Did you know Radio Free Nintendo has been going for 20 years already? That's .6 Perrys, 40 Balexes, and a tenth of a Casey!
This week we got a pretty normie episode for ya. Not too short, not too long. Some good games (Monster Crown: Sin Eater, Sektori, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, maybe Hyrule Warriors, Pokemon GO), some good banter. Kind of in the holding pattern before we get to Not-E3 season, so on and so forth. P-O-D-N-W-R!
15 years ago, Pokemon-likes were a thing that happened but not a luxury to be taken for granted. Nowadays, independent developers have made the monster catch-and-trains into a subgenre of their own. Many of them are pretty good and some less so, but for me, a longtime Pokemon enjoyer, I unfortunately see many of these monster collectors as samey and a bit disposable. Usually either Diet Old Pokemon or “What if Pokemon was this other genre?”
Monster Crown: Sin Eater follows up the original Monster Crown, a game that had some good ideas but suffered from technical issues and much unrealized potential. Sin Eater realizes some of that potential, and is a game that I think captures the old magic more than most of its contemporaries.
You play as Asur, a farmer boy that lives under the cruel, oppressive rule of the Crown Nation’s strange government. When your brother is executed for attempting to rebel against his oppressors, you are inspired to take up arms (and a team of monsters) to dismantle the government and defeat each of its leaders.
The story and dialogue are edgy bordering on sophomoric, but there’s some really good world building at play. The world is harrowing; monster herds trample through communities and decimate townspeople, death is around every corner, and monsters are bought and sold like objects that can be used and discarded.
The battle system is fairly straightforward Pokemoning with several different types that are more or less weak against different types. You can use a number of moves, level up, you get the idea. But it differs in key ways too. For example, the primary means of “evolving” the monsters you tame come in the form of research centers where you fuse monsters together into more powerful ones. It’s addicting to take two creatures you’re not sure about on their own before seeing the real freaks you can create. You can also create eggs which also fuse monsters (albeit with no experience gained) but don’t require discarding the base creatures.
You can tell this stands apart from Pokemon in some good ways, but Monster Crown stands apart in less-good ways too. There’s an aggressive level curve and some bizarre spikes that don’t feel earned, but difficulty settings and a generous number of high-EXP random encounters made it not too bad.
Sin Eater’s true success lies in its exploration. You can tackle any of its four main regions, and the oppressive leaders within, in any order. Inside of these regions are also optional dungeons which you stumble into and often have extremely powerful monsters waiting at the end. Many of these dungeons also have secret paths with some strange, awesome, almost shocking nods to the old Pokemon playing experience.
This is the first time I’ve played a non-Pokemon game that captures the feeling of discovery those games used to give me, and the very good sprite work that evokes Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal feeds that feeling further. As you play, you also get special abilities that feed the experience and let you climb up walls or surf over the water; in this freeform structure, Sin Eater plays like a strange-yet-functional fusion between old Pokemon and old Zelda.
Monster Crown: Sin Eater is the very definition of a “rough diamond.” I could name plenty of small-to-medium things that didn’t quite work for me in the 10 hours it took to reach credits, yet the look, feel, and sense of discovery make it stand apart from nearly every other indie monster collector I’ve ever played. If they make a Monster Crown 3 some day, it’ll really be something to watch.
Sorry for the shortie ep last week. We're back and BETTER (read: the same) as ever!!!
Good topics on the show this week, like Saros, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, and the Diablo IV expansion. Not bad, not bad! Some good yapping around the margins too. If we're halfway through May, that means they're doing not-E3 stuff in a few weeks. Huh???
Short episode this week because our schedules went crazy and people went to the ER and stuff, but we’re all good!
We spent a half hour going over the news this week, that being the new (?) Star Fox game, the Switch 2 price increase, and Takashi Tezuka’s retirement from Nintendo. Not so bad for a quick ep recorded Sunday night, eh?
For better or worse Carseat is back. With him, he brings a Mystery History. Then we get into a quarter of Balex's games played this week, but good thing for us that's still like six games. Such games include Beyond Words, Grime II, Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly REMAKE, and more!
We did a four-plus hour episode last week so you can imagine we were WIPED going into this one.
Casey couldn’t even make it and I (Alex) couldn’t even find time to do full time stamps. So don’t be fooled, we actually covered quite a bit this week. We talk Pokemon Champions, Mario Tennis Fever, working, RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike, Scritchy Scratchy, Life is Strange: Reunion, and the demo of Raider Kid and the Ruby Chest. Maybe some other stuff too!
Next week is 500, so we did a slightly shorter episode this week in order to ensure the big one is a super beefy boy (3D).
The main new game we played is Super Meat Boy 3D, a 3D Land/World esque take on an indie classic. Don’t discount a bunch of yapping we did though, including Casey’s thoughts on the Resident Evil 3 remake, some reminiscing we’re doing here instead of next week for some reason?? And a bunch of other stuff, to boot. Pretty good episode, all said!
Another week and the hours continue to pour into Pokopia. We're talking about it while Balex is away on a work trip, but maybe he'll swing by on a crappy hotel wifi?!
Packed hour this week, and if you’d believe it, we even recorded another 30 minutes for Episode 500 right after this!!!
On the docket: A bit more Pokemon Pokopia talk, Groove Coaster Future Performers vs. Wai Wai Party, QQQbeats!!!, Resident Evil Requiem, Slay the Spire (the first one), the McDonald’s Big Arch, and the new docked Switch boost mode on Switch 2 handheld. Wow!!!
Uhhhh, so that Pokemon Pokopia game is actually really amazing, huh?
We spent pretty much the entirety of this episode talking about Pokemon Pokopia, the new Dragon Quest Builders-y, Animal Crossing-y Pokemon spinoff that has firmly captured all of our hearts. Might even be a better Animal Crossing game than New Horizons???
Pokemon Winds and Waves, Steins;Gate, and Resident Evil: Requiem? OMG!!!
Packed show for you this week, chattin' about all manner of topic. Some of those topics include Pokemon Gen 10, Pokopia, Resident Evil: Requiem, Alex finally beating Steins;Gate (WITH Platinum trophy), the latest Indie World presentation, Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green, and MORE!!!
Perry lost his voice or something, so Casey and Alex pick up the slack in an unusual manner this week. All news, all the time!
Three big topics this week. First, the (then) impending Pokemon Presents. Some late predictions here followed by some real reactions next week. Then, we approach Nintendo’s new line of Mario products for younger kids, featuring some impressions of that really cool Hello, Mario! App. Finally, we talk about the Xbox Mess(™). Cheers!
It's Friday night and I'm typing this article for an episode Casey will haphazardly post on Saturday at 5pm. I can't really complain though because lord knows I'm not re-remembering how to use our RSS feed. Thanks Casey.
Anyway, we're all here this week and I've spent the entirety of typing this trying to remember what we even spoke about this week. For me, definitely Nioh 3. That one's super good. Casey, Final Fantasy Tactics I think. Perry played Gimmick 2. Sequel to an old Sunsoft platformer. Sounds fun, eh? Happy birthday to Estuardo, your best friend and mine.
Jerry and Balex have a surprisingly J-R-Perry-G focused discussion this week. What is this, the dang Thirsty Mage?
Perry starts out with some new thoughts on Dragon Quest VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake's demos, and then Alex goes into some DQ7 full game impressions as well as Romeo is a Dead Man, the latest from Grasshopper Manufacture! All that and a bunch of yapping. Cards probably get mentioned somewhere too. Yadda yadda. Ya know.
The Timing Goblins got in the way so we didn’t get any Direct talk in this week, buuuuUUUUuuuuut you know what they say: Never count an old dog out.
This week, all three boys got together for a densely packed show. Topics include Final Fantasy VII Remake on Switch 2, which version of the DQVII demo Perry played, the sneaky Donkey Kong Country Returns update that just dropped on Switch, a cool new rhythm mecha monster collector called Steel Century Groove, and more! Join us, huh?
We hope you enjoy RPGs because we got 'em by the spades. Balex has been busy with Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road while Carseat's been working through a pair of Final Fantasy games!
Da corn husker is elsewhere, so listen to two of us talk for an hour about JRPGs!
Alex kicks us off with a review of Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road, a mammoth of a game that scratches the crazy soccer itch very nicely (with a few small asterisks). Casey has a double helping of Final Fantasy in the form of VII Remake on Switch 2 as well as the Tactics remaster. We also got some other chat in there, like quick Dragon Quest VII demo thoughts and fast food prices these days.
We hope you enjoy RPGs because we got 'em by the spades. Balex has been busy with Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road while Carseat's been working through a pair of Final Fantasy gamehttps://t.co/dqI7QgdZXopic.twitter.com/NT8lQRv8vP
Chill one this week for ya, with the return of a segment we haven't seen in a while.
Starting off the show, Alex and Perry test Casey with a DOUBLE Mystery History. He gets 15 questions to guess the old game we're thinking of, and for this double game, he asks both of us at the same time. Closing us out, Casey shares his final-ish thoughts on Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. 500 coming up soon, whaaaaaaat? Let us know in the Discord what you want us to do.
A weird January episode where we didn’t have a ton of new business, so we took some mail and looked over the releases from 2026. Yipee!!!
After some yapping, we took a question from a dear listener about our favorite Christmas specials. Then, Baby Balexbander walked us through the currently announced video game release dates, mostly January through May. Can you believe that between late January and mid-March, we got Dragon Quest VII, Mario Tennis, Pokopia, FFVII Rebirth, Nioh 3, the new game from the Binding of Isaac guy, the new Suda 51 game, Monster Hunter Stories 3, Resident Evil Requiem, Ys X Proud Nordics, and more? Jeez Louise!!!
We weren't sure the day would actually come, but Metroid Prime 4 is in the wild! We talk a bunch about it, but then Balex finishes the show with some game or another.
Alex and Perry get together for a tight hour chatting about Pokemon, dogs, dog Pokemon, Marvel Cosmic Invasion (sweet beat-em-up!), Nintendo Switch Sports, and more. Prime 4 chat next week, promise!!!
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