Penny Arcade Adventures - Review @ Rampant Tales

While we haven't been covering this game, some readers may be interested in a short review by Rampant Coyote over at his Rampant Tales Blog. Here's a short excerpt:

First of all - yes, it's an RPG, in the same way that the old 32-bit jRPGs are RPGs. Character creation is limited to choosing gender and alternatives for body type, face, clothing, and gloves. When you level up, there really aren't any choices to be made (well, at least for the all of two levels I made in the demo). It's very action - oriented.
But I have to admit, I was laughing as I played it. From the opening scene, to the narration during the tutorial, to the animations to the dialog between Tycho and Gabriel, to just seeing a 20-sided die roll out in the "Roll For Initiative" screen, it is both funny and fun. I love how Tycho has a book he reads in one hand, and a Thompson submachinegun in the other.

More information.

I bought this off Xbox Live Arcade. It probably won't appeal to most fans of PC RPG's. The article is right in that it resembles jRPG's more.

It's pretty linear from what I've seen so far and the humour is not for those who dislike crude language, but it's a bit of fun nonetheless.

"you get a cat that attacks by licking itself, and the initial combats are against the notorious "fruit f***er" juicing machines of the comic strip"

Sounds hilarious and well-observed.

I played the demo and I just bought it. I laughed my butt off. Though I don't think it's anything like a JRPG. The only thing that is like JRPG is the combat. There are no big eyed girls, no stupid quests to find some kid's doll and espcially no over-the-top acting.

The narrator cracks me up. It's very reminiscient of Space Quest 6 with Gary Owens narrating. That is what sold me on the game. I can deal with quasi tb action but what I can't deal with in any JRPG's is the lame stories and overly dramatic NPCs. This has none of those so far. It's just flat out funny. If you liked the Space Quest series and can deal with the toilet humor then you should get this or at least try out the demo.

Funny thing is I don't really like Penny Arcade and hardly visit it. I went in expecting a game that I hated but what I found was something that was just fun to play.

I really like the comic, so I read the review over on Giant Bomb here. I guess I'll have to look at the demo .

I think the game is actually called 'On the Rain-Slick: Precipice of Darkness' made by Penny Arcade game studios. One of the designers (Ron Gilbert) worked on some of the excellent Lucasarts point and click adventures back in the day, including 'Day of the Tentacle.' I've played a little into this, and it's unique, the cartoon-style graphics are similar to those in 'Psychonauts.'

I'm not far enough into it to form any kind of opinion yet, but my first impression is that this game is going to be a blast. I don't know how much content there is, but $20.00 USD is a pretty good deal. Hopefully the continuing episodes will be reasonably priced.

Take a look in the database entry, if interested. The overall series is called Penny Arcade Adventures and each episode is intended to provide 8-10 hours of gameplay.

Does anybody know if the game is voiced? Fully or partially?

Oops, Ron Gilbert worked on the Monkey Island games. My bad, should have checked that before posting. Still a talented guy, obviously.

The narrator has a voice, but the other characters only have text.

Which makes it far easier to give your character a custom name