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.
This guy knows what time it is, if you know what I mean. If you get what I’m saying, we’re rescuing Fitcher from the townies, inciting violence to prevent worse violence, feeling the pull of destiny on Nina’s love of Flik, hearing a skittering…
I’m thinking about what to drink tonight. While we pretend to be students, we’re making up aliases, desiring more flying squirrel friends, aspiring to own a warm hearth, perverting thine eyes, tee-hee’ing with Jeane, fantasizing about taking…
For us, the forest and village are one. As that unification increases our power, we’re mistaking Elza’s identity, looking to get stronger by beating ass, busting up a puzzle, recruiting another gardener, accusing Tony of being a dirt fetishist,…
I AM NOT A TOOL FOR FIGHTING. After a four month break, we’re strategically firing Fitcher, buying fried tacos in bulk, becoming toasty, fantasizing about a sauna, installing a kitchen, measuring bird weather, losing a foot race because we didn’t…
Your lies won’t save you this time. In search of salvation, we’re meeting a buff dogman, allowing Fitcher to get his ass whipped, brandishing the Bright Shield Rune, meeting the plenipotentiary, forgetting to eat dinner, considering the plight of…
The bigger you get, the stronger you’ll be. As we widen, we’re meeting men of the sea, getting a reference, keeping the children toasty, using a Gameshark to time travel, recruiting a well-informed old lady, getting robbed by a flying child,…
I ain’t got too much brains but I always been stronger ‘n piss. During our recruiting drive, we’re lying to Fitcher about everything, observing moving NPC’s, leaving our husband to run storage, leaving our wife to go fight, manifesting a boat,…
If you don’t trust me, perhaps you should leave. While you stay, we’re discovering that relaxation time is heart softening time, killing three horses for no reason, conscripting the elderly and the children, seeing potential in Freed Y, burning…
Good morning. After we get out of bed, we’re entering a rich guy’s house, finding out he’s the worst kind of capitalist, failing to recruit him anyway, prostrating ourselves in front of him, finding a hard-boiled noir detective in the water…
I know that once a person is dead, they’re gone forever. Before we go, we’re challenging Suikoden II’s treatment of Suikoden, embracing a child rune, pushing baphomet, denying the dirty vampire’s tricks with violence, clicking a sword,…