RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord is slated for release in PAL countries this Friday, giving Europeans plenty of time to come up with a shorthand title before Americans. My Life as a Darklord follows the daughter of said Darklord as she builds her lair up to keep out nosy adventurers. Square Enix has also mentioned upcoming downloadable content, although no mention has been made of the potent “Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies” ability that every self-respecting dungeon master should have.

Source: Siliconera

The PS3 release of Tales of Vesperia now has a demo available on the Japanese Playstation store. A key difference from the 360 demo is a playable new character: Patty Fleur, a little pirate girl and/or HMS Pinafore extra. As she is not technically a ‘man’ of the sea, there will be no multiple camera angles accompanied by dramatic gong clashes.

Source: Siliconera

Fallout 3‘s downloadable content had been scheduled for a release on the PS3 back in June, starting with the Operation: Anchorage pack. While Bethesda has given neither an explanation nor a revised release date, spokesman Pete Hines says via G4 that an update on that topic is to be expected “next week.” Whether this will mean the content itself, information about the content, or information about the information, is anyone’s guess.

Suggestions that Bethesda rename Operation: Anchorage to Operation: Rod Torfelson’s Anchorage Featuring Herman Menderchuck have been met with no reply.

Source: G4

Realizing that some of its fans may still have a spare hour or two that hasn’t gone towards Morrowind or Oblivion, Bethesda have re-released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall from their website for free. Hardware requirements include 148mb of space, a DOS emulator (link available via Bethesda), and a computer with slightly more processing power than a cell phone.

Reports of players having to pay with their blood have been greatly exaggerated, says Bethesda, although they did mention seeing a mudcrab the other day.

Hold up there folks, this day ain’t over yet! More media than you can handle, if your computer was assembled in 1996: Cross Edge, Summon Night X, and Ys Seven. Check it out: (more…)

The PS1 remake of Final Fantasy II is now available through Japanese PSN accounts, at the cost of 600 yen ($6.48 US as of today, according to the first currency converter Google could provide). Although it lacks the bonus dungeons from both the GBA and PSP versions, it does feature new sprites and FMV sequences.

Source: Siliconera

Obsessive-compulsives who are also fond of strategy RPGs, unite: Disgaea 3 will be receiving an update that adds over fifty new trophy tasks. The requirements for each trophy are not yet known. Unlike patches for western RPGs, this doesn’t seem to fix bugs or prevent crashes to desktop, what with that not being applicable to Disgaea 3. Like patches for western RPGs, however, this will render previous Disgaea 3 saves unusable, meaning you may want to wait for a fresh playthrough before applying the patch.

The download will be available starting July 16.

Source: Siliconera

Developer CD Projekt Red have released their latest patch for The Witcher, bringing the version up to 1.5. On top of the usual bug fixes and such, the patch adds five new bonus adventures courtesy of the game’s editor program and fan community: ‘Deceits’, ‘Blight of the Bogs’, ‘Wraiths of Quiet Hamlet’, ‘The Wedding’, and ‘Merry Witchmas’. On top of that, the game no longer requires that the disc be in the drive to play it.

Available through the official website, the patch requires the Enhanced Edition, either the retail version or the downloaded upgrade to the original Witcher.

The first book in the Fighting Fantasy series, an extensive fantasy setting spanning several dozen dice-based gamebooks, is being adapted to the Nintendo DS by developer Big Blue Bubble and publisher Aspyr. Titled The Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the game (and book) follow a lone adventurer’s trials through a Dwarven fortress built into the titular location. Played in first person and real time, Fighting Fantasy will allow players to develop their character in different ways; the press release suggests the options of weapon skills, magic, and stealth, and various combinations therein.

Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is scheduled for a holiday release this year.

Source: Siliconera

Hardly a company to take just one stab at a subgenre, Nippon Ichi is giving music-themed RPGs another go with Princess Antiphona’s Hymn: Angel’s Score Op.A. Slated for an October release in Japan, the upcoming PSP game bears some similarities with N1’s prior music RPG Rhapsody, focusing on musical events and puppets. Princess Antiphona features full voice acting and a score from composer Tenpei Saito, of the Marl Kingdom series.

Source: Siliconera

Dragon Quest IX producer Ryutaro Ichimura recently spilled the beans on why the game only allows one save slot, as advertised on the back of its box. In short, “because the amount of freedom we give players is huge,” he says, the base save file leaves only enough extra space for the backup save. Without that backup, anything done up to the point of battery failure would be lost. The price of freedom, indeed.

This has not deterred presale orders, however. Due out Saturday, July 11 in Japan, Dragon Quest IX has hit two million preorders. Should those numbers hold for actual sales, the game may well be the best-selling game in Japan for the week. Whether it will meet or exceed sales of the series’ prior installment, Dragon Quest VIII, is another story.

Source: Kotaku

The ongoing Atlus Spoils program gained its newest addition over the holiday weekend with Demon’s Souls, as Atlus announced that the upcoming Playstation 3 action RPG will come in normal and deluxe editions. The latter features a unique strategy guide and a collectible outer slipcase, along with exclusive boxart. A preorder for either version, with participating retailers, also nets a bonus artbook. Set for a simultaneous launch on October 6 of this year, the standard version will retail for $59.99, while extras bump the deluxe version up to $69.99.

Can a strategy guide and slipcover be worth the extra ten dollars? Common sense says no, but what has that done for mankind lately?

It takes a certain kind of person to look at Fallout 3‘s Capitol Wasteland and say “Well, that’s pretty desolate and inhospitable, but I think we could do better. Get the guys together, we’re making another add-on.” How Bethesda wound up at Point Lookout, Maryland, is anybody’s guess, but what matters is Point Lookout is easily the biggest and arguably the best downloadable content for Fallout 3 to date. It’s not perfect by any measure, but it gets within shouting distance at times and comes as an easy recommendation to anyone who liked the original game. (more…)

Square Enix has announced that the next mini-expansion for Final Fantasy XI will be available for prepurchase worldwide on Sunday, July 5. Titled A Moogle Kupo d’Etat – Evil in Small Doses, the story apparently focuses on how a single drop of rain in a run-down Mog House spells trouble for Moogles everywhere, or something. You had to know something was up when every level one schmoe in the game got their own personal flying butler, no questions asked.

A job of at least level ten is required to start this latest questline, along with at least the Rise of the Zilart expansion. Final Fantasy XI will also see a general version update coinciding with the release of A Moogle Kupo d’Etat.

A Moogle Kupo d’Etat will price for $9.99 US, €9.99 throughout Europe and £7.99 in the UK. Kupo nuts are reportedly an acceptable form of payment as well, though this has not been confirmed by Square Enix.

Longtime gaming icon Mega Man is ready to toy once more with role-playing chicanery in Mega Man Star Force 3, recently announced by Capcom to be en route to stores throughout North America. Two separate versions, Black Ace and Red Joker, have been released, each with unique items and powers – referred to as “Noise Changers,” a new addition to the series – to be shared via Nintendo’s wifi connection for the DS.

Reportedly, the story involves players traveling between the real world and virtual reality by way of ‘wave roads,’ and these roads have been overrun by a bizarre phenomenon called ‘noise.’ A mysterious meteor appears to be the culprit, although inside sources suggest The World Ends With You may be involved.

Mega Man Star Force 3 will be on shelves for an SRP of $29.99, continuing the series tradition of prices that end in nine.

Final Fantasy III, also known as Not-Final-Fantasy-VI-This-Time, will be available on Virtual Console in July for the low, low price of 500 Nintendo funbucks, or roughly five real bucks… in Japan. And to think, they almost didn’t not release it again. And if you can parse that sentence, you’re probably better at this than me. But, I ramble.

Source: Siliconera

Hellooooooooo everybody! How are you all this lovely Sunday? Got a nice big chunk of media for you all, featuring, in no particular order: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord, Final Fantasy Legend II DS, Mega Man Star Force 3, Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces, Class of Heroes, Dragon Quest IX, and Devil Survivor. Click away! (more…)

Man, Bethesda, it’s not fair. You already got me re-hooked on Oblivion and now Point Lookout is going to pull me back into Fallout 3 and I gotta play it aaaaaaaalllll from the start again, only this time I figured out how to get the script extender working so I can properly mod my guns now and I think I can get the hovercar mod working right this time but there’s just not enough hours in the day and oh i think i just went crosseyed

Anyhoo, in today’s media update: Final Fantasy Legend II DS, Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Graces, Atelier Rorona, and Genterprise. (more…)

Stay tuned, ’cause there’s more where this came from. In today’s update: Valhalla Knights Eldar Saga, Final Fantasy XIII, Inazuma Eleven 2, and Dragon Age: Origins. Not pictured: me trying to enrage all of Tamriel and make a mad dash for the Shivering Isles portal set to “Push it to the Limit.” Because I didn’t actually do that, I just read about some dude that did. Was pretty epic, though. I ramble. Behold the screens: (more…)

Y’know, back in the day a Bioware RPG meant you wouldn’t have to break the bank building a machine for it. Those were simpler times, times where men were men and women were women, until they stumbled onto the cursed girdle of gender-swapping and foolishly decided to try it on before identifying it. And that jerk assassin at the Friendly Arm Inn still recognized you. Sigh.

Where was I? Oh, right. Bioware just released the specs for the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins. Details here:

(more…)