Well, inch by inch, the letters flow for this column is creeping upwards. Thanks to everyone who's writing in, and remember: the letters column is nothing without you guys. Really. Otherwise, I'd have to make them up myself, and that'd be really, terminally sad.

Covering a few minor questions, no, I'm not RPGMaster!. I didn't make him up as a joke. He really exists, in some form, at least. But he isn't me. Second, apparently the FF6 "MAGIC?" scene with Locke, Edgar and Terra/Tina is not exclusive to the battle against the mechs at Figaro. In fact, it will occur the first time you use Fire magic in their presence. Interesting. In any case, on to the meat of the matter! Opa!

Evil Communists Hows it going Allan? Congrats on you and your colleuagues new site, because itlooks cool. Yeah, anyway, I have a few questions. 1. So, what do you think of Xenogears so far? I just picked a copy upyesterday, and it blew me away. Let me put it this way: Perfection. FF7 doesnot even come close to scratching the surface of it. Although I'm not that farinto the game, I can tell this, and hopefully, it won't really suddenly startsucking! 2. Hey, why exactly did you quit RPGamer? I don't think it would be justbecause you wanted to be at this new position here. 3. Have you read any of the new Rpguru's columns at RPGamer? Or do you evenvisit there anymore at all? 4. Tell Brian Glick I think he sucks. (nothing personal, of course) And don'tprovide an explanation, so I will leave the helpless fool wondering why Ithink that till the day of his death. HooHoohahahahahha!!! 5. Now that you are a secret agent, do you fight evil communists (cool) whotry to topple our fragile democratic (wimpy) government? 6. DO NOT EVER DISS BILL CLINTON AGAIN OR I WILL HAVE TO PERSONALLY DESTROYYOU WITH MY BARE FISTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once, again, goodluck, and I will check your site everyday, anxiously awaitingit's launch. 'Til next time.

1. I'm now a bit more than halfway through Xenogears, and while it has some annoying faults, it's by and large one of my favourite games in recent memory. It's a mix of everything that current RPG trends with a healthy dose of innovation. It's New School, and damn good at it, which is refreshing. Keep at it. It really gets fantastic later on, I assure you.

2. I left due to personal differences with the administrative staff at RPGamer. That's it. GIA wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eye at that point.

3. Yes, I've read Josh Reid's column. He's very literate, very clever, and quite funny at turns. Which, of course, means that I need to push myself really hard to show him up. :)

4. No comment.

5. I do both, by turns. Remember that I'm a secret *gaming* agent, however, which means that toppling governments isn't really in my jurisdiction. Keeping an eye on Bernie Stolar from atop a grassy knoll, however, is quite within my purview.

6. You'll try.

The Puzzles That Be Well, nice to see an old face again. Let's talk puzzles, shall we? Now,I'm a fan of a few select titles, while I have no clue of the genre ingeneral. I've had chances to get hooked on two games, I believe youwould call them puzzles -- namly Super Puzzle Fighter 2, and I.Q. Ifind these are absolutly fun and addicting games. I never took the timeto get the full versions of either one, but the demos! I dunno If I'mthe only one who knows this, but if you play the demo, at least on theJam Pack CD vol 1, and you have a vs, if you hit start or x both at thesame exact time when the game starts, you get 2 rounds in vs. That's howI got addicted to that game, and I absolutly love it! My friend and Ispent 7 hours once playing that game and we didn't even realise it! Am Ithe only one? Then we have I.Q. Now, at first I didn't get that game, but my god! WhenI did, I was hooked. Not as bad as Puzzle Fighter, mind you, but I trulyenjoyed it! Are these concidered, by your standards, puzzles? If theanswer is yes, please tell me where I can find other quality titles likethis and exactly what they are. Also, off the topic abit, I am a major RPG fan and I run a site on this,known as Club Squaresoft. While I get most of the coverage for RPGs, afew occasionally fall through the cracks. Any word on any great RPGsthat have the feel of say Xenogears or FF VI? Thanks for your time, and I'm looking forward to seeing the site and thereturn of many, one being Andrew Vestal! Keep the faith. -Ben Helmer http://www.clubsquaresoft.com

Ooooh, coolness. Hiya, Ben. Glad to have you reading. :) Anyhow, puzzle games tend to fall into two categories: the solo games and the party games. Puzzle Fighter is a brilliant party game, for example, while Lemmings is a solo title. As for quality puzzle titles, there's a zillion varieties of Tetris about, and a million versions of Shanghai, Mah Jongg, and Lemmings to wade through. My personal faves are the questionably-categorized Bomberman series (how puzzling the multiplayer games are, I don't really understand, but it's hella fun), Devil Dice for PSX, and though I only played it briefly at a store, Atlus' Trap Gunner was a bucket of fun. Kinda like Spy vs. Spy on crack, with chains of traps being used to blow your opponent to bits.

As for RPGs, my personal pick of the moment is Xenogears. Beyond that, Thousand Arms looks promising, and there's always Zelda, right? The only confirmed purchase I'm making before the year is out will be Lunar: Complete, but I'm guessing you know about it. But nothing that strikes me as having the same feel as Xenogears or FFVI, I'm afraid.

Playing with feet I'm a bit late with something having to do with the column from the31st. However, this does merit a little thought. When I eat, I like tohave both hands available. So, I made this little adaptor that screwsonto the joystick stub of the NES advantage and Super Advantagecontrollers, which allows me to play games with my toes. The onlyproblem is, the controller ASCIIware made for the PSX won't accept ymadaptor, because the ball on the stick doesn't screw off. In fact, itdoesn't seem to come off at all. - Bikke the Pirate

Well, having observed two people playing games with their feet for a good half-hour, and doing quite well I might add, I can safely answer that the way to go with feet gameplay is analog controllers. They don't grip as well as joysticks, but the analog pads move easily regardless of which digit is being used on them - pressing down isn't needed, unlike a control pad. So get an analog controller, my friend. It's the wave of the future.

What is a console RPG? Hiya Mr. Double Agent sir. So what is a console RPG, hmm thats a toughone. Back in the past they were D&D copies with linear plots and then grewa big plot line and lost most "traditional" pencil and paper feel. Thatwas fine of course because they were the only games that really offered anysemblance of a story for our plot thirsty minds. Now however almost allgames have a plot so the only thing that seperates them from RPGs is thecertain features like an overworld, towns, people to run into, big stupidvillians, etc. That is one of the reasons I think someone needs torevolutionize the industry just to match wits with other genres. - Just my 2 1/2 cents, Josh Justice Defining RPGs is not that hard to do. Desmond Gaban, supreme RPGbeing, once gave me a nice definition of them (and I'm paraphrasinghere): An RPG has to have two things to be an RPG. The first ischaracter development, and this is character development via a numericbased experience system. As the character progresses through thegame, he/she improves in various skills thanks to in-game experience. The second thing is a need for the game to also feature some sort ofexploration. As for things like a story, well, the purpose of a storyis to be something to motivate people to continue advancing in thegame. Anything else that way is extra. This definion really sums upan RPG, and I've yet to come up with any flaws in the defintion. - Stephen Keller

Not much for me to add. Both interesting ideas, but my epiphany on the subject has yet to come. Feel free to add your two cents on this topic, same place, same time, same address, of course.

Drawing us in Yeah, I'm bored so I thought I might as well help. Just wondering...what type of experience do you (i.e., you personally, or even the GIA staff) look for in a Role-Playing Game? Are you looking to immerse yourself in a fantasy world, or do you just want to have fun learning spells and beating enemies? Or do you look at it as a story to be played out? Or, are you just trying to be cool? ^^;; -Kantol

What do I look for in an RPG? Interesting question. Myself, I look for a story to get involved in. I like playing along as and with characters I find intriguing. I like the mysteries and the plot twists, getting to know the characters, event by event. In the end, I suppose it's the characters that are my link to the RPG. They're like old friends after thirty-odd hours of trials and tribulations, and I like that feeling. They give me a key to unlock the world around them. Without interesting characters, a plot is just an outline, and a world is just a map. It's only through the personal scale that I can really connect and immerse myself in every aspect of the story, and really enjoy myself.

I hope that makes sense.

Square developing for Dreamcast? PSX2?Allan- You guys really had me wooried for a while. When all of the greatstaff members of that other RPG site left, I had a strange sinking inmy heart. I could barely eat, sleep, drink, or be merry until I foundwhat happened. Until one day, I went to Final Fantasy VIII:The NextMission and saw an update pluging your site.(Where else could I go?)So here I am. Now for a question that has me worried since I first sawthe rumor a month ago. Did Square get development kits for Dreamcast? I didn't pay much heed to it, but it has recently come up again andnow I am wondering. What about the rumor that Square also hasdevelopment kits for the new playstation console that will come out?Please inform us and clear up the pollution that has infected thegaming web. Big Don

Glad to hear that you're happy to see us all back and active again. Well, kinda, at least for the moment. In any case, yes, Square received development kits for Dreamcast. This does not, however, mean that we'll be seeing FF9 for DC announced. Sega sent the kits as a teaser, showing the capabilities of the DC to a major game manufacturer. Square also received Saturn development kits, and that didn't make them a Saturn developer. Same deal here. As for the development kit for the new Playstation, that's still rumor to my knowledge. For obvious reasons, Sony's keeping a tight lid on this sort of thing. It does, however, stand to reason that if there *is* a PSX2 development kit in existence, Sony would send one to Square right quick. They'll get one soon enough if they don't already.

Bandwagon Ah... a nice new home for my oh-so-occasional letters, albeit anawfully tan one (thus far). I wanted to weigh in about the disturbingresults of that Square survey. We can't place all the blame on Squarefor creating shallow gamers, we sure as hell can blame them formilking that shallowness for every last sold copy they can. Rememberthose FFVII & PE ads? It wasn't so much the TV commercials thatoffended my better sense, but all the print ads. They refused to showa single frame or snippet of gameplay footage, and went on to blastcartridges and competing systems for no reason. It was tactless andtasteless, and one of many things turning me off to the new Square. But that new Square learned their lesson when FFVII failed to sell amillion copies in the US. Square was barely able to *ship* a millioncopies, and that was 6 long months after the game was released. Thepress release (available on their web site) is evidence that all theads and CG scenes ended only in disappointing sales, 757,000 by theend of '97. They twisted words and used "sell-through" once in therelease before changing to "sales", despite referring to copies onshelves and in warehouses everywhere. Misleading, and on purpose. Sowhen Xenogears comes out with its old-school style, Square barelyacknowledges its existence. Not cool enough, not smooth and flashyenough, not hype-worthy. Square may not have created these things, but they havewhole-heartedly embraced the shallow ideals of image over substance. And they crave the gamer who follows those ideals too, gamers like theones that survey shows they have found. - Ed McGlothlin

757,000 sales are disappointing? For an RPG? In North America? I'll leave the remainder of the letter open for respondents to deal with, but 700k sales for an RPG in North America is nothing short of a miracle. That's more than twice what FF6 or Chrono Trigger sold, on a system with a considerably larger user base than Playstation. The release of FF7 opened the gates for RPG success in North America wide open. This is not a failure by any stretch of the imagination, nor a disappointment. If it was, why would so many other games be ported for US release at all? Dislike the "new Square" if you will, but denying the success of FF7 is ridiculous.

Well, that's enough for now. I'm going to try and put together an archive for Double Agent tomorrow night, time permitting, so in the meantime, just be cool y'all, go play some Bomberman, and hug an adorable kitten for me. Ta!

- Allan Milligan, Double Agent