly not, I'm sorry. Reroll is the a remaster of it, the remaster of the game. Yeah, uh forever Katamari Forever. I think it's a sequel, and yeah, it's basically the same thing, only the king is so you cannot wake him up. He's so black, I'm drunk. You can't wake him up. So you have to create this robot king that doesn't really work right, and is the opposite of the real King. Instead of getting down on you, he gets down on himself all the time. But it's basically the same game.
00:11:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, wonderful. Is that is that it is at the end of your rant?
00:11:04
Speaker 5: Uh, yeah, pretty much. It's it's fun and simple.
00:11:09
Speaker 3: I agree with you, Okay, great star.
00:11:14
Speaker 4: My my Catamari rant is that I love how this game gives you the power of the gods. You are a tiny little god like rolling everybody up, doing whatever you want essentially, and even then it's still not good enough. I like the idea of a being that is essentially all powerful in a way, and yet like it's they are still kind of so humanized in that sense of like, no, someone's still gonna yell at you, and even the person yelling at you is not a perfect being. They also suck. So it's okay to just you know, do your best and like just get what you want to get done, because I know at some point when I played the game my goal was just to like I just want to hit the marks, trying to overachieve for this like King of the Cosmos, who's just gonna yell at me? It like made me not want to do it. So I just really Yeah, for me, it was just a matter toward the end of the game. In the beginning, I was very much trying to get all the praise. But then just as you keep going, like those were so far in few in between that I was just like, you know what, I just want to succeed. I want to be proud of me. So I like that the game kind of kind of it. At least for me, it reinforced that. And yeah, I like that, like you're this all powerful being and you're still just like I just I'm just trying to do my best. That's so much, my little rant.
00:12:51
Speaker 3: I love it so much. I love this. I love you.
00:12:54
Speaker 2: Guys both said things I could never have said because just the things that you connect about it or things that I haven't even thought about.
00:13:03
Speaker 3: So I love it. I love it so much. I'll tell you what. Let's get into it after we roll up just a tiny little neighborhood, just real quick, roll up a neighborhood, take a little break, get a couple of ads in our system, and then come back and you know, we'll take on most of Silver Lake after the break.
00:13:30
Speaker 2: Okay, get ready Echo Park because we're back and we're about to roll up most of that overpriced real estate. Get prepared. Let's pass our next checkpoint and get right into game on.
00:13:41
Speaker 3: And I kind of.
00:13:43
Speaker 2: Wanted to ask you guys both a question. Now, I normally don't do this, but I'm just sort of curious because mostly because you guys haven't been on the show since we went to iHeart, but also I think it's just fun for everybody. Can you guys each named a few of your favorite games?
00:13:57
Speaker 3: Like what?
00:13:58
Speaker 5: Like?
00:13:58
Speaker 3: Just give me a sense of like the games you gravitate toward. Oh yeah, maybe, Hannah, I'll put it on you first, a couple of your favorite games.
00:14:10
Speaker 5: I mean, I do like your game Nemesies, which are turn based strategy games. I know, I know they're evil. Yeah, yeah, I really enjoyed Inscription, and I like Pokemon.
00:14:28
Speaker 3: Yeah Pokemon okay great? But but Mario Kart, right, aren't you into like Mario Party?
00:14:33
Speaker 5: I love racing and fighting games, so they're simple and fun, and I love those as well.
00:14:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're a sole Caliber.
00:14:39
Speaker 2: In fact, you stream often Sole Caliber, in which you play a sexualized horse person.
00:14:46
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:14:46
Speaker 5: I wish I could get back to that. Yeah, it was Boldo's move so too, which is always fun.
00:14:53
Speaker 2: You could get back to that sexualized horse person streaming place. It is a great place. I completely understand. Okay, great Starr, What about you? What are some of the games that you gravitate toward.
00:15:03
Speaker 4: Okay, so I have at least I have four Overwatch one, not Overwatch two. Overwatch two is kind of horseshit right now.
00:15:13
Speaker 3: I was gonna ask you about that. Okay, great, but.
00:15:15
Speaker 4: Overwatch one Kingdom Hearts love that weird shit. It's just weird. Yeah, oh man, what did I just I just had it. I was Overwatch Kingdom Hearts Portal, the Portal series, absolutely love and adoring that. And more recently, I've been playing Breath of the Wild, oh yeah, and Horizon Horizon Zerra Down those those are my Jamy Horizon, mostly for the crazy Apocalypse story. I think it's just really well told. And for Breath of the Wild just currently, like I don't know, it's just it's almost relaxing, like it's just a beautiful game and it's just chill, and I like helping, like I like all the little side quests as I go along, and I like that you can kind of just do whatever you want.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I think I Actually that is also why I love Breath of the Wild more than the major overarching narrative pieces of it that people like. I like the chill out game vibe of it. I totally agree with you on that. So people who've been listening to podcasts know a litany of games that I'm into, But in general, in general, I tend to like the Triple A first person shooters, and I do like Breath the Wild. I do, I do, Like you know, Red Dead, La Noir is kind of rocketing up one of my favorite games.
00:16:49
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, the Resident Evils are kind of rocketing up my list the more I play them. But I play many many games, as you know.
00:16:57
Speaker 2: And the reason I'm bringing this up at all is that this game, I think, managed to get all of us into it for entirely different reasons, and none of us are exactly the esthetic of this game, Like I feel like they're I don't know who I think this game is designed for aesthetically, but I would say like none of us are an exact fit for what this is.
00:17:19
Speaker 3: Is that unfair?
00:17:21
Speaker 6: Right?
00:17:21
Speaker 3: Like? If? It?
00:17:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, it kind of reminds me of more of like a mobile game, like if you a game that you would have on your phone, which I don't, yes, realize that, yes, that also counts as gaming, but I don't think about my phone games when I'm thinking of like, oh, what games do I like?
00:17:36
Speaker 3: You know, right, phone games sort of occupy forgiving how phone games occupy an interesting real estate, which is usually filling time when you're doing something else mm hmm, you know, and like right now, we still think of video games, although I think Switch is changing this a little bit as being like an activity in itself, you know, like it's like I now I'm gonna go play video game. That's the thing I'm doing. Yes, and mobile games are kind of not that interesting, Hanna. Do you feel like this game fits neatly into any of our aesthetics or like, do you feel like it was designed for you or that it's weird that you like it?
00:18:12
Speaker 5: I think the absurdism was kind of designed for all of us. But yeah, the gameplay I or the graphics or any other element of this game. I don't think that you could necessarily point to any one of us that would resonate with it. We just happened to all like it.
00:18:31
Speaker 2: Well, I would say we didn't all just happen to I would say it's actually that's how good it is that it can sort of get past the kinds of games you would like and draw you in because it's tone. There are very few games that are like purely joyful, very very few, and the ones that do it are, you know, great games when they really achieve. And I think that's one of the reasons why we all love Mario games so much, is that they're actually joyful.
00:19:05
Speaker 3: Yes, and this game is joyful.
00:19:08
Speaker 2: You I mean, you guys talked about the plot in a way that's funny because I never even thought about the plot. But the tone of it is pretty joyful, wouldn't you agree.
00:19:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're you're a little man just trying to trying to save the universe in a real weird way. But ultimately yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker 3: Like.
00:19:25
Speaker 6: It's like, yeah, you're like you're saying to the universe, but you're also just like rolling up chairs and cats stuff, Like you're just adding people's lives to this little like glava goo that you're pushing around.
00:19:39
Speaker 3: Like maybe we haven't even described very clearly exactly what this game is.
00:19:43
Speaker 5: You're harnessing the power of gravity in a very specific way. To stick eventually very large objects on this tiny little ball. But at first, you know, the gravity as a force is proportional. It will only you will only be able to roll up the things that are smaller than that tiny little ball that you start with.
00:20:05
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:20:06
Speaker 2: And so there's a puzzle to every single level in this game. And the puzzle is how can I, before time runs out, get the ball big enough to capture all the main objects in it so that they all roll up into my little you know, star bundle. And because you like, you can't just roll go up to the biggest thing and have it stick, like you need to have enough mass in the ball that you're rolling up to get the bigger objects to stick to it, you know. And it's a very simple puzzle, like that's the same puzzle every time, but it's, uh, it does require a little bit of thought. Like it's not a thoughtless game. It's you can't turn your brain off entirely, no, I still need to pay attention to it.
00:20:48
Speaker 4: And the music definitely keeps you hooked in because it's absolutely delightful. The soundtrack. I still listen to the soundtrack when I'm cleaning.
00:20:58
Speaker 5: It's good cleaning music that makes sense.
00:21:02
Speaker 3: Oh that would be good cleaning me.
00:21:04
Speaker 4: It's like you're like, man, I really I really got to tackle a room and yeah I'm moncy soundtrack and you're like, I'm right back in it, and.
00:21:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it kind of gets your heart rate up. But it's also like, but I'm having fun. It's uh, it's what I imagine cocaine is. Like I can't say, but it's what I imagine. It's like, Uh, okay, Hannah, tell me a little bit about why if you what you said something about if you were a kid whose parents weren't around or something.
00:21:37
Speaker 5: Like parents were workaholics. Yeah, absolutely nothing is ever good enough for the dead in this game, and the rest of your life, much like, uh, the rest of your gaming experience with Katamari will be making peace with that. And just like Star was saying, just making yourself.
00:21:57
Speaker 3: Proud, that's great, you guys both can to that.
00:22:01
Speaker 2: Like I just find that incredible, Like because I didn't even I didn't give a shit what the guy said. I was like, hey, I'm just getting the ball. It's all good.
00:22:07
Speaker 3: But you guys both really connected to this dad's story.
00:22:11
Speaker 4: I mean, like I have I have like Daddy issues. So it's it hit me in a very strange like, oh, like suddenly like this father figure you know, is just like very demanding when in like my actual life, my father was not around. So I was just like, who the fuck are you? And I also still like, you know, like that little kid men tell me I want I want adults to like me. And so you're instantly in this game being told as a little kid you're not good enough. And there was like a weird mix of like what do you but I did what you told me to do. I don't what what.
00:22:48
Speaker 3: Do you want for me? I make it the best star, It's got all the good stuff in it.
00:22:52
Speaker 4: I did it. I did it in the time. What do you mean it's not big enough? I don't.
00:22:58
Speaker 5: Specific tests? Yeah, and when you actually do it perfectly, like with the crab one and I got like one hundred something crabs and I got a response that was yuck, too crabby, And it's like, what what you asked for? Crabs? You literally ask for crabs?
00:23:18
Speaker 3: You chaotic, rollheaded fuck like just like live my life. Uh, it's so this is I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh at your pain. Please forgive me if that's how this is coming off. I'm just it just thrilled so.
00:23:32
Speaker 5: Much laughs it laughs at like productivity, guilt and pain, and it's it's great for that.
00:23:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I actually think there's something sort of deeply profound about that that like the game kind of uh trivializes it in a way that makes the act more meaningful, Like it like how do I say this without getting too philosophical, Like it's almost like, well, it's almost like in a way, you're sort of rolling up the concern for those kinds of things, like it's equally artificial and also sort of sticks to this ball that you can dispose of at the end, because at the end, all you really have is the thing that you made. You know, like his approval kind of doesn't change what happens in.
00:24:16
Speaker 3: The game, m you know what I exactly So like in a way that like there's something and there's a lot of like little clues that the family life of the universe is a little bit fractured here, and you're actually sort of disposing of that, like you're sort of this is a very silly version, but you're sort of like purifying the galaxy, if you will, of all this extraneous stuff that doesn't need to be there, you know what I mean, Like, I mean, that might be a little bit too poetic of a rendering of what this game is about, But I don't think it's not there. Have I gone too far? Hannah? Have I reached through the stars and fallen short?
00:24:57
Speaker 5: I don't think so. I think that because the framework is so simple, it allows for that kind of interpretation inherently, and I think it probably knows that. Yeah, And because the framework is so overreaching, while the gameplay is so simple, it does touch on a lot of absurdities in our lives.
00:25:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to read some of the quotes that you get from the King of Cosmos. So like if you barely achieve something in like with your star, he'll say something like, we'll force this into a constellation, but make it, but do it fresher next time. Or while you're playing, sure, yeah, while you're playing. Sometimes he'll just say like, perk up, lose your prints, but why why would you do that? Or he'll just be like is your body green yellow? Make up your mind already? Which, by the way, as a little prince, you are like a green yellow like tennis ball colored little alien man. Oh my god, yeah, he goes, ah, you're so so small, You're as small as ever you like, just it's just the mean asshole dad. He sucks.
00:26:16
Speaker 3: I guess he does suck.
00:26:18
Speaker 2: I always yeah, man, I just blew right past this, Like I never really thought about it.
00:26:23
Speaker 3: I was like, that's funny.
00:26:25
Speaker 2: Uh so for real, Like I always thought the King of All Cosmos, well that's stupid.
00:26:28
Speaker 3: That's literally all I ever thought about it.
00:26:31
Speaker 2: And now I'm like, man, I really considering what this game is about in a new way. Uh like's what do you make of his voice being a record scratch?
00:26:42
Speaker 3: Like, since we're like dissecting the narrative.
00:26:43
Speaker 4: Here, I do like that. I like that it keeps it like it's since he's supposed to be godlike not really understanding him. Is That's how I like interpreted that, Like, oh my little human ears can't even decipher what he says.
00:26:58
Speaker 2: Okay, apparent according to Wikipedia, he has a true voice that is, like that sings a song called the Song for the King of Kings. Uh Like, so he does have a voice. I think the record scratch is more of an approximation. Uh it's this fucking banana.
00:27:19
Speaker 3: But like like what come?
00:27:21
Speaker 2: What came to mind for me is I was like thinking about him and the record scratch voices, like, uh is that Lauren Hill video Everything is everything? Mm hmm, you know the one I'm talking about where like it's the entire city of New York is on a turntable.
00:27:37
Speaker 4: Mm hm.
00:27:38
Speaker 2: You know, and I like I kind of feel like in a way like that's the conceit of this universe. Like it's not a turntable exactly, but there's a kind of musicality, like a sort of a whimsical musicality to it, and everything is based around the idea of rolling things up or spinning them around, you know, Like there's a there's a motion to.
00:28:00
Speaker 5: Kind of goes in tune with the soundtrack.
00:28:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, so like uh yeah, it's this.
00:28:07
Speaker 2: It's almost this sort of like uh, the simplification of the universe into like these very simple, digestible pieces.
00:28:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, but they still have meaning.
00:28:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, and like it the game shrinks. As much as the game complains about like oh, your your clumps are not big enough, they're still like it's making the universe way smaller, Like does that make sense?
00:28:34
Speaker 3: Yeah?
00:28:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no it is, that's right. You are growing bigger and the universe is getting smaller.
00:28:40
Speaker 3: That's right. Uh yeah, And.
00:28:43
Speaker 2: It's like like there's a lot of stuff kind of happening in the background that the more you think about it, the more it's like, is the game entirely nonsensical or is it actually trying to say something that's like somewhat profound.
00:28:54
Speaker 3: And I'm kind of like right in the middle of those two. Would you call this game profound? Hannah? Is that too far?
00:29:02
Speaker 5: I don't know. I don't I don't know the intent behind this game. I think it can be interpreted that way for sure.
00:29:15
Speaker 3: Interesting what about you Star? Is it?
00:29:19
Speaker 4: My instinctual thing to say would be like no, because it is such a simple, like it's very clearly like they came up with a really good like game dynamic, like oh, you're a small thing that rolls up something big, and then they made a story around that, you know, Like I feel like they came up with how to play first, and then they're like, well, how do we turn this into a game after? So I think in that sense it's not that profound, but they did choose to like make these characters the way they are and in such a way that does like trigger these emotional, you know, little like moments. So so maybe I don't it's such a simple game. I don't want to give it all that much more credit. But at the same time, maybe it deserves it. I don't know.
00:30:15
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, it is fascinating to think that they decided to make the antagonist of the game, who is your father, gigantic, right, and the game is fundamentally about you growing to be his size, you know, and to do that you need to basically subjugate or minimize everything else. Yeah, to become part of the star.
00:30:39
Speaker 3: I don't know how much.
00:30:40
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, like creative writing prompt you know, that's what this could be if we really wanted to and find interesting meaning in it. But like it's not nothing, right, you know, like it's not purely nothing, And I think if it was purely nothing, we wouldn't like the game as much.
00:30:56
Speaker 3: You know.
00:30:57
Speaker 2: The thing that actually makes it so enjoyable is not just that things go in ball ball get bigger that good.
00:31:04
Speaker 3: It's like what.
00:31:05
Speaker 2: You're like that eventually you're able to like roll up living beings like people and cows and cats are just part of the ball. You just sucked them up and that's it. Now, Trees they're part of the ball. Now you know, homes they're part of the ball. And then like there's something really fun about that, you know, like uh like the lego pieces almost.
00:31:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I just I just look that the meaning of what Kamar DEMANSI actually like the translation, and it's means clump yep, and DEMANSI can either mean like spirit or soul, So it's like clump soul and m I think that kind of ties into the what you were saying was like, does this have a lot of death? And it's just like, well, it's a clump with a little bit of spirit, and you know it's in the end there there's something there. But it's still a big ball trash.
00:32:01
Speaker 3: It is still a big ball of trash. Let no one deceive you.
00:32:05
Speaker 2: You are making a big ball of trash. So I want to talk a little bit about the game mechanically if we can.
00:32:13
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't want to. I'd like us to talk about all of our father issues, so please don't feel like you have to stop, but I want to talk a little bit about it mechanically. So earlier I said that this game was Tetris, and I think we're all going to agree that the game is fun, right, Like it's pretty much always fun. Yeah, Okay, I want to describe for the audience who may or may not have played this game, like what actually happens, because I don't think it's totally clear.
00:32:40
Speaker 2: So, like what happens is you, your character is You're you're sort of piloting your character around, and your character you can basically sort of rotate them in a three hundred and sixty degree angle around this ball that you're pushing forward, right like you're very much like almost like a dung beetle push.
00:33:01
Speaker 4: You're only using little the little knobs. You don't use any buttons.
00:33:04
Speaker 3: Correct, there's no buttons this game. It's just sticks. And the level itself is just a bunch.
00:33:11
Speaker 2: Of weirdly shaped versions of everyday objects pretty much, you know, arranged in a very twee way. Like there's there's like robotic looking boxy mice running around having a great day. There's like, you know, food, there's golf clubs, there's milk bottles, there's you know, uh, there's pails and buckets and just you know, depending on what the what the theme of this level is there's a bunch of stuff that may or may not fit into that strewn around, and your job is to get it to stick to the ball and then to to manage how that thing affects the physics of the ball.
00:33:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, if you gather up, you want to keep the ball as round as possible because at some point, if you grab something that's like really irregular shaped, right, it will really fuck up the way the ball moves. So you're not trying to like and if something hits you, you could knock things, get things knocked off your ball, and then that's a mess too.
00:34:12
Speaker 2: So how often did you have to actually take stuff off the ball to like fix how it was like built?
00:34:18
Speaker 4: Oh, I just kept rolling with it, awkwardly moving. I'm like, well this is this is now.
00:34:25
Speaker 3: It's like a bullet wound in your leg. It's like, well, I'm living with this, I guess I.
00:34:29
Speaker 4: Think eventually as long as you keep picking up more stuff.
00:34:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, there were definitely like three or four moments where like I had shaped my ball so foolishly that I couldn't get to the next part of the level, Like there was a chair sticking out or something, and it legitimately like yeah, you know, laugh and you should because what a shitty ball I was making.
00:34:51
Speaker 2: Uh And like you legitimately couldn't navigate the thing got hard to move around, like it became kind of unwieldy. But the game is designed perfec where it's always a little unwieldy, like it's never easy to operate this thing, like it's a little you feel a little bit like you can't totally control.
00:35:08
Speaker 4: It if you go backwards. It's so slow.
00:35:11
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, that's right.
00:35:12
Speaker 2: It punishes you for for making a mistake, like it's like no, no, you always got to be moving forward.
00:35:20
Speaker 3: And uh, I thought there was. There's something brilliantly frustrating about losing anything attached to the ball, like anytime you lose a single thing, like that fucking cat is coming back, like it.
00:35:33
Speaker 4: Moves, especially if it's like a moving thing like if you catch a bird, Oh my god.
00:35:37
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah yeah yeah. Also there's so many thrilling discoveries of things that are going to stick to the ball, right, like this isial When you first start the game, you don't necessarily think these living creatures are going to become part of the ball. Yes they are. They're all it's all going in uh.
00:35:54
Speaker 2: And it's a great moment the first time you capture a bird and it's sitting there fluttering helplessly.
00:35:59
Speaker 3: In its doom. If you're like, nah, man, you're part of the ball. Sorry, the ball, part of the ball, bros. That's how it goes. When did you first play this game? Guys?
00:36:08
Speaker 4: I want to say, I think I just moved out to la I feel maybe older than that, but I want to say, it's like, when did this come out?
00:36:24
Speaker 3: Originally? It was in the early two thousands.
00:36:26
Speaker 2: I want to say, I'm going to not conspicuously type words into my computer and see if it will tell me exactly when it came out.
00:36:35
Speaker 3: It was for the PlayStation two. It came out in two thousand and four, March two and four for Japan.
00:36:42
Speaker 4: I'm remembering now. I was definitely just out of college at my first job, because I became a little obsessive about the game, and my coworkers printed me out a tiny prince and I had it up on my.
00:36:55
Speaker 5: Desk.
00:36:55
Speaker 4: So yeah, around that, just out of college is when I first played this game.
00:36:59
Speaker 3: Incredible, Hannah, what about you?
00:37:03
Speaker 5: I only played the rebooted version. I had seen. I used to watch actually videos of people like other people playing the PlayStation versions to go to sleep because it's very kind of soothing in a weird way. But I'd never actually played it until like maybe four years.
00:37:20
Speaker 3: Ago, Okay, so fairly recently. Interesting.
00:37:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I also only played it recently because it had gotten like I had just heard so many people who gave me like the down their nose look, you know, just like you haven't played Catamari, Damasey, what are you some kind of a son of a bitch, you know, like just just some just they like it's sort of I guess assumed among the the known video game elite, Like you gotta play this game.
00:37:48
Speaker 3: And I got to tell you. Once I played it, I could see why. Yeah, it's it's.
00:37:53
Speaker 4: The perfect game of Oh I have half an hour to kill. I'd like to play a video game and not get like super involved either, And it's like I'm just gonna pop in for like a little minute before i have to go do something else.
00:38:07
Speaker 5: Yeah.
00:38:07
Speaker 2: And I think it's it's rare in art in general that you get to play something that feels like a unique person made this and like this is their personality.
00:38:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:38:17
Speaker 2: And I'm enjoying it for all of its sort of effervescent individuality. This game is This game and its creator, I assume are are inextricably linked, and it's a product of one brain, and that it's a marvelous brain.
00:38:34
Speaker 3: You know.
00:38:35
Speaker 2: It's just such a that's a thrilling thing when you get to see something like that for the first time.
00:38:41
Speaker 4: A quick rundown of the from the from the creator, like just a great quick summary. So Takahashi artist who went to university for sculpting.
00:38:53
Speaker 3: He's a sculptor, Okay, sure makes sense.
00:38:56
Speaker 4: He came to the philosophy that his art needed to combine practical elements along with whimsy and humor. So, like going to school, that was his whole deal. Everything I make needs to have whimsy and humor. Then he got hired by Yeah, Then he got hired by Namco, who at the time I think was just making like fighting games and yeah, yeah, and so he was assigned to come up with like these silly games, and he developed the characters for Katamari. First, they were supposed to be in something else, Like they were supposed to be hammers, which is why their heads are that shape.
00:39:27
Speaker 2: That makes sense I was always gonna like, I wondered if there'd be an answer to why are their heads so weird?
00:39:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, so they were originally supposed to be like hammering, and it like the game had like the classic kind of like the King's the wife, the queen was kidnapped and the king told the prince to go get the wife because he didn't want to do it, which there was still always the element of that dad sucks and they like put akebash on that because you know video game industry. And eventually he was put in charge of another like come up with something for all these introns that we just hired to do, and he thought of that simple like what about just a mechanic of going from small to big? And they're like, great, love it. Let's get all these newbies on this game, so we give them something to do. And that's how this game started. It was just and they told him to go use those characters from that old game and wow. So so yeah, he's just a dude who's simple concept, wanted to make something kind of fun and lighthearted and got a team of just fresh out of college game designers who wanted to bake something with him.
00:40:36
Speaker 3: It seems this.
00:40:36
Speaker 2: Didn't seem like every cool story for a thing is like some college student who just had a cool idea, Like it doesn't he just feel like like there's just like a window where like, man, uh, we should we should be letting more talented youths that are between the ages of twenty two and thirty two just try a thing if they can.
00:40:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, apparently almost didn't release it. They were weren't sure about it because it was such a weird game, but they took it to like some convention, like a gaming convention in Japan and like teased it and people were like, this is the best one is this coming out? And so namcos well, oh fuck, we should release this, and then they did, and then on a I guess then and then because of how successful it was in Japan, they kind of were like, Okay, let's just release it elsewhere, and they did, but they didn't like there wasn't a lot of people in the OG game like knowing what this was in the US, because they did. Sure, you know, it's a weird ass game.
00:41:35
Speaker 3: I think, And also like we can't underestimate how how cautious an audience probably is when everything about the packaging of it is like this is weird and foreign, you know what I mean. Like, like, I think we've all seen that audiences are initially reluctant to embrace things that they don't immediately connect to, And this game makes absolutely no apologize for its uh, for its strangeness, you know, and I love that about it.
00:42:08
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's what I love about it too. I think the reason we a lot of these stories are about young people is not because it's not because they have like purer, simpler ideas, it's that they are willing to go with those ideas with their whip points.
00:42:28
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:42:29
Speaker 5: I think there's a lot actually in this game about how like self doubt becomes ingrained through society and stuff, or I don't, I don't know how like just messages we get that we internalize from a dumb ass king character or whatever.
00:42:46
Speaker 3: It is, or would internalize if we weren't all so old.
00:42:52
Speaker 4: Uh. Apparently apparently the King's last message at the end of the sequel was don't expect an that sequel. Live in the moment. This is one of the most important lessons in life.
00:43:03
Speaker 3: So he like turned it all around.
00:43:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, So he ends the game with a like I guess like hopeful message, you know, but it's also like you're still a dick, though I wouldn't.
00:43:16
Speaker 5: Like, Yeah, how dare you put me through these entire games and then tell me to live in the moment, you asshole?
00:43:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, with your starhead, your stupid star head. I agree, the Dead is a stupid star headed asshole. And let's take that moment. Let's take that thought and contemplate it a moment as we run into our break and on the other side we will decide whether this game belongs on the Celestial hard drive.
00:43:43
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for that.
00:44:00
Speaker 2: And we're back and unfortunately there's a giant ball it's going to roll us wiggling into it as so we only have minutes to live. But it's fine because you know what a fun intro song. By the way, I feel like the intro song is like a pretty good test for whether somebody is a psychopath. Like it's like, just sit them down and play this song, and if they're not having a good time, Like if you can't tell they're having a good time, that's something's wrong with them. Cause like right that game, like it's such a winsome intro. It made me instantly love this game. Can we get this done?
00:44:33
Speaker 3: In psychology, I.
00:44:36
Speaker 4: Think I read somewhere or like a long time ago, like the soundtrack was made with they hired very popular like jazz musicians and voice actors, but they hired them like when out of their prime, Like they used to be popular and people still like them, but since they're not at their peak, Like that's the people he hired. So it's like very talent, but we're available.
00:45:02
Speaker 3: Essentially, Yeah, the ill considered the discarded.
00:45:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so that's why I like the soundtrack is so good because it's like very talented jazz musicians and like voice actors and stuff who were just like waiting for another gig.
00:45:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of meaning in this little, uh, this little ball of fury that's being collected slowly, and I think we've done a pretty nice show. Do you guys have any last points you want to bring up before we pass our final checkpoint?
00:45:33
Speaker 3: Anything? Send? Ready to go?
00:45:37
Speaker 5: I feel dad's kind of suck.
00:45:40
Speaker 4: That suck.
00:45:42
Speaker 5: Yeah, some good ones, but most of them, they they they're just not great.
00:45:51
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, okay, all.
00:45:54
Speaker 5: Right, Like as a group, there there are good dads, but.
00:46:02
Speaker 3: Why are they mostly bad?
00:46:04
Speaker 2: I want to know, incredible As a person who's never knowingly fathered a child, I can't answer for that.
00:46:15
Speaker 5: But I also always tell doctors I've never had any kids that I know of, and they never laugh. Yeah. Dead.
00:46:25
Speaker 4: Just to be slightly contradictory with this as well, but in the game, you rarely see like his mother who definitely does exist.
00:46:33
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's right.
00:46:35
Speaker 4: I don't I don't know what her deal is. I don't know if she's also abandoned this little prince. Who knows, but she's an absence mom.
00:46:48
Speaker 2: Who could deal with him for that long, you know what I mean. She's like, look, I gotta live for me. I gotta be queen of my own cosmos.
00:46:53
Speaker 3: You know.
00:46:55
Speaker 5: Then take us with you, Yeah, take take take the.
00:46:58
Speaker 4: Little prince with you, Like you find out later there's a bunch of cousins too, who are also adorably designed. But yeah, like, no one's watching out for these little ones. And maybe it's just the culture of these space beings to be like this is how you raise tiny ones. But I mean, maybe I'm not going to give the mom and this props either.
00:47:19
Speaker 2: I know, I'm not really giving anybody props because let's be honest. You are committing genocide. Okay, this's what's happening here. You are destroying entire civilizations as part of your quest to please Dad. So you know, nobody comes out a winner here except the player who has the best time of their life.
00:47:41
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:47:42
Speaker 2: Okay, I guess we're gonna pass our final checkpoint. Then ruminating on the failures of our fathers, and decide does this game deserve to be put forever enshrined on the celestial hard drive so aliens can see it, you know, as long as it doesn't get rolled up into a ball of weird crap.
00:48:00
Speaker 1: What do you think, Hannah, I think considering that this game would be kind of how aliens perceive not just our civilization, but our family dynamics.
00:48:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:48:18
Speaker 5: And it would be super meta to kind of roll this up and put it into space. I would definitely put it there.
00:48:27
Speaker 2: Love it great reasons. I'm all in love. I love your reasoning.
00:48:31
Speaker 3: Uh. Starr, what about you?
00:48:34
Speaker 4: I I like, if it's to preserve things like as a time capsule, I would say yes, Okay. If we're doing it to communicate with aliens, absolutely not. Do not want to give them ideas?
00:48:50
Speaker 3: Good point.
00:48:50
Speaker 4: I don't would not want them to come over and be like, oh, they want us to come roll them up.
00:48:56
Speaker 2: I think I think what we're learning is that both of you take your video game. Now rative's extremely seriously.
00:49:01
Speaker 3: Like absolutely very serious about them, which I love. I think that's great.
00:49:07
Speaker 4: But if it's Time Capsule purposes, then yeah, absolutely put this thing in there, like especially the soundtrack.
00:49:13
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, definitely. Since since we don't currently know in the aliens and therefore it's hard to target specifically to an alien's point of view, I think Time Capsule is probably a more useful way to think about what this is. I think, honestly, it's one of a kind, and there just aren't that many games that are one of a kind. There's lots of games that invented new things, and there's lots of games that were important in shaping what video games are.
00:49:48
Speaker 3: I don't know of any.
00:49:48
Speaker 2: Other games that learned stuff from Katamari Domasy, like I don't see a lot of like games imitating or copying it so much. But it's also a unique world that is brilliant and simple and beautiful. Actually, and especially because I was not emotionally harmed by this poor father figure. I think it absolutely belongs on the Celestial Art Drive. I honestly, I think it's a great game and a great example of what the art form can be, and it totally belongs, And I think Mike would agree. But he's welcome to argue in a hard Drive episode if he doesn't degree, He's welcome.
00:50:27
Speaker 3: To do that. Friends, what a joy having you on. Thank you so much for joining us.
00:50:35
Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
00:50:37
Speaker 5: This is fun.
00:50:38
Speaker 2: Thank you, It's always fun to have you guys on star Where can people find you and your gorgeous artworks that deserve to be known and shared?
00:50:48
Speaker 4: You could find my art at starline arts dot com. That's my Etsy shop where you could purchase a sticker or two. You could also find me on Twitter at starline x and on insta as star Line also pronounts Starlene, but for spelling purposes, star Line is the easiest way to go about that.
00:51:08
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Hannah. What about you?
00:51:10
Speaker 2: Where can we find your comedy stylings?
00:51:15
Speaker 5: My soon to be short lived or at least check mark removed. Twitter is at Hannah Michael's h A N A M I C H E L S. I put the most things on there. Because I don't like to show my face, but I'm gonna have to if I have to pivot to TikTok or Instagram. They're the same handles.
00:51:34
Speaker 3: So okay, yeah, are you gonna pivot to TikTok and Instagram?
00:51:38
Speaker 5: I mean, I feel like it's gonna have to be It's gonna be inevitable at some point, like unless someone comes up at the suitable replacement platform that enough people to get on.
00:51:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, but something might come up. I mean, we used to have live journals in myspaces. There's got to be a new one eventually.
00:52:00
Speaker 3: I had the best MySpace star. You wouldn't even believe it like I had, Like, okay, I had all it was black background, purple text.
00:52:07
Speaker 4: What was your song?
00:52:08
Speaker 3: Thank you for asking?
00:52:10
Speaker 2: It was Little Eyes by Yola Tango. Look, it was a real vibe up in Gansas MySpace.
00:52:15
Speaker 5: Man.
00:52:17
Speaker 2: Also, Hannah, I just want you to confirm for the audience before we actually go, I would look excellent in the forties. You wouldn't admit it, and I'd like you to admit it on the podcast. I would look good at nothing that.
00:52:28
Speaker 5: I wouldn't admit it. All I said was we would all look excellent in the forties because we don't have radium poisoning. I'm not saying you wouldn't be exceptionally excellent.
00:52:38
Speaker 3: Thank you would thank you, thank you.
00:52:40
Speaker 2: That's all I needed. I should have been in the forties. The best outfits for me. Somebody else said I'd look good in the sixties. No, I'd look ridiculous. The forties are the only other time I could have lived.
00:52:52
Speaker 3: Big suits, Yeah yeah, big suits.
00:52:55
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I see it is that hats.
00:53:00
Speaker 3: The hats. They had fucking incredible hats in the forties. You know.
00:53:05
Speaker 2: There were bad things going on, I'm told in the forties, but outfit yeah, outfit.
00:53:10
Speaker 3: Wise, I would have done quite well.
00:53:12
Speaker 2: Hey, listen, if you haven't checked out this game and at our our celebration of it and making fun of it and stuff hasn't convinced you, please let me encourage you.
00:53:23
Speaker 3: This is a one of a kind experience. It's great. It's a great and fun video game.
00:53:27
Speaker 2: It's actually fun to watch, it's fun to play with your friends and stuff, Like I like taking turns. This is that kind of game. I would say it deserves your time. Give it a shot. If you enjoyed this podcast. I would like to hear my voice along with Mike's voice on other podcasts that are not just about video games, but stuff like I don't know movies, like what directors do, like what Friendship's about, how to deal with depression, what's up with dinosaurs? All that kind of stuff. You can go over to our Patreon, which is patreon dot com, forward slash small beans and get just an earful of all of that. If you like it, stick around, throw us a couple of bucks. You'll get even more special stuff, things like talking about the multiverse and others. So thanks so much to our shipheads for listening in.
00:54:15
Speaker 3: Uh.
00:54:16
Speaker 2: Do you have any last confessions you'd like to put on Mike, Hannah or her star.
00:54:20
Speaker 4: I'm going to read one last quote from from the Dad, which was we'd make it much bigger.
00:54:29
Speaker 3: Hannah anything, any crimes you like to commit to or confess to.
00:54:33
Speaker 5: What did you get something in the mail recently? Did someone put a flaming bead on your doorstep? What is happening?
00:54:43
Speaker 3: No? That is that coming.
00:54:47
Speaker 5: Controlling you? And you continue to treat me as though I am still trolling you. It's almost like I have permanently traumatized your nervous system.
00:54:59
Speaker 3: It is almost like that you're my king of all cosmos.
00:55:02
Speaker 4: I was gonna say, Hanna, you've become the king of a cosmos.
00:55:05
Speaker 3: I just every time she talks like this, yere oh God, I swore I would never become my father work completely h
