MageCast X

Pizza time! Hey, dudes, check out to our biggest episode ever in terms of guest presence, featuring the Beer Mage, the ABXY Mage, and the Hyperactive Coffee Mage. Listen as we chat about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time and go on about psychoanalyzing Twitter, which of us is Leo, Don, Raph, and dying on the hill of Michelangelo, the game's pros and cons, its expression of the differences between the turtles, how to get the most points for a high score, our favorite villains and time periods, voice acting in the original 1987 cartoon (Liquid Snake?!), nostalgia-talk about the 80's, what kind of game we would make if we could create our own TMNT game, finally laying the Turtle Van to rest, Teenage Mutant "Hero" Turtles, and asking how much a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle weighs.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/09/24/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-iv-turtles-in-time/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: https://twitter.com/Retrogamebrews
https://twitter.com/GameswCoffee
https://twitter.com/ABXY_Reviews

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February is the month of love so for this episode, I brought on as a guest my very own real-lifu waifu, Blythe the White Out Mage! We talked on a game that impacted the both of us: Final Fantasy X, its firsts and lasts, its uniquely South Pacific influences, its characters, their themes and their development, coping with pain, overcoming prejudice, free spirits vs responsibility, voice acting in its infancy and the troubles of English localization, storytelling band-aids, outsider archetypes, falsifying religious concepts and the triumph of reason, and… voice impressions! We also take listener questions, address the sequel, FFX-2, briefly, and figure out exactly what Tidus really is.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/02/23/final-fantasy-x/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: https://twitter.com/OutMage

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When you walk away you don’t hear me say pleeeeease listen to this episode! Featuring the verbose Chris of Overthinker Y (aka the Sometimes Vaguely Philosophical Mage), we dig deep into the labyrinth that is Kingdom Hearts, trying to untangle the maze that is the KH series while focusing on the first game. We also discuss the problems of online communication, Squaresoft and Square Enix, how Disney repelled or pulled us in, game rental stores, the similarities and differences between “heart” and “soul”, KH’s fusion of Western and Eastern philosophy, our favorite Disney worlds and films, the incredible compositions by Shimomura, and exactly why you need subtitles for Donald Duck.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: https://twitter.com/overthinkery1
Cited articles:
https://overthinkeryblog.com/2019/01/24/kingdom-hearts-is-light-the-under-the-radar-humanist-tale-part-one-humanism/
https://normalhappenings.com/2018/11/21/kingdom-hearts-the-game-that-defines-overthinkery/

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Hear us dance this Grim Fandango featuring Brent Mead the ABXY Mage and myself, the stuffy nose mage, talking this game's unique combination of influences, its concept of the afterlife, its interesting visual design, whether games as art is really the same thing as music as art, the difference between artistic and art form, the nature of jazz, death puns, championing memorable NPCs, personality world building vs exposition, our personal histories with adventure games, floppy disks, how adventure games lost their footing in the internet age and how to keep puzzles challenging, and that satisfying feeling of accomplishment when you complete one, the state of humor in games, and the false need for relief in the form of comedy.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/10/10/grim-fandango-remastered/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: https://twitter.com/ABXY_Reviews

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Ape puns coagulate in this Donkey Kong Country episode, featuring the dudes at The Pixel Meditations podcast! We discuss how to help games be accepted as an art form, showing people that there’s something to learn from video games, DKC’s quality of physics and weight, its sense of rhythm, the immediacy of its two player co-op, the variations between Donkey and Diddy, its place as the first title in the SNES trilogy, those dreaded mine cart levels, the Cranky Kong Run, and that great, great David Wise music, as well as which game most people prefer out of the original trio.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2018/03/10/donkey-kong-country/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: https://twitter.com/pixelmeditation
https://thepixelmeditations.podbean.com/

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Gravelly voices abound in this Metal Gear Solid episode on the origins of TWRM and the pun name, the PS1 Classic, a Metal Gear franchise overview, what’s canon and what’s not, the unique pitfalls of cinematic storytelling, stealth as a genre vs a mechanic, messing with people after getting optical camouflage, our favorite scenes and characters in MGS1, the importance of ESRB ratings as a parent, the embarrassing story of "the music room", Solid Snake’s ethics of killing and justification of murder, sympathetic villains and the legacy of a father, auteur theory, the growing chasm between critics and fans, Batman vs Solid Snake, and recording myself watching a trailer for the first time.

Website: https://thewellredmage.com/2016/03/02/metal-gear-solid/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: twitter.com/BlackHumorMage

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It's the MAGE CAST 10th episode mini-anniversary special featuring my biological anti-twin and second banana, Nathaniel Norton! Listen with rapture to the most melodious musical episode ever as we sing and belt our way through a Night on Bald Mountain, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Sim City 2000, Storm Eagle, Monument Valley, Armored Core, Alabama Shakes, Olomana, and... a new MAGE CAST theme song??? Things get a little weird and laughter abounds, but hopefully this decennial makes you chortle at least once. Hey, 'tis the season to spend with family, right? Mahalo~

Website: thewellredmage.com
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: Nate Dog

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Co-founders Red and Timely sit down to chat about Cosmic Star Heroine, buzzwords in the gaming industry, true substance to retro throwback games, doing more than pandering, consciousness toward length and lean game design, old versus modern JRPGs, the shift away from strategy to button mashing, sincerity and genuineness in indie games evoking the classics, the place for traditional good vs evil storytelling, pure virtue characters and archetypes, the non-necessity of cynicism, the GOTY picks for 2018, and where we were in the golden age of the 90's.

And... announcing a launch date for MAGE CAST: Side Quests!

Website: thewellredmage.com/2018/08/18/cosm…ne-2018-switch/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guest: twitter.com/ProtoAvi

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So a red mage, a ninja, and a coffee guru walk into a podcast... On this episode, a tri-force of mages discuss The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, its place within the context of the franchise, both its 2017 GOTY and controversial status, its unprecedented focus on the princess, its treatment of the open world structure, the place of fans in defining a series by expectations, demanding ingenuity and lateral thinking from the player, weapon durability and survival mechanics, talk of a sequel, and Zelda's legs.

It's not what you think.

Website: thewellredmage.com/2017/03/26/the-…th-of-the-wild/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: homebuttongaming.wordpress.com/
gameswithcoffee.com/

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I am the night! This time, I got to sit down this time with the comics experts at Opinioneering to chat about Batman: Arkham Asylum. Our conversation turned to the literary and animated influences behind the game, Batman's humanity and vulnerabilities, the enduring versatility of the Dark Knight across media, remembering who the World’s Greatest Detective really is, the value in the focus of smaller games, Asylum as more than a cash-in or an adaptation of some movie, an exploration of the Bat as an inspiration, Batman vs the Punisher methodologies, how to become a Batman fan, heroism as doing the hard things, and the sad untold tale of bald Batman, plus, future Rocksteady DC video games (Superman?!)!

Website: thewellredmage.com/2016/03/24/batm…-arkham-asylum/
Patreon: www.patreon.com/thewellredmage
Guests: twitter.com/opinioneering

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