Chimerasame:
1. Square left Nintendo? ... Were they dating?
Granted, Square's games had previously been developed for the NES and SNES, and that stopped. But this isn't just Square's random whim; times change. Systems were made which took CDs, and the N64 was not one of them. Square was definitly not the only company that took a look at a cart, and took a look at a CD, and realized that the amount of data needed for an RPG would be much easier to put on a CD. For a very long time the only RPG for the N64 was Quest 64 (unless you count Zelda: Ocarina of Time; personally I consider that an adventure). In my opinion. it's not Square's fault that they didn't develop for N64, it's Nintendo's. If the 64DD had come out sooner in Japan, or had come out at all in North America, then Nintendo would have a better case.
As far as people complaining about FMVs, I happen to disagree with those people. Good graphics aren't bad. They're good. Good graphics are good. If that doesn't strike you as an obvious true fact, you should run for public office. I'm not saying the only thing I like in a game is graphics; far from it. Having good graphics at the expense of good plot is terrible. However, considering graphics alone, good graphics are better than bad graphics, thus, I have no idea why people would dislike FMVs for their own sake.
Plus, there's the information in this article. It looks like Square's trying to patch things up, let's hope Nintendo doesn't hold a grudge forever.

2. The ones you mentioned look good to me. Also, F-Zero advance. Plus, I'm secretly hoping that Yamauchi (Nintendo's president, who seems to be calling the shots about not letting Square develop) will come to his senses and let Square develop for GBA, because the potential of that is awesome. :)

3. The X-Box looks like it will be a powerful system, but I can't make any judgments yet about how successful it will be. Some people *coughYamauchicough* say that it will flop because Bill Gates doesn't know enough about games. I say he doesn't need to; he's got Jeff Henshaw on top of the X-Box project, and Henshaw knows plenty about games. Right now the X-Box's biggest plus is that many developers are looking at it, and the biggest minus is that it has very few games announced for it. There's still time, though.

4. I've been putting off a lot of things, though I might run out and get a DC now before retail ones become scarce. As far as the more expensive 4th-gen systems (PS2, GC, XBox), I'm going to wait to see what games are out for all three before I get one. Huge storage space the GC may have, but if they don't let Square develop, that will be a big turn-off. Granted, not everything Square's made has been wonderful, but I expect to see more classics like Xenogears and Final Fantasy Tactics, even if they have to come from different developing teams.

Kris:

1. Square is a business that wants to artistically exceed everyone else. You can't do that on the N64, and the PSX also had better sales. The only offended parties were probably the console fanboys.
As to good graphics, I gotta echo Chim: I LOVE good graphics. The medium is a graphical one. VIDEO game. When developers don't put much work into the graphic aspect they're ignoring an important artistic feature. Graphics are as important to the atmosphere and artistic value of a game as music or a good battle system are. If you don't agree, write Mistress Nightshadow an editorial about it. I will rebut you, guaranteed.

2. I have almost zero interest in buying a new console right now. Well, and I'm incredibly poor. Anyway, those titles all look pretty good, but I tend to wait for reviews and so on myself, and withhold my judgement until I've seen a few opinions.

3. Buy ANOTHER console? You must be crazy. Seriously, I just got a DC even though it's dying just because I REALLY wanted to play some of the awesome games on it. So I SAY I won't buy another console, but in reality I'll probably buy another one in a year or two. Of course, no console is worth buying when it comes out. There's usually few good games, and the first run is where the bugs get worked out, and it's expensive.
I always wait a year or two until prices drop, there's enough games to make it worth owning the system, and the problems are fixed. So in a year and a half expect to see me with whatever system has the most good games.

4. See above.

Chimerasame:
I'm not sure when Goog'll be back, but I expect it's possible you'll be seeing him again next week. Don't hold me to that. And yes, Murphy's Law is very responsible. Blame it all on ol' Major Murphy!

Kris: Dude, efront is a piece of, uh... it's bad. Other sites hosted by them have also been having problems (ie, the awesome Penny Arcade or Something Awful...) It's not our faults! >.< Forgive us!

Chimerasame:
1. I haven't played too many recent games, but Planescape: Torment has an outstanding plot and it's not much over a year old, and I've been hearing wonderful things about Skies of Arcadia, as well.
2. I enjoyed FFVIII. Perhaps not as much as a few other FFs (excepting MQ), but it was a good game. The only notable problem I had with it was the Draw system. Drawing was boring to me. First of all, to get and cast magic you had to allocate two different slots for Draw and Magic, leaving only one with which you basically had to pick from GF and Item. I very very rarely used anything besides those four abilities (and fight/limit), making getting abilities seem rather pointless at times. Plus, sitting in battle drawing spell after spell from the same enemy, who has an apparently endless supply, is not exciting to me. Junction was fine, though, I didn't mind it at all, and making items into spells was fun. :)
3. Well, we don't cover it, and I don't own the game. But my roommate does! Let's see. Operating system Windows 95, 98, or ME (2000 and NT not supported.) CPU: 400 MHz AMD K6-2 or Intel Pentium II Processor (500 MHz Recommended.) Memory: 64MB RAM (128MB recommended.) 4x CD-ROM speed (8x recommended.) 580MB hard drive space free, plus space for saved games (620 recommended.) 16 MB OpenGL-capable graphics card with DirectX 7 compatible driver (32MB recommended.) DirectX 7 compatible sound card. Keyboard. Mouse. (They don't list it, but you probably need a monitor of some kind, too!)

Kris: 1. isn't that a matter of personal opinion? Lunar 2 made me laugh, cry, and scream at the screen.
I also hear some really good things about Skies of Arcadia (I WILL play it soon, I hope), Suikoden 2, Valkerie Profile (just got it for $14.. yay!), and other games. As to "controversy," well, it's true that an overwhelming majority of games are still "kill the evil guy, save the world," but within those cliche plots I think we're starting to see a lot of variety, character development, and other aspects of good scripting.

2. I love FF8! And I know so many people hate it. Screw 'em. I loved the game. I loved ALLLL the characters (Zell is my fav! I'm just like him!), the gorgeous graphics, the adorable plot... the problem was that the game should have ended after rescuing Rinoa. There should have been a big final battle, the end. It should have been a love story.
FF8 was a SUPERB love story. But it wasn't a great save-the-world adventure, and they shouldn't have tacked that stupid end plot on to make it into one. I think they were afraid boys wouldn't buy it if it didn't have the "save the world" thing. Sadly, adding that just ruined the end. Still, I think the game is worth playing for the characters and love story aspect (if that's not your bag, never mind). My friends and I were like, "Is this a shoujo RPG? Dear Lord!" Heh heh.

3. No idea, all I know about Alice is what Penny Arcade told me.

Chimerasame:
I happened to really like 7th Saga, and I didn't mind FFMQ that much, or SoE. And I didn't know Wild Arms was supposed to be a bad game to begin with, I thought a lot of people liked it. SaGa Frontier didn't catch my interest at all, however, so you're alone on that one. :) (Unless Kris likes it..)

Kris: I love Wild ARMs! I have the japanese guidebook on the two games and the TV series! And the OST! I adore the game and its funky south-western feel. The music also boots butt. I only played Saga Frontier for a VERY short time but it was kinda interesting... I mean to play more someday. Anyway, as Odo says, everyone has different tastes, and some aspects of a game are more important than others to different people.

Chimerasame:
I know Aegis, Googleshng, Myst (da boss), and Black_Chocobo have all played it, and more might have as well. And yeah, they do spend a lot of time on it. :)

Kris: everyone but me apparently has this game and loves it. I am still wary. ORPGs suck up your time and don't give you anything in return. I play RPGs for a plot and characters, so for me, ORPGs hold the same interest as IRC: that is, they're very fun and your whole night is gone before you know it, but then you realise you accomplished almost nothing and got nothing out of it. I'm torn though since I hear it's good. >.>