We’re joined by Dia Lacina once again as Ryo continues the next leg of his quest to track down Lan Di, his father’s killer. What strange challenges will he find in China? How does Yu Suzuki follow up one of the most ambitious, incredible games of all time? We find ourselves surprised at almost every turn as Shenmue II goes big and goes small and go…

One of the hot new releases of … wait, 1999? That can’t be right. Oh, it’s a fan translation. One of the hot new fan translations hitting the inter-oh I’m being informed the fan translation is from three years ago! How embarrassing. Well, we’ve been meaning to play this one for a hot minute, and when Em finally tried it they were so instantly in lo…

Sometimes you decide to finally pick up one of those games you’ve always heard of but never got around to, the curiosities that you are pretty sure aren’t must plays, but stick in your brain anyway. Some might argue this has been the history of Abnormal Mapping at large! But this month we do one of the epitomes of this style of game as Em chose one…

Jackson is joined today by official Final Fantasy Correspondant Austin Walker to talk about Final Fantasy XI - specifically the base game and Rise of the Zilart. It’s been a busy MMO summer and we simply needed to get it out of our systems and into microphones somewhere. Please enjoy this three hour tribute to a game that’s still around and still g…

Em is back from the month off to talk about the joy of a kind of cheesy mystery with a great sci-fi premise as we get to live out our Star Trek: The Original Series dreams by lecturing ancient peoples about how our modern world view is clearly the best one. This sounds like it’s selling The Forgotten City short, but I promise it isn’t, we really li…

This month it’s just me, Jackson, being joined by Crystal to play Citizen Sleeper. Em is currently in Hospital after major surgery and so I’m taking over and organizing the podcasts while they recover! Please send them well wishes. It’s time to talk about RPG systems, and the strange act of critiquing leftist video games that you mostly agree with.…

We enjoy one of the major modern attempts at making a Pokemon-style monster collecting and battling RPG with Cassette Beasts. We talk about surprising scope of the world, the intense battle system, what your numbers say about your priorities, the weirdness of dating mechanics, and much more! This game was a great surprise and a huge delight, so ple…

We find ourselves doing grunt work for Atrus once more as our favorite self-published author and god of his own realms begins reaping what he’s sown over the last two games. We solve some puzzles, enjoy Brad Dourif, and talk about the kind of guy who keeps going around birthing entire worlds. Exile was good fun, happy to dip back into the world of …

We leap back in time to the Mega Drive to talk about two action classics back when action games meant jumping and avoiding and not perfect parries. Not exactly divisive that we enjoy these types of games, but the generational split is very real as we talk about these two classics of game. Join us, for a walk down memory lane (Sega edition). Thank y…

We finish our long Final Fantasy adventure by playing Square’s largest single player Final Fantasy yet. But does size equal quality? Does it equal ambition? We have many thoughts about this and about where the entire Final Fantasy VII Remake Project has gone and is heading in this enormous podcast about an equally enormous game. After dozens of hou…

We’re joined by Molly for the return of one of the classics, a guy who just needs to jump over every spike in all the world, conveniently located in a beautiful palace. That’s right, we’re here to talk about the return of Prince of Persia, and the surprising ways Ubisoft have melded the last ten years of exceptional platforming games into something…

We interrupt your regularly scheduled coverage with a special announcement: Jackson has played the Final Fantasy XIII games, at last. Despite the frankly illegal amount of Final Fantasy content lately they were not going to let that go to waste. They are joined by Erin (@Woodabris, Woodaba on Youtube) to discuss the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, with…

We’re going back to the heady days of licensed multi-platform games in the early 00s this month as we play 007: Everything or Nothing and talk about the era of arcane save processes, weird genre mashups, awful final missions, and the ways in which the whole medium could turn on a relatively short dime to become something new. Was this game an unher…

We close out the year with a podcast years in the making, as Molly joins us and we take a road trip with the king to be and his homies and play the much maligned but beloved by us Final Fantasy XV! This podcast will cover the main game and the first three episode DLCs (Gladio, Prompto, Ignis), and there’ll be a follow up podcast on the patreon (fre…

We keep gaming as we tackle a bunch of small games in a classic grab bag and talk through a whole mess of games that are interesting and worthwhile but often have one or two extremely obvious parts that hold it back. Some of them are reasonable critiques, some of them are just the unfortunate realities of game production, some are just The Times. I…

It’s Jackson here with a surprise episode of Abnormal Mapping! This was meant to be a bonus anniversary surprise but scheduling woes got it pushed back a week, but that’s not important: I finally played Majora’s Mask. And I’m joined by my good friend Crystal to talk about it. Things Discussed: Majora’s Mask, most Zeldas, some Resident Evil. Next Mo…

We’ve been doing this for ten years! Damn, that’s a long time to be doing a monthly game club. But we’ll keep trucking into our second decade as we start a series that neither of us have played before. We’re joined by a guest, Shenmue superfan Dia Lacina, to talk about Ryo and his ridiculous quest for vengeance. Please enjoy this supersized episode…

We celebrate a century and a half of excellence this month as we talk about 3D platforming as we take a thorough look at Demon Turf and talk about platforming for sickos, designing games around the expectations of Nintendo Polish, and what that means in terms of expectations and the war within ourselves to appraise a thing. Demon Turf is really goo…

We’re back with one of the obvious classics of all time, a game neither of us had played before this month but came like a lighting strike into our lives with its charm and brevity and interesting vision of early 3D RPG design. That’s right, it’s time to servbot up some exploration, with a dash of adventure, you dig? Okay, okay, I’ll stop. Please e…

Em is joined by anime gaming expert Olivia today to talk about a classic of Visual Novels, the Muv Luv trilogy of games! We have a brief RPG checkin first, nothing especially spoiler-heavy so don’t worry if you’re not also 7 games into Kiseki, but the Muv Luv sequence is, of course, exceedingly spoiler heavy by nature. Thank you so much as always f…

We’re joined by post-gamer and friend of the show Austin Walker to talk about the latest and greatest in the long running Final Fantasy series. That’s right, it’s Clive time! Join us as we try to grapple with this large action RPG and talk mostly about its story and themes. Some mechanical talk, but this is very writing centric as an episode. Enjoy…

We’re joined by blogger of the year and adventure game maestra Dia Lacina to talk about one of the most iconic games of the LucasArts era, Monkey Island 2! There’s plenty of other games besides, but it’s really mostly this one, because it’s worth it. You can watch Dia play Monkey Island 1 for free HERE, and support her Patreon to watch her play all…

We’re joined by special guest Niamh to talk about one of the classics of video game, infamously one of only two games we bailed on playing in history, and one of the once most divisive RPGs of history now mostly considered one of the greats. That’s right we’re revisiting Final Fantasy VIII playing Chrono Cross! FOR THE TIMELINE AND STORY SUMMARY VI…

Em’s been so busy gaming we had to break out segment 1 into its own podcast to spare our Chrono Cross episode the world’s most topheavy structure, but we ended up having a great time. Second half of the pod is all Resident Evil talk if that’s not your speed, but before that is more normal. Spoilers for RE through Village, though! Thank you so much …

We’re back to talk about a small game about chilling out and brewing potions and what it says for the act of gaming itself to engage in a relaxing sort of simulated labor. There’s a whole world of games out there we don’t really touch on, and it was nice to brush up against it for once. Also, as usual, lots of gaming talk in general. Thank you so m…

We’re back with a normal episode of Abnormal Mapping as we dig into our backlog a bit and then talk about a very low key narrative adventure game and have a pleasant time digging into gardening, melodrama, and narratives about guilt and responsibility. Thank you so much as always for listening, please rate and review the podcast, and tell all your …

On this very special episode Em is joined by Dia Lacina and Emrys to talk about Sega’s iconic JRPG franchise Phantasy Star. We talk about the banging soundtrack, the innovations it brings to the genre, and the ways it has been forgotten by time. Because it’s four games, it’s a little lighter than usual, but it was great to settle in and talk about …

We’re joined by Dia Lacina to talk about foundational survival horror classic Resident Evil, and mostly talk about genre and the strange legacy of having a remake that’s more popular than the original. It was nice to be able to dig into a classic like this and find plenty to talk about both as a game and as a cultural object. Thank you so much as a…

We’re joined by Ember to talk about a game at the intersection of those two most contentious genres: soulslikes and Metroidvanias. This intersection itself is now a vibrant sub-genre, and in talking about this entry we talk about the ways these games tell stories, the platformer vs combat tension inherent in them, and why good art can often set up …

We end out the year by going hard on going fast through 3D spaces as we talk more about where 3D Sonic is at, and also about the array of interesting 3D time attack platformers coming out inspired by Sonic’s spotty but beloved reputation in the third dimension. This is a meaty episode covering a lot of cool indie games, hopefully people check them …

It's nearly Christmas time and thus we settle in for that most famous of Christmas games, Hideo Kojima's sci-fi detective classic SNATCHER! No, really, this is a Christmas ass Christmas game in the same way Die Hard is so I'm claiming it. We finally did a timely Christmas game. On top of that, we have a huge amount of games to talk about, a lot of …

We ring in our ninth anniversary with a new-ish game, the dystopian magical realism adventure game Norco! There’s plenty of navel gazing about life, podcasts, gaming, and capitalism to be had, that heady Abnormal Mapping special brew, as we bring you this super-sized episode. Honestly, there isn’t much to say, this game just rips and people should …

We have another huge haul of games as we talk about seemingly everything under the sun but also two games for the lengthening nights as we do a sort of horror month talking about two moody classics of the RPG Maker indie games scene: Yume Nikki and Ib! It was great to be able to talk about such a fun genre, get out of our comfort zones a bit, and e…

It’s gaming season as we dip into a sequel to one of the most classic games of the 90s and find that maybe lighting truly does strike twice. On top of that, a dozen other games played between us, and a bunch of other fun besides including which PlayStation is canonically the Best Looking. The answer will not surprise you in the slightest. Send us q…

We try to beat the heat by playing a game about the sweltering jungle and the fight for survival, but y’know … it’s cute! Also, we declare an early end to our Year of Handhelds because of a Gaming Injury, but we’ll still be delivering banger episodes every month as always. Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or gaming in general to…

I’m joined once again by my friend and fate-bestower Kim as we cover the only sequel to Fate/stay night, Hollow Ataraxia! We talk about where my fate-pilling is at, the power of stories that aren’t about anything, the evolution of guys, and the general experience playing the miracle game. Truly one of my new favorites. Spoilers of course for FSN, F…

One of the most infamous Japan-only RPGs finally gets its turn as Abnormal Mapping heads back to a simpler time of GBAs, Nintendo being good, and a little boy with magical PSI powers as we finally get to the game we’ve been putting off for nearly eight years: Mother 3! We must be so exhausted. Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or…

We delve into the power of healing and the demands of the DS touch screen as we scrub up and try to save people by playing doctor and … NGO front line crime fighter? Look, anime is complicated. Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or gaming in general to abnormalmappingpodcast@gmail.com! If you would like to support us please visit …

We remember the basics of CQC one draw at a time as we go back to the long road of woe that is Metal Gear to play the strange PSP tactical spin-off Metal Gear Acid 2! There are ABSOLUTELY talk about the entire franchise, because we just love/hate Metal Gear too much not to go all over, so be warned about the spoilers. But otherwise, enjoy this ridi…

Abnormal Mapping is here to talk about two Sonic games that were designed for the Game Gear and the first generation of dedicated handheld games and why they often were saddled with the reputations they would carry with them for decades to come. These games are all right tho! Also an extended what we’ve been playing, featuring Jack Chaos and Metroi…

A special mid-month Abnormal Mapping is summoned into the grail war! Em is joined by their friend Kim to talk about the humble origin of a massive media franchise and the experience of playing a massive visual novel with a lot of competing ideas that might not always gel together perfectly. That said, Fate is pretty cool, so we had a great time! If…

We opened up our GBAs and DSes for a parade of classic Nintendo bangers as we talk about when video games were joyful and rhythm games were about learning actual ass rhythm. It’s a big episode, with lots of music, and I hope everyone enjoys! Send us questions about our game clubs, other games, or gaming in general to abnormalmappingpodcast@gmail.co…

Sacred time is here! We light the fires and huddle our tula around the ring as we tell tales of old and mishaps aplenty in the dangerous world of Glorantha as we talk about this classic narrative strategy game! Also, because it’s us, lots of JRPG updates and many other things besides in this lengthy episode. Praise to Orlanth! Send us questions abo…

The end of the year of JRPGs ends with a game exploring the very limits of the genre and pushing into the modern conception of RPG meta text. Gone are the battles and dungeons, remaining are quests and levels and the question of what is it all for. Also, some really funky guys. So many cool, funky guys. Join us as we close the book on this strange …

We’re back as we take a sharp left from our projected game club and play the newest of new releases, the hot new Microsoft Tentpole, HaForza Horizon 5! Please enjoy this sprawling conversation about everything from driving mechanics, to radio stations in games, our problems with live service games, to liberal progressive ideas of tourism and repres…

Rushing this one out the door because of scheduling problems, it’s a new Abnormal Mapping! We played a game that has been on Em’s to do list for years, and we discover that sometimes digging into the past isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Also, the characters of Star Ocean? Discover that sometimes digging into the past isn’t all it’s cracked up to b…

We’re joined by Scarlett for a stroll down memory lane, when Sony meant interesting games coming from Japanese developers. It wasn’t even that long ago! Revisiting Gravity Rush 2 a mere four years after its release, we remember the power of the Vita to fire our imagination, and the cold light of day that’s been first party development in the last h…

We are joined by blogger of the year Dia Lacina who was willing to go down with the ship as we break format for a trio of games that we only knew of probably bad games nobody actually played. That’s right, we took all our RPG expertise and applied it to the strange trilogy of Tokyo RPG Factory games! Em froze their ass off in I am Setsuna, Dia reme…

We’re joined by Dan to once again talk about the strange tangent of the Metroid universe as we continue to mine the Phazon arc to gain an appreciation for how you follow up one of the boldest games ever made. Turns out, that’s really hard! Join us for a discussion of light and dark worlds, not even lazily caring about your plot, and the nightmare t…

This month we feast on one of the largest games time investment wise we’ve ever played for Abnormal Mapping, but it just so happens to be the game we initially bonded over well before we started the podcast. Thankfully, we can’t get too self indulgent, as we’re joined by special guest Molly Rhinebeck to navigate the ins and outs of the 1000 year jo…