Dave Bautista in Talks To Play Kratos in God of War - Kinda Funny Games Daily 08.04.26

0:00Head to factomeals.com slash kindoffunny50off and use code kindoffunny50off to get 50 % off. Pre-order your Porty Plushie right now at kindoffunny.com slash Portillo. If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kindoffunny. Today's gaming news stories include Dave Bautista is in talks to play Kratos, Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave Direct Details, and Beast of Reincarnation reviews are in. love all this and more because this is kind of funny games daily what's up and welcome to kind of funny games daily for tuesday august 4th 2026 of course i'm your host tim gettys i'm joined today by the master of hype snow bike mike how you doing tim gettys i'm fantastic because i get to see your face to kickstart the day i love it man me and you on back-to-back shows we're on games daily We're about to be on games cast.

0:56You just did an amazing halo stream on Friday. Halo on games cast fire emblem fortunes. We've yeah. Here on the podcast. I'm kind of funny games daily. It's a killer day. It's a killer day. Lots to talk about, including kind of funny game showdown. I don't want to spoil anything, but your episode of our, who wants to be a millionaire knockoff insert coin to continue went up yesterday and everyone needs to watch it. Everyone needs to watch this. I rewatched it. I was here live when it happened, but I watched it. And first off, shout out to Blessing Raj for killing it. Great job. Making the show look so damn good.

1:32I will never forgive you for your sins. Tune in to find out what I do. You commit to it. Even afterwards, you're like, oh, yeah, didn't even. No. I had a plan, Tim. I had a plan. I stuck to it. Y 'all need to watch to find out what I'm talking about. Because, Mike, you, the way that your brain works needs to be studied. You know, Tim, you're giving it to me just like last night. And I got it from Gary Whitta. Yeah. Gary Whitta got on the phone with me. And he gave me about an hour long Gary Whitta rant. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He was mad at me. Can you talk about what? Oh, yeah. Because I didn't respond.

2:02Well, he wrote how many dudes. And I wrote, Gary, this game's great. And he wrote Goaty. I didn't respond past Goaty. Oh, he called you and got bad. He called me and got on me. That sounds like Gary. That sounds about right. And then, Tim Geddes, just to give a little taste. Last night, I kicked on Shadow of the Colossus for the first time. No. Tim. Tim. I love you. Tim, this game rocks, bro. Yeah, it does. Tim, I'm playing the PS4 version. I love the PS4 version. Let me tell you what. This kid doesn't know how to swim, but man, I got up in this bird cage, and it was flooded. And I crawled, and I swam, and I swam, and I crawled up on top of this rock, and I looked at the bird, and I was like, ooh, ooh, ah, ah.

2:46I'm trying to come, get over to me, and it's not moving. and I fucking drew back my bow and I shot this thing, Tim, and it fucking elevated off the perch and it started soaring at me. And I'm going, this is the craziest video game I've ever played. And Tim, I promise you, it soared at me like a hawk looking at a gopher. And I jumped at the last moment and I grabbed a hold of its fur. And next thing I know, I'm on top of its wings and we're flying around the avium and I'm like, ah! It's the greatest game ever. In the same way that you were shocked that they were making games like Ocarina of Time in 1998, how wild is it that Shadow of the Closset is a PS2 game from 2005 are we not making more of these?

3:24and the remake is very faithful it's so good Tim what a experience that game is I can't imagine being you playing all the 3D Zeldas back to back playing Celeste playing Shadow of the Closset Fire Emblem, Three Houses you are on such a tear I'm on a journey Tim this is like Zelda it's so much like Zelda you open up, it's a guy on a horse he's holding something underneath the blanket epic music beautiful world oh man what's going on oh man dead wife dead wife dude you gotta get her soul back how do you get the soul back you gotta defeat all these 16 monsters behind you I am so excited for your journey I will definitely be tuning in to many moments of it specifically the end if you're watching live be part of this show by super chatting on youtube.com slash kind of funny games we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon so thank you to carl jacobs omega buster delaney the psalm twining and lax nomad you are the best of us for now let's begin with what is and forever will be the roper report it's time for some news we have six stories today a baker's dozen story number one a follow-up to a story from yesterday dave batista is in talks to play kratos in god of war replacing Ryan Hurst in the Amazon series.

4:45This comes from Nelly Andriva at Deadline. Amazon MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Television are getting a big-name replacement for the lead of their high-profile God of War drama series. Dave Bautista's in negotiations to play Kratos in the adaptation of the popular PlayStation video game. The role is being recast after Ryan Hurst, who had been originally set as Kratos, tore a bicep while performing a stunt on set in late June, four months into the shoot, with the injury requiring surgery, followed by a long recovery. God of War paused production immediately following the incident. A couple weeks later, a decision was made to recast the role, with prep expected to begin in mid-August for a mid-October production start in Vancouver, where the show has been based.

5:25Batiste's extensive background as a decorated professional wrestler would allow him to step into a physically demanding role, such as Kratos, with limited preparation given the tight schedule. What's more, he's coming off shooting a similarly physical fantasy project, the new Highlander movie, which required him to bulk up. The ancient mythology-themed God of War from writer, executive producer, and showrunner Ronald D. Moore began filming in February in Vancouver on a two-season order with the season slated to film back-to-back, which remains the plan. Mike? Yeah, Tim, you guys talked about the possible or the plan for recasting in season two of certain characters.

6:00We know about the Ryan situation and the torn biceps, the time that it's going to take, and now having to pivot and look for someone new. We talk about Dave Bautista, a man who I've wanted to play in Gears of War for many of years, right? We know him as Drax. We know, of course, his WWE career and how big this man is, right? We're also looking at a man that, yeah, as of right now, Tim, I believe he is 50-something, 52, 57 windows. So he's quite old now, right? And that's a lot to put the body through. He clearly just did the Highlander. So he clearly might be a little bit in better shape than, Hey, I'm ready to perform, take my t-shirt off shape here.

6:40The one thing I got for this, Tim is, you know, I love Dave Bautista. And if he doesn't want to take his t-shirt off, he wants to relax in his golden years and like do other movies. I'm all for that. I like Dave Bautista. I don't think he has a fear of taking his t-shirt off. I'm a stuber guy. You know what I mean? Well, no, I kind of fear. I think it's more like, Hey, I don't want to put my body through this. It's like a 50 year old man. I'm ready to chill now. But 2018 God of War, kratos more dad bod strength than two or you know god of war two where it's young man kratos and i'm ripped out of my mind yeah so could dave batista pull off dad bod super strong kratos hell yeah he could i'm not fully gonna let you just breeze past i'm a stuber guy but uh i'm sure you do mike i'm sure you do uh i love dave batista and i think that dave batista as kratos is such a holy shit moment for this show if they can pull this off this seems impossible to me like this is like oh it's in negotiations this is coming from dead uh line i was about to say deadpool coming from deadline that means that there's something real happening here these conversations are happening can they get this across the finish line if they do that is such a major win dave batista is an amazing actor we have seen him act his ass off in some amazing projects i think of blade runner 2049 his performance in that was so damn good like he has proven that he's not just what he looks like he's not just a professional wrestler you know batista doing the batista bomb coming out with the machine guns and all of that right but he also can be that and i think that that is such a perfect back and forth that we need for kratos specifically 2018 dad kratos right where he is a bit more reflective and still very very strong but a bit more strong in his wisdom but when he needs to fight you get those glimpses those flashes of what he used to be and i think that batista i know the batista can pull that off we've seen him pull that off in many many movies over the last decade he's gotten a lot he's never he's gotten an incredible shape in a different way in the last couple years right but they're talking i haven't seen him recently i haven't seen him in this highlander situation right he's smaller than you imagine yeah what i've seen him recently because he got very very small relatively to how massive this man used to be um but i don't know that he has to be you know 2007 massive batista to play this this uh this version of kratos so i'm super in i okay i'm very hopeful like yesterday we were talking about if this show can be good and like all the things that has going against it it still has all those things going against it but if it has batista that is that's a huge win i think that that that gives it a lot more i like how high you are on this is pretty cool are you not surprised that i'm just a little i think batista would take me a little bit out of it i think batista really good i like him in a lot roles the god of war role as kratos i think seeing batista as kratos it's gonna kind of take me out of it similar like when i see the rock try to portray certain roles i'm like oh yeah i feel like i'm freaking out of the rock can't be serious the batista can be serious and you're not wrong like i i feel like no matter what happens we're gonna look at it and think that's batista in kratos cosplay yeah i'm not too bothered by that because i would rather that than I don't know pretty much anything else.

10:17Honestly, I think the name brand Batista, like if we're doing a adaptation, I like that. Like, I feel like it just adds a level of, wow, this matters. I think about last of us and Pedro Pascal as Joel. It's like, yeah, you can't not see Pedro Pascal. We know Joel so well that it's like kind of a tough one, but I feel like that elevates it in a way. It makes it matter to normal people more. And I feel like that's the same thing here with Batista. It makes this show matter because again, I keep saying this, but like we've seen Batista act his ass off. Like in, um, uh, Kev, help me out here. What was the Shaman on?

10:52Oh, uh, cabin in the woods. No, no. The cabin, the cabin night in the cabin. So, oh yeah. Something about a goddamn cabin. Right. He was great in that. Knock at the cabin. Knock at the cabin. I've seen him. Bad movie though. Bad movie, but he was great. And I feel like that's the type of shit that we need from a 2018 Kratos. Okay. But I don't know. We'll see if they get across the finish line, right? You're talking about a guy who, like you just brought up, well-known. He has the body for this, right? Especially when we're talking about the 2018 Kratos and Atreus body. This is kind of the look right here.

11:27We're looking for more of a dad figure, a little bit older, a little more sage, a little wise. If they get across the finish line, it'll be very exciting. The question is, can they make this happen? And what's the timeline now? Because, like, this poor team's up against the wall. we got we got a six to eight month bicep injury that yeah only threw us all i mean they're saying to try to get somebody in here asap they're they're still prepped to begin in mid-august that's next month that's this month that's right that's two weeks from that yeah yeah yeah so we need to get on that shit lock in a deal fly you out and get you on set but he also has been on highlander so it's not like he needs to get back into a different training uh resume or whatever it's like i think that he's there uh it is interesting the chat is very against me on this the chat does not i feel like the chat feels like me of like when you you bring up a great point about batista i feel that but like my worry is i go to drax right and like he nailed drax for like the one-liners and the body and like the look and we we grew to love drax but like it wasn't giving kratos and yeah but that's the thing is i feel like batista is just so much more than the drax character like i feel like that's that is it's just we don't really often see him do that type of thing i think that that is an outlier more than i don't think of batista as the comedy guy maybe you do because you're mr stuber exactly because my mind goes to this is a rock situation to me of like batista to me is the drax one-liners he's the stuber funny guy he he wants to be like mike i can do so much more let me show you and like i think he just gets put into the roles of like super badass character and whatever cyberpunk and dune movie and like it's cool but he doesn't have the one where it's like like i can act watch this i don't i don't know man i think he does i think i i put him in such a different category than the rock like i really feel like the rock is he's the rock yeah and it's you see that jumanji trailer and you're like god damn it the rock's still the rock you know batista takes himself very seriously and and i agreed to the point that he might not have had a major success win as a like incredibly serious actor as a lead but i think that he has proven that he's got the stuff as a supporting actor in a bunch of different roles um and we know that he has the physical ability both from wwe and from seeing drax and seeing other similar characters but yeah i don't know i feel like i can't think of a a casting i enjoy more for this role um again specifically for the 2018 kratos that does take himself very seriously that is just a lot of not one-liners but he doesn't say much but when he says something it's impact yeah and it's filled with like past experience and wisdom you know i guess i just i i just so everyone's clear on this i ride for dave batiste and i'm in on this idea my worry is like this is supposed we want god of war to be Last of Us level.

14:26We want this to be like pushing that video game to movie and TV screen. Pushing genre here. When you say Batista to me, I'm like, is this going to be a middle-of-the-road video game adaptation that we're going to be like, that had two seasons and we didn't care? I mean, I think that's very likely. I think Batista is not the reason for that, though. I think Batista is the thing that pushes us like, oh, okay. Okay. Maybe this can be more. We'll see. Jameson Peters super chat saying Tim is right. Batista would be a great Kratos. He has the voice too. So yeah, one person agrees with me. Many, many don't.

15:02No, there's people in the Twitch chat. They agree with you. It's like, I think we all here collectively ride for Batista. And it's just one of those of like more of a, hey, you get this job done, you show it to me. Maybe I'll become a believer. Vorano Rad says, Chai Lewis Perry for Kratos. He's perfect. Look him up. Kev, can you look this up? ch i lewis harry see

15:36oh wow okay see i see this more as the the greek era although he's looking pretty big there yeah just you see he's more spelt tam it's gonna be a fine line yeah how yoked this kratos will be yeah yeah let's just say that's interesting whatever the next photo is as you guys talked about yesterday has to be better than the first photo it does it really whatever whatever the set photo comes out with next has to be way better than that first photo because we all thought that doesn't look right it just don't look right yeah yeah and i mean i do agree with you that when we first see that set photo we're gonna look at it be like that's batista that's batista in a god of war cosplay yeah right yeah but like maybe in motion maybe talking with atreus and the other actors is like you see and you're like you know what but you know what pulling it off yeah uh zach says arnold schwarzenegger is kratos and danny devito as atreus why not you know why not let's get to story number two fire emblem fortunes weave direct reveals true protagonist and plot details gameplay systems this comes from marcus stewart at game informer this morning's fire emblem fortunes weave nintendo direct featured a 20 minute gameplay deep dive into the upcoming strategy rpg the presentation broke down classes and non-combat activities and revealed the game's true structure.

16:49As previously detailed, Fortunes Weave centers on four playable protagonists who enter the Heroic Games, a gladiator-style arena tournament to have their wish granted. Kai, Dietrich, Theodora, and Leda. You can switch between playing each one at any time with progress for each one saved, allowing you to experience each character's narrative in parallel. This plays into the game's main theme of multiple fortunes intertwining. The Fortunes Weave. Tim, the Fortunes Weave. However, the twist is that this era is actually set in the past fortune's weave's true plot is set five years in the future where the world has been destroyed by the returning demon god balor the progenitor god so this has summoned the one soul capable of stopping him a nameless hero clad in white who's the game's true protagonist to avoid facing balor alone this hero travels to the past to influence the fates of the four champions in order to assemble them in the future to save the world it's classic fireball stuff arena combat involves choosing a team of units and placing them on the field in traditional firearm fashion units can wield swords gauntlet spears axes bows and magic each with different properties and even forms like a gun unleashed combat arts deal great damage at the expense of weapon durability while blaze arts uh unleashed bespoke special moves at the expense of hp there's a whole bunch of stuff there there's a lot of info here i don't even know that we need to get into all of this but uh between matches free time occurs you can prepare for future battles by training in the arena or watching rival battles to gather intel on them the shopping arcade offers new weapons and enhancements.

18:17At Temple Row, you can volunteer at certain temples to temporarily gain stat buffs in battle, such as reduced damage. Taking certification exams lets units learn a new class, provided they have prerequisite skills, blah, blah, blah. Outside of the place, you can explore a world map to visit towns, gather information to find treasures, and battle in random encounters. You can also find dungeons to get materials for weapons and other rewards. Interestingly, dungeon battles unfold as traditional turn-based battles instead of taking place on a grid. very very interesting for you to hear about that mike you watched this you watched this nintendo direct you at this point are the fire emblem guy in the office which i love to see in here so much uh what do you think this was hype tim 20 minutes of awesomeness right there i'm so pumped up for this game and i really loved the deep dive it started off nice and slow hey this is the area here's your four characters hey here's the basics of the video game and then we started to get really rolling, right?

19:14We talked about what you're going to be doing between battles, when you're going to be off exploring on the world map. Hey, there's dungeons now. Okay, well, what are we doing in the dungeons? Oh, we're going to turn this into a turn-based action experience. You're like, okay, that's really cool. And then they're like, get this. There's this pale owl over here. You can switch between all four characters at any time and start to play their story. You're like, what? And then they're like, oh man, if you thought that was it, if you were battling for one wish no no no we're going five years in the future the gosh darn demon lord is here and you are a new hero and you got an option you can either fight solo as a new hero that's going to be difficult or you go back and get the other four heroes from the stories that you made them stronger with that is hype tim oh my gosh i love it man i i mean so so this direct had a lot of info in it what's the thing that gets you most excited i mean that right i really vibe with the four characters, all of their fun backstories, right?

20:12You have Kai, a 15-year-old boy celebrating his birthday. Then his father gets imprisoned. And so his goal is to go join the games to save his father, right? Theodore's a kingdom from the kingdom of the South. She works as like the goddess of death and wants people to appreciate the goddess more. So she's out on a rampage. They all look awesome. The new classes, like an elephant rider, people riding on ostriches and stuff, like really vibing with that. him super excited and the idea of being able to play as for all four of the characters at any time right i think that's the exciting stuff of when you come off of three houses it was very much hey you're going to choose a character here and you're going to ride through this long epic story and you'll finish and the diehards will continue they'll choose another character and see what that story is like and like that's a lot yeah but now the idea of like hey you can pause it anytime weave their lives and see what their stories are.

21:08That's super awesome. What's the turn-based battle look like? If you go Kevin to the world map, you'll see it does look like a very Final Fantasy with the 3D models where it's going to stop and they're going to go keep going, Kevin, way deep into this. Probably around the 15 minute mark. We'll keep going. One second chat. So it looks like a traditional turn-based move here. Keep going, Kevin. You're going to see him get on a world map further further right there click on that kevin we'll start to see some so here's the world map tim that you'll explore alongside uh dagnion and here in just a moment we'll see it but it's like they go into a dungeon you go to that classic third person adventuring around the town's a little bit further kevin and then you'll run into an encounter and it looks like a traditional Final Fantasy type turn-based battle here.

21:59Right there, boom. Interesting. Which is kind of fun. Yeah. It's not the main combat. But it kind of is though, right? Like it's still kind of using the same. Yeah, but you're not using the grid. Yeah. And you're not on the map. And it's not going full tactics. It's like that with their moves and stuff. But just a little change in formula, which I appreciate. This seems like a lot. Do you think it seems like too much? Oh, Tim, this is going to be massive. And are you excited about that? Three houses was already too massive for me. but I got over it and I did it. This seems like another step past that of like what you can do in the city with everything going on, getting quests, recruiting people, buying weapons, upgrading your weapons, going to these different temples.

22:38Then you can even watch your opponent's battle matches so you can learn from them and get stronger, which is very cool. Meaning like if you choose Kai, you can watch Theodora and her crew battle in the arena. That's awesome. And then the idea of going to this world map, we're going to do a lot of time into this game. It's very intimidating. And also at the same time, like this is what you want it to be. You want me. I was going to put it into this.

23:0740, 40 to 80. I mean, I, I, I can't lie to you, Tim. Like when I watch this, I of course want to go do all four of their stories and have them as strong as possible when it's finally time to call upon them with the time travel. but like in reality maybe i'll do two and then go for that you know what i mean we'll see it's just so dope yeah uh snow 13 says fire emblem comes out on my birthday this year this direct had me super hyped i'm counting down the days and then gondor's condor says to anyone who played three houses is there any known connection with fortune's weave i just want to double check before i accidentally spoil myself there's a couple characters that i don't know i mean i the The girl with green hair, Sothis.

23:51I believe she was in there, right? She was talking to me. That's the only one I know. In the chat, people are saying that we're not sure if this is a prequel or sequel to that world. Would you rather see more or less connections to Three Houses from this? No connections. I don't need any connections. I want a new world. I want new characters. I fell in love with my Three Houses world. I loved every moment with them. I don't need any. If it's like one character that shows up and all of a sudden you can make that connection, that's fun and cool. But I don't need any. I want new characters. I want to meet new people.

24:22When is this coming out? Is this September? September. We're close. Are you ready, Tim? It's going to be unbelievable. I can't wait to see you just get lost in this. I know a lot of people are like 40 to 80 hours. Mike, that's low. You're going to spend a lot more time than that. I have a lot of things to do in life, and I'd like to do 40. But yeah, you're going to do hundreds of hours in this game, just so you know, when you are playing it all by yourself and having a good time. September 17th, 2026. We're right around the corner. Hell yeah. And they have the special physical edition too. Big art book.

24:55I think it's like 80 to 100 plus pages. That looks lit. 12 like special player cards and stuff. You getting it? I mean, maybe I buy it and I take all the goodies and I give Andy the video game case because he's collecting Switch games now. So you just want the like - I just want the art book. That's all I want. I want the art book. I love you, Mike. I love you so much. I also love all of you and your support of us at Kind of Funny. where you can get all the shows ad-free over on Patreon. But if not, here's a word from our sponsors. This episode's brought to you by Factor. The last couple months have been wild here at Kind of Funny with travel and events.

25:29And when your routine takes a hit, it can be easy to get off track. Thankfully, with Factor's chef-crafted, dietician-designed, ready-to-eat meals, getting back to eating right is easy without having to choose between real food and convenience. With over 175 banned ingredients, every Factor meal is designed around what supports a healthier lifestyle and nothing that doesn't. Factor Meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So even on the days your schedule is completely out of control, eating well is still achievable. On many occasions, Factor has completely saved Greg and Jen when they needed it most during busy work days.

26:06Let's eat real. Head to factormeals.com slash kindoffunny50off and use code kindoffunny50off to get 50 % off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October 31st, 2026. That's code KINDOFUNNY50OFF at factorymeals.com. KINDOFUNNY50OFF at factorymeals.com. See the website for more details. Long live the king. Long live Portillo the wiener dog. We partnered with the good people over at Make Ship for this adorable king party to honor my late great pup, but we can't do it without your pre-order. Adored in his signature blue bow tie and coffee sleeve crown, Now you too can have your own personal porty to sit with you through long gaming sessions, keep you company at your desk, or cuddle with on those cold, cold nights.

26:53I miss my little guy every single day, and I can't wait to share this with my son Ben and you, the Kinda Funny best friends. But King Porty only gets made if 200 of you pre-order. That's how makeshift campaigns work. So please, please pre-order now at kindoffunny.com slash porty to get your own special little guy. That's kindoffunny.com slash porty, P-O-R-T-Y. I need 200 of you to believe. Kindoffunny.com slash porty. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace, and there it was, the bike you'd been searching for. You sent a message, and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist.

27:39The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. well a community cycling group the thing about facebook you might find more than what you're looking for from a browse to a bike ride this summer find more on facebook and we're back with story number three beast of reincarnation review roundup it's currently at a 73 on metacritic and a 76 on open critic travis northup at ign gave it a 6 out of 10 saying beast of reincarnation is an action RPG that has some great ideas blossoming here and there, but they can be hard to spot among the weeds. He actually came through to record a Gamescast yesterday with Andy and Bless.

28:18You can check that out. Matt Wales at Eurogamer gave it three stars, saying Game Freak borrows liberally from the genre's biggest hits, and while it's messy and muddled, it's salvaged by exhilarating combat and traversal, and a surprising amount of soul. Imran Khan at Restart Run gave it three stars, saying the action game from Pokemon developers Game Freak and Fictions is an impressive first attempt in some ways, but a huge tumble down the hill in most others. The end result is a mixed, messy package with some virtues. Mike, you played a little bit of this. Yeah, I did. I've played a little bit past the opening here, about three hours, maybe into the five-hour mark, but I enjoyed the combat.

28:54The traversal I thought was pretty fun with, like, the idea of using vines to stretch out above the battlefield and then drop upon opponents, which was really cool. You get the big stab and kind of kill them instantly. Also, she'll like put vines from the bottom of her boot so you can get elevated up super high. So Traversal was really fun. Combat is like the normal action RPG combat, but I do enjoy the Final Fantasy VII active battle turn-based thing where you can call upon the dog, do some special moves, and that kind of gives you a little breather. Really enjoyed that. Story immediately was turned off by.

29:32And so, yeah, I don't know if I'll go any further with this game. I actually, yeah, I know I'm not going to play any more of this. And so I gave it a nice little try. Yeah. Yeah. We have roaring Beagle in the chat saying game definitely has potential. I'm only two hours or so in it has its quirks for sure though. Yeah. It's interesting. What a, what a weird game. Like just the, the fact that it's made by game freak is so surprising. Yeah. I was, it was interesting, Tim, cause I was excited to see you yesterday. Cause I was listening to Chris plant on the post games podcast. that Greg's been recommending a bunch and I listened to him talk about Game Freak's history, right?

30:11And yeah, it's a lot of Pokemon, but there is other games in this. I wanted to ask you, like, have you ever played any of other Game Freak's other titles? Yeah, just never fully. Like, just like little previews here and there. I remember back in the IGN days, I forget the name, was it called Town? I think that was a game that came out. But the thing is, this is so radically different than those. Like, all of those felt like smaller little titles that, like, you would believe were made by the team that makes Pokemon kind of in their spare time yeah right you see this and it's like no one would have looked at that trailer and been like it's game freak you know like that's just like such a wild left turn um and yeah you know these reviews are are pretty pretty mid yeah right like all things considered so it's not like they they really knocked this one out of the park it seems like but they didn't fail like this is a decent step towards a much much bigger game than pokemon in terms of what they're trying to go for yeah i mean andy i think said on the review there of like he would like to see a sequel from this right and we kind of have these moments now on the the podcast recently of like talking about game developers who are it's like almost there or like hey i like the foundation that you built i would love to see you take another swing at this and see what you could build upon and make this a little bit better i mean that's how i feel about south of midnight that's how i feel about cana bridge of spirits like we're getting a cana sequel but i i it's a lot more doubtful we'll get a south of midnight sequel at this point but you know these games that are very good very very good but like could be amazing um so yeah here with beast of reincarnation i'm not surprised that there there does seem to be a kind of like trend of feelings of there's something here but they didn't quite nail that thing um but still cool to see something different especially from a developer that we've seen the same from for 30 years at this point Go listen to that post games podcast.

32:04Really good stuff. Yep. We have Baba Tumdede saying birthday tax turning 31 today. Been listening since 2017. Thank you all for what you do. Happy birthday. Birthday, Baba. To you. Billy, the pizza says just pre-ordered my porty plushie. Long live the king. Long live the king. I love it. They're very cool. They're adorable. They're very adorable. And Peter Ropp says Blade Runner 2049 or 2048. nor to run short film will make you a Batista believer. Gotta check it out. I'll check it out. I'll check it out. Move on to story number four here. FIFA World Cup developer refactor games shuttered by Delphi Interactive.

32:47This comes from Chris Kerr at Game Developer. A number of refactor games employees claim that sports game specialist has been shuttered shortly after shipping FIFA World Cup launch edition. Multiple staffers impacted by the situation alleged the entire studio was touched, torched, not touched, torched at the hands of part owner Delphi Interactive. It's unclear how many people have been impacted by the closure. The U.S. studio employed a number of former EA Sports, 2K Sports, and one team partners, developers, and released its debut project, Football Simulator, into early access in 2022. more recently refactor worked on fifa world cup launch edition in tandem with delphi which confirmed it owned it part owns the studio during an interview with games industry.biz earlier this year the international soccer simulator launched exclusively onto netflix games in june 2026 and while it was critically panned netflix described the title as a top tier performer delphi just pulled the plug on refractor studios right after we shipped the fifa world cup game for netflix the entire studio was let go today so if anyone's looking for talent i can put you in contact with someone some pretty awesome folks wrote one former refactor employee on linkedin wow wow that sucks it definitely sucks super unfortunate do you know anything about no i don't i had to look up game footage of this because i have not seen this i am a kid that grew up with the fifa kind of offside titles of you know uh world cups whenever they'd have that they'd always come out with like a little mini fifa package that you could buy as a full price title and like we were playing the world cup games i was wondering where those went looks like netflix tried to capitalize on that just like i had been stating a year beforehand who's going to jump on the fifa world cup who will be trying to capitalize on that i thought it would be rematch would do a little bit more i thought we'd see rematch kind of come back into the fold but yeah netflix games we've always talked about them trying to get something going right and so yeah here was their move for sure yeah i mean it's a lot of this stuff just seems like a lot of buzzwords and it just the netflix games of it all and you know just this feels very cash grabby and it feels like they kind of got their cash and then they're like fuck it we're out i mean i think that's their move right of like hey the world cup's coming up we're netflix we want some sort of game let's get a team to build this right and i think the probably the goal would have been is like hey we're gonna do this so one and done and then we're done let's get in front of that and tell everybody or you should build off of that and go okay what's the next cash grabby thing we can jump to to get this team on and try to be a part of yeah and critically panned but netflix describes it as a top tier performer it's just like oh god they got what they wanted and then they just laid a bunch of people off and closed the studio horrible shit everybody uh let's move on to story number five quote it would be a real shame for that culture to disappear final fantasy 7 revelation director says physical game releases must continue this comes from verity townsend at ign fall fancy 7 remake trilogy director naoki hamaguchi has said that the end of physical games risks part of our culture disappearing in the wake of sony's controversial decision to kill playstation 5 discs last month sony made headlines when it announced an end to new game shipping on disc from january 2028 onwards triggering a huge backlash for many fans now to recent final fantasy 14 fan fest aship's release notes asked hamaguchi for his personal thoughts on the matter quote in terms of my thoughts on physical editions as a gamer myself i love them uh as a game creator it made him happy when fans asked him to sign their physical copies it'd be a real shame for that culture to disappear i think physical games will still be sold in some form in the future for example as a download code in a box moreover moreover i want physical games to continue both as a creator and a game fan he still remains the goat yeah you know you're saying what a lot of people are saying he's just one of us mike god i love it but yeah it is so such a sad place to be that we're just looking looking at the end yeah it's very interesting to start hearing people from the industry and especially like names like that kind of speak on this matter and be like hey here are my touchstones and here's what matters to me right that moment of a fan asking me to sign the disc or i'm sure behind me a shelf that is full of Final Fantasy games and other games that are beloved right so yeah we are at a turning point here for sure and it's fun and heartbreaking to hear a lot of people's feelings on the matter Jonathan in the chat says Final Fantasy 7 is going to be the first and last Final Fantasy shipped on a disc that's crazy yeah it is man and it is sad and like like that's the thing is like there's uh Hamaguchi was asked a couple weeks ago if Revelations is even going to be on a disc and he was like i i don't know i don't make that decision like it's it's above him so um i imagine it will be you know like this this is ending in 2028 um and this revelation set for early 2027 so um i think we'll be okay there but you know like maybe square looks at it and is like on some cost saving shit they're just like let's just get ahead and not do that and especially this being the first final fantasy 7 remake project that is going to launch multi-platform right like day and date it's going to be on switch and xbox and playstation so it's like making the decision to go physical has a lot more choices and decisions that have to be made um and we already see with remake and rebirth that they are just game key cards on on the switch but that's they he actually explained why unlike a lot of the other third parties where it's like uh they cannot fit this game on the the cartridge no matter what because of how big it is um yeah i don't know it's not the world i want to live in mike no it's the end of the air tim and i know you love that stuff right like i'm picturing my mind we won't be seeing a final fantasy 7 trilogy box set right of like all the game discs in there we might but like we are at the end of the era of like something cool like that happening where it's like hey here was an awesome run here's games that i loved man the box set would be epic to have with all the discs and then that and yeah that's that's the end of this i do think that there will always be the limited run games or im8-bit like the more niche collectors edition like we're doing this for the love of the game type stuff um and so i imagine that we will get a fall fantasy 7 remake collection of some sort like that's just there's just too much money left on the table from the collectors for that type of thing but a lot of other games like that's not going to be the case right and it's it is interesting because like things come and go in waves where for a long time vinyls kind of were that really niche like they exist but only for like the weirdos out there and now it's kind of become a way more mainstream thing where it's like if you're a major artist you're putting your shit on vinyl because there is a big enough audience out there um to buy that still niche all things uh you know relative but I do think that there's been like a major upswing in that.

39:41And I imagine that video games could see that type of upswing in the future, but it's always going to be a novelty. It'll never just be the standard that we expect. And there's a million reasons for that. It makes sense at the end of the day. It's just really, really sad to see. And I hate it. I personally really hate it, but I've also been wrestling with this for years already. So like I've kind of made peace with the fact that this is the direction that we're going uh that we've been going and it's just kind of we're at the destination now um but it doesn't make me like it mike oh tim you you break my heart because you're my guy on this tim you know me i've gone full digital so like i'm on that but like when i hear you talk about this and i see it in your eyes i'm like tim will lose this like yeah it does hurt you know but the thing there too is like i i i went full digital years ago too like i think video games from a actual personal experience standpoint for me it's like i am a full digital guy like i have not played a physical game by choice in years and i haven't put a disc in my playstation a single time i haven't put a disc in my xbox a single time uh like there's a couple switch games that i have physically that are that that i don't own digitally and i was talking about this yesterday of like how annoying that is to me where i wish i had if i own the physical game i wish i had it digitally and uh it's good that xbox seems like they're kind of working on a system to do that But it's a system way too late.

41:03It's a system that's going to come out when discs don't exist anymore. It's like, no, I wanted it when they existed. But anyways. The whole disc conversation, it's big news, Mike. It's big sad news. But if I wanted to know about something smaller, where would I look? Tim, I take you to our last story, the Wii News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about. It's true. Ten preview tracks from Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave are now available on Nintendo Music. I love this. I think this is so cool. Nintendo did it with Star Fox as well. Before the game comes out, putting some preview tracks on Nintendo Music, let people get the vibes going, you know?

41:41So that's cool. And Fire Emblem Music, bang, bang. So that's going to be sick. Coming to Game Pass on August 6th, Monsters are coming on August 11th. Date Everything on August 13th, Cricket 26 and Sandistry. Then Premium, you got Bounty Star, Power Wash Simulator 2, Ball Pit, Grounded 2, Mio, Memories in Orbit, which is a cool game. Yeah, that's some love. And taking on from Gamatsu, publisher Silver Lining Interactive. Excuse me. Sorry, my throat's still bothering me. A newly revealed development subsidiary, Silver Bullet, have announced Mr. Trippy, an ice cream salesperson simulation game where your real business is drugs.