RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

As of this weekend, Gamestop has a Pokemon event going, offering a shiny Pichu as a tie-in for the latest movie, and to encourage folks to preorder Heart Gold and Soul Silver. This shiny Pichu not only unlocks the Ilex Forest event in HG/SS, it also comes with two unique moves, Endure and Endeavor. Now, on the whole, Pichu isn’t a particularly useful little critter, so I thought we’d take a look at what can be done with its evolutions. This week, we’ll investigate Pikachu, the electric mouse everybody loves… Or would love to throw in a grain thresher. (more…)

After completing Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, it occurred to me that the monster system really could have been explained better. So this week on the Strategy Session, we’re going to take a closer look at this subsystem, and what it takes to build a truly dangerous monster. (more…)

The main features of Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World are an engaging and solidly balanced combat system, and a somewhat overbearing and at times saccharine story. In this, it is a fairly typical Tales game. That isn’t to say ToS:DotNW is a bad game — on the contrary, the game is quite well constructed — merely that it comes off as a bit derivative, particularly where the story is concerned. ToS:DotNW does try a number of new things with the series with varying levels of success, but overall, it’s unlikely that anyone who already has an opinion about the Tales series will find their position swayed one way or the other due to this game. (more…)

Continuing the trend of underappreciated Pokemon, this week we’re taking a look at Kingler. With a base attack score that’s through the roof and a workable, if unimpressive speed, Kingler is one of those Pokemon whose inclusion in Never Used came as something of a surprise to me. Kingler’s stats leave him sadly vulnerable in some places, but with some solid defense and an amazing attack, you’d think the giant crab would see more use. (more…)

When we talk about Eevees, Flareon is the one most often accompanied by curses towards the game developers. “Physical fire attacks introduced in Diamond and Pearl,” we say, “and no Flare Blitz for Flareon? Why does Game Freak hate life?” Flareon has some decent stats, but it suffers from poor stat distribution and the notorious Curse of the Eevee more than any other in its evolutionary line. (more…)

A month or two ago, I wrote up a series of articles for the various classes of Dragonica Online, but having now taken a Knight past the second job change, I feel I may have been a bit unduly harsh on this defensive Warrior. With some new changes to the game’s systems and a bit of fresh perspective, I thought it might be about time for a second look at this unfairly maligned character class. (more…)

The early PSOne game Revelations: Persona is widely considered to be the victim of one of the biggest localization hack jobs of all time. Besides a lackluster translation filled with poorly conceived attempts at mythological nomenclature, the localization team saw fit to fiddle with the game’s balance, alter character art in order to make the cast appear more western, and even remove whole sections of the game for no readily apparent reason. And so when a PSP port-slash-remake was announced, there was a great sigh of relief in the Western Hemisphere. And, thankfully, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona does indeed improve vastly on the localization of the original game. Unfortunately, with a poorly executed plot, badly balanced combat system, and a mishmash of aesthetic elements, the game lying hidden underneath the piles of meddling heaped on Revelations: Persona isn’t exactly a diamond in the rough. (more…)

With the release of Diamond and Pearl, the Psychic type got flooded with Levitating Pokemon. All four of the Legendary Psychic-type Pokemon introduced carry Levitate, making competition between them for the same spot very fierce. Uxie, being the most defensive of the three sprites, is a bit outclassed by Cresselia, unfortunately. He just can’t keep up with the instant recovery she gets through Moonlight. While Uxie does still have the Rest / Sleep Talk combo and ten points in Defense over its rival, Cresselia can Sleep Talk too, in some cases even better than Uxie, given her huge advantage in HP. To use Uxie properly, the best thing to do is to be creative; his defenses are by no means weak, and his support options are still rather impressive. (more…)

Phione has a rather unique status in the world of Pokemon, being the only critter to be bred from a legendary Pokemon, Manaphy. Phione, as one might expect, is a bit like Manaphy’s excitable little sister. She can’t do everything her big sister can – or indeed, even most things – but by god she’s gonna try anyway. Phione’s greatest strengths lie in its powerful ability and a movepool that, while disturbingly small, still manages enough type coverage to be effective. It doesn’t get Tail Glow, Heart Swap, or even most of the more mundane moves Manaphy gets, but Phione can still make a decent try of using the same tricks as the big jellyfish. (more…)

Just this past week, Pokemon players finally got a first-hand look at the last of this generation’s event creatures; the great and powerful Arceus. Although what the Arceus players have access to is saddled with some unfortunate restrictions — it’s only available at Lv. 100, which makes it impossible to EV train beyond the vitamin stage — today we’re going to be looking at the full strength of this impressive critter. (more…)

Disgaea 2: Dark Hero Days continues the recent trend of PSP rereleases, retooling Disgaea 2 and dropping it onto Sony’s handheld with some new features. Although it adds some interesting new content, including an epilogue starring Axel, Dark Hero Days lacks some of the wit and energy that made Disgaea so much fun, at least in the plot department. It doesn’t make too many changes to the Disgaea combat system, and most, if not all, of the really new content introduced for this port is available only after completing the mainline quest, meaning this port will probably be a little dull for gamers who have already sucked the marrow out of the game’s PS2 iteration. (more…)

Probably the most heavily populated class in Dragonica Online, Thieves sport high agility, good critical rates and evasion, balanced out by some spectacular fragility and a somewhat single-minded playstyle. Thieves can be promoted to Tricksters, which focus on pure offense and area of effect attacks, or Assassins, a more balanced class that incorporates the blocking and evasion abilities of Knights while still maintaining a powerful offense. (more…)

This week, we’ll be taking a look at the fastest class available on Dragonica Online; the Archer. The Archer is a bit of an odd bird, combining high movement speed and agility with extremely long cooldown for their most powerful attacks. Archers split off into the mechanically-inclined Ranger and the Hunter, which focuses more on animal-based area of effect attacks. Rangers tend to have more raw power and pack some unusual attacks, but Hunters, who are better able to deal with large groups of foes, tend to be more popular. (more…)

It’s Halloween! In the spirit of the spooky holiday, I replayed a PSOne classic; Parasite Eve. Granted this also would’ve worked for Christmas, but what the heck. So without further ado, we present Parasite Eve comics!

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After some minor techincal problems, the Strategy Session returns! We’re continuing our look at Dragonica Online this week with a look at the Magician class, possibly the most diverse and frankly bizarre job class available in this game. Magicians split off into the offensive Battlemage and the supposedly defensive Priest class, but both secondary classes have some impressive damage production and can be played a variety of ways. (more…)

With Dragonica Online going into full release next week, we thought we’d take this opportunity to take a strategic look at the classes available in this MMO. We’ll be starting off by taking a look at the Warrior class and its first two promotions, the defensive Knight and the bruising Gladiator. This class is a little disadvantaged when it comes to the bare mechanics of the game, but it can still be quite useful and powerful with the right setup. (more…)

With a monstrous appearance, stats on the physical side to match, and crippling issues against Water and Grass Pokemon, Rhyperior is a Ground Pokemon’s Ground Pokemon. For most of its short career, Rhyperior has had trouble finding a place to fit in most teams, despite one of the best abilities in the game and the highest attack stat of any Pokemon in the Over Used tier. The problem with Rhyperior is that, in order to really use it effectively, you need to be willing to support it. This makes the stone rhino very hard to just casually throw onto a team. (more…)

Dragonica Online is a very solidly designed game which is unfortunately marred by some of the same issues that have plagued other free to play MMOs for years now. It offers arcade-style beat-’em-up combat that makes the game genuinely entertaining to play, and provides a wealth of activities for players who are interested in more than mindless grinding, but it also has some significant issues with its level curve, as well as some unpleasant balance issues. On the whole, Dragonica Online is a good choice for those looking for an unusual and active online game, but it doesn’t deal with the pacing issues unique to online gaming any better than most free to play MMOs. (more…)

In a blast from the past, I spent some time a little while ago replaying Parasite Eve for our yearly Halloween folderol. This was my first playthrough in years, and a number of things surprised me; the prominent placement of the World Trade Towers, for example, and the fact that 1997 is now more than a decade in the past. My friends, I am old. But this playthrough also reminded me of how much fun the PE combat system is. So this week we’ll be taking a look at some of the weapons Aya can use, and how they’ll affect your strategy in battle. (more…)

Following up on our coverage of new Pokemon moves, this week we’ll be taking a look at the move tutors of Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Though the new moves Pokemon learn by level up and breeding in HG/SS are undoubtedly significant, they pale in comparison to the move tutors this remake throws our way. HG/SS has no fewer than 52 tutors available for use, but only 14 are new, the others being repeats taught by the move tutors of Pokemon Platinum. The new tutors are Super Fang, Pain Split, String Shot, Tail Wind, Gravity, Worry Seed, Role Play, Magic Coat, Heal Bell, Low Kick, Sky Attack, Block, Bug Bite, and Headbutt. We’ll be taking a look at the most useful of these in this week’s Strategy Session. (more…)