Previously exclusive to the Scanline Media Patrons, our friend Boo ran into some financial issues and needs your help! Please check her on @boocanan.bsky.social for more information. In the mean time, enjoy a gargantuan deep dive into the Fate/stay Night Remaster! Click the link for the Patreon and a look at the host's character tier lists.

Fate/stay night is one of the most significant visual novels around: with three lengthy routes and an unforgettable cast of characters, what started as adult entertainment blossomed into an unstoppable cultural behemoth. A game this significant called for a significant shake-up in the way Novel Not New approaches things, so we brought out the big guns: with our special guest and Fate aficionado boocanan, we spent six whole months recording one big mega-podcast! Please enjoy.

Opening Segment Hollow Knight SpikeOut Tengoku Struggle Strayside Wanderstop On Your Tail HASTE: Broken Worlds

Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Content Warning 0:00:16 - Intro 0:26:56 - Fate 2:02:52 - Unlimited Blade Works 3:30:08 - Heaven's Feel 4:41:44 - Questions 5:30:48 - Outro

Here we are- Game of the Year. The big finale. We've had quite enough preamble- let's get to it.

The Nominees Are:

Aotenjo: Infinite Hands of the Devil (Episodes I + II) Dragon Quest I + II HD-2D Remake Dynasty Warriors: Origins Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time Fields of Mistria The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment The Legend of Sword & Fairy Pinfeather Rise of the Ronin Skate Story Sonic x Shadow Generations Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3: Community Edition Unbeatable Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O -World Stage-

Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Lay back by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from GOMA on Bluesky.

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, we have a real treat. Originally for the $5 Patrons, we have unlocked one of our longest and most in depth episodes of Novel Not New, and it's available just in time for the spooky season. We hope you enjoy.

Ahhh, Majora's Mask. A real odd duck in the Zelda series. There are weirder ones, sure: that Tingle DS game is pretty strange. In its own mundane way, Link's Crossbow Training is quite bizarre. But those are mere spinoffs. Majora's Mask adopts its own weird persona while managing to be a full Zelda game. The first Zelda led by Eiji Aonuma. The one that was gonna be for the 64DD. And for my money, one of the best. Let's see what lies behind the mask.

Click here when indicated if you want to watch the 100% No Major Glitches World Record speedrun alongside this podcast for some reason!

This Month's Games! The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

This Month's Guest! Kyrie Page (@kyrie.scanlinemedia.com)

Next Month's Game! Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 

Next Month's Guest! Allen Ibrahim (@chatzpod.bsky.social)

Opening Segment Void Stranger Mobile Suit Gundam U.C. Engage Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless Fate/Samurai Remnant

Kyrie traveled to Crystal City to attend Anime USA, and had a chance to conduct some interviews. She sat down with Emi Lo, an up-and-coming voice actor who's voiced roles in Higarashi, Genshin Impact, and the recently released Cyberpunk Edgerunners! 

Be sure to follow Emi on Twitter (@KitsuneSqueak) and check out their recent roles in The Yakuza's Guide To Babysitting and Shoot! Goal to the Future!

Kyrie traveled to Crystal City to attend Anime USA, and had a chance to conduct some interviews. She sat down with Tiffany Grant, a voice actor and script writer with nearly 30 years of experience in the industry! Known best for her role as Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion, she wrote scripts for shows like Den-noh Coil and Parasyte! 

Keep an eye out on Tiffany's website (http://www.tiffanygrant.com/) for the lastest on con appearances and much more. 

And with this third episode, it finally feels like we have a sense of what the rhythm and structure of this first cour will be like. We see another great fight, a pretty sick mobile suit design, and more parents strangling their children with their own petty ambitions. Just because Tomino isn't working on this one doesn't mean this show doesn't think adults suck.

I know this is just weeb hours right now, but Suisei no Majou has really good mouthfeel. So does The Witch from Mercury, but it's a very different feeling! Starting smooth and ending harsh, versus starting harsh and ending with intrigue, maybe? That second one is perhaps a decent description of this episode, which both Allen and Six feel is a downbeat after the very strong first episode, but at least there's plenty to talk about.

We're back with another month in media! Kyrie's keeping it current, and, dare I say, fresh, with Splatoon 3! Six still likes Terraria, but is perhaps better able to elaborate on why! And Jen? Jen is very mad about Yakuza 4. There are briefcases of money, and guns, and bulletproof vests, and guns, and skyscrapers, and guns involved. And mahjong? That part caught my ear.

After three years, Allen and Six are back for more in depth Gundam crit! The launch of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury has people coming out of the woodwork to talk about how it's their new favorite ship, their new obsession, the best Gundam ever, the gayest thing in since sliced bread, the second coming of Utena. We think they all need to calm down. But it IS worth talking about. So let's do that, episode by episode as they come out.

It's Gaming Season again! That's why there's a heat wave, you see. At least in California. Where today is Friday! Funny how that works out. We're back with media we've been enjoying lately, and for all of us it's been time to enjoy some video games! Six is here with Final Fantas- wait don't leave! They're here to talk about the new farming minigame, and Square's general approach to side activities in the MMO. Both Jen and Six have been playing Saint's Row, and they're here to tell you that the mainstream critics have this one wrong! Finally, Kyrie has discovered a new world of fighting games, and now a simple change of controller can reshape your relationship with a game.

The last but certainly not least of Kyrie's interview series at Otakon 2022 concludes with an interview with Tiana Camacho. You can check her out in the latest season of Jojo's Bizzare Adventure as Ermes Costello, and is absolutely a talent to keep an eye out for.

Be sure to follow her on Twitter or keep up to date and buy signed prints on her Streamily page!

Kyrie's interview series continues with her talk with Toshio Furukawa and Shino Kakinuma! Having countless roles over their combined decades of experience, it was an honor to sit down with two legends of the Japanese voice acting world. 

Be sure to follow Toshio Furukawa on Twitter! 

After twenty-eight years, one of the most influential JRPGs of all time finally has an official English release. With seven heroes on seven journeys, it was (and is) incredibly narratively and mechanically ambitious, while also surprisingly restrained in scope. We never played it ourselves, but with the remake out, Jen and Six have finally filled this gap in their knowledge. And folks? Its reputation is well deserved.

If you want to find us on Twitter, Jen is @jbu3 and Six is @sixdettmar. There is too much music to list, but it's all from the Live A Live 2022 remake OST by Yoko Shimamura.

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 5-6, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 5-6, Kamen Rider Blade 5-6

Pretty Cure has a new villain for us. Dekaranger has things to say about capitalism's hunger for oil. Blade has decided to just acknowledge what's going on, and not insult our intelligence. All-in-all, a solid week here on Sunday Henshin Time, where three lineups of transforming heroes face the problems of the week, and rise above. Mostly. Garren does get his butt kicked pretty often.

The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas!

To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link!

Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

Kyrie's interview series from Otakon 2022 continues! She got a chance to speak with composers Kaoru Wada and Yuki Hayashi! They discuss inspirations, challenges, and much more. Huge thank you to Mr. George Endo for providing translation! 

You can find out more about Kaoru Wada on his Twitter and website and same for Yuki Hayashi on his Twitter and website. 

Stay tuned for more interviews later this month!

This is the start of Kyrie's interview series based on the people she got a chance to speak with at Otakon 2022!

First, Kyrie spoke with Kaho Shibuya, the multitalented streamer, model, and singer! She sat down with me to talk about her current and upcoming projects. If you would like to follow her, be sure to check out her Twitter, Twitch, and Instagram! Or, you can always check out her website for more details. 

With Kyrie still away, we turn to friend and capital G Gamer Lotte to fill in our third chair! that's unkind. don't call Lotte a Gamer. that's mean. Jen has brought Who's Lila?, an unsettling point and click about trying to convey emotions. Lotte has been watching Birdie Wing, and "boy is it Girls." And Six has brought a Three Kingdoms double (triple?) feature, and none of the works involved are particularly stellar.

If there is a strange silence in your track around the discussion of River City Saga: Three Kingdoms, please delete and redownload your track! There is a version 2!

Welcome to the renamed Playlist Podcast! That name? Not very good. This one? Better. And what better way to inaugurate the new name than by expanding our scope as well? We have our games coverage- Six is talking Neon White, as is a lot of the internet lately, while Jen has brought Card Shark, a game by the developers of Reigns that has our cast a bit divided. But we're not just doing games anymore, as Kyrie has brought the Indian action film RRR to the table as well.

Our intro music is 8bit 23 from Demon Souls, a Japanese royalty free music site.

It's another month, and we're back to talk about more of what we've been playing lately! Jen is indulging in her FMV love with The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, a Japanese mystery game from the writer of 428: Shibuya Scramble. It's less wacky comedy than Shibuya, however, focused more on Japanese history and classic mysteries. Kyrie is happy to revisit Chrono Cross, one of the games from her youth that left a big impression. It isn't the world's greatest port, but it's still a reminder of this strange and special game. And Six? They brought... Total War: Three Kingdoms again. This time they're upset at it. That's novel, I guess.

Our intro music is 8bit 23 from Demon Souls, a Japanese royalty free music site.

CONTENT WARNING: Non-graphic but emotionally charged discussion of fictional violence, abuse between partners, sexual abuse, and familial abuse, as well as trauma that stems from the above.

At a patron's request, we checked out a visual novel neither of us had ever heard of, called Ochitsubaki. It's a quick playthrough, clocking in at 60 to 90 minutes based on your reading speed. We couldn't have anticipated the strength of its writing, and how hard it would hit us.

If you want to find us on Twitter, Jen is @jbu3 and Six is @sixdettmar. Our intro music is Yuugaoshiro, and our outro music is Tsuki ga Daroshima. Both are by FEYXUAN, and are from the Ochitsubaki OST. You can find more of FEYXUAN's music here, their itchi.io page here, and the page for their artist collective oneiro here.

March is behind us, and thus, the really busy season of game releases also relents. It's that end of fiscal quarter that's so killer, isn't it? Six is here to talk about the often-misunderstood Sifu, Kyrie is ready to talk about the new Kirby, and Jen has found things to love in Ghostwire: Tokyo where other critics haven't.

Our intro music is 8bit 23 from Demon Souls, a Japanese royalty free music site.

Do you like... my car? Forza Horizon 5 left Jen and Six feeling surprisingly lukewarm, and most of the time that would be the story of racing games for the time being. After all, Need For Speed has been a mess for years, and while Jen likes more serious racing games like DiRT, they're beyond Six's ken. But what is this? The elusive Polyphony Digital have put out their first fully featured Gran Turismo in almost a decade? Well we GOTTA talk about that.

If you want to find us on Twitter, Jen is @jbu3 and Six is @sixdettmar.

It's time for the new monthly Playlist Podcast! I mean, the podcast isn't new. It's just that we're doing it monthly now. Kyrie dove back into The Wolf Among Us, Six tried the newest expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Jen is playing more of the new Sherlock Holmes, and there's plenty to say about Elden RIng of course!

Our intro music is 8bit 23 from Demon Souls, a Japanese royalty free music site.

Here we are: Best Game, aka Game of the Year. You know what this one's about. Let's get into it.

The Nominees Are: Hitman 3 Deathloop Monster Hunter Rise Metroid Dread Melty Blood Type Lumina Resident Evil: Village NEO The World Ends With You Psychonauts 2 The Forgotten City Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Guardians of the Galaxy Inscryption Shin Megami Tensei V

That's it! Thank you everyone for joining us for a look at 2021, and all the marvels in it. And bad stuff too. And everything. Thank god that's all behind us.

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 3-4, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 3-4, Kamen Rider Blade 3-4

Big explosive openings are out of the way, now is time to settle into some grooves. Futari wa is out here building the train while it's already on the tracks, but that's where they like to be. Dekaranger is trying to expand it's characters and setting, and Blade is diving right into some impressively escalated stakes. What will these shows morph into? Something colorful, I am certain.

The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas!

To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link!

Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

Whether touching, hilarious, sick af or what have you, games have always been good at creating moments you just have to tell others about. Let's talk about those moments.

The Nominees Are: Taking on Arena fights with friends (Monster Hunter Rise) Turf Wars (Monster Hunter Rise) Monster riding (Monster Hunter Rise) The sense of bewilderment of rankings of pointless things in Poll Mine (Jackbox Party Pack 8) Shield Rallies (Melty Blood Type Lumina) The Baby Sequence (Resident Evil Village) Giving Lady Dimetrescu a Hand (Resident Evil Village) That Super Cool Suit (Metroid Dread) Samus Sez We’re Done Here (Metroid Dread) Titania, Queen of Fairies (Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2: Code Fairy) Berlin (Hitman 3) Getting Your Affairs In Order (Adios) Replacing Your Eye (Inscryption) Crewing a Tank (Hell Let Loose) Going back and addressing the story (NieR Replicant ver. 1.22474487139…) Wait, that was new?! (NieR Replicant ver. 1.22474487139…) Oh look, dolphins (Overboard!)

And now our last category is to follow: Best Game. Let's settle this.

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

Is this where I make a "ya like jazz" joke? That's Our Jam is our music category, and we want a song that isn't just good to listen to, it's also good in game, and just generally a bop.

The Nominees Are: Disaster of Passion [May Theme] (Guilty Gear Strive) Trigger [Giovanna Theme] (Guilty Gear Strive) Armor-Clad Faith [Potemkin Theme] (Guilty Gear Strive) Smell of the Game [Main Theme] (Guilty Gear Strive) Magnamalo Theme (Monster Hunter Rise) Rainy Moon [Red Arceuid Theme] (Melty Blood Type Lumina) 4 Challenges [Photon Maiden] (D4DJ) Watch Me Shine [Star-Lord] (Guardians of the Galaxy) Pursuit (The Great Ace Attorney) Da'at [Battle Theme] (Shin Megami Tensei V) Your Ocean (NEO The World Ends With You) Artaria II (Metroid Dread) On the Edge (Mahjong Soul) Charge (Mahjong Soul) Rasen (Lost Judgment)

Next up is the Best Moment category, with some great individual parts of games that were truly amazing!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

Remasters. Remakes. Whatever you want to call them, they are here to stay. The PS3/360 generation poked its foot in the door with these, and now they live here. I have pretty mixed feelings about them, to be honest. But definitely some of them are worth celebrating, and we'd like to talk about those.

The Nominees Are: Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne HD Death Stranding: Director’s Cut The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles Ninja Gaiden Collection Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game - Complete Edition Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millenium (NEO GEO Pocket) Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind + The Missing Heir Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown No More Heroes Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD Castlevania Advance Collection Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania Shadow Man Remastered Judgment (XBX and PS5 version) Control: Ultimate Edition Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Miitopia Alan Wake Remastered Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139… Quake Pokemon Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl

We're posting four awards in short order here, for the last four categories! Next up is That's Our Jam, the most editing-heavy category and the reason all the others are late! Stay tuned!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

You could also call this Best Old Game, if you hated being pithy and also wanted to insult these games. But in any year, MOST of the games we play aren't from that year. They're from years previous, sometimes many years previous. Of these, which ones defined our 2021?

The Nominees Are: Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late [cl-r] Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution Dragon Quest Builders 2 Disco Elysium Dragon Ball FighterZ Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Halo: The Master Chief Collection Metroid Fusion Tekken 7 Kidou Gekidan Haro Ichiza: Gundam Mahjong + Z: Sara ni Deki Ruyouni Nattana!

And that's a wrap for today's Gimmick Awards! Please come back tomorrow for two more, and then two more the day after that!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

The difference between Chinese and Japanese, aka "Riichi" mahjong, is the concept of the Yaku. Basically, it's a bunch of special forms your hand can take that allow you to call a win, and give you extra points. As a bunch of newbies to the scene, we have strong feelings about which ones are best. So Nick is gonna join us to figure it out.

The Nominees Are: Chiitoitsu Toitoihou Riichi Iipeiko Rinshan Kaihou Sanshouku Doujun Ryuuiisou Pinfu Kokushi Musou Nanboku Sensou The Groose is Loose Open Riichi

One category down for the day, one to go! Next we've got Backlog Star, featuring all the old games we loved in 2021!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

There are a lot of bad things about the way technology has allowed games to be changed. Gacha mechanics. Live service hellscapes. Free to play torture. Patching out things that are fun because they're not what the devs "intended." But also? There's DLC, or other add-ons. And sometimes those add-ons really freakin good. Let's celebrate the ones that are.

The Nominees Are: Patch 1.28 (DragonBall FighterZ) Washizu Mahjong/Darkness Mahjong (Mahjong Soul) Title Updates (Monster Hunter Rise) FEATURING DANTE FROM DEVIL MAY CRY (SMT Nocturne HD) Waves 1 and 2 (Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity) 2.0 Update (Animal Crossing New Horizons) Happy Home DLC (Animal Crossing New Horizons) Switch Online Plus Online Update (Super Mario Party) Arena Mode (Apex Legends) Intergrade (FFVII Remake) Level Editor Update (Baba is You) Final Cut (Disco Elysium) Season 4 (Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid) Fates Divided (Total War: Three Kingdoms) Luxury Flipper (House Flipper) Make Them Unique (Total War: Three Kingdoms)

That's it for today's Gimmick Awards! Tune back in tomorrow for more, and I hope you've enjoyed what you've heard so far!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

We're pretty heavily invested in good writing in games around here. This also leads to a love of a well-written and rendered character. But we're also kinda queer dopes, so sometimes we just love a handsome boy. Listen, people be containing multitudes.

The Nominees Are: Cole (Deathloop) Julianna (Deathloop) Veronica Villensey (Overboard!) Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil Village) Nagi Usui (NEO The World Ends With You) Nahobino (Shin Megami Tensei V) Rivet (Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart) Herlock Sholmes (The Great Ace Attorney) Marci (Dota 2) Nagoriyuki (Guilty Gear Strive) Yomogi the Chef (Monster Hunter Rise) Galerius (The Forgotten City) Lidia (Tekken 7) Lucian Galade (Suzerain) χ Key/Chi (The Caligula Effect 2) The Pig Farmer (Adios)

One more category for the day, and it's Best DLC/Add-on! We had a lot of great ones this year, and it led to a great conversation, so I hope you enjoy it.

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

Even when a Gundam show is bad, you often get good model kits out of it. That's the blessing of this hobby: even when you lose, you can win. Plenty of good Gundam plastic model kits, or gunpla for short, came out this year. Let's decide the best ones.

The Nominees Are: MG Eclipse Gundam RG Hi-Nu Gundam MG Ginn RG Zeong HG Xi Gundam Full Mechanics Calamity Gundam HGBB Gundam Barbataurus HGBB Gundam Command 00 Qan[T] HGBB Gundam Perfect Strike Freedom HGUC Nightingale

That's our first category for today! Next up, we're going to be talking the Best New Character!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

This is the longest list of nominees for any category, and there's a reason for that. Around here, we love action and fighting games. And out of all the playstyles created for them this year, which was the best? Let's see.

The Nominees Are: Giovanna (Guilty Gear Strive) Nagoriyuki (Guilty Gear Strive) Goldlewis (Guilty Gear Strive) Happy Chaos (Guilty Gear Strive) Marci (Dota 2) Longsword (Monster Hunter Rise) Sword and Shield (Monster Hunter Rise) Saber (Melty Blood Type Lumina) Noel (Melty Blood Type Lumina) Korra (Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl) Spongebob (Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl) Pyra/Mythra (Super Smash Brothers Ultimate) Sora (Super Smash Brothers Ultimate) Kazuya Mishima (Super Smash Brothers Ultimate) Shanty (Them's Fightin' Herds) Akira (Street Fighter V) Black Ninja Ranger (Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid) Ryu Ranger (Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid) Rita Repulsa (Power Rangers: Battle For The Grid) Red Rider (Gundam Battle Operation 2) Quess’s Jagd Doga (Gundam Battle Operation 2) Tao (Gunfire Reborn) Super Baby 2 (Dragon Ball FighterZ) Titania (Gundam Battle Operation 2: Code Fairy) Cham Cham (Samurai Shodown) Lidia Sobiska (Tekken 7)

That's all for today's awards, but we'll have plenty more for you tomorrow! And the day after that, and the day after that. So please stay tuned!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

As much as we love surprises, it can swing very hard the other way. Sometimes you are all primed to love a game and it just whiffs, hard. It is therapeutic to vent your frustration, anger, and sadness, but at the end of the day, it just sucks to feel like this. These are the Biggest Disappointments of 2021.

The Nominees Are: Disgaea 6 Disgaea RPG Pac-Man 99 The Medium New Pokemon Snap Mario Golf: Super Rush Twelve Minutes Balan Wonderworld Nickelodeon All-Stars Brawl MLB The Show 21 Myst Remake Guilty Gear Strive GTA Trilogy Remaster Collection Get in the Car, Loser!

That was a downer, but our last award category for the day is Movelist of the Year! You'll get to hear us talk our passion for action and fighting games, it'll be great!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

EPISODES COVERED: Futari wa Pretty Cure 1-2, Tokosou Sentai Dekaranger 1-2, Kamen Rider Blade 1-2

Here comes a new story. Or three, to be more precise. With our Journey to the Worst in the bag, Kyrie and I leave Dragon Ball behind for the moment, and head to new territory. But what could we possibly cover where we'd have that same magic combination of undercovered work that we can act as experts about, and that we're very passionate about? It's a short list, I think. But you know? Pretty Cure, Super Sentai, and Kamen Rider? Yeah, I think that makes the cut.

We're starting Sunday Henshin Time with the first two episodes of Futari wa Pretty Cure, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, and Kamen Rider Blade. And we're riding this baby all the way. I suspect we'll die before we fully catch up XD but enjoy the ride until then!

The incredible artwork for Sunday Henshin Time was provided by Cas!

To start out, SHT is going up on the Scanline Talks feed, but now it has its own! Here's a link!

Our intro music is Scene47 蒼空 ～aoi～ by Kaneko Kazuki, with gratitude.

Who doesn't love a good surprise? It's nice to look forward to games, and have them come out and be everything you want. But what about things you didn't know you wanted, or didn't imagine you could ever get? These games are the Best Surprises of 2021.

The Nominees Are: Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier Super Robot Wars 30 Bowser's Fury GBO2: Code Fairy Guardians of the Galaxy Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid - Super Edition Gnosia Inscryption Overboard! Petal Crash Touhou Luna Nights

We've got two more awards for you today, so don't miss them! Next up is Biggest Disappointment! Oh... that's a bummer one, actually. The ONLY bummer one.

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

When you start streaming, you quickly learn that there is a difference between a game that's good and a game that's good to stream. Certainly, lots of good games also stream well. But when you try streaming one of your favs and realize it's no fun to watch, that's an eye-opening moment. The games on this list are not going to be nominated for any other category, but when we streamed them in 2021, we had a hell of a good time.

The Nominees Are: Lifeline Drakengard Hardspace: Shipbreaker Breakdown Firefighter F.D. 18 NBA Street Vol. 2 Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem Killer Instinct Sherlock Holmes Chapter One

That's it for today's Gimmick Awards, but come back for three more awards for the next four days, a total of twelve more categories! Plenty to look forward to.

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

The Nominees Are: Mario Party Superstars Jackbox Party Pack 8 Melty Blood Type Lumina Hell Let Loose Mahjong Soul Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 Mario Golf: Super Rush Pokemon Unite Gundam Battle Operation 2 Knockout City Halo Infinite Final Fantasy XIV Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier Forza Horizon 5

One category left for today: Stream Friend, where we talk about the games we streamed in 2021! I hope you'll enjoy it!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

Welcome to Scanline Media's 2021 Gimmick Awards! We're starting off with a favorite of ours. We're paid anime critics (every time I say it it's surreal, but it's true!), and as you might expect that leads us to having strong opinions on anime. But of all the anime and manga we covered in 2021, what was the best?

The Nominees Are: Akagi: The Genius That Descended Into Darkness Evangelion 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time Moriarty The Patriot Yu-Gi-Oh! Serial Experiments Lain Dirty Pair March Comes In Like a Lion Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway Den-noh Coil Godzilla: Singular Point Delicious in Dungeon

We have two more award categories today, I hope you'll enjoy them! Next up is Social Game of the Year!

Our intro music for the Gimmick Awards 2021 is Piano 29 from Demon’s Souls, a Japanese royalty-free music site. A big thank you to daanboii (@daanboii on Twitter) for our Game of the Year art!

Now we bring things to a close. The curtains fall on the first single player Gundam game in years, with a conclusion that leaves us feeling a little mixed. Without a doubt, Code Fairy as a whole has been a great experience, and a game we'd both recommend. But it doesn't TOTALLY stick the landing, in ways that are a bit confusing.

If you want to find us on Twitter, Jen is @jbu3 and Six is @sixdettmar.

As it turns out, Volume 2 was so much of a banger that we wanted to make this a three parter after all. Alma's absence is our gain as this second part starts with a bang, giving us new mission types, new perspectives, and new mobile suits, only to reunite us with the lucky redheaded newtype for a thrilling conclusion. We'll be back for Volume 3, which I'm sure will end perfectly happily and nothing bad will happen.

If you want to find us on Twitter, Jen is @jbu3 and Six is @sixdettmar.

Jen and Six both have caught the fae fever! In the wake of Volume 1 of the episodic Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation Code Fairy, a single player Gundam story about an all-girls squad in the One Year War, the two simply had to convene to talk about. Whether we'll come back to talk about Volume 2, or just wait til the end to record again is unclear at this time, but we definitely want to talk more Code Fairy!

If you want to find us on Twitter, Jen is @jbu3 and Six is @sixdettmar.

After nearly two decades, Metroid Dread has arrived. Once little more than a rumor and an easter egg in a Metroid Prime scan, not only is it here, but we've had time to beat it, ponder it, and now assemble to talk about it. Six is joined by friend of the site Lee to discuss the latest Metroid game.

You can find Lee on Twitter at @UnstableArk, and Six at @sixdettmar.

This is all Marth's fault. Smash used to be a good, wholesome game of classic Nintendo characters. Now it's all, waifu, sempai, uwu, nakama, airdash, triangle jump, fuzzy guard, yaoi paddle, BL, glomping... it's lost. It's all because of how many swords are in the game. ...Wait. How many swords are in the game? Let's figure that out.

A lot of text has been typed about how many Gokus are in Dragon Ball FighterZ. It's a lot, of that we can be certain. But there are different numbers generated, with different logic and methodology. Six and Kyrie are here to tell you the REAL skinny on "The Goku Number."

Recorded live in person, so it's a LITTLE echo-y, but it's otherwise good sound quality.

Here we are, folks. Game of the Year- the capper to the Gimmick Awards. We've said a lot over the course of this month, so no big preamble: I'll let the conversation speak for itself.

The Nominees Are: 1000xRESIST Chants of Sennaar Children of the Sun Crow Country Dragon Quest III HD-2D Dragon's Dogma 2 Dungeons of Hinterberg Emio - The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising Helldivers 2 I Am Your Beast Kerbal Space Program 2 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Metaphor: ReFantazio Mouthwashing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Reverse Collapse: Code Name Bakery Riven (2024) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom UFO 50 Unicorn Overlord

Here's our write-up for the winners!

Our intro and outro music for the Gimmick Awards 2024 is Afternoon After the Rain by Kazuki Kaneko, and our art is a commission from Sarracenian on Bluesky.

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of a fictional incestual relationship, non-graphic purely the relationship. Also we spoil Twelve Minutes.

The Playlist podcast returns with a guest in tow! Our usual crew of Jen, Kyrie, and Six are joined by friend of the site Ryan on this bright evening. Ryan is VERY mad at Twelve Minutes, with good reason, but they and Jen have really been enjoying Psychonauts 2. Six and Kyrie both have been playing a lot of Under Night, then went their separate ways as Six has been cramming Metroid games in the runup to Dread, while Kyrie plays more Monster Hunter.

Thank you so much to Ryan (@BluestRose430) for joining us!

Just because it's a relatively quiet period doesn't mean there aren't new releases to talk about! Jen, Kyrie, and Six are here to talk about the classic mystery solving of Famicom Detective Club, Atlus's overpriced Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne rerelease, and the baffling nature of Miitopia.

Experts of the Taroverse, assemble! Six was originally booked to host this podcast, but as discussions proceeded in the buildup to recording, it became obvious that they were just not up to the task. Instead, friend of the site Ryan has graciously taken the wheel to guide a podcast on the Drakengard Legacy with Jen and Kat. Buckle in, they're going DEEP.

If you want to find our hosts on Twitter, you can find Ryan at @bluestrose430, Jen at @jbu3, and Kat at @SimulationKat. Kat is also a streamer, you can find their work at twitch.tv/simulationkat.