Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Double-wide pride taken in stride. Don't say we didn't warn you.

I must say that life is substantially more enjoyable when you don't have to worry about frivolties like "bettering yourself" or "studying." And, sadly, if you were expecting any other nugget of wisdom, you're out of luck.

Some people pointed out that I was basing my viewpoint on a poorly-recorded piano solo. To which I say: that's true. If people are allowed to decide a game will suck or not based on the presence of dragons, why shouldn't I be allowed to make logical leaps based on minimal knowledge?

However, to my defense, I will say that the piano sound had the same quality to it that piano samples for the SNES sound library had, and yes, that is something you can tell, even on a poorly-recorded clip. Not only that, but if you're showing off a new PS2 game that's supposed to serve as a monument to the technology as well as present the giant push forward you intend on giving a genre, I'd expect something a little more dynamic than a crummy piano solo.

Lastly, as you say, I will give Nobuo the benefit of the doubt for now, but considering his track record with the past 2 Final Fantasy games, I'm a bit incredulous at this point. In other words, I'm "thobbing": thinking my opinion then believing it. Thobbing. My opinion is that Nobuo's more recent work has been less-than-spectacular. Therefore I think this recent sampling lends credence to that opinion, leading me to believe in my view all the more.

People use that tactic to rationalize religious beliefs all the time, and if there's one thing I've learned hosting this column, Final Fantasy is pretty much a religion.

I'm not even going to bother pointing out the numerous holes in this logic, since I assume you're at least being partially facetious. I will say, however, that I can also hum a multitude of other recent games' tunes off the top of my head. Several of the dungeon tunes in Zelda: OoT, the final boss music from FFVII and FFVIII, and the opening theme from Chrono Cross just to name a few. Memorable game music of the past made the best of the current technology, as the memorable tunes of today must also do.

Like I said, I'm incredulous; we'll see what he does with the PS2. The PS2's sound capabilities are, for all practical purposes, practically limitless. If he manages to make that sound worse than the stuff Mitsuda has already done on the PSX, then I'd say it's time for him to either quit or take some lessons from his peers.

That could be. Although the early FFIX clips just used music from FFVII and FFVIII, so that could've just been some quick piece of crap Nobuo or someone else whipped up. I hope so, at least.

And yes, these are indeed secretive times we live in, it would seem. I guess Nintendo isn't the only company worried about having all of their ideas stolen by other companies.

See? We can agree on things. Now I feel bad about hurling napalm into your window.

First of all, the Saturn had quite a few decent games. I'm too tired to go ahead and list them all, but I wouldn't write the system off as a total failure, even if it never caught on like the PSX or N64. If anything, it was a testament to how important ease of programmability is.

And anyway, I'm not comparing the two systems as much as I'm contrasting the enthusiasm for them; people are all gungho about the PS2 despite the fact that it has yet to prove itself, while less and less attention is being given the deserving Dreamcast. This shows a greater emphasis on name brand than actual goods, which is deplorable. And because people are shunning the Dreamcast already so as to fawn over the latest gadget, you're right: it probably won't be viable in a year. And frankly, that's a damn shame.

Warning: this is about to become a long-winded, opinionated rant, as I'm far behind in my quota of late.

Now, you could chalk it up to the fact that the PS2 is the latest and greatest, hence the enthusiasm. But, frankly, I've always had a problem with that mentality. Unless a console comes out with games that represent a leap forward to match the growth of technology, I don't care. That's why I always end up buying Nintendo's system first; sure, the PSX had some nice fighting games and the like in its first few years, but the N64 had Mario 64, which was above and beyond anything I'd ever seen before. That's what I expect in a launch title. I don't buy into this "get the hardware on the market and the games will come" mentality. Games justify a system's existence, and if a company doesn't plan on having innovative new titles ready with the launch, it shows me the company has grown too big for its britches and assumes people will want whatever it sticks on shelves.

The sad part is that people really do seem to feel that way. Oh well. Of course, I'm pretty shot as I write this, so I'm sure my logic is full of holes and blatant overgeneralizations. That'll give you something to whine to Chris about, now won't it?

Closing comments:

Well, that was fun. Write to Chris, okay?

-Drew Cosner, based on the obscure silent film of the same title