Josh - 7:19 EST

So yeah. I beat Xenosaga III the other day, and it was amazing. People, it has one of the best endings I've ever seen, so much that it practically brought a tear to my eye. The music for it was also equally incredible. If you haven't picked this game up, I highly recommend it. I wrote a review for it the other day too, so you can get my complete impression there. I know I'm a Xeno-fanboy, but I kept the review as objective as possible.

And, on a sad note, Penn State was massacred by Notre Dame today. It was horrible, I have no idea what the hell happened. Our defense did decently, but our offense just produced turnover after turnover, due to some really stupid mistakes. Sigh...at least it doesn't affect our ranking in the Big Ten. Sheesh. Lee Corso also picked us to win, and he never (read: NEVER) picks Penn State to win, so I knew something was wrong.

*loud scream*

Sigh...at least I have your letters to cheer me up...let's get to it, shall we?

So my favorite rpg of all time is xenogears.

In other words, I feel a sort of dedication to loving Xenosaga, despite its many flaws. I bought episode 3 on the day it came out, but have yet to start because omg, after 10 and a half hours, shadow hearts II actually started to get good (though never living up to the original in my opinion).

To be honest, I am afraid to begin ep.3. Episode II started out great until suddenly all of the damn areas you played in were the EXACT SAME but a different season or w/e. And most people say it is an improvement, but doesn'tt live up to the first... didn't people who visit here all hate ep1 when it first came out? I remember feeling very alone in those days.

Anyways, that was my first question. I really thought that episode one was not liked, then episode II came along and suddenly it "needed to return to its glory". My second question is: am I the only one who really thinks Monolith is spewing a bunch of bull about the "end of xenosaga" so they can boost the sales figures and go ahead with the next three installments llike they would have anyways? Read the last xenosaga related interview anywhere, the dude basically told everyone that the new one is already in the planning stages, you just have to look past the words to the sleezy "i know something you don't know" language.

Thanks. And P.S. Xenosaga II's music sucked royally. :)

Well this is more for whoever wrote in about sword of hope than whoever is answering questions today:) I got hold of an unboxed copy of sword of hope 2 (thank you ebay) and I have no idea how or where to save.None of the sites I usually go to for information know, and google isn't helping either.Please help, because I don't think I can stay awake long enough to finish the game in one go! Twilight.

Yo Ouro

#L3- F: Body, Dead (I love that game!)

#3- A: 43 (and that one!)

I'm glad Crystalis was mentioned around here, it's a fantastic game that's overlooked too often. I remember playing it when I was young (like... between age 4 and 6, can't remember), and I thought it was just the most fantastic thing ever. What? FOUR different weapons? Did I just make an ice bridge? Oh boy, time to try out the level-three lightning sword attac... WOW!

And the story was especially above-average for an NES game, with one particularly sad moment that really stood out (I still know how the song in that town goes). I wholeheartedly recommend that game to everyone who reads this. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find online, I haven't really checked, but if you can get it for a bargain, go for it!

Another game that I really enjoyed was Terranigma for the SNES. It's not available in the US, but for some reason the PAL regions got it (ironic, don't you think?), so I used some... less than legal means to play it. It's definately the best of the Soul Blazer trilogy, and the plot is engrossing and very original, I don't think I've played through anything quite like it, in terms of the themes it uses (and the really cool plot twists). PAL gamers, check this one out!

Since I'm already on the subject of game recommendations, I might as well mention two more, except they're not RPGs. They're two little gems for the Playstation called Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey and Oddworld: Abe's Exodus, the first and second games in the Oddworld series, respectively. These have a very large cult following, but they're still pretty much unknowns. Probably the best known entry in the series is Oddworld: Munch's Odyssey for the Xbox, which also happens to be the weakest game as well. Anyway, the first two Oddworld games are, in every area, very hard to describe, as the gameplay is extremely unique. The best I could describe it is sidescrolling Platformer stealth action. I guess it's pretty hard to buy a game when you don't really know how it plays, but I guarantee that ANYONE would love this game's polish, sense of style (the storyline is set in a strange dystopian world, with very strange creatures that are being hunted to extinction to make yummy treats for the Glukkons, the game's corporate evil. Oh, and did I mention that all the cutscenes are na in rhyme?), and odd taste in humor, largely consisting of meat grinders and bombs.

So I hear that Xenosaga III is good! I love that series, so I was really worried about it for a while there. I won't be getting it soon, on account of I need to save my money for a Wii, but I'm certainly looking foward to playing it. I still think that Square should remake Xenogears. If it had state-of-the-art graphics, good directing (a must), great voice acting, an improved battle system (although it was already pretty cool), a more fleshed-out story, a SECOND DISK, and even more awesome music, I really think that it could be Square's greatest game ever. Sure, they won't do it because "the original didn't sell well," but isn't that all the more reason? They KNOW that their audience likes good plots, and I'm sure that with more publicity, and (most importantly) good graphics, it would be a phenominal success.

And now I'm done. See ya tomorrow, probably!

~Spiffyness

Ouro-sama,

'Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon, or asked the grinning bobcat why he grins; can you sing with all the voices of the mountain, can you paint with all the colours of the wind ...' Sorry, that song won't leave my head today. And I've only been up 45 minutes! It's gonna be a weird day....

If your Langrisser experience (thanks to the magic of emulators in Korea, was it?) was on the Super Famicom, you would have been playing Der Langrisser. This apparently is the Super Famicom's version of Langrisser 2 on Mega Drive. The precise differences I cannot adequately annotate without relying on others until I have significant playtime with both, but I can say that losing twice in the first four battles of Langrisser 2 (maybe thanks to it being in Japanese...) makes me believe there's a reasonable challenge in this thing.

I have a serious question for you now, although your paucity of knowledge in the area I inquire whereto makes me believe that not much is to be gleaned - yet I must make the attempt! Having made my Genesis amenable to imports, I find that my non-English acquisitions are still quite meagre. What titles might you be conscious of that never traveled across the Pacific and are worthy of tracking down via eBay for the venerable Sega Genesis?

Why am I playing Langrisser 2 now, which necessitated my shifting a great number of cables around to hook up the Genesis/Sega CD combo? My Action Replay, the item that when inserted into the Saturn's cartridge slot bypassed regional lockout codes and enabled import playing, decided to die.

I had my heart set on playing Sakura Taisen - but as I have no talent whatsoever for modding my Saturn I must now wait on the results of eBay. I didn't feel like playing an English language title so I brought out the Genesis, plugged in Streets of Rage - and I disappointed myself horrifically upon needing all three continues to topple Hard mode! I was able to do that without using any continues once, a 2 year break clearly wasn't good for my beat-em-up skills! Then I needed a continue to beat Streets of Rage 2 Hard mode also - what the hell happened to me? And then my Shinobi 3 cartridge froze inexplicably - why??? At least TMNT: the Hyperstone Heist I didn't need a continue to take. Suck it, Super Krang and Super Shredder - even with the inferior Genesis controls I took you down! Why wasn't Krang brought back for this new TMNT - he was one of the coolest parts of the old show, if only the proper application of a Death Star on treads had been adopted by the timid TV transcriptors.

....You sly dog, you got me monologuing!

Matt didn't know about Demi Kids or CIMA: The Enemy on GBA, so I'm tossing this over to you. I'm intrigued enough to want further information on these titles and you JUST MIGHT have it. I'll also inquire about Rebelstar:Tactical Command while I'm at it.

Does Aethelred have a more complicated email than the standard RPGamer format? I tried sending a message about the sales chart idea but haven't gotten a response - could he have thought I was SPAM? I know I didn't write about stock quotes in the title!

Working Designs and Atlus seem to be the 'go-to' companies for quality RPG translation. Is there, however, a translation company that has produced nothing but substandard entries?

Ouro-dono, please inform all the eager masses of your take upon the HDTV debate raging now. What would it take for you to jettison the current audiovisual setup and splurge upon an HDTV for those high-quality outputs the Xbox 360 and the PS3 tout so loudly?

So YOU were the one to snatch Skies of Arcadia 2 - Final Cupil, I summon you to chow down!

One complaint I hear frequently about the PSP is its all-too-frequent load times. Can you verify? And further annotate any games that possess unforgivable load times? I'll chip in on my end with the Saturn version of Symphony of the Night sporting a 5 second load time every time Alucard goes to another area or you access the menu screen - it got annoying very quickly.

You're pretty good at remembering the somewhat obscure titles I bring up, so here's another one: Zombies Ate My Neighbors. That was quite fun, if irritating thanks to the necessity of using passwords for such a lengthy game. Where's an update to THIS game?

If you like Final Fight so very much (I'm not knocking it - the arcade game sucked up way too many quarters of mine) you'll appreciate the Sega CD's having the ONLY unaltered version for a home console. Even the GBA version made the females into androgynous punks.

If Square Enix follows through on its implicit direction of making up for increased monetary hemorrhaging during title development via instituting advertisements within the software's actual application, your response would be best articulated as what?

Ouchies - looks like getting a PS3 on day one is an even worse idea than the consensus here had it. 400,000 systems for the first day, North America and just 100,000 in Japan, with PAL areas getting a gigantic shaft until four months later; isn't that even fewer than the PS2 had? And I think we all remember how well THAT launch turned out....

Apparently no one else heard the rumour I did regarding the Wii information release, so here's where I found it: http://www.gamespot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=24928669

You found the Medovnik! Many thanks, Lord Ouro! I might try cooking it - but since my aunt actually likes cooking I'll shoot it to her and see what happens. I don't want my own bumbling fingers making a hash of the delicious honey-cake!

To: Genjuu
Re: Writing Habits
Genjuu, sir, this may very well date back to when I wanted to save paper in an English classroom 10 years ago and managed to fit three lines of writing inside one line on the paper. I have not tried that particular tactic recently but might be able to make it work - if reading the text wasn't such a pain on my aging eyes. But the patience required to fit such small letters onto a piece of paper makes the patience required to compose letters that try to incorporate all I have bouncing around my mind seem positively pedestrian in comparison.

JuMeSyn

Luca Blight suffers 98.4% damage (92%*80%)!
Luca Blight takes a moment to heal.
Players who fought and issued damage receive 100 potch.
Draconn moves to Tile 5.
Bainick moves to Tile 3.
Bucket moves to Tile 5.
Slimey moves to Tile 7.
Slashlen moves to Tile 8.
PureLunatic moves to Tile 5.
William.T moves to Tile 6.
Note: I somehow missed Will's roll before. Fixed.
Arpijy moves to Tile 5.
Spiffyness moves to Tile 6.
Carabbit moves to Tile 3.
JDX moves to Tile 4.
Aurelius moves to Tile 5.
Omm moves to Tile 4.
Tabor moves to Tile 6.

Hm...well, you've won Round 1. But I've got a few tricks up my sleeve, yet!

Answer to #L3: F. Body, Dead.
That ones comes from Monkey Island II: LeChuck's revenge! Gotta love those monkeys.

#L4. How many punctuation marks are missing from this sentence: [It was and I said not are and and and are are different].

A. 3
B. 5
C. 7
D. 9
E. 12
F. 15

Yargh. Well, that helped a little bit, and congratulations on stopping Luca Blight last week! His questions are going to remain a bit difficult, so get your thinking caps on!

So, there's plenty to talk about, eh? There's this onslaught of games that has begun its attack on our shores, the Wii is slowly creeping up, and there's always ranting about G4 TechTV! ^^ Actually, any of you ever have an idea for an RPG? I'm interested in hearing what strange things you've concocted, as to what you'd create if you possessed the ability and means to make your own RPG. Sound off! See ya tomorrow!

***Josh is a sad panda.