RPGFan's Retro Encounter

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 TENTARAFOOTBALL!? Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Hilary Andreff, Neal Chandran, Peter Triezenberg; Edited by Michael SollosiGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:Neal Chandran's 2010 Persona feature

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 pair of modern classics. Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Niki Fakhoori, Jonathan Logan; Edited by Jonathan LoganGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on RPGFan

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 dungeonsIs Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne one of the PS2's best, or lacking compared to its successors? We don't quite agree on today's Retro Encounter! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Wes Iliff, Zach Wilkerson; Edited by Micah CoatesGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2) on RPGFanShin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS4) on RPGFan

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 RPG (or puzzle adventure game) will appear on Retro Encounter as a game journal game in (probably) January 2021. So listen to us argue and reminisce about Retro Encounters past and future, then rock the vote! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Hilary Andreff, Alana Hagues, Jonathan Logan, Zach Wilkerson, and three special guests; Edited by Michael SollosiGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:Vote for a future Retro Encounter game! 

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're very well acquainted, too, with matters philosophical, and understand conundrums, both demonic and mechanical in this very model of a modern classic RPG. Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Wes Iliff, Zach Wilkerson; Edited by Micah CoatesGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS2) on RPGFanShin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (PS4) on RPGFan

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 figure Hijikata in depth during his ill-fated mission to preserve the Shinsengumi during modernization and the dissolution of the shogunate. Bonus: Niki discovers photo mode and we discuss some pretty great otome crossover ideas...along with a round of "guess the Shinsengumi samurai based on historical photos." You can even play along with that last one on social media in the near future!Featuring: Hilary Andreff, Audra Bowling, Lucy Gray, Niki Fakhoori; Edited by Brian IngemansonGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:Hakuoki on RPGFan

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. How many different routes did we cover? Did we agree on who's the best out of the Shinsengumi? Enjoy this lively discussion and find out! Featuring: Hilary Andreff, Audra Bowling, Lucy Gray, Niki Fakhoori; Edited by Michael SollosiGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:Hakuoki on RPGFan

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 Fantasy game gets dumped? Do one, two, or zero Lunar games make the cut? Listen and find out! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Alana Hagues, Eva Padilla, Peter Triezenberg, Zach Wilkerson; Edited by Micah CoatesGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancom

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 really) in the latest Retro Encounter! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Alana Hagues, Eva Padilla, Peter Triezenberg, Zach Wilkerson; Edited by Michael SollosiGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancom

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; Edited by Brian IngemansonGet in Touch:RPGFan.comEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomRelated Links:NieR: Replicant on RPGFanNieR: Gestalt on RPGFan