RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

When Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army was released in the winter of 2006, it seemed to be a bit of a black sheep for the Shin Megami Tensei series. The game was much more about the alternate history detective story at the core of its plot than it was about the more traditional mythological influences of the series, and although the combat system still focused rather strongly on exploiting elemental weaknesses, the fact that it was action-based rather than turn-based made the game feel quite different from the normal SMT title. Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs King Abbadon brings the Devil Summoner sub-series a bit more into line with the overarching feel of the SMT series, but still retains most of what made the first game interesting. In short, Devil Summoner 2 is a solid improvement on the series. (more…)

This week, we’ll be looking at one of my favorite Pokemon, the perennially disappointing Parasect. Despite being the slowest user of Spore and one of the slowest Pokemon overall, Parasect has always occupied a special place in my heart simply for being unusually creepy. (more…)

Rounding out Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIII announcements, today we have the scheduled release date this game will be coming to European shores. Today, Final Fantasy XIII‘s director Motomu Toriyama announced that the company would be targetting a release in Europe in 2010.

Upcoming Nintendo DS title, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, received a North American release date today, being promised for release in the 2009 holiday season. Nintendo also spilled a bit of gameplay details, talking a bit about the things Link would have to deal with while chuggin’ down the tracks.  (more…)

Nintendo announced a third companion game to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness and Explorers of Time today, called Explorers of the Sky. The game appears to represent a “third version” with a relationship to Explorers of Darkness and Time similar to that between Pokemon D/P and Platinum. Explorers of the Sky offers new Special Episodes, enhanced communications features, and new Pokemon to select as your main character. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky is currently set for a fall 2009 release.

Continuing the theme of Nintendo’s E3 announcements, Mario & Luigi RPG 3 has received a title for North American shores — Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. As the title suggests, the game will follow the adventures of Mario and his brother as they explore the bizarre lands to be found inside their perennial enemy. No word yet on the appearance of Alka-Seltzer Man.

Some new details came out at Nintendo’s E3 conference today about the new DS entry to the Kingdom Hearts series, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Speaking at the conference, Reggie Fils-Aime announced that the game would see a North American release date of September 29, 2009. Following the early adventures of Organization XIII member Roxas, 358/2 Days promises to fill in a previously murky area of the series’ history.

Square Enix managed to shock a fair portion of its audience today with the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, scheduled for exclusive release on the PlayStation 3 next year. Details are, unsurprisingly, scant at the moment, but a brief trailer shown at E3 hints at the game being a new MMO.

Edit: Final Fantasy XIV is now confirmed to be a massively multiplayer online title, and is planned for a simultaneous global release with language support for Japanese, English, French and German. Weirdly enough, it’s also confirmed for release not only on PS3, but also on the PC. So much for “exclusive.”

Joining yesterday’s release of Final Fantasy IV: The After Years on WiiWare, Final Fantasy VII becomes available for download today via Sony’s PlayStation Store. This was kind of expected, as it was released for Japanese audiences in April and rated by the ESRB just a few days ago, but hey. Final Fantasy VII!

To complement yesterday’s announcement that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming to North America on the Xbox 360 in Spring of 2010, today Square Enix reaffirmed its Japanese release date of Winter 2009. Despite some comments by Yoichi Wada that were widely taken as indicating the game would be pushed back, Square Enix’s Japanese-language E3 roster confirms the Winter 2009 date announced by the Final Fantasy XIII demo which was released with the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete blu-ray earlier this year.

One of the more unexpected announcements at Nintendo’s E3 conference today was that of Golden Sun DS. Though the GBA games Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age are fondly remembered by many gamers, Camelot’s lack of interest in extending the series has long been a major part of series discussion, so this announcement comes as something of a surprise. Details on Golden Sun DS are scant at the moment, though we do have an amazingly tentative release date of “next year,” and a promise that the game will feature 3D graphics and an entirely new adventure.

Bioware and Lucasarts talked a bit about the next step in the Knights of the Old Republic series today, specifically about the MMO which will be continuing the series. Star Wars: Old Republic will apparently feature some of the most extensive voice acting to date, eschewing all text-based communication between player and NPCs. What this means for the habit of voice acted NPCs to refer to player characters as “the hero” remains to be seen.

The second of our reader requests appears today, the fighting mushroom known as Breloom. This critter has gotten a pretty big boost with the current generation of Pokemon, gaining a new ability, better hold items to play with, and most importantly, an improved movepool.  (more…)

This week, we’ll be fulfilling a reader request and peering under the hood of one of the most popular Eevee evolutions. Jolteon has some pretty serious issues, but it still manages to see a lot of play thanks to an exceptionally useful ability and speed that makes the Road Runner look positively sluggish. Take a look inside for ways to turn your Jolteon into a  purring engine of destruction! (more…)

This week, we’ll be continuing our theme of Pokémon set to appear on the covers of the upcoming Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. Ho-oh’s counterpart, Lugia, is more defensively oriented, and generally makes a better wall than the rainbow pheonix. Lugia’s more focused nature makes it easier to fit into teams, though its typing does tend to cause it trouble in a metagame full of anti-Psychic tactics.

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With Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver being announced this week, I — that is to say, the Pokemon nerd in me — thought it might be fun to take a look at the game’s signature Pokemon. We’ll start off by looking at the rainbow Pokemon, Ho-oh, one of the more overlooked Legendary Pokemon in competitive play. In order to provide a little more depth than our Pokemon Platinum entries, I’ll also be offering some move set and nature suggestions, as well as some recommended EV spreads for the more obsessive Pokemon players in our audience. (more…)

In Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, the titular Plume refers to the Destiny Plume, which Wylfred can use to give a boost to his allies. This boost is pretty dang massive, doubling the character’s stats, granting them resistance to every element, and unleashing a powerful secondary effect that varies by character. Wyl can summon this secondary effect in battles on his own afterwards as a special skill, some of which can turn the tide of battle in an instant. The downside to all this, however, is that after the battle, the character dies a very permanent death. Given that the game doesn’t tell you which characters grant which skills, it can be a bit tough deciding who to sacrifice and who to keep. Therefore, this week’s Strategy Session is all about the best Sacrifice Skills!

A minor word of warning; in order to talk about Sacrifice Skills, we have to talk about the characters you get them from. For the most part, this isn’t a big deal, but there may be a few minor spoilers here and there. You have been warned! (more…)

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume offers a wide variety of classes to the player, but isn’t always clear about what sets them apart. This week, we’ll be taking a closer look at what makes each class tick, along with a few suggestions for skills and abilities to give them. (more…)

For this week and next, we’ll be looking at Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume here on Strategy Session. This latest incarnation of the series can get devilishly complicated, particularly late in the game, so we’re going to be starting off slow. We’ll start with some basic tactics, such as the Formation system and the recurring importance of revive skills and items in the Valkyrie Profile series. (more…)

Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume represents a bit of a step back in time for the series. Where Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria led the series in a more optimistic direction, Covenant of the Plume returns to the tragedy and gloom of the first game in the series, choosing the theme of sacrifice in contrast to Silmeria‘s hope. The game is designed rather well, and the plot is extremely well written, but an overall lack of consistency and an unfortunate rehashing of artistic elements from earlier in the series drags the whole thing down rather badly. (more…)