I've been reading the previews of Star Wars Galaxies on RPGamer, but I somehow missed the article about the 4th race

-- other than humans, wookiees, the Greedo thing, and mon calamari -- and the link to the article is broken.

So, please tell me what the other race is!

GLAADUK,

Trink

Cheshire Catalyst:
Here's the straight skinny on the race issue in Star Wars Galaxies.

Humans,(Which is odd, considering Earth is nowhere near the Star Wars setting) Wookies, (Such as Chewbacca, native of the planet Kashyyyk) Rodians,(such as Greedo. Famous for the scene in Star Wars 4 where he tries to shake down Han Solo for some cash that he owes Jabba the Hutt) Twi'lek, (The guys with two tendrils on their heads. The most famous ones are Jabba's Aide de Campe, and Oola Tarkona (the dancing slave-girl who was thrown to the rancor) and the Mon Calamari (such as Admiral Ackbar)

They plan on "unveiling" three more races. They'll probably be picked among Ewoks, Gamorreans (the pigmen in Jabba's palace), Ithorians (large hammer-headed guys.), Sullustians (like Lando Calrissian's co-pilot in "Return of the Jedi"), Droids, or a demi-human species of some sort.

Now I will surrender my lunch money to the next person who walks by.

I suppose I should send this tuesday when you never have any letters, but I'm not.

Anyways the 'question': I took issue with Jason's comment on Friday that FF8 is a good game and people only hate it because it's different. There are plenty of reasons that have nothing to do with the game being new and different that when taken together make it a poor game. (I realize the following sample of such reasons has been talked about before and you may not want to print them, but I feel compelled to back up my statement with a few examples, nonetheless.)

-The plot is really terrible. The whole Ultimecia thing just seems tacked on. Who is she? Why does she want to destroy the world? She's probably the worst FF villian ever (except maybe Exdeath in FF5) Plus there are numerous deus ex machinas such as "Wow, we just realized we all grew up together. I wonder why we never realized this before. Umm... GF make us forget things! that's it!" GF causing forgetfullness is otherwise mentioned only once in passing through the entire game. Oh, and of course: How do you survive all time being mangled and crushed into the same space? Thoughts of love and friendship! Warm and fuzzy, yeah, but come ON! Couldn't the writers be ANY more creative?

-The cast is pretty uninteresting. They're ALL about the same age, they're all orphans, they all have the same occuptation, and all that makes them different are their token personalities. They tried to develop Squall more, but each time you peel away a layer, you find a new layer underneath that looks exactly the same. -The game itself lacks alot. There are very few places to go, and a VERY small variety of monsters to fight. (they instead have old monsters level-up to become more powerful) Plus there are many places with clunky mechanics (such as the overworld map. The view cone depicted there is NOT what you actually see. I don't know about most people, but it gave me alot of problems.) The only reason it's a lengthy game is watching FMV and GF's attack, and finding obscure items to make your weapons. Maybe these things aren't a big deal to some people, and if you can enjoy it despite them, more power to you. (It means that unlike me, you didn't waste your money. That is a good thing.) I'm not trying to make anyone hate FF8, I'm simply pointing out that claiming people only hate FF8 because it's new and different is an unjust simplization.

-The Man from Ganymede

Cheshire Catalyst:
The man from Ganymede makes some important points. Actually, a lot of Final Fantasy final bosses scream tacked on. In the original, we don't hear anything about Chaos until the verrry end. The same with Zemus, though he wasn't as bad. At least we knew about the Lunarians before he made his appearance. FF6 and FF7's final bosses, on the other hand, could be seen coming from a mile away. We knew Kefka was seriously unhinged the first time we met him, and chasing Sephiroth's black-caped butt around was the entire point of Disc One of FF7. Can we find a happy medium? Hopefully.

I also thought that the characters in FF8 were a little stale, and the levelling up monsters was simply depressing. Lengthy FMV can be a pain in the buttocks too. One of my issues with FF8 was that there wasn't much exploring to do. I thought FF9 made up for this nicely with the Chocographs.

Agree? Disagree? Well, send it in. You don't need me to tell you that, though.

All right , here's my problem.

I have about five unfinished RPG's right now. The first one I stopped playing (for a reason i forget, because i did like the game) was Final Fantasy 8 about a year ago. I'm on the last CD for that one. Then there was Legend of Dragoon which was probably the reason why I stopped playing Final Fantasy 8. I stopped playing LOD in the summer when Chrono Cross came out. Then I played CC all the way up to this christmas until I got FF9. I stopped playing CC because something was wrong with the disc, but i recently got that fixed. I am almost on the second disc for that one. Now I stopped playing FF9 (which I am currently on the last disc) to play Suikoden. I am enjoying the game right now but i feel REALLY guilty for leaving those games behind. I am ashamed! What game should I finish first (FF8, FF9, CC, LOD or Suikoden). And I need some advice on how to stay with one game!

Thanks Lyle the RPCanadian

Cheshire Catalyst:

How to stay with one game? Try not buying any new RPGs until you finish the ones you have. To answer your question, I'd say polish off Chrono Cross first. Then Final Fantasy Nine. Two very, very sweet games.

Hey, Google!

I bought FFtactics for $12 in a new/used game store. It's one of my top three favorite games.

Question: In Skies of Arcadia, I am having a hard time even FINDING my next destination...am I just dumb or what?? The in-game map is no help, and the random battles every 3.5 seconds don't help, either. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but this is a great game, apart from the fact that I get hopelessly lost every time I go anywhere in my ship.

Please HELP!

Mott the Moogle

Cheshire Catalyst:

Good deal on FFT.

Skies can be a little tricky at first. The buttload of random battles does not help the situation. Remember to use the L & R triggers to dive and ascend. After coming out of a random battle, don't get disoriented. Keep your eyes on your location (pressing Start to access the map helps) and you should do fine. While you fly, click "A". You might find some discoveries.

Is it just me or is it that everytime you win a battle in Final Fantasy IX and they show Zidane up close and personal if you look at his belt it kinda looks like something else. You'll know what I mean if you check it out.

FFT Sucks

-Shep

Im the smart one.

Zanji -- "Avoiding Homework."

"You know? When you have Winamp on, and suddenly one of your funky Japanese Mp3's starts blasting, you get a little self-consious"

I know exactly what you mean. I scared my parents will say something. I mean I'M BLACK!!! I'm not exactly normal am I? Anyway, the question:

1) Is Quina an optional character in ff9?

Thanx p.s. Did you finish the Longest Journey? I didn't...

gman78

Quina is semi-optional. You can play through the entire game without getting him, but she's really easy to get. Just stop by Qu's Marsh.

Also, the whole race issue is a touchy thing even today. All I can say is don't allow people's opinions of how people of your race, religion, or gender should act influence YOUR actions. You can't change people's prejudices about you, so dont' worry about it. Just be yourself.

Ok. I have a couple of questions.

1. First off... what was your favorite Final Fantasy game. Alot of people say Final Fantasy 3 (snes) but i though it wasn't even that great. I think Final Fantasy 2 (snes) was definately the best.

2. Second... where would I be able to find a copy of Final Fantasy 2 for the super nintendo... you know until they remake it for PS2.

3. Third... you know how in Final Fantasy X its supposed to be like from Asian backround or whatever? Does that mean that this game won't have its own world like Gaia (FF9), or will it be like our own "real" world?

4. Finally... when do you think PS2 will be selling in stored on a "regular" basis and when will the price go down? I wanted to play Summoner while its still "fresh", but I can't find a PS2 anywhere.

1.) Final Fantasy IV laid a lot of groundwork for the RPGenre. Many of the game's elements of storytelling, character types, battle system, were used over and over in future games. FFIV is cliche NOW, but it was cutting edge way back in 1992. (Blarg! That's like ten years ago. I'm getting old...) Oh, and I like FFVI best.

2.) Sorry, but I think that only FF7 through 9 are being remade for PS2. You can try someplace like Funcoland or eBay. Good luck finding that cartridge, though. She's popular.

3.) FFX will most likely take place in its own world. I doubt that the game would take place on modern-day earth considering that the game is full of magic and summoned monsters.

4.) God alone knows. Sony is staffed by sadistic, evil monkeys. It should be noted that the manufacturing plant for the PS2's consists of Rouji Okinawa-san's garage in Osaka, Japan. There, he and his nearsighted wife assemble PlayStation 2's at the rate of one console per eon.

The Last Laugh:

Ugh. I'm trying to get used to this new HTML editor. My roommate asks "Why not do Raw HTML?" I am neither stupid, nor a masochist. I need pretty icons to speed up my coding process.

Tomorrow, RPGamer celebrates its 3rd birthday! Hooray! This weekend, send me fanart, pictures, or whatever celebrating RPGamer's 3rd birthday. I'll post the ones that make me tingle the hardest.