Home on the RNG

Lufia: The Legend Returns, known as Estpolis Denki: Yomigaeru Densetsu officially translated Biography of Estpolis: The Legend Returns) in Japan, is a role-playing video game for the Game Boy Color developed by Neverland and published by Taito, Natsume, and Ubi Soft in Japan, North America, and Europe, respectively, in 2001. It is the third game in the Lufia series and the first one to appear on a...

Octopath Traveler is a role-playing video game developed by Square Enix, in collaboration with Acquire. The game was released for the Nintendo Switch in July 2018, for Microsoft Windows in June 2019, for Stadia in April 2020, and for Xbox One in March 2021. The game has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide by February 2021 and received "generally favorable" critical reception, with the most comm...

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, released as Mystic Quest Legend in PAL regions and as Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest in Japan, is a role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released as a spin-off to Square's Final Fantasy series of video games. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was first released in North America in 1992 and marketed as a "simplified role-playing gam...

Lunar: Eternal Blue is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts and Studio Alex for the Sega CD as the sequel to Lunar: The Silver Star. The game was originally released in December 1994 in Japan, and later in North America in September 1995 by Working Designs. Eternal Blue expanded the story and gameplay of its predecessor, and made more use of the Sega CD's hardware, including more detai...

Final Fantasy Tactics is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Squaresoft (later changed to Square and now Square Enix) for the Sony PlayStation video game console. Released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998, it is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series. The game combines thematic elements of the Final Fantasy video game series with a game...

Final Fantasy Legend II, known in Japan as SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu, is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Game Boy. The second entry in the SaGa series, it released in Japan in 1990, and in North America in 1991. A later edition released in North America in 1998 through Sunsoft. The Game Boy version was later ported by Nintendo Switch and released worldwide by Squar...

Jeff and Russ look back at the last 9 games, the good, the bad, and the ugly of them. Plus our usual trope discussion.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky is a role-playing video game developed by Nihon Falcom. Initially released as The Legend of Heroes VI: Trails in the Sky and later published as Trails in the Sky FC (first chapter), the game is the first in what later became known as the Trails series, and was directly followed by Trails in the Sky SC (second chapter). Trails in the Sky was first released in...

Final Fantasy is a fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1987. It is the first game in Square's Final Fantasy series, created by Hironobu Sakaguchi. Originally released for the NES, Final Fantasy was remade for several video game consoles and is frequently packaged with Final Fantasy II in video game collections. The story follows four youths called the Light Warrior...

Skies of Arcadia is a role-playing video game developed by Overworks for the Dreamcast and published by Sega in 2000. Players control Vyse, a young air pirate, and his friends as they attempt to stop the fictional Valuan Empire from reviving ancient weapons with the potential to destroy the world. Today we're reviewing the GameCube port, which has some changes. With special music reviewer Mike Hug...

Jeff has recently become obsessed with the Danganronpa series, and even though he still has a couple games to go, he wants to talk about it with Russ RIGHT NOW.

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line, titled Dragon Warrior II when initially localized to North America, is a role-playing video game developed by Chunsoft and published by Enix in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Dragon Quest series. Enix's U.S. subsidiary published the American release, Dragon Warrior II, for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990. Dra...

It was Russ' turn to pick a non-jRPG to play, and he picked the SNES "classic" Clock Tower, which was never officially released in America. Come join us in a trip to a randomly generated horror house with a scissor man.

Mother, officially known outside of Japan as EarthBound Beginnings, is a role-playing video game developed by Ape and published by Nintendo for the Famicom. The first entry in the Mother series, it was first released in Japan on July 27, 1989. It is modeled on the gameplay of the Dragon Quest series, but is set in the late 20th-century United States, unlike its fantasy genre contemporaries. Mother...

It's going to be a little while before we do official reviews of the games in the Persona series, so we wanted to take a moment to talk about the series as a whole.

Lunar: The Silver Star (ルナ ザ・シルバースター, Runa Za Shirubā Sutā) is a role-playing video game developed by Game Arts and Studio Alex for the Sega/Mega-CD, originally published by Game Arts and released in Japan in 1992. After a successful release, the game was translated and localized by Working Designs for release in North America the following year.   Designed as a "different kind of...

This is a fairly normal out-take of what it's like trying to film an episode of Home on the RNG with Russ. He usually takes a little while to warm up.

Phantasy Star is a role-playing video game (RPG) developed by Sega and released for the Master System in 1987. One of the earliest Japanese RPGs for consoles, Phantasy Star tells the story of Alis on her journey to defeat the evil ruler of her star system, King Lassic, after her brother dies at his hands. She traverses between planets, gathering a party of fighters and collecting the items she nee...

Story time with Jeff and Russ, this time they talk about the night they camped out overnight in order to buy a Wii.

Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, known as Estpolis Denki II (エストポリス伝記II, officially translated Biography of Estpolis II) in Japan, and as Lufia in Europe and Australia, is a role-playing video game with puzzle elements developed by Neverland and published in Japan in 1995 by Taito, and in North America and Europe in 1996 by Natsume and Nintendo respectively, for the Super Nintendo Enterta...

Jeff wanted to introduce Russ to something new. So Jeff and Russ are going to review the SNES game Lost Vikings 2, which was later remade as Lost Vikings: Norse by Norsewest.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a role-playing video game (RPG) developed by Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1996. It was directed by Yoshihiko Maekawa and Chihiro Fujioka and produced by Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Yoko Shimomura composed the score, which was released on a soundtrack album in Japan.

Jeff and Russ played Dragon Quest 11, and they didn't want to wait ten years until they got around to it as a proper Home on the RNG episode to talk about it, so here we are.

Jeff, Russ, and Lauren look back over the last 9 games that have been reviewed, discuss some common jRPG tropes that they encountered, and then they test their musical knowledge with a video game themed version of Name That Tune.

Russ wanted to play something a little different, so here we are, Jeff and Russ review the NES game Adventures of Lolo.