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#053 - "I say Warrior, you say Quest" (Dragon Quest 1) Oct 12, 2020

Show notes

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!

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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#052 - "Respect for Faerie Tales" (Vagrant Story) Sep 27, 2020

Show notes

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!).

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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#051 - "DFO vs the World" (Dungeon Fighter Online) Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

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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#050 - "Kiss Me, I'm Old" (Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) Sep 02, 2020

Show notes

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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#049 - "Final Smash: The Spirits Within" (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate) Aug 18, 2020

Show notes

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:

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

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#048 - "The Man, The Mega, The Legends" (Mega Man Legends) Apr 27, 2020

Show notes

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:

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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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#047 - "The Lion, the Witch, and the War School" (Final Fantasy VIII) Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

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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#046 - "I Did It All For Tom Nook Inc." (Animal Crossing: New Horizons) Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

MAGE CAST is back from the dead! On this episode, podcaster and VR pioneer Aaron aka SanityCrypto and I talk Animal Crossing: New Horizons, our new found addiction. We discuss why we were even interested in playing New Horizons in the first place, task-oriented gameplay, Tom Nook for president, Pocket Camp, genre and series context, review bombing and hyperbole, ACNH sales, what the game doesn't tell you, addressing the multiplayer and co-op, the worst, the best, and the missing features, pixel art: the real endgame, how to "evict" villagers, time-traveling, and farming monsters.
Links:

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Ko-fi
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Guest: @SanityCrypto
Music: "Welcome Horizons" & "Island Tour (Day - Rain)" composed by Yasuaki Iwata, Yumi Takahashi, Shinobu Nagata, Sayako Doi, Masato Ohashi

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#045 - "The Duck Knight Returns" (Darkwing Duck) Feb 23, 2020

Show notes

Two experts meet in St. Canard: Nicole (RedAuxPDX) and Ryan (Retrogamebrews) discuss with me the terror that flaps in the 8-bit night: Darkwing Duck on NES! We'll unpack Darkwing's origins and inspirations, Disney+ and the full 91 episodes, RedAux's cosplay and meeting the creators, 2017 DuckTales and Darkwing, remembering the beloved cartoon, the heart of the show, its characters and villains and our favorite episodes, ranking cartoon theme songs, the TurboGrafx-16 game, the tragically canceled sequel, the mobile game, Capcom and Mega Man, the hanging mechanic, late NES games, licensed games and their many woes, and the Disney afternoon multiverse.
Links:

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Guests: @RedAuxPDX and @Retrogamebrews
Music: "Darkwing Duck theme song" original lyrics by Steve Nelson and Thomas Sharp; "Title theme" by Yasuaki Fujita

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#044 - "Pie Chart" (Pac-Man) Feb 17, 2020

Show notes

It's time to talk about something that's really old, because old things can be great, too! Pac-Man podcast with the Arcade Mage and the Slipstream Mage. We'll discuss the devs taking a risk with Pac-Man over Rally X, vandalizing "Puck-Man", world records and President Reagan, the killscreen, K.C. Munchkin, how the world of games development has changed, our earliest memories of Pac-Man, ye olde arcades, the infamous Atari 2600 Pac-Man, developers that once struggled to gain recognition and credit for their games, being inspired by pizza, the twin cherries strategy, purchasing arcade cabinets today, deterministic artificial intelligent and the ghosts, Pac-Man's firsts, Pac-Man at amusement parks, Pac-Man merch, Pac-Man spin-offs, Pac-Man pasta!! Everything Pac-Man, plus Ms. Pac-Man, Professor Pac-Man, and Baby Pac-Man, too. Oh and appealing to stereotypes vs inclusivity.
Links:

https://thewellredmage.com/2017/02/01/pac-man/
https://thewellredmage.com/2020/01/17/psikyo-shooting-stars-alpha-2020-switch/
https://thewellredmage.com/2020/02/06/dawn-of-man-review-2020-ps4/
http://www.arcadecastle.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6jnXEB5JT4VD3EOybG5LFA

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Guests: @TheArcadeCastle and @JTorto40
Music: "Pac-Man" by Dancing Bros. and "Pac-Man Fever (Club Version)" by Buckner & Garcia

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