Archive for September, 2010

Two Worlds 2 — Too Little Too Late?

By
Lawrence
 – September 28, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG News
Two Worlds 2

Two Worlds 2 delayed ... again

Two Worlds 2, the sequel to the critically panned RPG from developer Reality Pump, has been delayed for the second time, according to Joystiq.  Originally set for release on September 23, publisher SouthPeak first pushed the release date to October 5, pointing to Halo Reach as justification.  This week’s news of a second delay, this time to January 2011, raises some concerns.  Especially in light of SouthPeak’s stated reason this time around – “heavyweight quality assurance.”  

I’m willing to accept at face value a publisher’s reluctance to launch a relatively little-known RPG, supported by what I assume to be a relatively modest marketing budget, into the Microsoft – Halo marketing tsunami.  Even Bioware would be wise to sidestep that storm.  But SouthPeak’s excuse for this second delay, which pushes the game out of the lucrative holiday sales window, is not so easily dismissed. 

The game needs several months of additional quality assurance?  Heavyweight quality assurance?  That’s not encouraging. 

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Etrian Odyssey 3 Ocean Map Icons

By
Lawrence
 – September 24, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG Strategy
Etrian Odyssey 3 ocean sailing

Etrian Odyssey takes to the seas -- with inscrutable map icons!

 

Etrian Odyssey 3 is a new RPG on the Nintendo DS from Atlus.  Earlier this week, I posted a key to the Etrian Odyssey 3 dungeon map icons, which readers and forum posters were kind enough to help me sort out – thanks guys.  For a grid-based dungeon crawler RPG that puts so much emphasis on its mapping system, Etrian Odyssey 3 is remarkably quiet about what its map icons actually mean.  

This post tackles the game’s second set of map icons – the Etrian Odyssey 3 ocean icons.  These are the icons that you use while exploring the ocean in your ship.  Hard as it is to believe, these are even more confusing than the dungeon symbols!  Seriously, I feel like I just failed some kind of IQ test.  Here’s my best shot. 

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Etrian Odyssey 3 Map Icons

By
Lawrence
 – September 23, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG Strategy
Etrian Odyssey 3 box art

Etrian Odyssey 3 -- Look at these heroes, ready and eager to map!

One of the standout features of the Etrian Odyssey series is its map-making system.  In the olden days, RPG gamers used pencils and graph paper to painstakingly map their way through grid-based dungeon crawler RPGs.  The Etrian Odyssey games give the player the freedom to experience this style of gameplay in the modern world by mapping dungeons on the DS’s lower screen using the stylus.

Problem is, as far as I can tell, unlike the first two games, Etrian Odyssey 3 never provides the player with a key to the map icons.  See the arcane symbols below (after the jump)?  Well, there is no guide to what these symbols mean!  At least none that I could find.  Not in the game itself.  Not in the manual.  Not even a Google search found a complete key.

In the spirit of helping intrepid adventurers everywhere (as well as bloggers like me), I have decided to post a guide to the Etrian Odyssey 3 map icons.  But I am going to need your help figuring some of these out!

Update: The Final Dungeon’s Key to Etrian Odyssey 3’s Ocean Map Icons is now up as well!

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Games like Etrian Odyssey: Grid-Based Dungeon Crawler RPGs

By
Lawrence
 – September 21, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG Feature Stories

 

Wizardry 1

Wizardry -- Hope you brought your imagination!

With Etrian Odyssey 3 hitting North American retail shelves today, it seems like a good opportunity for a post on a subject near and dear to my heart – the surprising resurgence of what, for lack of a better term, I will call grid-based dungeon crawler RPGs on Nintendo’s handheld system. 

What is a Grid-Based Dungeon Crawler RPG? 

Before Ultima Underworld introduced the ability to move freely through a 3D space, first-person role playing games were strictly grid-based.  Each time you pressed the arrow key left or right, you would turn a full 90 degrees in that direction.  Each time you pressed the up arrow key, you advanced one square forward on an invisible grid.  While this made mapping easy (graph paper was ideal) it also imposed artificial restraints on the dungeon designs.  (These evil mages must have hired only the best dungeon contractors to get all of those 90 degree angles and perfectly level floors just right!) 

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Demon’s Souls Follow-Up Project Dark Announced for 2011

By
Lawrence
 – September 16, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG News

Project Dark successor to Demon's Souls

Usually, the only Dark Project that would get me excited is Warren Spector’s masterpiece Thief.  However, I may have to make an exception in this case, given that this Project Dark is the follow-up to From Software’s brutal 2009 RPG Demon’s Souls.

Whether Project Dark is a role playing game is unclear at this point, but From Software’s history strongly suggests that it will be.  This is the Japanese studio responsible for Demon’s Souls and the King’s Field series.  My guess is that Project Dark will be an RPG.  And if it’s a successor to Demon’s Souls, it won’t be an easy one.

Originally announced for the Playstation 3 during Sony’s presentation at the Tokyo Game Show on September 15, 2010, it now appears that Project Dark will be available on both PS3 and XBox 360 in 2011.

Source: 1Up

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Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale: Thoughts on the Japanese Indie JRPG

By
Lawrence
 – September 13, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG Reviews
Recettear main menu

Recettear: A Surprisingly Fresh and Enjoyable Indie JRPG

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is a Japanese indie RPG developed by EasyGameStation for Windows in 2007 and localized into English by Carpe Fulgur LLC in 2010.  The game is an anime-style JRPG with a twist – instead of playing the role of the hero, you play the role of the proprietor of the ubiquitous “item shop” that appears in 99% of RPGs (western and Japanese).  While this may sound tedious, it is actually a lot of fun.

Recettear is reminiscent of Torneko’s quest line in Dragon Quest 4, in that you are a merchant who can enter dungeons to find rare items to sell in your store.  However, unlike in Dragon Quest 4, in which Torneko himself entered the dungeons, in Recettear you hire a variety of adventurers to do the dirty dungeon crawling work for you (although as the player, you control the adventurer – see more details after the jump).  As the game progresses, your adventurers-for-hire level up.

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Lair of the Shadow Broker: Thoughts on the latest Mass Effect 2 DLC

By
Lawrence
 – September 8, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG Reviews
Lair of the Shadow Broker Mass Effect 2 Liara

Lair of the Shadow Broker brings Liara back to the fight -- temporarily, at least

I remember the days of expansion packs with pleasant nostalgia, so the concept of a self-contained mini-adventure downloaded straight into my game appeals to me – the chance to take my party out on one more quest from which I can triumphantly emerge with experience points and loot (and, on the Xbox 360, achievement points).  This ideal DLC isn’t exactly what Bioware delivers in Lair of the Shadow Broker.  For one thing, there’s minimal loot and only one level’s worth of XP.  But what the episode does deliver is pretty damn good.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Lair of the Shadow Broker is the latest downloadable content pack for Mass Effect 2.  The plot involves helping former crew member (and, depending on your actions in the first Mass Effect, love interest) Liara T’Soni track down an evil power monger called the Shadow Broker and rescue some dude he kidnapped.  (I have not confirmed this, but I suspect the origin of this lore can be found in the Mass Effect comic books that came out around the same time as Mass Effect 2 and starred Liara as their central protagonist.)

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