We discuss the Final Fantasy VII Remake, part 1, just in time for the release of part 2! This was a real challenge to talk about because of how complicated the remake's relationship to the original is on so many different levels. We dug into the combat, the narrative expansions, the mix of underlying philosophies of the remake, and some of the thin…

We discuss The Caligula Effect 2, one of the coolest RPGs qua RPG stuff we've played in a good while. Also a game possessed of a fascinating cast of characters that raised all sorts of questions about representation and meaning, which is why it ended up being such a long episode... Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/NotReallyAGenre Join our …

We talked about Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon! We talked mechs, difficulty, the entire intellectual history of the modern western world, 'videogameyness' vs. 'worldiness', how many things can one macguffin be a metaphor for, and more besides. Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/NotReallyAGenre Join our discord: https://discord.gg/veChUcbK…

We take a deep, long look at Vagrant Story! We talked about Yasumi Matsuno and his journey to (and from) Square Enix, auteur theory and its vices, Shakespeare and cultural legitimacy, and plenty more besides. Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/NotReallyAGenre Join our discord: https://discord.gg/veChUcbK3E…

We covered Mega Man Battle Network 2! We talked about genre tropes and shonen anime, the limits of 'turn-based' as a description of combat systems, the history of the internet and digital internationalisation, transpacific racism and the legacy of American empire, and more besides. Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/NotReallyAGenre Join our …

We kick our new show off with a doozy: Xenoblade 3 and all its xenopredecessors! Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/NotReallyAGenre Join our discord: https://discord.gg/veChUcbK3EPor Live Genre Chronicles

We're back with a new podcast, and to celebrate April Fools we recorded a whole extra episode! It's about Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, a Bioware-developed DS game from 2008 (it's actually not, it's mostly about us, our background, and what we do). Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/NotReallyAGenre Join our discord: https://discord…

In this potentially final episode of the podcast, Val (@SylvanFlux) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) discuss the first segment of Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, covering the prologue and the Velen part of Act 1. This episode has a CONTENT WARNING for mentions of violence, suicide, homophobia, sexual assault, the brutalization of women, miscarriage, and abortion. "I …

This is a pretty straightforward episode of rpg criticism, where we discuss Ara Fell by Stegosoft Games. Ultimately the game is pretty typical, even shallow at times. It has a lot of heart and stands out among its contemporaries, but what's that good for? It's also the start of a new year for this podcast, which is exciting. Expect a new level of d…

Join Devon (@SylvanFlux) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) as they traverse the final Witcher game before the legend they sought! This journey isn't over, but The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is! This episode has a CONTENT WARNING for sexual assault! Send us your questions by tweeting us, or via email at witchercast@jrpgsaredead.fyi! Music used, in order: A…

It took a long break, but our Witcher journey isn't over yet! Join Devon (@SylvanFlux) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) in processing the first Witcher game! Send us your questions by tweeting us, or via email at witchercast@jrpgsaredead.fyi! Music used, in order: Alexander James Adams - Wild Hunt Yoshino Yuuji - Wakaki Nendaiki Sakka…

This was always bound to happen! Join us for the final episode of Dead Genre Chronicles, where we discuss Final Fantasy XIII, the Death of the JRPG incarnate, and all around unfairly maligned game. All it takes is a little change of paradigm to understand its quality! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy. Thanks to them for…

This is the wrap-up and anniversary episode for Dead Genre Chronicles! After the next game, Final Fantasy XIII, the podcast will be done! We discuss the reasons why in this episode. We mention the Discord, which can be found here: https://discord.gg/0mBAd1LyCyJFNLUx The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.…

The DGC crew searches for the Reason behind the chaos as we trudge through Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, an Atlus RPG with a twofold reputation for its difficulty and its philosophizing. The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

The DGC crew tackles Radiant Historia, an Atlus RPG focused on the exploits of Stocke, a man who is granted the ability to travel through his personal history in order to fix mistakes and, eventually, right the world's course. We're also joined by Ted (@teioh) on this episode! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.…

The Witcher book series comes to a close on this episode. Join Devon (@invisifool) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) in accepting their mistake, and learn how this trainwreck of a saga ends. This episode has a general CONTENT WARNING for ongoing Witcher edginess. Send us your questions by tweeting us, or via email at witchercast@jrpgsaredead.fyi! Music used,…

The crew returns from a brief technical-difficulty-induced hiatus to talk about Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the briefest episode yet! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

The cast that comes out whenever decided that whenever is today. Standstill Girl is a very realized, curated, put-together tragedy... which maybe made it harder to talk about than what we've covered so far! Enjoy a lot of waffling and strained discussion and maybe some good points and maybe some other kinds of points. Content warning: Standstill Gi…

Listen in as we discuss Exist Archive, a tri-Ace game burdened with being the spiritual successor to Valkyrie Profile! Marvel as we tear it apart! Discover who calls Yamatoga "daddy" first! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

Our prophesied journey through the Witcher novel saga reaches its penultimate stage as we discuss The Tower of the Swallow(s), a book about a tower named after either one or two birds! Devon (@invisifool) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) discuss... a lot of things, as this book contains Plot! So much Plot. This episode has a general CONTENT WARNING for gene…

This month, we handle discussing Shadow Hearts, a rather stupid game that has its heart in the right place. And given that the monster designs include organs in the very wrong place, that's a feat! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

Ah, we're back. Somehow, in some way! In round 2, we're talking about a rpgmaker game that inspired John as a kiddo, which led to a candid discussion on dorky games, dev communities, and what any of this is for anyway. Music used, from slime&co itself Some Chrono Trigger Song in Midi Some Castlevania Song in Midi…

In this very subtly named episode of Dead Genre Chronicles, we discuss Treasure of the Rudras (Rudra no Hihou), a Squaresoft RPG for the SNES that was never released in the west until a fan-translation made it available! It's on our Don't Play list! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.…

Our journey through the Witcher saga carries on, through Baptism of Fire, the third novel. Join Devon (@invisifool) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) for the discussion of Geralt's misadventures through a warzone! This episode has a general CONTENT WARNING for general edginess and a specific one for a mention of miscarriage and abortion. Send us your questio…

Join us in our most brief episode yet to discuss an equally brief tactical RPG by a now-defunct studio! Luminous Arc is something you can probably pass on. Note: somehow we didn't touch on how basically every enemy NPC pulls from really weird tables for their random names, and Sprunt was definitely a human unit's name. Who would subject their child…

Our journey through the Witcher series continues with the second novel, Time of Contempt! Devon (@invisifool) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) carry on through technological difficulty to bring you this discussion of the first substantial entry in the saga! This episode has a CONTENT WARNING for mentions of suicide and sexual assault. Send us your questions…

Toss another one in the "Don't Actually Play" pile, folks; on this episode, we discuss the generally unfortunate Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

In tracing the Witcher series' lineage through the first novel, Devon (@invisifool) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) discover little of substance to discuss at length! This episode is short and not terribly negative in comparison to the first; the first novel seems to be setting up for the rest of the saga, and as such, is a bit less interesting, but has fe…

A human, a mutant, a monster, and a robot walk into a bar; it's time to chat about SaGa 1 & 2! These two old Game Boy games, known to most folks in the west as Final Fantasy Legend 1 & 2, make for a short but dense episode! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

The Witcher is now a well-known RPG series in the west, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt being lauded as the newest and highest bar for all other RPGs to compete with. But Geralt of Rivia began, as many legends do, with something much simpler. Join Devon (@invisifool) and Sam (@SamuelHowitt) as they work their way through the series, from the short st…

The first episode of a new Dead Genre Chronicles series covering independent and underground RPGs, hereto known as World Revolution! World Revolution is LeeRoy Lewin (as always at @wasnotwhynot) and, in their debut, John Thyer (@farawaythyer). This month we're talking about Middens, something of a cult-infamous surreal rpgmaker game. It's easy to t…

This month, we played a pair of games from the early GameBoy Advance library, Golden Sun and its sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age! They were fundamental to my (Devon's) development as a player of JRPGs, and they led to an interesting discussion! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.…

In the now-established tradition of anniversary episodes, this anniversary also saw us record for double our normal time! As such, we've split it in two; this is the second half, on our game of the month, The Legend of Dragoon! The first half of this episode can be found here. The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.…

In the now-established tradition of anniversary episodes, this anniversary also saw us record for double our normal time! As such, we've split it in two, and this first segment, focused on reflecting on our last year, is its own episode for ease of consumption. The second half of this episode can be found here. The music tracks used have been commi…

We ended our first year with a formative game for one of our hosts, so we repeated that for the end of our second year! Final Fantasy XII is the reason Becky's interested in the genre, and it's the topic of this episode! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

We played Final Fantasy V as part of the Four-Job Fiesta for this episode of the podcast! A short but sweet episode follows! The Fiesta runs until the end of August if you want to try it for yourself: fourjobfiesta.com The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

In this episode, we take on the finals for Year 2 of Dead Genre Chronicles, in the form of Rogue Galaxy! While our intro suggests we invite you to join us in playing games, we all advise against it for this game! The next few episodes are the show's summer vacation of a sort, so definitely join us in playing some less wild-card games in the near fu…

The eponymous skies of Arcadia open up our sky pirate double-header! What lies beyond the skies? Not much, it turns out! We end up not recommending this game to anyone except extremely specifically SEGA JRPG nerds, who probably don't need our recommendation, so don't worry much about spoilers! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy…

From the depths of our soul, a new episode of Dead Genre Chronicles appears! Listen as we discuss the first game with the Persona name! The music tracks used at the start and end have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy; the intermission is "Battle - Tesso" from the Persona OST.

In this episode, we're joined by Robert (@bloodyhoney_) to discuss Earthbound, a quirky and beloved SNES game with quite an impact! You guys can't envision the final collapse of genre? Incredible! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

[Severe spoiler warning for Tales of Berseria.] The Takes of series of minisodes returns with opinions on the latest entry in the Tales franchise, Tales of Berseria! Alongside Becky and myself, our guest Coleen (@MadameColeen) joins us to chat about this very good game! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.…

It's here! People paid for us to cover a Pokemon game for the podcast, and this is what came out. Listen to us discuss the most popular JRPG franchise. The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

With this episode, we close out 2016 by talking about Suikoden 2. I'm gonna level with you: we didn't like it, and we spend two solid hours talking about why. Please do not worry about spoilers; the game is 18 years old, quite basic, kinda bad, and also we don't talk about any of the plot points in order so if you're stubborn and/or don't believe u…

We took some time to revisit a question we got in November of last year with another year of dense genre experience under our belts just in time for the holidays! Your assignment is to play some dang video games! The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

This episode of Dead Genre Chronicles is about a gen-7 game that you might own, probably haven't beaten, and really don't need to. Take it from us: The Last Remnant should remain dormant to the last. The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

In this episode of Dead Genre Chronicles, we cut straight to the core of our mission as we engage with Dragon Quest V as part of our own quest to record and interpret the history of JRPGs. The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch suffers the wrath of the DGC hosts as we take one of the most reputable seventh-generation JRPGs to task. The music tracks used have been commissioned from Fuzzy Proxy.

It's the first anniversary of Dead Genre Chronicles, and in celebrating that fact, we recorded nearly four hours worth of podcast! Due to the unwieldy length, this episode has been split into two smaller ones. This second segment is all about our game for the month, Nier! The first half can be found here. The music tracks used have been commissione…

It's the first anniversary of Dead Genre Chronicles, and in celebrating that fact, we recorded nearly four hours worth of podcast! Due to the unwieldy length, this episode has been split into two smaller ones. This first segment is entirely about reminiscing about the past year of podcasting. The second half can be found here. The music tracks used…

In this episode, we tackle Leeroy's CT, Breath of Fire 2, and end our first year of podcasting pleased by the results! The music tracks used were, in order: Yuko Takehara - Critical Moment Yuko Takehara - Memories