RPGFan's Retro Encounter

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 paths, confounding Chaos Frames, and multiple endings of Ogre Battle 64, along with some light speculati...

Did this Ogre need a decoder? Ogre Battle 64 occupies a curious part of RPG history, as a Quest game made after Yasumi Matsuno's departure from Quest, as a hybrid real-time strategy game and traditional JRPG, and as an RPG for the N64, a system conspicuously lacking them. Today's episode of Retro Encounter is an Ogre Battle 64 skeptic and two longtime Ogre Battle 64 fans trying to reconcile OB64's...

"Do you think games are silly little things?" Most RPGs aren't designed to be played multiple times. You take in the story, see a few numbers increase incrementally, fight a boss, and roll some credits. But that doesn't stop a huge number of RPG fans from replaying their favorites multiple times, and Retro Encounter's panel is no exception. Today, a team of panelists details eight of their favorit...

Hey, at least there’s no gacha in today’s episode. While we might not love gacha mechanics in RPGs, we sure do love the characters in the Xeno series, and for today’s episodes we gathered four of our biggest Xeno fans on staff to draft our very own fantasy teams. Which protagonists do we love the most? Where does Citan go? Does Wes steal all of Zach’s picks again? Listen in to find out! Featuring:...

Wild PODCAST appeared! The 12 months from November 19th, 2021 to November 18th, 2022 were monumental for the most popular RPG franchise in the world. The Pokémon Company had three major releases in that timespan, with a set of remakes, a groundbreaking prequel, and a new pair of flagship games. In today's Retro Encounter, four panelists discuss Pokémon's remarkable year: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond...

"If fashion were easy, wouldn't everybody look great?" Today, Retro Encounter channels their inner Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn and discusses a few of the best and worst clothing choices made by RPG characters. What Persona character wore it best? Who has the best Mass Effect space suit? What oldschool accessories need to make a comeback? And what's Link's worst outfit ever worn? All of these questions...

Should auld RPGs be forgot, and never brought to mind? No, that's why this show exists, and auld lang syne. It's that time of year again, where Retro Encounter lives in the very recent past and goes over several of the present panel's favorite games of the calendar year. From remasters of 1994 Square classics to 1995 strategy game homages to modern action RPG masterpieces, this episode highlights...

It's a Xenomas Miracle! Xenosaga is a game about humanity, starring a cast that rangers from an android unable to distinguish empathy from protocol to an artificial human clinging to memories of her human parents to a cyborg trying to reject his own humanity. But regardless of the biology or technology behind anyone in Xenosaga's cast, the story told is deeply human, right until that one traumatiz...

KOS-MOS isn't a doctor, but she'll die-a-Gnosis. Retro Encounter recorded episodes on Xenogears, Xenoblade, and Baten Kaitos several years ago, but what about the series that put Monolith Soft on the map? Today one superfan and three newcomers discuss the background, themes, characters, and early story of 2002's Xenosaga Episode 1, the first of a trilogy with subtitles from Nietzsche, the flyest n...

It's in the singing of a street corner choir / It's going home and getting warm by the fire / It's true, wherever you find love, it feels like Muppets.  It's the Muppets episode! Three RPGFan podcast hosts are lifelong fans of The Muppets, so in the grand tradition of A Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island, they are re-casting classic RPGs with iconic Muppets characters. Which Muppet...

And now it's time to dive into something a bit meatier. Monolithsoft's latest game, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 , finally dropped in July, and we gathered five of our biggest Xeno fans to discuss the gall of Tetsuya Takahashi's new jam. Listen in as we chat about the delightful British-isms, if there's finally a Nopon character who isn't annoying, and whether the game is really as sparkin' good as ever...

Silversun Strip Apartments. When you're here, you're family.  Mass Effect 3 was an RPG event when it launched in 2012, and underneath the vitriolic reaction to its ending and multiple waves of DLC both expansive and reconstructive is an excellent shooter RPG. In today's episode of Retro Encounter, three panelists discuss not only Mass Effect 3's resolutions to the Krogan, Geth, and Reaper conflict...

I am the very model of a sci-fi shooter RPG! From Omega to Luna I'm the zenith and the apogee!  2010's Mass Effect 2 continues the story of Commander Shepard's quest to save the galaxy, but with new crew members, new benefactors, and way more planet scanning. An RPGFan away team discusses Mass Effect 2's villains-turned-allies, new alien cultures, and daring final mission in today's episode of Ret...

Back on our BioWare business.  Mass Effect was one of the biggest phenomena in video games from the late 2000s through the early 2010s, and all three games in the original trilogy hold up as role-playing games, first-person shooters, and science fiction stories. Through the month of November, Retro Encounter is playing through the original Mass Effect trilogy, starting with the first game (which R...

Thank you for listening to Retro Encounter for a Quite Interesting seven years! If you know two things about Retro Encounter, they’re probably that the podcast plays through great RPGs from every era and that its host loves game shows. Today, to celebrate 350 episodes of Retro Encounter, that host emulates a classic panel quiz format to go over a dozen discussion topics. Have a listen and maybe yo...

This game is from 2022, but horny teenagers getting murdered at a summer camp is Retro as can be. Happy Halloween! As far as Retro Encounter is concerned, Halloween begins in early September and lasts three solid months. As such, we are celebrating the horror season and providing a coda to Retro Encounter's Autumn of Adventure with The Quarry, the most recent cinematic horror adventure from Superm...

Broken Age is a stunningly beautiful coming of age story.  Beyond the narrative itself, its Kickstarter-fairytale-turned-cautionary-tale development cycle has been entertainingly and meticulously documented and helped chart the frontier of large-scale crowdfunded videogame projects. Listen to the Autumn of Adventure panel muse on this, the Double Fine Adventure documentary detailing this game's de...

Hey there Little Red Riding Hood / You sure are lookin' good / You're everything a Big Bad Wolf could want Retro Encounter continues their Autumn of Adventure with The Wolf Among Us, a narrative adventure game set in the Fables comic book universe and originally released in five parts in 2013 and 2014. The panel dives into Telltale's unique brand of video game storytelling, The Wolf Among Us's fas...

Welcome to the first episode of Retro Encounter’s Adventure Game Month! Throughout October, we’re looking at four adventures across several eras of gaming. First up, the seminal point-and-click classic, The Secret of Monkey Island! SoMI is a foundational game for LucasArts. Under Ron Gilbert’s direction, it brought in many of the conventions that would define the point-and-click genre moving forwa...

Live (A Live) from the Middle Ages, it's Thursday night! Live A Live is an anthology RPG comprised of eight miniature stories that lead to a grand finale, and its 2022 remake gets three thumbs up from today's Retro Encounter panel. They discuss the tragic eighth chapter, as well as the twisted endgame which brings together seven triumphant heroes and one disgraced would-be savior into a clash betw...

Rhymes with "Drive Survive," not "Sieve Forgive"  Live A Live , an influential 1994 RPG developed by Square during their Super Nintendo apex, is an anthology RPG which tells eight short stories that eventually coalesce into a satisfying finale. Live A Live 's 2022 Nintendo Switch remake is the title's only official worldwide release, and several staff at RPGFan were eager to dive and thrive. This...

Never Gonna Give Yeul Up Fabula Nova Crystallis, the high-concept collection of Final Fantasy games dating from 2006, resulted in five games of varying tone and execution. Retro Encounter spent much of August playing and discussing Final Fantasy XIII, and today three panelists break down and lift up the rest of the family, including the former Agito, Final Fantasy Type-0, and the Versus XIII succe...

Finally, we connect Xenoblade Chronicles to Abraham Lincoln.  The 3DS eShop is on its last legs as Nintendo phases out online support for its successful handheld, but Retro Encounter hasn't given up on this 3D-enabled machine yet. Five panelists (including three new ones!) discuss their favorite 3DS games and series in an appreciation-slash-celebration for this titan of the 2010s.  Featuring: Mich...

How clear is Final Fantasy XIII's story? Not exactly Crystal.  Final Fantasy XIII has a wild ride to the finish, and three Retro Encounter panelists cap off their personal experiences playing it by reacting to FF XIII's remarkable design changes, confusing character motivations, and beautiful imagery in its final chapters. So who did we bring to the final battle? Why are there so many metaphors fo...

Thunderbolts and Lightning / Very very frightening Final Fantasy XIII, one of the most divisive games in the world's most popular Japanese RPG series, is certainly old enough to be considered Retro, but its style and tone are anything but. Our panelists are one FF XIII veteran, one FF XIII neophyte, and one lapsed player; they're unkind to the linear corridors and grating personalities of the firs...