Lets Play / MaxOfFewTrades

"Hello, one and all and welcome back to Let's Play TV Tropes! I am the MaxOfFewTrades!"

MaxOfFewTrades (real name Maxwell Baney) is an avid YouTuber with over 10k subscribers. Max's main content is Let's Plays of various types of games, typically RPGs of some sort. Amongst his fans, he is known for his beard, his self-deprecation, and his abundance of useless trivia knowledge. His first video was a Let's Play of Paper Mario, which came out on February 12, 2012. Max typically uploads daily, with breaks between Let's Plays.

Along with being a Let's Player, Max is also a member of ScrewAttack's research team for their show Death Battle. Before, he used to upload reaction videos to the fights, starting with the Pokemon Battle Royale. Due to his closer ties with the research process and his own knowledge of the characters, his reactions tended to be more in-depth, and he went on about the characters' histories, powers, and other things that other reactors may not have known. For several of his fans, this was the main draw to his channel, his most popular video being his reaction to Kirby VS Majin Buu at 102K views. However, Max stopped making these videos after he became an official member of the ScrewAttack Research Team, as he would know the results beforehand, meaning that there was little to no point in reacting to them. The videos eventually came back starting with Saberwulf VS Jon Talbain, as Max's contract was not renewed starting with that episode.

In addition to his Let's Plays and research, Max also has a small side-series called Let's Draw, which consists of him making art of various characters, some his own, others fictional, to various soundtracks associated with those characters. The following pictures are typically uploaded to his DeviantArt account. It should be noted that his art has improved quite drastically over the years, as seen when comparing this video [1] to this video [2]

Speaking of the aforementioned original characters, Max has expressed a desire to create his own animated series, titled Electric Tranquility. So far, there are four main characters. Kate North, a friendly Southern martial artist girl with insanely superhuman strength; Ryan Donovan, Kate's best friend and a technological whiz armed with several self-made weapons; Leonard Striker, a Mad Bomber and antagonist to Kate and Ryan; and Gretchen Gardner, an ally of Leonard armed with telekinetic powers.

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MaxOfFewTrades contains examples of:

• Aborted Arc: Max got far enough into Yumi Ozawa's social link to have reached the central conflict of her character. He then abandoned the link entirely to focus on the main characters' Social Links.
• Accidental Innuendo: There were multiple unfortunate ones against Shadow Kanji in Persona 4
• Accidental Pun:
  • In Phoenix Wright episode one, he makes a pun and realizes immediately after it's a double pun that he very much regrets [3].
  Max: The spiked fence DID have a point! Oh wow, unintentional pun.
• Achievements in Ignorance:
  • Manages to get through Persona 4 all the way up to Shadow Kanji's dungeon without fusing simply because ''he forgot that he could do that.''
    • Once he DOES start truly making use of fusions, it brings him to a point where he beats the infamous Shadow Teddie fight on his first attempt.
  • In Pokémon Leaf Green, Max finds out where Articuno is and manages to capture it in the Seafoam Islands. How did he get there? He accidentally took the wrong route to Cinnabar Island.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Max doesn't take kindly to Rottytops at the start of his Shantae and the Pirate's Curse Let's Play, repeatedly calling her the worst friend ever and a traitor. When the human soul of Rottytops talks about her genuine care for her only true friend (Shantae) and sadness that she constantly causes the Half-Genie problems, things that the other Rottytops can never get across, Max lets out a long sigh and begrudgingly admits that Rottytops isn't THAT bad.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Pepsiman has voices that speak to him.
    Background noise: Be Careful!
    Max: DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! ...I don't know if that was the background or someone in the song telling me to be careful, but I refuse to listen to either of them. Perhaps it was merely the voices in my head; Pepsiman has several - several that try to tempt him to other soft drinks.
  • Dee Vasquez's 5th language is English
  • The Ninja in Mark of the Ninja is actually named Mark. also the henchmen all look alike because they're clones.
  • The Squid Smith from Shantae is actually Ivy Valentine.
  • Enzo from Bayonetta is actually Joe Pesci. Not played by him. He is actually Joe Pesci.
  • Kasumi started a romantic relationship with Tur (or in Max's game, Todd) at the end of Suikoden 1.
• Angrish:
  • In Pokemon Puzzle League. It eventually reaches the point where the majority of his dialogue is squeaks and squawks of pain and aggravation.
• Anti-Climax Boss: The Minotaur of Wario Land [4]
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  Max: *When he realizes Jeanne left while Bayonetta was having a flashback* ...it's one thing to try to antagonize and injure me, but just leaving without a word? That's RUDE.
  • When interrogating April May in case 2 of Phoenix Wright: "This witness is a big, fat, liar! WITH A STUPID HAIRCUT!"
  • At the beginning of LifeIsStrange, Max is wary of the reputation of the game, especially with his past experience with certain emotional games. However, to quote Max...
    Max: But regardless of that fact sometimes ya gotta play somethin... gritty... also apparently the main character has my name.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Max will ALWAYS pounce given the opportunity to make a snark like this. But among his best snarks is:
  • In Persona 4 against Kunino Sagiri:
    Naoto: How solid is his grasp on reality...?
    Max: Naoto, he just turned into a gigantic religious MUPPET. What do you think?!
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: A truly glorious one in Persona 4 part 29 [5]
• Author Filibuster: Max takes his video games very seriously.
  Max: (Talking about some fans reactions to Playstation All Stars and their complaints about including more "kid-friendly" characters) "Why isn't uh Master Chief or something in, blah blah blah blah..." It's INSULTING is what it is! Seriously, like, back in the day- not back in the day just TEN years ago we didn't have mind blowing graphics. [People] couldn't just make the super realistic games we have today. They had to use their imagination, they had to use creativity, they had to THINK, they had to really THINK about how to make a game that despite the limited capabilities and the limited technology, that they could still make something that everyone could enjoy... *talks about hypothetical if Nintendo games didn't happen until 2012* '[people would be like] why doesn't he have a gun? I can't take him seriously if he doesn't have a gun!' And I'm like- *sigh* that's the thing, nowadays you couldn't make another Mario, you couldn't make another Sonic the Hedgehog, you can't make Rayman, Crash Bandicoot, you can't make Spyro, you can't make Ape Escape — that's why games like Ratchet & Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper were so miraculous in [being] capable of even making sequels! No one's buying them as much as they used to cause nowadays it's all talkin about 'SUPER SERIOUS STUFF', what the hell I grew up on this stuff! This stuff is amazing! This stuff is great! Why doesn't anyone take it seriously anymore?! Lots of heavy breathing for a few seconds "That's why I'm Let's Playing these things! ...please, watch these videos, just because they're old, just because they're cartoony, it doesn't make them bad! You've gotta give them a chance for the love of GOD these games are awesome! ...WOW that was a rant, I apologize.
• Awesome by Analysis: A very analytical person in general, analyzing new characters as soon as he gets a grasp on them. It's part of why he ended up as a researcher for DEATH BATTLE!.
  • Exaggerated in Phoenix Wright, with special mention of case 4 where he figured out Von Karma was the villain as soon as he retrieved the letter from the boathouse, and hypothesized that Von Karma was the culprit of DL 6 before it even being confirmed by the game Von Karma wrote the letter.
    • Somehow ratcheted up even further during the DLC, when he figures out the S-76 12/2 secret in under 20 seconds the moment he sees it.
• Awesome Music: Sees the Blue Dragon boss fight music [6] as this, and for good reason.
• Blatant Lies: In Splatoon, Max claims to not be much of a completionist. He 101%ed DK64.
• Badass Boast:
  • In the battle against Sinister Minister Father Balder in Bayonetta, Max has just run the gauntlet of bosses to reach the man himself, sees Luka get thrown out the window of a skyscraper by Balder, and finds out the presumed dead Jeanne had been brainwashed the whole time. He's downright pissed at this point. What does he say when Balder makes his true appearance known?
    Max: ...I've killed bigger. I've killed stronger. I've killed better! People than you! ON THE WAY UP THE STAIRS!
• Bait-and-Switch Comment: From the Castlevania: Judgment review:
  Max: Come on, we all know why Dracula keeps Carmilla around... she makes the most amazing cookies." *cue image of Carmilla in a baker's hat*
• Beard of Barbarism: Just look at that thing! It's like he just walked out of a viking convention!
• Berserk Button: One of them was certainly triggered in Persona 4 by Shadow Naoto's resolution, he goes on an entire rant about being true to yourself.
• Beware the Nice Ones and Beware the Quiet Ones: When playing games and pushed too far, Max can get REALLY scary with his shifts to quiet, seething rage, specifically when it comes to characters he hates.
• Big "OMG!":
  • During the Legion incident of Persona 4
  • Rightly so when King Moron goes on his infamously offensive rant [7]
    • The kicker? He was doing a mocking gibberish voice and read it without immediately realizing what was being said.
  • Max doesn't like old windbags [8]
  • "Oh my god, I'm about to fight god."
• Big "WHAT?!": When Polly mentions DL-6 in case 4 of Phoenix Wright.
• Birds of a Feather: Naoto and Max are socially inept in all the same ways, and (LP spoiler?) it's no wonder why Max ends up choosing to date her in the end.
• Black-and-White Morality: An interesting variation of this. Max seems to judge characters by their actions as opposed to their motives, causing him frustration and anger with more villainous characters. While Max does have villains that he likes and admires, more often than not, he roots for the heroes over the villains, in some cases going out of his way to dismiss the arguments of villains entirely. This can cause some disgruntlement in the fanbase, who sometimes get annoyed with Max's staunch positions on characters, especially some popular morally black-grey villains such as Adachi from Persona 4 and Damon Gant from Phoenix Wright.
  • (On his Let's Play of Legend of Dragoon) ->Max: [murders a frog monster] Get out of here, you're not Glenn! You're not a sword-wielding frog man cursed by an evil wizard that I decided to eliminate even though that was an unpopular decision! I don't give a damn! In my magical little world, people have to pay for the horrible, horrible crimes they commit! I don't care man! If all y'all wanna redeem yourself after doing something terrible, like fine, I guess, but ya gotta do it man! You can't just expect me to ignore all the terrible things you did, just because 'boo hoo, I am a bad guy, oh, I have reasons!' Cool motive bro, STILL MURDER!"^note Max hadn't heard of Brooklyn Nine-Nine nor was this LP remotely close to when the quote was memed.
• Brain Bleach: Persona 4 | [9]
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Infinelephant (Infinite Elephants as one being)
  • In his Ghost Trick let's play, when the topic of being able to see in the dark comes up, two characters mention that cats and ghosts can do it. Naturally, it would follow that ghost cats could too.
• Brick Joke:
  • During the Hospital scene in Persona 4 after Teddie's X-Rays, when Naoto's measurements are implied, there are many laughs from max followed by "...so, she DOES use breast binders! ...and apparently they're workin overtime."
  • In Yakuza Zero, Max is clueless what Kuze's main henchman is using as a weapon during one sequence. Cut to a LONG time later to the start of Majima's story when Majima cleans an ashtray: "Oh, it was an ashtray I punched into that guy's face. I was wondering what that was."
  • https://youtu.be/x0LuqUq-QFg?t=30m23s
• Buffy Speak: He does this a lot when he doesn't remember the name of certain things.
  • "Then maybe, just maybe, I'll head to the place. Yeah, you know the place with the thing with the who-now? You know what I mean. Yeah, that place! Yeah, th-the flood plain! There it is! That's what I'm trying to say! Whoo! Linguist skills, I ain't got none of those." https://youtu.be/SxZamoN-BE4?t=4m57s
• Bullying a Dragon: During his fight with Kuze, he spends most of his time insulting and belittling the Lieutenant, leading him to lose his first fight with him. He realizes this, and proceeds to go in 100% on the rematch.
• But Thou Must!: He played the original Dragon Quest so naturally this came up.
• The Bus Came Back: It took Max two years to finally do the DLC case for Ace Attorney. For reference, he promised to do it two months after the initial LP. Punch-Out! is this to a lesser degree.
  • An even longer gap happened between his DEATH BATTLE! reaction videos, with a four year gap between his Joker VS Sweet Tooth reaction video and his Saberwulf VS Jon Talbain reaction video. Justified given that between those four years he was working as a researcher for the show.
• Call-Back: "A majestic butt stomp if you've been here since the Paper Mario days."
  • In the Suikoden finale: "I just want to save my game, not fight a bunch of phantoms and colossi... I've had enough of ghost and colossi for one let's playing career!"
  • Makes note of how he was hesitant to play Life is Strange because as was showcased in his Danganronpa LP, he doesn't handle emotionally devastating games too well.
• Catchphrase:
  • DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO _____! Throughout Persona 4
  • You're bad at your job!
  • Let's do this crazy dance!
  • "GODDAMNIT, YOSUKE!" Also from Persona 4
  • He used to have "MIGHTY JUMP!" for whenever he made a large leap, but has since stopped using it.
  • Throughout Phoenix Wright: "MY ____ DEMANDS/COMMANDS AUTHORITY!"
    • Including this gem: "My extraordinarily enlarged bust commands authority! ...wow that's something i never thought i'd say..."
  • "____ ON A TUESDAY AFTERNOON!"
  • "IN THE ZOO!" throughout Ape Escape, with whatever precedes it usually relating to the target ape's unique trait.
• Celibate Hero: As far as Let's Players go, Max is the friggin paragon of this.
  • That being said he doesn't hold sexual practice AGAINST people, the perfect example being his attitude towards the dominatrix-in-training in Yakuza Zero.
  • Max admits to his being a prude and considers the fact that Shantae can get away with its more risque moments with him a testament to the charm of the series.
• Character Exaggeration: He constantly over exaggerates his own ineptitude at video games, despite the fact that considering he has a career based on it, he has some modicum of talent.
• Character Tiers: In Persona 4 he outright states his personal tier list is, in descending order, Naoto - Chie - Rise - Yukiko.
  • Max even says at one point to Yukiko: "This is why you're bottom tier waifu!"
• Child Hater: Averted with Nanako Persona 4. Played straight with the cubs in Banjo-Kazooie.
• Clip Show: Fan made ones (specifically the fan who first started working on his page for this site) are uploaded to his channel.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Max can say some very odd things during his Let's Plays. Especially if he ends up rambling.
• Combat Compliment: When one of the police officers in Jet Set Radio manages to shoot him out of the air, Max isn't even mad due to how impressed he is.
• Comically Missing the Point: When insulted by Naoto, most insulted they used a word he didn't know.
• Commitment Issues
• Creator Breakdown: Max has a bad habit to overwork himself, even when he gets sick or depressed. Unless the illness is serious, Max pushes through, despite the protests of his fans.
• Creator's Favorite: Kate
• Cuckoosnarker: The man is the perfect mixture of whimsical and sarcastic.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Extremely afraid. In Persona 4, he is extremely nervous when forming a Social Link with Chie once she shows signs of being attracted to the player.
  Max: D-Don't take this the wrong way! I'M NOT COMMITTING TO ANYTHING!!!
  • Max's encounter with the first of Persona 4's optional bosses was... well, at least it was over quickly.
  • In his Let's Play of Double Dragon Neon with ArchTalko, the Bros engage in a fight against the final boss: Each other. Buuuuuuuuut, unfortunately for Arch, Max had spent the entire game using a Boring, but Practical system, meaning that while Arch could shoot out fireballs from his hands, Max could pretty much No-Sell anything that he dished out and KO him in just two or three hits. Lampshaded.
    Max: *as Arch continues to try and fail to do any significant damage to Max* I'm sorry bro, I'd totally be down for letting you have the girl, but we'd be here all day.
• Curse Cut Short: Max doesn't swear often, but when he does, it's usually censored by a funny sound effect (at least, before he started playing M games)
  • Banjo Kazooie: When one of the puzzles pisses him off too much.
    Max: What is this- *cue Mumbo sound effect*
  • Pokemon Puzzle League: Max does not take kindly to the fact that losing to Mewtwo forces him back to fighting Gary.
    Max: ...SON OF A - *cue Pikachu cry*
• Dance Battler: Is downright gleeful in Yakuza 0 when he finds out that Majima can learn breakdance-fighting
  Max: What is a fight, but a violent dance?!
• David vs. Goliath: Yosuke VS Wario in the semi-finals of the Few Trades Wrestling Federation ends up being this. Wario had proven to be the crowd favorite to win, after almost effortlessly overthrowing his foes Yangus and Segata Sanshiro, and back to back no less. Meanwhile, Yosuke just barely managed to topple his opponents of Spike and Little Mac. Lampshaded by Max. Like the tale of old, despite the Prince of Junes's smaller build, to everyone's shock, he managed to pull a win against the garlic-lover after a last-ditch strike with his signature move: The Whisper in Inaba.
• Darker and Edgier: God of War. While the game itself applies, it is also easily the most gory game Max has LP'd.
• Determinator: Punch Out DK fight
  • The sheer lengths Max went to and persistence he displayed to save Pahn in Suikoden is deserving mention.
  • Despite his mind being essentially broken in Pokémon Puzzle League, he saw it through to the end.
• Die for Our Ship: Averted. Max pairs Yu with Naoto but is a huge fan of Kanji.
  Max: Kanji, I like ya, you're an awesome guy... but if you ain't gonna make a move I am.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He notes in his Castlevania: Judgment review that all the men look extremely effeminate.
• The Empath: In a sense. He mentions that he often feels what other characters feel in the games he plays, most especially embarrassment.
  • In some of his Let's Plays, the best example being Persona 4 , Max's sheer investment in the game is stunning, and is one of Max's greatest strengths. You can get a sense that Max genuinely cares for the characters and events despite them being fictional. Max's ethics are time and again displayed through in game actions. Ethically and Emotionally, Max treats the game as if it were reality.
• Encyclopedic Knowledge:
  • Jokes often that he has a wealth of useless information at his disposal.
  • According to the man himself in his reaction to Ratchet and Clank vs Jak and Daxter: "I shudder to call myself an "expert" on anything, but if I had to, it would be these two franchises (Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank)" And it shows. Most of the reaction is spent with him explaining point for point exactly how and why Ratchet and Clank would win. The majority of the research for the episode itself was done by Max, in fact.
• Engrish: Does a hilarious amount of this in the Yokomichi Silvers sidequest in Yakuza 0.
• Epic Fail:
  • Long story short, the first episode of his Pokemon LeafGreen Let's Play does not go well. It gets to the point where Max up and resets for the next episode.
    Max: Alright, to start off our epic Pokémon journey, I, uh... I got gender confused, I got defeated by my rival, and I was swarmed by an never-ending flock of Pidgey. Oh how I look forward to how things are going to go for me now...
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite being considered the opposite in the fandom, Max really likes Akane from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair to the point she was one of the first people he spent time with and maxed out her Hope Fragments. Max finds her endering with her rough background and her quirky personality.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • During Persona 4, despite all his Self-Deprecation, Max admits no life is "worthless" including his own.
  • In his playthrough of Ghost Trick, despite his disliking of dogs, he is understandably pissed at "One Step Ahead" Tengo for shooting Missle.
  Max: Don't shoot the dog- He shot the-! Why would you do that?
• "Eureka!" Moment:
  • Persona 4 [10] upon realizing Teddie's name is a pun
  • In Phoenix Wright he stops mid sentence as he realizes the Gatewater hotel is the location of wiretapping.
• The Faceless: Averted, does not use facecam in his LPs but for while did reactions to Death Battle which DID use facecam.
• Failed a Spot Check: Max asks why Luka's voice in Bayonetta sounds familiar, but never realizes it's friggin Yuri Lowenthal.
• Fanboy: Zola from Blue Dragon, Meru from Legend of Dragoon, and Misty from Pokemon
  • Kanji Tatsumi, to quote Max "Every time he opens his mouth a find a new reason to call him the greatest character ever, oh my god."
• Flat "What": More of a quack really [11]
• Foreshadowing:
  • Max says when Life is Strange tells him about consequences that plenty of games tell him that, but most don't really mean it.
  • The FIRST thing Max says about Cereza is that she "looks like a kid Bayonetta"
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You and The Most Dangerous Game: Danganronpa
• Freudian Slip:
  • In White Tigerzord VS Gundam Epyon, he notes that it is extremely hard not to pronounce Zechs Merquise's name as 'sex'.
  • A hilarious one from Billy Hatcher:
    Max:' Ominous pyramids! Completely forgot about the ominous perio- ...ominous periods?! NOOOOOOO! Pyra-MIDS! *awkward stuttering* Y-you know what, I'm just gonna drop that and move on.
• Fridge Horror: Gremio gets brought back to life... but then why does his soul help stop Windy?
• Friendly Rivalry: With Ris Grestar.
• Funny Background Event: Several of these involving his cat.
• Gasp!: A big one upon finding out he's Kanji's senpai.
• Geek: He's a massive nerd, lover of games, and he squees like no one's business.
• Gender-Blender Name: Bulborb
• Genre Savvy: At first he thinks Yukiko is this, but soon becomes disillusioned. Max IS this, especially with RPGs. After Silent Hill, he no longer trusts fog in video games, and rightfully so.
  • Combined with Tempting Fate, his savviness seriously backfires during Persona 4. The gradual but sharp shift from confident Nanako will be completely fine to creeping tension to panic and finally utter despair and disbelief when she flatlines is something to behold.
  • At the beginning of Life Is Strange, when Max remarks on how the woods around town always feel mysterious, Max eventually reaches this conclusion:
    Max: OH hang on, are we in Maine? Are we in a Stephen King novel? Cause if that's what's gonna be goin on, I am not cool with it.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Max always try to avoid using the stronger swears and words and would only say "damn" and "hell." Whenever he is voicing someone with a lot of swears, he would often replace them with lighter versions of it or not say them at all. This makes it especially tricky for him to voice Sir Swears-a-Lot characters such as Mondo from Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc and Ryuji from Persona 5.
• Guide Dang It!: Averted through Achievements in Ignorance. In Persona 4 Max wanted to romance Naoto. Romancing Naoto is in itself a Guide Dang It because you have to pick specific dialogue options across multiple ranks of her social link to romance her, as opposed to every other romance option where you are given a clear branching point at rank 9 (with the exception of Rise and Ai). On top of this, what truly makes it a guide dang it is that the choices required are often times NOT the best responses possible (best in the sense of accumulating social rank progress). Max, by sheer coincidence, picked all the responses required to get Naoto as his romantic partner. The two truly were made for each other.
• Happy Rain: Has said so himself that he finds rain soothing.
• Hates Small Talk: Persona 4 episode 1 23:30
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Kai Oppenada is his incarnation of Yu's name because it sounds Japanese.
• The Hermit: Self admittedly this IRL.
• Heroes Gone Fishing and Villains Out Shopping: He has made several remarks about wanting to know the day to day lives of the Mario characters. Mario and Peach sharing romantic moments, Bowser raising his kids, even Waluigi buying his groceries.
  • In the tail end on Bayonetta, Max wonders aloud if Jeanne had to go to the DMV since the motorcycle she rides at the final level has a license plate. Or maybe, ya know, she just nicked one.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Pokémon Puzzle League. While he goes in, planning on having a relaxing Let's Play, the gamut of The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard and Artificial Stupidity he runs leaves him tired and broken. Making it all the more satisfying when he finally conquers Mewtwo.
  • Played far more seriously in Danganronpa. That game all but broke Max, and he had to take a long hiatus before he could get his spirits up again.
• Heroic Second Wind:
  • Yosuke gets this four times in the Few Trades Wrestling Federation's first set. Each of his opponents, Spike, Little Mac, Wario, and Bomberman, utterly steamroll him for most of the match, but after fighting with all his might, he manages to topple all three, making it all the way to the finals, before finally getting crowned champion.
    • The best part? In the practice rounds, Yosuke lost every single one of his matches. This truly was the ultimate Underdog win.
• Hidden Depths: Despite his Cloudcuckoolander tendencies, Max is legitimately well-versed in trivia and analysis, as seen in his Phoenix Wright Let's Play as well as his job as a researcher.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Articuno, which he never even meant to find. He just names it Jon and leaves it in the PC for the rest of the Let's Play.
• Honor Before Reason: In his Let's Play of Final Fantasy VII Remake, he insists on Cloud wielding the Nail Bat even though it is the weakest weapon because it is his favorite, and because it makes the cutscenes funnier. Similiarly, he often summons Shiva instead of Ifrit against enemies weak to fire because Shiva is his favorite summon.
• The Hyena: When he witnesses something hilarious, Max can only break down in a fit of maniacal laughter at the sight.
  • After his friend and occasional collaborator ArchTalko manages to mess up a shot that costs him the game. (https://youtu.be/xcTzTBYGIy0?t=32m11s)
  • When witnessing Majima 'do the hustle' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnhx2G_g0DA)
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing: Said word for word during the end of Turnabout Samurai
• I Knew It!:
  • See the Awesome by Analysis trope for his achievements in Phoenix Wright.
  • Has a MASSIVE one of these moments in Persona 4 when Shadow Naoto announced the Genome Project, as Max, who due to Late-Arrival Spoiler had been speculating Naoto's gender to the point of being convinced of her true gender from the beginning, instantly makes the connection to a chromosome change.
• Impossible Task: in Suikoden, Max vowed to properly level all party members in the game and make them all powerful fighters. ...all 108 of them.
  • Spoiler Alert: he broke that vow.
• Inspiration for the Work: Inspired by years of ProtonJon and Chuggaaconroy.
• Irony:
  • In his reaction to Guts VS Nightmare, he offhandedly mentions that he hates gore... despite the fact that he works on a show called Death Battle. Lampshaded.
  • In Suikoden, as soon as he first talks to the blue haired speedster, Max hates Stallion and says "Wow, I hope you're not important to anything". Later when Stallion has a Big Damn Heroes moment, Max is laughing speechless, and lampshades the irony of the situation.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: He initially avoided Shovel Knight because of this trope, as well as jealousy of it being more popular than Shantae, though he eventually decided to give it a chance, and ended up liking it to the point of doing both expansions as well.
• I Was Just Joking: in Suikoden Max had snarked and joked about the Elves' Forest being burned up, and for quite a while keeps saying they brought it on themselves for very legitimate reasons, but the severity and scale of the GENOCIDE never actually occurred to him until the exact instant he enters the charred village from the overworld.
  Max: Let's go back to the village- oh! Hey look! It's all charred. That's fun! ...OH MAN EVERYONE'S GONNA BE- *fades in on a literally burnt to the ground village* ...dead... oh my...
• Joke and Receive: In his Ghost Trick let's play, he mentions the idea of Ghost Cats as a joke. Considering the final Plot Twist was that he actually was a Ghost Cat all along...
• Katanas Are Just Better: Just melee weapons in general are better than guns in Max's eyes. He will ALWAYS pick broadsword over sniper rifle.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Max is firmly in the camp that cats are superior to dogs, and fawns over any cat he finds in a game. He also owned a cat named Bolo after the Shantae character.
  Max: Ooh a kitty! DON'T RUN FROM MY LOVE KITTY!
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Max figured out Naoto was a girl early on because Naoto's gender had been presented to him as ambiguous, but everyone by default called her a guy.
  • Max invoked this himself with Legend of Dragoon. In the thumbnail, one can always see every party member recruited up to that point in the game of the respective episode. However, in Legend of Dragoon there are points where party members are permanently replaced. When looking at a playlist of the LP, the thumbnails are side by side for comparison so even if one doesn't know the story, they could very easily spoil for themselves which party members are forced out of the party by the end of the game.
  • In Part 6 of God of War, Max brings up the Spawn vs Kratos DEATH BATTLE! and spoils it offhandedly.
• Let's Play: Kinda his whole deal alongside the art and Death Battle aspects.
• Literal-Minded: When Max received a sacrificial Buddha, his response was "What kinda sick freak wants to sacrifice Buddha?!"
• Lost Episode: His reactions to Yang VS Tifa have not been uploaded to YouTube. According to him, this is because he was incredibly salty over the result.
• Magikarp Power: Used the Trope Namer in his Pokémon Leaf Green Let's Play, nicknaming it Tempest.
• Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": Was introduced to Phoenix Wright in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. He also had a similar reaction to some of the more obscure characters in Smash Brothers.
  • In a similar vein, Castlevania Judgement was his first introduction to the Castlevania franchise.
• Meme Acknowledgement: During the producer substory in Yakuza Zero
  • I'm You But Stronger
  • Kiryu be slidin on in to steal yo girl
• Metaphorgotten: "Ashes to ashes dust to dust, uh... may you never get the morning rust."
• Mood Whiplash: Persona 4 part 5. Saki Konishi's death and the fact she's a high school student completely change the tone. Up until then Max has done nothing but snark to an abnormal degree since the game started, but immediately starts taking the game seriously.
• Never Live Down: Max did caught a lot of flak during his Let's Play of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc from constantly skipping by Toko/Genocide Jack and Monokuma's dialogue purely because he didn't like the characters. This greatly annoyed his fans telling him that he may not like the characters, but the point of his Let's Plays is for his viewers to experience their dialogue as well. Thankfully, Max learned his lesson in his Let's Play of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair where he stopped doing this. There was actually one instance where he skipped by dialogue that disgusted him, but he was willing to go back in the script to let the viewers read it (though he still didn't look at it himself).
• Nice Guy: Is this in spades. While he can occasionally let loose the snark upon those that annoy him, Max is still all around a nice guy.
• No-Dialogue Episode: The Punch-Out!!! battle with DK.
• Noodle Incident: A fictitious one in Persona 4 [12]
• Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught: Subverted because Max fully admits he cheats when asked trivia questions in Persona 4, although he only cheats when he's asked to help a friend cheat.
• Not Helping Your Case: Max says to Kwanda that everyone can make up for their deeds. "Well, except if you're Hitler." Max immediately lampshades how bad an example that was, as Kwanda committed genocide.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • In his Leaf Green Let's Play when he realizes he named the female Bulbasaur Craig.
  • Again in Leaf Green when he realizes he entered the champion's room having forgotten to heal, and having only two conscious Pokémon.
  • In the ending of his reaction to Bowser VS Ganon, when he realizes he accidentally said Ratchet and Clank's opponents' names aloud.
    Max: *indescribable face of panic* "...I'm editing that out."
  • Upon realizing Rise's dungeon is a strip club, all he can manage is "OH NO" a few times consecutively.
  • In Case 4 of Phoenix Wright, he manages to scrape by probably the most obtuse evidence presentation with one mark left. A shot while later:
    Phoenix: Here's my proof! *cue prompt for evidence presentation*
    Max: CRAP!!!
  • As soon as an elementary school interview is mentioned in Persona 4, Max obviously has a realization. "Waaaaaaaaait a minute..."
• Opening Narration: Hello everybody, welcome back to [insert title here], I am the MaxOfFewTrades!
• Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality: To the point where he'll freak over anything overtly sexual, and skip or refuse to read dialogue with lewd phrasing.
  • In Suikoden when faced with a Beast Commander: "She's seducing people! STAB HER, STAB HER RIGHT IN THE CHEST!!!"
  • Averted, however, with Bayonetta.
• Performance Anxiety: Let's Play Curse
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: Has a tendency to make up random words and phrases when frustrated.
• Pet-Peeve Trope:
  • Condescending Compassion
  • The biggest by far is Easily Forgiven. Once a villain crosses the line, they have a snowball's chance in hell of getting any sympathy from Max.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Max never really got the point of Shadow of the Colossus, and while he liked the Colossus battles found the story to be weird, overly artsy, and boring.
• Please Put Some Clothes On:
  • G-Rated Version. Frequently asks Maya to get a shirt so Mia's breasts don't show.
  • Often notices when women don't wear pants
• Poke the Poodle: Persona 4 61: "I'll steal your shoes!"
• Pride Before a Fall: the title of episode 73 of Persona 4 speaks for itself.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Attempts to pull these on the Colossi in Shadow of the Colossus. Results are mixed.
  Max: Hey! Hey, giant man! ...erm. I can't think of a witty line, so I'll stab at thee-WOAH!
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Or in this case sex slavery. In Yakuza 0 during the doll girl's sidequest, Max thinks the collector's are gonna simply kill her mother after taking her away. When their intentions are revealed, Max goes dead quiet save for a very long sigh. His response?
  Max: ...I think it's time for a few 'gentlemen' to be acquainted with a glorious aluminum bat."
  • And after the fight we get this chilling gem: "Now you two are going to run far, far away and never hurt anybody again." laughs "Or the next place you'll end up is the bottom of the river."
• Rapid-Fire "No!":
  gets hit with an attack that takes out a large chunk of his health
  Max: I see... that is very interesting! Yeah, I'm gonna have to go out on a limb here and say NOPE! NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE! SO MUCH NOPE!
  • Suikoden finale [13]
• Real Men Cook: Zigzagged. Max admits to have taken cooking classes, but claims to not even be able to cook breakfast. He also often jokes that he is far from the pinnacle of masculinity.
• Real Men Hate Sugar: Has a strong aversion to anything sweet-flavored. In Parappa 2, Sunny Funny's dad listing off several baked goods and sweets ends up being more of a deterrent than an inspiration as a result.
  • Although cinnamon twists are welcome.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He's a Brony and proud of it.
• Sand In My Eyes: At the end of Persona 4, he begins to cry thanks to the friendships he's forged, but vehemently denies this, saying that the audience can't see his face so they have no proof.
• School Is Murder: Believes school destroys innocence as stated in Persona 4 part 2 (6 minutes in)
• The Scrappy: Has quite a few, but to name a couple
  • Maria from Castlevania Judgement
  • Neera from Freedom Planet
  • From Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Max loathes Toko/Genocide Jack and Monokuma. Although he has some hate for Byakuya, he finds him a lot tolerable especially after he decides to become more of a team player after Chapter 4. However, Max himself hates Toko/Jack to the point he almost always skip by their dialogue every time they speak (much to the annoyance of fans). And even though Monokuma is a prime example of Hate Sink (meaning a character the players are supposed to hate), Max will often times skip through his dialogue whenever he pisses him off. His hatred for Monokuma goes through the roof after he revealed he faked Sakura's suicide note and nearly had Hina kill everyone else off with it.
  • From Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Max hates Nagito with a burning passion even more than Monokuma and Genocide Jack combined. Especially how Nagito shows No Sympathy toward those who died. His hatred for Nagito is solidified in his recent Q/A where someone asked if he hated Byakuya or Nagito more. Max was in no hurry to say that he hated Nagito more.
  • In Warioware: Smooth Moves, he is absolutely not a fan of Jimmy P., for not only cramping Jimmy T.'s style, but replacing the kittens in T.'s stage with puppies, an animal he's repeatedly mentioned to dislike. When it's time for Jimmy P.'s challenge (where he goes for as long as he can), Max taps out early and goes on to do several other things.
• Self-Deprecation: CONSTANTLY. Is it possible for a man's self-esteem to be in the negatives?
  • This even extends to his YouTube name, MaxOfFewTrades. Max himself has stated he took the name from Jack of All Trades, but narrowed it down to fit his limited talents.
  • The crowning moment of self deprecation being Bayonetta part 3 12:40
• Self-Imposed Challenge: Has claimed that he will play the games of every character that appeared in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Claims this applies to himself, and is hilariously offended when Naoto manages to use a big word that he doesn't know
• Ship Mates: Doesn't hold a grudge against people who ship Kanji and Naoto.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • With Chie and Yosuke. Persona 4 part 24 24:50
  • In Suikoden: "Does Kasumi like Todd? If so I am down for that... I SHIP IT!"
  • Is a diehard shipper of Lammy and Parappa.
  • Doesn't even try to be subtle about it with Shana and Dart
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Max will always choose melee over guns, with shotguns being the sole exception.
• Shout-Out:
  • Cho Aniki during Persona 4, in the bathhouse naturally.
  • The tentacle monster from Bayonetta is nicknamed Audrey 3.
  • When playing a game entirely in Japanese, such as Yakuza 0, one must always pay homage to Dio when saying The World.
  • You can't bring up power gloves without that classic line, "It's so bad."
  • States it takes 3 days to make potato salad in Persona 4 | Part 35
  • Pronounces Socrates "So-Crates" and has referenced Bill and Ted by name multiple times
  • Cites Jackie Chan as the exception when starting kung fu actors aren't known for convincing performances, only choreography.
  • Final Destination characters get the "most rad obituaries ever."
  • The Death Boars of Suikoden feast on Protonjon's trademark DEATH WATER!
  • From Yakuza Zero: Yare yare daze.
  • In Persona 4, when Teddie goes what Max calls "Super Saiyan" he warns "do not do a Vegeta "(spoiler alert: he does.)
  • In Persona 4, Max refers to Shadow Teddie as "Five Nights at Freddy's level of I don't wanna."
  • Games Done Quick has all your speedrun watching needs! Pepsiman approves of this message.
  • 5:30 [14] he also unironically likes the song.
  • Flubber of all things, which apparently also is what the minecarts in Pepsiman are made out of.
  • Naoto's dungeon may raise the threat level, but thankfully it never reaches BLACKWATCH PLAID.
• Shown Their Work: Pretty much required given his job as a researcher.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Crosses over with Waxing Lyrical.
  Max: A horse is a horse of course unless of course that horse is the famous Mister Ed ... in which case he's still a horse, but can talk so he's even better.
• Soccer-Hating Americans: Really sports in general, but this is why he stopped a short ways into Daisuke's social link
• Speaking Like Totally Teen: Max does this often, usually followed by "I think that's what the kids say nowadays."
• Special Person, Normal Name: Averted, Kai's name was almost Steve Roberts.
• Spoonerism: From Pepsiman "sheep in evil people's clothes!"
• Squick: [15]
• Stealth Expert and Highly-Visible Ninja: Max flip-flops between being an untraceable ninja master and a violent rampager in Mark of the Ninja.
• Stoic Woobie: It's hard not to want to give Max a hug after all the crap he goes through. However, Max himself is hesitant to befriend others, worried too much about being a bother. Which honestly makes you want to hug him more.
• Strange Minds Think Alike:
  • Throughout his Phoenix Wright Let's Play, Max often accidentally says what Phoenix is thinking moments before he thinks it. It gets to the point where he gets freaked out.
  • Take a shot in Persona 4 every time he says the same thing as a character.
• Stock Legal Phrases: Max is always willing to plead the fifth. Especially in Persona 4, when Dojima catches Yu/Kai red handed and Max immediately screams "I PLEAD THE FIFTH!!! I plead the fifth, sixth, and seventh, WHICHEVER!"
• Stunned Silence: Persona 4 part 6, lampshaded. Max normally comments on just about everything characters say, but as soon as Shadow Yosuke appears, he goes dead quiet.
• Take That!:
  • Persona 4 p3 22:20 MTV and Lifetime,
  • Persona 4 p17 1:20 the school system
  • Persona 4 p27 2:00 Hulk Hogan
  • Common decency in media [16]
  • Going down the Miley Cyrus route is "a fate worse than death"
  • Amazing Spiderman ruined the Rhino in Max's opinion.
• The Teetotaler: Persona 4 part 3 14:00. Also every time Dojima drinks...ever.
• Tempting Fate: More often than not, when Max opens his mouth, the fates seem to want to punish him for it.
  • In Persona 4, Max makes his first attempt at fusion. Finding Jack Frost, he decides to make it, wanting an adorable Persona as opposed to the stranger ones he had seen. Naturally, the fusion goes wrong, and he ends up with Legion, who is decidedly not adorable.
  Max: Is it so wrong to want something that doesn't look totally weird?
  • Also in Persona, Max says this to Nanako:
  Max: You're a tiny adorable child, *laughs* they're not gonna kill you.
• In his LP of Donkey Kong 64, he has what is quite possibly one of the easiest shots he could make, as in point-blank. Deciding to joke about this, he begins to joke that this would be the hardest shot to make, knowing full well that he can easily make the shot. And he still messes up the shot by pulling out the camera and taking a picture by mistake.
  Max: "...I can't even fake gloat."
  • From the same Let's Play, he mentions that playing as Lanky Kong would make the infamous Beetle Race easier. Guess who he has to play as in the next Beetle Race?
  • From Mario Kart: Double Dash!!:
    Max: Mario, you're a terrible driver, Peach, you take the wheel! *proceeds to immediately fall off the track*
  • From Rewind:
  *after breezing through the first chunk of puzzles*
  Max: This ain't no thang!
  Voice in the Sky: Next is Weapon Training.
  Max: I'm sorry, what?
  • In Persona 4:
    • After King Moron dies and is replaced by Kashiwagi, he states that as disturbing as Kashiwagi is, at least she doesn't abuse students like Morooka. Cue her calling Rise "jailbait."
  Max: Shadow Naoto looks like the type to have some sort of horrifying super laser- *cue Galgalim Eyes*
  • In Castlevania, the first episode's title is "Not so Tough". Max lampshades it himself during the episode.
    Max: When has my hubris ever steered me wrong before?
• That Came Out Wrong: "WATCH WHERE YOU SHIT!"
• That One Boss: Lenus from Legend of Dragoon.
• Theme Tune: Legend of Dragoon's boss music.
• Thicker Than Water: Averted, Max tells it like it is here [17]
• Third-Person Person: Pepsiman is apparently this
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: His first swear ever in Ape Escape part 7. "Hula Hoop BITCH!" followed by a brief Oh, Crap! moment as he realizes what he just said.
  Max: *unintelligible stuttering* Bad words! Sorry about that!
  • Done again in Ace Attorney, when he finally convicts Von Karma of his crimes
  Von Karma: He was fooled! It was the perfect crime...
  Max: But not perfect enough, bitch.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Reacts with audible dread whenever he comes across a minecart or minecart tracks in DK64.
    Sky Voice: WELCOME TO BONUS STAGE!
    Max: Aw, crap! Not more minecarts!
  • After the train wreck that was his first LeafGreen episode, he is understandably weary of his future Pokémon adventures.
• This Means War!: [18] Redd White messed with the wrong guy.
• Title Drop: MANY of his episodes are named after a specific line from said episode.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • In Persona 4, after doing an assload of grinding and fusions for the Adachi battle, he unlocks the Satan Persona, who, thanks to his large mana pool and regenerative spells, pretty much allowed him to steamroll the rest of the bosses in the game.
  • In real life, he got a promotion in his job as a researcher in Death Battle, allowing him more involvement in the show and actually getting his name in the credits at the end of each episode.
  • Once Max assembled his dream team in Suikoden, he became absolutely unstoppable.
• Tranquil Fury: Lampshaded. In Persona 4, When finding out Adachi's various atrocities, he says "I'm so angry that I've looped all the way back into calm."
  • Whenever Max gets particularly angry, expect this trope to come up.
• Trauma Button:
  • Due to being told there is no afterlife at a very young age after asking where people go when they die, When Nanako asked the same question it apparently brought back said horrible experience to Max.
  • Naoto's shadow hit a little too close to home for Max. Although it may be BECAUSE of this relatability he went with Naoto as his girlfriend.
• Undying Loyalty: A firm believer in this, and does not take kindly to those who betray their friends. His own fan base also applies, as most of them have been there since the early days.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: In Suikoden, Max at first believed Kasumi, who would go on to be his star team member, to be a guy. Despite saying "Isn't Kasumi a girl's name?" when she joins.
• Villain Protagonist: Max thinks he's this until quite a ways into his Bayonetta LP.
• Violence Really Is the Answer: In Persona 4 during Kanji's television segment, in what will soon become a trend, Max takes Kanji's side in his approach to situations.
• Vocal Dissonance: Massively so with Manfred Von Karma. It is both hilarious and facepalm-worthy. Fortunately, it seems that he wised up to the public's perception and changed voices during the next episode.
• Waxing Lyrical: Every time an enemy shoots Max in a heart, he immediately follows up with the rest of the lyrics to the Bon Jovi song.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties:
  • Double Failure is the appropriately titled 7th episode of God of War.
  • In Suikoden, "Am I Cursed?" Is titled so due to all the technical difficulties max had to deal with, resulting in the use of a Please Stand By image.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: At the onset of the God of War LP, Max's all purpose solution to problems is Poseidon's Rage
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes??: Spiders in Limbo.
• Worth It:
  • When he jumps off of a cliff in Donkey Kong 64 and takes a bit of damage, he proclaims "I regret nothing!" and cites that the shortest distance between two spaces is a straight line.
• Yank the Dog's Chain:
  • In Pokemon Puzzle League, when he finds out that Gary isn't the final boss. It's Mewtwo. And then made even worse when he finds out that losing to Mewtwo forces him back to fighting Gary.
    • Max: ...SONOFA-*Pikachu cry*
  • The finale of Limbo is filled with moments of Max celebrating his solving of a puzzle only to be killed because he wasn't in the clear yet.
  • In his Donkey Kong 64 Let's Play, he gets close to winning a minigame that had been giving him a bit of trouble. However, right as he was about to win, the game freezes, making him have to do it all over again.
  • Once again in DK64, after FINALLY getting the Golden Banana from the Arcade Machine, Max is overjoyed. ...up until the point when Squacks tells him that he now needs to get the N64 coins. The defeated tone he makes is a mixture of both depressing and hilarious.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Plenty of it in Shadow of The Colossus; Max refers to it as "Thor Speak."

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