Potentially Useful Information For Your Many Adventures
A few days ago, it came to light that Konami was enforcing certain restrictions on reviewers working on Metal Gear Solid 4. Now, this in and of itself is nothing unusual. Most commonly, gaming companies restrict when the press can release their reviews, and as a matter of professional courtesy, most members of the press abide by these restrictions.
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Developer Deck 13 and DTP Entertainment have announced a new RPG for the Xbox360 and PC, and it sports a unique hook and a job title to die for.
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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. (more…)
A new RPG for Sony’s PlayStation Portable has been announced by gaming magazine Famitsu. Entitled Tsurugi to Mahou to Gakuen Mono, which roughly translates to Swords, Magic and School, the game appears to be a dungeon crawler wherein players will split their time between exploring a dungeon known as the Labyrinth, and school, where players can accept quests and recruit allies.
Nippon Ichi, the company behind the Disgaea series, has recently announced a new title in its release schedule for the Nintendo DS. The game, titled Marl Oukoku no Ningyouhime, is most likely another entry in the musical RPG series known in North America as Rhapsody. The announcement was made through a new website, which for the moment lists only the game’s Japanese release date – August 7th. The site will see its official opening on June 6th, at which time further details about the game will likely be unveiled.
Source: IGN
Square Enix has announced the release date for Infinite Undiscovery, the Xbox360 RPG developed by tri-Ace. In an unusual move, the game will be released simultaneously in all regions on September 2, 2008. John Yamamoto, president and CEO of Square Enix added, “This is something we have aimed to do for a long time, and we look to continue to deliver worldwide gaming experiences across all platforms well into the future.”
Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another edition of Current Quests, the weekly column that investigates the deep, philosophical question of, “So what’re you doing?” This week, a good whack of the staff (myself included) have been devoured by Persona 3 FES, and are currently attempting to wrest their way back out of Tartarus. With the aid of an adorable mechanical girl and a dog with a knife clenched firmly in its jaw, we present to you the spoils of our efforts. (more…)
Details about Square Enix’s new RPG for the Xbox 360 are slowly trickling out. Famitsu recently released some info about the characters players will be dealing with on their journey, as well as some more general info about Infinite Undiscovery. (more…)
Aksys Games, the company responsible for Hoshigami Remix, has recently announced that a new title, From the Abyss, will be making its way to western shores.
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, the latest game in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, is a game that will appeal mostly to fans of the series. Starring a character who appeared only in flashbacks and in passing mentions in the original game and detailing many events only alluded to in FFVII, Crisis Core relies a great deal on nostalgia, to the point where it’s actually re-telling parts of FFVII at times. Still, underneath it all, there is still an interesting, if not particularly challenging game with some unusual ideas about combat and storytelling. On the whole, Crisis Core is a solid, if somewhat predictable title that should provide some entertainment for people looking for a bit more background on the characters of Final Fantasy VII. (more…)
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, one of the first GameCube titles to make real use of the connectivity between Nintendo’s square console and the Game Boy Advance, got a lot of flak for being a multiplayer title with a fairly shallow single player mode. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates doesn’t do multiplayer quite as well as its predecessor, as it loses a lot of the finely tuned balance between competition and co-operation that made the original so enjoyable, but it makes up for it with a much deeper and more satisfying single player mode. On the whole, Ring of Fates is a bit of a finger in the eye of some other, more simplistic dungeon crawlers, as it offers an entertaining, fairly complex combat system and a variety of dungeons to run through and level up in, and yet doesn’t skimp on the storyline, which is a surprisingly well-told and emotional tale. (more…)
I have to say, the last couple weeks have brought some interesting announcements to the world of role-playing games. Persona 4? A completely new IP from Square Enix? A new Valkyrie Profile game? And here I thought Christmas was in December. At any rate, it’s Sunday, which means it’s time for Current Quests! (more…)
Dungeon crawlers tend to have some fairly predictable faults; a weak plot, shallow characters, and overly simple combat are par for the course. Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts has all these issues and more, compounded by a completion time that can hover around ten to fifteen hours. The game’s strengths lay in its character growth system, which provides a surprising level of control over development, and in its multiplayer, which allows players from all over the world to compete and co-operate in dungeon exploration and monster slaying, but these are largely overwhelmed by the overall shallowness of the game. On the whole, Dungeon Explorer: Warriors of Ancient Arts is a fairly simple, predictable dungeon crawler, but it does have a few points of interest. (more…)
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! And welcome once more to the part of the week where we sacrifice baby birds and other fluffy animals in order to summon the Dark Lo… Oh wait, that’s Wednesday, isn’t it? My mistake. It’s time for Quests! (more…)
Skies of Arcadia, a game originally released for Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast system, found new purchase late in life with a port to the Gamecube. With a handful of new additions and a slight upgrade in graphics, a game that had been lauded as one of the finest on its original system became available to a new audience. On the whole, Skies of Arcadia Legends hasn’t aged particularly well, as ideas and story elements that were unoriginal even during its original release have slid into deep cliché. The combat system has fared a little better, though the lack of any real challenge to the game doesn’t help. In the end, Skies of Arcadia Legends is a reasonably solid, highly traditional turn-based RPG, but the lack of any real originality counts very strongly against it. (more…)
Another week, another round of Current Quests. Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially entered that dreaded part of the year known as the Doldrums. The last genuinely interesting RPG release was about two months ago, leaving many gamers high and dry. As you may have noticed, many of us here at RandomNPC have been spending the drought catching up on old games, or running around being generally busy. So once again, here’s the lowdown on the staff’s activity. (more…)
The Tales series has a long and venerable history of avoiding North America, much to the consternation of its fans. In fact, pretty much all of the regions outside of Japan tend to get left out of most things the series offers beyond the flagship titles. And so Tales of Eternia for the PSP is a bit of an odd bird. Despite the fact that we’ve seen the game on this side of the pond before on the PSOne, Namco saw fit to release this PSP port in Europe and Asia, but not North America. Thankfully, the PSP’s lack of regional lockouts means that denizens of the Western Hemisphere have access to the game as well. Overall, Tales of Eternia is a decent port and a solid game overall, although a lack of polish and original content prevent it from being a standout title. (more…)
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker is a game of gale-force winds and wide open oceans. It strays from the conventional setting of the Zelda series, but it retains the tradition of engaging puzzles and exploration that make the series enjoyable. This focus on convention isn’t all positive, however, as Wind Waker has a number of problems which are fairly commonplace to the series. It inherits inexact control and a distinct lack of originality from its brethren, as well as a few issues that are unique to this entry. The biggest of this latter category, and possibly the game’s biggest issue overall, is the boredom of sailing long distances over seemingly endless stretches of water in order to move from island to island. In the end, Wind Waker is a game that will probably appeal most to people who can get past the idea that Wind Waker isn’t a ground breaking or revolutionary entry in the series. (more…)
With all the stuff that’s been flying around the site recently, we thought it might be fun to give our readers a bit of a look behind the scenes. In the process of starting up our current, somewhat rough look, someone suggested a rotating banner with some NPC mascots, to give the site a bit of flavor. So here’s a closer look at some of the official art I put together for the site’s grand opening, and a closer look at some of the mascot characters you’ve seen already. (more…)
Welcome back to Current Quests, ladies and gentlemen, where we show you what our staff has been working on the past week, and invite the reader to share their own activities. It’s been a busy week here at RandomNPC headquarters, with a lot of reviews going up and still more on the way. (more…)
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