Mo' Better Letters - October
10, 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 don't like Radiohead all that much. Feel free to throw
rocks at me.
Don't say we didn't warn you.
Is good? Da, is good. The letters problem has gone away, so
should be a good column today. Also, Ain't It
Cool News reports
that Terry Gilliam (he of Baron Munchausen and 12 Monkeys) is indeed
serious about directing Gaiman and Pratchett's "Good Omens", as
well as Alan Moore's "Watchmen". I'm still taking the news as a
grain of salt, but it's a good thing to hear, and gets me in a
better mood.
Onward.
| I can't count |
| Dear Mr. Henshaw,
In response to yesterday's Roman numeral topic, "IIII"
and "VIIII" actually make for a more historically-accurate
clock. Many early clocks did not have hands; instead,
the clock face rotated, displaying the current window in
at the top. "IV" and "VI" were easy to confuse
(especially for illiterate medieval peasants), hence the
"IIII" and "VIIII". As clocks changed and people became
less stupid, clockmakers switched to "IV" and "VI to save
space. The rest of society adopted this subtractive
method shortly thereafter.
So the "IIII"s and "VIIII"s used in FF VII and FF VIII
actually fit the old-fashioned settings better -- the
derelict Temple of the Ancients, and Ultimecia's gothic
castle. (Granted, Ultimecia's castle is technically in
the future, but it still looks old.) Did Square actually
intentionally use the out-dated numerals when rendering
the backgrounds? Probably, seeing as how we have "Final
Fantasy IV" and "Final Fantasy IX" instead of "Final
Fantasy IIII" and "Final Fantasy VIIII" ;).
And that's the rest of the story!
- Fritz |
Lots of people sent in letters about this, but Fritz got bonus
points for being the very first to do so and providing the most
interesting answer. He's right, I'm wrong, and that's the way it is on
October 10th, 2000.
| Ok, let's review the
acronym OST, people... |
| Hey Chris,
You said you had bought SF2. I was contemplating getting the game, but
everyone so far has given it horrible reviews. That's not really important;
everyone gave SaGa Frontier bad reviews and I loved that game. I also
enjoyed Tales of Destiny, although I almost threw my consol out the window
because of that damned Helraios (or however you spell it) code. Since
you're like some sort of game guru, I thought I'd ask how you thought of it
so far. Get a "professional's" point o' view. I'm not saying game critics
are not professional....okay, so I am. Oh, and for a closing comment in
case you post this, for all those who bad mouthed Star Ocean 2....WHERE THE
HELL IS YOUR HEAD LOCATED?!? SO2 kicks FF8's ass. So there.
~Fallen Angel Id~ |
Actually, I said I bought the OST, or Original SoundTrack - the
game music, in other words. But yeah, I got the game when it came out,
and I think it's excellent. (And for the record, most of the reviews
I've seen on the game agree.) It's not at all like the original, and I
can see where people are coming from who call the plot a bit dry and
the weapon system overly complex, but the graphics, music, and overall
atmosphere completely floored me. Heck, just thinking about it puts me
in such a good mood that I'll ignore that slander at the end of your
email.
| Hyper-positive review #1 |
| Chris,
Ogre Battle 64...what to say. Though I never played the original two, I was
and currently am a complete FFT fanactic. So far, OB64 hasn't disappointed.
The character design remains in its original "sans-nose" fashion, which is quite
pleasant. Battles feel sort of like an overstuffed version of the Fort Condor
mini-game from FFVII (not that that's a bad thing). Investigation mode rules as well.
The story is a bit cliché, but still enjoyable. Overall, I say to thee, BUY THIS GAME!
-Megane |
Good to know, and more or less in line with what I've been hearing.
But now I can't remember: was "thee" the familiar form of "you", or
the formal form of "you"? Man, I'll be up all night wondering about
that...
| He doesn't have a PSX... |
| But I can contribute anyway. MGS looks pretty damn
cool when you pump the resolution up to 1024x768 and turn on 4-sample
anti-aliasing on your Voodoo5. And heck, it only cost me $2500 to do
this!
-MeekayD
Whose laughing now? Heh....errr........damn. |
I wanted to point this out for two reasons: first off, all of you
without Playstations can now see what we've been babbling about for the
past couple of years (although I tend to think it won't play quite as
well on a computer) and second, this points out a mistake I may have
made a while back. I suggested that the X-Box Metal Gear Solid
would be unlikely to be a remake of MGS1, and that Kojima would have
to be on board with any such remake, which he doesn't have the time to
do. The PC version clearly proves me wrong, and if they can sell a PC
version of MGS1, maybe they'll sell an X-Box version. I still say it's
more likely to be a port of MGS2, but thought I should bring this up
for fairness' sake.
| Time is the fire in
which we all roast our marshmallows... |
| Mr. Jones,
I was going to write in yesterday, but when I looked at my letter I realized
that it really didn't have anything to say about gaming culture that was new
or interesting and figured someone else would write something more pertinent
and get a good debate going. But after reading last night's column I too
feel dirty for shirking my duty as a loyal reader. So here I go.
Over the weekend my wife said to me "Time makes great sandpaper. It rounds
out the edges." How right she was! In thinking about what she said , I had
to laugh in remembering that when FFVII first came out I thought everyone
that everyone hated it, I read so many rants and complaints about the game.
But now if you hear FFVII mentioned 85% of the time it's in favor of the
game saying that it was a great game as opposed to 50% in favor earlier.
Games that have something intrinsically good about them age like wine. Some
wine while not great at first must be given a few months to years to reach
it full splendor. FFVII, disdained by so many is now generally held in high
regard. Grandia while a good game on the Saturn reached near god-like status
to many before it reached the PSX front. I really hated FFV when I first
played it, but now when I go back to that universe I don't find it nearly as
offensive. Who knows, maybe someday gamers will admit that FFVIII was an Ok
game after all, one can only hope.
This might be due in part, to the fact that incessant complainers (you know
the type) need to complain about current things to get the attention they
need (admittedly most people wont pay attention to someone complaining about
FFIV) and in their absence the silent majority is finally heard. But I also
think that, like me and FFV, many gamers go back with more opened minds more
willing to forgive some flaws for a good gaming experience. Most games will
not age like this, I admit, 5 years from now Legend of Dragoon will still
suck and Legend of Mana will still "feel empty", but games that have
something inherently good about them will have that "sandpaper of time" work
on them as time passes, or perhaps the sandpaper works on us. Now there's a
thought!
Mr. Cruz |
So wait, the sandpaper of time scratches our CDs so we can't play
them anymore? Dammit, I hate it when that happens...
Or perhaps the explanation is this: the people who said they hated
FF7 have stopped gaming altogether, which is why we don't hear them
complaining anymore. Strange as it may seem, a lot of the people who
didn't like the game weren't just complaining to hear themselves talk -
they really, really disliked what Square had done and took off for
greener pastures. Alternatively, it could just be the case that people
tend to focus on what's new and different with their complaints - why
trash FF7 when you can trash FF8, Vagrant Story, or Chrono Cross
instead? Interesting idea, tho.
| Buy low, sell high |
| Yo yo yo Jo,
Ogre Battle looks sweet. But I think I'll save my money for Zeldas,
Final Fantasys, etc. Ogre Battle 64 will be one of those games that:
1. Will be dirt cheap at Best Buy in about a year.
and
2. Will be godawfully expensive at Funcoland in about 5 years.
That is, of course, if it's good.
I'd put more thoughts down, but I've been typing all forking yesterday,
and got little sleep. Damn commi education system.
-Scott |
Considering that the game was only released in limited quantities,
I think it may skip step one altogether. Still, if you want to invest
your money in something a bit more tangible than NASDAQ stocks, you
might want to give this a try.
| And those people are
not rugs... |
| Chris,
Tell that guy to stop calling us Orientals!!! Those are rugs not
people!
Genji
AL |
Damn, I completely missed that, and probably wouldn't have put it up
if I had seen it. My apologies.
| You could at least see
the next Sakaguchi |
| CJ,
Did you want to buy RPG Maker? I'm asking because I'm currently in a
exceedingly boring part of FM3 (go figure), and I realized that I had bought
RPG Maker a few weeks ago. So I started it up...and after 4 hours of working
I shut it off. I agree with the GIA's review of the game to an extent, but
the reviewer seemed to have missed the biggest problem with the game: IT'S
BORING!
Four hours I spent making 4 main characters and their equipment. That was
all that I could get done. Today I somehow managed to piece together a world
map. And there is no way I'm going to build a thriving city with only 2
building graphics. Don't get me wrong, I wanted RPG Maker every since it was
hinted at two years ago. But this was nothing like I expected. I guess I'll
wait for the first brave soul to submit a save file to see whether I'll
continue to painstakingly create a tiny, limited universe of my own device.
But I don't expect it anytime soon.
Just consider this a...uh...public service announcement.
-Red Raven, who's first RPG is a parody of his school life (go figure) |
This isn't that surprising - people have been saying for months that
the game would be very tough to use without a keyboard for text.
However, I'd still hang on to your copy, because even though you might
find it a pain to use, I guarantee there are people willing to put in
the insane amounts of work needed to produce their own console RPG, and
even if most of them completely suck, one or two will probably be
really good. Think about it - you could see the very first work of the
next Sakaguchi or Miyamoto on display... it'd be like seeing "The
Spirit of Christmas" before South Park came out, except, you know,
interesting and tasteful. Seriously, I think ASCII may have missed a
trick by not releasing a free RPG Maker game player, to increase the
audience and interest in making games with this thing. And heck, at
the very least you can amuse yourself by looking at some of the more...
hapless... attempts.
| Trick out your PSX with
one of those annoying neon lights on the bottom... |
| Yo Chris,
I finally won an import Xenogears on eBay. I was planning on tricking out my
PSX to play it, since I'd have the PS2 if I horribly failed. However, I was
wondering if there is any way to get them to play on the PS2. I know that
you can on the PS2 kits that reviewers get, so that they can play demos and
such, but have you heard anything about import PSX games on the normal PS2 so
that I don't have to put my system under the knife?
And now that I need a mod chip, got any good ideas? (I'm basically inept at
mechanics I think, and don't really want to destroy my PSX, which might
happen...)
--The Steve |
Ok, here's the deal: don't have a modded PSX myself, know
nothing about them, and don't really want to talk about them in the
column. (So don't send me info on mod chips tomorrow!) However, I ran this past the staff channel and
here's the basic gist of what they said:
A US PS2 will not play Japanese games of any kind, unless modded.
While there are Japanese mods already out, these may not work on the
US PS2s since there are some hardware differences and Sony may have
already designed around the existing mods. There will likely be mod
chips for the PS2 when it comes out in the US, but these may take a
few weeks or so to be developed. End of lesson.
| Remix by the Chemical
Brothers. |
| Mr Jones,
Well, I haven't really delved into Ogre Battle 64 just yet, but since you
touched on the subject of soundtracks in yesterday's column, I thought I'd
mention the music. Ah, the glorious, wonderfully remixed music... although I
haven't heard MY favorite track remixed. Let's just hope "Wall of Defense"
shows up later, hm?
-Some Random Jerk |
Don't remember the original music all that well, but this should
provide a good, nostalgic selling point for some of you. Party on.
| Hyper-positive review
#2 |
| Ogre Battle 64 is easily the SECOND best game I've
ever played (behind Chrono Trigger). In it, you've got all the great gameplay,
music, graphics, etc. that made the original a classic. I can't even begin to
describe the nostalgic feel of beginning a long, difficult mission (full of MANY
enemy units ready to easily kill you), and suddenly hearing a classic Ogre Battle
song blast away the fear and frustration. It's like an old friend has appeared to
guide you through the darkness. Anyway, like I said, the game is a must-buy for Ogre
Battle fans and a must-rent for everyone else. This game has the most strategy elements
I've ever seen in a game, period. There's nothing quite like defeating a map,
knowing that you won because you arranged and deployed your forces successfully.
Also, the graphics are so good in this game that they make you wish that there
were more sprite-based games in the world. The magic effects for such attacks as
the Tempest and the Earthquake are especially awesome. My only complaints: the same
background music is used in a good deal of the missions; the game starts out really
slow; and graphics for non-magic attacks are kind of dull. However, if you can look
past those few faults and look at the great storyline, music, and gameplay, I guarantee
that any Strat/RPG will enjoy Ogre Battle 64. Finally, we N64 fans have an RPG-like
game to be proud of! Final Score: 9.7. I wanted to write more, but it is pretty long
already and I did not want to bore anyone. |
Nothing more to say, I think.
Closing Comments:
Ok, good to be back to normal. I'd like to remind folks that I'll be
doing another reader suggested topic at the end of the column tomorrow, so if you want to be
considered get your letters in soon. As for the actual topic for
tomorrow, let's get some letters on Pokemon. Is G/S going to revive
the series, or has Pokemon settled into being no different from all the
other game series out there? Do you still hate Pokemon with a passion,
or has it become tolerable via the sandpaper of time? Talk to you
tomorrow.
-Chris Jones, saying "Only you
can prevent empty DA columns."
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