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. Actually, if I got to play as much Vagrant Story most days as I did today I wouldn't complain. Don't say we didn't warn you.

First off, let's have a hand for Jeremy, who did a bang up job with his first ever letters column this weekend. I don't actually know what "bang up job" means, but the above sentence should be read as a general statement of approval.

Onward.

My children don't exist, so they aren't anywhere, technically. When you're my age the question becomes "do you know where your parents are?" And the answer is, no, I don't. Thanks for pointing out that I'm separated from my loved ones and desperately alone! *sob*

Wait, let me get this straight - you're saying Chrono Cross doesn't stand out against... JOHN TESH?

I'm under standing orders from AV himself to minimize emoticon use in the column, but in situations like this I really, really feel the lack of a good goggle-eyed symbol.

If you honestly prefer John Tesh to Mitsuda, it's clearly a difference of opinion, and there's not a lot that either of us can say to convince the other one that they're wrong. But I'm still gonna argue against you because you just seem really ass drawcab on this one.

I thought there were a huge number of really standout tracks on the CC OST. Going by the CDDB names: Time's Scar, Home Village Aruni, Another Termina, Home Gardob, Predicament, Ghost's Island, World's Navel, Chronopolis, Time of the Dreamwatch, Dragon God. If you're looking for merely good instead of totally brilliant, then half the album qualifies. It's true that Mitsuda does seem to be branching out from his Celtic bias, but I don't see that as a cause for any kind of alarm. And no, Mitsuda's never going to be able to go up against the heavy hitters of classical music, though that's not what he's trying to do.

I'm actually pleased this got sent in, just to give another point of view on the subject. That said, I still wholeheartedly endorse getting the Chrono Cross soundtrack, if you're even vaguely considering getting into game music.

There's also David Letterman and Dave Thomas (the Wendy's guy). David's a perfectly acceptable name, if not vastly superior to "Ashley" in ass-kicking content. Then again, with a name like "Christopher" I'm in no position to judge.

[Note to readers: addressing me as Christopher is usually grounds enough for me to immediately trash your letter. And don't test me on this, I'll go months without printing a letter if I have to.]

I'm starting to get the first letters from people who've beat the game, many claiming a play through time of about 20 hours. Even so, 20 hours is a good chunk of time, and when it's 20 hours as well spent as this I'm sure not complaining.

Unfortunately, with Legend of Mana getting pushed up and me still wanting to finish Wild Arms 2, I suspect I'm gonna leave the remaining 20% for another day once I'm done. Which is a strong indicator of how much there is to do on the RPG front these days, because I haven't been this much overwhelmed by a single title in years. Vagrant Story reminds me of Metroid with the ambient music and "endless depth" feel of the dungeons, Final Fantasy Tactics with the sublime character designs and deep customization, Soul Calibur with the attack/counterattack feel of battle, and Metal Gear Solid with the killer cinemas. So yeah, I too like Vagrant Story.

Reading this letter, and others like it, make me wish I'd checked my mail earlier in the day instead of playing Vagrant Story for 8 hours straight. I'm sure it would have made a sweet time even sweeter to have imagined Jemmy surrounded by the bugs, heat, screaming kids and clueless old people that are the staples of family gatherings everywhere while I kicked back on my comfy couch with a coke and a Dual Shock. Heh.

Since strong plots have been a staple of nearly all Final Fantasies, and since it's fairly difficult to get a strong plot when the narrative's not in the writer's complete control, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that "Active Time Events" will not affect the outcome of the story like SO2's Personal Events. I really have no clue what ATE's will do, based on the available info, but I'm gonna guess they're just a way to allow the player more in the way of exploration and side quests.

As for AK, these past few weeks he's just been in the same situation that many of you folks are also in - studying for exams, moving out of dorms/apartments, looking around for summer work. But hopefully with the official commencement of summer, it'll be easier for everyone to get back on a regular schedule and get some serious work... er, game playing done.

One of the main purposes of the DA column is to give airtime to peoples' various opinions, regardless of how loopy those opinions might be. In this case, it's ludicrous to suggest that Sephiroth comes close to Ashley (come to think of it, if you called him Ash you'd get him confused with the kid in Pokemon), Snake, or even Magus.

Seph had issues and did a lot of damage, but the fact that he purposely chose to go psycho over his past instead of trying to work it out in some non-insane manner loses him some points in my book. Magus was merely trying to get his sister and home back, which is actually a fairly noble thing to do. Neither much compares with the two engineered killing machines known as Snake and Ashley, sorry.

Hmm, Granstream Saga... wasn't that the one where none of the character models had anything frivolous on them, like faces? Seriously, it's worth noting that more than a few great 2D developers, like Quintet, couldn't adjust to the brave new world of 3D development. As much as anything that's why I'll be interested in seeing DQ7.

But when I start talking about DQ7, it's time to close for the day.

Closing Comments:

Topic for tomorrow: I'd like an update as to your acquisition plans for the end of the year. Fill these forms out in triplicate by Friday, or purchasing will not be able to approve your requests.

Alternatively, you could just let me know if you're still as gung ho about the PS2 now that some of the shine's worn off and there seems to be a real deficit of quality launch titles. Furthermore, there seem to be many other big titles coming out at the end of the year, such as FF9, DQ7, PSO and Eternal Arcadia. Unless you've got significant extra income,  there's not gonna be a missile guidance system and the last few great games of the PSX in your house come 1/1/2001. So what will you do?

What will you do? Email me. Later.

-Chris Jones: "Two day work week! Woo-hoo!"