Hey Googleshng,

I've been playing the original Dark Cloud lately, and it brings the foreground an issue that's been bothering me for some time. Why do game makers feel it's necessary for the characters to make a sound every time they swing their sword or jump or whatever. Pretty much every Mario game and remake since Super Mario 64 has had the characters say "Ya" or "Ha" every time they jump. Why I ask? And why does Link need to say something everytime he swings his sword? And in Dark Cloud, there's this annoying little cat girl that says "Ee" everytime she shoots her slingshot. I can't even use her as a character because the sound annoys me too much. At least the main character sword-swinging "Ya" is less annoying.

-Aaron

In regards to your statements about the majority of Chrono Triggers gameplay being Side Quests, I feel this to be in error. Rather than side quests, it plays out much like the primarily non-linear World of Ruin in Final Fantasy VI.

After all, you can, indeed, go through Kefka's tower as soon as you have the Airship Falcon. Suicidal though it may be. Generally speaking, I find that Side Quests are just frivolous extra bits of gameplay for cash and prizes which are generally unrelated to the characters or story. Whereas in Chrono Trigger, a great number of these 'side quests' exist to flesh out the story as well as providing +4 swords of Lavos Spawn slaying. Makes it more like non linear gameplay, than pointless redundant questing, methinks. At least for the most part, Son of the Sun and whatnot tend to be less than story advancing.

Additionally, how's that G5 feeling? Not a Mac enthusiast personally, but I understand the G5 has some /serious/ brawn. I imagine your old Applications must be screaming along like yon Bat out of Hell. Must be a nice change of pace.

~ Ian

Have you watched Drawn Together on Comedy Central yet? There's a character on the show that is a parody of Link, with some bits of FF7's Cloud (in appearance only, hair and costume, notice the shoulder-guard), but the storyline is all Link. There's even Zelda and Ganon paradoy cameos on the third episode of the show, as well as an extremely hilarious Ms. Pac-Man cameo. Check it out if you haven't, and try to find episode 103 on the Internet to see Xandir's main episode.

Oh yeah and in episode three, he, uh, comes out of the closet o_O

- Elranzer

Before Sakaguchi left, there was only one direct sequel within the FF series, and that the was FF: Legend of the Crystals anime, which doesn't count because it's awful, and isn't a game in any case. Since he was removed from his position, we've gotten the following: FF10 (which he started the work and planning on before getting the boot), FF10-2, no fewer than four sequels to FF7, an MMO without enough plot to even be able to tell whether it's a sequel, FFT:A which is a game about a Final Fantasy gamer (and has a stolen battle system), FF12 which is apparently a direct sequel to FFT:A, re-releases of the old FFs, and three Kingdom Hearts games. Is anyone but me seeing a pattern here? Do you think they're so afraid of trying anything new without the series creator's input that they only stick to what they've already done, or do you think Sakaguchi's vision was the only thing holding them back from doing this before, or do you have a different take? Con Queso, LockeZ

I'm a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series, I love X, X-2, and the card game in FFVIII, I feel, is the best mini-game in the series, but could you please explain what games of the series were never released here and how they number in Japan compared to here, I always forget and I don't want to sound stupid when I get into arguments with friends about it, which happpens more than not. Thanks.

• Xenosaga

• Baten Kaitos