Matt Demers - 22:48 EST

SOME OF THIS Tokyo Game Show media is making me very, very excited. It's nice to view some trailers that include at least a little bit of gameplay (imagine that!), and that's what we've received. From Final Fantasy Tactics A2, to The Last Remnant, to White Knight Story, to whatever you have your eyes on, there are a lot of shiny new projects in development!

I agree with you about FFXII's plot not involving the characters that much. As for Vaan, it's as if they had this idea of making an epic story, but to tell it from the perspective of one of those nameless people wandering around the town.

That's why I'm still peeved that NamelessGirl wasn't a playable character! She potentially had more of a reason for being in that game than Vaan, at least she worked for Al Cid...

I'm glad to see that someone sees things my way. I don't feel that the story was a terribly bad one- perhaps a bit bland- but it's just that the story seemed to be told from a distance. This is especially true when you notice that certain major plot elements unfold exclusively as "meanwhile, off in Archades" cutscenes. Personally, I found it more difficult to really bite into than your average Final Fantasy plot because of this reason, but perhaps this different method of storytelling was more attractive to some. I dunno!

Sorry about the subject line. My wife just gave me an early birthday present! But you have to guess what it is... heh, heh. Seriously, any suggestions on what I should get for it? I am planning on Metroid Prime 3, Super Paper Mario, Mario Party 8, and WarioWare. I already have Twilight Princess for GameCube. Oh my goodness, I am so excited! Woe is my Master's degree :(

Draconn

I think we should all just boycott our degrees, at least for awhile. What will they do if there are no theses to publish and no grad students to push around? What could they do? Kick us *all* out simultaneously? Ahahaha, I don't think so. Anyway, I'm just sick of whining about having no time, and it's sad to hear other people cry too. Life sucks.

Congrats on the big new shiny console! It's a lot of fun, but right now, I prefer its other features over its current library. Sure, Metroid and Zelda and Super Paper Mario are fun. However, being the "classics" guy that I am, the Virtual Console is absolutely golden. And the Everybody Votes channel, no matter what you or anyone might think, is more exciting than perhaps it should be.

With those titles, you're good for now, unless you're dying to play Resident Evil 4 or something. But with Fire Emblem and Super Mario Galaxy on the way along with Super Smash Bros. Brawl (oh yeah) and Dragon Quest Swords (uh-huh), there are a few goodies coming in the near future, too.

Matt:

I'm too lazy to look on Mapquest, but Guelph sounds like a made-up name. In fact, it sounds like the name of a town in Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. I think you're trying to pull one over on all of us.

Well, my TGS wishes have been (mostly) fulfilled. I had definitely been looking forward to whatever Kingdom Hearts announcements S-E was prepared to make, but I didn't dare dream that my decidedly last-gen/portable-gaming self would be able to play them. Lo and behold, S-E announces a PSP game, a DS game, and a cell phone game! Too bad there's no release dates or talk of simultaneous localization, the two other things on my TGS wish list.

My gaming life is divided between trying to move forward in new games (Jeanne D'Arc and Brave Story at the moment) and replaying old games (Final Fantasy III and Dragon Quest VIII currently). I just got Angelo and the world map in Dragon Quest, and I was once again awed by the sheer size of the Dragon Quest world map. What an amazing game.

I've been told the next console game I need to play is Persona 3. I'm kind of on the fence on this one. On the one hand there's the droves of people raving about it maniacally. On the other hand, every time I try to play a console RPG (see: Wild ARMs 5) I end up playing Dragon Quest again, so Persona would have to be REALLY good to overcome that hurdle. On the other other hand, it's $50 USD, which is more than I'm willing to drop on a last-gen title, really. And I know it's not likely to go down in price. Decisions, decisions.

Woot for FFT and Disgaea: AoD coming up soon. I can't wait to play through the Etna alternate story; it sounds like it will be highly entertaining. Although in many ways I think Rozalin is superior to Etna, but that's just me. Also woot for all the DQ love we're seeing. I really need to go preorder DQM: Joker in the near future...

Well, I suppose that's all for now from me. My letters have become more infrequent, but my Matt fandom hasn't diminished at all.

-Jeffrey

Ah Jeffrey, I'm a fan of yours too, you have to know it. Your letters are a dash of salt on my otherwise tasteless plate of casserole.

Take care, good sir.

Matt,

Both you and your brother are totally crazy if you sing to a get item sound effect. A lot of people like the Zelda one, but it's pretty straightforward. Also check out the get item sound effect from Starfox Adventures: Overly long, annoying, and happens way too often.

If anyone is looking for a free, fun, Zelda-esque adventure game, check out Guardian of Paradise for PC. The game is freeware and can be downloaded here .. You'll need to apply a translation patch, a link to which can be found on that page. The game is about 5 hours long, and has decent music and graphics, especially for a freeware title. The puzzles are a bit on the easy side, though.

Flamethrower

Thanks for the link! Perhaps someone will find a little bit of a diversion for an afternoon. Thanks to the people from that site, too, for providing me with a way to fill up half of a letter's worth of space. ^_^

I'm sure I'll hear from you again soon, so take 'er easy until next time. (I have the right to say that; I grew up on a farm, and was surrounded by people who referred to everything- animal, piece of machinery, etc- in the feminine.)

Hello to whomever ends up reading/responding to this letter,

Let's see...hot topics...I'm not sure if I had any misconceptions about games specifically but I do remember that I was a Nintendo fangirl for a while. The first system my brother and I owned was the Nintendo 64, but I don't know why I would have hated the playstation. I remember being at a friend's house and playing some kind of Rugrats game on the Playstation and having trouble using a control pad instead of a control stick to move diagonally. Do you remember if you had trouble the first time you used a new controller/control scheme/system? As for my fangirlism, I eventually outgrew it. I bought the PS2 so that I could play Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (which turned out to be not so great), but it made me able to play other PS2 games. Do you think there are a lot of fanboys and fangirls in the realm of RPGamers or do you think we aren't unecessarily biased because RPGs are spread out across many systems? (Just to clarify what I mean when I say "unecessarily biased": people who bash a system "just because it sucks" rather than giving a reason they don't like it). Since there is a large letter backlog, I will save further ramblings for later.

Good luck getting through all the e-mails,
Annalou

P.S. Matt has a kitty! I love cats! If Matt answers this letter: What does your kitty look like? If Sean answers or if someone else answers for some reason: Do you like cats?

Right now? She's a short-haired, strictly black-and-white tabby. (That is, she has not a single grey hair, but her fur is kind of salt-and-pepper, creating a bit of a grey "illusion.") She has interestingly brown eyes, and she's three months old. If that isn't enough cuteness-juice for you, she's currently curled up in the pile of fresh-out-the-dryer-warm clean clothes, sleeping soundly, paws over face for some reason.

AHHH! Cuteness overload!

Thanks for the letter!