Rock the Dragon. Kazuma Kiryu starred in at least a dozen video games in the last eighteen years and experienced a remarkable fictional life. In todayās podcast, two of RPGFanās most enthusiastic Like a Dragon advocates examine the life and times of the Dragon of Dojima, as part of Retro Encounterāsā¦ Read More »
Opinions are like cats. The internet is full of them. We mostly fall into conventional wisdom here on Retro Encounter when it comes to what games deserve celebration and which games do not (there will not be an episode onĀ Beyond the BeyondĀ anytime soon), but we donāt always go with the grain.ā¦ Read More »
Should we double check the envelope? Weāre in the middle of entertainment awards show season, and itās high time Retro Encounter decides a worthy ballot for the RPGs with the best characters, music, visuals, gameplay, and story. But to make things interesting, weāre drafting four games for each cateā¦ Read More »
Fill my heart with Retro / And let me play RPGs forevermore We’re back this week to discuss the second half of Moon, a game that parodies RPGs so much it almost becomes an Adventure game. How does the second half of the game compare with the first? Did we get all the love? Just how many frustratingā¦ Read More »
FOUR HUNDRED BABIES If youāve listened to a Retro Encounter multiple of 50 before, you know that the panel is going to come up with a public poll for a future Retro Encounter episode. This time around, weāre having a shark party! The panel will āinvestā in pitches from twelve Retro Encounter panelisā¦ Read More »
Bubby, if you ain’t got Retro Encounter, you’ll stop breathing and pass the heck out. After waiting over two decades, we finally got a localization of this quirky gem, Moon: Remix RPG Adventure. So, we got three of our panelists to discuss the first half of the game. We talk about the odd gameplay mā¦ Read More »
Movinā to the country / Iām gonna eat a lot of Toadstools Super Mario RPG turned 27 in 2023 (!), and to celebrate, Nintendo and ArtePiazza released a snazzy new remake. Three Retro Encounter enthusiasts discuss the new remakeās new look, gameplay adjustments, and breezy difficulty, as well as Marioā¦ Read More »
2023 and Me In true RPGFan podcast fashion, Retro Encounter always looks back. In an annual tradition since 2015, a Retro Encounter panel examines the previous year of RPGs and highlights a few favorites. What RPG is labeled a platonic ideal? What two 2023 downloads might be among the best DLCā¦ Read More »
I’m a sucker for a good podcast! 25 years ago, RPGFan started life as LunarNET, and five years before that, Lunar: The Silver Star released in the West. So, in honor of that, we got four of our resident Lunar fans together to chat about the various versions of Lunar: The Silver Star. Are we fans ofā¦ Read More »
Quest Like A Dragon! One Warrior, one Rogue, and one Mage separately traveled across Ferelden to recruit allies in order to stop a Darkspawn Blight, but how did it go for them? Our panelists explored the diverse societies presented in BioWareās dark fantasy RPG this month, but to what ends? Liā¦ Read More »
Dungeons and Darkspawn Dragon Age, a standout mini series from BioWare’s golden age of RPGs, is a blend of high fantasy, dark fantasy, politics, and dating sim that made a big splash in 2009. Two Grey Warden veterans and one Dragon Age neophyte form a Retro Encounter panel to take on the Darkspawn Bā¦ Read More »
I think I heard a shot. We finished Bloodborne! Four very enthusiastic hunters suffered through hunters, Great Ones, Street Sharks, and many other horrors to conquer this PS4 classic. So what are our favorite bosses? What the hell does Insight do? How many times do we mix up “Great Ones” with “Old Bā¦ Read More »
Bleeding its horror / Creating my structure Welcome, good hunter! Retro Encounter discusses a From Software Souls-like in detail for the first time, with the Playstation 4’s Bloodborne. Four panelists discuss the city of Yarnham, trick weapons, the Souls formula, and more in this episode about a bloā¦ Read More »
There are plenty of ways you can hurt a man / And bring him to the ground. Today we correct a podcast injustice, and publish Part 2 of Retro Encounter’s Ogre Battle 64 podcast duology. One podcast host with a lot of questions and two OB64 veterans with all the answers discuss the twisting story pathā¦ Read More »
Back in the 90s and early 2000s, the localization of JRPGs was never a given. We RPG fans would often wait with bated breath, a copy of GamePlayers or Electronic Gaming Monthly in hand, hoping Squaresoft and other Japanese publishers would announce they were bringing their incredible games to the Weā¦ Read More »
Only one person gets to be the hero. But is it always the right one? Just about every RPG has a main character that can be singled out as the hero of their story, but this is not about any of them. Quite often, there’s a companion or even an NPC that is more fun or interesting than a video game’s prā¦ Read More »
Boys and girls of every age / Wouldn’t you like to see something strange? Halloween is a time to experience scares, eat candy, and also celebrate fandom through costumes. Costume changes in RPGs can take the form of in-game bonuses, clever references, or expensive DLC, but it’s undeniable that a claā¦ Read More »
Could you imagine? A puppet seeing another puppet- and then making it work? Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is… cute. Energetic. Pleasant. But also sort of twisted? Is Cornet an earnest puppeteer or an unsuspecting necromancer? Do we want to play the rest of the trilogy now? In today’s episodeā¦ Read More »
In Marl’s Kingdom, the girl saves the handsome prince. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is remarkable for a 1998 RPG, in that it subverts a few traditional fantasy tropes, has multiple character-specific side quests, and punctuates it plot points with musical numbers. It also kicked off a trilogy of RPā¦ Read More »
Through the Fire and Flames of Fate Dragon Quest hasn’t had a main series release since 2018, but in the last five years we’ve had spinoffs, adaptations, and announcements galore. Three Retro Encounter panelists are joined by special guest Matt from the Dragon Quest Slime Time! podcast to discuss thā¦ Read More »
Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for so long. Where did we go wrong? Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a bleak, unforgiving game that grants players tremendous highs when they emerge victorious from a boss battle on the brink of death, and threatens brutal lows if you lose all yā¦ Read More »
Don’t be a D-Ratio. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter doesn’t want you to have an easy time. A remarkable blend of PS2 visuals, tactical combat, rogue-like elements, and horror atmosphere set to a Hitoshi Sakimoto soundtrack, the fifth game in Capcom’s signature turn-based RPG series is as unique as itā¦ Read More »
The only podcast here is ours. And you can be its early witness! Final Fantasy XVI, one of the most-anticipated Square-Enix games of the 2020s, finally launched worldwide in June. And now, almost three months later, at least four RPGFan staff have finished playing and want to start talking. From favā¦ Read More »
She’ll take you for a ride on a wagon train to Zoombiniville It’s back to school week here at Retro Encounter, where we stay retro but mostly avoid RPGs in a discussion of classic edutainment games, from The Oregon Trail to Sim City 2000. Who among our illustrious panel dreamed of being on the Carmeā¦ Read More »
Time to go work on Retro Encounter! We’re back with our discussion of the second half of Disco Elysium. This week we dive into some of our favorite late-game side quests, go over our favorite conversations with our neckties, and discuss the fabulously strange ending. Did we get Kim to like us? Do weā¦ Read More »
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