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 is punishment for what you did to my body. Through our pain, we’re forgetting Pohl ever existed, formally accepting Flik and Viktor, wondering why Freed has a last initial, repeating Suikoden’s vampire subplot, dragging Pilika along,…
Anyway the wind blows, the dice rolls. Before we blow our roll, we’re profiling Jowy, forcing destiny through chinchirorin, leaving Sheena behind, suppressing Rina’s subplot, questioning the apple trade, waiting for Karen to dance, slinging some…
What do you want? Are you from around here? While you figure that out we’re assigning light and dark to different destinies, meeting secret ninjas in secret places, stopping by to share some wine, complimenting the wine’s bouquet, inventing…
My face is proof of my identity. While you find proof of yours, we’re running up that hilltop, failing facial recognition, belly bumping a lady, suffering surly knights, channeling Elden Ring’s intro narrator, testing the Jowston State Agreement,…
Don’t worry, I’ll show you a good trick. As we debate the merit of how good that trick was, we’re putting on our dead friends’ uniforms, speculating Rowd’s Joke Character potential, accidentally holding a princess hostage, seeking the power,…
Can you shoot, gunner? After we wake in jail, we’re looking older and tougher, observing war’s effect on the citizens of Muse, holding on to a stranger’s contraband, feeling the bullets whiz by our face, becoming infantilized again, realizing…
It’s medicine. Eat it. While we decide what’s most dear about this, we’re being denied entry to Muse, winding up at an inn in the woods, absorbing the ravings of a treasure obsessed husband, helping find treasure to get an entry permit,…
We have looked into your hearts and witnessed your character. As we shift into a new genre, we’re deploying turn-based tactics, lighting people on fire, fighting a war right after we fought a war, slaughtering a spineless worm, exposing a…
I’ve got no time left. And yet we’re admiring shirtless men at work, discovering Joey is an uncle, wondering if knights are cops, staring down the big holiday door, entering the tekken, meeting Pilika and her family, venturing to Muse for an…
It looks like your path to success took a detour. As we find our way, we’re stealing heirloom vases for running-away money, reuniting with Rowd, waking up in jail, appealing to an ineffective princess, failing the prophecy of our final sunset,…