RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Is it just me, or is everything breaking down? A month or so ago, my laptop’s AC adaptor decided to die in spectacular fashion, along with my DS Lite. And now Karlinn has suffered a similar fate, as his computer appears to have vomited all over his lap. My personal feelings on the matter? Technology hates us. But enough of that, here’s what those of us who have yet to be destroyed by our mechanical overlords have been up to this week.

First off, our eminent leader Derek “Roku” Cavin has been working overtime as usual, pinning down not only Final Fantasy Tactics A2, but also The War of the Lions and the Japanese version of Persona 4. No word on whether or not he’s been sucked into the television yet, but we’re getting a disturbing panda ready to rescue him just in case.

Our sound man and resident crazy, T.J. “Nerdboy Himself” Condon has also been running around in FFTA2, and reports that he’s up to 163 missions cleared. He also mentioned something about Viera with bow and arrows, but you really can’t go wrong with any kind of Viera in my book.

Our two news people, Jordon “J_Sensei” Jackson and Erika “wolfraven80” Lachapelle, have both been absorbed into the world of Final Fantasy IV DS. Early reports indicate that it is hard, but shiny. So it’s either a diamond, or my grandma’s glass eyeball. Eeeew.

Local robot fetishist, Jerry “XeroZohar” Swain continues his own foray into the digital realm of Mega Man. He’s moved on to the ZX series, which means he should be finished with the nonstop Mega Man sometime soon, but something tells me we haven’t seen the last of this particular little blue robot.

Next up, the latest victim of technology’s destructive march towards enslaving humanity, John “Karlinn” Boske. He’s been putting more hours into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Fallout, completing the whole post-apocalyptic theme. He’s also planning on reviewing Pathologic soon, which should be interesting if he doesn’t end up taking a baseball bat to his computer first.

Finally, our master of message boards Michael “Slayer of God” Kozinko has been mucking about in Fatal Frame, as well as Final Fantasy XII and FFXII: Revenant Wings. Recent reports indicate ladies who dress like men and Gilgamesh as a super sentai ranger, so either Final Fantasy is weirder than I thought, or someone’s been slipping Slayer acid.

As for me, I’ve spent most of the week fiddling around in Pokemon Pearl, trying to find a way to make Regigigas useful. Poor guy is just so outclassed. I did pick up Rondo of Swords yesterday, though, and my first impressions are largely favorable. The combat system is pretty unusual, since you pass through enemies to attack them instead of just walking up and smacking your foes. The big problem is that it’s going to make my usual defensive strategy pretty hard to pull off. Also, the map sprites of the characters look a bit like Weebles. A bit disturbing. At any rate, we’ll see you back here again next week!