The Final Fantasy Tactics you played back on the PS1 is not the real Final Fantasy Tactics. In fact, if you played it in the West you missed out on entire games-within-games that not only flesh out the world of Ivalice, but hold clues to the future of Square Enix. And these secrets are all tucked away in... Sound Novels!
That's right, this week Victor and Nadia are joined by experts in the history of Japanese adventure games, Tom James and BowlofLentils, to discuss how The Ivalice Chronicles is steering us back onto the path of understanding the lineage of this misunderstood genre. Visual novels, sound novels, adventures games, point-and-clicks, text adventures, dating sims, oteme games, galge? What do they have in common and what makes them completely different? Find out on this expository episode of Axe of the Blood God! Sorry if you thought this was going to be about like, the nature of remakes or adaptations and the Ship of Theseus or whatever, but we've got sound novels to talk about!

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Also in this episode:

Eternal Sonata

Vanillaware's alternate Princess Maker timeline

Doshin the Giant

Why Inspector Gadget owes his life to Lupin III

We mention Hollow Knight: Silksong purely for SEO purposes

428 Shibuya Scramble

Famicom Detective Club

FURTHER READING:

BowlofLentils Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@bowloflentils

Tom James' Blog:
https://dateemups.com/

Sharlayan Dropouts - The Veil of Wiyu:
https://bloodgodpod.com/sharlayan-dropouts-lore-veil-of-wiyu/

Timestamps:

7:20 Main Topic - Ivalice Chronicles Resurrecting the Lost Sound Novels

1:32:08 - Random Encounters

1:36:08 - Nadia’s Nostalgia Nook

Music Used in this Episode:

Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III]

A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana]

Contact - [YU-NO: a girl who chants love at the bound of this world]

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