RPGFan's Retro Encounter

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 docu…

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 adven…

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 class…

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 fro…

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 e…

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 o…

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 o…

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 re…

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, b…

What's the story, RPGFan? Do you think it's worth a look? It seems kinda familiar, like a story from a book. 

RPGs and adventure games very often have an outsize focus on storytelling, in part because…

Don't ask me no questions, and I won't tell you no lies. 

We here at Retro Encounter love talking about video games, but decided to spend this episode getting to know each other a little better. In a …

Hey Jude, don't make it bad / Take a spirit, and make her better / Remember to let her into your heart / Then you can start to save the planet. 

Three RPGFan staff played through Tales of Xillia in Ju…

We're all doing our best, but there is always room for Progress

Tales of Xillia made a big splash on the PS3 in the early 2010s, with beautifully-rendered characters and frenetic combat for RPGs of th…

Did you know that RPGs, especially more traditional text-based RPGs, are generally considered to be among the more accessible videogame types? And that's a wonderful distinction, because accessibilit…

The chase is on in our pointless quiz show!

Retro Encounter engages in friently competition for the fifth time, with four RPGFan staff members taking on the quizmaster's queue of questions. This quiz…

Young master... listen to this episode. That is my first... and last... request.

Determined duels! Shocking departures! Sudden but inevitable betrayal! The second half of Suikoden the first is not lac…

Odessa told me: “A talkative man who doesn't have a podcast is a coward."

One of the very first RPGs on the PlayStation, Suikoden created a legion of new fans in 1995, spawning nearly a dozen sequels …

Hundreds of heroes to choose from, but only four squads competing

Retro Encounter returns from its 77-day hiatus to deliver three Suikoden episodes in a row! But before we get to our journal through t…

Three hosts enter. One leaves satisfied, one leaves salty, and the third… is still on the island.

For Retro Encounter's third and final game of Metroidvania Month, three panelists took on Ska Studios'…

Of warrior mice and podcast men.

Adaptations! In advance of an RPGFan feature later this month, three Retro Encounter panelists talk about their favorite stories and IP from outside the realm of video…