That's right.. it's super informative Friday.. or something. I've got a bunch of really good stuff for you guys today.. ..not that I don't have good stuff for you every day. But well, I've got especially good stuff for you today. Then I'm taking off for the weekend, out to the Bay Area. You know, to sign autographs and stuff. If you see me, say, "Hey Brad! I love your column!" If you don't love my column, that's okay. Lie to me. I.. like it!

Yesterday's Heather thing was a measure of success.. well, it wasn't a huge measure of success, but I was prepping you guys. Next week, with someone who is a gamer, and will bring a new insight into the column on argueably the most complex (plot-wise) game that's ever been realeased. Xenogears. Send in plot clarifications, theories, general quandries, anything you want. That, and Star Ocean 2. I'm looking forward to that column, should be an .. enlightening expereience. Heh. I'm not all for Xenogears being 'Best RPG of all time!' and it's really not at all on my "Gotta go back and play through that again".. but the story they told was a great one, and I'm very very very glad that Square changed their minds about not porting Xenogears over to us.

As for other news, since you all love my math skills so, I took another test.. got a 96 on it. Would have done better had I not gone TOO far on the accuracy of one of my problems, okay, I'm not really complaining, whatever. :)

In the Anime Brad Contest.. well, there has been a slight bit of ambiguity on what's going on with that. The winner will be announced in Monday's column. That does not mean that you have until Monday to submit. I post my column in the first few hours of the day's existance. Therefore you have until Sunday evening to submit your entries, and if they're in the evening, there will be no gaurantees that I'll get them in time. For best chances, have them in before 6pm PDT on Sunday. I've already seen a couple really awesome ones, but I'd love to see the artwork you guys produce. I'll just say there are some good artists out in my crowd. And you guys drew me. It rocks. I dig you. Heyyy.. I should get Lore to enter the Anime Brad Contest.. heh.

Anyways, here's a big bunch of goodies for you all!

Princess Maker is a game series created by Gainax back in good ol'1991. If you're familiar with Gainax, they have a HUGE following over the years from their Anime series' of "Nadia: Secret of Blue Water", "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and most recently, "Kareshi Kanoji no Jijo" (or loosely translated, "His and her consequences"). They're mostly known for Evangelion though. Princess Maker is basically about being a Father, and raising a daughter from ages 10-18 years old. You send her to school, work, etc, and it shapes who she becomes later on in life. The first Princess Maker was only available in DOS/V format (Japanese dos) and a Chinese version for whatever Chinese version of DOS it was. Later, there was a Princess Maker 2, which was released not only in DOS format, but also for the Sega Saturn (you can purchase it via www.ncsx.com), not to mention somewhere along the way the first was also re-released with vocals for the Saturn as well. Then Princess Maker 3 came out on Playstation, Windows 95/98, and Sega Saturn formats. Those are the main games as of right now. At some point there was a SuperFamicom version called "Princess Maker: Legend of another world", but alas, was also only released in Japan. There was also a Princess Maker Puzzle Game (For PSX only), and an RPG called "Princess Maker: Go! Go! Princess!" that also, as far as my knowledge, is only for the PSX. Recently there has been a newly released PM game called "Princess Maker Q", but as far as I could tell from a strictly Japanese website- It's ONLY available for PC/Win 98etc.

Princess Maker for the states? I seriously doubt a Life Simulator would make it over here. It's a very limited market, and as far as I know - there have been no plans to publish the game in english. There was *one* attempt for the PC - The beta is still floating around the net over the last 4 or so years. However that company had went bankrupt before they could publish the game. Sooooo... it sucks for the people who really got into it, thinking it would come out. Oh well.

If you have anymore questions on Princess Maker, or whatnot, go ahead and email me back at nuriko@maison-otaku.net or just reply. I also have a website set up about Princess Maker. It needs to be updated to reflect the new game (Princess Maker Q), but hey... it has info on it.

http://princessmaker.maison-otaku.net/

Brad:
If only raising children were this easy, I tell ya. Well, I don't know.. I never raised a kid, nor have I ever played the game... I might not have kids. I've got a lil' Zero Population Growth Thing growin' in me somewhere .. I dunno.

Where exactly ARE the Islands Closest to Hell/Heaven in FF8?

Brad:
The Island Closest to Hell is an easy one to find... it's basically the last island in the chain stretching out to the west of the Galbadia Continent. Land, check location bar in menu, and SAVE. Nasty enemies there. Heaven is a little harder to find... but it's in the chain of islands that are west of the BIG FOREST north of Esthar. Just keep landing and checking till you find it.

But, here's the list of things to devour:
Adamantiose, lvl30+: Defense +1
Behemoth, lvl40+: Magic +1
Malboro, lvl35+: Spirit +1
Ruby Dragon, BOSS, lvl?: Max HP +10% (this rocks :)
T-Rexaur, lvl30+: Strength +1

DO NOT DEVOUR:
-Anything below lvl 30. You get about 150 HP back. not worth the effort
-Don't devour anything that has status attacks. So, no GeroGero et al, cuz you'll get nasty things like damage and occassionally I found that the game glitches and you can't take off whatever effect you got when you chowed down (poison and darkness seem to be the real hitches)

- Paws

Brad:
Errrhghhgmmm.. I'm kinda hungry... *Looks at T-Rexaur*.. er.. maybe I'll just keep writing. :o

Greetings Oracle,

I got really annoyed with makeing money in FF8. The Seed rank just didn't produce enough cash for my greediness, so I came with a relatively simple plan: 1. You need Carbunkle GF ability Recov Med-RF
2. You need Tonberry King GF ability Sell-High
3. (Optional) Diablo or Bahamut GF ability Mug
4. Fight Mesmerizes in Trabia (snowfields) and recieve Mesmerize Blade item (dropped or stolen)
5. Use GF ability Recov Med-RF to modify 1 Mesmerive Blade into 2 Mega Potions
6. Sell Mega Potions for 7500 gil
Ex: mod 50 Mesmerize Blades into 100 Mega Potions sell Mega Potions for 7500
7500 x 100 = 750,000! not bad really

Brad:
I don't know about anyone else.. but I really didn't have a money problem in FF8.. for those of you who did.. well, here ya go...

my friends & I are about to go to war soon, which is why we need the help of the mighty Oracle to help us. We have been fueding constantly for years about the correct pronunciation of Chocobo. I say Cho-ko-boh, he says chuck-a-boo (which makes no sense at all) & every time we ask another one of our friends, it's something different & they join the fight too. So please, for the love of everything holy (which is simply called Squaresoft) clear this up using your mighty oracle powers!

Xenoplague

Brad:
Personally, I pronounce it 'choh-koh-boh'... if that's 'wrong', well, sue me. :P

Thanks for the help...
Dave

Brad:
The thing I keep coming back to when thinking of this, is the fact that you can actually assign characters from your party in FF6 to be controlled by the other controller. I guess that would kinda make it two player. It's just fun for the whole family your buddy grabs a controller, you assign two apiece, and start going after eachother's players. ;)