RPGFan's Retro Encounter

Final Fantasy X-2. Great job system, great battle system, well-made pop songs.  But how about the rest of the game? Our panel has some criticisms about the side quests, main story, and overall presentation of FFX-2, but they try to balance the bad with some good in the newest Retro Encounter. Well, that sure was a video game. Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Eva Padilla, Peter Triezenberg; Edited by Mi...

Crowdfunding services like Kickstarter, IndieGogo, and Fig have disrupted traditional game production and become an inescapable part of how video game consumers and developers interact, but the crowdfunding revolution within video games is less than ten years old.  Today's Retro Encounter is a discussion of how crowdfunding has affected the modern gaming landscape, as well as a few of our favorite...

The sequel to the 2nd game ever covered by Retro Encounter finally gets its own journal episodes over five years later!  We revisit the world of Spira and its new dueling factions, critique Dressphere fashion choices, and discuss Yuna's career change in our latest episode.  Which Final Fantasy X character evokes a comparison to a classic Saturday Night Live character?  Listen to find out!  Featuri...

Retro Encounter 261 - Finding Paradise Kan Gao and Freebird Games deliver the fourth game in the SIgmund Corp. Saga later this year, so in anticipation of Impostor Factory Retro Encounter is playing Finding Paradise, a game about memories, regrets, and making sure toilet paper rolls are on the hanger and not at the edge of the bathroom sink.   Dive into our minds with the latest Retro Encounter! ...

Retro 260 - RPG Vampires: Fangs for the Memories Vampires are a staple of horror, and to celebrate Halloween Retro Encounter is celebrating the vampires of RPGs.  From the psychic vampires of Mass Effect to the protagonist of a game literally called Vampyr, we hold a supernatural discussion to run a small gamut of (actual) bloodsuckers who don't suck (figuratively).   Drape your best cape and list...

Phantasy Star IV is the culmination of a four-game saga that puts the 2,000-year struggle of the Algol System into a context, and in today's Retro Encounter episode we dive deep into its final battle.  We spent plenty of time in Phantasy Star IV's battles and dungeons, but we forget to go into the adorable final credits scene.  That's our error.  It's macros, combos, and more in the latest Retro E...

Retro Encounter visits a faraway galaxy in a game from a long time ago (don't @ me Disney) in Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, one of the most acclaimed RPGs for the Sega Genesis, or Mega Drive if you're a peein'.  It took us 5 years and 257 episodes to talk about Sega RPGs a second time, but it was worth it! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Alana Hagues, Mark Tjan; Edited by Brian Ingemans...

Presently (October 2020), RPGFan is publishing a feature on the best RPG of each year, from the dawn of Dragon Quest to the last full calendar year.  As a podcast side dish to the website's main course, Retro Encounter examined the RPG oeuvre of each voting year, settled on the 10 best, and then started counting down.  Join us in talking 1987 through 2019 in 2020! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Alana...

Even in a video game, humans are too trusting.  Many of the most storied plot twists in RPGs have a central character performing an unexpected turn or betraying the player's trust.  In today's episode of Retro Encounter five panelists detail over a dozen great video game traitors, from A (Apollo Justice) to Z (YakuZa Kiwami).   Is one panelist among us... an imposter?   No guarantees.  Featuring:...

In the final episode of Persona Month, we gather again to discuss the end of Persona 2: Innocent Sin . Discussion topics include the continuously terrible dungeons, childhood trauma, Adolf Hitler, and Jesus. Somehow, we try to make sense of all those things on this episode. Yes, this game goes some places. So does our discussion! Featuring Zach Wilkerson , Alana Hagues, Leona McCallum, Jo Padilla;...

This week on Retro Encounter, four panelists get together to talk about Persona 2: Innocent Sin , the PS1 RPG that we never saw until its PSP remake over 10 years later. Topics include the engaging characters, the less than engaging combat, and somehow...disaster bisexuals. Don't ask. Just listen. Be sure to check out next week's episode to hear the end of our month of Persona ! Featuring: Zach Wi...

Rhythm Encounter is back for the first time since 2017!  (This is an different podcast entirely).  But in a Grand Cross of a cosmic coincidence, Rhythm Encounter's return occurs during Retro Encounter's Persona Month, so we (Retro) chose to do an episode all about the music of the Persona series to celebrate their (Rhythm) return.   Bop along to our jams, and check the tracklist below!    Featurin...

Persona 4 stars a group of meddling teenagers (and one bear) determined to bring a serial killer to justice, but what makes that killer tick?  Retro Encounter jumps into the TV World and journeys into the mind of a murderer in a new episode of RPG Villains.  The identity of Persona 4's culprit constitutes a spoiler, so listener beware.  Turn this whodunnit into a yaheardit!  Featuring: Michael Sol...

This. Is. RPGeopardy! RPGFan is hosting a third quiz show in which four RPGFan staff compete for absolutely nothing at all in a trivia competition where the clues are (mostly) all about RPGs. Retro Encounter's most frequent host wrote the rounds, so don't be surprised to hear multiple Dragon Quest(ions).  Can you figure out This, That, and The Other? Listen and find out!  Featuring: Michael Sollos...

Retro Encounter just hit a new milestone, and that means another self-congratulatory gimmick episode.  Retro Encounter solicited listener emails all summer, and today we read and react to all that we received.  At episode's end, we pick five games from the listener suggestions to be part of a new listener poll!  Please listen to the episode and then vote in the survey!  It's too late to write us a...

Retro Encounter draws their shared adventure in the Beanbean to a close in this podcast episode, discussing Luigi's solo missions, the collection of the Beanstar pieces, the brothers' journey through Joke's End, and confronting the final villains in a surprising moment of body horror. Today, Superstar Saga. Next week, episode 250! Featuring: Peter Triezenberg, Pete Leavitt, Jo Padilla, Michael Sol...

Retro Encounter tackles the 2003 GBA classic Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga this week, and the panel is divided on whether the game's timed-hits combat, silly humor, and early-aughts dungeon puzzles have aged well or poorly. The panel is unanimous on Superstar Saga's treatment of coffee and condiments.  So is Superstar Saga a classic coffee grind, or just a grind? Listen to find out!  Featuring...

Retro Encounter's journey to unite the Valerian isles, expel the manipulative Knights Loslorien, and stave off invasion from a hell dimension comes to a close, with the messy conclusion to Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together.  Collectivist vs. Individualist ideals, how characters are treated in different ending paths, and Yasumi Matsuno's love of obscure content all feature heavily.  What endings...

Five years after podcasting about Final Fantasy Tactics, Retro Encounter tackles Yasumi Matsuno's prior magnum opus, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together!  We discuss the Super Famicom classic's multi-layered, politics-heavy story, fascinating class system, and key differences between the PS1 and PSP versions before speculating on which Queen songs would make the best subtitles for a future Ogre Sa...

Two Trials of Mana scholars from 2019's Retro Encounter episodes return for a revisitation on the 1995 classic, specifically in the context of its 2020 remake.  We talk visual upgrades, new classes, and some questionable English-language voice acting in a 1-year podcast anniversary all about a 25-year video game anniversary.   Which is worse, Kevin's caveman accent or Charlotte's trouble with cons...

We here at Retro Encounter are taking a short break from talking about classic RPGs to play a party game.  Four Retro Encounter panelists take turns to divulge facts both true and false, with the others guessing the lies.  We learned a little about each other, all thanks to July having a fifth Thursday nestled in the month.   Listen to the episode, and also congratulate RPGFan's new Editor-in-Chie...

Pokey Minch is a major villain both Earthbound and Mother 3, and somehow reminds you of every kid you ever hated in grade school as well as billionaire fascists of both fiction and history.  In this episode we dive deep into Pokey Minch's journey, motivations, and unusual traits.  This is RPG Villains.  Does Pokey Minch bear some resemblance to modern world leaders?  Maybe!  Listen to the episode!...

Our panel has reached the end of Yakuza 0, and with it comes new beginnings for Dragon of Dojima and the Mad Dog of Shimano.  Four panelists discuss Yakuza 0 for another full episode, and there is enough drama for two games and foreshadowing for six more in the crime story's dramatic conclusion.  What metaphor is represented on your gangster back tattoo?  All of this and more on the latest Retro E...

Yakuza 0 is a game about violence. And honor. And... real estate? Yakuza 0 tells a compelling crime drama about the intertwining tales of series hero Kazuma Kiryu and fan favorite villain Goro Majima in 1988, 17 years before the story of the first Yakuza game, but you're forgiven if you can't be bothered to complete more story missions with all the distractions that 1980s Kamurocho and Sotenbori h...

Retro Encounter's Tournament of Consoles continues, whittling down a list of eight to a single champion.  Three PlayStations, three Nintendo handhelds, one Super 90s machine, and whatever the hell you're supposed to call the Switch are our final eight gladiators in our console colosseum, but only one outlives and outlasts this cast of celebrated consoles.  Listen to the end to discover Retro Encou...