I complained about a lull, and it got better. Wow. Maybe I should complain about my financial troubles more often. Anyway, here I am, getting ready to start the column at... 1 AM. Hmm... looks like this one will have to go up in the morning again, I hate that. Just as well, my light burned out and it's a bit hard to see. Anyway, tomorrow's guest host will be Chronodin, the person doing the music for the game I'm doing. So, if you have any questions about music composition, you can throw those at him, or just standard questions since he's played the standard games. Oh, and for everyone who sent in methods to eliminate TT rules, I know they exist, but they aren't the kind of thing you can do easily, or tricks in any real way. Rule death is, basically, a random occurance. Now then, on the the column.

Googleshng:
There aren't any PC online Tactical RPGs in existance... at least until I finish this one. 8) Anyway, as for the multiplayer aspect, Kartia has a 2 player mode which can be fairly interesting, although it is a tad unbalanced. Also, while there are no TRPGs (yet), there are many very good online turn based strategy games out there. Off the top of my head there's Chaos Overlords (great music), Alpha Centauri (long turns there though), a whole slew of interstellar empire games who's names ellude me at the momment. Well, I recall Spaceward Ho! but that's Mac only, as are a few others I can't remember. Oh, and of course if you can stand real time, there's Dungeon Keeper 2... although I shouldn't really count that, and hey, don't knock Blizzard, they do make some good stuff.

Googleshng:
Yeah, great, I'm kinda getting sick of this topic by now, let's move on. 8)

Googleshng:
Yes, Legend of Mana is being translated, and it will be out in June according to my sources. You know, you basically have 3 numbers for 1 question there. The whole Europe slow translation thing is a sad situation though, I grant you that.

Googleshng:
Well, having multiple languages on one cart/CD is really only a working concept when there's not much text in the game, or if it's really important for the company to release it in a couple countries at once. Either way, it's a rare occurance. As for people bashing SaGa as a series, I've never heard that. Personally, I've only played the first 3, and I assume the SNES ones are totally different as are the PSX ones. As for your third question, that isn't really system loyalty, but anyway, quite frankly, PC, console, and Paper RPGs are three different genres. In a console RPG, you're really buying a book with playable fight scenes when you get right too it. With a PC RPG, you're basically buying a big huge world to wander around exploring. With a paper RPG, basically you have a bunch of friends sitting around the room telling jokes/solving logic puzzles/rolling dice depending on the GM. They appeal to different people. I personally love console games and paper are fun too, but PC style RPGs don't really appeal to me. As for fritos, I really don't like'em.

Googleshng:
Those composers haven't done anything else to my knowledge except of course WA2 and the SoM arranged sound track. As for the PSX2 supporting PSX game sharks and mod chips, I seriously doubt it. Backwards compatable or not, it's different hardware. Don't worry though, I'm sure not long after the PSX2 ships someone will make mod chips and game sharks that will work on both PSX and PSX2 games... but maybe not those few old PSX games that don't run on the PSX2.

Googleshng:
That's 3 questions. The alalog stick, honestly, I have only ever put to good use ONCE. Walking around in FF8. If you use it, you move in the exact dirrection you want. Otherwise you have to deal with the fairly unintuitive FF7 style controls where, for example, holding up makes you move around the screen counter clockwise, until you hit a particular point where it switches to clockwise. Ick. Even then though, I turn it off for fights. 8) Oh, and in Resident Evil, they're called Hunters, blow them away before they see you or you're dead basically. Don't bother with the pistol either. Finally, as for how I define an RPG, it's the same way I define any genre. I take the game which, to me, most embodies that genre (usually the first example of it), and compare all other games to it to see if they're similar enough to be lumped together. It's a lot more effective than picking any one trait. So if I want to know whether to classify something as a console RPG, I compare it to the original Phantasy Star. Do you wander around various locations you can freely travel between? Towns full of shops and people to talk to? Money? EXP? Multiple characters on a party? Menu based combat? Is it extremely long? Is it top view? Is it full of caves to explore looking for special stuff? The more of those I say yes to, the more readily I call it an RPG. Oh, and for the record, my definitive Action/RPG is the original Zelda.