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Welcome to the podcast home of With a Terrible Fate, your first and final source for literary studies of your favorite video games. Subscribe for a range of accessible deep-dives into the storytelling of specific video games, as well as the theory of video-game narrative more broadly. Find all our written, audio, and video content, along with options to support us, at https://linktr.ee/withaterriblefate.
Episodes
Monday Jul 15, 2024
The Moral, Immersive, and Esoteric of Video Games
Monday Jul 15, 2024
Monday Jul 15, 2024
On this week's episode of With a Terrible Fate's podcast, join Aaron and Dan in a treacherous, invigorating relitigation of domains of video-game discourse with a reputation for being too messy and inert to matter to the ordinary gamer. The two main bugaboos on the agenda are "morality" and "immersion" in gaming. What does it mean for games to have moral content, and how can this content actually help to illuminate the many reasons we have for playing games rather than leading us into often distracting conversations about whether playing games at all is "good" or "bad"? And how might "immersion" distract us from the rich experiences games give us by dynamically playing with the distance between player and avatar, and telling stories about the changes in that distance?
Listen in to find out! Along the way, we alight on topics ranging from the value of video-game adaptations into television to the potential of games to provide players with mystic and esoteric experiences. We even make time to consider Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, and we break down how to read the philosophical debate over our emotional reactions to works of fiction—featuring exegesis of work from Aaron's undergraduate thesis adviser and mentor, Richard Moran.
Be on the lookout for spoiler-ish discussions of The Last of Us Parts 1 & 2, the TV adaptation of The Last of Us Part 1, Silent Hill 2, Tales of Hearts R, Elden Ring, and Shadow of the Erdtree (though spoilers focus more on Elden Ring than on Shadow of the Erdtree).
Works Referenced:
- Hughes, Dan (2017). "Does Silent Hill 2 Belong in the Video Game Canon?" With a Terrible Fate.
- Moran, Richard. (1994) “The Expression of Feeling in Imagination.” Philosophical Review 103.1, pp. 75-106.
- Suduiko, Aaron. (2017) "Guilt & Inequity in Silent Hill 2." With a Terrible Fate.
- — —. (2022) "How Elden Ring Turns Its Player into an Outer God." With a Terrible Fate.
- — —. (2023) "Tales of the Abyss, Kabbalah, and Gaming as a Spiritual Act." With a Terrible Fate.
- — —. (2024) "Why You Must Play Tales of Hearts R 389 Times." With a Terrible Fate.
- Walton, Kendall. (1978) “Fearing Fictions.” Journal of Philosophy 75.1, pp. 5-27.
- — —. (1990) Mimesis as make-believe: on the foundations of the representational arts. Cambridge: Harvard University. Print.
Thursday Jul 04, 2024
INSCRYPTION, Game Mothers, and Gaming Rituals
Thursday Jul 04, 2024
Thursday Jul 04, 2024
***WARNING: THIS EPISODE IS HAUNTED!*** The characters in the first game we discussed were haunting our podcasting software, so please excuse some small technical difficulties throughout the episode and a rather abrupt kickoff on account of a lost introduction. We jump directly into spoilers for Inscryption, a game that ought to be played without spoilers, so we strongly recommend only listening to this episode after playing! (Or, skip ahead to 45:30 to pass over this discussion.)
In a belated installment of the With a Terrible Fate podcast, Aaron and Dan travel back in time to Mother's Day 2024 in a discussion ranging from the horrifying, to the metafictional, to the maternal, to the personal. We kick things off (0:00:00) with a long-overdue debrief of Inscryption following Dan's completion of it and agree that it's something you simply have to discover for yourself—as well as being something that you absolutely must discuss with others who have experienced it! Later (0:45:30), we contemplate portraits of some memorable mothers from our gaming lives. Finally (0:52:54), we wrap things up with an exploration of how single-player gaming can include a range of rich, intersecting, real-life ritual practices, which can equip us to game more mindfully if only we can attend to those rituals in our conscious mind.
Be warned (again!) for thorough spoilers of Inscryption, along with some smaller structural spoilers for elements of (in the motherhood section) Tales of Eternia, Tales of Hearts R, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Scarlet Nexus, Returnal, God of War & Ragnorok, and (in the ritual section) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, along with some reprised spoilers for Inscryption.
Works Referenced
- Erin Waldram, "How Majora's Mask Teaches Us to Connect With All of Ourselves"
- Aaron Suduiko, "Why You Must Play Tales of Hearts R 389 Times"
Saturday Jun 08, 2024
Lies of P, Philosophical Catalysts, and Charitable Replays
Saturday Jun 08, 2024
Saturday Jun 08, 2024
On this episode of the With a Terrible Fate podcast, we celebrate Dan's birthday with a conversation ranging from becoming a real boy to becoming a... real old man!
We begin with a postgame analysis of Lies of P in which it takes Aaron and Dan a hilariously long time to uncover that, contrary to their first impression based on each other's perspective, they'd actually chosen different endings to the story! This lays the foundation for a discussion of how games' content can prompt philosophical dialogues between their players, revealing a wealth of hidden depth that makes Lies of P well worth the time of the thoughtful gamer—especially if she comes to it with a background in the oeuvre of Hidetaka Miyazaki.
Later, we turn to Dan's birthday as a context for revisiting formative childhood games we hated and striving to read them anew through the principle of charity, a core tenet of With a Terrible Fate's ethos. We articulate practical methods for approaching games from this perspective, including the distinction between asking what a game is "capital 'A' About" and what a game is "capital 'S' Saying." When we apply these methods to some of those first games that left a bad taste in our mouths, we argue, we have the opportunity not just to discover new value in an old game, but also to recontextualize our entire gaming history in the bargain.
Whether you're seeking new ways to evaluate the game you just finished or new values in the games you've been seething over for decades, this episode has something for you!
Works Referenced
- Dan Hughes, "Understanding Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II," With a Terrible Fate. May 21, 2021.
- Richard Nguyen, "Beyond the Moral Binary: Decision-Making in Video Games," With a Terrible Fate. April 25, 2016.
- Enrico Pasini, "Leibniz's Dissatisfaction with the Cogito," G.W. Leibniz: Razón, Verdad y Diálogo, edited by Juan Antonio Nicolás, Alejandro Herrera, Roberto Casales, Luis Velasco, Leonardo Ruiz, and Alfredo Martinez (Colección Nova Leibniz / Latina 5), Granada: Editorial Comares 2023, p. 35–48. Author's manuscript; open access.
- Aaron Suduiko, "The Horror of Code Vein is You," With a Terrible Fate. November 22, 2020.
- — —, "Scarlet Nexus: The Pathos of Karen Travers," With a Terrible Fate. November 8, 2021.
- — —, "The Tragic Irony of Final Fantasy XIII-2," With a Terrible Fate. November 29, 2016.
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Fairy Tales, Fantasies, and Fourth Walls
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
Thursday Apr 18, 2024
This week, With a Terrible Fate's podcast is a romp ranging from adaptation to serialized storytelling to metafiction. We kick off discussing Lies of P in the contexts of Pinocchio, Miyazaki-inspired games, and philosophically-minded stories as Aaron nears the conclusion of his first playthrough. (He's since wrapped this up, so stay tuned for overall first impressions!) Later, Dan presents his latest views on how to read the eras and progress of Final Fantasy as a series, inspired by his latest journeys through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Final Fantasy XVI, and in conversation with Aaron's current work on the Tales of series in Tales of Praxis. Finally, we both wrestle with the relationship between a game's fourth wall, metafictional storytelling, and how to involve a player without disenfranchising the story's characters—as well as how our views in this area have changed over the years.
Mind the spoilers for the whole Final Fantasy series, the Tales of series, Lies of P, BioShock, The Stanley Parable, NieR, and Undertale!
Check out With a Terrible Fate's publications on many of the games in this discussion, such as: Final Fantasy, Tales of, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Code Vein, BioShock, The Stanley Parable, NieR, and Undertale.
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
PAX East 2024, Second-Chance Games, and Perilous Platinums
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
Saturday Apr 13, 2024
This week on With a Terrible Fate's podcast, we celebrate the communities, black sheep, and arduous challenges of gaming! We begin with Aaron breaking down With a Terrible Fate's lecture on bosses at PAX East last month, along with broader reflections on everything from cosplays to upcoming indie games you won't want to miss. All the talk of bosses leads us to Dark Souls II, one of the subjects of the lecture, inviting a broader discussion of why games which you or a fandom didn't initially enjoy can oftentimes be the most rewarding "new game plus" experiences. Then, with Dark Souls on the brain, we consider what may be the "Dark Souls" of platinum trophy experiences: Dan's journey to get the platinum on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, what it means to the game, and how we find value in achievements more broadly. Finally, we round things out with a discussion of our current gaming adventures, including Dan's experience of Japanese history in Rise of the Rōnin and Aaron's Chekhovian madness on the way to the climax of Tales of Xillia.
Be on the lookout for spoilers regarding the Dark Souls series, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, Rise of the Rōnin, Nioh, and Tales of Xillia.
Articles Cited:
• With a Terrible Fate at PAX East 2018: "How Games are Changing Serialized Storytelling"
• Aaron Suduiko: "The Language of Trophies in Final Fantasy VII Remake"
Monday Mar 25, 2024
First Thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Monday Mar 25, 2024
Monday Mar 25, 2024
This week on With a Terrible Fate's podcast, Aaron and Dan take a deep breath and dive into their very first, unfiltered, spoiler-rich thoughts about Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Save this episode until you've finished the main scenario and are ready to dig into its microscopic and macrocosmic implications! We're already eagerly planning new analyses centered on this latest addition to the Final Fantasy VII corpus, consistent with the spirit and approach of The Legacy of Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Ahead of the Rebirth roundtable, we also anticipate With a Terrible Fate's lecture at PAX East 2024, which took place this past weekend! (The podcast was produced ahead of the convention.) We were overjoyed to engage a wonderful audience of hundreds of thoughtful, passionate gamers on the topic of bosses' interactive and narrative content over the course of almost three hours, and we're delighted to welcome many of these newcomers into the broader With a Terrible Fate community. Unfortunately, we encountered some unexpected recording issues and only walked away with partial footage from the lecture, but we're excited to share as much as we can with the entirety of our audience in one form or another in the near future. Stay tuned!
Thursday Feb 22, 2024
How to Get to Know a Video-Game Character
Thursday Feb 22, 2024
Thursday Feb 22, 2024
On this special edition of the With a Terrible Fate podcast just ahead of analyst Dan Hughes' wedding, Dan and Aaron wrestle with the marvelously multifaceted problem of how we can best come to understand the nature of characters in our favorite video games. What draws us to specific protagonists in party-based games? How can game-based conflict actually help us to better appreciate the characters that have been cast as bosses? How do game attributes like player choice and ludicrously long playtimes make it possible to know and support characters in ways unavailable to the heroes of books and film? What light can our favorite games shed on key moments in our lives, such as a wedding? Listen in to answer all these questions and more!
Articles Cited:
• Dan Hughes, "Understanding Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II"
• Aaron Suduiko, "The Philosophical Justification for FromSoftware's DLC"
Thursday Feb 15, 2024
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Infinite Narrative Lessons
Thursday Feb 15, 2024
Thursday Feb 15, 2024
This week on With a Terrible Fate's podcast on the storytelling of video games, we kick things off with a discussion of Dan's recent journeys through Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, only to discover the game as a surprisingly illuminating throughline for a rich diversity of reflections on the structures of serial video-game stories, the interpretation and analysis of our personal experiences within video games, and the evolving culture of expectations around major upcoming releases! Listen in for a conversation exploring the gamification of The Odyssey, the methodology behind interpreting a playthrough, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth's lessons about demos, and maybe even a lesson from Assassin's Creed III, 12 years later.
Articles Cited:
- Dan Hughes, "Understanding Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts 2"
- Dan Hughes, "Solving the Puzzle of Roche in Final Fantasy VII Remake"
- Aaron Suduiko, "The Missing Soulmate in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch"
- Aaron Suduiko, "How Elden Ring Turns Its Player into an Outer God"
- Aaron Suduiko, "Time's Arrow: Chester Burklight in Tales of Phantasia"
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Video Game Analysts' Journey Across Japan
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
Wednesday Feb 07, 2024
On the latest episode of With a Terrible Fate's podcast, Dan Hughes and Aaron Suduiko fire up the mics two weeks after their vacation in Japan to share stories from their journey and reflect on how their latest adventure through the cultural progenitor of so many video games has informed how they think about the medium! From stumbling upon the mythological origin of the Triforce to witnessing the inseparability of politics from religion in temple and shrine tours, this episode has something for every thoughtful gamer. Later on, Dan shares his first impressions of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Aaron offers a spoiler-free reflection on his playthrough of Inscryption, which he finished in the early morning hours ahead of the recording! Happy Belated New Year, and welcome to the 2024 edition of With a Terrible Fate's audio home for the literary gamer.
Friday Dec 15, 2023
What Do We Do When We Talk About Games?
Friday Dec 15, 2023
Friday Dec 15, 2023
This week on With a Terrible Fate's podcast about the study and culture of video-game storytelling, we take a reflective look at the good, bad, and ugly of what it means to talk about games. Where does lore analysis end and literary interpretation begin, and how can streamed "book clubs" of games help create good-faith homes for a positive mode of analysis among common fans and thinkers? How might a game award show need to look different than film awards by virtue of differences in the medium? How can bad-faith internet personalities take advantage of the personal, experiential nature of games to lower standards of evidence in discussions with real stakes? What the heck do avatars have to do with the aesthetics of agency in gameplay? Buckle up: it's an overloaded podcast this week where we tackle all these questions and more!