Today's Q&A was one of light heartedness, thanks to in no small part Rodman's cute face. Yes that was indeed sarcasm. I know many here are fanatic basketball fans, and some even Rodman fans. I assure you I don't hate the guy, but come on...Someone who dresses up in a ladies wedding dress is short a few screws. Thus a nice target for levity. In any event let's get the show on the road and see what the readers had to say today.

JD:
None. They were all too easy, other than the Weapons of course.

2) Lunar: SSSC seems to me more of a love story(a man saving his woman) than the "Saving the world" thing for some reason. I mean, you don't seem to know what you're saving the world from till the end, but the characters have their assumptions of what they are fighting. Am I wrong, or do I seem to have a point here?

It's a mix of both, certainly, however I would tend to call it a Love Story if anything else.

3) Having beaten Lunar 6 times, I thought I had seen all in the game, but when I listen to the soundtrack, there's music I can't recognize. Have I not been paying attention to the game? Lastly, though not a question, in response to Christina Aguilera's comment, WE'RE NOT FAT NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Luis the LUNARTIC

Yes, many of the Soundtrack CD songs came from the incredible Redbook Sega CD version. Some of the songs are also remixes from Lunar Lunatic Festa Vol 1-3. Bad remixes too, sad to say. The Lunar Lunatic Festa album had some incredible music, the orchestra quality is unmistakably incredible.

I also want to clear up the confusion about the Christina Aguilera letter. I hope you all don't think that letter was seriously from her? Some of the readers are in that line of thought...

Hello JD,
I have a couple quick musings and a question regarding some recent letters/goings-on in the column.
1) Someone was wondering if the main character in Final Fantasy IX would be named Flame or some other fire-related name, since we've previously had Terra, Cloud, and Squall. S/he forgot that the main character of Final Fantasy V was named Butz, possibly as in Cigarette Butz. (I know, I know, it was a bad pun)

JD:
I'm assuming you aren't a comedian? :D

2) First Thor had Teri Hatcher, now you have Christina Aguilera. If Thor came back, would we have a section for Teri & Christina pictures of the week? ;-)

No, whatever is Thor's will be in Thor's, whatever is in mine will remain in mine. You horny guys, won't get two pictures a day.

3) There's been a lot of talk about the Y's series recently, and I've never played any of the Y's games. With all of your praise for them, I'm considering hunting them down on eBay once I complete some other games. Mostly they've been mentioned under Turbo Duo, but I thought a few of them were also released for the NES or SNES. Are those ports not as good as the originals or something? I'd like to try one to see if I like it, and it would be nice to not buy a new system to do it. Also, "Y's" is pronounced like the word "ease", right? Well, I'm going to play some more FF7 now (I'm also replaying it from the beginning). Wedge and Biggs just died, but what else is new? ;-)

-TheWhiz

There were two YS games for SNES, YS 3 and 5. The YS 3 version sucked, but YS 5 is quite good. And yes, YS is pronounced ease.

I was a big fan of the phantasy star games on the sega genesis, and I remember hearing something about another game called phantasy earth (taking place after number PS4.) I heard it was going to the saturn, than playstation and i have heard nothing since, is this true or just another rumor getting my hopes up for nothing?

JD:
If my memory serves me right the rumor of something also about NEO Phantasy Star surfaced, back in the day. Sadly like most rumors nothing ever surfaced. While we are on the subject, the rumors in the last 5 months about a new Phantasy Star for the Dreamcast is probably the most credible. I don't hold much stock in rumors, however this seems to be the right time for a new Phantasy Star. Sega is going all out with Dreamcast and this could be their big chance. I don't know about you but I'll be watching how anything on the PS rumor front develops.

Hey JD,

I read in your column that there's gonna be a VG music category in the 2000 Grammy's, and just as you said, perhaps they are finally accepting the greatness of VG music. Could this be somehow related to the rumor that Uematsu may be replaced by Sakamoto. Sakamoto can be considered world famous, since one of his works, "The Last Emperor" is world famous. Perhaps this move (or at least the mere fact that Square is considering using Sakamoto's music) turned the heads of the "Grammy's commision" and are thinking, "Wow! Sakamoto himself may be writing VG music, we ought to start taking VG music seriously!"

But more importantly, I am curious as to how they will rate VG music. (Perhaps the sender of the letter with the original announcement may help by giving us a URL as to where he read about the VG music category being added to the 2000 Grammy's) Will they rate strictly BGM music... or will they rate remixes as well. For example, the Matouya Cave theme has many incarnations as it has been remixed not only by Uematsu himself, but by others as well, with some better than others. Will they be rating only the theme (the one line of melody), or the original BGM as it appeard on the original sound version, or will they be considering remixed and arranged versions as well. Anyways, that is just some food for thought for all of you!

-David

JD:
It's certainly going to be interesting to see, but frankly I haven't really paid attention to it. I'll think about it for some months and get back to ya all.

First off, the symbol doesn't mean "rebirth". It is the ancient symbol for "Journey" also translatable into "Life". However, that is only the Celtic translation. Different cultures have different meanings attributed to "Little Spirally Thingees™" I think they just put it in because all the other Weird Symbol Thingeesú are already copyrighted By The Artist Formerly Known As Prince ;)

-Shadow "Print this letter or I'll turn you into Bernie Stolar" Bane

JD:
I believe I read what it means long time ago...I'll see if I can find it. Then again maybe it means nothing at all, other than an aesthetic design.

JD,

I feel I must comment on what you said about rednecks. I live in East Tennessee. There is indeed a large concentration of rednecks here. Having lived here for some time, I have gained some experience in redneck behavioral patterns. This can all be summed up fairly easily. If it is small and furry, they blast it. If it is big and ugly, they blast it. If it looks different, they blast it. If they don't understand it, they blast it. There is, however, an exception. If it looks like their spouse, they usually divorce it... Rednecks are not easy to manipulate and pound into submission. They would probably blast it first.

-Rossbob

JD:
You make them sound stupid? ;)

Hey, ummm, JD?
If you EVER put a picture of Dennis Rodman on your page again, I will come after you and will send you to El Salvador, where you will be publically executed by means of a drunken lynch mob. Have a nice day!!

-Andrew, the inflatable monkey

JD:
Come on, from reader reply, people say my magic wonders make him look better. And the president of EL Salvador is a friend of mine, Q&A hosts have perks. He'd probably give me a commendation of honor.

A log? COOL!

Oh, and Rodman looks better like that than in real life.

-Gideon "I still have the heart of a little boy... in a jar on my desk." -- Stephen King

JD:
I agree.

You know that picture of Dennis Rodman you posted looks a lot like that big guy from "The Goonies," don't you? Dangit, I feel old for remembering that...

-Wolfie :)

JD:
HAHA, yeah. Carmen Electra just sent me an email thanking me for my face fixing wizardry.

here's a song for you
what goes down stairs, go rolling in pairs, runs over the neighbors dog.
whats light and puffy, feels like a stuffy, it's MOG MOG MOG
it's white and fluffy like snow.
it's mog mog
what it says is kupo
everyone wants a mog, your gonna want a mog everyone needs a mog
mog from square
Imperial mog- i also wrote the hot dog song a while back (note i hate capital letters or punctuation marks if you ask)
Post this or i will turn you into richard simmons

JD:
You're creative if not bordering the "too much free time on his/her hands person."