Skill Issue | The Grinding Gear Podcast #78

After welcoming his third child into this world, Kyle has returned! Garrett catches up with Kyle and helps Kyle catch up on all of the things that he missed during his paternity leave. The new Fallout show, FFXIV Dawntrail drama, lots of baby sitting and birth stories, and of course… where babies come from? This episode goes places.

Marco returns to talk more than just music! Well of course music is also discussed. But Garrett and Marco talk shop about creating content for streams and Youtube, Honkai: Star Rail, Warframe, Helldiver 2, Final Fantasy 7, and the most underrated game soundtracks of all time.

Dawntrail is on its way! A release date has been announced for the upcoming Final Fantasy darling MMO. Garrett and Kyle give you the scoop to grind through your week. But first, Larian parts ways with the Hasbro juggernaut Dungeons and Dragons, to much celebration. Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't make the best first impression, but true fans are too busy playing. Will the League of Legends MMO ever release? All this and more.

Garrett returns from the Mountains of Wrestling. Kyle was here but survived his venture to buy Warhammer paints. Helldivers Devs lash back at players on Discord causing a comment drama. Garrett and Kyle discuss the huge influence Toriyama had on the anime medium as a whole and their exposure to Dragon Ball Z growing up. Are crossovers going too far?! Your emails and more.

Beau Schwartz returns to the Podcast. Now having long completed his Diablo 4 quest for statue fandom, we play a little game we like to call Hot TAKES with the help of the live chat. We also discuss Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (spoiler free), Helldivers, State of MMOs and streaming life.

Garrett and Kyle both return from a Florida Disney weekend, no relation, with a pile of hot Monday news. After a thorough park review lacking of expert opinion, Garrett feels a great pull towards the water cooler of FF7 Rebirth. Elden Ring DLC is about to plow every release in the summer out of its way. Larian’s good deeds lead to Kyle's paranoia. And why is there a Borderlands movie? All this and more.

The Ministry of Truth has declared, Helldivers 2 is good y'all. You may have heard about the newest internet darling. Garrett and Kyle share the sentiment even if it did rain on their parade. And rain it did all over the renaissance fair. X-Men 97 is coming back in its Fox Kids glory. All the consoles are dead?!

Jesse Cox returns for the final grilling before the end of Endwalker. The test is stacked, the questions are hard and our memories are shit. Better than most? Maybe. Are there dragons in the Crystal Tower? Who has cloud hair? What characters are missing? What happens in patch content given the meta knowledge of the launcher? Jesse leaves no stone unturned, while Garrett and Kyle loose the stones. 

We’re cross-aisle, breaking down barriers, and having a lovely time doing it. On this week’s episode, Taliesin, half of Taliesin and Evitel, joins the show to discuss content creation, Final Fantasy 14 story, and WoW’s pursuits of that story. Taliesin streamed FF14 at the height of the “exodus” and had quite the journey. There’s no stopping this storytime.

2024 is feeling a whole lot like 2023 with layoffs continuing in the games industry. We take some time to talk about how the continuing cascade of lost jobs have now reached Riot and Blizzard, the Pokemon Company looking at getting legal with Palword, a cancelled Final Fantasy XIV live-action television adaptation, and which one of us is the best vocalist.