Abnormal Mapping

This month it’s just me, Jackson, being joined by Crystal to play Citizen Sleeper. Em is currently in Hospital after major surgery and so I’m taking over and organizing the podcasts while they recover! Please send them well wishes. It’s time to talk about RPG systems, and the strange act of critiquing leftist video games that you mostly agree with. I think this is a good discussion about a fun gam...

We enjoy one of the major modern attempts at making a Pokemon-style monster collecting and battling RPG with Cassette Beasts. We talk about surprising scope of the world, the intense battle system, what your numbers say about your priorities, the weirdness of dating mechanics, and much more! This game was a great surprise and a huge delight, so please check it out! Thank you so much as always for...

We find ourselves doing grunt work for Atrus once more as our favorite self-published author and god of his own realms begins reaping what he’s sown over the last two games. We solve some puzzles, enjoy Brad Dourif, and talk about the kind of guy who keeps going around birthing entire worlds. Exile was good fun, happy to dip back into the world of Myst once again. Thank you so much as always for l...

We leap back in time to the Mega Drive to talk about two action classics back when action games meant jumping and avoiding and not perfect parries. Not exactly divisive that we enjoy these types of games, but the generational split is very real as we talk about these two classics of game. Join us, for a walk down memory lane (Sega edition). Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate an...

We finish our long Final Fantasy adventure by playing Square’s largest single player Final Fantasy yet. But does size equal quality? Does it equal ambition? We have many thoughts about this and about where the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake Project has gone and is heading in this enormous podcast about an equally enormous game. After dozens of hours, we are left with one simple question: why do w...

We’re joined by Molly for the return of one of the classics, a guy who just needs to jump over every spike in all the world, conveniently located in a beautiful palace. That’s right, we’re here to talk about the return of Prince of Persia, and the surprising ways Ubisoft have melded the last ten years of exceptional platforming games into something with its own identity. Thank you so much as alway...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled coverage with a special announcement: Jackson has played the Final Fantasy XIII games, at last. Despite the frankly illegal amount of Final Fantasy content lately they were not going to let that go to waste. They are joined by Erin (@ Woodabris , Woodaba on Youtube ) to discuss the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, with a little Type 0 in there. It’s time to get rem...

We’re going back to the heady days of licensed multi-platform games in the early 00s this month as we play 007: Everything or Nothing and talk about the era of arcane save processes, weird genre mashups, awful final missions, and the ways in which the whole medium could turn on a relatively short dime to become something new. Was this game an unheralded prelude to the next-gen era? Maybe! We talk...

We close out the year with a podcast years in the making, as Molly joins us and we take a road trip with the king to be and his homies and play the much maligned but beloved by us Final Fantasy XV! This podcast will cover the main game and the first three episode DLCs (Gladio, Prompto, Ignis), and there’ll be a follow up podcast on the patreon (free for everyone) in about a week covering the movie...

We keep gaming as we tackle a bunch of small games in a classic grab bag and talk through a whole mess of games that are interesting and worthwhile but often have one or two extremely obvious parts that hold it back. Some of them are reasonable critiques, some of them are just the unfortunate realities of game production, some are just The Times. I think the array of responses and games really mak...

It’s Jackson here with a surprise episode of Abnormal Mapping! This was meant to be a bonus anniversary surprise but scheduling woes got it pushed back a week, but that’s not important: I finally played Majora’s Mask. And I’m joined by my good friend Crystal to talk about it. Things Discussed: Majora’s Mask, most Zeldas, some Resident Evil. Next Month’s Game Club : Grab Bag! 2023 BETON BRUTAL The...

We’ve been doing this for ten years! Damn, that’s a long time to be doing a monthly game club. But we’ll keep trucking into our second decade as we start a series that neither of us have played before. We’re joined by a guest, Shenmue superfan Dia Lacina , to talk about Ryo and his ridiculous quest for vengeance. Please enjoy this supersized episode, and thank you for however long you’ve been list...

We celebrate a century and a half of excellence this month as we talk about 3D platforming as we take a thorough look at Demon Turf and talk about platforming for sickos, designing games around the expectations of Nintendo Polish, and what that means in terms of expectations and the war within ourselves to appraise a thing. Demon Turf is really good, if you like 3D platformers, absolutely check it...

We’re back with one of the obvious classics of all time, a game neither of us had played before this month but came like a lighting strike into our lives with its charm and brevity and interesting vision of early 3D RPG design. That’s right, it’s time to servbot up some exploration, with a dash of adventure, you dig? Okay, okay, I’ll stop. Please enjoy! Thank you so much as always for listening, p...

Em is joined by anime gaming expert Olivia today to talk about a classic of Visual Novels, the Muv Luv trilogy of games! We have a brief RPG checkin first, nothing especially spoiler-heavy so don’t worry if you’re not also 7 games into Kiseki, but the Muv Luv sequence is, of course, exceedingly spoiler heavy by nature. Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and review the podcast,...

We’re joined by post-gamer and friend of the show Austin Walker to talk about the latest and greatest in the long running Final Fantasy series. That’s right, it’s Clive time! Join us as we try to grapple with this large action RPG and talk mostly about its story and themes. Some mechanical talk, but this is very writing centric as an episode. Enjoy! Check out Austin’s podcasts Friends at the Table...

We’re joined by blogger of the year and adventure game maestra Dia Lacina to talk about one of the most iconic games of the LucasArts era, Monkey Island 2! There’s plenty of other games besides, but it’s really mostly this one, because it’s worth it. You can watch Dia play Monkey Island 1 for free HERE , and support her Patreon to watch her play all of Monkey Island 2 right now! Thank you so much...

We’re joined by special guest Niamh to talk about one of the classics of video game, infamously one of only two games we bailed on playing in history, and one of the once most divisive RPGs of history now mostly considered one of the greats. That’s right we’re revisiting Final Fantasy VIII playing Chrono Cross! FOR THE TIMELINE AND STORY SUMMARY VIDEO IF YOU NEED IT, CHECK THIS OUT We do NOT summa...

Em’s been so busy gaming we had to break out segment 1 into its own podcast to spare our Chrono Cross episode the world’s most topheavy structure, but we ended up having a great time. Second half of the pod is all Resident Evil talk if that’s not your speed, but before that is more normal. Spoilers for RE through Village, though! Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and review th...

We’re back to talk about a small game about chilling out and brewing potions and what it says for the act of gaming itself to engage in a relaxing sort of simulated labor. There’s a whole world of games out there we don’t really touch on, and it was nice to brush up against it for once. Also, as usual, lots of gaming talk in general. Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and revie...

We’re back with a normal episode of Abnormal Mapping as we dig into our backlog a bit and then talk about a very low key narrative adventure game and have a pleasant time digging into gardening, melodrama, and narratives about guilt and responsibility. Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and review the podcast, and tell all your friends on whatever social media you call home tha...

On this very special episode Em is joined by Dia Lacina and Emrys to talk about Sega’s iconic JRPG franchise Phantasy Star. We talk about the banging soundtrack, the innovations it brings to the genre, and the ways it has been forgotten by time. Because it’s four games, it’s a little lighter than usual, but it was great to settle in and talk about these truly fantastic games. For reference, the ve...

We’re joined by Dia Lacina to talk about foundational survival horror classic Resident Evil, and mostly talk about genre and the strange legacy of having a remake that’s more popular than the original. It was nice to be able to dig into a classic like this and find plenty to talk about both as a game and as a cultural object. Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and review the po...

We’re joined by Ember to talk about a game at the intersection of those two most contentious genres: soulslikes and Metroidvanias. This intersection itself is now a vibrant sub-genre, and in talking about this entry we talk about the ways these games tell stories, the platformer vs combat tension inherent in them, and why good art can often set up frustrated expectations. Really happy with this ca...

We end out the year by going hard on going fast through 3D spaces as we talk more about where 3D Sonic is at, and also about the array of interesting 3D time attack platformers coming out inspired by Sonic’s spotty but beloved reputation in the third dimension. This is a meaty episode covering a lot of cool indie games, hopefully people check them out, most of them can be found very cheaply on var...