Matt - 15:35 EST

HA HA! One week and two games: Who would have thought? I beat Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime over the weekend. I have to say that I'm doing pretty well for myself; I went on to get past the third dungeon of Zelda on Saturday night, while everybody else was out guzzling beer and telling limericks, or whatever people do on St. Patrick's Day. Why yes, I should probably get out. Mleah.

Anyway, I'm back for another fun-filled week, starting with this selection of fine letters.

Good evening fine sir,

Once again, I'm going to address as many of your topics as I can (and then rant for a while hoping to spark some new topics!). Lets get started, shall we?

GDC '07:
Blegh, not a very fun year for me. Nintendo banned from making any major announcements. PS3 getting steam for a system that is mostly junk, fueled by people that lack morality (IMO). The 360 is a strange upside though. RPGs such as Blue Dragon finally getting and official release date, a close one at that. I think the whole of GDC was marred by animosity amongst the different 'fanboys' development side and fanbase side.

Random Battles:
Random battles arent the offender here in my mind, its the loadtimes before and after that grate at gamers. seemless transition between screens greatly changes how a single battle is portayed to me. Im playing Tales of the Abyss right now and the random battles get annoying after about an hour due to the long loads after battle. FFXII did away with random battle in favor of MMO style combat, as most gamers know. i think the strong point there is that once a battle is overwith, your right there on the field ready for another, no wait, no gruff. DQVIII had very short loads for combat (or it seemed since they had the running animation whilst loading). And as you said, if a game gives you an item or skill that allows you to manipulate combat encounters, it really makes you like it abit more.

2007 Gaming:
My backlog is very, very, very (very....) extensive for now. Im going to give you a weebit of a headache and list all of the rpgs in it (sorry...kinda): Romancing SaGa (all stories!), Digital Devil Saga II, Devil Summoner, Suikoden III and V, Disgaea 2, Makai Kingdom, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Breath of Fire III and IV, Vagrant Story, Chrono Cross, Dragon Warrior VII, Arc the Lad Collection. now, now, some of those games im sorta through but most of them I havent even started (and I will probably restart the ones I'm partially through to remember the story more. There are a few games that I'm looking forward to in the coming year though. Pretty much everything that is worth it coming from the DS is making my mouth water. Blue Dragon is looking fun and lighthearted (im not a Toriyama basher, the only reason to bash him is to give yourself a 'cool factor' that is alittle stupid). Im also eyeing the Wii once the DragonQuest games come out (DQIX for DS makes me smile just at the thought).

Lunar Knights:
Im actually a big fan of anything Kojima, the man has a great sense of humor around his games and is pretty good at making games fun enjoyable. Im going to have to pick up a DSlite before i get around to it though. No big deal, im going to have to have the thing for DQIX anyway so im not sweating it.

Steampunk's Rant Corner:
The biggest thing i forsee in the future is the DS is going to turn into something so big, so amazing that even people already singing its praises wont see it coming. DQIX, DQIX!

About DQ, im hoping that in america the series is getting more recognition than it had. I really wish we would have got Yangus, maybe one day. It seems that everyone that writes you, loves DQ as well, so its a pretty good feeling reading all the stuff about it from this site.

Now its my turn to ask you some questions Mr. Slimey!
1. do you think its smarter to keep franchise series small, or whore them out like the .hack// series, final fantasy series, and DQ series? now dont get me wrong, i like those series pretty well, its just that as a collector, its hard to find ALL of them....

2.Whats the longest playtime for a game you have in your savefiles? Mine is DQVIII at 128 hours (only Lvl 74, but did all extra stuff).

3. Do you feel RPGs are going to suffer in this "next generation' era of crappy slogans and shoddy tactics? I really dont care for super realistic graphics, im fine with games like Killer 7, Okami, Katamari, and 'kawaii' games (im going to have to play something manly after i send this!).

4. how obsessive are you about your gaming collection? do you care if your game doesnt have a manual or a beat up case? Do Xbox and 360's green cases make you cringe? or PS3 and Wii's small cases for that matter? do you organize your games in any particular fashion? Im asking because im increadible picky about those kinds of things, some of my friends are, some arent. I just wanna hear from another person really.

That is incredibly longwinded wasnt it?! have at it my man.

-Steampunk

The green cases don't make me cringe as much as the entirely black-and-green sections in some game stores. I don't even come close to any of those sections, just because it feels like I'm going to be... I dunno, abducted or something.

I hate it when I lose a manual, though I really do enjoy the fact that games come in cases with little manual clips nowadays. Back when I was a wee lad, my mom made me keep all of my instruction booklets in a big brown envelope so that I wouldn't get them all over the place. That envelope is still back at home somewhere.

Do I organize my games in any particular fashion? Nay. I attempt with futility to keep my DS games and PS2 games apart from each other, but they inevitably end up in a mass on the floor, because I don't have the shelf space and I'm a bit of a disorganized soul. I'm not the most messy person out there, though, and believe me, if I had room for them on a shelf, on a shelf they'd be.

Anyway, thanks for your long-windedness! Sorry it took a week to get it up, but that's the reality of having a two-digit letter backlog that begins with the number 2.

You can bet that I'll be playing SOCK 2, and I'll try to spend more time actually doing something this time around. As for my job, I'll be a White Mage. I am a little worried, though. White Mages are invaluable in parties, but this game doesn't seem to have us form parties, but take on monsters by ourselves. And of course, White Mages are the absolutely worst people to solo with. Then again, I'm sure that there is a lot about the game that I don't know yet, so I'm just probably assuming too much. I'm sure that you'll make all the classes well-balanced and equally viable in gameplay, so I'll stick with the White Mage.

Using Exp. points for spells? That's an interesting twist. Is it possible for me to actually level DOWN if I use too many spells, or is my level set once I reach its exprience point requirement amount?

Nope. You can't level down, and if you don't have enough Experience to cast a spell, it will just fail and you'll waste your turn. Besides, the idea of leveling down just sounds so depressing. It gives me a great idea for an RPG, though: "Old Man Quest"! You START the game pretty strong, but you have to get to the end and defeat the boss before you're too weak, because every so often, you level down, as the sands of time run freely.

Hi Matt!

I'd like to sign up for SOCK 2.0 as a Defender.

Random battles don't bug me at all. Out of all the RPGs I've played, the ones with random battles significantly outnumber all the others. Which isn't a real reason in itself to like random battles. But since I played so many that used that system, especially early in my RPGaming life, that I probably wouldn't have become very attached to the genre if I absolutely despised such a critical component to the gameplay, know what I mean? I'm not a pure traditionalist by any means, I've played and enjoyed games of all main 'types' of battle systems. I don't really have a clear favorite, it all comes down to the individual game's execution. Some games execute random/scripted/real time battles well, other games can have said systems and be pretty bad. I don't think any are inherently good or bad. I will say this though, games with random battles HAVE to have reasonable load times. Few things irritate me more in an RPG then having to wait 10-20 seconds from the point of encounter to the point where I enter my first command.

Lunar Knights...almost inevitably going to end up on my "I'd like to check it out, but I have to many other games to play first" list. I just finished up everything in Castlevania DoS, next DS game is going to be either Phoenix Wright 2 (TOTALLY loved #1), FF3 (dying to get this one), or Metroid Prime Hunters. I was playing a bit of my brother's copy of that game, and if someone had merely told me about how the control scheme is in that game I would have thought it to be pretty ridiculous. But then you play it and it just feels....so....right. Had a couple hours of fun with it and I really want to play the rest. I also need to get back to Fire Emblem (the first US GBA one), I'm trying to unlock all the support conversations....up to 91%. ^^ Speaking of a series I'd like to see more of on the VC...

That's all I got for now, take care!
Jeremy V

Metroid Prime Hunters does feel awesome. It's unfortunate that the game totally ditches traditional Metroid gameplay for something terribly formulaic and uninspiring, in my eyes. I'm like 30% through the game, and while I don't want to completely forget about the game, it'll be awhile before I pick it up again.

And hey, Fire Emblem on the VC isn't completely out of the question- the door has been left open for untranslated games to make the cut, which makes me very happy. I don't know if it will actually happen, but at least we can have hope!

Thanks, Jeremy! May all of your days be merry.

Hey Matt,

The letter about TV shows/books to games got me thinking about the Alias game they made a few years back. I actually never finished it (maybe I've played too many traditional RPGs and now can't figure out how to be "stealthy"--stupid other games deluding me into thinking I just can barge into a room full of people with guns and kick them all), but it sort of played like a lost episode of the show, which was sort of its most redeeming quality. I can't say there's any book or TV show I'd really want transformed into a game right, though. Half the fun of the game is all the discovery--of locales, of characters, and so forth--and I feel like an important part of that would be lost on a TV-show/book-turned-game.

Moving on... I'd have to say my favorite battle-engagement scenario is that of games like Earthbound and, maybe even more so, Lufia II--the monsters are on the map, but if you're lucky or clever you can avoid them. Random battles are more mindless to me, and especially annoying if I can blow the enemy party out of the water with no effort when I'm revisiting an old area. The other annoyance to random battles is that, by being random, I may never run across a certain monster (important when I'm obsessively trying to fill out my bestiary in the remade FF games, for instance) purely because of dumb luck, or it may just take forever. That's annoying. So, anyway. Have their been any games more recent than Lufia II and Earthbound with the not-exactly-random battle encounter? I guess I vaguely recall Star Ocean III, but that game just kind of annoyed me. Are there others?

Aaaand, just for the heck of it, another visit to the random question generator. I'm sure there's some punny, clever response, but I'm not the question-answerer, I'm the question-asker. (Whew!)

Where did the chicken become interested in the Gulf of Mexico?

I actually had to try the program a couple times... this "random" question generator appears to be obsessed with "motor torpedo boats."

'Til next time,

Joshua

All random numbers have to grow from a seed... if you plant the same seed, you're going to grow the same tree! Perhaps that's it. Anyway, see you, sir Josh!

Greetings Matt!

I figured I've been putting off this letter for a long time, so I decided to bite the bullet and write it!

First up, the letter asking about the title page quotes was asking where the quotes were archived, not who thinks them up - in this case they can be directed to the lovely quote archive sidebar on the right.

Second up, I forgot to ask JuMeSyn this when he was guesthosting a few weeks back (that's how much I've been procrastinating), so I hope he just reads this letter. So JMS, since you own a Sega Saturn, have you heard of a game called Baroque? I've never had the good luck to own the PSX version, but you seem seem to have a strange library of import games so I thought I'd ask.

And now for your topic!

This year is most likely either the year I get a DS or I spend my time finishing all the games I bought but never played (the .hack series being one). Either way the next-gen consoles are out of the question - the Wii costs $1800, the PS3...much more....and it's not worth getting it when I have no guarantee I can play anything besides Wii Sports and Twilight Princess. A PS3 is almost a given, but until FFXIII comes out localized and reviewed, it's going to be nothing more than a glorified PS2 brick.

Maybe this year'll be the day everyone finishes their backlogs, you never know.

DMJ

And as they lose exclusive support, there's less and less reason to get one, too. Unless, of course, you really think that this PS3 Home business actually provides a reason to invest. Hrm. I'm just waiting for Final Fantasy XIII to be announced for the 360. Or a Final Fantasy VII remake. That kind of announcement would go off like a hundred hydrogen bombs.

For now, you're right. It's brick. A really, really, really expensive brick, with a big ol' fan inside it.