Leaving the Party

Chained Echoes (2022)

It's the longest episode of Leaving the Party yet! Tess and Kerry go in depth on the 2022 Japanese-inspired RPG Chained Echoes by Umami Tiger, talking first about what makes the game tick mechanically before going long for a spoiler-filled discussion of the characters and themes of the sprawling adventure. The next game we will be playing is Parasite Eve, the 1998 "cinematic RPG" from Square Enix! Find Tess Scilipoti on ⁠⁠her website⁠⁠ [https://www.tessscilipoti.com/] and ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti] Find Kerry Lloyd on the ⁠⁠Leaving the Party Blog⁠ [https://leavingtheparty.blog/] And finally, find ⁠a short blog post about this episode here [https://leavingtheparty.blog/2026/02/20/chained-echoes/]⁠. Timestamps: * 00:00:00 - Intros * 00:01:42 - "Calling Upon Bravery" - Eddie Marianukroh * 00:03:19 - Kerry's playing Planescape Torment * 00:08:45 - Kerry, Tess and friends have been playing Left 4 Dead 2 * 00:11:09 - The Half Life 2 Rant * 00:15:10 - Tess has been playing the DQ7 demo * 00:18:14 - Tess has been playing Final Fantasy Tactics * 00:23:35 - Tess hates Final Fantasy IX and me * 00:36:34 - Chained Echoes discussion begins * 00:38:34 - Background developer info * 00:47:12 - Never Forget Our Promise - Eddie Marianukroh * 00:48:01 - History around "the JRPG" * 01:05:09 - Episode structure + What is Chained Echoes? * 01:11:35 - Pacing + Narrative/Mechanical Structure * 01:16:52 - Variety of party character perspectives * 01:20:38 - Filthy Humans! - Eddie Marianukroh * 01:21:16 - Battle system + Overdrive meter * 01:32:04 - The crystal situation is insane. The Sienna situation is insane * 01:41:38 - Thoughts on difficulty and game length fatigue * 01:49:25 - (minor spoilers) Kerry's True King difficulty snafu * 01:51:55 - (minor spoilers over) * 01:59:24 - Sky Armor battles * 02:02:55 - Confusing UI fumbles * 02:07:22 - Tess loves puzzles :) * 02:14:10 - Champions of the Sky - Eddie Marianukroh * 02:14:26 - MINIGAME BREAK - Is It Woke!? * 02:25:32 - Himmelskaiser - Eddie Marianukroh * 02:25:56 - riffin * 02:29:03 - OFFICIAL spoiler warning!!! Spoilers from here onward * 02:30:04 - 90 Second Summary * 02:33:11 - Prologue * 02:34:46 - Kylian + Berserk * 02:39:01 - Plot and lore: "A whole bunch of God business" * 02:46:03 - This game desperately needs a codex * 02:56:15 - The White Rose Inn * 03:10:30 - Victor is a good boy * 03:13:41 - Sienna * 03:17:26 - Tess says "I wish this woman wasn't gay" out loud * 03:17:56 - We want more Raphael... * 03:22:24 - Glenn, Lenne, Victor, Timothy, Van, Bartholomew, the church, echoes. CHAINED ECHOES * 03:34:00 - Reigns of History - Eddie Marianukroh * 03:34:48 - Leaving the Party investigates: where is "down east"? * 03:36:52 - Ba'Thraz and the Lisvan * 03:45:55 - Amalia and Cres + Raphael is sexy goated * 03:52:15 - Robb, Taryn's ward + Forgiveness, redemption, and so on * 04:05:35 - Tomke, Mikah, and The Worm... * 04:11:41 - Egyl has the weirdest plot in the whole game * 04:13:34 - Magnolia :) * 04:17:31 - Dreaming a Dream of Red - Eddie Marianukroh * 04:18:20 - Prince Frederik became Hitler because he's actually a really good guy * 04:21:55 - Row, and the place of mecha and war in Chained Echoes * 04:34:48 - The grimoire and the nuclear metaphor * 04:42:14 - Kerry's DLC book report * 04:52:17 - Cody's question: too much inspiration? * 04:57:08 - Noah's question: how does it compare to other nostalgic RPGs like Sea of Stars? * 05:01:30 - The End * 05:08:25 - Next game is PARASITE EVE * 05:09:01 - Final recommendations + thanks for listening :) Show Notes Matthias Linda Talks JRPG Influences, Deck13 Backing, Music, & More [https://www.vgchartz.com/article/455192/chained-echoes-interview-creator-matthias-linda-talks-jrpg-influences-deck13-backing-music-amp-more/] Interview: Chained Echoes Developer [https://lordsofgaming.net/2023/01/interview-chained-echoes-developer-matthias-linda/] An Interview with ‘Chained Echoes’ Developer Matthias Linda [https://toucharcade.com/2022/10/21/an-interview-with-chained-echoes-developer-matthias-linda-switcharcade-special/] Why Japanese Fantasy has Dungeons… and sometimes Dragons [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqHLeBcKVh8] The ‘JRPG’ label has always been othering [https://www.polygon.com/23677598/jrpg-label-history-othering-discrimination-japanese-role-playing-game/] TSTV podcast [http://tstv.show/] dotzip podcast [https://dotzip.online/] thanks for listening xoxo

Pokémon Lazarus (2025) + The Pokemon Episode w/ Yvonne

What a pleasant surprise! Leaving the Party, everybody's favorite transgender podcast blog website, has returned... Today, Tess and Kerry are joined by their lovely friend Yvonne to talk about Pokémon Lazarus, a romhack of Pokémon Emerald by Nemo622 with many contributions from the romhacking community. But not before they talk extensively about Pokémon as a franchise, a business, and a series of games while they seek to answer: why are they like that? Find Tess Scilipoti on ⁠her website⁠ [https://www.tessscilipoti.com/] and ⁠Instagram⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti] Find Kerry Lloyd on the ⁠Leaving the Party Blog [https://leavingtheparty.blog/] And finally, find a short blog post about this episode here [https://leavingtheparty.blog/2026/01/16/pokemon-lazarus/]. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:35 "Pokémart" by Tom Sanborn 00:02:14 Special guest Yvonne! 00:03:26 Next episode is still CHAINED ECHOES 00:06:01 Kerry's Skateboarding Video Game Corner 00:29:38 Kirby Air Riders 00:33:48 Introducing Pokémon, Lazarus, romhacks 00:40:35 Emulator handhelds 00:43:40 Tess's wires boy-servant sabotages the internet 00:44:45 What is Pokémon Lazarus? + Other thoughts 00:49:11 Our relationship to Pokémon 01:01:55 The economic necessity of a Pokémon game: do these games lowkey suck? 01:06:04 Wikipedia Corner #1: The Complicated Corporate Structure of Pokémon and How They Make Their Damn Money 01:14:04 Why the new gimmick every game? 01:18:05 The Legends games 01:27:50 Leaving the Party solves Pokémon 01:32:22 Tess's minigame: Who's That Category of Pokémon? 01:41:22 "Team Chimera Battle" by Tom Sanborn 01:41:58 Wikipedia Corner #2: Lazarus Taxa 01:47:54 Romhacks and our experience with them 01:53:58 Emerald Seaglass 01:58:04 Do you guys wanna share our teams? 02:03:49 Stupid and gay 02:04:17 "Acrisia City" by Tom Sanborn 02:04:49 More teams + Being attached to Pokémon 02:08:26 Themes and simplicity in Lazarus 02:25:52 Difficulty and hard mode 02:35:18 Gym and route design 02:40:23 Piraeus + World map 02:46:56 Our favorite locations 02:50:36 We all live in a Pokémon World 02:52:11 Isn't Rotom funny? Isn't it weird how Pokémon don't fuck? Things of this nature 02:55:24 Quality of life stuff 03:00:58 Kerry's new favorite Pokémon 03:04:33 Shoutout wildlife conservation 03:07:05 Our shiny Pokémon :) 03:08:17 Music thoughts 03:09:13 Closing Lazarus thoughts 03:13:22 "Ilios Gym Leader" by Tom Sanborn 03:13:49 Back from break 03:15:48 Annual Leaving the Party Awards Ceremony Awards 2025: Huge Panic at the Heart Throbbing School Trip! ("It's TV Time!" by Toby Fox) 03:16:30 Yvonne's ALPACAs 03:20:05 Kerry's ALPACAs 03:26:04 Tess's ALPACAs 03:36:31 Final recommendations 03:37:38 Outros and plugs. Thanks for listening! Next episode is CHAINED ECHOES :) Show notes: Nemo622's Kofi [https://ko-fi.com/nemo622] Rib Removal Surgery [https://consequence.net/2017/11/marilyn-manson-still-wont-say-whether-or-not-he-removed-a-rib-in-order-to-suck-his-own-dick/] EA Saudi Arabia buyout [https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/saudi-arabia-will-own-93-4-percent-of-ea-after-buyout] Tess's review of Pokemon Emerald [https://backloggd.com/u/animorphology/review/869368/] This crazy diagram of the largest known coelacanth next to a human for scale Lmao [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Mawsonia_scaling.png/500px-Mawsonia_scaling.png] The New York Times is a games company with a newspaper side hustle [https://sherwood.news/business/the-new-york-times-is-a-games-company-with-a-newspaper-side-hustle/] Tama Hiroka's Ruby and Sapphire retrospective [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8uhmeFt7A] Pokemon Unbound [https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/pok%C3%A9mon-unbound-completed.382178/] Cecilily's interview with Nemo [https://youtu.be/GEB3vq5uncw?si=joaPPGjVhMfXlymu] Wikipedia Corner: Lazarus Taxon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_taxon] Takahē [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takah%C4%93] Coelacanth [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth] The Pokémon Company [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pok%C3%A9mon_Company] Pokémon [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon]

Felvidek (2024)

Kerry and Tess check out Felvidek, a 2024 historical fantasy game made in RPG Maker by Jozef Pavelka and Vlado Ganaj. Find Tess Scilipoti on her website [https://www.tessscilipoti.com/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti] Find Kerry Lloyd on the Leaving the Party Blog [https://leavingtheparty.blog/] And finally, find a short blog post about this episode here [https://leavingtheparty.blog/2025/09/19/podcast-felvidek-2024]. Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro + "Raubiri" 00:04:25 Chatting 00:17:00 Felvidek 00:19:42 90 Second Summary + Cowbells 00:25:38 Wikipedia Corner #1 00:40:56 The game + Spoilers onward from here! 00:59:50 Actual vocal spoiler warning lol 01:01:53 Battle system blues 01:12:35 Break + "Dedina" 01:13:47 Returning + Fun facts 01:21:18 Pavol 01:27:54 Paula 01:34:20 A character named "The Jew" AKA Wikipedia Corner #2 01:53:57 Ida + Some stuff we missed 02:06:35 Adam 02:13:47 Character arcs 02:17:17 Break + "Bestie" 02:18:55 Crash Team Racing + Fun facts 02:25:15 Wikipedia Corner #3 + Ahriman 02:35:25 The JRPG third act 02:40:10 Pavol's religious visions + Swords 02:43:42 Our ending + Thoughts 02:47:48 Our next game is CHAINED ECHOES 02:49:21 Final recommendations + Thanks for listening :) Show Notes Demons and cultists in 15th-century Slovakia: Interview with Jozef Pavelka, the creator of Felvidek [https://darkrpgs.home.blog/2024/12/12/demons-and-cultists-in-15th-century-slovakia-interview-with-jozef-pavelka-the-creator-of-felvidek/] Probably other stuff. Forgot to do show notes while editing this episode to be honest because I was thinking about the timestamps. Oops -Kerry Wikipedia Corner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunyadi [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunyadi'] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussites [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussites] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_European_Jews_in_the_Middle_Ages [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_European_Jews_in_the_Middle_Ages] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahriman [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahriman]

Lovely Lady RPG (2024)

Kerry and Tess talk in great detail this episode about Lovely Lady RPG, a game which, in line with the ethos of this show, is about walking around and making women smile. Next episode we will be playing Felvidek, an RPG maker game about an alcoholic knight in 15th century Slovakia. Thanks for listening! Find Tess Scilipoti on her website [https://www.tessscilipoti.com/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti] Find Kerry Lloyd on the Leaving the Party Blog [https://leavingtheparty.blog/] And finally, find a short blog post about this episode here [https://leavingtheparty.blog/2025/08/15/podcast-lovely-lady-rpg-2024/]. Show notes: Narrat Engine [https://narrat.dev/] Disco Elysium [https://discoelysium.com/] (kerry brings this up several times lol) Will This Bitter Night Bring Change? Two Women in Trouble [https://mia-cain.itch.io/wtbnbc] Christmas Hound Mia [https://das-kunstkollektiv.itch.io/christmas-hound-mia] The Crisis of German Social Democracy [https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1915/junius/] Revolutions Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/revolutions/id703889772] Lovely Ladyverse [https://itch.io/c/449424/the-lovely-ladyverse] Mia Cain dot itch dot io [https://mia-cain.itch.io/] Digital Poppy dot itch dot io [https://digital-poppy.itch.io/]

Welcome to Leaving the Party

Kerry and Tess introduce you to their brand new fun show about role playing games. Remember: August 15th will be the release date for our first episode on Lovely Lady RPG! Remember: this is all about making Tess smile. Show notes: https://leavingtheparty.blog/ [https://leavingtheparty.blog/] https://www.tessscilipoti.com/ [https://www.tessscilipoti.com/] Blog post for today's episode [https://leavingtheparty.blog/2025/08/08/leaving-the-party-podcast/] Thanks for listening! I'm very excited to start this podcast. Don't forget to bee yourself!