Well, here goes nothing. The gush of mail that my rantings of three days ago spawned has nearly dried up. Oh, the dangers of anger - it's exciting for a while, but fades away all too fast. Very annoying. In any case, I've got a homework assignment for all of you tonight, to hopefully churn out a few letters for tomorrow's column. Here's the challenge: what's the most absurd gaming-related rumor you've ever heard? Preferably ones that ended up being completely, amusingly false. What's the biggest groaner, the most ironic prediction or catchphrase you remember? In other news, we've got a new Deep Thought up, with another one going up tomorrow about the End of Final Fantasy, so watch for that. 'Til then, be well, and be happy. Ta! | Kibbles 'n bits | 1. I may have missed the "best party game" debacle, but I have somethingto add anyway. You Don't Know Jack is one of the best party games ever,even though it IS on PC....hopefully the PSX version is all newquestions and doesn't get canned. 2. What does a Russian Duck sound like? 3. So what is Lunar like exactly? Is it like...ugh..Lufia with puzzlesup the yin yang or is it a more straightforward RPG? 4. Who would win in a fight, you or Thor Antrim? - Bryan "PSXLord" Carr |
1. Ah... You Don't Know Jack... the one time I played that, I got completely stomped. Whee. 2. Trick question. All the ducks in Russia were shot twenty years ago during a political purge. So they don't make any sound at all. 3. It's more of a straightforward RPG. Some puzzles, of course, but more emphasis on storyline and characterization than anything else. 4. Me, of course. That pansy Thor couldn't even beat up AK. I'd work him over like a wheat thresher. Wouldn't even break a sweat. No problem at all. | Hidden classics | - Meiour Setsuna
Legacy of the Wizard: An action game with lots of RPG elements. You havecontrol of several members of a family descended from a warior whobanished a dragon long ago. The dragon is waking up, and you need tosearch the nearby dungeon to find the four magical crowns andthe dragonslayer sword so you can defeat the Wyrm. The reason it sticks in my mind is beacuse it is the _most_ dificult gameI remember ever playing. I never even got close to finishing without usinga cheat code. I pulled out my NES a few months ago to go retro and play afew old games. I plugged this one in and got utterly lost, and no closerto solving it. Anybody who wants to try this one out, good luck! And letme know if you actually manage to beat it! =) - Geoff Finger
Now for some gushing on a minor RPG, so as to avoid too muchcontroversy. I'll start with a disclaimer that I have played only theNES Ultima Exodus, which I believe is the 3rd game in the series. From all accounts from big Ultima fans, only the 6th and beyond werereally good, but I can't attest to that. What I can say, though, isthat I hated the NES Ultima. I picked up Exodus several times atBlockbuster because it looked like an RPG, but it was a complete wasteof money. The music was frighteningly horrible. Worse than justmuting it, I had to sit there, playing the game in silence, with thoseterrible songs haunting me. Even for NES games the graphics were ajoke. When you step, the team jumps from square to square. Combinethat with the black-out effect you get from forests, and walkingaround, even in a town, has the feel of staggering around completelywasted. The combat system was stupid. Touch one wrong button and theguy refused to take a turn. Even my fighters missed about 80% of thetime. The overall gameplay feel was complete and aimless wandering(or staggering) which puts SaGa Frontier to shame. - Michael Goff |
Ah... cool beans. Legacy of the Wizard was cited twice, along with Shadowrun for Genesis, Shadowrun for SNES, and Poy Poy, and a few others. In Ultima: Exodus' defense, though, I should point out that it was already a few years old when it debuted on NES, and was, if anything, downgraded when it made the leap to 8-bit from the computer. But yeah, it wasn't exactly the crowning moment for the Ultima series; things sort of blurred together after a while, instead of getting more exciting as you progessed. Bleah. As a tangent to this, has anyone ever been so infuriated by a game (RPG, strategy and puzzle only, natch) that they literally threw it across the room? Ever shatter a CD? Ever break a cart? Ever see how SNES carts were harder than compressed lead? | Gotta have Fire Emblem! | I know I've bothered you with this game already, but I must say this: FireEmblem: Mystery of the Crest is the best game that never reached US. Um... wait. Yes. Fire Emblem: MotC does have its weaknesses. It may seemeasy for strategy experts. You cannot save during the battles (this broke myheart manymanymany times), and once you lose a character, he/she is goneforever. Well, almost. The graphic looks funny. The last boss music (in thefirst part) makes you laugh. Also, there are great games like SeikenDensetsu 3 with its close-to-perfect job/class system, Dragon Quest 6 withits unique fun stuff, etc. But I'm telling you, Fire Emblem: MotC isaddictive. It's a fetish, an obsession itself. When I owned SFC, I played it10 hours every day - this is not funny, considering that this was duringschool days. (I went to school at 6:30 and came home after 5. Imagine...) Iwould have surely played more if my bro weren't in my way. ;) Fire Emblem also deserves credit for being the first S-RPG ever. The FE thatI'm talking about is a remake plus alpha version of the original FE; itsgameplay literally doubled in SFC version. That's a big plus. I think allremakes should have pluses like this. Being a game of the past, FE's story is kinda cheesy... Not the Mystery ofthe Crest part (the new addition to the SFC version), but the Dark Dragonand the Light Sword chapter (doesn't the chapter name sound cheesy? ^^;) ButI think that the background stories of some important characters do enoughto make up the cheesiness. If you haven't played FE at the time it was released, it's hard to imagine.The units had all the essential parameters, weaknesses and strong points;this is very important when judging Fire Emblem since that game started thewhole history of S-RPG. Its graphic can cause a serious belly muscle damagedue to laughing, but it's cute in its own way, and again, this game is from1993. (uh... I think) The music was fairly good; some of the tunes are veryimpressive in spite of the 1993's MIDI quality. About its difficulty, theycould not make FE any harder because no one was used to S-RPGs back then.The sequel to FE: MotC, Geneology of the Holy War, has a good chalange. Fire Emblem was an innovation to the gaming history like Street Fighter 2and the original Dragon Quest. It's sad that Fire Emblem doesn't getencomium that it deserves while those two games do. Now, Nintendo, why areyou releasing new FE for SFC!? -Keiiii If the new FE game is not in my hands before 2002, someone at Nintendo isgoing to be murdered in a horrid, gory death. HAHAHA. |
Whew. Now THAT is a fan. | Grandia and Star Ocean 2? | Howdy from Texas, anyway I really love your site I check it everyday at lunch and when I come home from work. But I wanted to let you know something. I E-mailed SCEA and asked if Star Ocean 2 and Grandia were indeed being released and they said no. And that they wondered where I picked that crap up. The webmaster said he hadnt even heard of Star Ocean 2 and I kinda got pissed. I mean I love RPG's so much that I even purchased Beyond the Beyond AND THAT GAME SUCKED REALLY BAD, just to support Roleplaying. So what is the deal, is your information wrong or is he just an asshole. I really was excited about Star Ocean 2. AND Grandia Jeez that's just a dream come true. Help me figure this out can I get excited about it or are these just two more Japanese RPG's I will never play. Keep up the good work you are appreciated. Write back if youve got the time. - Danny Hague |
In my experience, webmasters for larger game companies tend to either be out of the loop, or very restricted in what they can discuss publically. Or both. You see, while we (and other sites) have confirmation that the two games in question are being released, webmasters generally won't acknowledge as much until the press release is filed and on the table, so they can't be held accountable for false advertising. So don't panic. They're coming. | Going to war | I try not to talk about gamers as "Hardcore" because that is a totally subjective term. How can you possible define that term as applied to video games? There is no such thing as a hardcore game. Some people would claim that "hardcore" equates to "experienced." I say it's all semantics. I normally don't talk about things like this, since it's all relative. However, Kevin Strange defines a "hardcore" gamer as someone who can play a game for 10 minutes and know whether it is good or whether it "sucks" as he puts it. I would both disagree with the definition (since there really is none), and would imagine that other people who call themselves "Hardcore" should be offended that he calls himself one. Anyone who is so full of themselves that they can play a game for ten minutes without giving it any kind of a chance, AND think that they know the quality of the game is certainly not "hardcore." "Closed Minded," perhaps. "Impatient," definitely. Judging by insulting and arrogant tone of his letter, he is one self proclaimed "hardcore" gamer who needs to fall off his high horse. He speaks as though his opinion were the one and only truth. Perhaps he doesn't realize that the reason there are a variety of games for a reason. The audience is varied. If you only make games for one audience, you lose out on the untapped potential. How is a company supposed to know what kind of audience there is for a new idea unless they actually try it? Or are people with different tastes inferior creatures that don't deserve their own market? --Tony Patino |
That's a very good question. Experimentation is required for growth in any industry, and the more something gets penned into one kind of product produced and marketed in one way, the harder it is to break that cycle, and that breeds stagnation and eventual collapse. Thankfully, most game manufacturers seem to realize this, and innovate constantly, though less so with cash cow franchises, but they're usually trying. Which is why I cannot totally condemn SaGa Frontier, for example, even though I didn't particularly enjoy it. It at least made the effort to look and play like something new, and I admire that. | That blasted song | What?! What did you expect the song to be? Techno? Rock? It's a romance song . . . please enlighten me by telling me what is so bad about the song. - Howard Chan |
Okay, I'll add a disclaimer that these comments are based on the short, kinda fuzzy clip of the song by Faye Wong I heard. However, I found it about as appealing as clipping my toenails, as did most of those who wrote in about it. To me, the whole thing just sounded flat. It was just sort of shmaltzy, nondescript and uninspired. Like you say, it's a romance song, and to my ears, not a very inspired one, something I'd expect out of a high school band, not a million-dollar performer. | The most important question I'll ever answer in this column | Allan, Boxers or briefs? -Brian "The something something midnight pony" Glick |
It's "The All-Night Pony", for the record. As for your question... well, it varies. Boxers are fine for most of the time, but when I anticipate doing any running (which I do compulsively), it's almost required by law to switch to briefs. It all depends. Right-o. See you tomorrow, assuming that you all start writing letters again, he said hintingly. I've got one from Ian P. already. Where's yours? - The Double Agent | | | |
