Retrograde Amnesia: Comprehensive JRPG Retrospective

This guy knows what time it is, if you know what I mean. If you get what I'm saying, we're rescuing Fitcher from the townies, inciting violence to prevent worse violence, feeling the pull of destiny on Nina's love of Flik, hearing a skittering ghost, finding a hidden passage through a secret door, discovering a cabin in the woods, m'ladying out of control, getting hype as fuck for my spider sword,...

I'm thinking about what to drink tonight. While we pretend to be students, we're making up aliases, desiring more flying squirrel friends, aspiring to own a warm hearth, perverting thine eyes, tee-hee'ing with Jeane, fantasizing about taking classes, admiring a wad of hair on a man, immediately blowing our cover with Emilia, declaring our regularity, inspecting Nanami to gain a competitive advanta...

For us, the forest and village are one. As that unification increases our power, we're mistaking Elza's identity, looking to get stronger by beating ass, busting up a puzzle, recruiting another gardener, accusing Tony of being a dirt fetishist, upgrading from house to tent, entering the jam vs butter rivalry, regressing Tengaar to damsel status, dispatching Hix on a bullshit quest, realizing that...

I AM NOT A TOOL FOR FIGHTING. After a four month break, we're strategically firing Fitcher, buying fried tacos in bulk, becoming toasty, fantasizing about a sauna, installing a kitchen, measuring bird weather, losing a foot race because we didn't escape enough times, playing that cursed bowl dice game, further emasculating Hix, piling on the mutants, recruiting a misanthropic goth bully, shitting...

Your lies won't save you this time. In search of salvation, we're meeting a buff dogman, allowing Fitcher to get his ass whipped, brandishing the Bright Shield Rune, meeting the plenipotentiary, forgetting to eat dinner, considering the plight of the Winger, chasing Chaco through raw sewage, finding Sid behind a sewage fall, eliminating a demon rat pest, winding up in the kobold village, intercept...

The bigger you get, the stronger you'll be. As we widen, we're meeting men of the sea, getting a reference, keeping the children toasty, using a Gameshark to time travel, recruiting a well-informed old lady, getting robbed by a flying child, hiring an idiot armorer, tasting meunière, observing black water, swallowing warm fish heads, overloading on puns in the dog village, finding respect for Geng...

I ain't got too much brains but I always been stronger 'n piss. During our recruiting drive, we're lying to Fitcher about everything, observing moving NPC's, leaving our husband to run storage, leaving our wife to go fight, manifesting a boat, marrying Kimberly, demanding Freed respect his wife, wielding a naginata, calling out a rigged coin toss, paying Richmond to investigate himself, beating th...

If you don't trust me, perhaps you should leave. While you stay, we're discovering that relaxation time is heart softening time, killing three horses for no reason, conscripting the elderly and the children, seeing potential in Freed Y, burning off my expendable unit, becoming the herald of victory, assuming a leadership position, finally flashing back to the fall of Genkaku, acquiring friend stre...

Good morning. After we get out of bed, we're entering a rich guy's house, finding out he's the worst kind of capitalist, failing to recruit him anyway, prostrating ourselves in front of him, finding a hard-boiled noir detective in the water margin, hearing of a risky trade, opening a plot debate, throwing a coin off a bridge, beating up a grown man, sifting through mud, and forging a much needed a...

I know that once a person is dead, they're gone forever. Before we go, we're challenging Suikoden II's treatment of Suikoden, embracing a child rune, pushing baphomet, denying the dirty vampire's tricks with violence, clicking a sword, slaughtering an abomination, chopping off more than one head, deciding we need to use a strategy to win, learning of a brilliant expelled student, failing to protec...

This is punishment for what you did to my body. Through our pain, we're forgetting Pohl ever existed, formally accepting Flik and Viktor, wondering why Freed has a last initial, repeating Suikoden's vampire subplot, dragging Pilika along, remaining oblivious to the concept of sex, raising the dead, missing our magic talking sword, beating up rocks, mounting a forehead rune, solving a rock pushing...

Anyway the wind blows, the dice rolls. Before we blow our roll, we're profiling Jowy, forcing destiny through chinchirorin, leaving Sheena behind, suppressing Rina's subplot, questioning the apple trade, waiting for Karen to dance, slinging some Josh (derogatory), confirming Viktor as a loud guy, conducting business with Clive, rejecting the sugar trade, touching a bonsai and receiving a crystal,...

What do you want? Are you from around here? While you figure that out we're assigning light and dark to different destinies, meeting secret ninjas in secret places, stopping by to share some wine, complimenting the wine's bouquet, inventing demolition sex, desaturating Muse, smashing a wine glass, escaping from a crime scene, assuming unchangable fate brought us here, fantasizing about running awa...

My face is proof of my identity. While you find proof of yours, we're running up that hilltop, failing facial recognition, belly bumping a lady, suffering surly knights, channeling Elden Ring's intro narrator, testing the Jowston State Agreement, calling a false flag, reading into the dots, bloodying their nose a little, turning Gilbert's coat and also sometimes killing Gilbert, furthering Jowy's...

Don't worry, I'll show you a good trick. As we debate the merit of how good that trick was, we're putting on our dead friends' uniforms, speculating Rowd's Joke Character potential, accidentally holding a princess hostage, seeking the power, slapping the shit out of a city official, screaming at the chamberlain, admiring the gorgeous dusk sky, begging a child to take my place, embracing a friend,...

Can you shoot, gunner? After we wake in jail, we're looking older and tougher, observing war's effect on the citizens of Muse, holding on to a stranger's contraband, feeling the bullets whiz by our face, becoming infantilized again, realizing Anabelle knows Genkaku, falling prey to idiot war schemes, conscripting a child to be a field medic, doing Anita's bidding for a date, demanding access to ma...

It's medicine. Eat it. While we decide what's most dear about this, we're being denied entry to Muse, winding up at an inn in the woods, absorbing the ravings of a treasure obsessed husband, helping find treasure to get an entry permit, collecting shapes, placing those shapes in holes to open doors, fearing Mr. Venus, engaging a nifty contraption, slaughtering a two-headed snake, throwing away an...

We have looked into your hearts and witnessed your character. As we shift into a new genre, we're deploying turn-based tactics, lighting people on fire, fighting a war right after we fought a war, slaughtering a spineless worm, exposing a traumatized child to even worse trauma, throwing munitions into a furnace, making a pact for Muse, venturing into the forbidden cave, leveling up Touching Theme,...

I've got no time left. And yet we're admiring shirtless men at work, discovering Joey is an uncle, wondering if knights are cops, staring down the big holiday door, entering the tekken, meeting Pilika and her family, venturing to Muse for an amulet gift, running it, selling Jowy's signet ring for no reason, scream-crying at the ashes of parents, meeting Apple (of all people), seeking the godfather...

It looks like your path to success took a detour. As we find our way, we're stealing heirloom vases for running-away money, reuniting with Rowd, waking up in jail, appealing to an ineffective princess, failing the prophecy of our final sunset, pulling chestnuts out of the fire, speaking to the items, reminiscing at the town exit, interrogating everyone at the Merc Fort, recruiting a hungry samurai...

What is homesickness, if not nostalgia? Between adult conversations, we're getting roped into a knife-throwing exhibition, letting the carnies join us, trading sex for safe passage, slaying the Mist Shade, alienating my hometowns folk, learning Jowy's got money, hearing I look cool from a blind kid, watching my dad disown me, recruiting a flying squirrel, letting my sister beat the shit out of me,...

Wake up, or I'll throw you in the river again. After we survive a swan dive, we're opening our eyes to familiar strangers, sleeping in a storeroom jai cell, performing unpaid labor, rainchecking the knowledge of sex and alcohol, meeting a kobold in the first hour of the game, recruiting a child, admiring the world map, pissing pants with fear, conversing with street performers, fetching flour that...

Welcome to part two of season four of Retrograde Amnesia! As we kick off our coverage of Suikoden II, we're going over release history, development staff, contemporary reviews, modern reflections, and our personal history & expectations. Then we press start, and we're loading Suikoden I data, hearing both side's case about war & peace, running with a dust cloud, putting on main character clothes,...

Can't something be wrong, and priceless? On season four, part one's final episode, we're investigating bathing dynamics, pretending Sanchez isn't a rat, allowing Leknaat to lore dump all over us, wasting our only resurrection spell, sending monsters back to hell, executing Ain Gide, engaging in a rooftop showdown, accepting shame from former colleagues, suffering rune rejection, faking indoctrinat...

This is no time to be distressed, we have a job to do. As we ingest the envy of angels, we're learning Mathiu and Humphrey were on opposite sides of a massacre, brewing our finest tea, preventing adults from having consensual sex, writing Hix off as a forever dumbass, wishing the old would die instead of the young, making 500 boats out of fucking ice, telling our dad's girlfriend why he's dead, ti...