Matt Demers - 17:41 EST

WELL, IT WAS JUST about as hot as they said it would get, but I lived with it and I'm stronger because of it. I got a bit of a sunburn when I ventured out to go on a quest to [the bank in the west], but I lived to tell the tale.

Tomorrow, I leave on a much bigger quest! So you'd better enjoy this column while it lasts.

Greetings, Matt. Oliver checking in once again. I wish I could muster up the inspiration for a weekly letter, but sometimes I just go through a dry spell. Today, however, I think I have more than enough to justify a write-in.

Most pressing subject first. What are your thoughts on this recently announced downsizing of the E3 convention? (If you haven't heard about it, head to GameSpot). From what I can gather, this is gonna be one hell of an overhaul; the intent is to make it less of a "circus", if you will, and more about the industry and industry representatives. They're making it more intimate, more compact, and easier for developers to get their messages across. Personally, I think that this could be good for the industry. I would say that E3 has, in previous years, moved a little too much towards the gimmicky side in a lot of areas. More about appearance and style, and less about game developers displaying their latest work. If anyone disagrees with me, I have two words for them: Booth babes. (Appealing to the lowest common denominator in mankind.) So I, for one, am glad about the downsizing. Besides, it seems to me that the game developers themselves are pushing for this. So what do you think Matt? You're a lot more knowledgable on E3 than I am, considering you've had the privelege of attending the show.

Okay, here's some RPG talk. Wanna know the most aggravating problem I have with most RPG's? Unequal levelling. Characters who are forced out of your party for long amounts of time, and gain no experience in the meantime. Final Fantasy IX is a huge offender in this area, especially early in the game. Another thing that has always bugged me is the fact that if a character dies in battle, he receives no XP whatsoever. However, characters who weren't even in the party at the time are still awarded at least 50 percent, if not 100. How much sense does that make? Jeeze....

I guess I brought that up because I'm currently playing FFIX for the first time. (Yes, yes, I know. Give me a break; I've only been a fan of the series for three or four years now.) I'm on disc 3, and for the most part I am loving it so far. The difficulty in battles has definitely been increased since number eight, for which I am glad, but the complexity of the skill system has been dramatically reduced, which I am not too happy about. I am really enjoying the story, even though the fantasy setting is quite a break from the norm. So, Matt; give me one of your trademarked mini-reviews. (Just don't spoil anything past the second visit to the Black Mage Village).

Oh, by the way, your positive rantings on Fire Emblem convinced me to pick up the sacred stones. Good stuff, I have to say. It's the first tactical RPG I've ever seriously played. (I've goofed around with some of Nippon Ichi's stuff in the past, but never owned any of it.) I'm enjoying it, though. I'm on chapter five and have yet to restart a chapter....but I'm mortally afraid of losing someone.

Something interesting I've noticed is that me and my two younger brothers always end up using the exact same party in RPG's. Just to satisfy my curiosity, what party members did you stick with for FFVI-IX? To make it clearer, which party did you take to the final boss? Here's mine:

FFVI: Edgar, Terra, Celes, Cyan
FFVII: Cloud, Tifa, Vincent
FFVIII: Squall, Rinoa, Irvine
FFIX (so far) Zidane, Vivi, Dagger, Steiner

Interesting subject, but seriously, I have no idea why FFX didn't spark a revolution with the ability to switch members in and out with the tap of a button. I mean, come on...such a simple feature, yet so incredibly useful. And yet, RPG developers haven't taken the hint.

Hey, go to GameBrink to read a great review for Xenosaga Episode III. Very positive. Also, GameFAQS has a few. One brings up an interesting subject. It says that in order to make a T rating in North America, it will definitely have to be censored. What are your thoughts on censorship? I'd buy it if it was M-rated, personally.

Oh, and while you're at GameFAQS, check out the poll they have going. They've had that Best Series Ever competion going on for a while, and it's finally come down to The Legend of Zelda Vs. Final Fantasy. Wow, that's one heck of a fight. Hard for me to decide, but I think if I had to, I'd cast my vote for Zelda.

Hmmm.....I've never taken the plunge into SOCK. I have a hard time retaining knowledge, and most of the questions go way over my head. But with all those attractive prizes....jeeze, it's starting to get tempting. What say I did play, an amassed enough points for a co-host spot? How would that work? You see, I have dial-up, and if I was required to upload anything huge, or do anything that would require a fast connection, I'd be sunk. *curses his dial-up connection*

Thanks for your time.

Oliver.
P.S, happy half-birthday.

Thank you for the great letter, Oliver! And thanks for the half-birthday wishes. I never did get a cake, but I ate a whole lot of crap over the weekend anyway; my mom is otherworldly in the kitchen, so I always return to Guelph about five pounds heavier!

Matt, Looking back through all of the RPGs that you've ever played, are there any that you truly regret playing? I can look back at games that I bought and regretted buying them, Beyond the Beyond is the most vivid for me, but I got rid of it pretty quickly. Also, are there any games that you wanted to buy, but put off and never could find them or find them affordably again? Sir Macstorm

Hey, Mac!

No, I think. I don't really regret playing any of the games I've ever played, because even the ones that have been unpleasant have increased my knowledge of the RPG world a little bit. It takes bad games to really appreciate great games, and besides, "better than average" wouldn't even exist, statistically, if there were no games worse than average!

I think that by and large, most games, no matter how bad, have provided at least some small inspiring thing to me as a take-home treat; perhaps some unique gameplay element that caught my eye, or a plot detail that happened to be interesting. I don't believe I've ever played a game where there hasn't been something positive to say about at least one thing.

To answer your second question, not really, no. I got really lucky when it came to Dragon Warrior IV; I finally received it on my birthday in 1995 after my mom discovered it on sale at a video store for far less than it should have been worth. It was worth the world to me at the time, and it still is.

I almost missed the boat on Disgaea; my mom had to order it specially online somehow well after it was released, since she got it for me as a Christmas present two years after its initial release, long after the title first disappeared off store shelves, yet before its reappearance soon thereafter. Other than that, I can't really think of anything. Most of the titles I WANT to own, I own, and others, like Earthbound, I'll hopefully get the chance to play cheaply through Nintendo's Virtual Console in the near future. I'm so excited about that Wii feature... I really hope it doesn't disappoint when it actually sees the light of day.

Thanks for the letter!

What RPG could have been great if they included/excluded that certain something that makes/breaks a game.

Bainick must HURRY

Recently? Wild Arms Alter Code: F. It was done in by its horrifying and amateurish translation, as far as I'm concerned. The game might have felt at least average, and perhaps better, if it hadn't been bogged down by it. When I played it, though, I felt that I could hardly take the characters seriously; Jack was stupidly and unreasonably brash, Cecilia was overly and irritatingly emotional all the time, and Rudy- one third of the cast, for all intents and purposes- was a mute. Not a good plan. The villains ended up feeling just silly, simply put, with lines like "Muahahaha they will never escape this prison! And even if they do escape their going to get taken care of by the guard. The plan is foolproof!" Spelling mistakes everywhere, and idiotic scripting make for a rather unpolished experience, and while that wasn't the only shortcoming of ACF, it was the dealbreaker, at least for me.

Thanks for writing in again, Bainick!

Hi Matt!

Some cool news I read over at http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=6656.

Apparantly, Victor Ireland is creating a new videogame company called Gaijinworks! In case you don't remember, he's the director of the demised Working Designs. I tell you, however much I love FFs, I cared more for them closing down than if it were Squeenix. That company really knew how to treat gamers (with the exception of release dates, but that was OK considering what we got in return).

I loved both Lunar games and Vanguard Bandits was pretty cool too. And come on, adding a punching puppet to preorders? That was just too cool.

They're saying they won't be limited to just Sony consoles now (is anyone these days?), but they're still going to bring Japanese games to English format. These days we get even pretty eccentric RPGs (for example, Nippon Ichi stuff), so do we still need such a company? I think so. Not only the more RPGs the merrier, they really did an exceptional job with their games. What are your thoughts?

Zohar

Zohar, this is really heartening news for the lot of us who have been hurt by the loss of Working Designs! I think that we should remain cautiously optimistic until we start seeing some announcements from the company on projects, but perhaps they'll come soon. It'll be interesting to see if Gaijinworks again keeps the emphasis in the same place, leather-bound instruction manuals and all! Hopefully, this guy will take his experiences of the past and the knowledge he's gained to create a successful successor to the great Working Designs! For now, we can only wait.

Thanks for sending in the link. Many people will be very happy to hear this!

In one of the letter titles in yesterday's column, you mentioned Dairy Queen. Now, I take a brief trip to Canada every year, since I have relatives who live up there. I've also visited various Dairy Queens while in Canada, and I've got to ask: what's going on with the gravy thing? If I order a chicken strip basket, they want to give me a container of gravy as well, despite the fact that gravy is disgusting. At first I thought, "well, maybe people like gravy on their chicken or something, I dunno." But it didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't the chicken... it was the french fries that came with the chicken. Seems that basically every fast-food restaurant on Canada has decided that french fries have to be served with gravy, which makes no sense to me, because as I stated previously, gravy is disgusting. Not to mention that I'm fairly certainputting gravy on french fries violates several international regulations. So come clean... is the gravy issue just a legacy holdover of bad british tastes, or is it part of The Top Secret Canadian Conspiracy To Like, Totally Take Over The World, Eh? Just wondering.

- DDX

Ohoho, yes. Gravy is our ultimate plan of attack! In fact, we have gravy missiles with mid-range capabilities, and while we haven't launched any to this point, you never know what will push us to the edge! Beware.

In reality, YES, gravy is a popular choice to top fries here with as an alternative to ketchup or vinegar. I know other people from other countries that find the idea offensive too, but I often wonder why. People put gravy on other forms of potatoes... why not french fries? And yeah, often times, the fast-food "gravy" is highly suspicious... I usually order it only if I'm at a sit-down restaurant and I'm feeling... gravirrific.

Besides, I could argue the same about every time I've ever gone south of the border! Americans seem to be really big on slathering biscuits with gravy. Yes, these random biscuits pop up everywhere, even in fast food places! How odd. They're not bad, though, to be honest with you; at least the ones I've had.

Hey Matt!

I have no idea what the current rules are, but I have a vague memory about Sony's original licensing for the Playstation. Wasn't it something like for every game sold, the company would pay Sony $10 in licensing fees? I have no idea what companies paid in placement at stores, shipping, etc., but back then, at $40 a pop, there was a lot of potential profit in games. Of course, that would have to create enough cash flow to cover the negligible cost of putting the game on CD, and the larger cost of creating the game itself. I have no idea what the margins would end up being, but I could see $10 a game profit being quite possible, and it might be much higher for the more successful games (they would recoup their development costs much faster).

That said, as much as I would have loved to go, it sounds like E3 had gotten a bit out of control. It doesn't sound like it's going to completely disappear, so perhaps you may still be able to visit in the future!

Thanks!

BigWook

I really hope so. I've heard, though, that in the future it will be invitation-only, so I feel that perhaps my chances are slim. I'm only lucky that I came to RPGamer when I did, or I may never have had the great opportunity.

One thing is for sure: I'm damn glad I took that all-expenses-paid trip to E3 off of the prize list of SOCK! That might not have worked out so well...

Anyway, thank you for taking the time tto send me another letter!

Man o' man is it hot here in the Northeast of the US! 100 degrees F, definitely not what I'm used to! Gonna hunker down in the A/Ced apartment tonight and just play Advance Wars:Dual Strike! Anyway yesterdays letter about saving items got me thinking about my RPG habits. I am obsessive with saving items, as you said in Final Fantasy games I am loaded with Elixirs and the lot. I'm also very bad about saving stat boosting items. I get a power apple or whatever and I think, I could use this on Sam now, but what if I get a cooler character later and I flush Sam down the proverbial toilet, why it's proverbial I don't know. Here's a simple question, next week I get to go away to Colorado for training, any suggestions as to a good DS game to keep me occupied during down times.

Anywho Sock:
274)hmm A) fighter
and 275)B)la la laaaaaaa!

Gilgamesh

That, my friend, depends on where your interests lie! First of all, if you haven't purchased Mario Kart DS, that should be your number one pick; it is, in my opinion, the best Mario Kart yet. The New Super Mario Brothers or Super Princess Peach are fun but generally pretty easy, if you're into old-school, light-hearted, and/or side-scrolling games. If you're hunting for an RPG, the pickings are as of yet pretty slim. You could try out Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, but it's not the best game out there. You could instead buy Lost Magic and report back to me what you think of it! Or, you could play Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, since I've heard it's pretty good too. Other possibilities for you? Animal Crossing or Nintendogs, if you like that sort of thing, or Metroid Prime Hunters, if you're into FPSes. It's too bad you weren't heading down in a few months, Gilgamesh! There would be a lot MORE to choose from!

Nevertheless, have a good time in Colorado with your mysterious training! Hopefully you'll get the chance to come back and read from time to time. :)

Down the 401
From Guelph straight to Montréal
It's time for some fun

Yeah, it was weak. What can I say? I'm a math major, sue me. And oh my... a random thunderstorm just opened up overhead this afternoon, knocked out the power, and then HAILED all over the place for about thirty seconds. I later turned on the Weather Network to discover that not only were Tornado Warnings up, but a funnel cloud approached the ground over the city of Guelph! Jeebus. I guess there's one good thing about living in a basement apartment.

Again, let me remind you of Sean's list of games that are up for sale! Sean has generously donated prizes to the SOCK and THONG competitions, so if you're at all interested, help the guy out and take a look. He has quite a few games spanning many consoles (PS1, PS2, Gamecube, Super Nintendo) up for sale. If you're looking for something that's hard to find, Sean might be your guy, so get in touch with him at BuddyWingnut@yahoo.com. He'll tell you more.

#274. d) White Mage - 370 points/740 for Bainick
If anybody hasn't ever stopped by Nuklear Power's 8-Bit Theater web comic, I highly suggest that you take a look sometime soon!! Thanks, Bainick, for your submission.

#275. b) La, la, la! - 470 points
This was from Disgaea. In truth, I think that as a few of you pointed out, the text appears as "Lalala!" but the way he sings it, commas are almost implied. Besides, the answer was still clear. Congrats to all of you who guessed correctly!

Reader-Submitted #276:
Which of these Robot Masters did NOT appear in the anime intro movie to Mega Man 8? (450 points)

a) Flash Man
b) Centaur Man
c) Pharaoh Man
d) Freeze Man
e) Gyro Man

The reign of terror continues, making things very, very difficult for many people to make much headway at all. The effects of DARK have been making things especially challenging for new competitors to break through into the Top 35! To competitors like Arpijy (41st), Prismatic (40th), and Afro Pete (38th): Keep trying your hardest! You're dealing with some pretty tough weaponry, but it will be over sooner or later. Otherwise, if you'd like to know if you have armour that has shattered or is under severe damage, or if you'd like to deflect part of the damage done to you with a Damage Deflector, just e-mail me and ask. I'll let you know what is in your inventory. Best of luck, everyone...

STRAGGLERS:
(people who I love, but who still need to check their e-mail or somehow get in touch with me because they have unclaimed items- if you fall off the list after a week, it's TOO LATE FOR YOU! Check your spam/trash folders for my messages if you're not getting them, and I'll check mine, too!)

• none to speak of!

And with that, I'm done! I apologize for the shortened week if you were looking forward to me, but you'll get lots more of me next week, so don't despair!

Instead, look forward, because Josh will be around to fill my shoes, as will Macstorm! Please send them lots of mail, so that they have a lot in their inbox to look forward to. There are all sorts of topics to talk about, after all. How do you feel about E3's downsizing? Is it a good thing for gaming and for gamers?

Thanks for reading, everyone! Take care.

***Matt is pumped and ready to go!