Axe of the Blood God: An RPG Podcast

This episode was not entirely Nadia's idea, we swear. Really, can anyone deny the sheer cool factor of the Final Fantasy series' take on dragon knights? If you're not, maybe this episode will make you a believer. Prima Games' Jesse Vitelli joins Nadia and Eric as they talk about Dragoons past and present, from progenitor Ricard Highwind to the dragon-hating nerd Estinien Wyrmblood. Pull on your ov...

This week on Axe of the Blood God, Kat has run off to do sailor junk on the high seas, so Nadia and Eric hold the rig together by themselves. Well, that's not entirely true. Kat joins them from SeaPhone™ to tackle this week's main topic: Why some games were picked for our updated Top 25 RPG list, while others were left to die in shallow puddles of rainwater. This discussion involves a lot of self-...

It's time at last to share our newly-revised list of the 25 best RPGs of all time! For much of 2022 we've been slowly collecting potential nominees for an update to the list that we made several years ago. Now it's time to share that list for all to see!  To make this list we took the list of nominees plus the original list and made our own Top 25s, with the games that were on all three lists goin...

This week on Axe of the Blood God, the gang takes a step into the fascinating and revolutionary (if jagged and polygonal) world of massive multiplayer online RPGs from the 2000's. Kat, Nadia, and Eric are joined by very special guest Amy Dunham, who worked on some of the most prominent '00s MMORPGs. (And more than a few other games, too!) Tune in as we talk about World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Eve...

As a special thank you to our listeners for helping us reach $6000 two months in a row, we recently hosted a very special D&D 5e session with special guest DM Shivam Bhatt. Now it's available for everyone to listen! Tune in as our heroes embark on a quest for the Axe of the Blood God; bumble into some orcs; have a really hard time climbing a hill, and say hello to a very special badger named Orlan...

Tired of the same ol' RPGs? Why not try changing your perspective?  This week by Patron request, Nadia, Kat, and Eric talk about isometric RPGs with some help from Leana Hafer of Three Moves Ahead. Topics of isometric discussion include "How good is Tunic?" (Very good.) "Does Dragon Age: Origins count as an isometric RPG?" (Yes.) "Which isometric RPG should Nadia play?" (Disco Elysium, CUNO.) And...

The Blood God is back in full force after Eric and Nadia's trip out to Boston. We're continuing our unofficial Job Hunt with a discussion about White Mages and healers in RPGs! How has healing evolved over the years? Who's the best healer around? Is Kat going to start playing competitive Pokemon again? Answers to all these and more in this week's episode, plus: Eric gets bitten by the GBA Fire Emb...

Axe of the Blood God was at PAX East over the weekend, where Nadia and Eric were joined by special guests Scott White and Ash Paulsen! In a special live panel, they discuss the State of Final Fantasy from the good, to the bad, to the... Chaotic. Thanks so much to everyone for joining us, and you can watch the panel here!   Plus Kat, Nadia, and Eric talk about Xenoblade Chronicles getting pushed up...

This week's Axe of the Blood God is simple and clean. Friend of the show and Good Vibes Gaming host Ash Paulsen joins Kat, Nadia, and Eric to talk about Square Enix's surprise Kingdom Hearts 4 announcement. What, exactly, is going on in the game's mystifying trailer? How did Sora get doxxed? What happened to his Ronald McDonald shoes? Why did Goofy and Donald descend into hell to look for Sora ins...

This week on Axe of the Blood God, the PC RPG Quest continues! The gang is joined by their friend Jeff Green, who was at the epicentre of the major shift PC gaming underwent in the 2000's. On the surface, it was a grim time for PC RPGs. MMOs were encroaching on single-player adventures, consoles were eating into the PC RPG space...and what the heck was this "Steam" thing Valve refused to shut up a...

This episode of Axe of the Blood God comes at the end of a discourse-heavy week. E3 is pretty much dead, which spurs Kat, Nadia, and Eric into sharing their best E3 memories (Nadia still has her Witcher press Trapper Keeper). Moreover, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 has been bumped to spring 2023. Whatever will Nintendo do this holiday season?...Oh, right. Pokemon's coming. Also in this...

This week's episode of Axe of the Blood God is utterly bewitching. True, Kat, Nadia, and Eric are enthralling company in every circumstance—but with the recent announcement of (not) Witcher 4, how could they resist talking about what CD Projekt has up its sleeve? The gang talks about the seemingly new direction for this beloved fantasy property, and what it entails for the still-troubled CD Projek...

This week on the Axe of the Blood God RPG podcast, we're joined by USgamer alumni Mike Williams. Mike tells us all about the adventures he's had with a jolly man named Jack Garland. Jack is the very agreeable protagonist of the very normal, very down to earth Final Fantasy Origins: Stranger of Paradise. Listen to Mike talk about the game; we assure you Jack never uses foul language or flies off in...

This week on Axe of the Blood God, we're spoiling for a fight. That's why we pushed Kat off her chair this week and offered it to Michael Higham, Fanbyte's fighting game expert extraordinaire. What do fighting games have to do with RPGs? Well heck, a good fighting game character can have a backstory to rival any RPG hero's tale—and anyway, now's a great time to talk about Persona 4 Arena Ultramax....

The three co-hosts have been reunited after many weeks apart, and just in time to talk about a whole bunch of news! There's a new generation of Pokémon on the horizon, Triangle Strategy is out, and we're all still talking Elden Ring. It's quite a time for RPGs, even if they're all getting swallowed up by FromSoft's latest.   Also on the show:  - Eric becomes Wolverine Jesus - Nadia discovers how t...

Greetings, disciples of the Blood God. Kat is not with us this week; she's going to try her hand at being a pirate on the open seas. There's an excellent chance she'll be back next week, though. Despite what the Peter Pan song tells you, the pirate's life is not for everyone. Nadia and Eric manage to scrounge together a great show anyway, because it's Elden Ring week! No worries—there are no spoil...

It's down to a pair this week, as Kat and Eric gather to investigate the state of Cyberpunk 2077 with its brand-new next-gen patch and lament the loss of more eShop content. Make sure you get your Golden Sun downloaded while you still can, as two visions of the cyber-future both seem bleak. They also dive into the overlap of grand strategy and RPGs, thanks to Blood God backer Ruka!   In other happ...

There are people out there who hang onto news about Nintendo Directs the way a religious person might fervently cling to signs of Jesus' return. Humanity is still waiting on the second coming of the Lord, but Nintendo offered a nice stop-gap last week. The February Nintendo Direct was bursting with incredible RPG news—and some of it was simply bananas. A 2D HD remake of Live A Live? Absolutely nob...

Kat's gone, so Eric and Nadia assemble an Elite 4 to review Pokemon Legends: Arceus. IGN's Rebekah Valentine and Fanbyte's Kenneth Shepard join the show to chat about how the new direction has panned out, its highs and lows, and how it embraces Poke-mythology. Will this be remembered as a trailblazer or an obscure side game? Either way, we never want to see Cherubi again. Also in this episode: - A...

We're in the throes of winter, but Pokemon discourse is hotter than ever. This week, Kat, Nadia, and Eric talk about the opening hours of Pokemon Legends Arceus, Game Freak's attempt to take the Pokemon franchise sort-of open world. Does it succeed? Does it fall flat on its face? We have things to say: We are chatty little Chatots. Also in this episode: - Bloodborne is still great. - It's time to...

We're going back to the '90s again here on Axe of the Blood God, but here's a twist: We're going back to '90s Japan. Yes, it's another PC Console Quest, and we've invited our good friend PC98 Audi back to the show for the occasion. We discuss the PC-98's legacy, and how it affected '90s RPG development. Why did the platform have so many visual novels? What's the deal with, ahem, all those hentai g...

We may be in the dead of winter, but Axe of the Blood God is hotter than ever. So sayeth the show's fans, anyway. It's true! No word of a lie! Ahem. This week, Kat, Nadia, and Eric talk about a hodgepodge of lively topics, including: Some interesting new nominees for our new Best 25 RPGs of All Time list. Emphasis on "new" Final Fantasy XIV's producer tells the fanbase "Be good. For the love of Go...

New year, new Axe of the Blood God! Our new Stars of Destiny tier has kicked off in earnest, and we had our first live taping of the podcast, followed by a special post-show discussion. That's right, for 25 smackeroos you can listen to us flub our lines and then get into a fight about Super Mario World vs Super Mario Bros. 3. Very rated R stuff. See, the R stands for "rad." This week's main show c...

We're already three days into 2022! No refunds on the year, suckers. Don't worry, the Axe of the Blood God will be around to pick you up whenever you need it…and going by recent trends, everyone is going to be due for a pick-me-up somewhere between the first three and six months. Let's start the year strong with some spicy 2022 RPG predictions! Will we see anything to do with The Legend of Zelda:...

We've had an amazing 2021, and we're hoping 2022 will be even better! Nadia, Eric, and Kat get together to share their hopes and dreams for the new year along with the following: - Info on a brand new tier! - Free and premium feeds being synced! - Upcoming specials! - And much more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices