Axe of the Blood God: SMT V, Assassin's Creed Origins' Relationship to Witcher 3, and Final Fantasy IX Report #6

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), Nadia and I talk about Witcher 3's influence, my recent obsession with Destiny 2, and Vivi's existential crisis.

We've talked a fair amount about the influence that RPGs have had over triple-A development over the years, but it's more blatant than ever in Assassin's Creed Origins and Destiny 2: two of the biggest games of the year. Nadia and I talk about how hard it is to replicate the magic of The Witcher 3, and why RPG mechanics are so addictive.

Also in this episode: Shin Megami Tensei V chatter! Another Secret of Mana Report! And more!

Want to share your thoughts on RPGs? Email us at usgamer@usgamer.net. We may read your letter on the show! Keep those Perfect RPG Teams coming, folks!

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Show Description

Kat and Nadia get together to discuss Kat's recent addition to Destiny 2; the Witcher 3's influence on 2017's biggest games, and the announcement of Shin Megami Tensei 5 before delving into Vivi's search for meaning, the introduction of Eiko, and dwaves in the latest Final Fantasy IX Report. Plus: Kat refuses gender Sprite and complains about Spikey in Secret of Mana Report #2.

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!

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#1 riderkicker 9 months ago

That bummer about Vivi was the most sad thing in the game thus far, especially when we've all grown to love him, even Steiner thought him like a son! Interesting connection to Blade Runner, Kat.

For once I thought Atlus would've abandoned SMT when Persona 5 was made a bit like the mainline series, especially in the enemies you fight. Glad I was wrong because that trailer woah. I really have to get back to playing Nocturne since I heard that was the last console iteration, as the DS had three iterations of IV. Perhaps we'll get a journal one day? Curse this holiday season!

#2 riderkicker 9 months ago

Oh yeah, I never grinded to beat the Elite Four in the original game. I just used the Missingno cheat with rare candy and went straight through the rest of the game. As kids we didn't know anything about EVs, and only one kid was all "you cheated but it means your Pokemon are still week" Last year or so when the Red and Blue games were on sale, I got both games one for me and a friend and I forced myself to grind. It is still a pain in the butt, but duplicating TMs helped a bit even though I only used one TM. Red and Blue and Gold and Sver still had the same problems, but Fire Red and Leaf Green got really smart about the grinding while HGSS did not!

I have got to beat Sun, I still haven't as I forgot how to plan a party and I wasted my playtime training many monsters. Doh.

#3 moochan 9 months ago

@riderkicker Nocturne is my favorite of the SMT games. The only issue with it is that you have no control over the skills that are passed over. So to get a fusion that you really want with the skills you want you need to cancel out and fuse again hoping for the right one. Really wish Atlus remade Nocturne with the fusing mechanics in the newer games because it's the only thing that stops me from replaying it.

Another really great Atlus game is Digital Devil Saga. The idea is no negotiations but instead you control people that can learn the different skills based on the kind of job (more elemental than job) system. Story is really dark and helps you understand more of the mechanics of the games. Like with most Atlus games its hard as balls at the start and once you start learning more abilities you start to deal with thing better.

#4 riderkicker 9 months ago

@moochan I played a little DDS on the PS2 a while ago, but found the experience as tough as playing Nocturne. I do wish it was ported for handhelds these days. Don't give up hope, I guess.

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#5 riahk 9 months ago

RE: The abundance of giant sacred trees in JRPGs, while Japanese culture has strong reverence for nature I think it's more a reference to the 'tree of life' that appears in mythology across cultures. Symphonia's in particular is a direct reference to the Yggdrasil tree in Norse myth. Jewish kabbalah also has the tree of life in the form of the ten sefirot/sephiroth, which was heavily drawn upon in Tales of the Abyss and plays deeply into the game's themes. There's also the celtic tree of life, and probably many other iterations I'm not familiar with.

TL;DR humans love giant magic trees and I'm probably a mythology nerd.

Nice hearing I wasn't the only one who just trained up 1-2 pokemon in the older games! I was only 8 or 9 when I played blue version so I pretty much solo'd the game with charizard. Same with silver, crystal and Sapphire, though in the latter I did raise an azumarill and pelipper as well. Still, blaziken ended up a good 15-20 levels ahead of everybody else.Edited October 2017 by riahk

#6 Natabuu 9 months ago

The first time that I played Secret of Mana, I named the sprite Ashley. I thought that the character was female until the English translation used a male pronoun before the final boss battle. At the time, I didn't know that
a. Ashley (often shortened to Ash) could be a masculine name as well.
b. The sprite was meant to be genderless.

The next time that I played through the game, I named the playable characters Luke, Leia, and Yoda.