Retrograde Amnesia: Comprehensive JRPG Retrospective

Salutations! In our latest installment, we explore the expansive accommodations of the Yggdrasil, muse over whether or not Bart has actual respect or ironic respect, suspect Old Mason made an unwise investment in higher education, and receive another heaving heaping helping of lore from Mason and Citan. And then, our first boss gauntlet against Gebler's finest knuckleheads. This podcast is brought to you by —Drive—®. —Drive—Life Is Pain. Drink It Up® 00:24 - Intro / PlayStation 2's improvement of

Greetings! The wrasslin’ boys Fei and Bart have fallen Gear-first into a dank cave system. We discuss the contextually appropriate but questionably alive organisms down there before we run into your classic old-sage-in-a-cave, Balthazar. This prompts a dive into the influence of gnostic Christian texts, speculation on the creation myth metaphor, Xenogears' internal god-tier systems, and the tight grip on the pen that writes history. A man made god? Created with the wisdom of a god? Such a Gear would

Hi. Before spending an entire episode on Xenogears' Desert Attack chapter, we inventory the accumulation of foreshadowing and its primary distribution method, Citan Uzuki. We go on to debate the logistical fallacies of Grahf's costume, spin our propeller-hats at Citan's conversation with "Emperor," and meet a surely band of sand pirates. We must find god's resting place and resurrect him. That is our final prayer. 00:22 - Intro 00:55 - On the prodigious amount of foreshadowing from Tetsuya Takahashi

Hello! After a brief spell of hot-blooded desert carnage, Fei and Citan make their way to the artifact-hunting boom town of Dazil. We discuss the ethics of the Ethos organization, Citan's not very subtle manipulation of Fei, and the pointless but delightful omnipresence of Big Joe. Fei also has one hell of the time in the Aveh desert. Your hot-blooded desire for battle has not been tamed. Your basic nature is unchanged. It's great for us but not great for Fei. 00:21 - Introduction - Exit Blackmoon

Hello! Episode three consists entirely of rich narrative content experienced in Blackmoon Forest. We meet Elehayym Van Houten, a forest elf, a large boulder, and the Rankar Dragon. The trio of Fei, Elly, and Citan engage in self-doubt and determination around two (2) campfire sequences. A youthful reliance on Citan has, in our adult brains, transformed into supreme distrust. Does one really need the power to destroy everything? Could power possibly not corrupt a human soul, just this once? 00:23 -

Hello! For our second episode, we're coming to terms with the PlayStation's size limit for polygonal levels, discussing Citan's precarious position as a father figure and puppeteer, going over battle system basics, and cherishing the emotional necessity of Mitsuda's "Knight of Fire." Remember: if you're a kid who falls into the cockpit of a giant robot and you're going through some emotional mental trauma, you're going to have a bad time inside of this robot...but you're also going to unlock the

In the first proper episode of Retrograde Amnesia, we frame the anime introduction in the context of the time it was made and Xenogears' overarching narrative. We go on to debate the necessity and the rationale for an additional three layer-prologue before some discussion on Lahan Village and its freakish populace. We also talk the importance of portrait-characters, the deliciousness of technobabble, small-town sleeparounds, and that son of a bitch Dan. Episode One covers the prologue through Fei's

In the pilot episode of Retrograde Amnesia, a podcast series covering Xenogears in exhaustive detail, we contextualize Xenogears in the professional (and our personal) climate of 1998. We clarify why we've decided to make this comprehensive podcast series, whether we expect Xenogears' themes and ideas to stand the test of time, and how to best play Xenogears with modern hardware. Episode Zero lets you decide whether this project is either a rationalization or an explanation of our devastating