Rpg Fan's Random Encounter

It's the most wonderful time of the year! We've got our special Pre-E3 show and lots to talk about. What are we most excited about? What's going to happen with the new consoles? Do we have any crazy predictions that we'll laugh about later? Tune in and find out! Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

We decided to take a break from the usual new release talk and focus on something everybody loves in RPGs: character progression! Of course, we have to talk about the XBox One reveal (now forever known as the X-Bone). Finally, we have an interview with some of the wonderful folks at Aksys who localize some of your favorite games! Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Special Guests: Karen McOscar, Ben Bateman, Editors for Aksys Games Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Let the hate flow through you. Rob's got LOTS to say about Dragon's Dogma, but we accentuate the positive first when John talks about Dead Island Riptide. After Rob's meds kick in, Derek discusses Pandora's Tower and then we finish things off with a bit of news. Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

We're fighting through the allergy season to get you the latest information on RPGs. We've got Soul Hackers, Soul Sacrifice and Dark Souls II to talk about (probably should have renamed the podcast, now that we think about it), and then some news which includes a huge amount of Nintendo Direct announcements and a bit of speculation on next-gen consoles. Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Spoiler Warning! And now for something completely different. The podcast crew decided it was time to take a long hard look at narrative in RPGs and video games as a whole. We pretty much get lost talking about the importance of player choice, strong character interactions, and the interactive nature of the art form. There are some spoilers here and there, but we do our best to bring up the game beforehand so you can skip ahead as needed. Derek brings it home with news, including some pretty disappointing financials from Square-Enix. Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen, Kyle E. Miller, Dave Yeager Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

We've got a weird one for y'all this week. With John catching a case of the Solid Snake Gravely Voice, the podcast ends of hijacked with tons of side topics and seemingly random discussions. Thankfully, there's some new releases to talk about with Etrian Odyssey IV and Atelier Ayesha. We've also got a little preview of another potential retro episode, so be sure to let us know what you think! Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Y'all wanted more retro episodes, so we put together a brief discussion of System Shock 2 and its impact on the gaming world since its release nearly fourteen years ago. After that, you know we just have to talk about the big Playstation 4 announcement last week, and we've certainly got some rather divisive opinions among the group. Featuring: Robert Steinman, John, McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen, Kyle E. Miller Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

We're down one party member this week, but fear not, listeners! We've got some final thoughts on Ni no Kuni, some serious love for Fire Emblem: Awakening, and some brief thoughts on the re-release of System Shock 2 on Good Old Games. Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Ni no Kuni is finally out in America, and the podcast crew takes an in-depth look at Level 5's latest epic. Following a spirited debate and brief analysis of video game commercials for some reason, Stephen and Rob throw down on Path of Exile. Oh, and there's an epic amount of news to talk about, so somebody give John a nice pat on the back for organizing all of this madness! Featuring: Robert Steinman, John, McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Our first ever Music of the Year show, featuring some of our favorite tracks from the year. Stay tuned after the show for our interview with Casey Ormond, arranger of the Piano Collections Final Fantasy XII album! And if you like the show, be sure to let us know! Featuring: Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen, Patrick Gann, Don Kotowski Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

2012 has finally come to a close, and thankfully the Mayans weren't right and the world keeps turning. But before we start talking about 2013, join us for a look back at some of the major releases of last year with a bit more time and perspective on our side. Of course we've got some crazy predictions for 2013, so be sure to listen and tell us in a year just how wrong we were! Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, Derek Heemsbergen, Kyle E. Miller Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

It's the last episode of the year, and we decided to go out with a bang by inviting long time editor John Tucker to the podcast. He's got some Paper Mario to talk about, and then John, Derek and Stephen completely steal the show to gush about Crimson Shroud. There's quite a bit of news to finish out the year, however, including a story that Rob and Stephen have been DYING to talk about... Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink, John Tucker, and Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Time to upgrade your social link! We've got lots to say about Persona 4: Golden on the Vita followed by a brief talk with Kyle about his trip to Baltimore and the world of Tamriel in The Elder Scrolls Online. Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink and Kyle Miller Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

The release of Virtue's Last Reward gives the podcast crew another chance to gush over visual novels (999 included, of course), while Pandas invade World of Warcraft to... do whatever it is pandas do. Following some news, Stephen picks the brains of Phoenix Online Studios Cesar Bittar and Richard Flores to talk about Cognition. Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink and Derek Heemsbergen Special Guests: Cesar Bittar, CEO of Phoenix Online Studios, Richard Flores, CTO of Phoenix Online Studios Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Let the looting begin! Borderlands 2 is out, and our podcast crew has opinions. But that's not all this week. We've also got Realms of Ancient Wars and Ragnarok Online to round out the first of the big Fall releases. John also has some news coming out of Bioware that is both sad and exciting at the same time! Whatever could it be?! Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink and Derek Heemsbergen Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Well, we actually made it to fifty episode. Bet no one saw that coming. But we have no room for a clip show with The Last Story, Darksiders 2, Guild Wars 2, and all sorts of news going on these days. We also have some fellow editors putting in brief appearances to talk about their favorite RPG memories (spoiler: lots of people like Chrono Trigger), and we hope to maybe continue with this in the future. Here's looking forward to fifty more episodes! Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Stephen Meyerink and Derek Heemsbergen Special Guests: Liz Maas, Kyle Miller Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

We decided to get one more leisurely episode in before the craziness of the fourth quarter starts to take over. Dave leads off with some final thoughts on The Secret World, Rob fends off the zombie apocalypse (TM) while talking about the first two episodes of The Walking Dead, and John throws down with Persona 4: Arena. Dave also pulls double duty as our podcast economist and tries to make sense of all the stuff going on with The Old Republic and Zynga. Finally, we've got an interview with game designer Mike Zadorojny from ArenaNet about the final development stages and future of Guild Wars 2. Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll, Dave Yeager and Stephen Meyerink Special Guest: Mike Zadorojny, Game Designer at ArenaNet Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

The podcast crew continues to fight back the record setting drought with a focus on great gaming experience. Rob and John spent some time in The Secret World, and John also pulled double duty by partaking in some Rainbow Moon with resident gaming lover Stephen. Meanwhile, some relatively minor news accompanies a major rumor on a supposedly troubled project. Featuring: Robert Steinman, John McCarroll and Stephen Meyerink Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

The summer heat has kicked in, but that just means more time to stay in the air conditioning and play some great RPGs. Stephen comes armed after a harrowing experience with the Japanese beta of Phantasy Star Online 2 (keep in mind we didn't know about the US release when we recorded), while John brings the critters of Pokemon Conquest to destroy the armies of feudal Japan. Meanwhile, Rob's been playing some Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (way to stay current), and, of course, Zack brings the news, including the release announcement of Guild Wars 2. Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, John McCarroll, and Zachary Pintchik Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com

Another year, another E3 come and gone in the gaming world. While it may not have seemed like there were a lot of RPGs on display, our intrepid reporters scoured the show floor to bring you all of the latest info. From the first Skyrim expansion to a game in which a young child tries to kill people (seriously!), this year's expo had a wide range of titles to choose from. Join the regular crew and various special guests as we do our best to talk about all of the E3 insanity! Featuring: Robert Steinman, Stephen Meyerink, Neal Chandran, Kyle E. Miller, John McCarroll and Dave Yeager Questions? Comments? Spare Potions? Email us: podcast@rpgfan.com