If you couldn't tell by the episode title, Buzz is somewhat excited to have received the latest Nippon Ichi Software SRPG "Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero" early. In fact, not even some weird cold symptoms could keep him from mouth-breathing his way through some early impressions.

Meanwhile, Porter shares his experiences with the surprise drop that was Ninja Gaiden 2: Black from Koei Tecmo. And since we let him get away with honestly too much on this podcast, Porter also shares his recommendation for the comic series "Die" (2018-2021, Image Comics). No, but actually it sounds really good.

And because of the previous item, we get sidetracked talking about isekai as a genre and how the deep VRMMO plots could lay off some of their contrivances.

"My life is like a videogame, trying hard" - no it's not. Stop. We got real problems to contend with and serious turmoil on a global scale. Now let's play some D&D...

Will joins the party again as we swap old stories of our time around the table fighting everyone's favorite vampire, Count Strahd von Zarovich. We deftly work our way from Ravenloft's humble origins in 1983 to the more contemporary Curse of Strahd module from 2016 and its revisions since.

Spoilers for both the Curse of Strahd and Vecna: Eve of Ruin modules for D&D 5e (2014). We don't delve too heavily into plot spoilers, but if you plan to play through this module as a player, you might want to save this episode for after your campaign. However, if you're a DM, come on in and learn some tricks to really mess with your players!

Naturally we meander all over the place, covering such topics as Mordenkainen's magnificent marketing schemes for spell names, why owning a piece of property may be one of the greatest plot hooks of all time, and how many times you can pull the doppelganger trick on your players (Answer: infinite number of times).

So, push that girl into the healing pound, take a few levels in Cleric, and grab some Strahd electrum as we dive headlong into Barovia!

Board game talk on your video game podcast!? Blasphemy!

No, daddy chill, because Final Girl is, like, just that good. For real, for real.

Anyway... We do spend a good first chunk of this episode talking about the excellent and modular board game "Final Girl" from Van Ryder Games. From the innovative dual cover peel-off design of the boxes to the mix-and-match game play of killers and settings, it's quickly becoming one of the best things we have played so far this year. (And I don't mean that as a backhanded compliment either. Like, yeah it's January and early in the year, but trust us, it's really good)

Now back onto digital media. We have been playing a smattering of games as the year finally kicks off, including Phantom Brave: The Hermuda Triangle Remastered from NIS (all in anticipation of an actual Phantom Brave sequel later this month!), Dynasty Warrior: Origins, Tales of Graces f Remastered, and Citizen Sleeper. Oh, and I try to convince Porter to play Disgaea, because you can't break the fourth wall if it was never there in the first place.

Oh, and uh, the Switch 2 is a thing. But that's all we know.

~I want Chanel 9 boots/'Cause we are living in a material world/And I am a final girl~