Strategy Session – Competitive Pokemon XV: Rhyperior
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.
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Dragonica Online – Staff Review
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.
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.hack Series Comes to Close with .hack//Link
At the Tokyo Game Show, Namco-Bandai announced .hack//Link, an action-RPG slated to be the final entry in the popular media-crossing series. Details on the game itself are scarce as of yet, but it has been mentioned that it will be “a culmination of all 23 titles in the .hack series.” Over 130 characters will make appearances, with up to 33 becoming party members, in a story that will span 14 years of time.
.hack//Link is set for a February 2010 release on the PSP.
Source: Famitsu
Birth By Sleep: Now With More Disney, Multiplayer Mode
Famitsu has reported additional Disney Worlds for Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep. This time, we’ll see more of Neverland — specifically Peter Pan’s group of Lost Boys — and Captain Hook will return with another scheme. Neverland was featured in the first Kingdom Hearts game, but it was limited to the clock tower and Captain Hook’s ship. Birth By Sleep will also take players to Snow White’s world where they will meet the Seven Dwarfs and her wicked stepmother.
The game also introduces a new special attack called Shoot Lock. Players can hold down L1 and R1 to activate it, then move about with the D-pad and use the circle button to lock on to a target and unleash a special attack.
Famitsu also revealed that Birth By Sleep will include an ad-hoc multiplayer mode in an area called the Mirage Arena. Players can win all sorts of fancy items there and use them in the main game.
Source: Famitsu
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Explorers of Sky Plan European Vacation
Nintendo has announced that Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon: Explorers of Sky will be out in Europe on October 20, which is roughly one week after the game will be released in North America.
More Dragon Age Details: Elven Desperado and Evil Forest
Fantasy just can’t get away from elves, as a rule, and Dragon Age: Origins is no exception. The latest video from Bioware depicts the elven mercenary Zevran, a talented swordsman who inexplicably sounds like Antonio Banderas. The video depicts an encounter in which Zevran, coated in blood and lying on the ground, gives the lowdown on his occupation and signs on with the group; presumably in the aftermath of some battle, as blood splatters also cover the hero and some of his entourage. The trailer can be found here.
Bioware also revealed another in-game region known as the Korcari Wilds: a cold, ominous forest far from civilization, where superstitious locals speak of witches stealing their children and rely on the guidance of tribal shamans. A short video on Bioware’s website elaborates, suggesting that something called the Dark Spawn have infested the area.
Game Changers: Volume 26 – Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Two hundred and fifty-five; deux cents cinquante-cinq; nihyaku goju go; 255. This number will be familiar to most gamers. It seems to crop up quite a lot. In the original Zelda, it’s the maximum number of Rupees you could carry; it’s the max number for many of your stats in most Final Fantasy games; it’s the highest number of Effort Points in Pokemon. There’s a technical reason for this. You’ve heard of bytes, right? A byte is made up of eight smaller units called bits. The result is that the maximum number of values it can represent with these eight-digit units is 256 (255 numbers plus zero, I assume). Let me quote Wikipedia for a moment: 225 is “the maximum value representable by an eight-digit binary number, and therefore the maximum representable by an unsigned 8-bit byte.”
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Atelier Lina Media – 09/28/09
Just wrapping up some media, doing a little housekeeping, trying not to get sucked into trolling Youtube for more Hatsune Miku insanity. Lord knows that juice song is pretty much etched into my skull. Anyway, behold some pretty, pretty Atelier Lina screens and art:
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Mass Effect 2: Meet the Biotic Commando
A new trailer for Mass Effect 2 has revealed another recruitable character: a powerful, snarky, aggressively antisocial biotic dubbed Subject Zero. Apart from showing her destroying enemies left and right, the trailer drops several hints about her backstory, suggesting a history of gang violence, biotic experimentation, and other things straight from the not-so-sunny side of the Mass Effect universe. The video also suggests S0 is a possible love interest for male Shepard, and by ‘suggests’ one can take to mean ‘pretty much confirms.’
The trailer can be viewed here. Bioware staff could not be reached to ask whether the trailer could be improved by pairing it with the Hawaii Five-O theme.
Strategy Session – Parasite Eve
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.
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Persona 3 PSP: Have Some Swag While You’re At It
Everyone’s favorite niche-cornering company that starts with the letter ‘A’ has seen fit to throw in some freebies with the Japanese Persona 3 Portable Deluxe pack. It’s been revealed that the pack will include a t-shirt, table calendar, and PSP-sized jacket character art, and it will be available starting November 11 for 8495 yen.
The pack is available for purchase through EBTen.jp.
Translation: Adrienne Beck
Level 5 Shows Off White Knight Chronicles at TGS, Announces Sequel
The Tokyo Game Show is in full swing, and Level 5 is showing off its PS3 RPG White Knight Chronicles. The game is already out in Japan and it should be out in North America sometime next year, but TGS provided the stage for the game’s online component.
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Dragon Quest: Wars Announced
Square Enix has just announced that Dragon Quest: Wars, an upcoming turn-based strategy title employing monsters from the Dragon Quest series, will be available for download through Nintendo’s DSiWare service in October of this year. The game will employ the DSi’s wireless network and Wi-Fi connection, allowing up to four teams to build a party of monsters and battle in the same arena.
While a launch day was not specified, the company stated the title will be available for 500 DSi points.
