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.
Mayhap your ears not fail you. For, if they do, you wouldn’t hear us telling the same stories, loving our brave lads, creating a time paradox, seeking justice for a waylaid marquis, hunting down a whoreson, shitting into Argath’s mouth, being…
Honest work would see us die old in bed. Instead of that, we’re flashing to a different back, hearing of the Corpse Brigade Death Corps, teaming up with the cops to murder homeless veterans, randomly generating soldiers, getting on the roof,…
Join me in my search to uncover the answer. This quest for truth includes actions like turning our consoles on, engraving vanishing memories, attracting mode, skipping a tutorial, defeating the war, yearning to be known as a blaspheming anarchist,…
Hello! And welcome to the sixth season of Retrograde Amnesia, where we’re covering the original release of Final Fantasy Tactics and The War of the Lions. In the opening, information-loaded episode, we’re determining who is playing which version,…
Kindness is something I don’t want or need. In the final episode for season five, we’re doing all this for Rubedo’s sake, simultaneously blaming Rubedo for everyone’s sake, installing Sonic Adventure’s Chaos as the final boss, tormenting for…
I’d accompany you to the very depths of hell. That task includes making sure we have company approval, wondering if Junior or KOSMOS is a bigger liability, god blessing the dungeon music, shifting bridges to solve a puzzle, celebrating the voiceless…
You know what awaits you if you are defeated in a gunfight, boy? Consequences include detailing the Dumb Virtual On, coming to terms with CCG’s, checking in with some folks one last time, nabbing the final robot part, drinking to cope, realizing…
We were made to discover the true form of the universe. You were made to discover us asking masked men relevant questions, amnesia’ing away Virgil, realizing Junior has failed, summoning even more fucked up shit out of space, going way off villain…
Don’t be vague in the Y data. Join as as we’re crystal clear about slicing the head off our statue throne, suffering a Momo asset swap, receiving a cheese massage, longing for reality, reconsidering Nietzsche as a “little bitch,” inserting…
Our second episode of Infinite Perfect finds the intersection between the bizarro world of film negatives and the fantasy zone of Space Harrier. It’s the same place at the same time, and one cannot exist without the other. Ride the cycloptic mammoth…