RPGFan's Retro Encounter

Remember us. Remember that we once podcasted. Emet-Selch, the principal antagonist of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, is a unique blend of a foppish eccentric, a world-erasing psychopath, and a grieving survivor. He's a complicated, entertaining foil to the Warrior of Light, and Retro Encounter is going to examine him under the RPG Villains microscope as a last hurrah for Shadowbringers before...

Hiya, Hugo! Hiya, stupid! Whatcha wanna go get demon energy for?   Our two panelists navigate through Ys Origin's three protagonists in our second episode on the 2006 prequel!  Up for discussion is the Ys Origin endgame story, midgame boss battles, and family dynamic of the cursed Fact bloodline.  Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Audra Bowling; Edited by Michael Sollosi Opening and ending music by Mile...

Retro Encounter travels between 1989 and 2006 in playing Ys Origin, the prequel to the original Ancient Ys Vanished, Nihon Falcom's influential action RPG. In today's Retro Encounter the panelists discuss co-protagonists Yunica Tovah and Hugo Fact, the layout of the mysterious tower they're climbing, and how Ys Origin references Ys titles past and future. It rhymes with "Geese." Not with "Wise." F...

It wouldn't be Star Trek without an inevitable sequel!  The crew of the USS Retro Encounter is back after last week's Star Trek-focused episode. This time, we're taking a look at the follow-up to 25th Anniversary, the 1993 point-and-click adventure game, Star Trek: Judgment Rites. With the cast of the original series again returning to voice their characters, Judgment Rites looks to deliver an aut...

It's time to explore strange old worlds with the crew of the USS Retro Encounter! In this episode, our landing party of Trekkies beam into the 1992 point-and-click adventure game, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary. Featuring the vocal talents of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and the rest of the Enterprise crew, will this adventure game live up to the quality of the first two seasons of TOS? Or will it...

Retro Encounter finished their star-studded journey across the cosmos this month, but does Cosmic Star Heroine live up to to Zeboyd's influences and fan expectations? The panel loves the visual design and battle designs of the game, but has issues in other places. But which boss was designed by the podcast host? Listen and learn!  Brought to you by the founding members of the Psybe Appreciation St...

Retro Encounter is blasting off again with two episodes on Cosmic Star Heroine, a 2010s crowdfunding success heavily inspired by specific 16-bit RPGs. The panel loves the visual style and battle system of Cosmic Star Heroine, but isn't 100% sold on the story, characters, or soundtrack. How exactly do they feel about this science fiction Japanese-style RPG? Listen and find out! So is CSH a worthy t...

The Church of Retro opens its confessional booth again, and three RPGFan panelists discuss the games and series for which they are the most embarrassed not to have played. So which RPGFan staffperson has never played a Suikoden title? Which Mega Man fan has never played Battle Network?  Listen and find out! Retro Encounter encourages confession, but unlike Catholicism there is no shame in this pod...

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is about a teenager assuming a world of responsibility, adults confronting their worst selves, and stopping a demon from the Cthulhu Mythos from swapping the magnetic poles of Planet Earth. Four Retro Encounter panelists reject their own adult responsibilities to talk about this cult hit RPG from 2000, from the highs of Persona 2's themes to the lows of the Undersea R...

Retro Encounter brings the band back together in a brand new timeline, reuniting most of the team that podcasted on Persona 2: Innocent Sin in September 2020 to discuss its sequel, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment one year later. Converging timelines, video game grownups struggling to find their place, and comedians named after eggplants all enter the Velvet Room in today's episode of Retro Encounter...

Our fourth RPGFan Quiz Show in three years comes with changes to the quiz show landscape. Jeopardy!'s longtime host Alex Trebek has passed, and RPGFan's audio quiz show inspiration, Ask Me Another, announced that its final episodes will air later this year. But Retro Encounter is still here, and another quiz show arrives to challenge four contestants and crown a fourth Retro Encounter Quiz Show Ch...

Football season has seized North America, and four Persona-loving RPGFan staff decided to reject the sports-industrial complex to draft their own teams of teenagers battling their inner demons by confronting actual demons. Which protagonist is drafted first overall? Which participant picks not one, but TWO motorcycle-riding student council presidents? Listen and find out!  ARE YOU READY FOR SOME T...

Two recent entries in Capcom's Ace Attorney saga of part-visual novel, part-adventure game, and all-courtroom drama video games were in localization purgatory for a few years before finally releasing worldwide as The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles in July 2021. Three of RPGFan's preeminent anime lawyer enthusiasts discuss the story, characters, themes, puzzles, and handsome boys and dads of this pa...

Three Retro Encounter panelists played Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in August 2021, and each came out with different opinions and Reasons for those feelings. So which Reason is The Matrix and which Reason is The LEGO Movie ? Listen and find out. You'll have plenty of time, climbing those massive tower dungeons Is Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne one of the PS2's best, or lacking compared to it...

300 episodes! Retro Encounter always celebrates 50-episode milestones with new podcast gimmicks and a public vote on a future Retro Encounter game, and in 2021 we deliver with a Retro Encounter elimination tournament! We took sixteen suggested games for a future Retro Encounter episode, then voted them down to a final four. Now it's time to rely on listener votes for an overall winner. The winning...

Podcasting is a harsh, unforgiving world that struggles between freedom of expression and survival of the fittest, but it's nothing compared to post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Three Retro Encounter Demi-Fiends survive The Conception with two friends, two strangers, and their favorite teacher (with an oddly close relationship to her students); but how do they find this recently-remade PS2 Atlus classic? We...

The samurai and demon boys are back in town, as are our panelists as we finish our discussion of Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi for Ladies Otome Month here on Retro Encounter. This time, discussion centers around two more specific routes: one where Shinsengumi antagonist and demon Kazama helps you out (wow, so historically accurate), and the titular route where you get to know the tragic fig...

It's Ladies Otome Month on Retro, so our panel is kicking back and getting lost in historical Japan with a bunch of deadly samurai. Some of us are otome experts, some of us only know the genre from second-hand accounts, but we've all made our choices and been throughout at least one route. Many of us had a surprising amount to say about this intersection of otome, horror, and historical fiction. H...

A 2021 Retro Encounter sequel podcast drops its sequel episode, establishing a new Essential Ten for a new decade. Five panelists argue a list of twenty RPGs and visual novels down to an esteemed list of ten newly enshrined Retro Encounter Hall of Fame RPGs. By the end, the five RPGFan staff show a mix of accomplishment, fatigue, and sulky dissatisfaction, but we got there, doggone it. Which Final...

Retro Encounter's most notorious two-part episode, a 2016 structured argument that resulted in a top ten RPGs deemed "essential" by Retro Encounter, is getting a sequel five years later. It's a new decade, and five Retro Encounter regulars will spend two podcasts and over four hours arguing a list of 35 RPGs to 10, and this is the first. Friendships are challenged and feelings are hurt (but not re...

Retro Encounter did two episodes on NieR: Gestalt in 2016, but the recent Replicant remaster gives us new occasion to discuss the Square-Enix cult classic. We have Teen Nier, Automata context, and deeply personal narratives all up for discussion in a mostly-happy podcast about a sad, angry RPG. How far would you go for a podcast you love? Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Alana Hagues, Zach Wilkerson; E...

The stunning conclusion to Knights in the Nightmare is here, and holy plot Batman, that was a doozy! And with a remaster just announced for Japan this week, we cannot wait for more folks to dig in to this fascinating experience! (no relation to NiGHTS into Dreams for Sega Saturn) Featuring: Eva Padilla, Pete Leavitt; Edited by Micah Coates Get in Touch: RPGFan.com Email us: retro@rpgfan.com Twitte...

What is dead may never die! On this Game Journal, two panelists dive into Sting's weirdo-bullet heck SRPG Knights in the Nightmare!  Can this duo find the strength to make it out of this deep slumber in one piece? Find out on this week's episode of Retro Encounter! Dust off your late-2000s handheld, folks! Featuring: Eva Padilla, Pete Leavitt; Edited by Micah Coates Get in Touch: RPGFan.com Email...

Retro Encounter's miniseries on Final Fantasy XIV concludes this week with an episode all about Shadowbringers, Final Fantasy XIV"s most recent and most fantastical expansion. Three panelists discuss the changes Shadowbringers made to the FFXIV job system, how Shadowbringers subverts a few central tenets of Final Fantasy, and the unmatched passion and dedication of the FFXIV team, only a few short...

Monster Hunter: World has peaked and Monster Hunter Rise has risen, and with several RPGFan staff hunting Rathalos recently it was high time we recorded a Monster Hunter podcast for the first time in more than three years. Three panelists talk about the peaks and valleys of the fifth generation of Monster Hunter, which is stronger than ever sixteen games in. Sharpen your weapons, eat a hearty meal...