MageCast X

Our 2nd Chrono Trigger episode commences with Ryan from RetroGameBrews! It's time to talk storyline, the balanced seamlessness of Chrono Trigger and the lack of "the grind", the importance of player choice, rehashing the premise of the game, what we would do if we discovered an apocalyptic alien, primeval Twitch, if Chrono Trigger is really the GOAT, the most emotional scenes for us, time travel as both a story theme and a gameplay mechanic, the value of the NPC, the Chrono series as a whole, a word on Radical Dreamers and the beautiful world of Chrono Cross, the broken dreams of Chrono Resurrection and Chrono Break, the question of another Chrono game and whether we even want to see a sequel or remaster/remake, character etymology and making sense of their elemental affinities, the Entity mystery, why video games open with sleeping characters, schools of thought on what evil is, the sundry endings and New Game Plus.

Website: thewellredmage.com/2017/11/17/chrono-trigger/
Patreon: patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: @Retrogamebrews

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It is time to talk about the best: Chrono Trigger, in this first episode in a CT trilogy! The ABXY Mage I and discuss the re-launch of Side Quests podcast and a new focus on video game music, the happenin' 1990s, questioning if accurate criticism is possible near launch, my first mancave, "Just let me get to the first save point!", what Chrono Trigger IS and what makes it so special, "time" as a theme in both narrative and game design, multiple endings, the necessity for stories to breathe, seamlessness and polish, the Dream Team, the unprecedented length of tracks in this soundtrack, our favorite music from Chrono Trigger, Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda's experience composing his first soundtrack, his list of works, his failing health, the mystery of "the Entity", music inspired by dreams, the scope of the soundtrack with its various time period themes, Gato karaoke, the Guardia justice system, singing along with the soundtrack, and of course, the matter of objective quality. We also take your questions!

Website: thewellredmage.com/2017/11/17/chrono-trigger/
Patreon: patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: @ABXY_Reviews

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Zdrastvooyte! In this episode, I'm focusing on NES Tetris with streamer and competition host Retro Game Brews aka the Beer Mage and Tetris champion Mega Retro Man asking what Tetris is, describing Tetris in one word, the puzzle that changes with your skill level, the comforting, relaxing nature of fitting the tetrominoes together, why Tetris isn't an anachronism by now and what makes the game so appealing, the dopamine response and addiction to its gameplay, the pure balance of challenge with simplicity, kinder game design in modern Tetris, wading into the cultural discussion of games being too hard with the idea of practice, the hardest thing about playing Tetris (according to a pro competitor), DAS and the kill screen, having to think on your feet, the fascinating history of Tetris, the rare Tengen Tetris cart, comparing some different versions and how to ruin Tetris, tackling the question of whether Tetris is the perfect game or not, irreducible complexity, the World Championships, visiting the Soviet Union, and Tetris as an analogy for life.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: @Retrogamebrews and @MegaRetroMan

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This episode we dive headfirst into the horrors of a cult classic: Shadow Hearts, discussing how to win a game of hangman, our take on Lovecraft's works and Lovecraftian themes present in Shadow Hearts, purple prose and classic literature, anti-anthropocentrism and cosmic horror, the technical word for fear of dolls (never use it, please), what the greatest scene in video game history is (hint: it involves a train), voice acting performances and how to measure their quality, actors treating their lines like they're in toy commercials, the distinction between loving something for what it is and critiquing a performance, good vs bad dialogue, the unique difficulties which translation presents in attempting to preserve original intent, the context of horror RPGs, favorite characters and their motivations, the harmony of ideas in the Shadow Hearts soundtrack plus Yasunori Mitsuda (!), sensible nostalgia for the 90s and what that decade accomplished in games vs crappy things that can be abolished to history books, the Judgment Ring and mechanical innovations in Shadow Hearts, and finally, why this game didn't do so great upon release.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com
Patreon: https://patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: @ArosElric and @TeacherBloke85

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It's time to get dark and gritty talking about DC Universe Online with fellow DC Comics fan, the Black Humor Mage!

In this episode we'll discuss the game that I played at the cusp of fatherhood, the superpowers of the game, swearing off MMOs, turning the Skype camera on accidentally when you have no clothes on, what to do when your wife becomes a pregnant narcoleptic, the endless pastime of the endless grind, video games as a former addiction and the bottomless pit of character creation, great voice acting and crap voice acting (plus impressions, unfortunately!), resisting guild tyranny, saving evidence on your phone, thoughts on a sequel, voice actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, dealing with roleplayers, Prof. Zoom and the worst person I've ever met online. Also, a bonus question at the end!

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/03/05/dc-universe-online/
Patreon: https://patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: @blackhumormage

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I got to chat with my dad, the 16-bit one (@16bitdadblog), about Parasite Eve! We get into the differences in horror between the West and East and how Parasite Eve blends the two, how the story connects to the incident in Japan in the novel, and where the film, manga, and sequels figure in, theorizing why the game never came to Europe, combining survival and RPG elements, the weapons upgrading system and how to blow your hands off with a rocket-launcher-handgun, horrible, horrible body horror and John Carpenter's The Thing, mitochondria and real science, thoughts on remakes and remasters, the importance of preserving tonality, what Madonna has to do with this game, and the chances of P.E. popping up at E3. It's "ekshepshtional".

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/
Guest: @16bitdadblog

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For our 20th episode special, we the mages are here to share 17 original poems of all shapes and sizes and styles, each one based on a single game of our choice from the 1000 Games list! The 1000 Games collab may be over now, but there's no reason we can't keep milking it. Enjoy this chill Mage Cast entry, a pantheon of poets for your peaceful perusal. Let us know which one was your favorite!

Guests:
The ABXY Mage - EarthBound (@ABXY_Reviews)
The Purple Prose Mage - Driver (@AlexSigsworth)
The Thunder Mage - Super Metroid (@BillTuckerTSP)
The Arcade Mage - Ms. Pac-Man (@TheArcadeCastle)
The Badly Backlogged Mage - Pong (@MrBacklog)
The Hyperactive Coffee Mage - Persona 3 Portable (@GameswCoffee)
The Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage - Shadow of the Colossus (@overthinkery1)
The Mail Order Ninja Mage - Breath of the Wild (@mailorderninja)
The New Age Retro Mage - Mega Man 2 (@chrisbg99)
The Slipstream Mage - Titanfall 2 (@JTorto40)
The Valiant Vision Mage - Xenoblade Chronicles (@Lodestar_Valor)
The Regional Exclusive Mage - Resident Evil 4 (@TeacherBloke85)
The Bizzaro Mage - Persona 5 (@winstolf)
The One-Winged Mage - Link's Awakening (@GConsolers)
The Teal Time Mage - Suikoden III (@ArosElric)
The Blue Moon Mage - Hollow Knight (@wrytersview)
and The Well-Red Mage - Chrono Trigger (@theWellRedMage)

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SPOILERS, y'all. The last of the PlayStation One Final Fantasy games, I sat down to talk Final Fantasy IX with my own real laifu waifu! There are two kinds of people in this world: Vivi and Kuja. Hear us discuss this game's major themes, its placement in the context of the PS1 numerical trilogy, its wonderful treatment of miniature stories for its non-playable characters, our favorite musical tracks, the in-game places where we'd most want to live, the notorious evil that was PlayOnline.com, making sense of Necron, the brevity of life, passing on your memories, how to make living life valuable, death as a natural part of life, you could say this podcast is about... the melodies of life.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/09/07/final-fantasy-ix/
Patreon: https://patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: https://twitter.com/OutMage

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We're looking toward the Horizon for a new Dawn with Zero regrets! Episode "Clever Girl" wrestles with options and an over-abundance of choice, conceptual science fiction and mystery driving a story, Asimov's Foundation novels, the difficulty of maintaining narrative pace in open-world games full of side quests, meaningless vs meaningful missions, other PS4 exclusives and ranking Horizon Zero Dawn, inventory management *yawn* and how to minimize it, whether games will get too big or not, unitaskers vs multitaskers in in-game tools, that sweet weasel meat, Aloy as other than a player avatar, feminism and the matriarchs, if Aloy is a Mary Sue and her development through the game, ideas and wishes for a sequel, ways to ramp up the tension when wandering the wilds, smashing together HZD and BotW into a single game, machine designs, and why Ted Faro is a jerk.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2018/09/05/horizon-zero-dawn-complete-edition/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: 
https://twitter.com/ProtoAvi
https://twitter.com/BillTuckerTSP

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I can show you a Super Mario World, shining, shimmering, splendid. In this detour into Dinosaur Land, featuring the inscrutable ABXY Mage and the ineffable Blue Moon Mage, we dig deep into this SNES launch title, its official story out of the original instruction booklet, our first time playing the game, challenge and incentivization, the benefits of competition in the industry (the Console Wars), whether Super Mario is really for children or not, why Mario is so enduring and the history of the character as the history of video games, the consistency of Mario's tonality, the underestimated significance of fun-factor, if Mario risks becoming an anachronism, the issue of timelessness and the question of immutable properties in games, methods to investigate game quality while circumnavigating nostalgia, innovations in Super Mario World, the origins of the names of the Koopalings, Tanuki anatomy, and all the best secrets!

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/03/31/super-mario-world/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: 
https://twitter.com/ABXY_Reviews
https://twitter.com/wrytersview

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