RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Square Enix has announced that the long-awaited #3 in the Kingdom Hearts series would be heading to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is said to feature a more mature Sora as the protagonist, alongside Donald and Goofy as they visit a slew of new Disney worlds. No release date was given, though the game is said to be in development at Square Enix’s Osaka studio.

During their press conference last night, Sony announced that Final Fantasy XIV would be heading to the PlayStation 4. Alas, we have no release date as of yet.

The long-running saga of Final Fantasy Versus XIII took another unusual turn last night during Sony’s E3 press conference. It seems VsXIII will become Final Fantasy XV and move from the PlayStation 3 to its successor. SE later said that the game would also see release on the Xbox One, with producer Shinji Hashimoto saying that the game will be developed with DirectX 11, allowing for easy porting.

Bethseda Softworks announced that The Elder Scrolls Online will be coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Spring 2014 in addition to the PC and Mac versions. They’ll be doing an exclusive Beta run on PS4, though a date for this was not announced.

On the heels of its 3DS conference this evening, Nintendo of America has revealed through its Twitter feed that Fire Emblem 3DS will be seeing a North American release. Unfortunately, no other details about its release were discussed.

The producer of Square Enix’s 1st Production Department, Ichiro Hazama, said that he would like to see the Theatrythm series expand beyond Final Fantasy.

Speaking with Joystiq, Mr. Hazama said, “Our company has so many other IPs that create great music, so if you ask if I want to do it? I want to do it, but nothing is determined yet.” He went on to say that it was his intention that the series should expand to other Square Enix IPs, which is why the Theatrhythm title comes before Final Fantasy.

Theatrythm: Final Fantasy is currently slated for a July 3rd release date in North America.

Source: Joystiq

In an article  in this month’s Famitsu, it was revealed that the first trailer for Shin Megami Tensei 4 will be packaged with the upcoming Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, which currently has a Japanese release date of August 30th.

Source: Andriasang

According to Bethseda’s Tom Howard, Dawnguard, the first DLC package for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, is tentatively scheduled for June 26th. Mr. Howard stated that the DLC would be released, “assuming nothing goes wrong.”

Source: Joystiq

The folks at Atlus have been cranking out updates for us on the subject of Persona 4 Arena. For a start, it has been confirmed on Atlus’s official Twitter feed that the game would have a dual audio option, allowing players to choose between English or Japanese voice tracks. There’s also a super fancy trailer over at their YouTube feed, which features a rundown of a few of the available characters and some snippets of English voice work.

And finally, over at Andriasang we have the news that Persona 4 Arena will have both paid DLC and content that can be unlocked in the normal course of gameplay. Some examples given were: alternate character colors, different glasses, and new things for the announcer to shout at the beginning of a round. Unfortunately, it wasn’t made clear which of these elements were DLC and which were unlockables.

As part of its press conference this morning, Nintendo announced a new Paper Mario game for the 3DS. The game has Mario using stickers that are found in the environment as battle commands. The player can even peel back parts of the landscape to find new objects.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star also received a general release date of “this holiday season” at the press conference.

Nintendo’s press conference this morning held an unexpected announcement buried in a video montage; it seems that Mass Effect 3 will be appearing on Nintendo’s new Wii U console. Bioware confirmed on its Twitter feed that ME3 would be available for the console at launch.

Atlus says it’s bringing over the RPG-brawler hybrid Code of Princess from Japan sometime this Fall. In fact, they’ve already got preorder bonuses lined up; a “sound and visual book,” though they didn’t specify which retail outlet the bonus would be available from.

Source: Joystiq

The next entry in the Fable series got a bit closer to the light of day today. Microsoft says that this Kinect-exclusive title will be released in Fall 2012. They also mentioned that The Journey is a stand-alone title, with no relation to the mainline series.

The new South Park RPG entitled The Stick of Truth got a release date at the Microsoft press conference earlier today. THQ and Obsidian will be shipping the little bugger out on March 5th, 2013.

Howdy-ho, people! It’s time for the news, and what, oh what could we possibly have to talk about? Let’s get right to it:

• Microsoft: KINECT KINECT KINECT KINECT!  KINECT? KINECT!! Also, shooters, most of which you already knew about.  That said, the Tomb Raider game looks right up my alley.
• What MS didn’t say: cloud storage for Live data, profiles available through any 360, and Blackwater (yes, that Blackwater) is getting a Kinect-equipped shooter.
• Sony: Sorry for the inconvenience of having your data stolen of the outage.  We hope you’ll accept this modest 3DTV bundle price as compensation.
• More Sony: PSVita revealed, priced at $249-299 US dollars.  Let the handheld wars recommence!
• Nintendo: ZELDA ZELDA ZEL- okay, enough about the Wii.  Here’s some 3DS stuff.  Alright, enough of that.  New console time!
• Wii U: See all the stuff you can do with the controller?  No, the controller’s not the console.  No, we don’t have anything ready yet.  Look at the controller!
• EA and Ubisoft’s conferences, notable absences, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Weird Acts of Corporate Theater: 2011’ »

With E3 winding down, it tends to be the tradition of gaming news outlets to look back at the show, to reflect on megaton announcements and deride the goof ups and failings. Though this year had its share of both — like many, I fear I may be seeing Mr. Caffeine in my nightmares for a long time to come — it displayed a disturbing lack of the one thing our readers had been most anticipating: Role-playing games. Continue reading ‘Editorial – E3: Where Are the RPGs?’ »

Square-Enix announced in a press release today that a demo of Dungeon Siege 3 is currently available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows via Steam. The full version of the upcoming action RPG will be available on June 21st, 2011.

George Kamitani, director of the upcoming PS3/PSV RPG brawler Dragon’s Crown, spoke with Famitsu Magazine this week and laid bare a few new details about the game. Amongst the gameplay details and design notes comes the unexpected tidbit that Dragon’s Crown was in fact initially slated to appear on the Dreamcast, but that the developer could not find a publisher for the title. Continue reading ‘Dragon’s Crown Details Emerge’ »

After causing some surprise by appearing in the Playstation Vita’s coming attractions reel, Vanillaware has announced a new title called Dragon’s Crown. A 2D brawler RPG for both the PSV and the Playstation 3, Dragon’s Crown supports cross-platform multiplayer for up to four people. The game’s official site opened earlier today, and there’s a fancy trailer available for viewing on YouTube.

Close on the heels of Devil Survivor Overclocked, a remake of the first Devil Survivor game for the 3DS, comes the revelation that its sequel, Devil Survivor 2, will be seeing the light of day in North America in 2012. Further details about the game’s plot and characters have also been released, as well as some info about the creative team behind the title. Continue reading ‘Atlus Announces Devil Survivor Release Date, Details’ »