Retrograde Amnesia is a deep-dive video game podcast dedicated to exploring classic Japanese Role-playing Games (JRPGs), chapter by chapter, beat by beat. The show blends structured narrative analysis, humor, and immersive production to guide listeners through the worlds, characters, and themes of the genre’s most beloved and strange stories.
Praised for its thoughtful pacing, encyclopedic research, and a blend of sincerity and irreverence, Retrograde Amnesia offers a cozy look back for players who want to engage more deeply with their favorite games within the medium. Play along with the hosts or reminisce your enduring thoughts as we trek through the stories we grew up with.
Each season covers a single game in exhaustive detail, using a a meticulous scene-by-scene format to reexamine every moment. Whether it’s dissecting the political intricacies of Final Fantasy Tactics, or unraveling the existential dread of Xenogears, the show approaches every game with a balance of critical insight and deep appreciation for the medium.
Listeners have described the show as:
“One of the best out there”
“If you love retrospective type podcast this is one of the best out there. They pick great games and take their time going through them. Just the perfect type of podcast for me. It’s like getting to live through these games from my childhood again without having to play all the way through them. Great job guys, I hope there are many more episodes to come.”
— SIumlord, May 27, 2024“What a gem”
“Discovered these guys when I was searching up stuff on Xenosaga, and saw a back catalog of amazing games. Started with [Final Fantasy VIII] and am about to do the next season. Chris and Eric are hilarious, insightful, and worth your time to listen to. Also Fakenet will you marry me.”
— laser canon death sentance, January 23, 2024“Witty, smart, and highly detailed”
“Chris and Eric rock. They play off each other super well, it’s like hanging out with a couple guys with a bottle of whiskey and even though you never have a chance to get a word in, you don’t really want to. Thoughtful and interesting with hilarious in jokes they are more than happy to bring you in on.”
— alinktreetothepast, October 19, 2023
Since 2019, Retrograde Amnesia has been a destination for thoughtful JRPG fans seeking to reckon with the games they grew up loving — while learning to love the ones they missed.
Retrograde Amnesia is hosted by Eric and Chris — two old pals who have been thinking about JRPGs for multiple decades.
I am disgraced yet again. Season seven continues with us listening to a death rattle, making sure the Ocarina is in Alex’s pocket, assigning jealousy as a motive, dumbing ourselves down for women, desecrating her sanctum, fighting for the ones we…
Do we care about the fate of the world? Hell no. We’re only concerned with exploring the wasteland of the mind, imbibing the sweet nectar of the woman kind, conquering our greatest fears (again), escaping the maze of our wretched inner-selves,…
Even if you wanted to make this a twist, there’s nowhere to twist. Before we twist it off, we’re revealing the secret true identity of Laike, speaking of plot elements specifically, giving it a yank, turning into a dragon, realizing the Grindery…
Nothing can justify what he has done. Nothing except us reacting incorrectly, marrying a child, debating Ghaleon’s power, exhibiting egregious Mega Man 4 opinions, decoding sunscreen, obeying out of fear and not respect, rescuing a puppy, giving up…
Hey kids, weird day, huh? Days like this include human men delivering victory lines, jerking off after the massage, hacking through romance with a machete, losing the cut-scene, ditching the Vader outer wear, failing to keep up with the lore, forming…
Has anyone told you that you’re gorgeous? It’s true, as obvious as when we’re rolling a turd, suffering a pincer attack, wishing there were anime in an anime moment, yanking off nipples, adapting dragon technology, vowing to stop a cretin,…
What kind of hero are you if you can’t protect my balloons? Apparently the kind that likes suppressing emotion, drunken-smacking monsters, witnessing a death plunge, wondering where home is, making wings out of fluffy bugs, committing a modern hate…
This is not the time to get freaky. Ears can’t even do that, but they can hear us resting in a slumber of our design, witnessing a world history event, birthing the Grindery, thinking of the Death Star workers, combining steam with magic, yearning…
This is not a place of contention. It’s a place of listening, and learning while we’re removing the lesbians, damseling workers, assuring the quality of our plumbing, destroying a different black dragon, growing dirt guys, talking to eggs, waiting…
What’s up pixel perverts? Today we’re blighting the surface for undesirables, rapidly switching discs, realizing the guards can hit, scraping metal out of the dirt, locating the only doctor in the world, experiencing goblin poetry, refusing to…