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. It's very cool outside at the moment, making me think the Texas weather is trying to fake us out before bringing on the real heat. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I'd be grossly remiss if I didn't pass this on to you, although I haven't read through it myself, and don't intend to. It's a review of most of a supposed Final Fantasy Movie script on Ain't It Cool News, and Harry's intro says it's littered with spoilers, though not about the ending.

Is it legit? Well, that's the big question, isn't it? I can tell you that what we were able to read before stopping in fear of spoilers matches up with the rumors we've heard so far. I'd give a guarded "yes" at this point, although there's always the possibility that it's an earlier version of the script that got leaked and is now obsolete. Either way, the important thing is that the overall review calls the script excellent. Although the ultimate worth of the movie has yet to be seen, confirming that the script is of a quality to match the stunning visuals we've seen is a great start.

Of course, if anybody wanted to be selfless and noble and read the review all the way through and ruin what could be one of the coolest movies ever made for themselves and sort through what's there and write us back with a non-spoiler summary, that'd be great. (Run-on sentence? Where?) But please don't come crying to me once you do so - I'm sure as heck not holding a gun to anybody's head on this. In fact, I'm recommending that people stay away, but if you absolutely have to, then at least it'll be for a good cause.

Onward.

Steve, you have no idea how close you came to a horrifying death - my finger was just about to push the button to release the killer dogs with bees in their mouth and when they bark they shoot bees at you - when I realized that you were just kidding. Or at least, you better be kidding, or else the killer dogs with bees... well, you know.

And you've managed to inflict pain on me in yet another way - now instead of wishing the FFT team would go ahead and make Tactics 2, I'm torn between wanting them to do Tactics 2 and Vagrant Story 2. Thanks a ton for putting that idea in my head.

Man, if you're going to keep irritating me this way, why do I keep printing your letters? It's a mystery.

Nope, Ashley's no sheila. I just wish he didn't demonstrate the fact by wearing pants with big holes over his ass. *shudder* Hmm, maybe Callo gets to wear the pants later in the game...

I did indeed notice the link, and that brings up an interesting possibility to my previous conundrum - if FFT and Vagrant Story are set in the same universe, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone and have a single sequel to both games. But then I'd still have to decide which characteristics made it through: Isometric grids or detailed dungeons? Turn-based squad play or near-realtime single player? Noseless anime soldiers or detailed polygon leather fetishists? Dang it, who could choose between the two?

Agreed. I can't figure out what Square's up to with FF9, with marketing or otherwise. Compared to the relatively leisurely development of prior FF's, FF9 seems to have been rushed out the door. FF7 and 8, for good or ill, seemed to be deliberate attempts to push realistic graphics and movie qualities into RPGs, and while that could still be the case for FF9 it doesn't seem to be the main thrust of the game. There's a fairly elaborate ad campaign to sell Coke with game characters, but not much in the way of selling the actual game. And not so much as a non-playable demo disc, less than two months before the game comes out.

If it were anyone else, I'd start to question Sakaguchi and Co. But Square's made so few real missteps in recent years, at least as far as RPGs are concerned, that I just can't bring myself to. I just hope Square doesn't collapse from exhaustion during their attempts to move the gaming world forward.

Actually, everybody's been very cool about the shorter columns. I can only conclude that everybody else (with the exception of the few poor sods mentioned above) is also busy playing VS and doesn't care about the column right now anyway. Thus leaving me as my own worst critic, which is as it should be.

The good news is that there should be a deluge of cheap PSX games both new and used once the PS2 comes out. Chances are you'll be able to play through the entire "Summer of Adventure" and Lunar 2 for half the price the rest of us did. That is, if you can stomach playing PSX games when the rest of us are playing PSO and The Bouncer. Like I said earlier folks, life is hard.

Wow. I knew politics in Quebec made life there... interesting, but I had no idea this effected all of Canada. That must certainly suck for the English-speaking majority, or for bi-linguists who don't care about politics. But then, I'm from Texas and I'm not sure our own linguistic policy is all it's cracked up to be.

Out of curiosity, can't you just order straight from an online US site? NAFTA should ensure that the price would be compatible and direct mail would circumvent the whole repackaging thing. That's probably not workable for some reason or another, but at least it's an idea.

Thankfully, society doesn't yet seem to be as dominated by special interests as you suggest. As a couple of people pointed out at the beginning of this thread, while game ratings are everywhere they don't seem to be an impediment on kids getting their hands on whatever games suit their fancy. The "foggers" are a result of decisions on the Japanese side of things, not put in for American gamers specifically, and indeed most games seem far more constrained by internal editors than the ESRB. It'll probably be a while before we have to start worrying about real external interference as far as games are concerned.

I haven't seen or read much on Bleemcast, so I can't give any kind of opinion on how any kind of enhancement is done, or how widespread that enhancement would be. I'd be surprised if a lot of latter generation PSX games showed much improvement tho, because such games would likely take advantage of very specific technical tricks on the console that an emulator might not mimic.

And I seem to remember that the ESRB went through a few different phases before it settled on it's current scheme - it's possible you were just on the edge of the crossover. 

The PSX did not ship with a memory card, as I found to my dismay when I set my brand new console up to play my brand new copy of FF7.  You have a point in that the extra $100 may not make much of a difference for a lot of people, although it could be a hard holiday season ahead for a lot of kids as they try to whine and beg and plead with their parents to get a PS2 for Christmas.

The DVD aspect may also be a harder sale over here than in Japan. A lot of Americans have already bought DVD players, and aren't going to look kindly on a new box making them obsolete. (Myself included.) This wasn't the case in Japan, if I remember correctly.

Actually, I didn't write that. I mean, the whole "by Chris Jones" title was a play on Obsession by Calvin Klein, which is a perfume or an aftershave or something, not that I'd be caught dead in anything by Calvin Klein... er. Anyway...

The sad part is, the above isn't too far off from reality. The other day I had lunch with some friends who were just about to head out of town for a few weeks, and I wasted most of the conversation babbling about video games. To those of you eyeing this position for yourself someday, be warned, the job effects you in ways you'd never dream.

Closing Comments:

Strangely enough, I wasn't trying to rush through this column and the length wasn't much better than previous days when I was. But I hope the FF Movie review makes up for it, for those of you crazy enough to read it.

See if AK will talk about something other than Vagrant Story, unlike certain other columnists who shall remain nameless. I'll be back Monday, hopefully with the Arch Nemesis awards. Take it easy.

-Chris Jones, good luck and Godspeed