O Illustrious Slime,

With all the various bashings flying about, particularly of Skies, I'd just like to mention this: I bought Skies of Arcadia for DC on your recommendation alone, and I haven't regretted it yet. I just beat it last night, with my game at something like 60+ hours, and it reaffirmed my faith in RPG's. The only possible complaint I could've had against it was the fact that there were just too many random battles. But that's it. It's a great game, I just wanted to thank you for bringing it to my attention, otherwise I think I would've given up on the genre entirely.

-Godzilla Rock-it

Hi,

I got more random questions for you to shake your choco-covered pretzel stick at.

1) Did you play the Metroid GBA game? If so, did you enjoy it? I thought the story was cool and the cutscenes (were they true cutscenes?) were a nice surprise. The sleep function made the game truly portable. However, I think the game was truly hindered by the lack of GBA controls. (4 buttons: ABLR vs. 6 buttons for SNES: ABXYLR) Otherwise, it plays exactly like Super Metroid. Mmmm, Nostalgic goodness.

2) What did you think of SD4: Legend of Mana? I can't see why people dislike it so much. The fact that it went in a whole different direction than the previous SD games comes as no surprise as, I believe, that Squaresoft's trademark is to release very different sequels. Catch my drift?

3) Have you ever considered Korean RPGs? There is some true quality games coming from that country. Granted, none of them have been translated into English (or Japanese for that matter) but they show solid potential. Softmax has released War of Genesis III and Magna Carta for the PC which reach an unbelievably high standard. Gravity games is beta testing Ragnarok Online (MMORPG) for the US and has released it in Japan. (scratch above comment) And on the plus side, the Korean alphabet (Hangul) is very easy to read. Korea does use characters (Hanja) but it's only used to differentiate between homonyms.

4) I believe the term Otaku is misused on this side of the Pacific. In Japan, it's anybody who has a fanatic hobby, any hobby. In the States, it's someone who has a fanatic hobby...about video games, manga, anime, and/or jpop. Have you ever seen anything the Japanese would consider Otaku? For example, I was looking at my friend's surf "digest," (500 pages of ads, shops, spots, etc.) Aside from the funny engrish ads, they go into serious detail. It describes tide charts, each surf break (standard fare), but goes into such things as places to park your car and the distance to the nearest surf shop.

Aiya. That was long winded.

-Lotte

P.s.- Kung Hei Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello,
Regarding Kingdom Hearts, you said:
"So, if you want to heal yourself, you have to take your thumb off the joystick to use the D-Pad to disable the attack/block button for a few seconds while you open a couple menus and select the potion."

You can use the right analog stick to navigate the menus while moving, although you still can't attack at the same time. While I agree that a better control scheme could have been used, I still immensely enjoyed the game. I even got used to the strange camera. Oh well, maybe the development team will do better with the inevitable sequel.

After much consideration, I've decided to get Skies of Arcadia Legends. Maybe I'll actually have a question to ask then for the column. On the other hand, SOA fanatics will probably have detailed FAQs and guides up ridiculously quickly.

Hey, maybe I can actually throw a quick question in here! In response to Andrew's question about disappointing games, I wrote about Seiken Densetsu: Legend of Mana. If I remember correctly, you enjoyed the game. I played the game for four hours and didn't feel particularly drawn into it. Did I give it enough of a chance, or does the "do quest - get item - place item - do another quest" pattern continue for the rest of the game?

-yrrab436
PS - I didn't know about the acronym HTML tag until today. I think I like it just a bit too much.
PPS - Great job with the columns! I think I've been reading them since you started.

Hey Google,

Are you going to get Skies of Arcadia Legends? You talked a little about it, but you didn't comment if you would jump in again. I'm still undecided, but it sounds like they fixed so of my problems with it so chances are I will pick it up.

Also are you looking forward to Xenosaga and Lufia for GBA? I've been waiting for something like Lufia to play on my GBA. Phantasy Star has those migraine inducing dungeons, and Lunar Legends sounds like they really Smurfed it up. It's got to be better than Lufia for GBC.

The Great Cornholio

Hey Googleshng,

WMAdoy's problem from yesterday, regarding the Xenogears disc, is actually probably a PS2 problem. I, and many others, have experienced the infamous "Disc Read Error" problem, which is usually accompanied by the symptoms described (doesn't read, loud noises, etc.).

For me, it usually occurs on CDs. Not all CDs: in fact, many play perfectly fine. Others won't read at all. It's pretty easy to tell if you have the problem; stick the CD in a computer and see if it reads. But sticking other CDs in your PS2 won't prove much. The problem (for me at least) seems to be how the PS2 holds discs internally. The noise is a result of the disc slipping; if you notice a discolored ring for discs with color labels, this is probably it.

The solution that worked for me was putting bits of tape around the hole, just off the plastic, to give the catch something better to hold onto. In the case of Xenogears, this would be around where the "S" in "Squaresoft" is. Try putting a bit of scotch tape there and on the opposite side of the ring.

...and to bring things back on topic, I totally agree with your assessment of Kingdom Hearts. The controls are rather sad, and... the Gumi ship?! I can understand someone being bored coding an RPG and wanting to make a shooter, but c'mon. Make it quality, or don't make it. The controls are sloppy for the rest of the game, just like you said. Square really needs to hire or contract some control testers... I don't think any of their action games have great controls, when it comes down to it. Maybe I'm just forgetting something.

-rjp

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