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. In your face, space coyote! Don't say we didn't warn you.

Late last night I finally managed to finish the epilogue in Lunar 2. (Yeah, I know, it took me too long, I suck.) Enjoyable game, if not the best thing I've ever played... but it was also a little bittersweet, since Lunar 2's likely the last PSX game I'll ever play. Fortunately, Skies of Arcadia still awaits, not to mention ZOE and my guilty pleasure of the year, The Bouncer. Like the man said, the road goes on forever, and the party never ends.

Onward.

It's hard to see this game as anything but another cash cow for Nintendo, as they try to further merchandize their existing character base. But that said, it does show some glimmers of goodness. Any news on a GameCube game, especially an RPG, is welcome, and given Nintendo's long running resistance to traditional RPGs, a Star Fox RPG could be fairly fun and innovative. As AJ points out, ship combat could be done to great effect, and good space opera is always welcome. The Dinosaur Planet engine was fairly ambitious, and could do well on the GC. In short, this might be nothing but an attempt by Nintendo to make some cash, but it could still be worthwhile.

Come on, the days of "Final Fantasy USA" are long gone, along with lousy Zero Wing translations. At the same time, a Tetris RPG isn't all that impossible - there are Japanese puzzle games with RPG-like plots out there. We're all now one big happy multi-national family, and don't you forget it.

I honestly don't see the need for magic (or psychic powers, or the alias of your choice) in all RPGs. Pretty spell effects are all well and good, but straight combat with guns and grenades and smart missiles could be cool too. Star Fox strikes me as something that could do well with a healthy dose of Metal Gear Solid - let's have more gunplay and fewer MPs.

...

Why in Sakaguchi's name would you need three copies of FF3? Still, that's cool about finding a copy of Ogre Battle... now if only you could go back in time and play it before anybody had seen FFT, so it's originality could be fully appreciated

The difference between Tetris and an RPG is that the original FF concept was something that could be expanded and refined over and over again, whereas Tetris was pretty much complete in it's first iteration. In the same way, 3D is something that's still being developed on a daily basis, but when was the last time you saw a truly innovative 2D game? True, there hasn't been a lot of focus on 2D in the last 5 years, but that's where the GBA comes in - it's now time for 2D to put up or shut up.

And even after reading it five times, I can't figure out how you worked that Starship Troopers rant in there. Still, I'll stand up for the movie: where the book was jingoistic and naive, the film was a fairly sharp satire that elegantly deconstructed WWII era propaganda.

Plus it had Denise Richards, but that's arguably more bad than good.

Serge's battle model eyes? They sure as hell are. Everybody else gets a passable texture map for a face, but Serge gets two big brown bruises that cover 90% of his skull. The Silent Hill designers could do a lot worse than borrow the design for their next game.

Closing Comments:

I doubt there's much call for it, but if anybody has Lunar 2 spoilers they'd like to send in, feel free. Meantime, I'd like to hear your take on the PSX, now that the system's gone. How does it rank vs. the NES, SNES, or N64? What's your favorite game on the system, now that everything's out? Send in an email, and later.

-Chris Jones, better than Ezra