BUCKET Yes, Nintendo SHOULD port V and VI to the GBA. I've played both of them for PSX, and the one thing that really bothers me in VI rather than V is the load time for the battles. (For some reason, I'm OK with the scene transition of the one in V, but VI just rubs me the wrong way.) I've never played Mystic Quest, but it seems like the sort of thing they could port over as well because of the GBA having a reputation of a kiddie console. There's been talk of a new Mana title on the DS, but whether it's a port of a previous Mana title or a whole new title is yet to be determined. Personally, I think that Secret of Mana and Seiken Densetsu 3 are fine just the way they are and should be ported with a minimum of changes, if any. The PSP is still a new system, so if you keep crossing those fingers maybe there'll be some good news in the future. As for the Squeenixto question, all that depends on whether or not they decide that these games would have a chance if they were re-released.

If it has nothing to do with yogurt, then why the hell is it called Yogurting?! Dear Bucket-chan, I never thought I'd see myself actually sending a question in, but well, I hope it helps keep the contest afloat. So, here I go: My first question is more about how the website works than about RPGs, namely: in how far is it possible for us viewers to collaborate with the team's work, for example, by submitting information about RPGs we find out about? For instance, I consider myself more of an mmorpgamer, and tend to keep an eye on the Korean market, where online games are very popular. Even if you do need a Korean passport to play most of these great titles (Mabinogi, Tantra Online, Maple Story, not forgetting Ragnarök Online and Yogurting... oh, Yogurting...) I think they deserve a mention in the website. On your bio you said you'd been playing Maple Story, so I hope you'll get my meaning. At least Korean games keep getting localized in Japan, which I hope increases the possibilities of us getting to play them eventually... BUCKET I am sure that Rage would be more than happy to hear any news from you on the Korean front (I'm assuming you read/speak Korean?) since that's where a lot of MMORPGs are coming from lately. In fact, drop him a line and tell him what you know. I used to send him screenshots for FairyLand a lot when I was getting into the American version of the game, and I know how much he always appreciates them. In fact, I can hear him begging for screenshots from here. Question number two is one of that broader "which is your favorite [insert random category] and why" type of question: Which is your favorite MMORPG and why? I'd say Ragnarök Online in my case, but that's just because it's the first game I played. After quitting I've had trouble finding another game with a similar player-friendly atmosphere. At the moment I'm playing Guild Wars (mainly because you have to pay no fees) and find that it's too combat oriented, the only player interaction is of the "Selling orange dye!"/"Who wants to do the cooperative mission?" type, as support-oriented monk I miss being able to heal non-party-members if I found anyone in trouble (although the game does a great job of keeping my hands full just trying to keep my party alive xD). BUCKET Right now I'd have to say my favorite MMORPG is a tie between FairyLand and MapleStory. FairyLand gave you an opportunity to do so much, like make your own weapons, armor, and potions. The battles were turn-based like in Final Fantasy, with plenty of random encounters. I was also impressed by the friendliness of the players. MapleStory, on the other hand, has TONS of action, the party and fighting systems are radically different, people can be real idiots and there's hardly any time to catch a breath between battles. You pay to play FairyLand. MapleStory is free. Guess which one I play? Anyway, I'm hunting for a fun, original, player-interaction based game, I think the Korean Yogurting may be the answer: playing as a cute school-boy in a gakuen-gone-crazy anime environment (the jungle in the conservatory, the haunted library, the brain-washed-student filled corridors) might just be "it" for me (you even get to choose your character's blood-type! the introductory video alone was enough to get me into anime fanboy overdrive xD). BUCKET For those not in the know: the Japanese word "gakuen" translates to "private school" or "academy." And boy, does this game sound interesting. If you can read Korean, check out their homepage. And finally a game-related question: I've been following the .hack saga for quite a while, played all the games, watched the anime, etc, and now it seems they're finally bringing an online version of "The World" (I like to pronounce it in the creepy Japanese way: Za Wa-do). But even if I should be happy that the saga is going to be continued, the fact that it has taken them so short to bring out a new sequel makes me suspicious, should we expect a FFX-2 kind of game, meaning, one made with 90% recycled material? Because the gameplay of the PS2 games was kind of... simple (the fact that I, with my "legendary" hand-eye coordination, managed to beat all four of them with their "action RPG battle system" is proof enough), and I doubt a menu-based spell system is compatible with real-time battles. Anyway, I checked the new website out and it somehow seems they have left Mistral out of the game (she was my favorite character *sigh*) and replaced her with Syugo and Rena from the manga (which I hated; I usually tend to like cuteness for cuteness's sake, but "Legend of the Twilight" went a bit too far when it comes to lacking a plot and still pretending there's one). Hmm, long e-mail *check*, questions *check*, mindless rambling *check*, that's about it, right? ^_^ Lots of luck in the contest, I'll keep voting for you, Bucket (the repeated references to Clamp did it for me), even if you don't make it to the next week, be sure I'll keep clicking on the blank space where your name should be until my vote gets counted somehow! Hugs, Angelic Monkey

BUCKET I have to admit that the .hack series is not one of my areas of expertise even though I'm a major anime fan and all. Then again, Bandai could only be releasing the online .hack game due to the influence of a major Western fanbase, while back in the East the .hack phenomenon is all but a distant memory with the last game and OAVs released way back in early 2003. I'm sure that they'll be pulling new material out of their hats especially if they want to make an online game because those constantly change.

I'm not sure "tech support" was in the job description but here we go... Is it possible to play Might & Magic 6 on an XP? I have tried a lot of things. I have NvidiaGeForce2 and my autorun feature won't load up my CD of the game on my XP. I have tried changing the 32 bit to 16 bit, checked my CD drive if working properly and tried to slow down my computer, BUT NOTHING. I know this a longshot, but can anybody help me there (as seeing that 3DO is out of business...!) or has anyone experienced the same phenomena? It works on an Me operating system, but not XP. What if I used a slower, older driver (my current driver is 7.1.8.9 which seems to be the latest one for XP)?  But if I use a slower driver, will it be compatible with an XP Professional. I appreciate any help you can give, or if you cannot, can you point me to somebody else who can? Thanks a bunch for your time. Thank you. Sincerely, the "green" one, lostmartian/searchosaurus .

BUCKET Things I'd suggest trying: 1. Click Start - Help and Support. Click on "Find Compatible Hardware and Software for XP," click on "See Also" and then click on the Program Compatibility Wizard. 2. Pull up the icon, right click and select "Properties," click the Compatibility tab and change the settings there (M&M must be installed on your hard drive for this to work; otherwise you'll have to do this every time you've got the CD in.) 3. Have you tried doing the install directly from the CD-ROM? 4. Have you tried Google? (The search engine, NOT the slime.) If this doesn't work, then there's nothing more I can think of for the moment as I haven't really had this problem. Perhaps someone else could come up with something.

"Wow, an LTWFTW."--Strong Bad To the Q&A Contestant (hopefully Bucket) The threat by Z-Force has me on the fritz so I thought this might as well be a good opportunity to send my first letter to RPGamer Q&A. I've been reading those Q&As for a few years now and they are still great as ever. Especially with the contest, you can see the different personalities of contestants trying to vie for the championship spot. Okay, now onto the question. What is your favorite anime that was turned into a game, or maybe the other way around? I'm going with FMA because it was interesting, and FMA2 came with those two bonus episodes that was a great plus. As for what Z-Force said about a Xenosaga anime, there is one. I'm not that sure about the successfulness though (my info was from Newtype Mags). Thanks for hearing me out! o.^; -Kezja

BUCKET Heh, guess you really like your hair then. ^^ Thanks for the little nudge to the writers, Z-kun. It's not anime, and it's not an RPG, but for the game-to-TV show side, I was a big fan of Earthworm Jim when it ran on Kids' WB back when I was in grammar school. On the TV show-to-game front, when I was in Japan I discovered an interesting version of Bust-A-Move, one of my favorite puzzle games ever, with the Azumanga Daioh characters. The Xenosaga anime was 12 episodes long and it has yet to be licensed in America. Here's a link to their page on Anime News Network.

While waxing nostalgic and waxing poetic are great, waxing anything else is rather painful. To whoever gets this: Ever play Warsong? Not many people have, I find. A tactical rpg gem for the Genesis, it was and is (so far) the only game in the long-running Langrisser series to make it to our fair shores. I played it when I was like 10, and absolutely loved it. Who knew that little men charging at each other could be so fun? And the music! Ye Gods, the music.../em waxes nostalgic... BUCKET I was still rather young when the Genesis came out, so I didn't really care about the system except for the fact that it had Sonic the Hedgehog and the better Aladdin game on it. Also, I don't think nearly enough people have played Arc the Lad II. The Working Designs remake should be ranked up there with Crono Trigger, FFVI, and the rest of the rpg "canon" of games-everyone-should-play-before-they-die, but it isn't. The game's an absolute classic, from start to finish, and nobody cares. Though recent Arc games have been subpar, Arc II heralds back to the golden days of the SNES, which may not sound like a ringing endorsement for a Playstation game, even though in this case it is. So my question to you is: Why? Arc II (although you almost have to couple it with Arc I for storyline purposes) is nearly perfect, in my insignificant opinion. Why doesn't it get mentioned in the same breath as those mighty games of yore? Did it simply not reach enough of the gaming populace? Or am I just giving it too much credit? And while I'm here, one last question. What rpg series do you think have been corrupted the most by sequels? The Arc games took a slight downturn with Twilight of the Spirits and then completely lost the plot with End of Darkness. Suikoden IV is a damn shame. And I believe there is a special place in Hell reserved for the people responsible for what is happening to Shining Force. Any others? Maybe I just answered my own question. Thanks, Chris Belt

BUCKET None of the Arc the Lad games before the PS2 games never got a wide release, as they were only released in a set that was fairly expensive in and of itself for the time, which is probably why you've got those complaints about why so many people haven't played it. (The set itself, you can't even find lately. Last I saw it, it was $45 or so, USED.) As much as I want to say "cross your fingers for a GBA port" even that sounds unlikely. Personally I think that even with all its great games, the Final Fantasy series has really cheapened itself over the years and is more about "ooh, sparkly" than "ooh, plot twist." I guess we really need to re-introduce the Tidus and Yuna fans to Cecil, Rosa, Bartz, Locke, Terra and whoever else I can think of at the moment.

"For the revolution of the world!" Dear Matt BUCKET, According to this link http://planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=6516 Nintendo is indeed going to release a controller expansion that is shaped like a conventional controller and works by plugging the main controller into it. This makes it so that motion sensor control will be optional for those developers who prefer not to use it. This should be reassuring to people who are worried that the Revolution won't be able to play multiplatform games, or people (like me) who are itching to download and play classic NES and SNES games. The interesting part is that when the main controller is plugged into this expansion, the motion sensor is still active, so it's possible that you can play a game conventionally and have motion sensor at the same time. So not only can the Revolution play multiplatform games, but Revolution versions of multiplatform games have the potential to have extra features than their Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. But while I can see how this controller can revolutionize the first-person shooter and puzzle genres, I'm not sure what it can do for RPG's. My prediction is that most Revolution RPG's will use the motion sensor capabilities for minigames and puzzle solving, kind of like how some DS games use the touch screen solely for minigames or puzzle solving. That is, unless it is a first-person RPG like Elder Scrolls, and especially Deus Ex. Anyway, here's my question. Nintendo has had their controller innovations stolen from them before (control stick and rumble pak anyone?), even when they have them patented. Do you think this will happen again, if not in the next generation, then maybe in the future? Alan

BUCKET The link sure looks interesting, only I wish they included a picture of said standard controller, considering all we've seen is a joystick much like the analog sticks on the PS controllers. Still, I hope something like that is still in development. However, they do say that if you turn the controller 90 degrees you get something that's vaguely the shape of an original NES controller, so I guess this plug-in enhancement includes all those other fancy buttons you need 57 fingers to use effectively (seems that way for me sometimes.) Personally, I'm a bit wary as there are sometimes problems with wireless controllers and interference, and what's gonna happen when the batteries run down? "Why isn't Mario jumping...oh CRAP..." This new controller design is a revolutionary (pun intended folks) first for the Nintendo, and I'm surprised that no one has jumped on the bandwagon yet, so it's up to the future to see what's in store for new innovations.

Short and...bittersweet. Hey I was wondering if there has been any news about lunar 3 lately? and also Is Lunar dragon song a good game to buy or should I save my money?

BUCKET From my understanding, Lunar: DS may just BE Lunar 3. As for a recommendation from your friendly neighborhood Bucket, I'll direct you to RPGamer's official preview which makes Lunar: DS sound so good it might even win over this Lunar-phobe. (Don't ask.  Please.)

C L O S I N G

Riding off into the sunset. Anyways, as for my topic for tomorrow, I'd like to enquire as to the weird habits of readers when playing RPG's or other video games--like little superstitions or rituals. The weirder, the better. For example, when I was little, I had this blue plastic heart-shaped bangle that I had to wear every time I played or I'd have bad luck forever. Now that I'm older, I must play FF7 when no one else is in the house, for the sole reason of avoiding questions ("Is there violence in this game? What about murder and...") from my mom. And so on, and so on. If it sounds weird to you, then it probably is. If it sounds normal to you, write in, use a pseudonym if you're shy, and tell me. Auntie Bucket will listen. With that, let's trade these issues for some tissues. Gokigenyou. Please don't get very close to Rebecca Rudeen as she still may be contagious. Send a Question Time to get hopped up on Robitussin.

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