Happy Halloween everyone. As you'll notice right off of the bat, I didn't post any type of Halloween novelties today. Not one. Nope. I would've humored you with random .wav files of Bela Lugosi, (*coughherecough*) but I found myself short on time with trick-or-treaters pounding on my door. *sigh* Gotta love all of the children dressed up as Pikachu...

Ah, and one quick notice about the Q & A Triple Triad Contest. I should have specified more clearly that it's a drawing contest. You can't do too many creative things by simply CGing our pictures, can you? (Although the two entries I've had have been pretty humorous, it could get old very quickly.) Think of creative ways to draw the pictures on the cards. The more original, the better.

On that note, on to Q & A mayhem. MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Hello and happy Halloween.

1. Of the playstation RPGs that are currently, or soon-to-be currently available, which ones should I get? Please list as many options as you can, as I have a birthday fast approaching, and many rich aunts.

2. Is Final Fantasy Anthology worth buying?

3. In Thousand Arms, how does the other set of weapons (Kyleen's blunt sword, Sodina's rusty knife, etc.) work? A person in Langoud tells you that they are supposedly able to increase in offensive and defensive ability as time goes by.

4. Why do you post your column at around midnight? Young lady, you should not be up so late!!

Alex Penrose

Veronica:
1) Rich aunts are a nice commodity. I can't play every RPG that's been currently released, although I've heard lots of great things about Grandia from RPGamer staffers. From what I have played, I can safely reccomend Final Fantasy 8, Final Fantasy Anthology, and Lunar: SSSC. (If you haven't bought it, do so as quick as you can. Working Designs is stopping production by the end of Christmas.)

2) Absolutely. How often is it you can buy a collection of good video games for the same price as a regular polygonal graphics spectacle? It's a good buy, contains more than the average game, and even has Final Fantasy 6 thrown in. (Now that I've plugged my Opinon Pie, let's move on.)

3) I've not had the opportunity to play Thousand Arms, but from what I've heard third-person, those weapons are refined by Meis and made stronger. I apologize for being so vague. If there's more detail to the answer, please feel free to let me know.

4) It's called MAD time management SKILLZ. Midnight's the best time for me to post because of my busy schedule. Imagine trying to do a Q & A column at 5am when you have 3 tests to study for, voice lessons, and a faint drive to play through more FFA so you can keep up with eveyone else. Convenience, friends. Convenience.

Suikoden 2 rulez,
White_Blade

Veronica:
Yes... I can say 100% truthfully that I did research on this question, so nyah. : )

Speaking on terms of the PlayStation, because that seems to be your key interest, a mod chip is a special chip that is wired into your PlayStation that bypasses the lock-out code on many Japanese games. As you know, Japanese PlayStations can only play Japanese made games, and the same holds true for North American PlayStations. The mod chip allows Japanese games to be played on an American system and pirated games to be played as well. You can still do this by buying a Japanese system, but this can obviously be pricey, so going the mod chip route is a very popular option to play those RPG imports you crave so dearly.

Mod chips are not without their drawbacks, however. Although they are not illegal, installing one voids the warranty on your PlayStation, ( although this really isn't a big deal, considering that your warranty is void if you use any non-Sony products with the system and that most warranties have expired. ^^) and Sony won't repair systems that have been modified. Depending on your perspective, these might be rather petty consequences.

I, personally, do not have my PlayStation modified so I can't tell you if there are any drawbacks in perfomance due to the chip. Ask around on the Internet and find gamers that do have mod chips in their systems, and ask lots of questions.

Aaargh! ...sorry, had to do that (Queen of Cards sidequest...soo....annoying.....losing my mind....).
Errh, at any rate, awhile ago I lost my Zell and Seifer cards to someone who I can't remember, and, according to my game, they both ended up in "B Garden- Headmaster's Office". The only problem is, I've played everyone in that damn room (including the two CC members...wink wink) approxiamately 3 bajillion times, and they don't seem to have it. Any idea where my cards slipped off to?
Thanks.

~Commander Kahran Ramsus

*sniff*...we Solarians play Triple Triad too...

Veronica:
Hmm... interesting. I've not heard of this predicament before. If you simply lost your Zell and Seifer cards in a random battle, I don't think you can get them back. The only exception I ever knew of getting a lost card back was when you sacrificed your Ifrit Card to General Caraway for the Rinoa Card, and then went back to FH to win it back from Martine.

Thanks,
ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ Mark

Veronica:
I had the same problem when I was looking through Amano's artwork in the same section, but I always felt that Galuf was the character to the right of the group drawing in black (page 24 for those of you who own FFA), Faris was the character pictured to the right of Bartz on page 57, and Bartz was indeed the young man with white hair next to Faris.

Perhaps Amano was protesting he should've been blonde/white like the majority of the cast. ^^

-Chickenwuss

Veronica:
GameFAQ's.com carries a nice little article here that might help you. Good luck. :) A healthy tip to Triple Triad addicts: It's better to not spread any rules in the first place than go back and abolish them. It saves a lot of strain. How do you prevent it? When asked to play a game with a combination of rules, simply decline and keep challenging until the card player in question doesn't ask to play a combination game anymore. But you already knew that... ^_^

Trainer...Ê number...Ê FIVE.

One, two, three and four
Pokemon with me when I hit the door
Gotta catch 'em all cause I wanna
Be the best on the earth but y'know I really don't wanna
Lose 'em all like I did last week
My pockets ain't deep cause talk is cheap
I got Bulbasaur, Nidoran, Digglett, and Weedle
And as I catch more my collection's getting sweeter
What you gonna do?Ê Gonna bag you Chansey
And any other ones that strike my fancy
Pidgey is fly, they're all good let me catch it
Please send in my Farfetch'd.

(chorus)
A little bit of Snorlax in my bed
A little bit of Abra in my head
A little bit of Goldeen in the sea
A little bit of Onix's what I need
A little bit of Purin for my friend
She got called Jigglypuff in the end
There's a little Clefairy on the sand
Once I got you then I'm the man

Trainer number FIVE!

Zubat, Spearow, Squirtle and Fearow
Gonna bag 'em all with my new Nidorino
Take one Sandshrew and put him through a trade
In return for an Oddish and you got it made
Take your Pokedex and check over it twice
One fifty-one and you're doing it right.

(chorus)x2

I do all to capture myself a Pikachu
If you can't run and you can't hide
Electrashock comin' from the sky.
...Trainer number FIVE!

*Jerry Falwell has a heart attack*
*the guys who designed Pokemon have massive simultaneous heart failures*
*CX's brain explodes*
*which may or may not be related to the smoking shotgun in Veronica's hand*
*you decide*

--CX

Veronica:
And CX wins the Gold Star of Absolute Weird Crap... and a lot of respect. Good job. ^_^