RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

The official Final Fantasy XIV website has just been updated with more detailed descriptions and sample character assets for the five races. Additionally, information about racial clan options is now available; each race is subdivided into two clans depending on regional origin. (more…)

Confirmed via their Members Twitter feed, Square Enix has just announced that Final Fantasy IX will be released on the Playstation Network, though a date was not specified. In the same vein, a PR email courtesy of Nintendo confirmed that Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber is now available on the Virtual Console.

In today’s edition of “The Title Says It All,” Atlus has launched the website for their upcoming PSP port of Persona 3. According to the site, the release is scheduled for July 6 of this year.

Remember: max your social links before moving to the others, otherwise very bad things can happen.

In a recent interview with FF-Reunion.net, Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed a few juicy tidbits about the future of the series. Of particular note are the following: (more…)

The game’s premise is the origins of the series’ hero and villain, Sora and Xehanort, and delves deep into the mysteries of Xehanort’s bleak past and forgotten memories as well as how Sora and Riku came to wield the Keyblade in the first place.

Like Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts: Re:Coded the main theme song for the game is “Simple and Clean”, performed by Utada Hikaru. This game is the sixth in the series to be released, but is set first chronologically. The overseas release includes a number of new features, including the Sticker Album, a new boss, new Keyblades, abilities, mini-game maps, and songs, and the addition of Critical Mode.[2] In September 2010, the Final Mix version was announced in Japan, which has the added features of the North American and European version, as well as some additional extras.

As an avid gamer do you find it hard to switch off the Playstation at the end of the night? Well it’s a common problem. Video games are one of the many reasons why America is becoming a sleepless society. But that doesn’t mean you should give up your gaming habit. In fact, believe it or not, playing your favorite video game can actually be beneficial for your brain. The only thing you need to be fight the lack of sleep is to visit www.ukmeds.co.uk/general-health/sleeping-tablets and start taking any of their tablets, there is no need to stop enjoying Kingdom Hearts.

Submitted for your viewing pleasure, straight from the horse’s art assets, English screenshots for the upcoming Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Take a gander, won’t you? (more…)

The packed-in soundtrack CD for Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey may not play properly, according to Atlus. A manufacturing error resulted in a batch of defective discs that still contain the data files, but might not work as an audio disc. Atlus is currently working with the manufacturer to correct the issue. In the meantime, those with malfunctioning CDs can input their information and receive a replacement disc through the company’s website.

Further information and instructions are available here, and a replacement request can be formally submitted here.

In a press release just before the CD Projekt Spring 2010 conference, the Polish developer formally announced a sequel to their 2007 RPG The Witcher. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings follows shortly after the events of the first game, and concerns a string of assassination plots against human leaders; the Witcher Geralt is somehow caught in the center of things. It is not known if choices and endings from The Witcher will carry over, and a release date has not been announced.

The press release in its entirety can be read here, and the official trailer is hosted on the game’s website. Do note that the trailer contains some spoilers for those who haven’t finished the first game.

In an update on The Last Story‘s developer blog, Sakaguchi discussed town and city aesthetics for Mistwalker’s upcoming RPG. The layout of in-game towns is inspired by real towns in France, and Sakaguchi intends to create bigger and more explorable towns than conventional RPGs allow. Additionally, he stated that townspeople have particular behaviors and personality quirks, and these will change over time; some in overt ways, some in subtle ones.

The developer blog can be found here. At present, there is no known schedule for release.

Level 5 announced that the sequel to White Knight Chronicles will be released in Japan this summer. Dubbed Awakening of Light and Darkness, it will feature at least two new characters: a horned girl named Miu and an armored knight named Sukadain. Apart from character art and screenshots, few details are yet available.

Source: Famitsu

NIS America has just announced that Trinity Universe, their collaboration with Gust released last year in Japan, will hit North American retailers in June this year, though an exact date was not specified. Each of the game’s main characters will have their own campaign, and certain Disgaea characters are known to make an appearance: Etna, Flonne, Prinny, and Pamela.

Atlus has just updated the Etrian Odyssey III: Visitor From Star Ocean website with a party building function, allowing players to prepare their groups in advance of the game’s release. At present the site is only in Japanese, though for the curious the builder is located here.

Etrian Odyssey III is slated for a Japanese release date of April 1. A US release has not been announced.

NieR, Square-Enix’s upcoming take on the movie Outbreak, will be getting a three-part online comic courtesy of DC Comics’ Wildstorm. The comic will explore the world of NieR, explaining some of the backstory behind the Black Scrawl plague, for which the player will scour the game world in search of a cure.

NieR is due for a North American release April 27.

Coming down off the GDC, publisher Idea Factory announced that the Nippon Ichi/Gust joint venture Trinity Universe will see North American shores “soon.” As the quotation marks may suggest, little information is available about the timeframe of the upcoming release, though Idea Factory subsidiary Compile Heart did state the game would be for both the PS3 and 360.

Source: Siliconera

The Zone is a harsh mistress, as all who’ve followed the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games can attest. GSC Game World’s adventure-heavy shooters borrowed from both the real Exclusion Zone and works of related science fiction to present a unique, beautiful, and deadly environment. The games featured their own hazards to the player: technical instability, a steep difficulty curve, and unforgiving gunplay. With Call of Pripyat, however, GSC has pulled off the impossible and delivered a stable, well balanced, and surprisingly complete entry into the series. Though still far short of perfection, Pripyat‘s take on the Zone is fascinating and rewarding in ways that few other games are. (more…)

Deciding that Commander Shepard doesn’t have enough eccentric layabouts chilling out on the Normandy, Bioware announced the newest addition to the Mass Effect 2 crew. Kasumi, a gifted human thief with considerable technical aptitude, is contacted by Cerberus to join Shepard. Of course she has her own issues to sort out along the way, and her dossier on Bioware’s website notes one in particular: breaking into the vault of an infamous criminal called Donovan Hook.

Kasumi’s bio page can be found on the Mass Effect 2 website here.

Say what you will about Cerberus’ tendency to create doomed projects that destroy their respective facilities, but their network doesn’t screw around. Coming courtesy of Bioware’s DLC apparatus for Mass Effect 2, players with access to the network can now download the Arc Projector, an electrical heavy weapon which can shock multiple targets.

Whether it will supplant the Cain for sheer “where did all the bad guys go?” factor remains to be seen.

Developer Sting announced this week that Blaze Union, a follow-up to their strategy RPG Yggdra Union, will be coming out May 27 in Japan on the PSP. Blaze Union is set chronologically before the events of Yggdra Union, centering on a corps of knights fighting against a corrupt emperor.

A US release has not been announced.

Source: 1UP

If you played it to completion, the safe money says you’re not forgetting Bioshock anytime soon. 2K’s recent entry into the hybrid role-playing/shooter genre is sometimes a victim of its own hype, but it never lacks for imagination and proves a fun, engaging journey all the same. Bioshock 2 brings us back to the crumbling city of Rapture, evolving the gameplay in all the right places. Sadly, the plot never quite has the legs to stand on its own, and it seems to keep forgetting that the story of Rapture – and its extremist founder Andrew Ryan – is the more interesting one. (more…)

Blogs being written material, however, sort of negates that problem. Anyway, Sega has launched a blog for their upcoming RPG Infinite Space, written from the perspective of the lead character Yuri. The blog is hosted directly on Sega’s website, available here.

In a tragedy of epic proportions, right up there with a candy bar getting stuck in a vending machine, Sakura Wars: So Long My Love has been push back from its March 23 release. The announcement comes from NISA’s Nao Zook, who stated that the game will launch the following week on March 30.

Sakura Wars will launch for both the Wii and the PS2 simultaneously.