This post is about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Despite my best efforts, I’m stoked for Old Republic. I deliberately didn’t pay much attention to it until this point, but the trailer shown at E3 (which I guess is the opening movie) blew me away. From there I read into what the game actually entailed, and I’m sold.

My original intent was to just ignore the game and let it go by. There were a lot of reasons for this, and at the forefront was my experience with Star Wars Galaxies.

(Note: I originally published this article on Bits ‘n’ Bytes Gaming on March 10, 2011.)

If you read my article about being a Pokémon Master, you know that I am well-versed in the field of Pocket Monsters. I’ve poured hundreds of hours into each game, catching over 493 monsters, beating thirty-four Gym Leaders, and becoming the Champion of four different regions. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to Pokémon. Therefore, you can take it on good authority when I say that Black and White are by far the best entries in the Pokémon series.

Anyone who immediately brushes these games off as more of the same is sorely mistaken and will be missing out on the biggest leap forward the franchise has taken since it first prompted us to catch ‘em all over fifteen years ago.

I want to write about Dragon Quest IX, because Dragon Quest IX is awesome.

I’ve never been super into the Dragon Quest series. I’ve always appreciated it from afar, mostly because Akira Toriyama is my favorite artist and I’ve always loved his character and monster designs. I was always more of a Final Fantasy guy, because I got into Final Fantasy first.

So Square-Enix announced a North American release date for their upcoming MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.

Actually, they announced TWO North American release dates.

That’s right, the game will launch on September 30, unless you buy the Collector’s Edition of the game, in which case you get to start playing September 22 and laugh at all the peasants with their noses pressed against the window, wishing with all their tiny little hearts to be inside.

Dokapon Kingdom is going to make you hate whoever you play it with.

I’m serious.

Dokapon Kingdom can be pretty much summed up as Mario Party crossed with an RPG. You move around a board by using spinners to determine how far you go, you level up, fight monsters, and buy equipment.

You also screw over your friends whenever the opportunity presents itself. It presents itself often.

Alright Lunar fans, I’ve been promising a surprise for you all for a while now, so I think it’s time I came clean! I, and the rest of PK Bloggin’! are excited to say that Jessica Chavez of XSEED Games was kind enough to make time for us to do an interview, and even provide some great exclusive Lunar: Silver Star Harmony screenshots just for us! (I’ve never conducted an interview before, how exciting!) Even if you aren’t a Lunar fan, please enjoy it, since there’s a lot of great information here about the localizing process, and being part of the game industry in general.

Christina and I have been spending a lot of time (now that we have free time) with Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. I bought it a while ago and never really got into it, but since the sequel came out I decided to give it another shot, and I’m really glad I did. Not only am I greatly enjoying the game, it’s also actually got me thinking a lot about how video games can function as a medium for storytelling.

BioWare is famous for their branching dialogue system they’ve used in their games, beginning with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the original Xbox and PC. Your character never spoke, but there were pauses in conversations when you’d choose what your character would say next. Several complete sentences were presented, you’d choose one, and the conversation would continue based on how you responded. I loved KotOR, and while I didn’t realize it at the time, I was experiencing the first step towards defining video games as a unique method of telling a story.

Lunar: The Silver Star, Silver Star Story, Silver Star Story Complete, Lunar Legend, and now, Silver Star Harmony…

As you can probably guess from that list, the first game in the Lunar saga has a bit of a convoluted history, with more remakes and rereleases than you can shake a stick at. There’s alot of argument among fans about which version is the best, and non-veterans of the series generally have no clue where to begin as a result. Despite all this, Lunar’s popularity these days is still quite a force to be reckoned with. Perhaps it is even because of that thriving fanbase that we’re about to get yet another installment in the series: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony.

A group of teenagers save the world from a supernatural threat.

What game did I just describe?

A lot, I know.

I see a lot of talk on message boards and the like about how the Japanese-style RPG (or JRPG) is a dying breed, and this is mostly brought on because their storylines are all so similar. You have a group of plucky teens with stylish hair, a few giant swords, maybe a tough old guy who will probably die, and some insurmountable juggernaut that they somehow wind up surmounting.