All quiet on the eastern front. | FF Movie thoughts | What do you think of the whole Final Fantasy movie thing? Do you think therewill be any point in seeing it other than for the very nice animation? Of the RPG's you've played, what one do you think had the best plot? Jonathan S. |
Well, as you say, the animation for the FF movie should be most impressive. The plot should be good, though I dearly hope it doesn't star yet another protagonist with MPS. What worries me most, though, is the quality of the voice acting. English redubbing of animation produced outside of America is spotty business. I assume that Square will want to put their best foot forward here, and hire top-flight voice actors for the FF Movie, but then again, they may be planning to sell it on the basis of name recognition and visual WOW factor. Which would be extremely annoying, and would support the popular notion that video game based projects have to be stupid and lame in the script and story category. As for the most impressive plot I've ever seen in an RPG... erm... I honestly don't know. I must give kudos to Xenogears, though, for pulling together a shocking number of plot threads towards the end of the game. It was sort of annoying for a while, but it really came together. | Backlash | When a trend is popular--so popular that you see it onthe news--there is usually an instant "counter-culture"reaction. "Spice girls suck!" "Titanic sucks!" "Wrestlingsucks!" ...and now, sadly, "Zelda 64 sucks!" Sure, I've done my fair share of bitching. Mostly aboutFinal Fantasy 7. But that game had actual flaws; likecontrol so horrid you needed a giant mickey mouse handto find out where you can enter/exit a screen. Don'tworry, this won't be a FF7-sucked-a-thon, I'm justpointing out that yes, the game had issues. Tons of them.Hell, FF7 had so many issues it had back issues. Zelda 64, on the other hand, does not. For the sake of argument, I won't say it's perfect, because you can't improve on perfection. And with Lunar:SSS, FF8 and so many other good "Intelligent" games on the way, Zelda 64 won't stay king forever. However, I *will* say that Zelda 64's flaws are so petty it deserves nothing less than the highest praise. Rarely has there been a game I've had so much fun with. A game that even I, king of complaining, can't find one damn thing to bitch about. The point of all this is that hype works both ways. Itcan get the masses juiced about a game, but it can alsoget soggy "oldbies" set dead-against a perfectly goodgame, simply because so many people like it. When CNN does a feature on your favorite game, it's kind of hard to feel like an "Elite Hardcore Gamer"--but that doesn't mean it's any less of a masterpiece. Beware the anti-hype. Don't let it ruin your fun. - Thor "CyberThor" Antrim |
On the one hand, this is a trend I notice and am annoyed by on a regular basis. Yes, lots of great games are trashed horribly after a burst of initial praise. It's like clockwork, really. It isn't all unjustified, however. I've certainly received letters from people who don't think it's all it's cracked up to be. Some of them are kneejerk reactions, some of them are aesthetic complaints, and some of them are genuine gripes about the game. They have found flaws that prevent them from having fun with the game. Yes, anti-hype does exist, an inexplicable and consistent trend for the top of the heap to be ripped apart, seemingly on the principle of it sometimes. But there is no game in existence that satisfies every gamer, and like it or not, there are people who simply don't like Zelda 64. And they're as entitled to their opinions as you are, my friend. Don't knock 'em - distinguish the trolls from those people who just don't agree with you, and always, always make sure no one ruins your fun. | Porting games and emu morality | 1)In a recent RPGamer there was talk of someone importing Japanese gamesfor the SNES and talking about buying a converter. A converter, eh? Iwould rent quite a few Japanese games from a local rental store in the area and I never once had to use any converter. One of my friends also letme borrow the Japanese Dracula X, and it worked flawlessly on myamerican SNES with no problems. What is all this silly converter talk? 2)You said that it would be doubtful for Grandia to come out on the PSX. I was just wondering, what do you think Working Designs "surprise" RPG is going to be? 3)Do you think WD will continue to make games for the PSX2000 or whateverthe heck Sony decides to call it? 4)Wasn't Brigandine supposed to blend the best Elements of Dragon Forceand some other game. From what I've heard it looks kinda Shining Force-ish? I can't really see any Dragon Force elements. 5)And for all the un-informed, it FFT ripped off any game it was NOT Ogre Battle or Ogre Tactics. Try the Shining Force series. Geez, when didSF1 come out? 1992 maybe? 6)Damn, I forgot what I was going to ask.... 7)Oh yeah! Do you think it would be considered illegal to buy the Japanese packs for FFV and SD3 and then play the translated roms? Kinda silly,but hypothetically? Though you have answered previous letters of mine, please answer this one. It has some questions I really wonder about. If not in your column atleast personally. PLEASE ^_^ Robindra N. Deb |
1. There are little tabs in the cartridge slot of most SNESes, little plastic knobs that slide into little holes in the bottoms of US carts when they're inserted. Super Famicom games don't have these little holes, so the plastic tabs prevent the cart from going on. Your SNES, for whatever reason, appears to lack these tabs. Most people either have to remove the tabs with an X-acto knife, or else use a converter cart that circumvents the problem. 2. I'm not quite sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a Langrisser game, possible the 1&2 collection put out in Japan a while back. If not that, then I just don't know. They've denied all my other guesses... 3. Very likely, yes. 4. The movement of troops is Dragon Force-ish. Namely, you group units together and move them from castle to castle on a world map, as opposed to a Shining Force-style walkabout mode in between battles. 5. Yeah, Shining Force is a classic. I'm not sure if it was *the* first Strategy RPG, but it's damned close. 7. Morally, I think that's fair: you paid for the games, and while you're certainly voiding your warranty, playing an "altered" version of a game you own is okay. Legally, probably not - very little in the emulation world is totally legal. | FREE RPGs | I don't know, maybe its me.. but doesn't it seem silly to call a gametype an acronym that when expanded, still needs to be further broken downbefore its understood? And calling it "FREE" no less? Isn't that practically inviting piratesand five-finger discounters? ---TorgVega Q |
Agreed. Terribly silly, ill-advised, lame. The game itself sounds intriguing, but man, that's an acronym we just didn't need... | Sounds of translation | Dear Allan, I've been reading the debate going back and forth over the past few days overtranslation, and I really do think that there are some people thatmisunderstand the fundemental nature of translation itself. I think it can bebest summed up by using anaologies in music. When a violin repeats what a piano just has played, it can't make the samesounds.It can only approximate the same chords. It can, however, recognizably makethe same "music". But.. it can only do so when it's faithful to the logic andlimtiations of the violin as it is to the logic and limitations of the piano. Languages are like that, too. Each has their own "sound" and their own logic.The process of rendering ideas from language to language is really more like atransposition than a translation-- translation implies that there are word-for-word equivalents that exist from one language boundray to another no morethan piano sounds exist in the violin! And the idea of word-for-word equivalents of a story, of a language'sunderlying feeling strikes me as false to the nature of story telling.The best a translator can do is hope for is to come close as possible not tothe text's literal meaning-- it's is near impossible to drag a sentence'smeaning across one language barrier to another intact. What is more important in preserving,even at the expense of making four strings do the same notes as 88 keys (i.e.English from Japanese), is that the translator preserve a story essence, thetotal feeling of the complexities. If a translator has used some Americian idioms in stead of a Japanese one, ifa bit of humor that the US audience might not understand is left out... whatdoes thatmatter in long run, as long as you find yourself sympathizing with thecharacters, despising the villians, getting wrapped up in the story.. and overall,enjoying the game, as the designers intend? Sincerely,Shawn David Struck |
Shawn, you get a big gold star for this letter. Clear, concise, and I agree almost completely. Good job. | Exodus Guilty | Hey, nice site. Funny how you sort of crawled out of the woodwork;since some of you fellows are relatively well-known, I would have thoughtyou'd debut with a bit more fanfare. As it is, I stumbled upon youcompletely by accident. A fortuitous mischance. Anyway, I was wondering if you knew anything regarding an RPG calledExodus Guilty, developed by Abel and published by Imadio, that shipped inJapan a couple of days ago. I've seen some screenshots and art onNational Console Support's page and on the page that linked me to yours.It looks quite lovely, and the story seems ever-so-slightly reminiscent ofChrono Trigger (or perhaps Phantasy Star 3 would be a better comparison).Anyway, I know it will never be released in this country, but I'm curiousas to whether you know more about the game than I nonetheless. If it's any consolation, there are people out here who don't dislike youfor disliking Zelda. Stick to your guns, and if you ever need someone tohelp answer questions, drop me a line; I have a fearful command of trivia,and my sense of humor is proven to drop full-grown cows at fifty paces. Sincere regards, Rev. Dr. David Francis Smith. |
Sorry, Doc. I'm afraid this is the first I've heard of Exodus Guilty, myself. Still, I'll take this opportunity to wonder: has anyone out there played Knight and Baby? I saw a preview of it in Gamer's Republic a month ago, and it looks seriously bizarre, but in a cool sort of way. Anyone have any information on it, perchance? (It's unlikely to see US release, and thus out of GIA's jurisdiction, but hey, I'm curious...) I'll be more talkative in a few more days. I'm just kinda buried in work at the moment, which sucks out my wit right quick. Keep the letters rolling in, though, or I'll beat you with a wet Oreo. - Allan Milligan, cracking under the pressure | | | |
