RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

CyberConnect2 confirmed that a 3DCG movie based on the .Hack series is in development, dubbed simply .Hack//The Movie. While little was revealed about the movie itself, Namco Bandai president Shin Unozawa added that the Blu-ray release will include “a small game” on a hybrid disc. While NB has made hybrid discs for other series, and .Hack has used a similar tie-in concept before, it is not currently known how, or if, the movie and the game will intersect.

Source: Andriasang

Damn but it was hard to focus and get this done. Human Revolution is right there on my hard drive, locked away and waiting for a signal from the Steam mothership to grant access. Buuuut I guess while I’m waiting we should get to the news. Here’s what’s going on this week:

• Following sluggish sales, Japanese retailers begin scaling down 360 business.  Microsoft, trying sticking anime girls on more things next time.  Hey, it worked for Windows 7.
• Valve’s Gabe Newell responds to the whole EA-taking-its-games-off-Steam thing.  Gabe, if they threaten Mass Effect 3, for the love of god just give them what they ask for.  It’s not worth the risk, man.
• Sony and Nintendo have a crazy-off, chopping features out of new PSP and Wii models in Europe.  I’m short on explanations that don’t involve hallucinogens.
• Nintendo announces The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower for Europe, while ShopTo.net reports “unexpected late demand” for Xenoblade Chronicles.  Well, gosh, where could that possibly be coming from?
• Star Wars: The Old Republic may actually need a limited launch to keep servers running smoothly.  No, that still doesn’t make it a World of Warcraft killer, stop asking.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution is rumored to be region-locked in Europe, until Squenix drops this idea after being warned it may be illegal in response to fan outcry.  Hooray!
• Seriously guys, we’re getting another Deus Ex in a matter of days oh god I forgot to turn off italics I don’t even care eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (more…)

Howdy-ho, all! Just squeezing in some media before the weekend. Bit tight on time, so without further ado here’s what we have: Class of Heroes 3DS, Disgaea 3: Return, Disgaea 4, Dragon’s Dogma, Fermi Naju 3, and Final Fantasy Type-0. (more…)

Available copies of Star Wars: The Old Republic will be intentionally limited during its initial launch period, both for retail and digital sales. Reportedly this is for server stability reasons, or so an EA representative at Gamescom explained: once a certain number of copies are activated, EA will temporarily cut off digital sales (which are available exclusively through EA’s Origin system) and work on expanding the servers to compensate.

EA’s Frank Gibeau had indicated that such expansion will occur shortly after launch, stating that “We’ll be able to scale up and light up new severs on a fairly quick basis. We’ve got a plan to do that over the months following ship, and we’ve got a lot of capacity built into that.” No indication was given of what the player count threshold might be to restrict sales, though EA has previously indicated a substantial, albeit unspecified, number of preorders.

The Old Republic has not yet received a release date.

Source: 1UP

Nintendo has just announced that Skyward Sword, the latest Wii-bound Zelda title, will launch on November 20. In case you’re wondering, yes, that’s in time for Black Friday.

Source: 1UP

The D&D-based Neverwinter, a co-op RPG being developed by Cryptic Studios, has been pushed back to “late 2012” from its intended 2011 release. This news comes in the wake of a settlement between Hasbro and Atari over development and distribution rights, as Cryptic had previously been owned by Atari before being picked up by Perfect World earlier this year. Atari gained the rights to “several games,” while Hasbro keeps digital licensing rights for D&D in general.

Source: 1UP

Some plot details have been explained regarding Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime 3. Key treasures of the Slime Kingdom, the seven Niji Orbs, have been stolen by the Tails Brigade. This is where you come in as presumably a bad enough slime to go get them back. Thus you set sail on the Slime Ship, which you will have to defend on occasion. Enemies can board the ship and even destroy it if you fail to protect the engine room.

Source: Andriasang

In case you were looking for a PSX-era RPG to spend six bucks on, Breath of Fire IV has been released on the PlayStation Network as a PSOne Classic. Just throwing that out there.

Dengeki PlayStation has revealed that Namco Bandai and Nitro Plus (Stein’s Gate, Phantom of Inferno) are co-developing an “adventure dungeon RPG” based on the anime series Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica. Featuring turn-based movement through dungeons, Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica Portable is billed as a roguelike and reportedly is based off the anime, though the game will introduce new areas.

Standard and limited editions come up to 6480 and 11900 respectively, with the latter adding a bonus figure, illustration collection, and such. Both versions are scheduled for a March 15, 2012 release in Japan.

Source: Andriasang

With a playable version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 set for the Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix has announced plans for an early demo event. Hosted at their Tokyo office in Shinjuku Ward, the demo event will select a total of forty people in two phases of twenty to try the game. The meetup is scheduled for September 10, and anyone interested in attending can apply at the official site up through August 24.

Source: Andriasang

Nippon Ichi has confirmed that a port-slash-remake of Disgaea 3 is in the works for the PS Vita. Subtitled Disgaea 3: Return, the game will include all DLC featured in the PS3 version along with two new characters and four new scenarios. There has also been discussion of post-release DLC, though with the system itself not yet released there are few details at this time.

In addition, the company stated that four other games are being developed: an action RPG from the Prinny team, a new title from the Disgaea team, another game from System Prisma (the Cladun people), and a Japanese release of “a 3DS game that was popular overseas.” No platforms were specified.

Return is expected to debut at the Tokyo Game Show in September.

Sources: 1UP, Andriasang

Come one, come all, we got all the news you have time for and then some! Well, okay more like all the news I can squeeze into a 15-minute podcast. And, well, actually it’s more like news and analysis and WHATEVER YOU’RE NOT THE POLICE OF ME!

In today’s cavity-fighting* episode:

• Minecraft studio Mojang, which I took a stab at pronouncing, finds itself sued by ZeniMax over use of the word “Scrolls.”  I wish I were joking, and so does Bethesda.
• Someone looks to hand Rovio a fat sack of cash for purposes yet unknown.  Who could benefit from Rovio owing them money?  Oh, where to begin.
• 3DS analysis: Reggie discusses where it stumbled and the plan for going forward.  Yeah, who among us could have predicted that launching without Zelda could be a problem?
• Meanwhile, Sony refuses to blink in reaction to the 3DS price cut.  All they have to do is not run stupid advertising.  How hard could it be, right?  …guys?
• Reggie also makes passing mention of “watching what happens in Europe” when asked about Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower.  Deliberate troll or accidental?  You decide!
• What doesn’t worry me: Lonesome Road‘s delay.  What does: the possibility of being unable to convey my confusion over whatever Ulysses’ deal is.
• As promised last week, I offer a semi-postmortem on the recent market insanity and what lies in store for us down the road.  Bottom line, brace yourselves and get popcorn.

(more…)

Finally, some decent weather for a change. And just in time for summer to start winding down. Yeah, go figure. Anyway, got some media for you: Final Fantasy Legends, Final Fantasy Tactics iOS, Growlanser 4: Overload, and Legend of Edda. (more…)

NIS America has just announced the release date for Cladun x2, the sequel to Cladun: This is an RPG. The title will go live on August 30, exclusively on the PlayStation Network.

For more information, check out the game’s official site located somewhere over here.

Via Famitsu is the news that Final Fantasy Type-0 will see a public demo version prior to release. The demo, dubbed “Natsubi,” is a modified version of a demo shown at an Odaiba event a few weeks ago. No timeframe was given on the demo’s release.

Source: Andriasang

Strong sales and preorders for the Legend of Heroes series have prompted developer Nihon Falcom to raise its yearly earnings forecasts. Two titles in particular – Zero no Kiseki and the upcoming Ao no Kiseki – were cited for the change, and for the period of October 2010 to September 2011 the company now expects net earnings of 125 million yen, up from previous estimates of 75 million.

Source: Andriasang

As part of their Zelda 25th Anniversary celebration, Nintendo has announced an unusual fan contest based on flipnote submissions: short Zelda-themed animations made either on paper or with the DSi’s Flipnote Studio. Contest winners will be examined by key Nintendo staffers – Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma were specified – and added to the Zelda anniversary website, which is being set up here.

Submissions must be in by September 9.

Source: 1UP

With ongoing speculation of Borderlands 2‘s unofficial existence, the title has now been formally announced by developer Gearbox. CEO Randy Pitchford was reportedly disappointed that the information had been leaked, but it was confirmed that the title will see a release sometime in publisher Take-Two’s 2013 Fiscal Year; sometime between April 1 of 2012 and March 31 of 2013.

Some details about the gameplay were revealed as well. Borderlands 2, like its predecessor, is a four-player co-op shooter, though players will control a new cast of characters with the originals appearing simply as NPCs. The three-branch skill tree remains intact, and Eridium now serves as both currency and the means to upgrade weapons and vehicles. NPC interactions are reportedly deeper as well, from conversation to enemy AI. And lest we forget, the iconic yet annoying robot Claptrap will show up in the game as well.

Sources: 1UP, Eurogamer

The upcoming Diablo III will require that players stay connected to the internet, even for single player, due to new Battle.net and auction house features. Reacting to the news, fans expressed frustration over the design decision, stating that the game won’t be playable for those without a stable internet connection and that pirates will simply crack the restriction anyway.

In response to the complaints, Blizzard’s online technologies Robert Bridenbecker explained the decision to require a constant connection. Having an offline mode would mean “introducing a separate user flow, a separate path that players are going to go down. And, at the end of the day, how many people are going to want to do that? It then becomes a matter of having to find a way to deal with those offline players when they suddenly want to go online. Do they then have to leave everything behind? We said we don’t want to look at that [in Diablo III]. Let’s just keep everything clean.” He also stated that preventing piracy wasn’t a major consideration for this decision.

No release date has been announced.

Source: 1UP

As many Couriers are aware, the final planned DLC for Fallout New Vegas was originally slated to release back in July. In a post on the official forums, senior producer Jason Bergman stated that “due to circumstances beyond our control, Lonesome Road won’t be out this month.” The team is reportedly working to release it ASAP, but no timeframe was given.

Source: Joystiq