See what you want to see
- September 19, 2000 - Chris Jones
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. I miss Austin radio stations.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
I stared at this page for about fifteen minutes, trying to come
up with something interesting to say in the intro, but I couldn't.
And then I read through the letters I had selected for today, and
realized one of you clever monkeys already gave me an excuse for
why there's nothing worth talking about at the moment.
Onward.
| In the doldrums |
| Dear Agent,
Chrono Cross discussion on Wednesday is A-OK by me. You guys picked out the
best time to have a vacation, because during that time absolutely nothing
happened in the gaming industry. On a related note, I read an article in Los
Angeles Times about Activision. Most of it was analysis of their stock. A
big honcho at Activision said they haven't been doing well in the last 6
months because consumers are saving their money for PS2, and that the entire
industry is going through the same slump. Is that true? I mean Square had
their "Summer of Adventure." And we know for sure that at least one of those
summer games (Chrono Cross) is way better than anything PS2 will have this
year. Plus we have Final Fantasy 9, Lunar II for PSX and Ogre Battle 64,
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and Banjo-Tooie for N64. Dreamcast is going
to get Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia, and Capcom vs. SNK.
For those of us with all those systems and also a PC or Mac, we have enough
games as it is. In fact, I think after this year they should just stop
releasing games after this holiday season for at least two months so we can
all catch up.
-Fares
|
See, that's just perfect - it's not my fault I can't come up with
anything to talk about, it's the gaming industry's! Thanks tremendously
for that rationalization, Fares.
But still, there may be a fairly sizable grain of truth to what
you're saying. My personal take on the "Summer of Adventure" was that
it was an attempt by Square to get most of their titles out of the way
before the PS2 hit and people lost interest in the PSX - certainly the
remaining major titles on the system are positioned so that they can
either stand on their own appeal or are set far enough away
from the PS2 launch date (10/26/00) to be PS2-proog. Personally
I'm so underwhelmed by the PS2's current launch lineup (no Bouncer,
even) that I feel vindicated I haven't put down the paltry $10 it
would have cost me to reserve one.
| Lord have mercy on the
man |
| CC Discussion: JANUARY. JANUARY. TWO THOUSAND
ONE.
University. Many. Miles. From. Home. And.
*twitch* Playstation. And.
*twitch* Half. Finished.
*twitch* Chrono. Cross.
Please. Sympathize for the poor and suffering working class student.
- In Pain |
I feel your pain my brother - I was in a similar situation with
Final Fantasy III lo those many years ago. But I can't stop the world
for just one man, so January 2001 is out of the question. (Besides,
I'd have to hold off on FFIX for the same reason.) Avert your eyes, and
it'll be over quick.
At the same time, I'd like to encourage you to use this as an
opportunity. Your entire life shouldn't be devoted to playing video
games - college can be a wonderful chance to expand your horizons. Get
out there and meet people, join organizations, learn to grow as a
person with a wide variety of tastes and hobbies! There's a whole
world out there just waiting for you to... *snicker*... I mean, there's
just a whole... *cackle*... *guffaw!*
*Wipes tears from eyes*
Dammit, and I almost made it through with a straight face...
| *I can only keep those
40-odd characters straight in my head for so long...* |
| Yo Chris,
I think we should go ahead with some discussions on Chrono Cross now. I beat
the game one week after it was released, mostly due to the fact that I was
crippled during the summer. About two weeks is how long we should go from
release to discussion...three weeks at most, because after that details get
muddled and such.
--The Steve
|
I hear what you're saying, but I gotta wonder if that isn't in and
of itself a comment on the game. The best art is supposed to stay with
you long after you experience it - I can pretty much quote chapter and verse
from Pratchett's "Small Gods" or "Watership Down" even now. If a book
or movie or game becomes muddled a few weeks after you're done with
it, how good was it really, in the final analysis?
| Hey, I'm not soooo
slow, I'm just slow |
| Hey Chris,
Whaddaya mean you wasted all the time not having to do the column freed
up? Wasted it on what? Please let me make up for not having a life by
letting me in on yours more!
On your topic for the day : you can post spoilers anytime you want. I
don't see what the problem is, as long as you give the reader fair warning
in the title of the letter. Besides, you are soooo slow (erm, I mean busy)
most of the time, the average RPG-head should have finished any game long
ago by the time you allow discussion about it....
Lastly, Parasite Eve 2 is out and I'll be getting it shortly (it's been
out over here in Holland for over a month now... but of course the
non-import-gamer had to miss Chrono Cross for the privilege). Any comments
by anyone? What about a review?
That our paths may cross again,
Sir Farren, still wondering what possesses AV for thinking Soul Calibur is
a better game than any Final Fantasy |
You think I have a life? Wow. I knew writing this column tended to
glamorize me a bit, but wow...
It's definitely true that a lot of gamers have finished the latest
thing before I have, and that'll likely continue to be the case. (If for
no other reason than the column takes up 15+ hours a week I might
otherwise spend in front of the PSX.) Still, I got a lot of fallout
the one time I did manage to start a discussion relatively soon after a
game was released, so it's in my best interests to make sure everyone
who can finish will finish, stragglers like In Pain aside.
Dunno much about PE2 yet, but I intend to buy it next Wednesday,
after I've got a networking project out of the way and I've had some
more time to experiment with New Game+. And I do agree with AV that
Soul Calibur was superior as a game to FF8 - I think FF8 is superb,
but only Soul Calibur has kept me playing on a near-daily basis since I
got it.
| That Nester joke
still cracks me up |
| I can't see why this question should be asking about
Chrono Cross. I, for one, would like to see some good, spoiler-filled
discussion on Dragon Warrior. I mean, come on, people, look at the year
on that game: 1989! Isn't it about time we talked about it? I would
like to start us off:
How about that storyline? You start out as the descendant of a great hero,
and through the game, you must gather the ancient relics that your forefather
left behind. You even discover, after a journey through a peril...less cave,
that your coming was foretold by your forefather. You then proceed to find his
sword, armor, shield, and of course, proof of your heritage. Classic.
Was anyone else surprised to find the Princess in a cave, exactly like the
townspeople said? And she even was taken eastward from the castle! How's that
for a plot twist--the information the townspeople give you is completely accurate!
There were tears in my eyes when she told me she loved me....
DW has so many great moments in it! From the guard in the castle telling
you he 'hates thee' to finally finding a magic key shop in Rimuldar, to the
epic combination of the Stones of Sunlight and the Staff of Rain to form the
Rainbow Drop...and the game even has hidden jokes for Nintendo Power
readers...it cracks me up every time the guard in Kol says, "Hast thou seen Nester? I believe he may need help." Come on everyone! Lets give this great game the credit it deserves!
...why's everyone staring at me like that?
Mike |
No comment.
| One last request |
| I'm going to have to beg you not to start posting Chrono Cross spoilers
this week. I'm only about 25-30 hours into the game, and for the first
time in my life I've -only- been able to make time to play on the weekends.
CS classes are a bitch.
David
|
Unfortunately this entire topic didn't pan out as well as I would
have liked. There was no clear consensus on if CC should be discussed
tomorrow, or any reasonable guidelines for when games should be
discussed in general. Which leaves me no choice but to make a lame
compromise decision: Chrono Cross will be discussed tomorrow, but no
spoilers are allowed. Everybody who wants to talk about CC
full-spoiler but hasn't finished the game has the rest of this
weekend to do so, and then Monday we start talking about the ending and the
ties to Chrono Trigger. And just to get you fired up about spoiler
free CC discussion, here's one last letter.
| Chrono Cross... |
| ....was badly paced in terms of storyline, had a battle system that was far
too simplistic for its own good (I ended up auto-allocating everything, and
died only once in a battle), and was filled with utterly forgettable
characters, a situation aggravated by the lousy Nobuteru Yuuki designs (this
guy has failed me twice...first with the crappy Escaflowne movie redesigns,
and now with this.)
I dunno if it was the fact that I was just finishing Vagrant Story or my
expectations were unreasonably high or what, but Chrono Cross left me
severely disappointed. I wish I'd enjoyed it like most everyone else seems
to, but I ended up having more fun replaying Vanguard Bandits twice than the
one time I played through CC.
In the end, the Summer of Adventure ended, and my two favorite titles were
not Legend of Mana and CC as I had expected, but Vagrant Story and Threads
of Fate...
Here's hoping Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama come back for a third Chrono
game, if there is one...
- Ichirou |
I shouldn't go to any great lengths to rebut this, since I'm hoping
it'll get some discussion going tomorrow. But I will say that I
disagree with just about every specific point Ichirou mentions,
although, oddly enough, I tend to agree somewhat with his conclusions.
Don't get me wrong, I think Chrono Cross was a kickass game, no
question, but it wasn't quite the brilliance I had hoped for. And
looking back, I also prefer Vagrant Story to CC, but that's probably
more due to my own changing tastes in gaming and less to the merits of
the games themselves. I do know that whatever shortcomings I see in CC
weren't due to the lack of Horii and Toriyama, but I want to hear your
takes on the matter tomorrow.
Closing Comments:
Just to recap, I'd like to hear whatever you want to talk about with
regards to Chrono Cross, but no plot spoilers, or your letter just
won't get printed no matter how good it is. No plot spoilers also
means no discussion of whatever CC/CT links there might be, no
theorizing about various characters, and no discussion of any puzzles
or how to get hidden characters. That said, go nuts. Later.
-Chris Jones, still thinks the Serge's "Swallow" weapon is damn cool |
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