RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to draw your attention to the center ring, wherein may be found the amazing antics of Horton, the dancing elephant! Well, technically not an elephant. Well, not really a dance, per se. Tell you what… We’ll do this week’s Current Quests, while you watch the parakeet with the hip injury.

First off, Courtney “Alethea” Stone has finished slogging through the mess that is Wild Arms XF, has moved on to the greener pastures of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Word is she’s enjoying the Zack/Aerith dynamic the game has to offer.

Next up, our resident collegiate prisoner, Derek “Roku” Cavin has had to scale back a bit due to unforseen workload. I recommended punching people in the nose as a solution, but he doesn’t seem to have taken my advice. Ah well.

Likewise, T.J. “Nerdboy Himself” Condon has been busying himself with the nebulous region known only as “Real Life.” I think it’s somewhere in New England. But anyway, he’s still found time enough to play a bit of Persona 3 FES.

Meanwhile, off in the land of PC gaming, John “Karlinn” Boske has been combing the radiation-baked ruins of Chernobyl in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and basking in the probably unhealthy glow of his new HDTV. Dibs on his stuff when he finally becomes a zombie.

Michael “Slayer of God” Kozinko, meanwhile, has been delaying his inevitable messy death at the hands of Tartarus’s least pleasant boss by doing some intensive leveling. He’s also been dabbling a bit in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, and is finding Sephiroth’s newfound depth quite agreeable.

Similarly, Jerry “XeroZohar” Swain has also taken to Persona 3 FES, finally absorbed by the tidal wave of people playing the game. This is his first Megami Tensei game, but so far he seems to be enjoying it, which is good. Anything to encourage Atlus to keep bringing us more of them. ^^

Two of our staffers are on vacation this week and next. Jordan “J_Sensei” Jackson is soaking up the sun and investigating secret tunnels in mysterious Vietnam with his family, while Erika “wolfraven80” Lachapelle is off to hunt the wily Banana Moose in the wilds of Khabarovsk, Russia. We can only hope they make it back alive.

Finally, I wish to inform the viewing public as to the awesomeness of Persona 3‘s ending sequence. It really does the rest of the game justice, bringing the whole “journey through life” thing full circle. FES adds in a couple new sequences, too, showing what happens to some of the characters you meet through Social Links in the game, which is a great touch. But at any rate, the only thing left for me to do is play through the second bit of the game, which thankfully shouldn’t take very long at all.

Done watching the parakeet? Good, good. That’s it for this week, ladies and gentlemen! Join us next week, when we’ll bring you a walrus with an afro doing his Shaft impersonation!