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.
We have somehow earned this thing’s respect. You have somehow earned Episode 005, where we’re touching on some healing stones, washing out a bridge, traversing across the battlefield, grunting at the sight of a human, appreciating bitmap…
We know you’re sick with worry, but worry not, because this time we’re CAPITALIZING SELECT DIALOGUE, erecting a monument, putting up with a bean brain, choking the chicken, identifying pigs, failing to speak pig latin, refusing to understand what…
I am not embarrassed to be anime. Neither is Lunar, as we’re wondering when Chrono Trigger will cease its powers of inspiration, defying fantasy/anime archetypes, reading the strategy guide promo, marveling at the Sega CD vocal intro, swerving into…
We’re still talking about the Lunar before we play it. You know what that means: we’re altering game code for the reality of commerce, smoking turds like a coward, slandering Shannen Doherty, dubbing in dubious farts, artificially adjusting the…
Hello and welcome to season 7! We’re covering Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, which entails going over which version(s) of Lunar’s Silver Star Story we’re playing, outlining every Lunar that exists, figuring out how many dollars games cost,…
To enter Season 6’s final episode is to bid goodbye to the light of day. If you accept, we’re referencing other Final Fantasies games in bullshit missions, letting someone else explore Midlight’s Deep, slaying the hell magician, fighting in fart…
You know nothing, Beowulf. You know we’re inventing additional antagonists for unnecessary sidequests, re-dragoning someone for a kidnapping plot, walking into an obvious trap, treating with steel, literally casting doubt, stealing a lady back from…
Lives and levels, or men and boards? How about pods and casts, featuring us dropping in on perverts, murdering clergy members, slingin’ blood off a sword, remaining lawful, observing an indoor turd river, picking up a book, exposing craven cowards,…
Here’s a souvenir for you on the way to hell. It’s a podcast, one in which we’re appreciating sprite animation, frustrating the high confessor’s plot, working to see queens made for true, pretending to leave the room, rendezvousing with…
What devilry is this? It’s a podcast, once in which we’re wading in rebirth, boasting the brain of a dullard, fighting an old foe who died but didn’t, indulging in gratuity, interrupting pervert preparation, hanging a bag of teeth, refusing to…