RPGFan's Retro Encounter

Could you imagine? A puppet seeing another puppet- and then making it work?

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is... cute. Energetic. Pleasant. But also sort of twisted? Is Cornet an earnest puppeteer or …

In Marl's Kingdom, the girl saves the handsome prince.

Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure is remarkable for a 1998 RPG, in that it subverts a few traditional fantasy tropes, has multiple character-specifi…

Through the Fire and Flames of Fate

Dragon Quest hasn't had a main series release since 2018, but in the last five years we've had spinoffs, adaptations, and announcements galore. Three Retro Encounte…

Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why you had to hide away for so long. Where did we go wrong?

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a bleak, unforgiving game that grants players tremendous highs when they em…

Don't be a D-Ratio.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter doesn't want you to have an easy time. A remarkable blend of PS2 visuals, tactical combat, rogue-like elements, and horror atmosphere set to a Hitos…

The only podcast here is ours. And you can be its early witness!

Final Fantasy XVI, one of the most-anticipated Square-Enix games of the 2020s, finally launched worldwide in June. And now, almost thr…

She'll take you for a ride on a wagon train to Zoombiniville

It's back to school week here at Retro Encounter, where we stay retro but mostly avoid RPGs in a discussion of classic edutainment games, f…

Time to go work on Retro Encounter!

We're back with our discussion of the second half of Disco Elysium. This week we dive into some of our favorite late-game side quests, go over our favorite conversa…

This is the face of a late-stage Retro Encounter enthusiast.

This week we get together to discuss a game inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, despite a complete lack of any dungeons or dragons: Disco Elysi…

Off my podcast, jester. The commissioner sits there.

It's fantasy draft season! And, well, it's been a while since our last draft episode, and even longer since we've drafted characters from the bigge…

Life... Dreams... Hope... Where do they come from? A new episode of Retro Encounter of course, that's where!

We're back this week to dive into the second, more ruinous half of Final Fantasy VI. After …

Think a "podcast" like ours could help you out in your quest?

In honor of the recent release of Final Fantasy XVI, we got a few of our panelists together to play through the SNES classic Final Fantasy…

What the hell, Yoko Taro?

After our recently published "25 Years, 25 RPG Moments" feature, we decided to get the crew at Retro Encounter together to talk about some of the moments that made us laugh, …

Its gifts were mixed with good and evil both.

This week we bring our panelists back together to discuss to discuss the second half of Lost Odyssey. While were were all pretty positive on the first hal…

Okay it might not be called Final Fantasy XIII, but...

This week on Retro Encounter, three first-timers get together to discuss Mistwalker's Xbox 360 cult classic Lost Odyssey. It certainly has some b…

Thou shalleth listenen to thisen episode.

Luckily, you won't hear any conversations about broken Early Modern English, because this time we're not talking about the original. Instead, we have a spoile…

It's time to make history!

This week, we're revisiting one of our favorites: Persona 4 Golden. After all, with the new release on modern consoles and Wes' glowing review for us at RPGFan, it seemed li…

More brutal murders than John Wick and more mistaken identities than Twelfth Night. 

Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! plays fast and loose with the events of Bakumatsu Japan, with multiple historical figures ass…

Kamurocho has nothing on the mean streets of 1860s Kyo. 

Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! was probably a lost cause to most fans of the Like A Dragon / Yakuza series, but Sega shocked everyone last year with the…

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 favori…