The Iris Archives

Hey, did anyone know that a highly-anticipated Square-Enix game released recently? Yeah, we’re not talking about that one today. Instead, Luke joins me to talk about his experience playing Final Fantasy 7 for the first time. Does the game still hold up? And what the hell is going on with Sephiroth anyway?

This episode is the conclusion to Luke, Ashley and my summary and examination of the entirety of Kentucky Route Zero. If you’ve made it this far, you know what you’re in for.

Shownotes:

“Everything on That Tape Was Wild” - Luke’s essay about the character Ron

It’s taken just over 7 years, but Kentucky Route Zero is finally complete. As a game that blends point-and-click adventures, community theater, magical realism, modern folk tales, a little bit of Southern Gothic, and a whole lot of horses, it was destined to be a game that I was destined to love. For this episode, I got Luke and Ashley to join me in a far more in-depth exploration than I was initially planning. Needless to say, both Part 1 and Part 2 will be cock full of spoilers, so if you’re at all interested in playing the game for yourself, you have my most enthusiastic recommendation to do so.

Shownotes:

Consolidated Power - The wiki I used for reference during the recording

Full text of KRZ

The Little Berlin Art Exhibit

“The Blank Signature” by Rene Magritte - most likely a primary source of inspiration for the visual effect in the woods of Act II

On this episode, Luke and Molly join me to talk about the latest game from acclaimed director Hideo Kojima. Now that he and his team are free from their shackles, have they finally created True Art? Well, uh, we have some good news and some bad news. It’s finally time to discuss weird babies, Monster Energy, characters that just won’t shut up, and the simple joys of building a road.

On the second part of our journey through the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Luke and I talk about the rest of the games…and a kinda-sorta related game that also happened to be directed by Tetsuya Nomura. Most importantly, though, we analyze the recently-released Kingdom Hearts 3: what our expectations were for it going in, the constant tug-of-war between Disney and Kingdom Hearts, the ways it disappointed us, and the ways it succeeded. And in the end, was it all worth it? We cover:

Re:Coded

The World Ends With You

Dream Drop Distance

0.2 Birth By Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-

Kingdom Hearts Chi/Unchained Chi/Union Cross

Kingdom Hearts III

Click here to read Luke’s essays on the entire franchise.

After a nearly two-year hiatus, I’m back to talk about a franchise known for similarly long delays: Kingdom Hearts. I’ve been an obsessive fan since the beginning, so I’ve brought along my friend Luke—who played/watched every KH game in just a few months—to offer a different perspective. I initially planned this as an overview of the entire franchise, but I ended up guiding us into a much more in-depth discussion of each game, so the whole thing ran far longer than I expected. So long, in fact, that I had to split it up between two episodes. In this first part, Luke and I talk about:

Kingdom Hearts I

Chain of Memories

Kingdom Hearts II

358/2 Days

Birth By Sleep

If you want even more KH content, you can click there read a series of essays Luke wrote about his experience with each game.