Cup of Jones - Finale (Patreon)

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INyi9HioTrI

Goodbye, for now! You’ll hear me in reviews, fan mail, Podcast Producer credits, Golden Voice and see me on the occasional stream, but I won’t be talking a lot about games, or myself, for a bit. Thank you for following what is essentially a 6-year vanity project. Cup of Jones started as a chat joke during a GT stream, then soon after was given life by the bumbling of corporations and the will of thousands of fired-up patrons. Disguised as a business show aiming for financial transparency, for me these episodes became weekly commitments that kept me focused on what really matters when speaking to any community, and each one ultimately made me a better gamer, businessman, dad, and person. The dedication you’ve shown toward me in the effort to keep EZA honest and productive has been inspiring. Thanks for giving us at least $1 to watch or listen to this, for however long, and please continue to support EZA at any level to see and hear the cozy stuff I know is in the works. I’ll be out in the aether with you all, in the back row of the theater, eating Skittles and auto-battling. Be kind, patient, and playful with each other, and show others in this industry how it’s done.

Love and respect, forever.

Brandon






PS. It’s not that Bloodborne’s characters aren’t expressive. There’s certainly a pervasive mood that radiates gothic horror throughout, and everyone’s voice is chilling and memorable. I’m just surprised that all of the characters have such a similar range of movement, despite their varied personalities (as I understand them) and life experiences. When I played more Souls games, including Elden ring, I encountered more NPCs that have a lot to say but don’t seem to occupy the space in a way that feels realistic compared to other games that I enjoy. At times. I wonder what FromSoftware could do with a team like the mo-cap people at Guerrilla. There are always a handful of CG cutscenes in every Souls-esque game that are mind-blowing. I’d like to see that level of detail and epic storytelling into the moment-to-moment gameplay, at least once, to know if it could elevate this already impressive series of games to a status even higher than GOTY. Like, when I look at all the A- games like Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption 2, Witcher III: Wild Hunt, and Horizon: Forbidden West, and then think of the A+ games like Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Elden Ring, it makes me wonder if there’s some sort of S-tier, Diamond grade that games haven’t achieved yet.