Might I be a rebel and suggest the oddest candidate to be considered as an "Action RPG." River City Ransom, for the NES. Think about it: you go punch and kick all the bad gang members like a Final Fight scenario, steal their cash, and then run to the mall to buy power up items to increase your stamina, strength, and punch power.

I also noticed you can get in a fight with 2 different guys and then pause the game to read one of the books in your inventory. Just imagine: Gang Member: Hey, are you done with that book yet? Alex: Hang on. I've got one more chapter to go. Care for a Karma Jolt? Gang Member: Yes, please. Let me know when you're done, okay? Alex: Hang on. I'm at the good part!

The choices you make in the game affect future events a lot. You don't exactly have control over your characters personality, but you do get to suit the game a little more to your liking. I must reccomend the game. It is as addicting as FF Tactics and there are many paths to take and many side quests to explore.

I thought banners were meant like commercials, they are targeted at specific audiences. You won't likely see a feminine product commercial during hot rod racing, so what possessed the powers that be to put a www.babycenter.com banner at the bottom of your site? I hope it isn't some new twisted part for "The Legend of Thor Gets Some"...

Long Live Sluggy!

Hmmm....Gaming companies are providing you a service. They don't HAVE to put any games out at all. Think about that the next time you complain about how an rpg doesn't have a plot to your liking or the characters aren't developed enough. I'm sure that if you made an RPG there would be plenty of people that wouldn't like it, although it would be the perfect RPG for you because it contained everything you wanted in a game. The point of all this is that people have different tastes...so shut your pie hole.

I'm wondering about the validity of your criticism of complaining about minor issues in RPGs. After all, we ARE the consumers here, and if we don't like some aspect of a game, why shouldn't we shout it to the heavens?

It's not as if we're bound to just accept whatever they give us without complaint. What do we want? We want better RPGs, dammit! Sure, we have some very good ones already, but that doesn't mean we should be content--we want our games to be betterbetterbetter, and I see no reason why we shouldn't bitch about even smallish details in the hopes that game publishers will heed our cries in the future. I mean, it's not like we're getting these games for free, so naturally we want the best product possible. You can criticize and still enjoy it; it's not as if complaining precludes fun or anything. So there. I've said my piece. Yo.

Oh yeah, and I really appreciated the response to the guy who was complaining about Amano's artwork. I was mentally smacking him as I read the letter, and it was good to know that we was actually receiving some criticism. Rock on.

This letter is for Derek Thompson, who inquired about a certain fanfic on RPGamer involving a Citan/Sigurd relationship. The story you're thinking of is "Mourn Not for Angels," which was written by my friend Alanna. ^^ There is no Japanese version, secret version, secret code or hidden scene which suggests a relationship between the two characters in question, it's speculation and "what if" on the author's part.

For those of you not familiar with the phenomenon known as yaoi/slash: In a nutshell, it's art and stories depicting male homosexual relationships of a sexual or romantic nature. Almost all creators and readers of yaoi and its tamer cousin, shounen-ai, are female, and it's usually targeted at females. Even though the term yaoi itself is Japanese, and almost all RPG/anime yaoi is Japanese, the "slash" genre of fanfiction, which is pretty much the American equivalent, has been around for years here. At least on the Internet, though, anime/RPG yaoi seems to really be catching on with Americans; there are webpages and mailing lists in English dedicated to it now. I guess it corresponds to the popularity of female/female pairings with certain male readers.

Yaoi never directly relates to anything actually shown in a game or show. It's mostly a combination of fantasy and speculation-- what the readers want to see and what might have been possible. For example, given the way Citan and Sigurd seem to be close friends in the game, it's pretty easy to translate this into their being *really* close friends. Well, in a yaoi-ish sort of way.

There's actually quite an abundance of it on Japanese webpages, but it's sort of an "underground" thing here-- to my knowledge, RPGamer only has one yaoi-themed fanfic up. (To be fair, a lot of yaoi is very graphic so it wouldn't be allowed here. ^^;;) Hope this helps, though.

As the author of "Mourn Not for Angels", the Xenogears story that Derek Thompson referred to in his letter of the other day, I can confirm your answer that the plot idea of having Hyuga and Sigurd as lovers was from "a healthy imagination" -- and some things that the character designer appeared to have in mind that never made it into the finished game as anything more than hints. (At least, I think it's a healthy imagination. I try to make sure that it eats its vegetables and gets plenty of walks.) I liked the idea; I mean, there's sure as hell no love lost between Citan and Yui, and if you read between the lines, there are a *lot* of slanted lines in Citan's and Sigurd's dialogue.

Besides, the setup provided a great deal of angst with which to play, and angst is a /great/ motivator for fanfic. ^_^

Allow me to introduce a shameless plug for the rest of my fanfic, which can be found here.

I gave you over a WEEK, Thor! A WEEK! Rage fills me. A dark ominous shadow looms above you. I'll teach you to not print my e-mails Thor. Oh... you'll get yours!

X the Unknown's Revenge

(read the following while humming or listning to the theme music from Mission Impossible)

The night was young. X approached the apartment complex in which Thor lived. A smile spread across his face. He pulled out a rope and threw it up to his window. After three hours of brutal climbing, Thor's second floor apartment room was almost within grasp. Once inside, X lowered himself quitely to the ground. He steped forward, and accidentally into a laser alarm. Worried, X quickly glanced over to Thor in his bed. Still half asleep, he banged continuosly on the snooze button of his alarm clock.

X heaved a sigh of relief and walked over to Thor's closet. He opened it, and to his dismay he found that inside hung 13 pairs of leather pants and 18 leather whips. Putting this out of his mind, he searched for Thor's collection of Teri Hatcher videos. Once their location was uncovered it became a simple matter of switching the tapes with some Richard Simmons tapes he brought with him. Placing the box full of videos back into the closet, he walked over to Thor's Playstationú¨©. He put Thor's memory card into the system, and turned it on. Entering the memory card main screen, he found the Xenogears files and deleted them all. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" he laughed insanely.

Just then Thor woke up.

"Uh oh..."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?!?!?!?!" Thor demanded.

"Er... I... but... wait! I'm not scared of you Thor! I'm gonna tear you apart!" After beating X to a bloody pulp, Thor felt tired and decided to relax by watching one of his videos. He pulled one out from his closet and began to play it. To his utter disgust, Richard Simmons appeared on the screen teaching overweight people to dance in an unhealthy fashion. X was later taken to a hospital, and Thor was taken to a mental institution where he remained for 3 months until deemed "Able to re-enter society". Richard Simmons and all his merchandise, however, must remain 80 miles from Thor at all times.

Here's the basic scoop on RE's voice acting. It was bad. Very bad. But "intentionally so" is only half-truthful. Capcom told the actors to deliberately overpronounce everything, so as to make it more easily understandable by native Japanese (who are not as universally fluent in English as a lot of people think). The actors were given absolutely no leeway. They couldn't alter the way lines were to be said, they couldn't adlib, nothing. Bio Hazard was originally intended for a Japanese audience, and as usual, the US was at best a secondary consideration. It's also painfully obvious to anyone with half-a-year's worth of Japanese language that the script was a very direct translation of the original Japanese. Things improved in RE2, but not by that much. Phrases like "master of unlocking" work in Japanese, but most definitely not in English. Ever heard Resident Gigolo (or as the author misspelled it, "Resident Jigalo")? Do some searching around... it's insanely funny. Lemme know if you can't find it (can't remember the page offhand), I'll see about getting it to you.

I don't get it.. the voice acting in the original lunar was equally cheesy. They're probably just staying true to the original. After all, that game just wouldn't have been the same without "Alex! Oh, Aaaaaalex!".

Which sure tops "Ada.. no!" 15 times in about 2 minutes.

• Metal Gear Solid
• Snatcher
• Brave Fencer Musashi
• Starcraft
• Alpha Centauri
• Strife
• Sam and Max hit the road
• Destrega

BTW: I thought Eva had a fairly mediocre dub job (except for a few scenes).

I appologize if this sounds insulting, I didn't mean it as such. I was a HUGE fan of the first Lunar (didn't like the second one so much) and well besides the graphics not much is improved in this version.

That "odd" fanfic Derek spoke of is "Mourn Not For Angels" by Denise "Alanna" Paolucci (I originally read that story at her homepage.), and no, Shitan and Sigurd in the game itself were not lovers (However, yaoi-wise, I think they make a nice match. ^_^). It's a very good sentimental-type fic (Nothing graphic at all.), and if you don't mind the shounen-ai/yaoi (Read: gay) genre, I recommend you checking it out. Hell, even if you're not into yaoi maybe you should take a looksie, because it's a good example of a well-written short story (For all writers seeking to improve themselves, its always a good idea to look at other people's work. You can always learn a little something from another.)

Anyhow, I wanted to say something that may seem rather unimportant. To fanfic readers: Always remember that a fanfic (Or fanart, for that matter.) will contain the writer's interpretations of any given situations in a game (Or movie, TV series, etc.). This includes stuff like the Shitan/Sigurd match mentioned above, or stuff like the well known "Why the hell is Vincent 27 when he knew Sephy's mom?" dilemma. So, Numero Uno: A fanfic never substitutes for a good game FAQ or an info site (Like this one, hehe...), and Numero Dos: Remember that a fanfic writer is entitled to their own interpretations of a storyline, whether you agree with it or not -- it's the quality of the story that is far more important. I think it's safe to say us writers would rather appreciate critique on our styles and areas where we might need improvement than flaming or silly nitpicking because we didn't see the originally storyline "your way."