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In Not As Many Words
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August 7, 2006
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Josh - 10:24 EST
Well, tonight should be the last big night for me as far as writing goes...I have an enormous paper due tomorrow, so let's get this road on the show!
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Dear Q&Aer,
With Xenosaga Episode III just about to round the corner, what do you
think of the non-existant talk about Xenosaga I & II for the DS? It
was out in March in Japan and not a word here. Are we going to get
the shaft or what?
- Macstorm
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Josh
*shrugs*
Considering the track record of some games coming over here, especially things like Suikoden I & II, I really wouldn't hold my breath. I honestly don't really understand the concept of the creation of this game for the DS. I could imagine it maybe years down the road, but Xeonsaga II is only, what, 2 years old? That's hardly a good time for a remake. However, if it only came out in March, then 6 months to a year is pretty standard for a translation. But, I haven't heard -anything- in quite some time, so...I'm thinking next year, if at all. Sorry :(
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Hey Josh and Matt.
What do you guys think of the new starter Pokemon
(http://www.pocketmonsters.net/node/3382)
for Pearl and Diamond?
A Turtle, a monkey and a penguin yay. Though i'm still waiting for some more
Australian pokemon ( See last years letters!) Come on platypus, or kangaroo,
or echidna, or Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian Devil, or wombat or koala, or
bilby or emu, or lyrabird, or posseum, or white/black cockatoo, or dingo
(There's plenty more to choose from but I think you get the point). And the
new improved Contest (Danceing Finally) And improved Physucal and Special
move lists (Fire Fang for a high attacking fire type would be classified as
a physical move).
I am now officially excited about this game.
Lastly I wonder how many people out there can name every pokemon? I start
having problems with some of the rarer ones in Saphire/ruby/emerald!
Bainick hasn't caught them all since Red/Blue times!
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Josh
"I thought I told you to stop making up animals!" (Pat on the back to those who get the reference ^^)
I can probably point out all 250 Pokemon from the Red/Blue games if you showed me their picture (and maybe Gold/Silver), but that's it. I really haven't kept up with the games that came after those, though.
As for the new ones, let's examine the contents.
- Naetle: Ok, we have a turtle that is chocking on a banana. An interesting concept, and my only hope is that I can stick him in the ground and grow a tree out of his head.
- Hikozaru: It's a monkey. With a flaming butt. Words can't describe how many jokes I could possibly make.
- Pochama: A penguin. You'd think he'd be ice type, but he's water type. Watch him dazzle his enemies with cuteness!
- Rozureido: It's a metrosexual plant with flower bouquets for hands. I'm just worried because of the sideburns.
- Erekiburu: A buffer Electabuzz. It looks like a cross between a Yeti and a Tiger, painted Yellow, and stuffed with a Van der Graaf Generator.
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I need to do more homework on this stuff. Oops.
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Rudra no Hihou (Treasure of the Rudras), as mentioned in a letter
yesterday, is a rather obscure SNES RPG by Square whose magic system
consists of putting together syllables to form spells. Contrary to the
letter writer's opinion, not only is it *possible* to make a translation
for this game, a complete one is already done thanks to Gideon Zhi's
famous Aeon Genesis Translation Proclamation.
--Cidolfas
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Josh
I actually got this letter yesterday, but I tried to save some mail for today. But, at the very least, we have some more validation of Gideon Zhi's translation! Thanks for pointing this out, Cid!
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Look at that S Car Go!...never mind.
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Hello!
I heard that Spectral Souls for the PSP had such terrible loading issues as to be virtually unplayable! Say it ain't so? They're going to fix that for the localization, right? RIGHT?
-DwL
PS. DELICIOUS SNAILS! v@
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Josh
Yeah, I've heard the same thing. They may fix it, but I haven't heard any news on the loading other than that it's horrible, rather than any plans by Idea Factory to fix it.
The game sells for an obscenely low amount over in Asia now, so hopefully the dismal sales over there might spurn IF into fixing the moronic loading times. Here's hoping.
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Hey Ouro,
Summed up, good luck on your essays and theses that you're tirelessly working on apparently. One day, I hope to try Rudra's Secret Treasure after reading Gideon's informative letter. In response to your question asked Saturday, since Final Fantasy and Valkrie Profile are already taken, how about Robotrek for the SNES as a possible concept for an MMO game? The story itself seems to go in a cycle if you've seen the beginning and the ending concerning the main character sleeping (probably due as as side effect of handling the Tetron with time travel manipulation side effects), but there is a part of the story where the planet of Choco is fighting against the Hacker fortress. The online plot could have you choose one side or the other becoming either a Choco soldier or a Hacker soldier, and if the robot customization was tweaked to have the same level of customization as a Steambot Trotmobile from Steambot Chronicles, this could lead to an interesting MMORPG. What's your input on this?
Have a good week,
Kevin
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Josh
I'm all for any entry into the MMORPG market that may stray from the norm. That could be a pretty neat idea, and any sort of customization for a robot would be a good idea, although they'd have to work out some balance issues so that people aren't just going for the "uber" items, rather than a setup that uses something strategic to circumvent the enemy's strength. I'm a big fan of games that focus on strategy rather than the power of items. It should be more about how well you play rather than how well you can grind.
Whoa, kinda went off on a tangent there ^^. I'm choosing Choco, however. That's my team. ^^
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Salutations again Josh,
Wow. I never knew my words could prompt such an outpouring of information.
For the record, about 5 years ago when I first investigated all those SNES
RPGs that never became translated I learned a bit about Rudra no Hihou. At
that time any translation issue had yet to be surmounted. Apparently this
has changed since I last seriously investigated the game, and such is
nothing but good for the world. I haven't played it though. Someday....
Okay Bainick, Terranigma's superiority is what I hear from so very many
people who have had the good fortune to play the entire trilogy. But as you
might recall from one of my mammoth letters to Matt (or maybe not, I suppose
skimming happens sometimes), I had a bad experience that cost my much money
in trying to get Terranigma's English translation to work on a non-PAL SNES.
Perhaps I should have just given up and tried an alternate means of
playing it, but I found something else to occupy my time. Then again, I
might have it available to play right now.
Arros Raikou - to you I must give massive kudos. Not only have you been
bringing up Tales of Phantasia (dunno how I forgot that before you wrote in
to Matt about it) but then you have actually played some of the RPG's based
on anime that I mentioned. So I'll create a subsection here where I respond
to the anime/RPGs you raised and then spout off about a few others (sorry
Josh, I know this isn't your area of expertise).
Disgaea is supposed to be good in that it doesn't wander far from the game's
scenarios. Not having played Disgaea, I can't comment except to say that I
read a favorable review of the anime.
Not owning a Sony console I can't comment much on anything made for one,
actually. So no FMA comments here, except to say that the show was really
good.
No idea about .Hack. None whatsoever.
I watched a few episodes of Gundam a long time ago. I didn't really care
for it. So no Gundam products have been viewed by me since, and hence no
games based on Gundam have found me interested.
I did actually hear good things (by the standards of anime-to-RPG, don't get
excited) about the Tenchi Muyo RPG. Certainly there were enough characters
with fun abilities to make a reasonable RPG from the show.
Never heard of the Yu Yu Hakusho title you mentioned. I heard of the
(supposedly horrendous) GBA title a couple years ago, and the
Treasure-developed 4-player fighting game on Genesis. The latter is
supposed to be quite the collectible now.
Yep, every other Sailor Moon game I've seen on Gamefaqs seems to be a
generic beat-em-up or puzzle or fighting game. Too damn bad. For anyone
who only saw that crappy dub, the original show is not that bad and can be
fairly good.
DB and Z... there's a big ol' can of worms I don't feel like opening too far
right now. Suffice to say that DBZ: Legend of the Super Saiyajin was
perfect for a certain time in my life when that was the only anime I could
claim to have seen a large percentage of. And the fighting games, based on
the two I've played, are not bad. This leaves a large number of Japan-only
titles though that probably stayed there for good reason.
Inuyasha did drag on for awhile, but I watched the whole thing. Haven't
played a game because of the aforementioned lack of Sony hardware.
Inuysasha brings me to Rumiko Takahashi and her prior series Ranma 1/2.
Another title I haven't played but have heard mostly postive things about is
the Ranma RPG on SNES. Anybody got a clue here?
Ranma starts with an R and has two syllables, and Trigun has an R and two
syllables - I stink at word association. Anyway, I didn't discover Trigun
until after I had ceased trying to acquire a lot of Super Famicom games.
But have there been any RPG's based on it?
Magic Knight Rayearth keeps up the letter R's presence. I think we're all
familiar with the Saturn title, which I've mentioned to Matt. But what
about the Super Famicom title?
More letter R madness with Naruto! The only Naruto game I played was when a
guy in my dorm imported one of the Gamecube fighters and we beat the crap
out of each other for an afternoon. My understanding is that more than one
RPG exists on the GBA though - can anybody corroborate?
I can't keep up the letter R's association anymore which means it's time to
end the subcategory with Bleach. I like the show quite a bit and want to
know about the quality of its RPG installments in Japan. Anybody have the
information I desire?
Gideon Zhi, the information you provided was not overly verbose. I am
grateful. Although Josh may not be if you have so much to impart unto
readers about all the other titles I'm about to mention....
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Josh
Oh stop it. I'm just messing with you. :P
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Treasure Hunter G. The last Square title on a Nintendo system for many
years. I haven't gotten very far but it's rather interesting.
Bahamut Lagoon. Another complicated one I really could've used an English
translation for. Wait, there probably is one. Maybe I even have it already
- I keep forgetting what ROMs I've dug up. Not like it matters when Dragon
Force 2 isn't finished yet - ahem. Digression finished.
The original Star Ocean. Plenty of commentary on The Second Story and Till
the End of Time on RPGamer, yet what about the inaugural entry of this
series? I must again state my lack of progress on this title, but the
English voiceover at the beginning was pretty good (considering the memory
limitations of SNES - go Enix!) and the combat I got into was fun.
Front Mission on SNES. Haven't paid attention to later entries too much,
but was always curious regarding the initial installments.
FEDA. Yet again I haven't gotten too far. But it's the Super Famicom's
equivalent of Shining Force, and a diehard sucker for Shining Force like me
will definitely finish it one day.
Live A Live. Geez, I bought the cartridge off eBay and haven't even done
more than verify its working status - I went waaaay overboard. I gather
it's told from a variety of perspectives throughout time with everyone
joining together for the final zone(s) though.
Madara 2. I mucked about with this one for perhaps an hour, then I got
womped by something out of nowhere and haven't played it since. Modern-day
RPG the plot of which I couldn't follow at all. Oh, and Konami developed
it. Unusual.
Burning Heroes. Really obscure Enix RPG for the latter-day SNES. I tried
it once, realized I had no idea what I was doing, and gave it up for the
time being. Anybody heard of it?
Dark Half. Another really obscure Enix RPG. Something about fighting a
demon was what I gathered - oooh, the shock! I'm sure someone will
helpfully point out just what I cannot remember regarding the title right
now....
Wachenroeder. Even with all the Saturn RPGs I've bought, this one hasn't
made the cut yet. When it supposedly has Shining Force-ish playing I don't
know what aside from a lack of money and time could have made me not
purchase it - oh wait.
Ugh. For some reason I am very very tired now, and I was when I started
writing so no sarcastic remarks directly relating to the letter length Ouro!
So I bid all adieu.
JuMeSyn
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Josh
Trying...to...resist...making...sarcastic...remarks....AUGH!
Just kidding. Anyway...wow. I've not heard of several of these games, and that disheartens me.
But as for the ones I do...
- Terranigma - Fun, but I never got into it like I did Illusion of Gaia. I still don't really know why.
- Yay! More Tenchi Muyo! Maybe I'll have to go eBay that thing.
- I enjoyed the Sailor Moon TV series, despite it being a female cartoon version of Power Rangers.
- Trigun RPG - Nien. I can't find one, other than some random fan-made ones.
- I heard about the Magic Knight Rayearth title for SNES (am I really that old? Sheesh.), but never got the chance to play it.
- Naruto...I think there's only one right now, I may be wrong, but I think it's Naruto: Uketsugareshi Hi no Ishi.
- I always wanted to play Treasure Hunter G the moment I saw the screenshots, and then grew disappointed when I heard it wasn't coming over here.
- Bahamut Lagoon was pretty fun in my opinion. Didn't understand much, but I figured out the battle system and such pretty easily.
- Star Ocean/Front Mission. Two of my favorite series, but still nothing on that front. Man, SNES really missed out on a lot, eh?
- As for the rest, I've only heard of Live a Live and Burning Heroes, and didn't play either.
You, sir, know entirely too much about obscure RPGs, and my hat is off to you.
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Combat Log
BLG moves 1 space to tile 15.
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For lower resolutions, click here
Presenting...
THE HOPEFULLY OUTSTANDING NEW GAME!
Or, THONG for short. For now, the prizes will be limited to Guest-Hosting opportunities, since this is essentially an experiment. I'm positive that it will turn out well, though! Now, for the setup:
This is the game board. If you ever talk to CactuarJoe, make sure to thank him for the wonderful job he did! Thanks Joe!
If you want to join: Please send me your top 3 choices for characters for your game piece. A list of them that can be used can be found here. Please only choose from the "PARTY" or "NPC" links. Also make sure that the character has a left/right-facing sprite, and a front/back facing sprite. Thanks!
- Everyone begins the game on START.
- For every letter you write in, I will roll a 4-sided die (I'll use RPGamer's resident Random Number Generator, DiceyBot). That will determine how many spaces you move.
- You may only get credit for one letter, per day - max 3 per weekend. Timestamps will be checked, and only letters sent during Friday - Monday before my column will be counted towards that weekend. Letters sent at other times during the week will not count until Saturday.
- Letters must be addressed to me, at either qna@rpgamer.com or ourobolus@rpgamer.com. Letters will get credit even if they are unanswered, or even if Matt answers them.
- If you land on a Spell Tile, you MAY use the spell listed on the Tile (excluding Haste, Slow, Roulette, and Stop). You do not have to, Spells and their effects are listed after the rules.
- The Trivia Tile MUST be landed on before you may enter the FINISH Tile. Answering the trivia question correctly will automatically grant you entry into the FINISH Tile, and you will receive the prize.
- If you reach the Trivia Tile, another reader who is participating in the game will ask you a question. However, the person who lands on the Tile decides WHICH reader asks the question, as well as WHICH RPG from which the question will be asked (e.g. "Wonderslime wants Bainick to ask him a question about Chrono Trigger").
- If the person who provides the question has not played the game, they may use anything necessary to come up with a question. Failure to provide a question over 2 days of my column will result in the same effect as if the receiver answered the question right, and he/she will progress to the FINISH Tile.
- If you are on the Trivia Tile, you are invulnerable until the first question has been completed.
- The Prize for this initial board will be 5 Guest Hosting positions. Once those are completed, a new board will be created, probably with more prizes.
- The effects will go as such. Movement->Spells Cast->Effects. Everyone will move at the same time, all spells will be cast at the same time, and all effects will happen at the same time. Attack spells will be cast at the beginning of the day after they were landed on. Spells are cast only if the character is on the space at the -end- of the day.
Spell effects are as follows:
- Bolt 1: Player chooses another player to push back 1 tile.
- Bolt 2: Player chooses another player to push back 2 tiles.
- Stop: The next time Player sends in a letter, it will take 2 days for the roll to take place.
- Haste: Player receives an extra roll which will make him/her advance 1-3 tiles.
- Slow: Player receives an extra roll which will make him/her retreat 1-3 tiles.
- Merton: Player chooses another player to push back 4 tiles, at the cost of Player moving back 2 tiles. Can only be used twice.
- Roulette: I roll a 20-sided die. Any players standing on that numbered tile are pushed back 2 tiles.
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IN CONCLUSION:
Uh...welcome Matt back tomorrow...I'm going to go...try to write this thing without passing ou....zzzzzzz
***Josh probably typed this before falling asleep.
Blargh.
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