Who is the greatest video game character of all time? This question sets the stage for a lively discussion among our hosts as they explore the iconic figures that have shaped their gaming experiences and aspirations. From Sora of Kingdom Hearts to the courageous Link from The Legend of Zelda, each character embodies qualities that resonate deeply with the hosts. Throughout the episode, the team dives into their personal choices for characters they wish to emulate, as well as those they’d prefer to immolate, highlighting the complex relationships gamers have with these virtual heroes. As they wrap up the New Year's mini-series on "Video Game Icons," the conversation reflects on how these characters influence their lives beyond the screen, emphasizing the blend of nostalgia, humor, and meaningful lessons that gaming brings to their journeys.

The podcast delves into the intriguing question of who holds the title of the greatest video game character of all time, featuring a lively discussion among hosts Joshua Noel, TJ (Tiberius Juan) Blackwell, James Demmel, and Christian Ashley. The conversation kicks off with the hosts sharing their personal icons from the realm of video gaming, reflecting on characters that resonate with them and have left a lasting impact on their lives. Joshua introduces his choice, Banjo from Banjo Kazooie, emphasizing the character's journey from a fun, adventurous platform hero to someone who embodies the ability to innovate and improve. This theme of improvement and self-betterment is echoed throughout the episode as each host shares their own character picks, leading to a rich exploration of what makes a character truly iconic.

As the dialogue unfolds, the hosts navigate through a multitude of beloved characters, from Sora to Ryu, discussing their traits, challenges, and the influence they wield in gaming culture. James points out the significance of Sora from Kingdom Hearts, highlighting his ability to connect with friends and grow through adversity. The discussion also touches on the narrative depth found in games, where characters often face moral dilemmas, thus allowing players to engage on a more personal level. Each character serves as a mirror for the hosts, prompting them to reflect on their own qualities and aspirations, blending humor and heartfelt anecdotes seamlessly.

The conclusion of the episode sees the hosts transition into a more introspective phase where they contemplate the qualities they wish to emulate from their chosen characters in the upcoming year. This exercise not only showcases their individual aspirations but also reinforces the idea that video game characters can offer meaningful lessons and values that resonate outside of the gaming world. The camaraderie among the hosts, peppered with light-hearted banter and genuine respect for each other’s choices, makes for a delightful listening experience, celebrating the diverse tapestry of video game history and its characters.

Takeaways:

• The discussion revolves around iconic video game characters and their influence on our lives.
• Each host shares personal reflections on which gaming characters they admire and why.
• Emulating positive traits from characters like Sora and Ratchet is a central theme.
• A recurring idea is the importance of balance between humor, courage, and vulnerability.
• The podcast highlights the cultural significance of characters such as Mario, Sonic, and Pikachu.
• Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their own gaming experiences and character connections.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Mario
• Pacman
• Mega Man
• Sonic
• Pikachu
• Ryu
• Sora
• Riku
• Courier 6
• The DragonBorne
• Ratchet & Clank
• Jak & Daxter
• Banjo Kazooie
• Spyro
• Zelda
• Link
• Kyle Katarn
• Korvo

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We discuss all this and more in this one! Join in the conversation with us on Discord now!

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Check out the rest of our Gaming Icons bonus miniseries:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/30a3357e-d746-4884-9cc1-d5826f031c9e

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Listen to all of our gaming episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/409f2d81-9857-4426-b1f0-d8a02e58b150

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Check out all of Joshua's episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/642da9db-496a-40f5-b212-7013d1e211e0

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Check out our other episodes with Christian:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/ebf4b064-0672-47dd-b5a3-0fff5f11b54c

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Don't miss any episode with TJ:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/f4c32709-d8ff-4cef-8dfd-5775275c3c5e

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Listen too all of James' episodes:

https://player.captivate.fm/collection/b8aedf67-2860-4407-bcf1-5c279366ee4c

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Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.

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Who is the greatest video game character of all time? Why is it someone from Kingdom Hearts and other things? That's what we're going to be talking about today on Systematic Geekology.

I am one of your hosts, Joshua Knoll. Here with a variety of other hosts.

We're finishing up our series on video game icons, talking about our favorite personal icons that inspire us as well as, like, who we think the main culture sees as the biggest icons in video game mystery gamistry. Yeah. So I'm here with one and only Christian Ashley. You've heard him a few times on this series. Hopefully you know who he is.

He's the leader of all things mischief in systematic ecology. TJ Tiberius Juan Blackwell, also here. He's been on other episodes. He started the series off, and he's here with us again to wrap this one up.

Helping him start it off was James Dimmel, who's here again so we can talk about the absolute greatest video game icons, and not just arcade or Sega, not just Sony, not just Xbox, but, like, of all time, who's the best character?

And as always, to start this off, we're going to talk about who we find personally as someone who is iconic to us in, like, the real world that we look up to and want to be more like. So on all on three, we're all gonna say Will Rose. No, I'm just kidding. But for real mine this time, I am gonna say Will Rose.

I don't know who I said last time, but I do find Will personally insp. He loves everybody, but he's also not, like, he's not unwilling to be aggravated or to be like, hey, this kind of. This kind of stinks.

Or, Josh, it's actually okay to keep money sometimes. Like, he's not, like, overly virtuous. He just genuinely loves people.

And I think that's something I strive to be so that I'm not, like, trying to constantly be afraid. Am I doing the right thing or not? But I just, like, genuinely love people like Will. That would be great. So, yeah, Will is going to be my icon today.

Stealing that from tj. But speaking of tj, tj, who do you want to shout out as your icon today?

Well, I was gonna say Will Rose again.

Should. You should. It'd be funny.

But I just. I kind of been reading more Brandon Sanderson books. And by more, I mean when than truth. Yeah, I can't imagine working that hard ever.

All right.

The man works so hard, it's. It's insane.

All right, well, there we go. James Icon. You Want to shout out who's someone that you aspire to be like, I.

Can'T say Will Rose.

You sure can.

But we need to start a systematic ecology campaign in the North Carolina Senate of the elca to which Will and I both belong. Pastors, there is a bishops election this May, and we need to get Will Rose elected as bishop of the North Carolina Senate.

How does Bishop Will of North Carolina sound to systematic theology? I like it.

Sounds natural.

You know, he's gonna hear this and hate it because he absolutely doesn't know, which means he would be a good bishop.

Yeah, yeah. All the best. Bishops and pastors don't want to be bishops and pastors. But also think about it. He's the bishop of the Tar Heel State.

I mean, that sounds perfect for him.

You know what? Shout out to all those iconic bishops in the early church who literally, the church had to, like, go to the woods and find them and drag them back.

Yeah. And how they paved the way for Will Rose. Yeah, I like that. All right.

My actual icon, in all seriousness, I was gonna say, is Jimmy Carter, the president who just passed away. Yeah.

Thinking about him a little bit this past week, and just someone who I think epitomized being kind and gracious and didn't need to use his voice all the time and led with love and action and just someone for me, whose faith, I think had an iconic faith in the sense that it grew over the course of his lifetime. And he constantly reflected, I think. So for me, icon this week.

Love it. Love it, Christian. Bring us home.

Well, 2,000 years of church history brought us to Will Rose, and without him, we'd all be lost.

Yes.

But I know Will is in his chair right now, just slowly sinking in. Please stop talking about me. If you're on YouTube, you can see that I'm also the first acolyte of the newly formed Nick Polk cult.

I do look up the Nick. He's a pretty cool guy. My actual answer is going to be my grandfather, my maternal grandfather.

He was one of those people growing up who just loved me, just loved the family. Would always, whatever new interest, he'd read up on it, he'd go out and do stuff with you. And unfortunately, he passed when I was in high school.

And it's still a loss that's felt today, but if I had the sense of his ability to be who he is, I'd consider myself to be a great person.

Man, that's a good one. Also, is the Nick Polk cult reference a whole church podcast reference?

Well, I was Talking about your Dead Space episode that we just released.

Oh, is that when we formed the Nick Polk cult? That is. You're right. It was in Dead Space. Yeah, that's a good reference.

And since you're the first accolade, I think we should also appoint Will the first bishop of the Nick Polk cult. Yeah, that sounds right. Sounds natural.

Exactly what he wanted when he woke up this morning to listen to this episode.

Well, guys, if you're on a laptop, do us a favor. Consider rating and reviewing our show on podchaser or goodpod, specifically one of those two that helps the show gain recognition.

Google and other search engines likes those things. So if you rate us on there, it makes Google like us, which is cool.

If you're on your phone, consider rating, reviewing, or commenting on our show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Those are the two largest platforms people listen to podcasts on.

So if you do it over there, that's going to prioritize our show and their search engines and we're just going to deceive everyone into thinking our show is important so that more people listen. So help us be deceptive. And of course, we got to thank one of our sponsors. Daniel Sigman helped sponsor the show. Thank you, Daniel. You rock.

And if you guys listening are like, how did he get a shout out? And you want your own shout out?

Well, $30 a month on Apple Podcast, Captivate or Patreon, you can get your own shout out as one of the sponsors of Systematic Ecology. So maybe consider doing that. It's kind of cool. And I mentioned earlier, this is the last episode in our video game icon series.

So if you want to hear the rest of the episodes and you haven't heard the whole series in the show notes down below, it'll be one of the first links will be that whole series. You can go and check it out. And without further ado, we're going to be going over icons of all video game history, all the best characters ever.

I have more than 30 slides to talk about from the characters you guys submitted and myself. So we're going to do this in under an hour somehow.

And part of how we're going to do that is by not talking about each of our histories with video games. Go listen to those other episodes. We've told you some of our history of video games. You can learn who we are through other episodes.

I'm plugging my own thing because it's going to make this episode easier. I do want to ask everybody though, really quick, what have you enjoyed about doing this series so far or hated.

Are you guys like, hey, we should never do a series like this again? Or were you like, hey, this was actually really fun and here's why. On air criticism, really.

Go ahead, tj.

It's really difficult for me personally to. To put things in a list. You know, I get asked kind of often, like, my top five, top three top ten things are in any given category.

It's so hard for me to do.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you are on the show. That that does happen.

It's really difficult.

Yeah.

You have to systematically list, like, everything you've ever played or done or whatever. It's like, oh, man, I have to put numbers tied to those things. I hate that. But there's also an answer.

Yeah, for me, it's been more fun. Like, the clear answers, like doing the PlayStation 1, there was like. There was two that I'm like, these are just obvious answers.

Talking about those were fun because it's like, just giving me a chance to talk about characters I love, but then choosing the one that I wasn't really sure on. I'm still like, should I have said him? Should I said somebody else? So, yeah, that's how I am. James, any thoughts on this part?

Yeah, it's been fun to sort of stroll through memory lane. And I've taken them kind of personally who are like my personal iconic characters.

Not who I think are maybe objectively the greatest of all time, but who's the greatest? For me, yes. As you can see today, I've got one that's probably not going to make.

Any top list, but I love all of the picks you sent me. And for transparency, everybody I know, my own and James. Top three, I have no idea. Christian or TJ's. Christian sent me like.

Like a normal, like, you know, five or seven things list. TJ sent me, like, 73 characters. I just chose some at random. Hopefully one of three of them are his top. We'll see.

That's what he asked for.

For the record, I did. I'm really excited that I don't know, like.

And with tj, I really am unsure because some of the characters he included, I was like, I didn't expect him to include that. Is he including it because of, like, I don't know. I'm gonna find out, you know.

You know what the best part is? I didn't even include one of them.

That's even better.

Joshua, he sent you that list just to troll you.

That's it. None of them. We're not going to use any of.

Any of these choices.

Just wanted you to make the slides. Oh, God. Great stuff. Well, then, let's. Let's jump into our top three. We're going to start with number three.

I'm going to do mine first simply because I think at the end, I want everyone to be surprised. And I don't think there's a soul who's heard our show before that's going to be surprised by my top pick.

So there's just no point in letting me go last. Like, they're just. It's pointless. Everyone knows mine. But for number three, I do think it's possible that this could surprise somebody.

Maybe we'll see. My number three pick. I'm trying to decide which, like, format I want to use for this. What's this look like? Yeah, sure, let's do this.

My number three pick. I'm gonna go with Banjo. Just Banjo from Banjo Kazooie. I don't know that much about Kazooie, but I like Banjo a lot. So, yeah, I love Banjo.

The thing that inspires me about Banjo specifically, you know, he started off a Nintendo character. He was fun, actually. He started off in Diddy Kong Racing. Don't know if anybody knows that. That was something interesting. I didn't know that.

Platform game, right? He's gonna do some, like, some magic stuff.

Gonna have some, like, voodoo stuff going on, and he's just gonna go and he's gonna do the quest up until his Xbox game nuts and bolts. And he's like, you know what? Actually, I think a better way of doing this.

Instead of just running around everywhere and hoping for the best punching things, what if I just built really cool stuff that beat the bad guys for me? So he went from just being a guy running around to being like, hey, what if I worked smarter, not harder?

So I'm going with Banjo for my number three, and I'm hoping to. To emulate and copy his ability to better himself. You know, to say, hey, I think there's a better way of doing things and just do it.

You know, if I want to immolate anything, I'm really just not entirely sure why he's fighting some of the people he's fighting. So, you know, I want to make sure I know why I'm fighting, who I'm fighting.

I'm not just going to go fight a witch, you know, probably going to put a curse on me. I'm leave that alone personally. But, yeah, his ability to better him is not going to keep.

We need, like, the wicked, like, backstory of the Witch and Benjo Kazuki. What's going on from her perspective? What's the backstory?

Yeah, you know, I'd watch that.

Every villain has an origin story.

Absolutely. Oh, man. See what order I want to do this in. I'm gonna go James next. James, your top three pick.

I don't remember who it was, so you're gonna have to tell us.

Good. My top three pick is a duo to key you up. And I love these games so much. As a kid, I replayed them last year. They are the duo of Jak and Daxter. I.

Those games, like, taught me how to. How to game. I love those games so much.

And so, yeah, I love Jack because he's completely silent the first game, and then you don't know a lot about him, and then he has this whole awakening. And I love that Naughty Dog just had the guts to completely redo the direction of that series after the first game.

The first game's a pretty standard kind of platform, and then you go into more of an open kind of zone. It kind of felt like early open world gaming. Jack, you and Jack three did like, I think, for sure. And so, yeah, you get some really good story.

You get a lot of good humor. I think Jack is one of those characters who sort of stands on business, as the kids say, and takes no nonsense and is just really cool.

Daxter is a perfect foil. He is hilariously irreverent. And yeah.

Yeah.

And so, yeah, thanks. To imitate from Jack would just be. He's cool, man. He stands on business. He confronts his inner darkness. You know, he finds some balance.

Yeah.

Thanks to. Yeah.

So, yeah, yeah, I dig it. I dig it. Ah, man. Yeah. Jack and Dexter almost made my PlayStation list too. I. I love that duo. Fun games.

All right, queuing up next, Christian, I don't know yours either.

So I am going to be choosing for my third pick Pikachu from Pokemon.

I have to wildly flip. I didn't think that was going to be near the top.

Just to throw you off. I know you weren't expecting that. Maybe just put that as a troll.

No, actually from the games, from the anime, Pikachu is one of the most iconic characters of all time. Even though I would probably prefer Charizard more, I think in light of what's going on here, what it means for a company. Pikachu's you pick.

And for a billions of dollars company, you've got a cute marketable as James has had in his hands. Of course, you've also seen pangs gigantic Pikachu's that I don't know how.

You know, she keeps buying and they haven't like taken over her entire house.

But like she has a second house for that actually.

Of course, she's so financially responsible she can do that, unlike us. So yeah, it's got the cuteness factor going for it. It's got the ba factor going for it.

When you see all the feats, there have been literal games devoted to Pikachu. You've got Pokemon Yellow, of course, and you have the let's Go games.

And there's just wonderful things you get from this cute little mouse rat that will charge you up and win your battles for you. And Pokemon Yellow was my favorite back in the day.

There have since been other games released, but getting to choose Pikachu and then all the other starters meant a lot to me as a kid that you couldn't do any other games because they required you to have friends who had link cables.

And, you know, some of us were living on a teacher salary and didn't live, you know, in Tokyo where we could find, you know, 5 billion people to do that with us. So Pokemon Yellow was perfect for that. And Pikachu is just fun. Yeah, you were forced not to use right shoe.

And you know, there's, there's arguments for and against that, but Pikachu is perfect the way that Pikachu is. So like, characteristics we should emulate, like the scrappy nature of Pikachu. Like if we're including anime feats, like we.

Pikachu as an electric type is able to actually hit a ground type with an electric attack, which is impossible unless there are very specific circumstances being done. And you know what? Sometimes you just need to kick reason to the curb and go beyond the impossible. And Pikachu does that.

And that's something we should all strive for. Now, excising, you know, probably shouldn't be shocking your friends, you know, even if they deserve it.

I'd excise that for my personality because there are parts of me, you know, with people I'd really like to shock them and maybe hopefully get them back to where they need to be. But that's not very healthy.

I won't do it, Christian. I'm Stuck. Stuck in my ways.

You'd be number one.

Oh, man. No, good stuff. Good stuff. Even though he said excise instead of Emily. It's fine.

You're the one.

You gotta be careful. We're talking about. Yeah, we're talking about Pikachu.

Yeah, Pikachu's great.

Couple of words here. We don't want to say with Pikachu.

That's true. You never know what will happen there. I like that, though. Although, of course, you're talking about going beyond the possible.

And my brain just went how I met your mother to Barney Stinson going. Making his little video about the possimple. And if you haven't seen that episode, please watch that episode before you make your next resume.

It'll keep you from getting a job, but it'll be entertaining. Tj, what's your number three pick?

But to me, the number three most iconic character of all time is Ryu Hayabusa. I love Ryu. I've played Ninja Gaiden my whole life. Like the reboots. I didn't even know it was an older game until way later. Way, way later.

Now I've played them all, and I do like the reboots more, except for Ninja Gaiden 3. But to me, Ryu is possibly just the coolest guy imaginable. I wanted Ryu in Smash Bros. So badly.

And if you've never seen or played Ninja Gaiden, you're missing out on some of the best and hardest action games of all time. And that goes for both series, the reboots and the originals. Hard as nails. Some of the hardest games ever.

You know, there was some game you mentioned last time that you're like, it hasn't got a reboot yet. And then I feel like a week later, they announced that they were doing a remake or something. Sorry, my brain stalling.

What would you emulate or emulate from? From you.

So basically, if I could just become the coolest guy on the planet and also maybe a little bit jacked.

You're halfway there.

I would like to. I would like to be that from. Oh, yeah. I'm like a quarter way jacked. I need to get there.

Such noble goal.

Especially if you. Yeah, if you play Ninja Gaiden and you like to see him, he's just, like, massive in the game. Like, this is like the COVID art.

He's not that small in the game. That is huge. But he's actually. Realistically, what I'm trying to emulate is he is so bound to what he, you know, sees as his duty.

You know, he owes his clan and his family so much because they get wiped out and he takes it upon himself to avenge them. And he is unwavering. He just fights the devil at one point.

Nice.

That's the kind of motivation that I respect. And I if I could be that and also a little bit jacked, that would be great.

Anything you would immolate.

Maybe fist fighting the devil.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe don't do that. Oh, no, it could be.

Yeah.

Not until after I'm a little bit jacked.

Fair. Fair. Fair enough. All right, well, now we're on to our number twos. And this is where it gets easy for me is two and one are just very easy picks.

My number two is someone I already talked about in a different episode that I'll just talk about again, I guess. The one and only Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank.

Nothing's really changed about why I love them, you know, so these games are like sci fi, silly adventure, but also comment a lot on like robots vers life. If you're into AI conversations, he's a good one. I'm also. Sometime around now we're releasing an episode about AI in video games.

And I talk some about the Ratchet and clean games. But one thing I love about Ratchet is he's a mechanic who stays true to who he is. He stays a mechanic throughout all the games.

He never stops being a mechanic. He's very genuine.

And even though a lot of times he has like bad motivations for what he does, eventually he steps up for his friends because he cares about his friends. And he has a wonderful sense of humor. No matter how bad things get, Ratchet will find a way to make a joke.

So as far as things to emulate, just like last time, I want to emulate his genuineness. I want to emulate even some of his humility, I guess, and his sense of humor.

Mostly just that ability to be funny in the hardest of times is something I want to keep for myself. And as far as immolate.

Yeah.

Also probably some of the inappropriate jokes like what James said, Dexter and you know, some of his motives aren't the best. Sometimes he's motivated by just money and women. And I hope that I'm motivated by better things than that.

So that's where I'm at with Ratchet as my number two. James, number two, who are we going with?

My number two is Sora from Kingdom Hearts. How can you not have him if you are accurate? Sort of. Me, I'm not a big fighting gamer.

He, you know, plays into like every, you know, Japanese manga friendship trope that there is. They tried to make his character more complex in Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3. It didn't work that well.

I don't think I'm scared for Kingdom Hearts 4. We'll see what happens. But yeah, he's just been doing it for so long.

And what I love about Sora is in that series in general is that there's just a lot left to be explained. And some of those questions from that first game I don't think have. Have been answered yet. And so, you know, he's really just.

He's a character that's really simple and clean. That series has really been a sanctuary for me.

He teaches you how to face your fears and then, you know, you don't really think twice as you're playing through that theory. And that I think is every single one of those.

Yeah, yeah, he referenced all four songs. It was beautiful.

So I've been thinking about that line for a little bit anyways. So, yeah, I love Sora.

What I would imitate is, I think just leading with the heart, trusting in your friends, I think, you know, I don't know if this landed with what they did in Kingdom Hearts 3, but really, you know, again, working on yourself and I think learning to hold yourself with humility and pick up the pieces back when you face those moments in life that sort of break you down. What I would, what I would immolate from Sora is perhaps a bit of his naivete, you know, just to say the least.

He, you know, isn't always aware as he should be. And you know, it's lovable, but it's also can be painfully awkward at times.

Yeah, yeah, that's. That's true. Oh, man. All right, so now onto Christian. Christian, where are you at for number two?

All right, my number two pick, really an interesting pick for most people would be the Dragonborn of Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim. Now you may say, well, Christian, he's not an actual character. You make him a character. Well, yeah, that's what the fun is for this character.

It's like, you know, you play man or woman, you can pick which race you are and that affects how the game Is played.

How people interact with you in certain respects could have been done better by Bethesda, but, you know, they're getting a little weaker in certain respects. But right now, why would I ever pick a character like the dragonborn is because of what they do in the game.

It's like you are literally imbued with the soul of a dragon as the dragons are returning, and no one else is going to be capable of putting them down for good except for you. And you can choose to be a hero, you can choose to be a mercenary, you can choose to be a very evil person.

And I like the ability to do that with a character. If you're going to make them a blank slate, make them a blank slate. And you can do that with a character like the dragonborn.

Now, obviously, I play a little more towards the good side of things.

If you've heard anything else that I've ever done on this show, sometimes you ever have those feelings, like, man, it'd be better off if that person didn't exist in the world. And you can get away with it scot free. You can get away with it scot free. In these games, sometimes you do things right.

You know, there's a certain character who's abusive to his daughters and Rourke's dad, Limkill, and he just happens to get an arrow to the face as soon as I meet him. And then I go adopt his daughters as soon as possible so that they have an actual responsible father, you know, done by murder. But you know what?

It's fine. It's in the video game. I didn't do it in real life, but you've got fantastic abilities you use here.

The dragon shouts are a great aspect of the game where you can choose. You can be. You can even utilize magic as well on its own, or you can choose to use all the shouts. You can choose one of the shouts.

You can just go sword and board that. The fun part of the dragonborn is that there's so much possibility in the character, and it all depends upon you and how you want to play the game.

And I enjoy being given choices like that and making my choices meet, make sense in the world and to have fun with them. There's very few things out there that are not good to choose for, like if you want to play a certain play style.

And I think the dragon one does that well. Now, as far as, like, emulating, once again, you can choose to play the character however you want.

So I'm going to choose to emulate the more noble aspects of the Character of like, you know, wanting to preserve the world. Like, there's a moment you can talk to Parthenax who is. You learn a dragon who's been resisting his own will.

You say, why do you want to save the world? It's like, well, I live in the world. I want to keep the world where it is. That's a pretty good reason. And I like choices like that.

I like a game like this. Excising. I would excise the more negative aspects. You can become a cannibal. You can murder people relentlessly.

You can beat people up to make them give you protection money and steal from people and other things. Yeah, those quests are fun, but I don't know if I want to be that person. So that's what I would excise.

Yeah, totally, totally. Good pick there. All right, now the last of the twos. Tj, who is your number two pick for your favorite video game icon?

I'm gonna do a similar thing to Christian. I'm gonna go with Courier six from Fallout New Vegas. Absolute classic.

One of my favorite games of all time and just one of the coolest dudes around or one of the lamest dudes around. It depends on how you play the game and how you character, but to me, it's one of the coolest dudes of all time as far as what I see as an icon.

The way that Courier 6, which is just the player character, if you're a little confused, very similar to Christians, but wakes up after being shot in the head and decides to take control of his own life, you know, loses his job as a courier, which is where he gets the name because he got shot in the head and just decides to make life what he wants it to be. All right, that's what we should all do. He's like, you know what? I'm playing for me now. I'm gonna go take over the country.

At least that's how it always goes when I play the game.

As far as, like, what would you want to emulate? And emulate from him?

Yeah, emulate. That's what I want to do. I want to take control of my own life. Everything I do, it's gonna be my decision. Immolation.

The courier has some decision making issues, I would say, because I'm the one that's always making the decisions.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

I want to be less like that.

In the future, make better decisions.

At least in real life. In real life, I want to make better decisions.

Groundbreaking level up that speech.

I'm gonna keep making bad decisions.

Yeah.

I don't watch my world burn.

Still early.

Yeah. Yeah. All right, so now for the most non shocking, most absolute, not surprising reveal. My top pick is Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

No one saw this coming at all. Oh, man.

Though, for me, even genuinely, it's not just because it's my favorite game, because there's a lot of things are, like, my favorites that I am. Like, yeah, the characters kind of suck, though. Like, right? Like, honestly, I love Star Wars.

There's not a ton of Star wars characters that I want to be like. Personally, I find most of Skywalkers to be too whiny. I don't want to be them. I love Han Solo. I don't want to be Han Solo Sora.

I want to be like Sora. Here's a few reason why. Part of why he's iconic to me too, though, is because he's relatable. A lot of the games I play, the characters are too good.

You know what I mean? Like, they're the most powerful or they're the hero. They're the sole thing that the whole universe depends upon.

And, like, here we're playing this game, and it's like, yeah, actually, Riku's better than you if you're going to go pure light. Also, you have King Mickey. Listen, Riku can do the power of waking, so I can't even do the power of waking. Come on, man.

You got King Mickey, who's, like, actually the beacon of light.

Here's Sora, who, like, everyone's connected to in some way, but, like, realistically, he's an ordinary kid who grows throughout these games as, like, someone who's like, I just want to be with my friends. And then later he's like, well, actually, my friends. I really mean something bigger than that. Who just genuinely loves everyone, like Pastor Will.

Then, like. Like, you even see where, like, he makes mistakes. Like, he thinks he could do more than he can, and he fails. And Dream Drop distance.

And then in the third game, he's having to, like, rediscover himself because he's like, yeah, I'm actually not the best. I'm not. And Even Kingdom Hearts 1, you see that at the end where he realizes he can't do it on his own.

His heart's not as strong as Riku's, but he discovered that he is entangled, that if he relies on his relationships and those around him and he loves them adversely admits his vulnerability, he actually gets stronger. So that's what I want to emulate. I want to emulate the ability to say, hey, I'm not the strongest, I'm not the best.

I'm not even the best host at Systematic Ecology. I'm not the best podcast editor or anything.

But I hope that I can admit that and learn to lean on my friends and those that I love and have relationships with enough that even though I'm not the best, I can still go forward in love with those around me. So that's what I want to emulate. As far as emulate. Yeah, like I mentioned, sometimes I'm doing the opposite of, of Christian's Pikachu pick.

Sometimes Sora does stuff that's impossible and it turns out bad because you shouldn't do stuff that's impossible. You know, he runs in, he's like, oh, I could do this. And then he ends up caught in his own dream and can't discover what's a dream or not.

And Riku has to save him because he just runs in blindly. And I'm like, you know, sometimes don't run in blindly. Sometimes I need to like stop and think things through before I just run in.

So I'm gonna immolate that rash running in emotional reaction that he has, but emulate his ability to lean on his friends, admit his vulnerability and live in love. Yeah. So that's my number one pick. Everyone expected it. Rants over James. Who are you going for? Number one all time video game icon.

Yeah. I just want to say before I reveal my number one pick, I don't trust Tetsuya Nomura, the director and writer of Kingdom Hearts.

That's fair.

You have to think Sora is just a normal person. Kingdom Hearts 5, we're going to find something out, deeply revelatory.

Yeah.

That no one saw coming. You know, my number one pick is going to be Link from the Legend of Zelda series.

I think if you were to ask people on the street, you know, you know who, you know, name top five video game players you can just recognize. They would say Zelda and they would mean Link. And yeah, Link has been doing it, holding it down since the 80s.

He's like, I think an archetype character in the world of gaming. I love that, you know, those early games, you couldn't have much plot to them just because of the way gaming was, wasn't complicated.

And they kept that as a core feature of his personality. I love these more recent games on the switch because you kind of get a little bit more of. Of his overall character and who he is.

But they, I think, keep it simple and keep the gameplay, the focus.

And I think for me, Link is just does crazy things and faces crazy things time and time again and does it without complaining, unless you count a stereotypical grunt when doing something painful as a complaint. But for me, yeah, Link is just, you know, his whole thing is, you know, he's the courage aspect of the triforce. Right. And for me, I have.

I face a lot of situations in my life where I don't feel particularly courageous.

And so if I'm going to imitate anything from Link, it's just that, like, ability to, like, do the thing, maybe not even think about it and just leap in and somehow it works out. So, yeah, if I had to emulate one thing from Link, I would, you know, maybe talk a little bit more. So, you know, invest in relationships.

Yeah. Like Sora.

Exactly, Exactly. It's a balance between Link and Sora. That's what we need.

All right, and now, one and only Christian Ashley, who is your top video game icon?

All right, I am choosing for my number one of all time, Kyle Katarn from the Dark forces series, Star Wars. This is my guy. This is. He's a representation of everything good in legends canon that unfortunately has to be legends canon because of Disney.

But at the end of the day, like, this is what Star wars was about. You had, oh, no. Finn is a stormtrooper who's like, I don't know if I'm on the right side. Guess who was here before then?

Kyle Katarn, who switched sides, who became a Jedi over time. He realized, you know, maybe the mercenary life isn't for me. Maybe I need. There's more to this life than just what I care about.

And, you know, hey, I'm gonna go kill some dark Jedi fools because they're trying to take over the entire galaxy. You know, it's a great world. You know, also, by the way, I'm the one who delivered the Death Star plans in the first movie, so you're welcome.

The entire rebellion succeeds because of Kyle Katarn. This is, if you want, like, one of the greatest fun games as far as combat, as far as, like, the different options you have.

You can go all blasters, you can go all lightsaber. In later games, you don't start off as a Jedi over the game. You learn that you actually are the son of a Jedi.

Who escaped order 66 and now you have a legacy you've left behind. Like, how are you going to choose to use it? Like, are you going to fall towards the dark side a little more?

You're going to let those aggressive tendencies take over you? Or are you actually going to, like, commit to the light? Are you going to join up with Luke Skywalker and help him out with this new Jedi Order?

Are you going to watch out for Mara Jade as she's through this process of becoming an apprentice to you, but also dealing with your own darker innermost tendencies? And then later on, he doesn't get used as much in the novels as he should have, but there's other stuff there, but video game only.

Like, Kyle Katarn is the baddest guy in the universe. Like, you know how they used to be Chuck Norris facts. They were also back in the day, used to be Kyle Katarn facts.

And you know, like, like Kyle Katarn doesn't use anything to shave his beard except for his lightsaber. Like, it just kept going on and on. It was just more ridiculous from there on out.

Like, if you wanted to be the guy in Star wars, you've wanted to be Kyle Katarn. So, like, characteristics I would take from him like, that I would really like to emulate would be like, his tenacity.

And it's like he faces so many things that are like, if I had gone like, no, no puzzle solving, no dealing with people I don't want to deal with. I'm done. Someone else can take the job. Like, no, no, he's got, okay, I have a mission, I have a set goal.

I'm gonna do the thing no matter how much it costs me. And that's something I should really emulate.

Now as far as something that would excise would be his more controlling and more dark sideish kind of activities is like, you know, he wants to be.

I mean, it comes from a good place of wanting to stop evil, but at the same time giving in to more evil impulses that can happen if you go the dark side path in some of the games. So that's something I would excise from his character is like, no, okay. Just because I think something is right doesn't automatically make it right.

Let me actually work with people instead of trying to control people.

Yeah, yeah. Sounds like a good one. I've never played that. Sounds good.

Great. Great multiplayer in those games as well.

Oh, yes. Yeah.

Super underrated.

Yeah, man. There was something you said that I was going to make a joke about, but I couldn't remember what it was. How disappointing.

Anyway, tj, last but certainly not least, who is your number one pick?

Okay, this is. I do feel bad about this one, but there's a good reason he's not on the list. All right.

I feel bad because I think I do know my number one game of all time and I think I know my number one character of all time. I just feel bad saying it out loud.

I just.

I don't know. I'm never able to do it. But to me, my number one gaming icon of all time is Corvo Attano from Dishonored.

This is not something I've heard of before.

Solid, solid pick.

It's crazy. I love Dishonor. It's one of my. Probably my favorite game ever. It's definitely top three. I'm bad at ranking things. We covered this.

But Corvo, he gets falsely accused of murder. He is the Empress's bodyguard. He, he gets accused of murder, he gets set up for killing the Empress, which is also his not wife.

They weren't married, but they were together. They were a couple.

And then he has to break out of prison, dismantle the corrupt government that killed his wife, framed it on him, claw his way up from basically hell, the underworld, plague ridden Middle ages city, make a deal with the devil, who knows? I haven't played Death of the Outsider. I'm not sure what the Outsider is, but he's some deity that gives you power or you can choose not to.

Game's great, try it out. But everything he does, he does for love because he does it all to save his daughter.

And if I can go through that much and keep in love in front of me and motivating me, that would be great. That's what I want to be in life is just driven by love. Like Will Rose and Corotano and Sora.

But what would you immolate?

See the way I play the game, I don't kill nobody. Nobody ever sees me. But lots of people make Corvo Otano kill lots of people and therefore make the city worse as a whole. Which is a great mechanic.

I love these games. Dishonored is fantastic, but he's very secretive. He's very secretive. I don't think secrecy is a good thing generally.

There are of course, things that, you know, you don't have to tell everybody everything. But I don't want to be like that. I don't want to, you know, keep everything separate from everyone. My whole life's compartmentalized.

Yeah, that's what I Want to immolate from. From Corvo's personality is the secrecy.

I like it. I dig it. All right, well, a couple more things before we wrap this up. So you have all of our top three picks.

I think we did fantastic, personally, especially me and James, but you guys did okay. But what do you guys think as far as. Well, first, let's run through honorable mentions.

I know there's a lot here, so maybe I'll cheat and I'll run through these slides, and whoever had added these characters to the slides can tell me why they're an honorable mention in two sentences or less. We got Master Chief.

Okay.

He's Master Chief.

Master Chief. I mean, what more do you need?

Yeah. Boring game, boring character. All right, so where are we?

Josh is stupid, by the way. Josh hates Halo.

I do. It's so boring. I don't understand it. I beat it at, like, less than a day when I was 10. I'm like, what is the point of this anyway? Ryu.

I think that's his name. I think TJ added sort of.

Yep. Ryu from Streets.

Why is he on here?

He's Ryu.

Anything cool about him?

He's the fighting game character.

All right.

Okay. We covered Banjo. I. I don't know who this is, but he looks cool.

Depending on your choices.

In the second vest in the series, the original Knights of the Old Republic, he your player character, and you find that he was trying to unite the Sith against a threat that was going to attack the Republic, and in so doing, fell to the dark side. It became the antithesis of what he was supposed to be. Then you can actually turn him to the light or to the dark side, depending on your choices.

One of the best characters in the universe. However, Darth Traya is far superior in every way. She is who I would end up being.

I didn't put her on the list, unfortunately, so we don't get to see her image. If I didn't have Jesus in my life, I would be exactly like her.

Except just take out old woman, put old man, and all of her cantankerous aspects would be me.

All right.

Yeah. They also did a whole Knights of the Old Republic, like, miniseries last year, the year before, or something you two did.

Anyway, anything else before I move on from this one? This honorable mention here. Okay. We talked about that person.

You can hear what I have to say about Joel and ellie on the PlayStation games. True great characters done dirty by the second game.

Bowser. He's cool.

Bowser, yeah.

Dragon Turtle. That's what I like. About him. All right.

You think video game enemy Bowser, God of war.

We talked about this on PlayStation episode two. But TJ, didn't you want to mention why you had him on your list?

A lot of these ones right here, these are just pretty easy to explain in one sentence. That's Kratos. Yeah.

Yeah, Kratos. Cool.

Chun Li. It's.

If you're a fighting game fan and you are even, like, in passing fighting game fan, if you've only ever seen one fighting game clip, Chun Li is probably in it because it is probably evo moment 37.

I'll pretend like those.

That is what iconic means to me.

Yeah.

She's in every single Street Fighter game. If we're just going strictly copy sold, the only character that could be in more games than her is Pikachu and Mario.

Well, I've heard of those two. Anyway, this guy looks cool.

He is cool. Hey, Hachi. A lot of people did want him in Smash instead of Kazuya Mishima.

I have to explain this in Josh terms, and he doesn't even know what Kazuyami.

Sure don't.

But he actually is big villain. The villain of the Tekken games generally.

All right. Not about him. Yeah. Smash Bros Character, I think.

Oh, my gosh.

So Solid Snake. I can't believe no one said Solid Snake.

Yeah.

For, like, their top three. I love Metal Gear Solid. My dad loves Metal Gear Solid. To me, that says a lot. Because he's 60.

Yeah.

But he's Solid Snake or Venom Snake or Liquid Snake or James.

He's kind of like something you'd like that.

It just depends on how much you heat him. Which one's gonna show up. Snake would have been in my top three, I think, if. But I never played Metal Gear Solid four or five.

Like, I was just not gaming. I know right then. And I haven't done it to myself. I'm really looking forward to the Snake Eater remake that I think is coming later this year.

That's gonna be awesome.

That game was pretty soon this year.

Incredible. Yeah. Snake. Great.

All right, so Smash Bros character. Another Smash Bros. Character. Anybody want to say anything about this guy?

Joker? Persona 5, your player character for this awesome character. Easily one of the best protagonists in Persona series.

Fights against corruption, fights for his friends. You'd love him. He's like Sora.

That's now how Christian sells me on any character. It's like Sora. Oh, man. Seamus. Anyone want to tell me why? Why this character is also like Sora?

Yeah, there is a. There is An Entire genre of video game based on Samus Aaron's video games.

Yes. Probably the top female protagonist of all time in video games. It'd be her. Lara Croft, man.

That's who I meant to pick. That also could make my top three, depending if I'm thinking about it. I love Lara Croft. Lara Croft's freaking cool. She's kind of like Sora.

This one's my honorable mention. I think his name is Splack or Spanx. I don't remember.

These guys are experiments from a game called Whiplash where they're experimenting on weasels and rabbits and things for some reason. He broke out. They're chained together. Spax proceeds to use the rabbit as a weapon. I love his ingenuity, you know, just getting out of that.

That facility and it's just. It's stupid fun and sometimes that's all I need in life. And yeah, that's all talked about. Jak and Daxter Raymond. That's.

That's another honorable mention for me. He gets pretty close to the top. You see games where he's just having fun. He's just goofing off. So I love that.

And then you see games where he's on a mission and he's just. He's gonna go beat the bad guy. So the fact that he can do both, pretty cool. That's iconic to me. I think that's Nathan Drake, perhaps.

That's Nathan Drake. That's me.

True accurate statement. Moving on.

That's me. That's true. My great, great, great, great, great grandpa is Francis Drake. I just don't go shoot people about it yet. Yet.

Tom Holland does play TJ in a movie though.

Mm. But really, if you're thinking he's like, you know, Laura Croft is up there and then under her a little bit is Nathan Drake.

As far as this type of game goes, which is not really fair because that's Laura Croft that's impossible to compete with.

Incredible.

But Uncharted. Deserves its flowers.

Yeah. I'm also hoping the Indiana Jones game is a lot like a Lara Croft game, but Indiana Jones. Yeah.

I'm hoping to get that on Steam Deck soon because I'm gonna Steam Deck. Spyro is another one. Honorable mention for me. Also just one of those, like all time greatest gaming icons for me.

I'm like, when I think video games, part of me is just always gonna think Spyro and Crash Bandicoot because, like, that was my jam back in the day when I was a kid. Love those. Talked more about on PlayStation episodes. So I'll Just. I'll leave that be for now. Crash Bandicoot talked about him.

TJ put this on the honorable mention list.

I thought it'd be funny.

All right.

Shout out to Laura.

Correct.

Tetrominos.

Oh, man. All right. And this gets to. For me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna spoil something here.

This gets to part of when I talk about like, who I think mainstream culture thinks of as like the main video game icons, like the biggest ones they remember. I could have Mega man in the conversation. Not just because for me as like a kid, I loved Mega Man.

I love like just how difficult these games were for me. Was fun, but. But it's, you know, that's what I know from. A lot of people know him from anime and stuff, but I know him from the games. I love them.

But for you guys, I want to open up a little bit. Who do you think, like mainstream culture sees as the greatest video game icons?

I'd put Mario probably near the top, if not number one for sure.

Tj, my like keyboard stopped working to unmute myself for some reason. But Mario, Sonic, Pikachu.

No, that's fair. That's extremely fair.

In that order.

Yeah. Mario, Sonic Pikachu.

Yeah, I think that's. Those are probably the big three.

I think those three.

I still think Mega Man, Pac man and I think Steve probably makes that list just because Minecraft, now if I remember right, is the absolute top selling game of all time. Right?

Yeah, it is.

I think with the younger generations, it's gonna. Steve is gonna be. Yeah, gotta be there. Yeah.

So I think he's gotta be part of the conversation. Plus I could include a picture of Jack Black. Why wouldn't I do that? Yeah. So let's go with these. Well, I put Zelda as well.

Before I even knew your pick. I was thinking Zelda is probably. Or Link is probably in the top there. You guess what, you have top three. I think Zelda games. I just picture Link.

I don't know, man, but the same thing with like Frankenstein. I'm like, yeah, I know that it's not the monster, but like when I hear Frankenstein, I don't picture an old man, I picture the monster.

Anyway, Link, Steve, Mario, Sonic, Pikachu, Mega Man, Pac man of this group. Like, why do you guys think that these for like mainstream culture? Why are these the ones that you think stick out to people?

I just want to say really quick, shout out to Pac man world. Great game. Love that game.

Correct. I'm probably also going to get that on Steam deck because I know it's a thing I can do.

I think a lot of people have history with these characters and that they played multiple games or, you know, everyone's. Most.

Everyone's been in an arcade at some point in time or even like a restaurant where they just have, like a video game system up and it's going to be, like, packed Pac man or Gallagher or something like that. So Pac man would be there. Or like, there's tons of Mario games that.

Plenty of children that might have been their first experience or pretty much everyone's played Pokemon, so Pikachu is going to be up there. Sonic as well.

Availability of certain games, as opposed to like, maybe like a Donkey Kong, doesn't have as many games compared to a Mario or Link or Pikachu or what have you. So that's. The more accessibility there is, the higher chance that person would have them on their list as most iconic.

Yeah, yeah.

I think simplicity of design for those three. Mario, Pikachu, Sonic, they just stand out. They're simple. I think the history is a factor.

I think for me, too, part of what I think makes them great is what makes gaming great in general. And it's that they represent the fact that this is an escape into a different world. You know, this doesn't have to be like real life.

I think that's where video games started. And now, you know, I think in more recent years, we were trying to imitate real life a little bit more.

And, you know, you get war games and you get, you know, war games and different things like that, but that's kind of where they started.

Yeah, I. Yeah, I have a charitable and uncharitable reasons why. I think. I think to be uncharitable, I think a lot of it is just like, they look fun.

Like, I think. I think sometimes, you know, popular culture is very simple and it's. They look fun. I also think it's probably like a lot of the vibe.

Like, when you think. For example, I think when you think Pac man, you don't just think the little yellow circle you're thinking about, like, old memories you had.

You think about the music, the colors. Like, I think it's a whole vibe that comes with it. My more charitable ones.

I do think that the reason, like, specifically Link and Pikachu, I think the reason that they make it up there actually might have something to do with their character. So, like, I think it is because Link is adventurous.

It's like people have played as him, they've learned who he is as a character, and they Admire the character. Character. So I think that's why he still kind of stays in the forefront is actually because he's a hero. We all want to be a hero. Pikachu.

I think it's largely to do with the anime because really, if you just played the games, I think it would be hard to be like, yeah, Pikachu. That was my favorite of these things I caught.

For your information, when I was younger, I spent a good several months pretending I was a rat. I would love to be Pikachu.

TJ aside.

But I think, like, in the anime, like, you do see the things like what Christian was talking about, like, where he is, like, he's strong, he does the things that he shouldn't be able to do. He just has so much umph, you know, like, Pikachu has so much spirit.

And I think that that carried on and we attached his personality to the same little character in the game that really doesn't have the same personality. But to us it does, because anime. Cool. Then Steve. I'll comment on that too.

I think part of why Minecraft in general is getting big is because people want to feel like they're creating. I think that's part of what it means to be human. And Minecraft just makes that accessible to everyone.

And Steve just happens to be the icon of that game. Like, I really think that's all it is. Yeah. All right. Any other comments on why people might have these as, like, the mainstream top picks?

I will say the reason Galaga doesn't make it is because Galaga doesn't have a real character. Sorry, Will that. But that is the only reason. Yeah. Any other thoughts? All right, then let's move on to.

I want to have the patience of Mega man because, like, you can't play those games and not have to, like, learn how to wait and time things correctly. So I want to have his patience. I want to have the love of Sora, the humor of Ratchet, you know, the courage of Spyro the dragon.

I want to have that too.

As far as, like, things to immolate some of those perverted jokes we talked about with Daxter and Ratchet, I think we could probably get rid of some of those again. Sora is just running in blindly and a lot of these characters doing that. That's something I don't want to be like that.

I want to be someone who takes the time to think things through more like Mega man and time things. Well, instead of just running in and hoping for the best, just me personally, that's where I'm at.

And then Raymond, you know, I want to be like, that kind of person who can, like, hey, now is fun time. I'm going to party.

I don't even know a word that describes how Crash approaches his life with, you know, grace. It's hard to call what Crash does graceful, but it's like a certain spin factor.

Casual. Casual, yes.

Fantastic.

To. For the immolation pile, which is just a bonfire. I'm putting in the naivety of Sora in a lot of these characters.

That's it.

I'm leaving the naivety behind. I'm thinking a lot this year.

I want to excise.

No, I want to have the work ethic, the tenacity and courage of Kyle Katarn, and the ability to admit when I'm wrong, which is what you do in Mysteries of the Sith, is that you fought at the dark side. So, oh, man, that was a terrible decision. And come back to the light.

I'd like to resist those baser parts of myself that would lead me to that direction. I want to maintain Kreia's sarcasm and not have her biting view of the world that I can often get when I'm at my most misanthropic.

So I want to excise that for myself. I want the ability of the Dragonborn to lose weight as I eat. That'd be great. Let's see. Oh, and pikachu. I want people to love me like Pikachu.

Yeah, I'm gonna stick with an ADD one. So for Jack and Dexter, I think good humor is always really important. So good humor and emulating the bad humor. But also I think Jack's balance.

Courage, courage.

Yeah, me too. But, you know, I'm realistic. I'm gonna throw out my naivety and just tell you I'm not gonna get faster.

I'm gonna continue to be a slow person and find a way to reconcile that maybe.

Fair enough.

All right, guys, this was fun. Time to jump to the wrap up though.

And for those who have a couple extra minutes, you want a Patreon Captivate or Apple podcast, you can hear us answer a bonus question we're gonna do really quickly and we're going to answer who we think are the most overrated and underrated gaming icons of all time. So that'll be fun. But for now, we're going to each give a recommendation. Can be about anything. This one's difficult for me.

I think if you haven't played Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and you should play that whether you're a fan or not, it's a great place to start.

But also, if you've been a fan of Kingdom Hearts and somehow haven't played Birth by Sleep, you have no idea what's going on in Kingdom Hearts and should play Birth by Sleep. So I think that's good.

Okay.

Though here's my problem with the Riku's better than Sora thing. Okay. With referencing Birth by Sleep. Terra made that choice and Terra was making bad choices that entire game.

Yeah, but Terra is more related to.

Riku that Terra actually made a good choice with of choosing to pass on to Riku anyways.

True, true. Maybe just better to say Riku has a stronger heart, but he's not as good. Sora is very good just in general.

Unsure but Recommendation James okay, I've been.

And so I stumbled on this game playing on the Switch it is. I hate the title of the game because it's the most, you know, silly title ever, but it's called Unicorn Overlord.

I love it.

JRPG by Vanillaware and it's, you know, Imagine Fire Emblem but like better and more complex on like every level. Similar to like Octopath Traveler, but you're playing with units, not just individual characters.

So you're controlling a unit of like three to five characters at once instead of just an individual character's action. So it's really complicated, it's really fun and it's a simple and great plot.

So yeah, it's great. I'm gonna cheat and throw in a second recommendation because that's what Christian's gonna do anyway. Papers, please.

It's a video game I learned of because of Ben Chica and it's really simple.

You are immigration officer and have to give people their papers and send them back and you get to hear their backstory and decide is this actually what's best? And is the system being overloaded and it's not like a hey, we need to be more progressive on this issue.

It actually makes you think from both sides a little bit and I think it's a challenging game so pick that one up if you feel like being challenged in your politics. Maybe Christian Ashley, where are we at with video game recommendations or any recommendations?

Sorry, yes, I'm going to cheat, but not the way you want because I'm going to give an anti recommendation. Like I mentioned in the earlier episode, I'm going through different horror franchises that I've never seen the full movies of.

I avoided the Child's Play series like the plague and it turns out I was right to do so outside of Child's Play 2, the rest just kind of suck.

Fantastic. I love anti recommendations. DJ Any recommendations for everybody?

Dishonored. If you haven't played Dishonored, you need to absolutely $10 on Steam. Most computers can probably run Dishonored at this point. It is.

Oh wow.

It has an 8.4 on IMDb. It has a 9.3 from GameStop. It has a 10 from IGN. It is one of the best games of all time.

All right, that might be convinced me.

I can't wait to get a Steam and just download a bunch of games Anyways, if you're on a laptop, please consider rating and reviewing our show on podchaser or goodpad.

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You can listen to the whole series of video game icons down below with that link. So check that out and remember, of course we need you to remember. We're all a chosen people, a geekdom of priests.