Second Emulation

A Web of Gaming: From PS5 Pursuits to Nintendo Switch Insights

• Shawn Juarez • Episode 46

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Ever tried hunting a phantom? That's what my quest for the elusive PS5 console felt like, an adrenaline-pumping chase filled with unexpected twists and turns, all driven by the game-changing trailers for Spider-Man 2 and Final Fantasy 16. From grappling with scalper-induced scarcity to making the challenging decision to upgrade the internal storage, this journey has been a wild roller coaster. But it's not all console talk; I'll also be diving into the perks of being a content creator, discussing the latest OS upgrades, and reflecting on the pandemic's impact on the PS5's initial release.

Switching gears, let's talk about my experience with the Nintendo Switch Lite. Imagine having the power to score discounts on your favorite games with Game Vouchers on the eShop. We'll explore the benefits of digital vs physical games, speculate on upcoming Nintendo releases, and discuss the convenience of cloud saves. But that's not all, we'll also be wading into the world of anime. Whether you're a fan of 'Attack on Titan' or 'Demon Slayer', or eagerly awaiting the new series 'My Hero Academia', we'll be discussing what we believe makes an anime series truly great and how streaming services are reshaping the industry. Buckle up, because this is a ride you don't want to miss.

Want more of Second Emulation? Stay connected with us by following our social media channels! By clicking the link below to stay up to date with us on our socials and Game review streaming channel.

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Welcome  to Second Emulation, the podcast that explores all things pop culture, from movies and TV shows to the latest anime releases. Join us as we dive into the world of entertainment, sharing our thoughts, opinions, and insights on the latest trends and releases. With a focus on what's hot and what's not, we're your go-to source for all things pop culture. So sit back, relax, and let's get started​ 

Well, hello and welcome back new and old listeners. This episode is going to be about the journey of getting a PS5 console and also a video games update on recent purchases that I've made for the switch and also looking forward to the future of new games that are coming out for the switch and the PS5 and things that I'm making changes towards.

So  let's get into it.  Now,  for those who don't know,  the PS5 is a  very coveted console, and I've been on this journey of trying to get one since it's first been released  for, I don't, I'm not going to go over the details, but everyone knows that the big debacle when it was first released is that scalpers have been plaguing the PS5 and the Xbox Series S, uh, for the longest time.

So  when it first was released, There was no one who was able to get their hands on this console for the longest time,  and at the time, I didn't really think anything of it because my way of thinking is that you don't necessarily want to be the first one to get well, the new  shiny thing because you want to get, let the bugs get worked out. 

And so  I just let it ride at that moment.  But as time went on, you know, slowly people started finding ways to get You know, the PSS five and get their consoles.  But still no new games were coming out. People were rejoice rejoicing and being like, yes, I got my console. But no new games. Still  wasn't, you know, upset.

Didn't really pay any attention  until recently. You know, in the headlines you see scalpers losing money. They're holding stock and they're just,  At this point just selling stock  at a loss  and that piqued my interest and at this point  I was going to start looking into stores and seeing if I could eventually find a console for myself.

Now,  I was more interested in the digital variant, not so much the disc, and the reason for this mindset is that I wanted to like,  kind of steer clear from physical media, and the reason for this is that, um, physical media for me, Brings up a lot of clutter and unless for in games, um, unless it's a game that you're really going to play multiple times, if it's just a one shot game that you play once and then you put on the shelf, never to play again. 

A diskless console better served my needs and that's what I was really going for. Um, since I live, um, not in a house, but an apartment, I really wanted to really conserve the space and just the clutter. So that was my goal.  The digital variant was what I was looking after and even now the digital variant was very difficult to find.

It was very sought out sold out at every store location that I was  looking at.  You know, GameStop, Target, Walmart, Amazon.  But, you know, the disc version was an abundant  and it was like a slap in the face, you know, it's like what I wanted, you know, I couldn't have  the PS size was plentiful  and  I kept biding my time, like, you know, maybe if I keep waiting.

waiting, waiting... I'll finally... you know, a digital version will pop up.  And  what caused me to actually pull the trigger and get the PS5, the disk version, was  Spider Man 2  and Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy 16.  Uh, when those games trailers... We're released  and I saw these games.  I realized that I couldn't hesitate.

I needed to pull the trigger and get myself the console. Um, I couldn't wait, you know, for one day that magically the digital version would pop up and I would get it. Um, so I. I bought my console, the disc version at the best buy. I  mean, I'm still excited. I mean, I would prefer the digital version, but  I'm not going to buy any discs.

I'm still going to buy my games digitally. Um, no, some people might disagree with me, but it's my preference.  But I'm still excited. Now, I'm still gonna have to make some changes. Now, the PS5 only comes with 500 gigs of internal storage. I'm going to buy a 2, 2 terabyte, uh, internal storage for the console.

So I can, you know, have that upgrade, but I'm ecstatic  now.  And when I say I'm ecstatic, I mean, I'm ecstatic because  this was like  a, I want to say almost two to three year journey, because when. The PS5 was initially released. We were in, I want to say, the peak or the height of the pandemic, so the only way you could officially get the console was like through  I guess email order or like through  PlayStation's website um or because you were a PlayStation owner you would get like invite only exclusively And I had gotten an email like that to purchase the console through PlayStation themselves,  but  It was one of those things where  it was for an exclusive time and date and I was working at the time and so  it allowed you to enter into a queue to purchase a console through their website and unfortunately  I was unable to do that.

I had a friend who was able, who got one of those invites, who was able to purchase his console through one of those, uh, invite only queues, which when he told me about it, I was like, Oh yeah, I got one of those,  but I wasn't, I was unable to do it. And so things like that. And it was like a punch in the gut.

I was like, ah, man. But yeah, this this culminating journey was just through lots of highs and lows because  Even though I wasn't actively engaging and looking I was just  constantly monitoring social media, seeing people getting their consoles, watching You know, streamers or content creators on like YouTube and Twitch Just like, like, hey, got my free console or got my console and I'm thinking How the hell are these individuals getting their consoles, um, so easily When everyone else is out, you know, having a hard time And normally  the reason is because they're You know content creators, so of course the company sends them out a Console if they have like, you know for a brand for them to like create content.

Or,  They might have a homey hookup, either way so it was also a kind of like slap in the face attack You're seeing these individuals like oh, yeah, I have it You know, each one of them on their stream, Oh yeah, I have it. Or some people who are content creators are like, Oh, I have five or six, you know, just giving out, like say, I'm doing giveaways.

And I'm thinking,  how the hell are you,  you know, able to get five or six in order to do a giveaway when regular people aren't unable to get one?  So yeah, when I say the journey  has been difficult to get the console in the first place It has been difficult to get the console, but I'm excited  to finally have it  now  The interesting thing because I've had a PS4 for the longest time I didn't know how different  The two operating systems would be,  and  when I finally made the switch  to the PS5,  everything was  completely different. 

And I mean completely different. I had to get adjusted to the new operating system for the PS5, a new controller. Now, doesn't mean to say about my age or anything, just I've been rocking a PS4 for the longest time, so that was like my, my workhorse for video games. And so having to re acclimate myself with a new operating system and console took some time. 

And  I had to re up, you know, my PlayStation Plus account because I let that expire. And for those who don't know, um, PlayStation Plus allows you, you have like a cloud, a service, uh, for you to back up your saved data. Same thing with Nintendo, um, you can back up your saved data to the cloud so it's not on your console.

Now, I had  a lot of saved data in the cloud for previous games, and I was under the impression that once I re upped that I'd be able to utilize all that saved data on current games that I played, um, that would just carry over.  I was mistaken.  That,  so I had progress from my games that I played that would not carry over. 

Playstation is like, nope, sir. You're 100% of this game for the PS4. We're not going to, it's not going to carry over,  but  we will give you the free  PS5 upgrade version of this game for free.  And the game I'm talking about is Spider Man Miles Morales. So I had completed that game  100%, um, for the PS4  and I had the save data and I thought I could, you know, just carry that data over  and I should be able to just pick up where I left off.

That was not the case.  So they upgraded me for free to the PS5.  And I have to play the game all over again.  Which kinda sucks, but it's perfectly fine. And I'm noticing that all the games  that I had purchased  previously  for the PS4, I'm getting a PS5 upgrade. So all that saved data for the previous console, I've just been null and void. 

Playstation has just given me  a path to upgrade for the new console. Console, and that I'm gonna either have to replay the games over again, which is unfortunate. So, that was like the downside. Just all that progress that I had for those previous games are just null and void, which is a little bit upsetting.

But at the same time, I haven't played those games  since I beat them. So, It's gonna gimme something to do so I don't have to buy those games in the first place because when I got the PS five, I didn't buy any games. So  I, I straight up went in there, got the console, and buy any games. I just paid for the PlayStation Plus.

So the fact I've, you know, it kind of balances out that  I'm getting all these. Upgrades, uh, to the PS5 version of those games that I previously purchased for free,  I'm okay with it.  It gives me something to do, keeps me busy because there's other games that are coming out that I'm going to pre order that, um, I'm looking forward to.

So, that kind of like, you know, pivots me into the next talking point of, uh, this section.  Switching gears here, haha.  Talking about the switch  But recently i've made some purchases for the switch two games  Sonic the frontier and tier zelda tears of the kingdom are my two most recent switch games  purchases that i've made now and they're both that i'm working on and  You know the reason why I made these purchases one.

I'm a Sonic fan  So when the Sonic game came out it was like Breath of the Wild like a Sonic Adventure RPG big kudos Wanted to play and so I've been working my way through that game and then of course I played Breath of the Wild the first game and I wanted to  Jump on this and enjoy the experience with everyone who got there on day one with Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and it's been a good experience. 

It's been keeping me busy.  And, along with that, I've also obtained my Switch Lite, and so what I've done is, uh, I've upgraded my account to the cloud server for Nintendo, so I synced it up, so now, when I have my Switch here, and when I'm traveling, as long as I can connect it to a Wi Fi or internet connection when I'm traveling, I can pick up and play, um, on, The Any game where I left off.

So when I'm traveling, I'm, you know, here at home playing tears of the Kingdom,  you know, take my switch with me somewhere else.  And then I decided I'll play to the kingdom at someone's house and they have Internet connection, a Wifi, you know, do that. You can upload that saved data and I can pick up where I left off  and I'm able to do that because I bought on both Consoles I was able to buy. 

I made the purchase for twist of the kingdom Digitally, and I was able to install it on both consoles  the sonic frontier game. I made a physical purchase  Because I wasn't sure how I was going to like it. So I got a physical copy of that game  Here's the try it out and then with tears of the kingdom. I'm trying  out the  Digital feature unable to pick up and play on both consoles and how that syncs and I am enjoying that so That's what I'm going to be doing going forward when I'm traveling  Trying, as I mentioned earlier, to reduce my, um, physical media footprint a little bit only when I feel like it might be a collection or a must have, um, when I buy a physical copy of a game, if it's like something that, um, I must Need to have type of thing.

Um, but other than that, I'm going to slowly start getting into digital  games now not to say that all my games will be digital  but one or two Maybe physical if it's like, you know Appeals to be to get like the physical collection edition of a game That and I will end up getting that but it just depends on what it is to offer for like getting that physical um, game. 

So yeah, so that is like the two most recent purchases for my switch and with my switch Lite, it has made me

gaming much more and re up my Nintendo uh, I guess my Nintendo subscription is what you want to call it. Um, so I've been I re upped on that So I can get access to  the Nintendo store and now with the the Game Boy the Game Boy Advance Game Boy Color Emulators, you know, they have announced like all these classic games that I played Coming to these emulators, you know  I'm going to be busy.

Everyone's going to be busy. So I'm excited now.  One thing that I guess was a thing for the,  I guess in the eShop for the, the Wii  or the, the DS back in the day were game vouchers and someone might correct me, but game vouchers was a.  An interesting thing because when I saw how it was marketed or how they were introducing it for the Switch was that the cost of the game voucher is 99 and you get a, you get two and these game vouchers  can be utilized for any game. 

I repeat,  The game vouchers can be used for any game in the eShop. Could be a triple title game, a game that's going to be pre ordered, that's highly anticipated, or, you know, some indie game. It could be applied to any game in the eShop.  And when I heard that,  my, it piqued my interest.  I was like, okay, so I can literally. 

Anyone could clearly buy, you know, spend the 99, 100 bucks, get two  and just use this  for a later date. For when a game that does come out digitally and not have to worry.  Now the caveat for this is that they can stack.  You hear me? Clearly you can buy up to eight.  They can stack  up to, you can have at least 8 game vouchers.

And they don't expire until the year, the next year of purchase. So if you buy it, you know, say I bought one today, August, uh, 6 today.  The game voucher, if I don't use it, will expire next August.  six 2024.  And that kind of blew my mind like,  so you're telling me you can stock them and not use them and save them until when that game comes out that you really want and then use them like that.

I don't know about you, but that me personally is a game changer. Because prior,  you know, for me in a way, when a game come comes out, you know, a day of, and you're like, oh crap, I wanna really get this game, and you don't have the funds, you know, to get the game and you have to wait,  it kind of does suck to either pre-order that game. 

This does allow you to, you know, have the ability to get that game,  you know? when you want and not have to worry about it it's almost like pre ordering like you can stack these up and  You know when a game comes out  Use your voucher keep on moving. And so this is something that I'm probably going to be Utilizing going forward for uh, For the Nintendo switch going forward for certain games, I'm probably not going to get about 8 maybe get around two or Maybe have four in rotation  because there's a few Mon uh, Nintendo games that are coming out which you know, I've been having my eye on  and Kinda you know brings me up to our next topic that I want to get into  Now are some games I'm looking forward to that I saw some, you know, trailers for on the internet. 

One of the highly anticipated games I'm looking forward to getting for the PlayStation  is going to be Spider Man 2.

Of course, you know, the whole reason why I'm playing Miles Morales and Spider Man is to get myself ready because that is coming out in October.  The next game I'm excited for is going to be Mortal Kombat one, which comes out in September. So, um, going to be looking forward to playing that as well. Alan wake to is a another game I'm looking into  been looking for a game to like get myself into the whole, um, horror suspense genre.

I myself am not.  Considered a horror fan of video games. I played Resident Evil back in the day on the P earlier PlayStation  But I wanted to kind of get you know, some horror games into my my catalog So I think Alan Wake 2 is a a good Stepping Stone for that.  Another game I'm looking forward to is Prince of Persia, the Lost Crown.

Now this is coming out for the PlayStation as well as the Switch, and it's going to be a side scroller similar to Hollow Knight. So, I haven't decided what it's Console, I'm gonna be getting it for this may be, um, a switch purchase. Um, haven't decided yet. Um, just because the trailers for it looks really good and I might end up just, you know, making it a switch purchase instead of the.

PS5. Now, this is going to be another, um, game I'm anticipated to get. It's going to be Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Now, I played Remake. I haven't played the in between, intergrade, uh, storyline yet, but this, when they announced this story, um, Uh, the next chapter of the, of the series and it was going to be a three disc.

Um, I'm definitely, which is the reason why I'm going to upgrade my console storage because these games in itself  are just too big.  So, and we're not getting rebirth until later into next year. So I do have some time.  The next one. It's going to be Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Now, I'm a Mario fan. I  Love Mario, um, I love playing Mario on the NES emulator on the Switch.

So, this is going to be a, uh, a day one. I think I'm probably going to end up utilizing one of the game vouchers for. I'm probably going to get my sister, uh, also on it as well.  Just for like we can just by seeing this this is looks like it's going to be like a party game and  it's one thing that I like about the switch is that there are RPG games on their classic RPGs that we play but it's also a party game so I do have Mario Party, Mario Karts, Super Mario Brothers Wonder is going to be a party game that you could play solo and with friends so that's one game I think we'll all end up getting that will be like we could play together and I'll probably end up know, beating her at, at some point. 

But yeah, those are the  top games I'm looking forward to this year. As we get closer to fall, they'll announce more games that they'll come out with, um, eventually, and then I'll probably have to update this list of what I'm more anticipated games I'm looking to play. But as of right now, this is what I'm looking forward to and  what I'll probably end up.

purchasing  as of right now but will end up changing as we get closer to like September, October as the list either gets bigger  or it could change depending on If they decide to push back some games due to you know, due to delays So you never know with these games that there could be delays based on performances or they want to add stuff So the set dates for you know, Spider Man and Mortal Kombat are already set But the other two games they're still working on or other games on this list are they're still working on But  as of right now, these are the games I'm looking forward to and Yeah, so  Again,  I'm excited.

Again, the journey from beginning to end to getting a PS5 and just talking about the recent updates to video game purchases and what I plan to do with the Switch and the game vouchers and when I travel.  This is not just a focus point on the PlayStation 5 just in games in general what I plan to do Going forward and hopefully when I do episodes like this, it won't just be you know, just focus on one thing I would like to do more regular video game updates in the future so this kind of like just wraps this whole episode up and I like Thank you for listening and I'll catch you guys in the next one.

All right. Bye 

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