Digimon Story: Time Stranger w/ Kenneth Shepard, Jesse Vitelli

Vampires are so last year.Call your local Hex Maniac because Victor, Nadia, and Eric are holding a seance to determine the best spectres, phantoms, ghasts, and frights across the history of RPGs. It's time to talk ghosts!From the cutest to the cultists, from friendly to frightening, it's all ghosts all the time. Just don't mess around with a ouija board while listening to this episode. Or if you do, don't tell Eric. Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: Sharlayan Dropouts News TRUE Encounter With REAL GHOSTS!! Unfortunate news for Heart Machine Timestamps: 11:12 Main Topic - The Best Ghosts in RPGs 1:20:28 - Random Encounters 1:29:20 - The Future of Sharlayan Dropouts 1:34:08 - Nadia’s Nostalgia Nook Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] Lavender Town - [Pokemon Let's Go] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digi-see? Digi-hear? Digi-know it was coming?Your digi-destiny starts today and Eric, Nadia, and special guests, Kenneth Shepard, and Jesse Vitelli are your digi-guides through it all. Time Stranger, the latest in the Digimon Story sub-series of RPGs is finally here and it might just be a perfect entry point into the digital world. Learn al about it on this prodigious episode of Axe of the Blood God!And you better not suggest that Digimon don't have feelings or you're getting banned from bluesky. Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: Why doesn't Nadia care about Digimon? Protomen Act III Bad News For EA Timestamps: 8:00 Main Topic - Digimon Story: Time Stranger 43:12 - Random Encounters 46:00 - The Tavern - The Protomen, EA Has Gone Private 1:04:16 - Ken Plays Fortnite for KPop Demon Hunters 1:20:40 - Nadia’s Nostalgia Nook, Sort of... Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] Central Park - [Digimon World 3] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cheerio! Kat is moving to the UK and we celebrate with a mail bag AMA centered on her experience serving the Blood God, and you know it wouldn’t be a Kat episode without delving into the worlds of soccer and Magic The Gathering. - Plus, discussion of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles - The meaning of “mature” storylines - Whether or not Mario is a superhero.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we prepare for our fearless leader's graduation, it's time to celebrate the RPGs that made her. From tactics to action, from sim to rogue-lite, Kat, Eric, and Victor discuss Kat's idea of the perfect RPG library. Plus, Eric's been playing Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter; is this the Trails games that will hook newcomers? Listen to this perfectly bitter-sweet episode of Axe of the Blood God to find out! Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 Baroque is back, baby! How easy it is to play old games Timestamps: 3:12 - Big News! 10:52 Main Topic - Kat's Perfect RPG Library 22:32 - Tactics 35:12 - Turn-Based 47:28 - Action 56:48 - Dungeon Crawler 1:05:36 - Simulation 1:13:52 - CRPG 1:20:16 - Rogue-lite 1:26:48 - Monster Collecting 1:27:18 - Wildcards 1:32:08 - Random Encounters 1:53:20 - The Tavern - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter Remake 1:36:08 - Nadia’s Nostalgia Nook Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] Cityscape - The Sun Rises for Ones Who Smile - [Etrian Odyssey V] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pick a god and pray; Fire Emblem is back along with a deluge of news from the latest Nintendo Direct. Slow-life Pokemon, collections of Mega Mans, and remakes of good Dragon Quests. Kat, Nadia, and Victor discuss all this and more on the this episode of Axe of the Blood God! Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: You can just play old games. Nothing is stopping you. Super Robot Wars brings us together Timestamps: 3:30 - Main Topic - Nintendo Direct Reactions - Fire Emblem 18:52 - Dragon Quest VII 29:28 - Pokemon Pokopia 35:34 - Virtual Boy 44:02 - Hades 2 45:08 Persona 3 Reload 46:44 - Danganronpa 48:20 - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment 52:00 - Mega Man: Star Force 1:05:12 - Random Encounters 1:10:24 - Remembering the PlayStation on its 30th Birthday 1:36:08 - Nadia’s Nostalgia Nook - 40 Years of Super Mario Brothers Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] Shooting Star - [Mega Man Star Force] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com 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] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kat, Nadia, Eric, and Victor discuss their favorite weddings in RPGs, whether they serve the plot or they just think they’re neat! If you get married in FFXIV you get a sick Chocobo mount (the good kind of sick). Does marrying Shane in Stardew Valley fix him? No, girl, run!  Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: A tier list of Final Fantasy XIII characters. Final Fantasy XIV third party mods controversy. Turning your wedding table into a sovereign nation. Timestamps: 9:41 Main Topic - Weddings in RPGS 1:03:32 - Random Encounters 1:27:08 - The Tavern 1:57:30 - Nadia’s Nostalgia Nook Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] Stand By Me - [Final Fantasy XV] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

They grow Geoff Keighleys in Europe too?!A bevy of announcements have poured in from Gamescom so Kat, Nadia, and Eric are here to sift through it all and give you the straight dope.Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.comNote: Microsoft and the Xbox brand remain subjects of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement for their complicity in the ongoing apartheid and genocide of Palestine. In the interest of journalism we've chosen to cover Microsoft but encourage you to visit https://www.bdsmovement.net/microsoft for more information. Also in this episode: BSG but it's FTL! Monster Hunter Wilds x Final Fantasy XIV Performance on Switch 2: Elden Ring, Cyberpunk, and more Bottles of Brownie Batter Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines 2's development hell Pokemon TCG Pocket Updates Zero Parades Magic: The Gathering Update Lads and Bros playing Footy Bizarre Print Ads Timestamps: 3:28 - Main Topic 56:40 - Random Encounters 1:02:28 - The Tavern - Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, PlayStation Price Increase 1:39:28 - Bonus Mailbag! Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] eScape - [Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More like Lame Key Cards. Kat, Nadia, Eric, and Victor discuss the pros and cons of physical vs digital and what it means specifically to the history and culture of RPGs. Could it be that sometimes BOTH approaches are appropriate and that instead of pitting them against each other we should be addressing the underlying corporate systems that prevent us from experiencing art as anything other than consumers? Probably!Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.comNote: Microsoft and the Xbox brand remain subjects of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement for their complicity in the ongoing apartheid and genocide of Palestine. In the interest of journalism we've chosen to cover Microsoft but encourage you to visit https://www.bdsmovement.net/microsoft for more information. Also in this episode: The joy of getting a map with a game The frustration of downloading mandatory patches EA really is the worst What Tales game needs a remaster Hernias and Ronald McDonald Timestamps: 6:30 - Main Topic - Game Key Cards and the Importance of Physical Game Releases 1:05:14 - Random Encounters 1:11:04-ish - The Tavern - Dragon Age and Mass Effect Remasters, Tales of Xillia Remaster 1:34:00 - Nadia's Nostalgia Nook Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] The Hollow City - [Tales of Xillia 2] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To HD-2D, or not to HD-2D? That is the question Eric, Nadia, and special guest Timothy Monbleau are asking on this week's episode.From retro revivals like Live-A-Live and Dragon Quest to brand-new throwbacks like Octopath Traveler and The Adventures of Elliot, Square sure loves its depth-of-field-and-bloom-filled pixel-art dioramas! But should EVERY mid-budget RPG be adopting this style or is there a time and place for this look? All that and more on a very anachronistically aliased episode of Axe of the Blood God!Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound Super Smash Bros Beach Volleyball He Is Coming Eric's in his Movie Era Nadia hates Casablanca Timestamps: 8:48 - Main Topic - Adventures of Elliot and the Future of HD-2D 57:36 - Mailbag 1:03:20 - Random Encounters 1:04:28 - The Tavern 1:28:10 - Nadia's Nostalgia Nook Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] Pub - [Lunar Knights] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] One With Hope I - [OCTOPATH TRAVELER: Champions of the Continent] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices