Mage Cast

Let's get back to nature with Matt from Normal Happenings on this Stardew Valley podcast episode, where we talk about our favorite eligible characters, the game's caricatures and stereotypes, marriage, specific games not being for everyone, glamorizing and idealizing real-life work, the relatable premise of this story, actual farming, connection to nature, making big life decisions, simplicity and escapism, why Stardew Valley is addicting, why we keep playing it and the value it offers, Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Farming Simulator, and infamous Farmville, the "X-Factor", the Community Center vs Joja Mart, end game goals, how Stardew improves upon the Harvest Moon formula, the soundtrack and its greatest achievements, seasons, landscapes, pets, and other pleasantries about different ways to play the game. Links: thewellredmage.comPatreon: patreon.com/thewellredmageMerch: teepublic.com/stores/thewellredmage?ref_id=10322Guest: @normalhappeningSupport the show

On this Final Fantasy podcast, @AncientLitDude and I discuss what is arguably the most important game to The Well-Red Mage as a concept. Final Fantasy (One) unfolds its depths to us with talk on job classes, early proto-RPGs and learning to read, the speedrunner and randomizer communities, FF series context and overview, the sticky point of grinding, the development of Final Fantasy and the legendary status of its title, Uematsu's body of work, comparing Uematsu and Mitsuda, the premise and story of the game, role-playing with blank avatars, telling a tale without character development, precedent in classic and ancient text, the Warriors of Light compared to later heroes and heroines in the franchise, silent protagonists, Final Fantasy as both science fiction and high fantasy, the Hero's Journey, the value of myth and beliefs in light of rationality, learning unity without unanimity in civil conversation on controversial subjects, a word on science vs scientism, the ancient idea of 4 elements, battl

It's time to hop in a modded Dolorian back to the golden age of video games and talk about the Atari 2600 and Yars' Revenge. My guest, Atari enthusiast CJ aka CardiacDrop and I discuss 2600 cover art, dispensing with ageism, games that used to come with manuals, comic books, guidebooks, maps, and extras, bringing your own imagination to the game, "few rules and a tremendous play space" in design, the difference between action and adventure, the objective of an endless game, the story of the vengeance of Yars for Razak IV against the infamous Qotile, Howard Scott Warshaw and his Easter Egg, how Yars' Revenge got its name, playing Yars' at launch, the strength of retro games that were forced to design within specific limitations, E.T. infamy, the North American Video Game Crash, the VCS, the fate and future of Atari, the matter of exclusives, and why you should still play 2600 games for yourself.Links: thewellredmage.com/atariage.com/comics/comic_page.php?MagazineID=48&CurrentP

Time to discuss the science of scary with my guest Mike from The Controller Throwers and the game Another World. We break down this title as horror and look at the premise of the unfortunate tale of Lester Knight Chaykin, not being an action hero, development by Eric Chahi and old indies, why the name was changed to "Out of this World", the science of cover art design, Mike finding his long lost cart after decades, why some love the game and why some hate it, the many ways to die and death animations, similar contemporary games, rotoscoping, Max Fleischer and Don Bluth, lacking gaminess, early cinematic and atmospheric storytelling, the question of a boundary between film and game, exposition vs pacing a narrative, re-releases, Heart of the Alien and Heart of Darkness, the idea of needing sequels, influential games and what Another World has inspired, experiencing as playing vs watching, oversaturation, and the definition of a classic.Links: medium.com/@thaisweiller/games-are-not-art-9a7e540e4bf1twi

Sing with us the bittersweet Symphony of the Night on this Castlevania episode starring SanityCrypto and Aros Elric. We discuss video game voice acting, both then and now, voice actors and union rights, character impressions, 2D platforming in the 3D era, enjoying the criticism of the things we enjoy, blemishes and flaws giving things beauty, memes and their purpose, familiarity vs popularity and intrinsic quality, the soundtrack and classical music, religious imagery and architecture, putting the -vania in Metroidvania, playing as Alucard, literature and classic art, our favorite bosses, Symphony's new artwork style, Bloodstained and modern Metroidvanias, monsters from other mythologies, the Inverted Castle, our favorite Castlevania games, the Netflix Castlevania series and issues with television entertainment, and our favorite chairs (???).Links: teepublic.com/stores/thewellredmage?ref_id=10322extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.team&teamID=45204thecoinboys.com/twitter.com/theWellRedMage

It's time to put the Slipstream Mage in the driver's seat and talk about Forza Horizon 4! We're discussing juggling multiple games and forgetting where you've left off, how to pronounce "Forza" and what the word means in Italian, the TWRM GOTY Forza vs Journey controversy, the appeal of racing games, immersion, the sense of speed, and wish fulfillment, the importance of finely tuned mechanics, controls, and physics for racing game quality, the question of transferrable skills between real driving and game driving, differences between the Forza Horizon games and their settings, the open-world racing game structure, arcade and simulation gameplay, comparing Forza Horizon with other racing franchises, mixing Forza and Crazy Taxi, what Forza could learn from its peers, innovation and the future of the franchise, multiplayer woes, skill-based rankings, a sportsmanship grade, the Regalia and flying cars, and why you should try Forza for yourself: spoilers, it's about freedom.Links

The eyes of Ganon are everywhere and we're going to talk about The Adventure of Link anyway! Featuring Ryan from Gameswithcoffee and Katy aka Absolutekaty, we talk about bragging rights and the first time we played Zelda II, and how that affected our perspective on the game, no shame and save states, why Zelda II is Ryan and Katy's favorite, the enjoyable action of the combat, the most unique traits in the game and what caught on in the rest of the series, some tawdry tart, the Peter Pan origins of Dark Link, the worst Zelda (by popular vote), a word for people wanting to play Zelda II for the first time, fair and unfair game design, Zelda II's difficulty difference from other NES hard games, patience and RPG elements, fan expectations and criticism, The Battle of Olympus and Faxanadu, what we would fix in Zelda II, and the abuse of the term "black sheep".Website: thewellredmage.com/2019/09/07/zelda-ii-the-adventure-of-link-1987-nes/Patreon: patreon.com/thewellredmageGuests: @Absolute

The epic conclusion of our Chrono mini-series is finally here, featuring Gareth from 16-Bit Dad Blog and a discussion on Chrono Cross, which is NOT a sequel to Chrono Trigger (according to its developers). Together, we unpack such ideas as how to set yourself up for disappointment in a follow-up game, comparisons with Trigger and the effects of meddling with the timeline, the handling of time and dimensions, eras and worlds, a new layer of strategy and tactics required to master this battle system, what happened to the cast of the previous game, the unresolved but retconned tale of Magus/Guile, tendencies toward backloading and frontloading exposition, Cross's handling and dismissal of central themes and message, less straightforward storytelling and tonal shifts, differences in development between Trigger and Cross, the pros and cons of such a large cast of recruitable characters, our favorite characters and settings, elements and summons, and a word on the difference between preference and intrinsic qu

The 3rd and final episode in our Chrono Trigger podcast trilogy features Chris the Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage, and this time around we discuss the announcement of the new Philosophiraga show, the beauty of convenience for the consumer, playing Chrono Trigger on mobile iOS, Chris finishing the game for the first time just recently. First impressions, expectations, and recent overall thoughts combat dismissing opinions on the basis of nostalgia, plus talk on gaming as a newer form of entertainment and what that means for discourse about it, the phrase "it hasn't aged well", developing a standard of criticism and discussion for gaming, how to avoid disregarding groups and start looking at people individually, the theme of consequences to your actions in time travel, the importance of ideals over substance in this story, postulating why the Entity can't be the player, the equality of significance between visuals AND mechanics, the utility of graphics and sparing use of 3D elements, t

Our 2nd Chrono Trigger episode commences with Ryan from RetroGameBrews! It's time to talk storyline, the balanced seamlessness of Chrono Trigger and the lack of "the grind", the importance of player choice, rehashing the premise of the game, what we would do if we discovered an apocalyptic alien, primeval Twitch, if Chrono Trigger is really the GOAT, the most emotional scenes for us, time travel as both a story theme and a gameplay mechanic, the value of the NPC, the Chrono series as a whole, a word on Radical Dreamers and the beautiful world of Chrono Cross, the broken dreams of Chrono Resurrection and Chrono Break, the question of another Chrono game and whether we even want to see a sequel or remaster/remake, character etymology and making sense of their elemental affinities, the Entity mystery, why video games open with sleeping characters, schools of thought on what evil is, the sundry endings and New Game Plus.Website: thewellredmage.com/2017/11/17/chrono-trigger/Patreon: patreon.com/thew

It is time to talk about the best: Chrono Trigger, in this first episode in a CT trilogy! The ABXY Mage I and discuss the re-launch of Side Quests podcast and a new focus on video game music, the happenin' 1990s, questioning if accurate criticism is possible near launch, my first mancave, "Just let me get to the first save point!", what Chrono Trigger IS and what makes it so special, "time" as a theme in both narrative and game design, multiple endings, the necessity for stories to breathe, seamlessness and polish, the Dream Team, the unprecedented length of tracks in this soundtrack, our favorite music from Chrono Trigger, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda's experience composing his first soundtrack, his list of works, his failing health, the mystery of "the Entity", music inspired by dreams, the scope of the soundtrack with its various time period themes, Gato karaoke, the Guardia justice system, singing along with the soundtrack, and of course, the matter of objective

Zdrastvooyte! In this episode, I'm focusing on NES Tetris with streamer and competition host Retro Game Brews aka the Beer Mage and Tetris champion Mega Retro Man asking what Tetris is, describing Tetris in one word, the puzzle that changes with your skill level, the comforting, relaxing nature of fitting the tetrominoes together, why Tetris isn't an anachronism by now and what makes the game so appealing, the dopamine response and addiction to its gameplay, the pure balance of challenge with simplicity, kinder game design in modern Tetris, wading into the cultural discussion of games being too hard with the idea of practice, the hardest thing about playing Tetris (according to a pro competitor), DAS and the kill screen, having to think on your feet, the fascinating history of Tetris, the rare Tengen Tetris cart, comparing some different versions and how to ruin Tetris, tackling the question of whether Tetris is the perfect game or not, irreducible complexity, the World Championships, visiting the S

This episode we dive headfirst into the horrors of a cult classic: Shadow Hearts, discussing how to win a game of hangman, our take on Lovecraft's works and Lovecraftian themes present in Shadow Hearts, purple prose and classic literature, anti-anthropocentrism and cosmic horror, the technical word for fear of dolls (never use it, please), what the greatest scene in video game history is (hint: it involves a train), voice acting performances and how to measure their quality, actors treating their lines like they're in toy commercials, the distinction between loving something for what it is and critiquing a performance, good vs bad dialogue, the unique difficulties which translation presents in attempting to preserve original intent, the context of horror RPGs, favorite characters and their motivations, the harmony of ideas in the Shadow Hearts soundtrack plus Yasunori Mitsuda (!), sensible nostalgia for the 90s and what that decade accomplished in games vs crappy things that can be abolished to hist

It's time to get dark and gritty talking about DC Universe Online with fellow DC Comics fan, the Black Humor Mage!In this episode we'll discuss the game that I played at the cusp of fatherhood, the superpowers of the game, swearing off MMOs, turning the Skype camera on accidentally when you have no clothes on, what to do when your wife becomes a pregnant narcoleptic, the endless pastime of the endless grind, video games as a former addiction and the bottomless pit of character creation, great voice acting and crap voice acting (plus impressions, unfortunately!), resisting guild tyranny, saving evidence on your phone, thoughts on a sequel, voice actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, dealing with roleplayers, Prof. Zoom and the worst person I've ever met online. Also, a bonus question at the end!Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/03/05/dc-universe-online/Patreon: https://patreon.com/thewellredmageGuest: @blackhumormageSupport the show

I got to chat with my dad, the 16-bit one (@16bitdadblog), about Parasite Eve! We get into the differences in horror between the West and East and how Parasite Eve blends the two, how the story connects to the incident in Japan in the novel, and where the film, manga, and sequels figure in, theorizing why the game never came to Europe, combining survival and RPG elements, the weapons upgrading system and how to blow your hands off with a rocket-launcher-handgun, horrible, horrible body horror and John Carpenter's The Thing, mitochondria and real science, thoughts on remakes and remasters, the importance of preserving tonality, what Madonna has to do with this game, and the chances of P.E. popping up at E3. It's "ekshepshtional".Website: https://thewellredmage.com/Guest: @16bitdadblogSupport the show

For our 20th episode special, we the mages are here to share 17 original poems of all shapes and sizes and styles, each one based on a single game of our choice from the 1000 Games list! The 1000 Games collab may be over now, but there's no reason we can't keep milking it. Enjoy this chill Mage Cast entry, a pantheon of poets for your peaceful perusal. Let us know which one was your favorite!Guests:The ABXY Mage - EarthBound (@ABXY_Reviews)The Purple Prose Mage - Driver (@AlexSigsworth)The Thunder Mage - Super Metroid (@BillTuckerTSP)The Arcade Mage - Ms. Pac-Man (@TheArcadeCastle)The Badly Backlogged Mage - Pong (@MrBacklog)The Hyperactive Coffee Mage - Persona 3 Portable (@GameswCoffee)The Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage - Shadow of the Colossus (@overthinkery1)The Mail Order Ninja Mage - Breath of the Wild (@mailorderninja)The New Age Retro Mage - Mega Man 2 (@chrisbg99)The Slipstream Mage - Titanfall 2 (@JTorto40)The Valiant Vision Mage - Xenoblade Chronicles (@Lodestar_Valor)The Regional E

SPOILERS, y'all. The last of the PlayStation One Final Fantasy games, I sat down to talk Final Fantasy IX with my own real laifu waifu! There are two kinds of people in this world: Vivi and Kuja. Hear us discuss this game's major themes, its placement in the context of the PS1 numerical trilogy, its wonderful treatment of miniature stories for its non-playable characters, our favorite musical tracks, the in-game places where we'd most want to live, the notorious evil that was PlayOnline.com, making sense of Necron, the brevity of life, passing on your memories, how to make living life valuable, death as a natural part of life, you could say this podcast is about... the melodies of life.Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/09/07/final-fantasy-ix/Patreon: https://patreon.com/thewellredmageGuest: https://twitter.com/OutMageSupport the show

We're looking toward the Horizon for a new Dawn with Zero regrets! Episode "Clever Girl" wrestles with options and an over-abundance of choice, conceptual science fiction and mystery driving a story, Asimov's Foundation novels, the difficulty of maintaining narrative pace in open-world games full of side quests, meaningless vs meaningful missions, other PS4 exclusives and ranking Horizon Zero Dawn, inventory management *yawn* and how to minimize it, whether games will get too big or not, unitaskers vs multitaskers in in-game tools, that sweet weasel meat, Aloy as other than a player avatar, feminism and the matriarchs, if Aloy is a Mary Sue and her development through the game, ideas and wishes for a sequel, ways to ramp up the tension when wandering the wilds, smashing together HZD and BotW into a single game, machine designs, and why Ted Faro is a jerk.Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2018/09/05/horizon-zero-dawn-complete-edition/Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmageGuests: https://

I can show you a Super Mario World, shining, shimmering, splendid. In this detour into Dinosaur Land, featuring the inscrutable ABXY Mage and the ineffable Blue Moon Mage, we dig deep into this SNES launch title, its official story out of the original instruction booklet, our first time playing the game, challenge and incentivization, the benefits of competition in the industry (the Console Wars), whether Super Mario is really for children or not, why Mario is so enduring and the history of the character as the history of video games, the consistency of Mario's tonality, the underestimated significance of fun-factor, if Mario risks becoming an anachronism, the issue of timelessness and the question of immutable properties in games, methods to investigate game quality while circumnavigating nostalgia, innovations in Super Mario World, the origins of the names of the Koopalings, Tanuki anatomy, and all the best secrets!Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/03/31/super-mario-world/Patreon: www.patreon.co

Pizza time! Hey, dudes, check out to our biggest episode ever in terms of guest presence, featuring the Beer Mage, the ABXY Mage, and the Hyperactive Coffee Mage. Listen as we chat about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time and go on about psychoanalyzing Twitter, which of us is Leo, Don, Raph, and dying on the hill of Michelangelo, the game's pros and cons, its expression of the differences between the turtles, how to get the most points for a high score, our favorite villains and time periods, voice acting in the original 1987 cartoon (Liquid Snake?!), nostalgia-talk about the 80's, what kind of game we would make if we could create our own TMNT game, finally laying the Turtle Van to rest, Teenage Mutant "Hero" Turtles, and asking how much a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle weighs.Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/09/24/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-iv-turtles-in-time/Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmageGuests: https://twitter.com/Retrogamebrewshttps://twitter.com/GameswC