Axe of the Blood God: We Pick the Fall 2017 RPGs We're Looking Forward to Most

South Park! Divinity: Original Sin! Xenoblade Chronicles 2! Kat and Nadia pick the RPGs they're looking forward to most this fall.

Article by Kat Bailey, 08/25/2017.

Axe of the Blood God is our weekly RPG podcast hosted by Kat Bailey and Nadia Oxford. You can find the previous episodes here.

In this week's episode of Axe of the Blood God (download link here), we dive into the RPGs that are coming out this fall. Xenoblade Chronicles 2! Pokemon! South Park! We've got them all covered.

Alas, we did not get a chance to chat about the news of the Secret of Mana remake, which dropped after we finished our recording. But if you want a preview, here's Nadia's take on it. Otherwise, we mostly focus on RPGs that are just around the corner, including Divinity Original Sin 2 and South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Nadia and I countdown the most intriguing RPGs of the fall and pick our favorites!

Also in this episode: More RPG parties! Thanks for all the great comments from those of who listened to the episode. It was a fun exercise, and hopefully we can do it against sometime!

Now here's a poll for our intrepid listeners: What should our next report be? Should we dive into Witcher 3? Wait for Divinity: Original Sin 2? We want your thoughts!

Want to share your thoughts on RPGs? Email us at usgamer@usgamer.net. We may read your letter on the show!

Where to find us (Subscribe, rate, and review!)

Show Description

Kat and Nadia talk about the weirdness of Assassins' Creed x Final Fantasy (which is indeed a real thing), then count down the biggest RPGs of Fall 2017! (22:00) Pokemon! Xenoblade Chronicles 2! South Park! We discuss them all and pick the ones we're most excited to play. Plus: We read your perfect RPG parties! (01:06:10)

Music from Axe of the Blood God is courtesy of Lena Chappelle, who has also contributed the themes to Active Time Babble and Roleplayers' Realm. I also use music from the RPG Music Pack over at rpgmaker.net. Check it out!

This article may contain links to online retail stores. If you click on one and buy the product we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here.

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#1 SatelliteOfLove 10 months ago

Xenoblade 2's character design still gives me a headache from its sheer awkward awfulness.

Kaneko...whither art thou?!?!?!

Witcher 3 is phenomenally long, you'd be best served waiting. Perhaps a quicker RPG that's fallen thru the cracks?

#2 Jonnyboy407 10 months ago

I'm super excited for XC2! I loved both XC and XCX.

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#3 Votomcy 10 months ago

@SatelliteOfLove Exactly. It's like they're doubling down on a perceived "younger demographic" of a handheld Nintendo platform, which many funding these games view the Switch as -- a handheld system like the 3DS. Thus, the character designs in some cases reflect that perception... That's my theory anyway.

#4 riderkicker 10 months ago

Nadia, I highly recommend getting Stick of Truth, especially if you find a cheap PS3 copy at a garage sale or something. It may be a pretty buggy game as expected of Western RPGs, but I had a lot of fun, especially when I stopped watching the show season 10.

I played through the game as a Jew but I rarely used his special abilities, finding great pleasure in using the Master Control Top. I never realized the main thrust of the job class was that his suffering only makes him stronger, which means low HP and/or status ailments. Anyway, finding the bow & arrow while combining them with the badges is pretty cool, as you can literally watch your opponents bleed to death on the battlefield while they hock up the plague and such. I actually found the last battle pretty tough as I didn't know how to utilize the Jew to his fullest potential, but it turns out it didn't matter as the game just ends, no post game content! If you do get the game, I highly recommend saving up money for Tom's Rhinoplasty.

Huh, DLC is only $3, maybe I will play it again soon.

I got Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga this year through a Gamestop Flash sale as the online store kept marking down the prices games one would find on eBay for three times as much. I just realized how terrible I am at Mario games when I can barely get the timing right on some of these battles, especially when I am currently stuck escorting Princess Peach through the Fossil Ruins. Hopefully it'll be less frustrating in the remake, though I doubt it as the main complaint with the series now is that there is SOOO much padding.

Pokemon Ultra sounds intriguing but I don't feel that it will be as cool as the Black and White series. I have not finished the Elite Four in my copy of Sun, and I may not anytime soon considering I have too many Pokemon to create a substantial team. I like the leisurely pace of the game with many things to do, but the main story is more lacking this time, serving as a means of forcing me to hurry up. I really want this revision to include more dungeons.

#5 The-Challenger 10 months ago

Solace is from Dragon Age: Inquisition. I think his true identity is only revealed if you keep him as an active party member. But I'm not 100% sure about that.

Xenoblade 2 reminds me of an early PS2 rpg, what with the seemingly clunky interface, the chunky and simplistic characters models, and a battle system that appears sluggish and boring. If nothing else, I'm sure if you enjoyed the first and second Xenoblade game you will enjoy this one.

#6 Gamer-Law 10 months ago

Xenoblade 2 is the RPG I am most looking forward to this fall, but it is hard not to be excited about early 2018 with the arrival of Lost Sphear, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, Ni No Kuni 2, etc.

Respectfully disagree with Nadia's assessment of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. While the graphics were not comparable to the Wii version, I found them to be very impressive for a handheld console. Moreover, having the ability to play that game on the go far outweighed any graphical downgrade.

#7 The-Challenger 10 months ago

@Gamer-Law I'm still considering buying a *New 3DS just so I can play that game on-go!

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#8 Gamer-Law 10 months ago

@The-Challenger - Would be a great investment from my perspective. I bought the Majora's Mask N3DS XL day one in large part so I could play Xenoblade Chronicles 3D when it released. Being able to play the game on the go was ideal for me.

#9 bobbywatson 10 months ago

I'm pretty sure that if FF XV ever makes it to the Switch, it will be the mobile/chibi version. You know, the one without fetch quests.

I was able to listen to the MP3 player on a chocobo today twice, without doing anything special, so I don't think a mod will be necessary for that.

I'm not going to rebuy/replay the game on PC, but one mod that would be nice is one that advances time, so that I don't have to sit around and do nothing (other than getting a drink or a snack) to enter a dungeon that only opens at night. Advancing to the morning is pretty easy by resting, but advancing to the evening is not (unless you pick up a hunt for an enemy that only spawns at night).

#10 Stevegasm 10 months ago

Nadia, the Final Fantasy VII on PC music issue was from the game using MIDI for the music. Unless you had a Sound Blaster Live, or whatever the equivalent Turtle Beach card was at the time, or I guess any sound card that could load Sound Fonts, the music was terrible. Those sound cards were about $150 (in Canada) back then, so it's not something everybody really went for. Basically what you heard was your sound card's best guess at the most similar instrument it needed (maybe there's more to it, but I think that simple explanation works). With the proper sound fonts, the proper instruments played on the soundtrack, and it actually sounded quite a bit better and cleaner than the PlayStation version.

Oh, and to use the sound fonts, you actually had to find them on the disk, and load them before starting the game by going into the Sound Blaster Live Software. Or at least that is what I remember. It's been 18 or 19 years.Edited August 2017 by Stevegasm

#11 nadiaoxford 10 months ago

@Stevegasm Are you referring to the good ol' '98 PC release, or the much more recent Steam release? I was talking about the latter. :)

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#12 Macuelos 10 months ago

Talking about Final Fantasy and mods, this summer I finally played Final Fantasy VIII on Steam and it was good, I used like half a dozen mods to do things like update the textures a bit, change the music, overhaul the entire UI, and change the controller button images. So good.

With Xenoblade, the way every Driver has their own companion weapon person thingy reminds me a lot of what I've read of Tales of Destiny, where a bunch of main characters have their own (elemental) Swordian companions. Haven't played either of the games myself, but it sounds like there's some overlap in the ideas and mechanics.

#13 MindesEndian 10 months ago

There is a Mario and Final Fantasy crossover game, actually! Kinda. It's a Mario basketball game for the DS that features Ninja, White Mage and Black Mage, and I think it was pretty neat.

Also, you can totally change your appearance in the original Sun & Moon. The new thing is taking photos doing poses with your Pokémon. Sorry about the corrections, but I couldn't help myself, haha.

#14 sfalletta 10 months ago

@Hoolo The companion system, or whatever its called, being added to Xenoblade 2 reminds me of the Djinn system in Golden Sun on the GBA.

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#15 Pandalulz 10 months ago

Oh man, I got all of my characters in FFIV to level 99 and still have no reason why except lack of anything else to do. I developed a twitch from the random battles where I would blink non-stop for about three days afterward.

#16 BRRocketDog 10 months ago

That you are upset with the South Park creators is clear, but to reduce them to "They are two rich white guys; what do they know" is wrong. Is this how you view people? Do you think of a person as a race, a sex, and an economic group? Is "rich white guy" a code phrase for you , that no other argument be made other than they are "two rich white guys"? You should be against their ideas, not against their level of income. You should disagree with their views, not discredit them because of their sex. You should engage their argument, not dismiss them because of their race.

#17 soloskywalker 10 months ago

@BRRocketDog he's right you know...∆∆∆∆

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