Sacred Symbols, Episode 95: Be Afraid

I just looked it up. You're right. I thought it was Islam, personally.

Colin Moriarty

Hey Adam! You submit your inquiries via the threads that now go live on Monday afternoons. =) So, just C&P this there!

Colin Moriarty

Hi gents. Pretty sure Christianity is the world's largest religion for what that's worth...

Ed White

Hey Colin, new Patron here so not sure where I submit questions for the next episode of Sacred Symbols so I guess I’ll just do it here? I recently finished both Doom Eternal and Days Gone. There was a specific instance in Doom Eternal where I finished a mission (I believe it was the Arc Reactor) and I experienced a MASSIVE rush of adrenaline : the music, the action....it all came together and at the end of the level and I felt 50 feet tall! This is a very rare experience for me. The reason I also mentioned Days Gone was because I experienced a similar feeling the first time I accidentally stumbled upon a hoard but somehow managed to survive. Do you and Chris have any similar stories of experiencing these adrenaline rushes and do you think games a unique medium for experiencing theses feelings? Cheers, Adam

Adam Mullany

He did say that, so that's what we reported.

Colin Moriarty

No, not particularly. PlayStation is PlayStation; how they deal supporting the brand is up to them. I really think they need to hold PS5 back if they can't produce enough, or if economic conditions are poor. They're gonna hurt their machine otherwise. You only get to launch once.

Colin Moriarty

Okay, Weber!

Colin Moriarty

Really looking forward to playing it, either way. =)

Colin Moriarty

Good 'ol Kotaku.

Colin Moriarty

I can't imagine the games remaining at $60. We shall see.

Colin Moriarty

Hey! Thanks for joining up. We have no option on Patreon to split feeds. If we had the option, we'd take it! Sorry, man. But welcome!

Colin Moriarty

Any religion or philosophy can be (and often is) bastardized.

Colin Moriarty

I think there's a realistic chance Sony will gobble 'em up.

Colin Moriarty

I am pretty sure that Cerny said that they tested the top 100 most played PS4 games on the PS5. But the people who assumed that that meant those were the only games wrongly interpreted what he said.

Dee Han

The spoilers have been deleted and the person has been permanently banned from CLS' Patreon. I've also escalated it to Patreon to inquire about a site-wide ban.

Colin Moriarty

I dunno. I’ve had it spoiled, and It’s gone from a day one to keeping an eye out on Facebook market place. I don’t care about the business decisions naughty dog makes, but these narrative decisions are something else. It’s a damn shame

Bro...these last of us leaks....wow

I know most have probably heard but if you haven't Last of Us 2 has been leaked basically in its entirety by a disgruntled employee. Everyone here us obviously a Playstation fan so at all fucking cost avoid everything. Do not go into comment threads on any video of any nature even if its unrelated to the game. People are spoling it left and right. I have not been spoiled but I just want to say, what a lowlife peice of trash you have to be to do this. So because your mad at Naughty Dog you punish gamers? Instead of taking legal action you ruin the game for fans around the world who have been waiting years for this game? This game means so much to so many people on a personal level, and because your mad at your employer you take it out on the fans and the gamers? Really solid plan unnamed Naughty Dog employee. Real loser.

Brett Carlson

Hey Colin, Regarding your confusion and contention about Sony wanting to keep marketing PS4s during the launch of the PS5, don’t you think you’re conflating two different markets? The PS4 would be targeting budget conscious people outside the ecosystem, whereas the PS5 would be targeting your enthusiasts/early adopters most likely already part of the ecosystem. Hence, I don’t see any cannibalisation. Or were you referring to some other concern? Cheers, Pete

Pete

Hey Colin, Definitely Weeber! Someone must have made a mistake on Ellis Island. The amount of people who think I have mispelled my own name is hilarious! Thanks for the benefit of the doubt on it being possible word play! It would actually be, "Weebles wobbles but he doesn't fall down." Or back to the more clever elementary students, Dweeber.

Jason W

https://kotaku.com/check-out-the-sexy-butt-on-those-watermelons-1630920200

BigBossSquirtle

I doubt the games will be $70. They’ll be $60 and these days prices of games fall pretty quickly. I see sales on PSN all the time, even big AAA games see a discount after 2-3 months.

I promised last week that if you made the change to the recording dates, I'd become a patron in a heartbeat. Just pledged at the $5 tier and couldn't be happier. Really think this is gonna improve the podcast a lot. Minor comment as a new patron: I really wish the members-only feed was split up between Sacred Symbols and Knockback. Nothing against knockback at all, but I'm not interested in the show and it just takes up extra space in my feed so I'm less excited when a new episode comes through. I also miss the Sacred Symbols artwork. Thanks again guys!

Micah Owens

As Colin and Chris pointed out: When that many people "misinterpreted" what they said- it probably wasn't a "misinterpretation". Sony mis-stated, and they didn't clear up what was originally said. They issued a brand new statement that held completely different meaning from what was said during the Cerny cast

Jack Sibert

I did find it to be one of the more difficult bosses in the game, but still beat it first try. You wanna use Aeris for the vast majority of the fight. And just spam Pray. Also make sure to use Block judiciously.

Jack Sibert

In regards to the backwards compatibility of the PS5, I've only found that all additional statements have only reinforced how I understood the original statement from "Mark Cerny's Power Hour". I'm slightly concerned that there was such a huge misunderstanding from the original statement, and while I understand that it wasn't the most riveting or succinct video, it's a shame that so many outlets misinterpreted what was said. It's nice that Sony has cleared up what was originally stated.

Cat Charlie

Anyone get to Hell House yet in FF7 remake? I thought it was insanely hard on normal. Took me like 10 attempts to beat lol

Eric Bolella

I’m a Christian and I’ll admit that I’m not a very good one, but on the topic of christianity being portrayed as “evil” I know it’s not a representation of what I believe. I know that there are Christian groups out there that are radical and thats not how the bible tells us to behave. Love, peace, kindness etc. so it’s really not a big deal. Simply because if you read the teachings they don’t ever tell you to persecute people. We are to love people no matter what.

FoxHopSmash

Bluepoint is mentioned a lot in the ecosystem for Sony, I'm really surprised they haven't been bought yet. They also keep teasing whatever they are working on next to the point where it's annoying. Maybe Sony is waiting to see how their next release will do before Sony drops the cash to buy them? I really do hope it is Demon's Souls remastered but I guess we shall see.

Dick McFarmhouse

They're still charging $39.99 for it? That's surprising. I think it's worth it, but... can't say for sure. I don't know how you're going to like it, obviously. A lot of people think I have way too much love for it.

Colin Moriarty

It matters to a lot of people. That's why we had the conversation (and decided to change it) to begin with.

Colin Moriarty

Sorry, man! The good news is, it'll be there when you're ready.

Colin Moriarty

I'm still on the $499 train, myself.

Colin Moriarty

No, I'm sorry.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah. In thinking about it, there was no reason not to do it.

Colin Moriarty

Their next game is Ratchet & Clank. =)

Colin Moriarty

The question is, will people pay the scalper premium? We'll see.

Colin Moriarty

It's all about what we're most used to, I think. Side-scrollers are much easier for me.

Colin Moriarty

Awesome! Glad you liked it.

Colin Moriarty

That would be ideal.

Colin Moriarty

Also: Good studio name.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

I'm not seeing it so far, but I'm not even halfway through.

Colin Moriarty

Eh. I think it's time to move on. But I'll keep it on the XMB.

Colin Moriarty

Glad to hear it!

Colin Moriarty

Colin doing the one rpg a month along with you and I have a truly dire question. Is I Am Setsuna worth the 40 bucks it cost on playstation? Very surprised its this expensive still after these years. Is this indicative of a fantastic game or should I skip?

Brett Carlson

That’s fine Colin if you want to change the day that you release the podcast. Honestly though it doesn’t matter. Missing the news and covering it the next week isn’t a huge deal. We can find news anywhere. We are here to listen to you guys talk and bullshit around. I’m about 100% sure nobody listens to you guys for strictly’news’. It’s more of the chemistry you guys have and the way you bounce off of each other when discussing said news. But like I said we are here either way even if you want to change recording days.

Will Ellis

I know the decisions been made, and I know it can be reversed. I’ll just say my main reason I voted against changing release days is because it feels like every gaming news podcast releases on Friday. Personally this will now be my 3rd one that I support on Patreon that releases on Friday so I think standing out was what really made Tuesday’s great.

Owen

I'd be surprised to see PS4 launch higher than $499. It makes sense I suppose if they aren't manufacturing as many, but $549 sounds psychologically almost the same as $599. Maybe they're planning on responding to Microsoft, if Series X is $499 then so is PS5. If Series X is $549 or $599, then PS5 is $549?...

Matthew Cooper

Notice me senpai.

Timothy Bryant

I voted against the change but Colin you make a good point. I'm glad the news will be more timely/relevant. I'm cool with it.

lazer_josh

Personally hope Insomniac’s next game is a new Ratchet & Clank or Sunset Overdrive port.

Brandon Soto

Switches are still selling out, whether for nefarious reasons or not, so I think something similar will happen with both the Series X and PS5 launches. I’ma click that preorder button faster than Wario64 tweets.

NeO JD

The thing about why Bloodborne and PlayStation are more connected than it would appear on the surface is that the actual idea for Bloodborne was developed by one of the directors at Sony Studio Japan, who approached Miayazki with the original concept. Then later, when Shuhei Yoshida (at the time head of WWS) greenlit the project, the collaboration b/w From and Studio Japan began. Bloodborne was not an entirely a From project, it was borne (hehe) out of the partnership with SJ lending producing, music and even technical support to the game.

JD

Great episode. I loved Nioh and Nioh 2 (which is easier IMO) but I can see how people would get impatient with it. Sekiro was tougher and required a guide. I'm not sure why as an adult I get such satisfaction out of completing difficult games. I went back and beat Megaman 1 and 2 and that's enough MM and frustration for a lifetime.

Gr4vity400

Colin, thank you for the RE7 recommendation in episode 93. This is the only other resident evil I’ve played so far besides RE2 Remake. Just beat it and loved it. On to RE 3 Remake next!

Michael Limauro

All Resistance needs to do to reignite is port all 3 as a bundle, doesn't need to be remade or remaster just upscale resolution and if necessary push fps to 60. Remove the multiplayer trophies. $39.99. Boom!

Lee Bull

Gunfire games.... Remnant from the Ashes came from nowhere and has sold something like 3m copies and scored well critically. Great game. Plays like Gears of War especially in Co op with a little dash of Soulsborne.

Lee Bull

Colin standing on the Patreon podium as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine: “I love democracy. I love the Republic.”

Caleb Greer

In regards to FF7 Remake’s episodic nature: the game itself makes it pretty clear how the writers and development team will be approaching the later chapters. I can say no more than that.

Not trying to be rude, but I just don’t think Chris understands what goes into exclusivity. Bloodborne is only on PS4 because Sony funded the project. It’s really just that simple. If you’d like there to not be exclusives, that’s fine. I personally could care less about who else has access to a game. But it shouldn’t be such a weird mystery why games are “trapped” on a platform. Sony doesn’t necessarily develop their games with the sole intention to just sell their software. The major goal seems to be create a quality ecosystem that attracts customers to their hardware. And part of 1st party games responsibility is to develop a culture for the platform, and PS4 exclusives have knocked this out of the park. I also just don’t know if platform agnosticism attitudes are really as prevalent as Chris thinks they are.

Zack E

Colin, I did the same thing with Nioh 1, I didn't try it again until just this year as I was really interested in Nioh 2 because its quite a bit different, so to prep for it I played through Nioh, but this time I did some digging on how stats work and weapons. That first boss you struggled with, he can be killed in a few hits once you understand how the mechanics work, and how to properly scale stats. When making a build in Nioh you need to build your stats and armor around your weapon that you intend using, as an example, you can build a Ninjitsu build where you're getting stats and gear stats specifically to boost your Ninjutsu, if you're properly tempering your gear into boosting the Ninjutso you can kill bosses in just a few hits of Ninjutsu. It's difficult to just go into it wanting to swing weapons, you want to use a combination of magic and ninjutsu, so when you temper your gear you add abilities like Ninjutsu power, and get the proper stats, you should do this before trying to add more hitpoints and stamina. I would recommend watching a verified Youtube guy named FightinCowboy and RPG Division, they have in depth builds that end up make you shred enemies. Stats are way more important in Nioh than say Dark Souls and Bloodborne as you can pretty much beat those games using just the base weapons only upgrading their damage. Nioh 2 is even better as it's a prequel and you're half yokai which means you get to use all of the yokai abilities, so that first boss in Nioh 1, when you kill him in Nioh 2 he drops his soul and you get to temporarily transform into him and swing the big ball chains around at enemies and smash them quick. Don't give up yet! I believe in you. :P

Jessica Gutiérrez

You don't! The stimulus checks aren't loans, you don't have to pay them back at all.

Ryan Wood

Thanks for the comment read got a kick out of it lol

Ben Haner

When do we have to pay back the stimulus money? It just popped up in my bank account one day.

Kendrick Calles (Ca-Yes)

He has the potential to be, but I really feel like they go down a well-worn tropey road with him...

Colin Moriarty

*makes Gruden face*

Colin Moriarty

Glad to hear it!

Colin Moriarty

That would be funny.

Colin Moriarty

We shall see. I don't think it's wise to emphasize PS4 much more than they have to...

Colin Moriarty

They can cooexist peacefully. I believe!!!

Colin Moriarty

Friday!!!

Colin Moriarty

That would be super interesting. I'd love that.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah, I need to figure it out. I realized after we recorded that that's what I forgot when I went off on my tangent!

Colin Moriarty

I hate it. I can't stand it.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah! It'll be good for the show I think.

Colin Moriarty

It will just be the games that came out the last week. Nothing crazy.

Colin Moriarty

Mmhmm.

Colin Moriarty

Yeah!

Colin Moriarty

At least you're taking the L like a man.

Colin Moriarty

That would be funny. But if I were Dan Houser, I would do nothing at all out of spite. =)

Colin Moriarty

Sorry. =\

Colin Moriarty

Eh. I just replayed it not even a year ago!

Colin Moriarty

Me too! I think it's the right choice.

Colin Moriarty

You're welcome! Hopefully it'll make things a bit better for free feed users, our Patrons, and the show generally. =)

Colin Moriarty

Barrett is the best character imo and Colin is comitting blasphemy of the highest degree

Smack Millan

Holy shit, at 49:29 Chris sounded EXACTLY like Jon Gruden for a second.

Kevin Sullivan

I finally got read on the podcast. Hell yeah!! Day made!

kevin berger

I feel like Tom Sweeny needs to be the villain in the next Twin Breaker game, or at least someone you can buy power ups from.

Pretendo

I'm having a hard time locating the exact press release or investors meeting, but around the time Sony first started unveiling details on the PS5 they also expressed expectations the PS4 would be their main driver for profits and engagement through 2022. So it seems they have learned some lessons from the ps2 generation transition. This was before the current state of things. They also seem to be even more worried about xbox now but suffice to say they don't seem worried about selling the console at a premium and at least existing in the same capacity as the ps4 pro did for a time.

jab

I agree with you about Resistance and Killzone coexisting. I'd love to play remasters of them on PS4. I also love the iconic imagery of the Helghast and Chimera. Really cool designs for both antagonist armies.

Real Radec

All I know is that I can't wait for the DOOM Eternal spoilercast! It's easily my favorite game since God of War 2018.

Anthony J Sanchez

Colin here is my thoughts on the episodes of FF7. I won't go into too much detail because the story will illuminate alot of these answers for you; BUT, my feeling is they made the whole first episode Midgar because like you have stated they really didn't get a chance to showcase what Midgar actually was and stood for and the citizens etc in the original. So they went into enormous detail to really flesh out the GROUNDWORK for this remake. So now we have a concrete sense of these characters motivations, where they came from, their trials and tribulations. Now in Episode 2 you don't have a linear game. You to a Dragon Quest 11 style hub/open world style game so we can visit multiple localities. Just like in the original when you escape Midgar your into the over world map. Just instead of having an old school over world now you have a hub/open world. In an open world you can now tell a significantly larger portion of the story, with the same detail. Midgar was designed like this for a reason. Super linear. Not open. Vast amounts of discrete detail to make you fall in love with the character's and their plight. Boom 2nd game you open the world up because it makes sense. Now we have to travel great distances to reach these other places from the original. I think that is the logical next step forward

Brett Carlson

Hey colin I appreciate that your at least trying to help people as much as you can. I would say there are 2 good courses of action. 1. Food banks are running low across the nation so a nice 1 time donation to a community would go a long way. 2. I would also say like you’re video game thing maybe a offer to pay a low bill for someone gas, water, electric, etc bills ten to be low around this time of year and paying off just 1 can really make a difference to some people. You said you where thinking of some ideas and I am in no way saying you have to do anything I say. I just wanted to say something cause I know some close friends of mine are worried about missing a 60 dollar bill.

Adamthm

The moment Colin and Chris say they don’t like Cream Cheese is a key moment for me. I have hated cream cheese for my whole life, and because the whole fucking world seems to be suckling on the cream cheese teat I have been pestered into trying it multiple times in my life. This is a heartening moment for me and I will always support CLS if for no other reason then to support people that acknowledge cream cheese is fucking awful. That is all.

Christopher Smith

I'm super glad to see the schedule changes. Recording on Thursday evenings allow you guys too take in 4/5 days worth of news for that week as opposed to only 1. This ensures that free feeds are only a weekend away from the news as opposed to 7-10 days.

JD

What does this mean for “the drop” since that’s not posted until Friday?

Dude, I was literally just eating cheesecake leftover from my mom's birthday yesterday while listening to this! A belated holiday greeting to you both. Depending on whom you ask, they may assume you'd celebrate on that particular day for any number of reasons...

Max Stahl

This box of Rice Krispy treats is a good batch 😊👍🏼

Erk-Prime

I wrote that question high on a Friday night and I wake up Tuesday to see the biggest L I have taken this week😂

Thomas Connolly

It would be crazy if out of spite Dan Houser goes and works on the new Saints Row. Would never happen but a man can dream.

Kenneth Oms

Damn, episode 100 was going to be on my birthday 😢. I understand the change in days though.

Jose Horrach

I would love to watch you Coling playing the last of us whole game before the last of us part 2 preparation ;)

Saulius Vekteris

Glad you're changing the dates :)

Ben Williams

thank you for changing the dates of the show regardless of the poll results. Sony has been showing a tendency to release news Tues-Thurs so i’m excited to see how beefed up the News portion of the show gets.

Bobby Rigo