by Kerry Lloyd and Tess Scilipoti
Leaving the Party is a chill in-depth podcast about role playing games. Best friends Kerry and Tess play a new role playing game every month book club style. Thank you to transgenders. Friendship and love unlimited Leaving the Party is produced by Kerry Lloyd and our cover art was illustrated by Tess Scilipoti.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
8/8/2025
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February 20, 2026
<p>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. </p><p>The next game we will be playing is Parasite Eve, the 1998 "cinematic RPG" from Square Enix!</p><p><br></p><p>Find Tess Scilipoti on <a href="https://www.tessscilipoti.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">her website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a></p><p>Find Kerry Lloyd on the <a href="https://leavingtheparty.blog/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Leaving the Party Blog</a></p><p>And finally, find <a href="https://leavingtheparty.blog/2026/02/20/chained-echoes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">a short blog post about this episode here</a>.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><ul><li>00:00:00 - Intros</li><li>00:01:42 - "Calling Upon Bravery" - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>00:03:19 - Kerry's playing Planescape Torment</li><li>00:08:45 - Kerry, Tess and friends have been playing Left 4 Dead 2</li><li>00:11:09 - The Half Life 2 Rant</li><li>00:15:10 - Tess has been playing the DQ7 demo</li><li>00:18:14 - Tess has been playing Final Fantasy Tactics</li><li>00:23:35 - Tess hates Final Fantasy IX and me</li><li>00:36:34 - Chained Echoes discussion begins</li><li>00:38:34 - Background developer info</li><li>00:47:12 - Never Forget Our Promise - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>00:48:01 - History around "the JRPG"</li><li>01:05:09 - Episode structure + What is Chained Echoes?</li><li>01:11:35 - Pacing + Narrative/Mechanical Structure</li><li>01:16:52 - Variety of party character perspectives</li><li>01:20:38 - Filthy Humans! - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>01:21:16 - Battle system + Overdrive meter</li><li>01:32:04 - The crystal situation is insane. The Sienna situation is insane</li><li>01:41:38 - Thoughts on difficulty and game length fatigue</li><li>01:49:25 - (minor spoilers) Kerry's True King difficulty snafu</li><li>01:51:55 - (minor spoilers over)</li><li>01:59:24 - Sky Armor battles</li><li>02:02:55 - Confusing UI fumbles</li><li>02:07:22 - Tess loves puzzles :)</li><li>02:14:10 - Champions of the Sky - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>02:14:26 - MINIGAME BREAK - Is It Woke!?</li><li>02:25:32 - Himmelskaiser - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>02:25:56 - riffin</li><li>02:29:03 - OFFICIAL spoiler warning!!! Spoilers from here onward</li><li>02:30:04 - 90 Second Summary</li><li>02:33:11 - Prologue</li><li>02:34:46 - Kylian + Berserk</li><li>02:39:01 - Plot and lore: "A whole bunch of God business"</li><li>02:46:03 - This game desperately needs a codex</li><li>02:56:15 - The White Rose Inn</li><li>03:10:30 - Victor is a good boy</li><li>03:13:41 - Sienna</li><li>03:17:26 - Tess says "I wish this woman wasn't gay" out loud</li><li>03:17:56 - We want more Raphael...</li><li>03:22:24 - Glenn, Lenne, Victor, Timothy, Van, Bartholomew, the church, echoes. CHAINED ECHOES</li><li>03:34:00 - Reigns of History - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>03:34:48 - Leaving the Party investigates: where is "down east"?</li><li>03:36:52 - Ba'Thraz and the Lisvan</li><li>03:45:55 - Amalia and Cres + Raphael is sexy goated</li><li>03:52:15 - Robb, Taryn's ward + Forgiveness, redemption, and so on</li><li>04:05:35 - Tomke, Mikah, and The Worm...</li><li>04:11:41 - Egyl has the weirdest plot in the whole game</li><li>04:13:34 - Magnolia :)</li><li>04:17:31 - Dreaming a Dream of Red - Eddie Marianukroh</li><li>04:18:20 - Prince Frederik became Hitler because he's actually a really good guy</li><li>04:21:55 - Row, and the place of mecha and war in Chained Echoes</li><li>04:34:48 - The grimoire and the nuclear metaphor</li><li>04:42:14 - Kerry's DLC book report</li><li>04:52:17 - Cody's question: too much inspiration?</li><li>04:57:08 - Noah's question: how does it compare to other nostalgic RPGs like Sea of Stars?</li><li>05:01:30 - The End</li><li>05:08:25 - Next game is PARASITE EVE</li><li>05:09:01 - Final recommendations + thanks for listening :)</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Show Notes</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.vgchartz.com/article/455192/chained-echoes-interview-creator-matthias-linda-talks-jrpg-influences-deck13-backing-music-amp-more/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Matthias Linda Talks JRPG Influences, Deck13 Backing, Music, & More</a></p><p><a href="https://lordsofgaming.net/2023/01/interview-chained-echoes-developer-matthias-linda/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Interview: Chained Echoes Developer</a></p><p><a href="https://toucharcade.com/2022/10/21/an-interview-with-chained-echoes-developer-matthias-linda-switcharcade-special/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">An Interview with ‘Chained Echoes’ Developer Matthias Linda</a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqHLeBcKVh8" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Why Japanese Fantasy has Dungeons… and sometimes Dragons</a></p><p><a href="https://www.polygon.com/23677598/jrpg-label-history-othering-discrimination-japanese-role-playing-game/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">The ‘JRPG’ label has always been othering</a></p><p><a href="http://tstv.show/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">TSTV podcast</a></p><p><a href="https://dotzip.online/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">dotzip podcast</a></p><p><br></p><p>thanks for listening xoxo</p><p><br></p>
January 16, 2026
<p>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?</p><p><br></p><p>Find Tess Scilipoti on <a href="https://www.tessscilipoti.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">her website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a></p><p>Find Kerry Lloyd on the <a href="https://leavingtheparty.blog/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Leaving the Party Blog</a></p><p>And finally, find <a href="https://leavingtheparty.blog/2026/01/16/pokemon-lazarus/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">a short blog post about this episode here</a>.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>00:00:00 Intro</p><p>00:01:35 "Pokémart" by Tom Sanborn</p><p>00:02:14 Special guest Yvonne!</p><p>00:03:26 Next episode is still CHAINED ECHOES</p><p>00:06:01 Kerry's Skateboarding Video Game Corner</p><p>00:29:38 Kirby Air Riders</p><p>00:33:48 Introducing Pokémon, Lazarus, romhacks</p><p>00:40:35 Emulator handhelds</p><p>00:43:40 Tess's wires boy-servant sabotages the internet</p><p>00:44:45 What is Pokémon Lazarus? + Other thoughts</p><p>00:49:11 Our relationship to Pokémon</p><p>01:01:55 The economic necessity of a Pokémon game: do these games lowkey suck?</p><p>01:06:04 Wikipedia Corner #1: The Complicated Corporate Structure of Pokémon and How They Make Their Damn Money</p><p>01:14:04 Why the new gimmick every game?</p><p>01:18:05 The Legends games</p><p>01:27:50 Leaving the Party solves Pokémon</p><p>01:32:22 Tess's minigame: Who's That Category of Pokémon?</p><p>01:41:22 "Team Chimera Battle" by Tom Sanborn</p><p>01:41:58 Wikipedia Corner #2: Lazarus Taxa</p><p>01:47:54 Romhacks and our experience with them</p><p>01:53:58 Emerald Seaglass</p><p>01:58:04 Do you guys wanna share our teams?</p><p>02:03:49 Stupid and gay</p><p>02:04:17 "Acrisia City" by Tom Sanborn</p><p>02:04:49 More teams + Being attached to Pokémon</p><p>02:08:26 Themes and simplicity in Lazarus</p><p>02:25:52 Difficulty and hard mode</p><p>02:35:18 Gym and route design</p><p>02:40:23 Piraeus + World map</p><p>02:46:56 Our favorite locations</p><p>02:50:36 We all live in a Pokémon World</p><p>02:52:11 Isn't Rotom funny? Isn't it weird how Pokémon don't fuck? Things of this nature</p><p>02:55:24 Quality of life stuff</p><p>03:00:58 Kerry's new favorite Pokémon</p><p>03:04:33 Shoutout wildlife conservation</p><p>03:07:05 Our shiny Pokémon :)</p><p>03:08:17 Music thoughts</p><p>03:09:13 Closing Lazarus thoughts</p><p>03:13:22 "Ilios Gym Leader" by Tom Sanborn</p><p>03:13:49 Back from break</p><p>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)</p><p>03:16:30 Yvonne's ALPACAs</p><p>03:20:05 Kerry's ALPACAs</p><p>03:26:04 Tess's ALPACAs</p><p>03:36:31 Final recommendations</p><p>03:37:38 Outros and plugs. Thanks for listening! Next episode is CHAINED ECHOES :)</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Show notes:</strong></p><p><a href="https://ko-fi.com/nemo622" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Nemo622's Kofi</a></p><p><a href="https://consequence.net/2017/11/marilyn-manson-still-wont-say-whether-or-not-he-removed-a-rib-in-order-to-suck-his-own-dick/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Rib Removal Surgery</a></p><p><a href="https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/saudi-arabia-will-own-93-4-percent-of-ea-after-buyout" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">EA Saudi Arabia buyout</a></p><p><a href="https://backloggd.com/u/animorphology/review/869368/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Tess's review of Pokemon Emerald</a></p><p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Mawsonia_scaling.png/500px-Mawsonia_scaling.png" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">This crazy diagram of the largest known coelacanth next to a human for scale Lmao</a></p><p><a href="https://sherwood.news/business/the-new-york-times-is-a-games-company-with-a-newspaper-side-hustle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">The New York Times is a games company with a newspaper side hustle</a></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze8uhmeFt7A" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Tama Hiroka's Ruby and Sapphire retrospective</a></p><p><a href="https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/pok%C3%A9mon-unbound-completed.382178/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Pokemon Unbound</a></p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/GEB3vq5uncw?si=joaPPGjVhMfXlymu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Cecilily's interview with Nemo</a></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Wikipedia Corner:</strong></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_taxon" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Lazarus Taxon</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takah%C4%93" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Takahē</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Coelacanth</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pok%C3%A9mon_Company" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">The Pokémon Company</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Pokémon</a></p><p><br></p>
September 19, 2025
<p>Kerry and Tess check out Felvidek, a 2024 historical fantasy game made in RPG Maker by Jozef Pavelka and Vlado Ganaj. </p><p>Find Tess Scilipoti on <a href="https://www.tessscilipoti.com/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">her website</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tessscilipoti" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a></p><p>Find Kerry Lloyd on the <a href="https://leavingtheparty.blog/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Leaving the Party Blog</a></p><p>And finally, find a <a href="https://leavingtheparty.blog/2025/09/19/podcast-felvidek-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">short blog post about this episode here</a>.</p><p><strong>Timestamps:</strong></p><p>00:00:00 Intro + "Raubiri"</p><p>00:04:25 Chatting</p><p>00:17:00 Felvidek</p><p>00:19:42 90 Second Summary + Cowbells</p><p>00:25:38 Wikipedia Corner #1</p><p>00:40:56 The game + Spoilers onward from here!</p><p>00:59:50 Actual vocal spoiler warning lol</p><p>01:01:53 Battle system blues</p><p>01:12:35 Break + "Dedina"</p><p>01:13:47 Returning + Fun facts</p><p>01:21:18 Pavol</p><p>01:27:54 Paula</p><p>01:34:20 A character named "The Jew" AKA Wikipedia Corner #2</p><p>01:53:57 Ida + Some stuff we missed</p><p>02:06:35 Adam</p><p>02:13:47 Character arcs</p><p>02:17:17 Break + "Bestie"</p><p>02:18:55 Crash Team Racing + Fun facts</p><p>02:25:15 Wikipedia Corner #3 + Ahriman</p><p>02:35:25 The JRPG third act</p><p>02:40:10 Pavol's religious visions + Swords</p><p>02:43:42 Our ending + Thoughts</p><p>02:47:48 Our next game is CHAINED ECHOES</p><p>02:49:21 Final recommendations + Thanks for listening :)</p><p><strong>Show Notes</strong></p><p><strong></strong><a href="https://darkrpgs.home.blog/2024/12/12/demons-and-cultists-in-15th-century-slovakia-interview-with-jozef-pavelka-the-creator-of-felvidek/" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">Demons and cultists in 15th-century Slovakia: Interview with Jozef Pavelka, the creator of Felvidek</a></p><p>Probably other stuff. Forgot to do show notes while editing this episode to be honest because I was thinking about the timestamps. Oops -Kerry</p><p><strong>Wikipedia Corner</strong></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunyadi'" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hunyadi</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussites" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussites</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_European_Jews_in_the_Middle_Ages" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_European_Jews_in_the_Middle_Ages</a></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahriman" target="_blank" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahriman</a></p>
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Leaving the Party is a chill in-depth podcast about role playing games. Best friends Kerry and Tess play a new role playing game every month book club style. Thank you to transgenders. Friendship and love unlimited
Leaving the Party is produced by Kerry Lloyd and our cover art was illustrated by Tess Scilipoti.
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