RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Speaking with Dengeki Playstation, Falcom CEO Toshihiro Kondo briefly brought up the Vita entry in the Ys series, Ys Celceta: Sea of Trees. The game has “evolved greatly” from its TGS 2011 showing, and more details will be released following Nayuta no Kiseki. Sea of Trees is expected to launch sometime this year.

As for Nayuta, Kondo indicated the game has no ties to past games in the Legend of Heroes series, hence its absence from the title. Further details were also revealed: the game world has boundaries and is not spherical, as no one knows what lies beyond the sea; the aforementioned mysterious girl, Noi, emerges from one of the ruins falling from the sky; gameplay and battle systems have been adjusted in response to feedback about prior games’ slow pacing; and boss fights were apparently one of the first things the staff designed.

Source: Andriasang

Via Coro Coro Comics, we have some additional details about Pokemon Black and White 2. Four additions to the cast were listed: a childhood friend currently dubbed Rival; a mysterious Pokemon researcher named Akuroma; and two additional gym leaders, Homika and Shizui. A June 23 release date was also confirmed, with both versions of the game to be priced at ¥4,800.

Source: Andriasang

Level-5 recently unveiled Little Battler eXperience Explosive Boost, a 3DS redux of last year’s PSP entry, Little Battler eXperience Boost. Apart from adding touch controls and updating the interface for the dual screen, Explosive Boost will feature wireless play for up to six players, which is new to the series.

The title is set for a July 5 release date, priced at ¥4,400.

Source: Andriasang

A recent media update has given us further information about Atelier Ayesha. In particular, the cast now includes the treasure-hunting Regina Curtis, and fellow alchemist Keithgrif Hazeldine. Regina is apparently one of Ayesha’s friends, while Keithgrif is a traveling scholar of sorts.

As for the alchemy system, it reportedly keeps most of the basics from prior games, with players gathering materials and selecting recipes. In a twist, however, you can now combine items during the fusion process to change the effects.

Source: Andriasang

Commemorating the release of Fire Emblem: Awakening, Nintendo has made the game’s soundtrack available through Club Nintendo. As is common, members who buy the game will get a discounted price on the soundtrack: 400 points normally, 250 with the discount. Participants have until October 21 to register their copy.

Source: Andriasang

Title says it all; check out Nayuta no Kiseki‘s official site here. While gameplay details are sparse, the story reportedly centers around the island of Nokosare Shima (“Left Behind Island,” apparently). Shooting stars and odd ruins have fallen from the skies around the island, with particularly strange stones, called Star Fragments, tantalizing those who find them with visions of another world.

You play one of the curious locals – the star-gazing, 15-year-old Nayuta – as he and his pal Signa investigate the ruins. Naturally there’s a mysterious girl involved, named Noi, though it’s not yet clear how their paths intersect.

Source: Andriasang

Ah, 16-bit-era Shadowrun. Come for the cyberpunk revenge plots and foxgirls, stay for the considerable XP/money grind so you can break the game in half. Good times, both SNES and Genesis. Anyway, on to the news:

• Sony’s financial woes catch up to them, doubling their loss forecast and forcing 10,000 layoffs.  “Holy s***, now what?” indeed, Mr. Hirai.
• Jack Tramiel, Commodore International founder and the man behind the C64, died at 83.  Yet another legend in the tech field that I knew almost nothing about.
• Peter Molyneux speaks out about leaving Microsoft for his indie venture.  Will it change the world, or will it OH JUST REMAKE SYNDICATE ALREADY GODDAMNIT
• The Better Business Bureau weighs in on the Mass Effect 3 ending furor, which is my personal “this has gone way too far” threshold.
• Meanwhile, Victor Ireland rather gloriously misreads Steam’s effect on RPG sales, while his own Clash of Heroes 2 Kickstarter falls well short of its goal.  Time to serve the Newell?  I’d say so.
• Wired’s Chris Kohler takes a scalpel to the argument that used games are hurting the industry.  The conclusion: the industry is hurting the industry.
• Project X Zone‘s creators are among the least likely to localize anything, Wasteland 2‘s Kickstarter coasts to a comfortable finish, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – And I’ll Keep Lying, I Promise’ »

Howdy howdy. Sadly, What Happened This Week is not ready for your consumption tonight. Got a wee bit sidetracked with other matters. I won’t bore you with the details, suffice it to say a family of raccoons was determined to add some audio intensity to my playing of Silent Hill Downpour. That, and I had to hunt around for a blazer, the use of which will become obvious in a couple weeks.

Anyway, sorry about the delay. We’ll have the podcast up for you folks tomorrow night.

Behold the story of the beautiful princess Cheri White!

Continue reading ‘Mass Media 04/14/12’ »

One of the highest-praised games of recent years, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has a great deal going for it. With an enormous seamless world to explore and a highly flexible character development system, Skyrim is exceptionally easy to get lost in, with some of the most engaging role playing RPG fans have seen in a long time. On the whole, Skyrim deserves a great deal of the praise that has been heaped at its feet, but there are a few hitches in its design that are worth stating. Skyrim has a bit of awkward fumbling in its menu layout and a bit of difficulty with overly compartmentalized storytelling, as well as a troubling lack of subtlety in its art direction and a fair number of bugs and glitches even this far out of release. Ultimately, however, Skyrim’s vast and detailed world gives it an uncommonly broad appeal.

Continue reading ‘The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Staff Review #2’ »

Via Famitsu, we have news that a crossover 3DS project is in the works between Namco, Capcom, and Sega. Dubbed Project X Zone, the crossover SRPG will feature characters from various series, ranging from Street Fighter and Resident Evil more esoteric ones, such as Space Channel 5 and Shining Force EXA.

The title will launch in Japan sometime this year. No word exists on a worldwide release.

Source: Joystiq

Namco Bandai has just announced that Level 5 and Studio Ghibli’s Ni No Kuni has been delayed, with its European and North American release dates pushed back to Q1 2013.

Source: Joystiq

In an official response, Square Enix admitted to a major bug present in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. Although rather specific, it can prevent players from making further progress, and SE has set up an information page on how to avoid the problem. Said page is accessible here, currently in Japanese as KH3D has not been released worldwide yet.

Source: Andriasang

On the off chance you haven’t bought one of the many hard copy versions already, Persona 3 FES is one of the latest releases on PSN. Shoot yourself in the head with a magic summoning gun for the low, low price of $9.99. So sayeth the official blog.

EA has just released the Resurgence Pack DLC for Mass Effect 3. As previously announced, the pack includes two new maps, six new classes – or “Krogan Vanguard and those other guys” as I call it – and an assortment of new weapons. The pack is free for all players with a valid online pass code.

Source: Joystiq

It used to be that when a game was patched it ran better, but times have changed. Today, if players download the new Xbox 360 patch for Mass Effect 3, they’ll be rolling the dice. The game might resolve underlying issues… or it might cause the system to freeze on the initial menu screen, rendering both the single player and multiplayer campaigns unplayable.

Multiple threads have appeared on BioWare’s forums and other sites regarding the issue. At this time BioWare is aware of the problem, but there’s no word on when–or if–it will be fixed.

BioWare and its parent company EA have been awash in bad press of late. Controversy surrounded Mass Effect 3‘s ending, and voters at the Consumerist chose EA as the “worst company in America.”

Yaknow, you can say what you want about Silent Hill: Downpour, but when it comes to being tense and creepy it doesn’t screw around. The actual enemies and combat are pretty naff, but it does a fine job instilling a sense of dread. There are rooms I just do not want to enter. I consider that a mission accomplished for a horror game.

Anyhow, on to the news:

• The Consumerist wrapped up their online poll for 2012’s Worst Company in America.  EA jumped to the front faster than you can say “biased sampling data.”  And speaking of EA…
• Mass Effect 3‘s Extended Cut DLC was announced, prompting LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE.  A PAX East BioWare panel offered some more information, likely only stoking the fire at this point.
• An industry analyst predicts doom for Nintendo, which happens often and just as often is disproven.  What’s new here is getting basic facts wrong.
• Get your credsticks out: a Shadowrun Kickstarter launched and met its goals handily.  Check it out here, chummer.
• Gamasutra ran a survey about salaries in the games industry, with some surprising data.  Long story short, I’m in the wrong line of work.
• Sonic the Hedgehog‘s creator winds up at Nintendo of America, Final Fantasy Versus XIII music winds up in Theatrhythm, and more!

Continue reading ‘What Happened This Week – Never Deal With a Dragon’ »

We have more news from BioWare. The first Mass Effect 3 patch will be coming out next week, on April 9 for the PC and April 10 for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. It fixes a long list of issues including problems importing custom characters.

BioWare has also announced the Mass Effect 3 Resurgence Pack, a free DLC that expands multiplayer. The DLC will add two maps, Firebase Condor, situated on one of Palavin’s moons, and Firebase Hydra, an abandoned colony once belonging to the Quarians. Six new characters will now be playable, one for each character class: Asari Justicar (Adept), Krogan Battlemaster (Vanguard), Geth (Infiltrator and Engineer), and Batarian (Soldier and Sentinel). The DLC also adds three new collectible weapons and new consumables.

Players can check out the shiny DLC trailer.

BioWare sent out a press release today detailing how the developer would be handling changes to Mass Effect 3 in response to mounting dissatisfaction among fans regarding the game’s ending.

BioWare will be releasing these changes in the form of a free DLC patch for the game, to be called Extended Cut. The company stated that the DLC would provide “additional context and deeper insight to the conclusion of Commander Shepard’s journey,” adding additional cinematics and epilogue scenes to the game.

The press release went on to state that BioWare remains committed to and proud of “the artistic choices we made in the main game,” saying that they strongly believe in the development team’s vision for the end of the series.  The purpose of Extended Cut, they say, will be to offer greater context, rather than to alter Mass Effect 3‘s ending.

Extended Cut is scheduled for a release sometime this summer.

With indie studio Zeboyd Games at the helm, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Three is officially back on track for development. Retitled as the slightly-less-wordy Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, the game is scheduled to launch this summer on PC, Mac, XBLIG, iOS and Android platforms. As previously stated, the game is a departure from the series in terms of content, playing more as an 8-bit RPG in line with Zeboyd’s previous releases.

Founder Robert Boyd cites Final Fantasy V and Grandia as major influences, and this extends to combat through the use of a semi-real-time combat system. Boyd added that the title will have connections to previous games, but will be more of a standalone adventure. Zeboyd is handling the majority of the content creation, through collaboration with Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins. Unfortunately, players will not be able to import characters from previous games.

Source: Joystiq