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Ask Google |
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Swords: Like knives, but bigger! |
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Googleshng - April 14 '03- 2:00 Eastern Standard Time
Over the weekend, I saw the issue of it being stupid that guns don't
do more damage than swords in RPGs come up. Anyone who thinks a gun can kill you in one hit but a sword
can't is an idiot. Yes, you can kill someone in one hit with a gun. You can also kill someone in one hit
with a sword (and if you're just looking to make someone, it works a whole lot better). You can also kill
someone in one hit with a knife, an arrow, a bookend, a flute, one of those titanium powerbooks, and a
plethora of other things. The official rationalization since the dawn of time has always been that your
HP is really a measure of how long your luck of having everything just graze you holds out.
For the record though, a sword can do a good deal more actual damage than a gun can. A bullet is a
fast moving blunt object, a sword is a fairly fast moving, heavy, sharp object. One could put a hole in
your head, the other can slice your head off. The advantage the gun has is that it can do so from a good
distance away.
Another fun fact: If you're strong enough, you can fire an arrow with a good deal more force than a
bullet. The gun's advantage there is all you have to do is pull a trigger.
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Here's an interesting question.
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How does Square intend to localize the laws in FFTA that are based
on the Japanese language?
There are 6 laws which ban skills beginning or ending with certain
characters. 4 are based on kana, and 2 are based on kanji.
Many of the skills banned by these laws have nothing in common with
eachother except the similarities of their names. Of course, many of
these similarities don\'t exist in their english equivalents.
ForÊÊExample, the law \"Begins with KA\" bans Look After, Steal Helmet,
Shadow Stitch, Frog Song, and Carbuncle, among others. As is, this law
would make no sense in the English version.
It would seem that Square has 3 options here:
1. They could change the names of these skills and the letters banned by
thelaws to recreate the same ban, but I doubt that this is even possible
and even if it were I wouldn\'t like to give up translations that have been
around since FF2US.
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Googleshng:
That's probably what they'd go for. Some clever wordplay can solve plenty of problems. Oh, and uh, are
you suggesting Square has never changed translations? Remember Bolt? Cure 3? Dragoons? Heal? G?
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2. A new system could be implemented that would allow players to
distinguish between banned and unbanned skills, such as assigning colorsÊÊ
to them.
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Googleshng:
Also possible.
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3. The laws could be altered or removed completely...do I sense an FFTA
Easytype?
Kugutsu
P.S.ÊÊMontblanc 15 th3 133t35t m00913 3v4r!
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Googleshng:
That's the least likely of these options, as it would require the most coding changes and rebalancing.
On a tangent by the way: I really like that FFTA has the whole law concept since most TRPGs boil down
to finding a strategy that works and repeating it for the next 40 odd fights. I really wish they'd made
the effort to rationalize it better. Judges dictating arbitrary rules is fairly lame. I'd rather have
something like Vandal Hearts. Like, say, have a fight where you can't use fire spells because you're in
a field of tall dry grass. Bring back that freaking dark elf cave from FF4. That sort of thing.
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Randomness
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Hello, my sweet deformed plum-shaped kodama... in disguise!
Are you okay? It seems like every day you say something strange and obscure like how you work hard on a project and can't remember what you were working on, or how large your cat is, and some other strange things I can't seem to remember right now. I can't really tell whether you are just unlucky, bored, deprived, mentally unstable, or what...but SOMETHING is up so I just wanted to ask; are you okay? I'd be happy to help you but I don't know how I would be able to do that other than giving you large sums of money.
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Googleshng:
All of those adjectives can be applied to me in some degree I'm sure, but the reason for the record that
I ended up staying up until 5 AM working on something and then having no evidence was that I'd worked
myself ragged for some time coding a very complex chunk of table code to act as the key to an image map,
realized it was a pointless endevor, scrapped it, and passed out.
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Anyway though, onto the questions.
As far as RPGs goes, there has been an increase in serious entertainment now. I don't know why, but a lot of big hits such as Xenosaga, Final Fantasy (7, 8, 9, 10), Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and such have a lot of psychological weirdness with complex plot twists and plot holes. Could it be that the people making these games are trying to make them appeal to a wider age range so eventually they will be recognized more frequently with other forms of entertainment? Probably. but thats not what I was trying to ask. My question is actually, what game (that you have played of course) has the lightest AND most entertaining dialog, that seems to always keep a light mood even when things are gloomy? My guess would have to be Rapsody, even though I've never playedÊ the game (it looks child-ish...not like only children would play it, but everything is cutesy looking), but as for the entertaining part I would probably go with Dragon Warrior 7. Just about every townsman in that game is eccentric in some way, despite the fact they wear the same clothes in every town. What do you think?
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Googleshng:
A game with a light and entertaining plot: Skies of Arcadia.
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Also I just wanted to ask you if you've noticed any patterns in Xenosaga's battle system? I've played through most of the game I'm sure...and it pretty much consists of using the most recent techniques I have for all my characters over and over again, and healing frequently. Am I playing the game wrong or something? More strategy? Where?
Brendan Mesick
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Googleshng:
I like that Xenosaga mixes up combat a bit with a better balanced version of Xenogears' system, and the
ability to spend points upgrading various aspects of each attack, although ultimately that doesn't come
to much.
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Symbolism.
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I was sure someone would bring this up last time, but it seems I'll have
to spell it out for you. Why do 99.9% of RPG heroes wield swords? Think
Sigmund Freud.
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Googleshng:
I've said for a long time that while I'm sure Freudian psychology applied to Freud himself, the bulk of
it doesn't apply to the average person. I mean, I for one have never felt even the slightest desire to
kill/sleep with my parents. Have you?
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