Retro Encounter Archives | Page 2 of 13

Retro Encounter 369 – Our Off-Brand Obsessions

Posted by Michael Sollosi on March 16, 2023

All RPGs and no fighting games makes Jack a dull boy. We don’t *solely* play RPGs here at RPGFan, and today is exactly the podcast to express that. Four RPGFan panelists discuss a few of their favorite games that can’t be classified as RPGs with even the most liberal interpretation of the term… Read More »

Retro Encounter 368 – Most Wanted Remakes

Posted by Michael Sollosi on March 9, 2023

Today we enter the realm of video game fantasies, but not Final Fantasies. Remakes are a regular part of the video game release schedule in the 2020s, and here at Retro Encounter we have a few ideas on a few that should come soon. A PS2 rogue-like, a Squaresoft RPG never released in Japan, and some… Read More »

Retro Encounter 367 – RPGFan Had a Farm

Posted by Mike Salbato on March 4, 2023

E-I-E-I-oh boy I almost went to bed without watering the corn. Oh, hello. On today’s Retro Encounter, we’re breaking out the farm equipment and digging into the ever-growing farm simulation genre. Many of them overlap with RPGs, especially as modern games have expanded their systems beyond crops, an… Read More »

Retro Encounter 366 – Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II

Posted by Jonathan Logan on February 23, 2023

You would expect that first-party game releases for a system would dry up three years after its successor is released. But that certainly wasn’t the case with Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II! Released in 1994 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, StarTropics II was a bit of an anomaly. Dev… Read More »

Retro Encounter 365 – StarTropics

Posted by Jonathan Logan on February 16, 2023

There are some first-party Nintendo games that became legendary franchises. This… is not one of those games. Released in 1990 for the NES, StarTropics was specifically designed by Nintendo R&D3 with Western audiences in mind. In fact, it was never even released in Japan until 2008 on the Wi… Read More »

Retro Encounter 363 – Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber Part I

Posted by Michael Sollosi on February 7, 2023

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 En… Read More »

Retro Encounter 362 – RPGs on Repeat

Posted by Michael Sollosi on January 26, 2023

“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, an… Read More »

Retro Encounter 361 – Xeno Series Fantasy Draft

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on January 19, 2023

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 protagonis… Read More »

Retro Encounter 360 – Year of the Pokémon

Posted by Michael Sollosi on January 12, 2023

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 t… Read More »

Retro Encounter 359 – RPGFan’s Guide to Style

Posted by Michael Sollosi on January 5, 2023

“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 a… Read More »

Retro Encounter 358 – 2022 Year in Review

Posted by Michael Sollosi on December 29, 2022

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 Squar… Read More »

Retro Encounter 357 – Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht Part II

Posted by Michael Sollosi on December 25, 2022

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 technol… Read More »

Retro Encounter 356 – Xenosaga Episode 1: Der Wille zur Macht

Posted by Michael Sollosi on December 15, 2022

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 st… Read More »

Retro Encounter 355 – Muppets Encounter

Posted by Michael Sollosi on December 8, 2022

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 Mup… Read More »

Retro Encounter 354 – Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Spoilercast

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on December 1, 2022

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 fi… Read More »

Retro Encounter 353 – Mass Effect 3

Posted by Michael Sollosi on November 24, 2022

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, th… Read More »

Retro Encounter 352 – Mass Effect 2

Posted by Michael Sollosi on November 17, 2022

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… Read More »

Retro Encounter 351 – Mass Effect Revisited

Posted by Michael Sollosi on November 10, 2022

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 E… Read More »

Retro Encounter 350 – You Might Learn Something

Posted by Michael Sollosi on November 3, 2022

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 e… Read More »

Retro Encounter 349 – The Quarry

Posted by Michael Sollosi on October 27, 2022

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 Enc… Read More »

Retro Encounter 348 – Broken Age

Posted by Hilary Andreff on October 20, 2022

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 Au… Read More »

Retro Encounter 347 – The Wolf Among Us

Posted by Michael Sollosi on October 13, 2022

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 20… Read More »

Retro Encounter 346 – The Secret of Monkey Island

Posted by Jonathan Logan on October 6, 2022

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 direc… Read More »

Retro Encounter 345 – Live A Live Part II

Posted by Michael Sollosi on September 29, 2022

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 endga… Read More »

Retro Encounter 344 – Live A Live Part I

Posted by Michael Sollosi on September 22, 2022

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 ti… Read More »

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