I've been into podcasts a pretty long time. When I was attending university (2005 to 2009) the two founders of the college video games club had a podcast, and I was a guest on one episode in 2006. It was a blast, and from then on I was hooked. My favorite pastime is talking about shared experiences with others, whether it's sharing knowledge (I'm one of those obnoxious know-it-all types) or discussing a work of art. And since video games are my favorite hobby, podcasting about video games is naturally at the center of that Venn Diagram of my interests.
I started out listening to podcasts casually, but in the late 2000s or early 2010s I became a hardcore listener. The first popular, mainstream podcasts I got into were The BS Report with Bill Simmons (Simmons is a longtime ESPN sports and pop culture guy who's now with The Ringer) and WTF with Marc Maron (Maron is a veteran stand-up comedian and WTF is one of the biggest interview podcasts). Following those was a host of podcasts about video games and sports, RPGs and basketball in particular. When I was driving a truck all day for work in the early 2010s, I peaked at around 40 podcast subscriptions (SO MUCH time for podcasts on the road). After moving to a radio-free desk job and building a terrifying backlog of 200+ episodes, I cut my subscriptions to 20-25 and recently hacked that backlog down to about 50 episodes.
So during that personal podcast peak (heh) one of my subscriptions was RPGFan's Random Encounter. Around 2011-2012 I started listening and became one of those probably-annoying fans who would bug the hosts on Twitter and occasionally email the podcast. I also listened to RPGFan's Rhythm Encounter music podcast from its inception, and out of bizarre chance met several RPGFan staff at MAGFest in 2014 (since 2005 or so, MAGFest is the one nerd convention I attend annually). Later that year, I applied to be staff for RPGFan Music and got the gig. I have around a half-dozen album reviews on the site.
Random Encounter's 2018 Logo
But why only a half-dozen? In early 2015 another recent RPGFan hire, Josh Curry, pitched the idea of a third RPGFan podcast. Myself and several other relatively new staff supported his idea, and in early 2015 the first episode of Retro Encounter hit the internet (the podcast's name was my suggestion, thankyouverymuch). The original concept of Retro Encounter was to record three episodes a month about a specific game, discussing the game at length and planning in advance what story beats each episode would cover. Similar to a book club. In late 2015, Josh and I decided to record additional "Bonus Round" episodes about topics unrelated to the game of the month. In early 2016 we reduced the number of monthly game journal episodes from 3 to 2, and later in 2016 we moved to a weekly format: 2 episodes a month dedicated to a specific game, with the other weeks of the month filled out by off-topic Bonus Rounds. That's the current format most months, with a few exceptions.
Several months into Retro Encounter's run, Josh and I were doing most of the podcast planning together, and by mid-2016 I was editing most of the episodes as well (to take some burden off the RPGFan Music staff that were editing them up to that point). Josh continued to host most episodes. I officially changed RPGFan jobs from the music section to Retro Encounter that year. Also in 2016, Josh's wife gave birth to a son and Josh himself started a new job. His work and family demanding more of his time, Josh departed from the website in 2017 after a long hiatus. During Josh's break in early 2017 I became the official producer and host of Retro Encounter. Also in 2017, we changed the numbering format of the podcast, which was oddly very relieving to me.
So, since then (especially since it became weekly in 2016) I've spent a LOT of time working on the podcast. I schedule and plan out every episode, host many of them, and edit around half of them (RPGFan audio engineer Brian Ingemanson edits the other half and I am extremely grateful for him). Naturally, I have opinions about what makes a good episode.
Retro Encounter's 2015-2017 Logo
As a special introduction to the podcast that's consumed part of my life the past three years, I'm going to present a list of twelve Retro Encounter episodes that I consider exemplary. These episodes aren't necessarily all my favorites (otherwise I would've included more Zelda and Pokémon episodes), but I think they encapsulate what the podcast is about. This is extremely (EXTREMELY) egotistical of me, but 11 out of these 12 are episodes where I'm on the panel. Sorry, listeners and co-workers, I have a much better memory for episodes I was on. Plus I'm a selfish tool.
You'll gather this by reading the list, but I like podcasts where there is a mix of veteran and newcomer perspectives (at least for game journals) and at least some amount of argument (instead of just nonstop agreement and laughing at each other's jokes). But enough explanation. Retro Encounter is my podcast baby, and these are twelve highlight episodes presented in reverse chronological order:
You'll gather this by reading the list, but I like podcasts where there is a mix of veteran and newcomer perspectives (at least for game journals) and at least some amount of argument (instead of just nonstop agreement and laughing at each other's jokes). But enough explanation. Retro Encounter is my podcast baby, and these are twelve highlight episodes presented in reverse chronological order:
Twelve Classic Episodes of the Retro Encounter Podcast
One of our most recent game journals is also one of my overall favorites, because the discussion was great and playing through Suikoden II for the first time was a total delight for me. Suikoden II is excellent, and five of us (two new players and three Suikoden fans) had a lot of good discussion that was entertaining and illuminating.
Link to Part I: Episode 153
Link to Part II: Episode 155
One last note: I used our social media team's awesome banner images for the first three entries, but regrettably couldn't find ones from 2015-2017. I may update this post at a later date with those images if I can track them down.
Link to Part I: Episode 153
Link to Part II: Episode 155
One last note: I used our social media team's awesome banner images for the first three entries, but regrettably couldn't find ones from 2015-2017. I may update this post at a later date with those images if I can track them down.
This podcast is four panelists each describing three of their favorite RPG settings, and the result is a tour of twelve RPGs that are extremely different, and definitely feel personalized to the four panelists. And I'm about 90% certain this was the straw the broke the camel's back to convince me to buy and try Stardew Valley.
Link: Episode 147
We've done "favorites" episodes for three different series on Retro Encounter, and Zelda was my favorite of them because of the diversity in opinions. More than fifteen years separate the oldest from the youngest panelists on this episode (including one panelist who has never played a 2D Zelda) and we break down nearly the entire series before voting and settling on "Retro Encounter's Official Favorite Zelda Game." Spoiler alert: A Link to the Past doesn't make the final four.
Link: Episode 130
Link: Episode 130
This episode was part well-meaning discussion, part thought experiment, and part ROAST. Two other panelists and I watched or re-watched three Final Fantasy movies prior to recording, and go over the strengths and (mostly) weaknesses of each. All three (The Spirits Within, Advent Children, and Kingsglaive) could be described as "gorgeous, but weird."
Link: Episode 110
Link: Episode 110
In this two-panelist episode we go over the RPG oeuvre of Produce!, a niche Japanese developer active in the 1990s. One of those RPGs is The 7th Saga, a game which has somehow entranced me for decades; I was largely unaware of the rest of Produce!'s catalog. My podcast partner this episode is much more knowledgeable than I, so a lot of it was him telling me all about the company's other games between my gushing about T7S. I had a blast.
Link: Episode 89
Link: Episode 89
Similar to Suikoden II, I have fond memories of this episode because I really enjoyed playing through Tales of the Abyss for the first time. This episode turned into a pretty in-depth character discussion, and also an examination of different Tales Of battle systems. And goddamn the other two panelists bringup later-Tales battle systems got me curious. I really ought to play a Tales game made after 2008....
Link to Part I: Episode 79
Link to Part II: Episode 81
Link to Part I: Episode 79
Link to Part II: Episode 81
This was another duo episode, and I was joined by another RPGFan dog enthusiast to talk about the best canine companions of RPGs. It was a very fluffy, positive episode, but definitely fun to record. And the title isn't 100% true, because we do bring up at least one bad dog (and even then it was a struggle to find one).
Link: Episode 76
Link: Episode 76
We've only done Falcom games on Retro Encounter a handful of times (literally the first month of the podcast, plus this episode), but I'm glad we did this one. We went over decades of Falcom. It also gave me a chance to chat with the two regular Random Encounter hosts on a podcast, plus an opportunity to plug Alternative Saga, one of my favorite crossover fighting games not made by Capcom.
Link: Episode 53
Link: Episode 53
From almost Retro Encounter's outset, Josh was really interested in recording a "best games of all time" podcast, but I didn't like the idea as much he did. We eventually compromised down to these Essential Ten episodes, where five panelists (actually four, since one welched out) started out with a list of 50 favorite RPGs, then pared it down to 20 nominees in one episode, and then a list of ten "essential" RPGs in the second episode. It was a nonstop argument that was fun-yet-frustrating to record. It also made some forum idiots mad, which I always appreciate.
Link to Part I: Episode 45
Link to Part II: Episode 46
Link to Part I: Episode 45
Link to Part II: Episode 46
I wasn't on this episode, but having two veterans dissect the story-intensive cult-classic Xenogears with a third panelist discovering the game for the first time (with increasing enthusiasm) was excellent. The Xenogears episodes also had one of our most positive social media reactions for any episode, which warmed the cockles of my shriveled-up Grinch heart.
Link to Part I: Episode 40
Link to Part II: Episode 42
Link to Part I: Episode 40
Link to Part II: Episode 42
This was the first of two Retro Encounter April Fools episodes, where five panelists celebrate Tetris, one of the all-time great RPGs. It was basically an exercise in improv comedy for us, but we managed to keep straight faces throughout. And really it isn't a joke: Tetris is one of the best RPGs ever. Fight me.
Link: Episode 31
Link: Episode 31
These were the first Retro Encounter episodes I appeared on. Replaying Final Fantasy X and then talking through it, well, caused me to turn on the game for the better. I used to disdain FFX (I didn't hate it, just thought it was overrated when I first played it), but replaying it gave me a more positive impression, and my earliest appearances on Retro Encounter were an opportunity to voice those thoughts. I also played, like, sixty goddamn games of Blitzball. That's worth something, right?
Link to Part I: Episode 5
Link to Part II: Episode 6
Link to Part III: Episode 7
Link to Part I: Episode 5
Link to Part II: Episode 6
Link to Part III: Episode 7
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I hope you found this blog post at least a little amusing or informative, and not just Sollosi being self-serving. But I felt like I barely talk about podcasts on this blog, and podcasting is a large part of my life. I wanted to put some of my Retro Encounter thoughts and feelings into words. In any case, I'm glad I wrote this (even though it's selfish AF), and if you aren't a listener, maybe you'll give one of the twelve (actually eighteen) episodes above a shot. The list is a decent starting point. Have a good one!
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