Andrew Long - 3:03 EDT

I REALLY MUST START writing these on the proper date. Matt, it seems, has encountered difficulties as a result of an appointment he thought he had with Rogers to set up internet in his new place. As a result, you get me, me, me and nothing but ME all week! Isn't that swell? I think it's swell. It's definitely swell.

Ahem. Letter time!

That was the joke of the day ;)

Now to some real business :) I don't get the hype around FFXII. I don't think it's THAT great. Sure it's a good game, but i'm more the FF6 + FF7 (also FFX) kinda guy :)

Im also itching to play Suikoden 5, as i've heard is more like the first two games. Is that correct? Right now i'm playing Rogue Galaxy for the PS2, and PoPoLoCrois for the PSP. Love those games ;)

Now, naming animals. I wanted to name our cat Ifrit, but my wife didn't agree. We ended up Calling him "Lukas" (Luke in english).

Cheerio from Norway,
Steffmeister

I think the hype around FFXII is fairly easily explained; it's the first traditional FF game in six years. No, I don't count X-2 or any of the myriad sequels to FFVII as traditional FFs, and FFXI is the furthest thing from it. In any case, there's also the fact that a certain portion of the population was teed off over various elements of FFX, so while XII takes the series even further from its ATB roots than X did, I still find it somehow more traditional, somehow, than X was. There's also the fact that it's awesome covered with wicked sauce.

Suikoden V is indeed like the first two games, in that it follows the Suikoden Archetype. It's also better than either of them, although 2 is fairly close in terms of goodness, and tops it slightly in the music department. I almost bought a used copy of Rogue Galaxy last week, but I was saving my funds for some impulse buys of a sartorial nature, so I didn't end up getting it.

Finally, the naming of kittens! I have no idea what I'm going to name any of them presently; the only one I even call anything at the moment is the black one, who has earned the moniker Blackie, a terribly creative choice if I do say so myself. This will likely turn to something much more dramatic and terrifying, like Smogface or King Deathington or Sprinkles, so never fear; I haven't lost my flair for saddling cats with awful, awful names. Also: screw Lukas, buy another cat! Ifrit is the wave of the future!

This song is hardly obscure, so go ahead and give me the pertinent information.

Andrew Sorry bro, Fleetwood Mac's not my bag.

Couple of little issues first. As you well know, I support Q&A wholeheartedly. But your email filter is clearly possessed by gremlins because it likes to eat my messages. So go boot it upside the head for me. What's your stance on having Tingle's DS game released in English?

Andrew Utter indifference tinged with scorn; I hate Tingle like pestilence.

Okay, now for the biggie. Last week I advised Draconn, the proud owner of a newly acquired Saturn, to pick up Shining Force III Scenario 2 and 3. We're about to go into why I refuse to reconsider that advisory, and it requires a bit of game history first. So let's time travel back to 1998.... Sega of America in the early months of the year made the decision to localize four final titles for the Saturn, which was essentially dead across the Pacific by then. Those four titles were the House of the Dead, Burning Rangers, Panzer Dragoon Saga, and Shining Force III Scenario 1. SF III Scenario 1 was released in English, then Sega of America essentially hibernated for a year prior to the Dreamcast's launch thanks to utter idiocy.

Shining Force III was developed by Camelot BELCH
This is obviously a noveletter. And I wouldn't have it any other way, for few subjects rouse such passion within me as this.

JuMeSyn

Yes, it is a noveletter, and you lost me at "Camelot". Anyone who recommends Camelot games to others is obviously an awful, awful person. You must never seek to do so here again.

Which system do you think will take the cake for RPGs coming up? I recently bought a wii for Super Paper Mario, which is fantastic by the way but the line up for the Wii looks a little sparce. I am hoping Dragon Quest Swords will make its way over here and I'm looking forward to the new Fire Emblem but what else do I have to look forward to?

And yes I do know this is old news, but I am still very excited that Dragon Quest 9 will not be doing away with the classic Dragon Quest combat. I still get a little nostalgic when I hear the spell sound effect from the older DQ games.

Do you think HP levels are getting too high? I just feel I can not do the math in my head when someone does 2789 damage to me. I loved in older games when a monster performs a critical hit towards the end of the game doing 25 damage and you find yourself heading to the reset button.

And how bad was Ephermal Fantasia?
Jeffrey

RASCALITY! It's almost as if you all think I'd actually pay money for EF... In any case, I am hard-pressed to say which system will win out in the RPG department, because none of them are looking terribly hot at present. Or, at least, none is looking any hotter than the others. The 360 has various Mistwalker games, while Sony, in the distant future, will have FFXIII. The Wii, meanwhile, has all your Zelda and Mario RPG needs covered, along with a new entry in the FF:CC series, plus Nintendo just bought Monolith, but there's no real way to say whether any of that will matter in the end. So my advice to you is this: if you don't have a DS, get one. If you do, you're in RPGTown for the nonce, cuz that's the place where most of the best RPGs are landing currently.

As to DQIX: the classic battle system has never been an issue for me either, and if the hordes of Pokémon fans are any indication, people will be willing to live with it for some time to come. Finally, I have no issue with HP levels, and I don't quite see why you would think they've been getting higher in recent years. Pretty much the only game that busts the 9999 barrier is Disgaea, and if you're whining about subtraction with four-digit numbers, I've been doing that since I was 4. I'm pretty sure it's not that hard.

Having played through such gems as Beyond the Beyond, Dual Hearts, Rhapsody and DBZ: Legacy of Goku, I can tell you with a certainty that it takes a mightily terrible game to offend me to the point of dropping it. Still, I do frequently wander off when things grow boring; I've been at the final dungeon of SO2 for about 4 years now, and am still no closer to actually, you know, finishing it.