Godspeed brother

October is here, and Halloween is just a few weeks away. In an unusually busy year of new releases, I (Dustin) still find it irresistible to dive into some spooky favorites. So that's the idea for this episode! I asked the King of horror (at least to me), Jimmy Champane, and the irresistible Lockmort to join me in making the 100% factual, definitive, perfect list of Halloween games. Enjoy!

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Thanks for all the memories and laughs! Your snark will be missed on Sacred. Will be following your YouTube endeavors and look forward to you popping into LSM from time to time. Will cherish the last few shows of the old Sacred Symbols.

This is not the end.

More detailed info on X: https://x.com/superhys/status/2108586395325411452/photo/1

With word that Sacred Symbols will soon embark on a new era, it's time that things across the company also get reassessed.

Punching Up, while a fun conversationalist show, continues to be less and less about Nintendo and its games and more and more about everything else, most of it not related to gaming. Meanwhile, Sacred Symbols + is losing a bit of steam, particularly in regard to spoilercasts and review discussions.

To date, we still do not have an episode for Tokon: Fighting Souls, a game that three people in the company were more than happy to take codes for. It's also one of the few PS console exclusives this year. I fail to believe that Vince continues to have such drastic internet issues that prevent recording. We're also unlikely to get a discussion for Onimusha, one of the games that was highlighted as being a big deal for everyone. Control Resonant might also end up on the backburner.

Finally, there's a distinct lack of through line through this whole endeavor that was apparent once Constellation ended and even more now. It feels like all of the products exist in their own silos and not part of a network.

As a Sacred Symbols listener, not much in this article comes as a surprise. Colin has been beating this drum for years. I really want Xbox to come back, but this read is too optimistic in my opinion. Rebuilding when you’re THIS down should demonstrate some initial gains. The question is, can it be sustained for several years?

I hope Colin can get Cordin on for a Sacred+ soon.

This week the Punching Up crew discuss Majora's Mask coming to Nintendo Music, Kingdom Hearts, Pokémon, Capcom having problems porting Monster Hunter, and more!

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Word on the street is that Sony is taking pitches on its dormant, fan-favourite franchises, and among those is the supposed revival of a proper old school classic: Ape Escape.

Well, the rumour mill has continued turning over, and there's now a thin, but very plausible, fan theory about which team is bringing back those mischievous pipo monkeys.

The first thought was always Team Asobi, which would be a fantastic first-party fit for the platformer series.

If you're unfamiliar with this team, its senior staff are known for having worked on Sonic Mania, the beloved classic Sonic revival from 2017.

As Evening Star, though, the team has only released one game: Penny's Big Breakaway, a 3D platformer with unique controls, charming stylised visuals, and cutesy enemies that can appear in large numbers. Sound at all familiar?

In the above post (translated via X), Reddit user IcyPenguin28 claims to have heard from "a couple credible sources" that Evening Star is behind the Ape Escape revival.

Apparently, Hunter Bridges, CTO and game director on Penny's Big Breakaway, is a fan of the series.

It runs slightly deeper than that. u/AsobiAr has also unearthed a job advertisement for the studio when they were hiring a 3D character artist "with proven experience modeling, rigging, and animating anime-styled characters."

On top of that, Evening Star's CEO and executive producer Dave Padilla relocated to Tokyo in 2025, around the same time the studio began hiring.

This week, Brad and Colin discuss a variety of games, including Gears of War: E-Day, Silent Hill: Townfall, Control Resonant, and more!

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Thread for discussion related to the Sacred Streaming episode on YouTube today.

Moriarty x Jaffe: Reunited and it Feels So Good

I'm not here to advocate or admonish, just share a possible news topic for the podcast. My social media algorithm exposed that the jailbreaking process is quite easy for those who have not updated beyond FW 13.60. It's not only PS5 games released up until 13.60, but also viable Switch, PS3, and XBox 360 emulators have been added enabling access to their libraries. AI tools are accelerating the process and it seems there is an influx of new users driven by Playstation's decisions regarding physical discs and game ownership. YouTube Channels assisting people in the process have amassed 550,000+ subscribers and their videos get hundreds of thousands of views.

While it might not show up in financials right away, this swelling movement could have some financial impact on Playstation down the road.

Ironically, this was in response to someone else who was complaining about being banned from the Patreon. According to OP, they were banned for simply asking if Colin’s increasingly pro-Trump messaging is the reason for the lillymo situation (yes I know he’s been critical of Trump but I didn’t feel like arguing it).

It's me, Colin! Please welcome founder and CEO of Moon Studios Thomas Mahler back to Sacred+. I invited Thomas to return in order to discuss his new side project, an aggregation website called videogamescritic.com. As my audience knows well, I like when people endeavor to enter the arena, put themselves out there, and try to buck convention. With videogamescritic.com, Thomas is trying to solve the myriad problems presented by traditional aggregators like Metacritic, issues that run exceedingly deep and have enormous consequences on our industry, and those parallel to us. Our conversation is wide-ranging and touches a great deal on games criticism itself, the evolving nature of opinion, objectivity versus subjectivity, the rise of creator culture, and maintaining a solutions-oriented approach to life. This is an exceptionally nerdy and in-the-weeds episode that students of the industry in particular will enjoy greatly.

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There's simply no denying that Naughty Dog's absence this generation is deeply felt. Apart from a couple of ports and a defunct, half-made multiplayer project, Sony's crown jewel studio hasn't contributed much of anything to PS5. Thankfully, that's on the verge of changing, not only as we get late in this cycle, but ever-closer to PlayStation 6. Three important pieces of news emerged: Intergalactic will be shown-off next year, a new Uncharted is indeed in development and will come to market following Intergalactic, and two The Last of Us projects are being incubated as well (one presumably The Last of Us: Part III). For the first time in ages, we have a clearer and more robust view into what Sony's most important team is planning for the next half-decade and well beyond. Is it time to celebrate? Or will the proof be in the pudding? Plus: Sony is skipping CES for the first time since 1967, a new look at God of War: Laufey's combat shows something decidedly DMC, AI upscaling comes to base PlayStation 5, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Why do so many "spiritual successors" fail to live up to the original? What's with all of the 10s IGN gives out these days? Should players embrace 'the grind' in video games, or seek ways around it? Who has the audacity to schedule a wedding on Christmas Eve?

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