RandomNPC - Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Square Enix has announced that the next mini-expansion for Final Fantasy XI will be available for prepurchase worldwide on Sunday, July 5. Titled A Moogle Kupo d’Etat - Evil in Small Doses, the story apparently focuses on how a single drop of rain in a run-down Mog House spells trouble for Moogles everywhere, or something. You had to know something was up when every level one schmoe in the game got their own personal flying butler, no questions asked.

A job of at least level ten is required to start this latest questline, along with at least the Rise of the Zilart expansion. Final Fantasy XI will also see a general version update coinciding with the release of A Moogle Kupo d’Etat.

A Moogle Kupo d’Etat will price for $9.99 US, €9.99 throughout Europe and £7.99 in the UK. Kupo nuts are reportedly an acceptable form of payment as well, though this has not been confirmed by Square Enix.

You’re better off not knowing the lengths it took me to get these up.

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 07/02/09’ »

These days, everyone loves countdown pages, and Square Enix has caught the bug. But more often than not, the pages of Shounen Jump spoil the secret before the timer hits zero, and this week’s reveal of Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden renders this page kind of moot.

Continue reading ‘Square Enix Announces Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden’ »

Longtime gaming icon Mega Man is ready to toy once more with role-playing chicanery in Mega Man Star Force 3, recently announced by Capcom to be en route to stores throughout North America. Two separate versions, Black Ace and Red Joker, have been released, each with unique items and powers - referred to as “Noise Changers,” a new addition to the series - to be shared via Nintendo’s wifi connection for the DS.

Reportedly, the story involves players traveling between the real world and virtual reality by way of ‘wave roads,’ and these roads have been overrun by a bizarre phenomenon called ‘noise.’ A mysterious meteor appears to be the culprit, although inside sources suggest The World Ends With You may be involved.

Mega Man Star Force 3 will be on shelves for an SRP of $29.99, continuing the series tradition of prices that end in nine.

I’ve heard tell that in the days of the NES and SNES era, when a new Dragon Quest game was coming out in Japan, it would be like a national holiday as people lined up to get their copy. RPGs have never reached such lofty heights of popularity here in North America. Final Fantasy VII managed to popularize the genre certainly. The series and the genre itself have become much more well known since — and seen an increase in sales as well. And while no RPG has had the worldwide acclaim sales, and following that Final Fantasy VII did, Fallout 3 deserves a special mention for its breakthrough performance in the North American market in particular.

Continue reading ‘Game Changers: Volume 13 - Fallout 3’ »

Final Fantasy III, also known as Not-Final-Fantasy-VI-This-Time, will be available on Virtual Console in July for the low, low price of 500 Nintendo funbucks, or roughly five real bucks… in Japan. And to think, they almost didn’t not release it again. And if you can parse that sentence, you’re probably better at this than me. But, I ramble.

Source: Siliconera

According to a post on Bioware’s Mass Effect forums by lead designer Preston Watamaniuk, Mass Effect 2 will not have the same so-called “new game +” feature that its predecessor had.

Continue reading ‘Bioware Confirms Lack of New Game + in Mass Effect 2’ »

Nippon Ichi has posted a teaser site for The Last Rebellion, its upcoming PS3-exclusive RPG. The site only features the game’s logo and a spirited folk-rock theme song.

However, unlike Square Enix with its teaser site tactics, NISA has already released news and screenshots for The Last Rebellion. According to the press release, The Last Rebellion has “[a] story of revenge featuring a dark anti-hero.” Gameplay will consist of action-game field movement and turn-based combat. Players can switch between Nine, a male character who specializes in physical attacks, and Aisha, a female mage who attacks and disables enemies with spells. In battle, the characters can target different parts of the enemies’ bodies, like in Vagrant Story and Fallout 3.

The Last Rebellion will be released sometime this fall.

If you like to make multiple save files while playing a Dragon Quest game (or any RPG for that matter), we have some bad news for you. According to the game’s packaging, Dragon Quest IX will allow only one save at a time. This also spells trouble for any siblings who will be stuck sharing one copy of the game.

Source: Kotaku

Nintendo has announced that the upcoming Nintendo DS remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver will arrive in Japanese stores on September 12. The games will be bundled with a PokeWalker, a special kind of device that counts the user’s steps (like a pedometer) and then sends the data to the game. The purpose of the PokeWalker is not clear at this time, but it seems to play a key role in gameplay. The addition of the device will not alter the price tag, however; the bundle will cost 4,980 yen, the same as any other Pokémon title.

A North American release has not been announced.

Source: Siliconera

When it comes to teaser sites, Square Enix always has a flair for the dramatic. The company’s latest offering emerged sometime last week as a simple drawing of a landscape, a countdown timer, and the number 4. Over the last few days as the timer has ticked down, the drawing has evolved to include a dragon and a boy with a sword. There’s also some 8-bit style music playing in the background.

It’s anyone’s guess as to what this game could be, but we won’t know for sure until the countdown ends on July 6.

I recently participated in a Pokemon tournament where the participants were assigned randomized teams, and one of the critters I picked up was Ambipom. Given that most of my team was junk, I had to be very creative in my movesets, and although I didn’t expect Ambipom to be particularly useful, he managed to save me on a number of occasions. So this week is all about everybody’s favorite slightly creepy monkey!

Continue reading ‘Strategy Session - Competitive Pokemon VII’ »

Hellooooooooo everybody! How are you all this lovely Sunday? Got a nice big chunk of media for you all, featuring, in no particular order: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord, Final Fantasy Legend II DS, Mega Man Star Force 3, Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces, Class of Heroes, Dragon Quest IX, and Devil Survivor. Click away!

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 06/28/09’ »

Namco-Bandai’s long running Tales RPG series has stepped through the ropes into the fighter’s ring with Tales of Versus. 35 characters from 13 different Tales games duke it out for the special mana fruit borne by the World Tree only once every three years.  

Continue reading ‘Tales Series Steps into the Ring, Introduces Tales of Versus’ »

Cross Edge, the crossover game developed by Compile Heart that features characters from Capcom, Nippon Ichi, Gust, and others was previously a PS3 exclusive. But these days, exclusivity is a tough thing to keep, and the game will be heading to the 360 in Japan under the new moniker Cross Edge Dash. So far, there are no announcements regarding new material or a North American release for 360, but the details will undoubtedly follow soon.

Source: Famitsu

Man, Bethesda, it’s not fair. You already got me re-hooked on Oblivion and now Point Lookout is going to pull me back into Fallout 3 and I gotta play it aaaaaaaalllll from the start again, only this time I figured out how to get the script extender working so I can properly mod my guns now and I think I can get the hovercar mod working right this time but there’s just not enough hours in the day and oh i think i just went crosseyed

Anyhoo, in today’s media update: Final Fantasy Legend II DS, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces, Atelier Rorona, and Genterprise.

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 06/24/09’ »

According to a news post on the official Warhammer Online website, EA has combined game development studios BioWare and Mythic Entertainment into one entity for the sake of “restructuring” its RPG and MMO development.

BioWare’s Greg Zeschuk will become the group creative officer for the RPG/MMO development studio, and Mythic co-founder Rob Denton will become Mythic’s general manager. Both will report to BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka, who will become general manager of the newly formed RPG/MMO development studio group.

BioWare’s operations remain largely unfazed as the studio operations will be the same, but Mythic has suffered one casualty. Mythic’s current general manager, Mark Jacobs, left the company yesterday and will not be a part of the merged studios. His future plans are unknown, and it is not clear whether he willingly left or was handed a pink slip.

Final Fantasy VII, the legend, the phenomenon. Classic? Overrated? Whatever you may think of the game now, nearly a dozen years later, its impact on the RPG world is undeniable. More than any other game in the history of the genre, it brought RPGs into the spotlight and gave them a mainstream appeal never before seen (and only occasionally duplicated since).

Continue reading ‘Game Changers: Volume 12 - Final Fantasy VII’ »

Namco-Bandai shines the spotlight on their upcoming Tales installment for the Wii, Tales of Graces, showing off their newest spin on the Linear Motion Battle System– Style Shift. 

Continue reading ‘Tales of Graces Shows Off Its Style’ »

This week we’ll be taking a look at a popular but largely underutilized Pokemon, Altaria. Perhaps the weakest of the Dragon-types and yet still very viable when used intelligently, Altaria has the movepool, if not the stats, to cause some trouble in its chosen field of play.

Continue reading ‘Strategy Session - Competitive Pokemon VI’ »