Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello and welcome into The Ringerverse, your Nexus feed for all things fandom.
Chapter 2: What are the spoiler-free reviews of Capcom's Pragmata?
I am Ben Lindberg, senior editor at The Ringer and Button Mash host. I've got company today. I am joined by a pair of podcast sidekicks. First, Ringer deputy art lead, Pragmata James. Hey, Ben. That one was just right there for me. I didn't even have to reach for that one. I thought you might go for that one, yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was pretty obvious.
Maybe it was the low-hanging fruit, but sometimes the low-hanging fruit is pretty appetizing. How many hours into Crimson Desert are you now? What's the total count climbed to?
Wow, right out the gate. I think I'm at 165. Oh, okay. But I haven't touched it in five days because of all the other games we've been playing.
I know. I was expecting 200 for you at this point, so I'm slightly disappointed. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I'll do better. We've been busy. And so have the developers of Crimson Desert, just patching that thing daily, basically. Oh, yeah. As we forecasted in our previous discussion, they are updating this thing as if it's an MMO. And a lot of the complaints that we touched on last time.
Now, Steve is producing this pod, but he is unable to weigh in and speak. And so we can just trash him here and he won't be able to do anything about it. But it turns out the critical response was roughly right in the middle. of what we predicted and what Steve predicted. But I think the popular opinion certainly was closer to our take and I think is only improving as the game gets better.
It's definitely getting better, the game, for sure. But I think the things that certain people fundamentally don't like about Crimson Desert are not really going to change. It was never going to be a game for everyone. But for us sickos who just want to drop a billion hours getting completely lost in a game world, it is indeed getting better every patch.
Yeah, it was for us from the beginning. We didn't need no stinking patches. That game was good right from the start. We are also joined by ringer contributor and freelancer extraordinaire powering through a sore throat. Hopefully we will see Joshua Rivera. Welcome back, Joshua.
Hello. I have inputted the sore throat solution hack pattern. I've been solving mazes to brew tea, and I'm ready to destroy some bots with you gentlemen today.
Yeah.
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Chapter 3: How does Mouse: P.I. for Hire stand out among indie games?
You can't patch out your hay fever, unfortunately, I guess is the problem. Well, have you dabbled in the desert?
Oh, no, it's just one of those things where it's just sort of like, you know, I can't do that, you know?
That's okay. It's not really a game you can dabble in. You have to dive in whole hog, really. We're getting chats, silent chats from Steve, who is steaming that he cannot weigh in here. How many times have you seen the Super Mario Bros. Galaxy movie in theaters, Joshua? Any?
Yeah.
Oh, zero times. Wow.
Zero times. Zero times. Yeah.
Are you even participating in gaming culture?
Come on. I have been voted off of Gamer Island for the month.
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Chapter 4: What are the unique features of the game Replaced?
And I'm hoping that my pragmatic opinions get me back in, you know?
Good. Good.
Chapter 5: What themes are explored in Mouse: P.I. for Hire?
We will get to those shortly. I think the movie is doing okay without you. I don't think Nintendo needs your box office dollars. It's about halfway to the total take of the previous Mario Galaxy movie or not Galaxy, but Mario movie. So it's doing just fine. And I actually, I introduced my daughter, my four and a half year old daughter to the first Mario movie this past weekend.
Well, not the first one to be clear. Not the 1993 one. I don't think she's old enough for that. I'm not sure any of us are old enough for that. But the 2023 one, and she was a little apprehensive about the Bowser parts, but she stuck with it and she enjoyed it. And now, of course, she wants a Mario-themed birthday party. So you win, Nintendo. Doing good work. Doing good work, man.
Marketing accomplished. Yeah. Did the Peaches song win her over? You know, she wasn't that into the Peaches song, seemingly. Sorry, Jack Black. He didn't even get a musical number in the sequel for whatever reason, even though that was the big breakout movie from the first one.
But she was already kind of inculcated into the cult of Mario because I've been playing Mario Kart with her and Mario Tennis.
Chapter 6: How does Replaced handle storytelling and character development?
And so now we're going to different ways of marketing Mario to her. And they're all working well. So you've captured the next generation of... Well, it's been less than two months since the three of us got together on this year's show. It seems like longer ago because it was prior to Crimson Desert, prior to the Mario Galaxy movie.
Chapter 7: How does the gameplay of Pragmata compare to other Capcom titles?
Can we even remember a time before those blockbusters? But we got together on this year's show to talk about Resident Evil Requiem. And we have reconvened the Capcom crew today because Capcom has yet another new release coming. Pragmata. But that's not all we have in store for you.
In addition to discussing the new AAA-ish release from one of the oldest, most storied video game companies, we're going to complete the triple play by talking about two high-profile indie debuts, Mouse PI for Hire and Replaced. All international studios from different parts of the world. A little international flavor on ButtMash this week. And
April is suddenly extremely busy and not just because of Crimson Desert and Mario. And we're not even getting to everything. Apologies to people of note, the musical RPG and Tamodachi Life living the dream, the Nintendo social simulation. We haven't even had time for that. We've had our hands full. So we're going to tell you what we've been playing and what we have thought.
Chapter 8: What are the challenges faced in the platforming mechanics of Replaced?
And for today, we'll put aside our cares, not only our real world concerns, but our concerns about the Bloodborne animated adaptation without FromSoft's involvement and our concerns about the skyrocketing console prices and RAM shortages. Let's just talk about some good games today.
or at least some games that have been widely deemed to be good, though you will have to listen on to find out whether we agree. So we will play mash or pass with each of these three and give you our ratings on the mash meter. Let's talk first about Capcom's latest here. So we've all had our minds on the moon Thanks to Artemis II. Congrats to NASA and the astronauts for a successful mission.
And you know what? Congrats to Capcom for another successful mission too. Also, we've had our minds not just on the moon, but also on rogue AI coming for us. And so this really is the perfect game for spring 2026. Capcom has its finger on the pulse. All these games were released in the last few days. Pragmata developed and published, of course, by Capcom for all current-gen platforms.
In the game, it's actually pronounced Pragmata, like pragmatic, though I have a hard time not pronouncing it like stigmata. Are you Pragmata people or Pragmata people?
I changed the language to Japanese halfway through. Oh, yeah. So I have completely forgotten how they pronounce it in the game. And because, yeah, I just preferred listening to those voices than the English ones. Yes, I think that was probably a smart call and one that I wish I had made.
I assumed it was pragmata, but then in the game, they very clearly say pragmata. And I assumed that... That New York Ben fucking Lindbergh would default to pragmata, not pragmato.
I know what you think, but with my Mario roots. Mario, Mario.
Yeah.
Yeah. And then there's the, oh yeah, I mean, I didn't even think about pragmata, pragmata. There are multiple A's here that could be pronounced multiple ways. Anyway, you say pragmata, I say pragmato. Let's call the whole pod off. Let's just talk about the game and avoid saying the name of it for a while. So we start on the moon where we have sent an expedition to find out what has gone wrong.
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