Matt - 14:58 EST

AND SO BEGINS A NEW WEEK in Questions and Answers! This is a very, very special week for all of us old-school fans. Do you know why? Because tomorrow marks my 255th column! After tomorrow, I will have surpassed the traditional ceiling for stats in many RPGs. It'll be a bit sad to move past that eighth power of two, but we must go on, moving forward without regret. There's a lot to look forward to over the next 256 columns, anyway, including the new competition which is getting ever closer to beginning! If you haven't signed up, I encourage you to do so now. It will be starting in just over a month, and there will be prizes on the order of new games, guest-host positions, and more!

Oh wait. Now that I check back, I guess that my 255th was last week. Sigh. Welcome to the future, I guess.

It seems that over the weekend, Andrew wasn't around to jump into the captain's chair after all. As it turns out, he performed some unfortunate acrobatics and wound up breaking his foot late last week. Understandably, he's had to lay low for a little while. That's the way it goes, I guess.

So, it's just you and me for a little while! Let's read some of your letters now.

You've got to be kidding me! Tetris Attack on Wi-Fi?!?! I'm so there!

Anyway, back to more RPG related things. I'm another of the lucky to have played Lufia 2. Not one of the best endings for an RPG that I've ever encountered, but I love the puzzles. Even the one that I only passed cause I had a dream about the solution the night I got stuck on it. o_O;

Another good memory of the game - watching my sister feed providence to her capsule monster in the Ancient Dungeon... Hee hee hee... Talk about asking for trouble. N.O. E.S.C.A.P.E... to borrow a phrase from another RPG.

That makes me wonder how many other people have accidentally or purposefully jettisoned, eaten, sold, or otherwise destroyed a key item that they needed in a game? Sometimes I'm glad the game grays out special items so you don't accidentally stick yourself in a bad situation.

As for 360 vs PS3 vs Wii... I'm not sure I'm on anyones boat yet. I'll stick w/ my DS. Possibly pick up the Wii when SSB Brawl comes out or even when Super Paper Mario comes out. 360 is starting to look more favorable though when shed in certain lights.

Have a good one!
MagRowan ^_^

Yeah. I almost feel like the PS3 has caught a little bit of fire with the European launch, too. Apparently, the PS3 launch broke sales records... which can only mean that Europeans have a hell of a lot of money to burn. What a great method of positive reinforcement for the big Sony, though. Of course they're going to keep charging Europeans incredibly (and unfairly) more money than everybody else in the world... buying them so vigourously, Europe is, in my opinion, just telling them "sure, keep raping me from behind!" to put it quite crudely. Ah well- it's their money!

I played the two SNES Lufia games:

Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (Sometimes called "Lufia 1" even though that isn't quite right): I played this game for a bit but didn't finish for two reasons:

1) Random Battles. Yick!

2) High difficulty. The game requires you to level up quite a bit. More than once I found myself running out of resources halfway through and having to backtrack. The game seemed to have a good story and characters, but I don't really remember too much.

Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals:

This is by far the best Lufia thus far. The game introduced many new concepts. There are not-too-hard puzzles to solve as in Zelda Link to the Past. On the overworld map, monsters will attack randomly as in Lufia 1 and Final Fantasy, but in dungeons, monsters and you move on a grid. Monsters move only when you do creating a sort of strategy game. If you touch a monster (or a monster touches you) a battle will begin. If you touch the back of a monster, it will be a preemptive strike style battle, while if a monster touches your back the monsters will have a free attack round when combat begins. There is even a randomly generated dungeon in the game. The combat system is turn-based, similar to FF1. The story as in Zelda is nothing to write home about, and consists entirely of one fetch quest after another. There is a ship, submarine, and airship to drive around in the game. The focus is on puzzle solving and battling and not as much on story and exploration.

Matt Well... I think that the storyline of Lufia II was made more exciting if you had played through the original game. Because Lufia II was a prequel to the game, it was really neat to see familiar people and places. The characters were neat too; there was a lot of fun-fun dialogue, or so I remember in my brain's time capsule, which could be slightly inaccurate.

I didn't play the Lufia for handhelds (I forget the title). It featured random dungeons and got terrible reviews which is why I didn't pick it up.

Series notes:
The cure/healing spell is called "Strong." The medium strength version is "Stronger" and the highest strength version is "Champion." Maybe I'm the only one, but I thought that was quite strange.

Flamethrower

Don't forget about Valor! Actually, in the later Lufia games, the "Strongest" that you're looking for, I assume, does indeed make an appearance. Perhaps the spell was just a bit shy? I can't tell you.

Thanks, Flamethrower!

Yo Matt, Andy or whoever, what's been happening?

So the PS3 surposedly launched in Australia, not that I even realised 'til I saw something over the net. Guess it shows how interested I was in it. I'm still ploding along with FF12, but my copy of Europa Civalis 3 came in last week so i'm going to see if it'll work on my home computer.

So SOCK starts soon. Are you as excited as me?

Will you be getting Pokemon Pearl and Diamond? Hopefully i'll have broardband connected by the time I get back to my Uni house next week. Wii'ng and Dsing all night long maybe, except when i'm doing my assignments.

Anywho that's it, not to bad considering its like 3:20 in the morning.

Oh and if Andy gets this one, hi Andy.

No Andy for you! At least not this time. Maybe next time.

Thanks for your letter, and I await your Pokéchallenge. May the best man win!

Hello again,

So I have been playing RPG's since the days of Dragon Warrior (not that I think that to be a true RPG enthusiast one needs to have played everything out there) and continue to play games such as Rogue Galaxy and Final Fantasy XII. To be honest, despite the fact I have played these many games, the truth is I have seen few of them to completion. This didn't used to be a problem, in fact I wouldn't just beat them once, but several times. A few factors enter into this I suppose, being 27 and working all the time have had a large impact on the amount of time I can play. Also, there are just a greater number of Rpgs to play now. Once a game like Mario RPG would come out and that was it for a long time. You really didn't have much else in the way of Role Playing until say Chrono Trigger came out. (I am aware that I may be wrong on which came out first, but you get the point). Now, last year alone, we had: Xenosaga 3, Tales of the Abyss, Valkryie Profile 2, Suikoden 5, .Hack GU, Final Fantasy just to name a few. Am I happy that we get alot of games, yes of course, but I kinda miss when that one special game consumed your time.

On another note, what do you think is the right amount of playable characters in a game. Something in the way of Radiata Stories or Suikoden, where you can pick and choose to your hearts content. Or something like Final Fantasy or Shadow Hearts where despite the lack of characters, they are more spealized and have a better chance of a full backstory?

Thanks once agian for listening to me go on and on. I know I get a bit long winded.

Arkadysmile "Still waiting for that stupid tax return"

PS. What do you think was the best reason for a villian in a game to do the thing they did?

I hear you on the tax return- I'm awaiting mine, worth a cool $1100 or so. That could be the Xbox 360 that I might (or might not) get.

As for villainous actions, I really love when there are good reasons for villains to believe in what they believe in; it makes them somewhat more credible and fearsome than the "crazed I want to destroy the world" type, which is oh-so-common in our little genre. So, I like villains like the main one of Xenosaga that genuinely feel that their cause is for the benefit of the world (or universe, such as the case may be). There aren't many of them, though.

That's all, Master Arkady! Talk to you later.

Quickly I'll say that if the Final Fantasy games of the new consoles aren't exclusive to PS3 , Sony, you're in for a world of hurt. Losing exclusives from 3rd parties seems to be the case anyway. Sony has a lot of good 1st and 2nd party games/series to pull from, but 3rd parties always make or break a system.

On to hero (stereo/arche)types. I dislike is the idiot hero. The one who has no business attempting to save the world. Though I haven't played FF12 yet, I have watched a bit of it over my girlfriend's shoulder. Vaan strikes me as this type of hero. He's the main character, yet he's the least decisive and most ignorant of the group.

Also on the list of dislike is the effeminate male teenager. Yes I know that plucky young heros are the standard. But why must the character I watch the entire game look like an escapee from an SNL Pat skit?

I prefer capable heros. By that I mean the ones who can do the job through skill, planning and some application of effort. Again to reference FF12, Basch and Balthier strike me as this type of hero. I felt that the main character in Breath of Fire 5 fit this. But generally the capable role is given over to an older mentor character, so that the plucky young hero can learn from them.

I'm willing to say that even if I do dislike a type of hero if the story around them is done well, that's no big deal. However sometime it'd be nice to have a main character who is an older, experienced, hell perhaps even married, pillar of society. Rather than Little Timmy who likes to wear mommy's make-up.

Ken

Ha ha ha. It's too bad that Dragon Quest V hasn't been translated!! By the end of that game, you actually do end up married with children, and you lead your whole family to fight against evil. It's really awesome, I think, and it's a pity that this game hasn't made it across the ocean yet after all this time.

Thanks for your heroic input! I appreciate the letter.