RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

This week’s Famitsu has revealed that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy‘s DLC tracks will be priced at ¥150 per song. On launch day, February 16, Square Enix will release the following eight tracks:

• FFII – Battle Scene 1 (Battle Stage)
• FFIV – The Final Battle (Battle Stage)
• FFIX – Fighters of the Crystal (Battle Stage)
• FFXIII – Fighting Fate (Battle Stage)
• FFV – Hikari wo Motomete (Field Stage)
• FFVII – Cosmo Canyon (Field Stage)
• FFVIII – Ride On (Field Stage)
• FFX – Someday The Dream Will End (Field Stage)

Further songs will be added every two or three weeks, and will eventually include music from non-numbered games.

Source: Andriasang

Care of the latest Jump are some details about Fire Emblem 3DS, now subtitled as Awakening. Most noteworthy are the following:

• Alongside main character Krom, players will create their own supporting character, setting gender, appearance, and such. A major part of the story concerns Krom meeting this character.
• Free Maps have been featured in previous games, allowing players to freely move across the map in between story battles.
• A Dual system allows you and an ally to enter a battle together, adding special abilities and supporting attacks during the fight.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is set for an April 19 release in Japan. No US release has been confirmed.

Source: Andriasang

Not to be outdone, Namco Bandai has also announced an increase in earnings forecast for the current fiscal year. With prior numbers at 420 mil for sales and 25mil for operating income, the company now expects respective increases to 440mil and 31.5mil. These are owed, in large part, to high sales of Tales of Xillia (760k units) and Gundam Extreme VS (550K units).

Source: Andriasang

Developer Nippon Ichi announced higher than expected earnings forecasts: operating income up to ¥303mil and net income at ¥203mil, up from respective figures of ¥107mil and ¥59mil. The company credited the jump to Disgaea 3: Return selling “higher than expected,” with Disgaea 4 on the PS3 also selling well in North America and Europe.

Source: Andriasang

Apart from the previously mentioned Resident Evil 6 demo, copies of Dragon’s Dogma will also include a companion book. Titled Dragon’s Dogma: The Beginning, the book features development illustrations and an original short story by fantasy writer Ryo Mizuno, perhaps best known as the creator of Record of Lodoss War. Capcom has stated the story will cover an area outside the game itself.

Source: Andriasang

Seeking to clear the air about Final Fantasy X‘s upcoming HD version, Square Enix’s Shinji Hashimoto stated that the game is remastered, but not a full-on remake. The statement was made at the recent Taipei Game Show, with the key difference being a remaster typically does not add extra features, as remakes so often do.

Source: 1UP

With another entry in the Kiseki series (a Legend of Heroes spinoff) already in development, Falcom CEO Toshihiro Kondo announced that still another Kiseki title is also in the works. The upcoming title, Nayuta no Kiseki, is currently being developed for the PSP, and Kondo indicated a Vita version of Zero no Kiseki will follow.

The latter, under the full title of Legend of Heroes: Zero no Kiseki Evolution, will feature full voice acting, additional minigames, animated character shots for conversations, and various new visual effects. Evolution is expected to release sometime this summer for ¥6,090.

Source: Andriasang

Occasionally a game transcends the usual hype train business to become a true event, a shared experience that people talk about for years. For all its changes over time, The Elder Scrolls is an entire series of event games, Bethesda’s self-contained industry of scale-breakingly huge sandbox RPGs. As the long awaited fifth installment, Skyrim is too burdened by old issues for a word as loaded as ‘perfect.’ But there is perfection in the adventure it delivers, which is the distilled essence of everything TES has gotten right over the years. (more…)

With Final Fantasy XIII-2 just now hitting retailers outside Japan, Square Enix has stated they will be releasing downloadable content for the title starting next week. The first batch, available on the 7th for Xbox Live and the 8th for the PSN, will feature a coliseum battle where players can fight and recruit enemies from previous Final Fantasy games.

Further content is planned, namely additional story and scenarios for key characters, though no further details were given at this time.

Source: Eurogamer

Capcom has just announced that Dragon’s Dogma, their upcoming 360/PS3 open-world RPG, will see worldwide release in May: North America on May 22, followed by Japan on the 24th and Europe on the 25th. As an added bonus, both versions will include download codes for Resident Evil 6 demos. 360 buyers will be able to download said demo starting July 3; however those on the PS3 won’t be accessible until September 4.

Source: Andriasang

Developer Genius Sonority recently unveiled their latest project: a camera-themed 3DS RPG titled Denpa Ningen. Per the game’s logic, the titular Ningen exist in electric waves in the real world, which are captured via the 3DS camera. You then build a party with the superdeformed critters and take them dungeon crawling, apparently to rescue someone from a demon king. ’cause, really, what else are you going to do with electric wave people?

Anyhow, Denpa Ningen will be released on the e-Shop starting February 8, priced at ¥800.

Source: Andriasang

Atlus announced that Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena will make its arcade debut in early March for Japan. Additionally, PS3 and 360 releases are planned for summer, also for Japan.

Source: Andriasang

The news: disturbing the Force, all day erry day.  Also, going to be off next week for the Super Bowl; not that I have a huge stake in it, but I owe the Giants some residual gratitude for taking out Green Bay.  Us poor Chicagoans would never, ever hear the end of it if they made it back-to-back.  But I get off topic.  I’ll see you all the week after next, but in the meantime here’s what’s going down:

• The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement steps in to fill the SOPA/PIPA void of “simultaneously overzealous and ineffective legal frameworks for punishing 4chan users.”  Also, at least part of Poland’s parliament is awesome.
• The Economist dispels a few myths about the US trade deficit with China, using the iPad as an example.  Short version: paying workers ten cents an hour means China doesn’t actually get a lot of money per gizmo.
• Diablo III‘s senior producer makes an abrupt departure from Blizzard.  Since the game doesn’t even have a release date yet, there can only be one explanation.
• Meanwhile, EA expands Origin’s reach to include several third-party companies, counting beloved Polish developer CD Projekt among them.  The more you tighten your grasp, EA…
• The Family Research Council claims the Gay Agenda has its claws in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  BioWare responds by thanking them for the free advertising.
• Nintendo mulls over a rebranding effort for the Wii U, worried that nontraditional gaming demographics might not get the concept of console cycles.
• Mass Effect 3 will tie random DLC to action figures, Voodoo Extreme faces staffing budget cuts, and more!

(more…)

Tragedy strikes the nation: What Happened This Week will not be uploaded tonight. I know, unprecedented, but even the most perfect of us – that’s me, by the way – make mistakes from time to time. I won’t bore you with the details, suffice it to say I won’t be mixing randomly selected liquor anytime soon.

I kid, of course; the reality’s less interesting and involves spending most of the day faffing about with uncooperative recording equipment. Long story short, this week’s episode of WHTW will be up tomorrow night. Sorry, folks!

On the off chance that your life was hanging in the balance, you’ll be relieved to know Persona 4: The Golden will employ bikes both in and out of combat. Once you’ve gotten a license for a bike, characters will be able to perform bike-based attacks in battle, and you can also ride over to neighboring towns and other areas for certain events.

Additionally, it was revealed that studio Mad House will be handling the game’s opening animation.

Source: Andriasang

This week’s Dengeki Playstation has revealed the title of Gust’s latest title, one for the PS Vita this time. Dubbed Surge Concerto: Ciel no Surge, the game is reportedly aimed at online play and will see a release on April 26. Little else was revealed at this time.

Source: Andriasang

In a manner of speaking, anyway. Equipping a character with a special item called “Nuigurumetto” transforms them into a superdeformed version of themselves: tiny body, big head. This is apparently just a cosmetic feature with no effects on gameplay.

Source: Andriasang

Dragon Quest X will feature at least two means of quickly getting around. Intercontinental rail links all five of the main continents at fixed points, while Rula Stones can teleport you to previously-visited locations. Stones can only remember one location at a time, but can be reprogrammed to somewhere else and you can carry more than one stone.

Source: Andriasang

Code of Princess will include online multiplayer modes, specifically co-op quests and a four-player battle mode. The title is scheduled to launch on April 19.

Source: Andriasang

Ragnarok Odyssey, Gamearts’ action-RPG for the PS Vita, will not ship with built-in support for online play. Rather, the company is planning a post-release update to add this function. CEO Kazuki Morishita indicated the patch will go live soon after release, though an exact date was not given.

Odyssey, which will ship with four player ad-hoc play, is currently set for a February 2 release.

Source: Andriasang