Googleshng:
Yes, the fact that you can get a Dreamcast and about 10 games for the cost of a PS2 right now (not even getting into buying a game and a memory card for it) is pretty darn nice. Anyway though, SoA is the biggie, and Shenmue's not bad, but you already mentioned those. Phantasy Star Online is a nice addictive little bugger if you don't mind hack and slash gameplay. Grandia 2 is quiet enjoyable if you don't mind how it's mindnumbingly easy and has the worst graphics I've ever seen for the system. Then there's the Evolution games, which I'm told are pretty good for dungeon crawls, and a big wad of games I've never really heard a thing about. Oh, and get Chuchu Rocket too.

Googleshng:
Phantasy Star Online is basically Diablo 2 with the camera angles and controls of Zelda 64. Completely realtime.

Googleshng:
I see a couple people writing in saying they love Pikmin but didn't get all the parts their first time. Here's 2 hints for doing better. 1- The camera stick is your friend. It let's you slam 50 Pikmin at a time into a part/monster/obstacle so they all start working at once, and in situations where you DO have to throw Pikmin, if you tip it forward slightly they'll be packed more tightly around you which totally removes that slight delay between throws. 2- There are 5 parts you don't NEED to win. If you're running low on time, and you get a part that it says you probably don't need, just revert to your last save and ignore that one.

Googleshng:
OK, first of all, not all the classes in FF3 are male. This picture which I just happened to have sitting around (without the circles) shows all the classes from FF3, and, for that matter, from FF1. In the bottom row, we have a character who has lipstick and a lowcut garment, and one with a hairstyle you just don't see on guys EVER. Not even in Utena. I don't think anyone could successfully argue that those two are male. Now then, circled in blue are all the other characters that I can say with confidence are also female. I say this for two reasons. Reason #1- they all have the same face as the girl in the lower left. Reason #2- The Unbreakable Law Of Chins! In my life, for some odd reason, I am constantly asked if a given character is a girl, or a girly looking guy, and I always guess correctly. You can't get a definate gender by looking at faces, frames, hairstyles, voices, or even, as FF9's Kuja proves, chests. You CAN however always determine the gender of any character by looking at the angle of their chin. You will notice that the White Mage, and every other character circled here, has a round, or girly chin. Meanwhile if you look at, say, the Fighter or the Red Mage, you see the more angular manly chin. Now, by this logic, you might be wondering why that one character in the middle row is uncircled. It's because that is the "Onion Kid" class, and little kids get rounder chins too, making it a tough call there. You could also make a case for the entire second column being female, except the dwarf, but I'm not going to touch those since I can't see their chins.

Googleshng:
I am the worst person to ask that question. Every PC game I own is by Blizzard, Sid Meier, or LucasArts. Outside of what you mentioned, the only things I could recommend are really outdated things like X-Com, Dungeon Keeper, or Lemmings. Maybe The Sims too. The game that looks really icky on paper yet in practice has a strangely addictive quality. I think it comes from the gibberish they constantly scream at you.

Googleshng:
It would really depend on what the thesis was on...

Googleshng:
I could be wrong about one or two, but I seem to recall every one of those companies is indeed thinking along those lines... except maybe Konami. Since when do they get called an RPG developer anyway? Sure, there's Suikoden and Vandal Hearts but it's hardly their focus...

Googleshng:
Ack. Just had a mild seizure upon seeing you space out the RP and the Gamer. It's a weird neurological condition most people on staff have. We also scream at "RPG Gamer". Makes us fun at parties. I could also point out that the videogame industry really picked up when Super Mario Bros. was first released and didn't have any notable spikes in the 16-bit era, but I wo- oh wait, I just did didn't I.

ANYWAY though, to get to your questions, how many 16-bit games do I expect to be ported to the GBA? Roughly all of them. Not to mention a good number of 8 and 32 bit ones too. As for when... hmm... I'll say over the next couple years, depending on the desparation of the publishers in question.

Googleshng:
That's the first thought that crossed everyone's mind when that game was first announced. No connection at all though as it turns out. Go figure.

Googleshng:
As I often find myself doing, I would like to point out that there is a big fat link in this bar on the left to our release dates database, and the big index of all games we cover, including upcoming games, so you can check this sort of thing yourself in just a few seconds. Looking here though, you can see that while there are RPGs on the horizon, they are either ports of DC games, ports of lousy PC games, or just plain tripe developed in the US. The only thing worth even a glance is Shenmue 2, but you can buy the Dreamcast version NOW for $60, $110 if you don't currently own a DC. Project Ego might also not suck, but I'm skeptical at this point. Now you see why I don't recommend people buy the system?