Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Blame Phil Collins. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Sometimes, strangely enough, the external world encroaches on my perceptions. Instead of thinking nonstop of the sight, sound, and smell of giant Wanzers tearing into each other, I actually noticed that the sun was setting prettily in the hill country west of Austin, and that the wildflowers were starting to bloom along the Mopac median strip. We're in the middle of the two week period we get each year where it's not 100+ degrees or rapidly fluctuating between almost warm enough and freezing. In fact, this is the absolute prime of the season. It may never get this good again, as the city continues to expand and sprawl chokes the life out of nature. Just for a moment, I'm at peace with the world and my place in it.

But then I remember that video games are way more interesting than this environmental crap. I step on the gas, spew a little more CO2 into the air, and rush home to my beloved Playstation. Whew, glad that's over with.

Well, you got yourself a theory there, son. Maybe not a good theory, but a theory none the less. The bit concerning Easterners on the early 8-bit systems might be true, but I'm skeptical as to the rest. The 16-bit systems were strong enough to display distinct racial characteristics, and did. Witness Yang in FF4. However, the preponderance of characters were not distinctly Asian, but a mixture skewed strongly toward Western-like people. Rydia's green hair and other design characteristics still lead me to believe that anime was and to an extent remains the strongest influence on Japanese character design, although I'm still not entirely sure why anime looks the way it does. Other opinions?

This is noteworthy because it may well be my first straight out piece of hate mail; it's a little hard to tell because of the brevity. If the comment is not meant ironically, then I'm pleased, because I feel I've passed an important milestone. I'm on my way, baby!

I'm gonna say something so extreme, so in your face, so against the conventional wisdom that a site like the GIA might be expected to embrace that there's a good chance I'll be removed from my post immediately. But I don't care, I just gotta put this out there for all to hear and know: I don't care for menu-driven combat all that much. *GASP!*

I stand by my earlier statement that menu driven combat was necessary in the early days of RPGs, to provide a moderate amount of depth to the combat system, and they're still useful for describing complex multi-character battles like FFT. But I think menus have more than worn out their welcome. When newcomers to gaming pick up a title like FF8, they're enraptured by the plot but tend to ask why they have to spend so much time pressing the same fight command over and over and over again. Generally, if someone tries to bring this up in conversation with "old school" gamers, they get laughed out of the room, but you know something? They're right. A solid number of RPGs these days have plots easily good enough to stand on their own, they don't need to be padded out with endless generic battles. We as gamers put up with menus because we're trained to them, because we've spent so many years with them that they're all we know and we can't afford to lose face now by saying they suck. But the tide is against us, and we either swim with it or get buried under it. I don't think even the great Dragon Quest can stand against the evolutionary changes Square has introduced to the genre, and I'll be very interested in seeing what people think once they actually have a chance to play DQ7 in Japan.

You raise a good point with your comments on Famitsu. I may have overstated the case to say that every 40 by Famitsu guarantees a 10 over here, but I do think the mag holds more influence than it's really due. Soul Calibur is a great game, no argument, and it's easily the best fighter I've ever played. But I don't think it deserves a perfect score from Famitsu,and I certainly don't think most of the major online reviewers in the States needed to follow suit.

FE stacks up against PS2 (hmm... same acronym, different meaning) surprisingly well. After all, in PS2 the characters just get slaughtered by an unstoppable army after saving the world. Lose in Fear Effect and you have to... well, play it yourself.

The meat of your letter proves my thesis from yesterday perfectly. I don't dislike Metallica, but I don't particularly care for them either. Admittedly, I'm fairly ambivalent towards Ys, so combining the two probably wouldn't bother me all that much, but the point is that what you like, I may not, and vice versa. And given the power of the pre-teen girl market, N'Sync has a much better chance of getting into a game than anybody mentioned thus far. Given that potential nightmare, I still say it's best just to stick with what we've got.

Oh, if you insist...

Continuing my trend of ticking people off today, I'm gonna go ahead and say I don't think FF6 is gaming's Citizen Kane. It's a good game, to be sure, but it's more an epic fantasy paperback than a deep probe into one man's personal empire of hubris. The fact is that while FF6 has a very grand scale, it loses points for detail. Every character has their own story, but little beyond that. The fact that everyone could point out how their lives got fixed in a few sentences at the end of the game isn't that great a sign.

Games haven't seen a Citizen Kane yet, and I don't think they're liable to for a while simply because of their reliance on the "wow factor." Even the games that strongly embrace plot tend to also want to pull in the shiniest and best graphics. Until we get games that place fully realized characters and plots that naturally derive from those characters ahead of shiny pixels, I don't think we'll see a Kane.

You read my mind, puzzle. FF4 is the game I most enjoyed playing, but from an objective standpoint I don't consider it to be the best of the Final Fantasies. I don't think it's necessarily the first RPG that's the killer - I played the original FF and Dragon Warrior before FF4, but none of them wowed me the way that one did. Like you say, I think it has more to do with the realization someone makes when they play their first really good RPG that gaming is a medium far deeper than what they had previously imagined. The problem is it's impossible not to become a bit jaded after that - in retrospect nearly every RPG I've played since FF4 has been better in one way or another, but there's always a bit of "been there done that" that you just can't get away from. Still, we keep trying...

My mom can take care of herself, my dirty laundry smells only of perfume and sunshine, my penmanship does suck, and the rest of your insults are just laughable. But no one... NO ONE makes fun of my dog! That's it, I've had it! Go get him, Fluffy!

Yeah, you're sorry now, huh? Fluffy doesn't take kindly to insults. All of you better think twice now that you know what true rage is. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Closing Comments:

You knew this was coming, so don't bitch about it. Don't worry, it'll be over quick. Ok, here goes, my first topic. (Hey, you there! Reader up in Minnesota! I heard that! Don't make me come up there! I'll bring Fluffy!)

Phantasy Star Online. That's a pretty wide topic. Tell me what you think about the game. Are you looking forward to playing an RPG with other people from around the country, or even around the world? Are you worried about story and cinematic experience may be sacrificed with 4 people in a game, as opposed to one? Are you even going to buy PSO, with Square having an offering up every month between May and October? Not to mention Lunar 2. Will PSO survive, or will it crumble next to the onslaught of the massively multiplayer RPGs that will see release? Enlighten me as to your worries, troglodytes.

-Chris Jones: "Flowers? Sunsets? Man, what was I smoking?"