MageCast X

Demystifying game development, designing Samus' spaceship the Thrush Eterna, collaborative creativity, Retro Studios' canceled games, and what even happened to Kraid... I'm the Well-Red Mage and this is Mage Cast feat. art and creative director James H Dargie.

Read more:
https://www.the-pixels.com/2017/12/12/metroid-prime/

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• Novella on Amazon

Guest: @JHDargie

Links: impulsegear.com
claviusbase.com

Music: "Title Theme" & "Phendrana Drifts Depths" composed by  Kenji Yamamoto & Kouichi Kyuma

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Theorycrafting, key differences, and Kingdom Hearts, showing the monster too soon, nostalgia as a good thing, and if it's even fair to compare original and remake... I'm the Well-Red Mage and this is Mage Cast feat. special guest John (aka Sector 6), content creator, lorist, and theorist.

Read more:
the-pixels.com/2020/06/23/final-fantasy-vii-remake-2020-ps4

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Guest: @Sector_6_

Links: facebook.com/Sector6UK
youtube.com/c/Sector6UK

Music: "Reunion" & "Main Theme of FFVII - Sector 7 Undercity" composed by Masashi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki, Nobuo Uematsu

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Get ready for the greebles as Mage Cast sits down with art director James H. Dargie for things that can neither be confirmed nor denied. James is an artist and designer who has worked on titles like Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Matrix Reloaded, Metroid Prime, Solaris, and Final Fantasy The Spirits Within. Our discussion centers on that film, the first photorealistic computed animated theatrical movie, and what might've happened to derail its performance at the box office. James also shares his memories of being a part of various other studios as well as working under Hironobu Sakaguchi, plus we talk marketing woes, anecdotes about the Grey Project, the hidden chocobo in Spirits Within, art serving the game design, Aki's ambitions as a digital actress, content that didn't make the final cut, how to handle feedback and criticism, the Spirits Within SEIKO wristwatch, and more designer insights!

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Guest: https://twitter.com/JHDargie
https://www.claviusbase.com/
https://www.firstcontactent.com/

Links: https://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-Spirits-Original-Soundtrack/dp/B00005Q41K

Music: "The Spirits Within" & "A Child Recalled" composed by Elliot Goldenthal

Support the show (http://www.patreon.com/thewellredmage)

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Grab your favorite bard and travel back in time to where it all started! We're talking Dragon Quest 1 on this episode, featuring special guest musician and writer Russell Gordon. We'll discuss localization woes, Western reception, and Dragon Warrior vs Dragon Quest, the series' two trilogies, proto-RPGs, our first RPGs, NA vs JP cover art, Nintendo Power subscriptions, differences between the versions of DQ1, grinding vs whittling and the trance-like state of play, where to start with the Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest 1 as a fairy tale and not an engaging drama or epic, story vs plot and the player's experiences creating the narrative in real time, dungeon crawling, the game's single character, and how you don't even have to save the princess!

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Guest: https://soundcloud.com/shredrussell-1
youtube.com/RussellGHello
twitter.com/rus_gordon

Links: http://thewellredmage.com/2019/12/11/dragon-quest-nintendo-switch-review-2019/
https://thewellredmage.com/2017/09/06/dragon-warrior-1989-dragon-quest-1993/

Music: "Overture March" & "Tantegel Castle" composed by Koichi Sugiyama 

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Vagrant Story hates the player but we love you! That's why we here at Mage Cast are making things simpler by tackling just what makes Vagrant Story such a tough nut to crack. Together with my special guest, Cory the Senior Games Editor of Popzara.com, we cover topics like what makes the game so demanding, how to overcome its convoluted systems, its mixture of genres and postgame content, its disrespect for players, Vagrant Story's place in the Final Fantasy world of Ivalice, and what we'd fix in a potential remake (U and I both know we'd fix the UI!).

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Guest: https://www.popzara.com/

Links: https://thewellredmage.com/2017/09/09/vagrant-story/

Music: "Opening Movie", "Snowfly Forest", & "Valendia Knights of the Peace Headquarters - Duke Bardorba's Manor" composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto

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It's the most successful game you've never heard of: this episode of MAGE CAST represents our Dungeon Fighter Online podcast! In this rapidly evolving conversation, we discuss combining 2D side-scrolling beat 'em up gameplay with RPG elements, Nexon closing servers, best-selling video game franchises and DFO's very high place on those lists, cultural differences regarding DFO, microtransactions, and competition, why games age, the retro aesthetic and impressionism, how the game has changed over the years, its real mess of a story, Eastern vs Western sensibilities in regards to religious symbolism, true player agency, emergent gameplay and roleplay, the game's classes and subclasses, the endgame and the sheer insane stats in this game (in the trillions), the future of DFO, Project BBQ, a console version, and regional markets.

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Guest: @sommerfeldt_r

Links: https://www.dfoneople.com/
https://www.twitch.tv/jrsommerfeldt
https://www.christcenteredgamer.com/component/authorlist/author/38:jcsomme83
https://kithandkingaming.buzzsprout.com/

Music: "Dungeon Fighter Theme Song" & "Wind of You [Instrumental ver.]" by Neople

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MAGE CAST is starting to show it's age with this, our 50th episode! For the big 5-0, we're diving into the absurdity and genius of the Metal Gear Solid series. This is our MGS4: Guns of the Patriots podcast. Join the Black Humor Mage and myself as we discuss this game's dual world records, its unique format for the time, its relationship with Apple's sense of morality, the infamous Big Boss run, the brilliance and madness of Hideo Kojima, MGS as anime and Death Stranding, weird for weirdness sake, who's on Ocelot's Mt. Rushmore, mature themes in an immature presentation, series context and ranking the Solid games, Twin Snakes and Raiden, a word on exclusivity and popularity, tying up loose ends and heavy exposition or over-explanation, MGS4 as a game vs a movie, why Big Boss is crazy, our favorite and least favorite characters, and what makes the stealth of MGS4 special. Spoilers: we hate Johnny.

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Guest: @BlackHumorMage
Links: https://thespinoff.co.nz/games/19-02-2018/a-definitive-list-of-all-the-weird-shit-that-happens-in-the-metal-gear-series/

Music: "Love Theme" by Nobuko Toda, Hideo Kojima, Jackie Presti & "Old Snake" by Harry Gregson-Williams

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On this Super Smash Bros Ultimate podcast, it's the biggest crossover event in history... and also Smash Ultimate! MAGE CAST is back and I'm featuring @DuctapePlays on this very special resurrection episode of the podcast. We're talking sheer numbers to illustrate just how big Super Smash Bros. Ultimate really is, plus more Fire Emblem characters (plz no), the most awkward tournament trophy ever, differences between the Smash games and ranking them to see if Ultimate is truly the ultimate: Brawl's floatiness, Smash 64's wonkiness, Melee's eloquent movement, and the perfect Smash game. The wonderful accessibility of the Smash series as fighting games, stickers, trophies, and spirits, the creative spirit battles, the World of Light, remembering Subspace Emissary, and we spend a hearty amount of time talking characters: the main roster and our mains, the DLC characters, Fighter Pass Vol. 2, and obscure picks. Rest in peace, Luigi.

Links:

• https://thewellredmage.com/2019/06/13/super-smash-bros-ultimate-2018-switch/
• https://thewellredmage.com/2018/12/21/what-72-super-smash-bros-ultimate-mains-say-about-the-people-who-pick-em-according-to-the-rage-mage/
• https://thewellredmage.com/2018/06/15/twenty-four-super-smash-bros-ultimate-fighters-yet-to-be-revealed-if-ever/
• https://www.twitch.tv/ductapeplays
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFfIAXS0daC3WjRo-E1mBqw
• storymode.buzzsprout.com

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Guest: @DuctapePlays
Music: "Lifelight" (instrumental version) & "Main Theme" (no lyrics version)

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Time for a legendary conversation with Patrick from Backlog Odyssey and our subject: Mega Man Legends! We'll also cover your favorite games starring the Blue Bomber and the injection of significant storytelling in the Mega Man universe, the N64 port, the energy drink that kept Legends off of PSN for years, the human tendency to make anything a game, personifying save points, transitioning from 2D to 3D, camera design and infamous tank controls, Legends 2, the canceled sequel, Misadventures of Tron Bonne, a colorful cast of characters, the best version of Roll (?), weapons, bosses, collateral damage, and hope for a Legends Legacy Collection.

Links: 

• thewellredmage.com/2018/04/12/mega-man-legends/
• thewellredmage.com/2018/02/09/the-great-3d-slaughter-20-game-series-that-didnt-make-the-jump/
• storymode.buzzsprout.com
• backlogodyssey.com

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Guest: @BacklogOdyssey
Music: "The Flutter" by Makoto Tomozawa & "'Little' Fugue in G minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach (arr. by Makoto Tomozawa)

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Is it at all fair to call Final Fantasy VIII the black sheep of the series? Either way, Matt aka Berkough joins me this episode and we talk about our personal impressions and the game's general reception, its divisiveness potentially centered around Squall as a character that strongly resonates with some people and strongly not with others, the peculiarities and clout of the Final Fantasy franchise, some fan theories (is Squall Laguna's son?), feeling threatened by Irvine, the experiment that is the draw system and a word on Triple Triad, a bit about VIII's sales, a bit about the remastered and PC versions, a bit about FFVII Remake... okay actually a lot about FFVII and VI and IX, even X and Tactics, as the context for VIII. This is a spoilers podcast.

Links: 
https://storymode.buzzsprout.com/
Patreon https://www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
https://ko-fi.com/thewellredmage
Merch https://www.teepublic.com/stores/thewellredmage?ref_id=10322
Guest: https://twitter.com/berkough / @berkough
Music: "Liberi Fatali" & "The Man with the Machine Gun" by Nobuo Uematsu

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