Hi. The name is AK. The game is letters. Join me in my tangledweb of deception as I try to answer letters by making up "facts" andpresenting them as "rumors" while confusing as many readers as possible. Also, sorry for the late and small update... my professors have piledon the work for the last day before spring break. | The worry rock | Yes believe it or not the PSX2 is a B I G deception for me, sure the danceis great and the car game, but did you see the skeletons???Call me crazybut they are the same graphic quality as Castlevania 64! Plus Charlie andthe Ridge Racer girl are made in CG since it says it and therefor wereshowing off their CG capabilities and only SOME of their graphicalcapabilities, I hope am wrong though... But I am sure it's gonna be a bigdeception for a lot of people, including me. Not to put anyone down oranything. PLEASE tell me I'm wrong though and that wasn't CG and thatskeleton was not PSX2 graphics, so in other words, that I'm wrong. I amREALLY depressed. Bruce |
Bruce, Bruce, Bruce! Relax man! Take some Nyquil or something! Theycall me AK, the soothsayer. So relax, and repeat after me: all of thedemos were rendered in real time. And mpg movies really can't do themjust, they have to be seen in real action. Not only were the renderingsdone in real-time, they were very hastily put together. Given a littletime I guarantee they'll look even more polished. The sheer number-crunchingthis baby can do is incredible. I really think Sony has put out a seriousgaming machine this time, and Nintendo and Sega are in trouble. | FF9? FF8 just came out! | Ok, so if FF9 was supposedly in production simultaneously as 8, and the PSX2is coming in March of 2000, so that would almost be one year from 8'srelease....soooo....which system do you think 9 will be for and for thatmatter, do you believe it was in production at the same time as eight?Thanks!-Zach |
I think it's quite possible (even likely?) that FF9 will be coming outon the PSX2. Square's got dev kits in their grubby hands, and they'vecommitted to making FF9 on a Sony system... why use the old Playstationwhen they can show off what they can do on the new one? Userbase is onepossible reason, but I don't think it'll be enough to deter Square. Admittedly,FFIV didn't sell well here in the U.S. closely following the SNES' release, butwhether or not that was because of the system is hard to determine. | Secrets of Evermore players | I have a terrible confession to make - I liked Secret of Evermore. The magic system was original, not half as limiting as some people suggest (the only spells with any real limits on the number of time you could cast them were the uber-spells near the end of the game), the humour was pretty damn funny (not the film references bit, which doesn't pop up half as often as people suggest, but the Pig Race and so on), the plot, while a little simplistic, is original and well-recognized and there's a cute FF reference with Cecil's appearance. My main problem with it is one no one seems to bring up - to wit, that once you'd mastered a fricking weapon, you'd get another one which was more powerful but which you had no levels in at all. Same with the magic. SoM handled this much better. Also the lack of two-player support hurt. Here comes the flamey bit - concentrate! I have to say it - i think it was better than Zelda:ALTTP. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Zelda, and Evermore wasn't half as good as SoM, but I did prefer Evermore to Zelda. Is that so wrong? Personally, I think this game has been demonised enough - it's become a by-word for when people want to mention a bad game. But it wasn't such a bad game. Ciaran. |
Ciaran, I have to say that you have a brass set, not paper mache (to paraphraseGeorge Seifert). Not many people have the guts to say they like Secret ofEvermore. Now I also have to make a confession... I've never played Secret ofEvermore. I heard it sucked, so I went with that, since I was ratherbusy. If there are any other brave readers out there that agree with Ciaran,drop me a line. Maybe the game is more popular than I thought. | Reasons to unplug TVs forever | I have three very very special questions for you AK...I've been savingthese. 1) Alright, have you ever watched Fox Kids? (This is relevant tovideogames, I swear) There's a preview for a new cartoon called TheMagician. Now if you see this preview, turn up the sound, because it'sthe background music that's important...Awhile back, vgmusic.com had amp3 of the music that played during a Zelda Demo. It's the same music.Now...Why is this? Who owns this music? 2) WHAT is your qu-err...Check out viainc.com, they're the people who doSquare's websites. If you look at the clients section, it shows they'redoing Crave Entertainment's too...That's the company that split off fromSquare and is making Shadow Madness right? I'm incredibly unfamiliar withindustry but it seems strange to me that they'd use the samecompany...Thoughts on that? The description of them also says they'redoing Nintendo development...? 3) Long ago, on Square.net when only AV steadfastly guarded thatoutpost, he had an article about how Square had a sub company that'sname was an anagram of Square. The A in it was like the A in Square too.I can't remember the name or what happened to this company or anything.I think the article said something about this company releasing non-rpggames or something for Square...Can you tell me what I'm babbling about? Oh what I meant by the 3-person party thing was that your characters hadto be veritable Gods to survive. Square COULD have fine tuned the AI, HP,and strength of the monsters but it's obvious they didn't. Love the richdetailed fully fleshed out story lines but through us a gameplaybone...It's a shock to the system now when I die in other games... ~Ian 'Short Chic Magnet Middle Name' P. |
First things first, MUCH better nickname there, Ian. I bet if I were toinclude your email address with your letter, you'd have so many emailsfrom attractive ladies that your ISP would get pissed off and cut off yourInternet access. So, I'll save you that trouble and take the girls formyself. Aren't I unselfish? I'm going to have to come clean and say that there's no way I'd watch FoxKids. Not that I have anything against cartoons, it's just that it's inthe mornings. Who in the world wakes up that early? But the music questionis a good one, I can't answer it... probably someone from Nintendo would haveto. My guess is that it's a classical song of some sort, that Nintendo boughtthe rights to for the commercial. Well, first a bit of a clarification... Crave isn't really a Square splinter.It just has some former employees. I wouldn't make too big a deal out ofthem using the same web publishers... the company probably does a good job,and word gets around about jobs well done. And there's no word of anyNintendo development... Crave will be publishing some N64 games, but notitles have been named to be developed. I had to go to Master Vestal to get the answer about the company you mentioned,which is Aques. They made sports games. The games sucked. And this is whyyou don't hear from them much. Hmm... I'm not sure I agree with you on the 3 party system bit, still. Istill think it would be just as easy to strike a balance between enemyand party strength, regardless of numbers in the party. | You heard it here first: Neglect studies | 1) I'm working on a team to battle other people with in PokŽmon, yetthere's nobody in this area to battle with. Am I insane? 2) I seem to have a fairly large pile of unfinished RPGs -- namelyBreath of Fire 3, Azure Dreams, Final Fantasy Tactics, Tales ofDestiny, Xenogears, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Suikoden. After I finishXenogears, which RPG of these should I try to finish next? 3) I was in the mall on Saturday, and at Babbages(sp?), I noticed abox (same size as one of those thick CD cases that I'm running out ofspace for) which looked like the Lunar: SSS Complete screenshots I hadseen a while ago, and said something next to it like "Coming Soon" orsomething like that. Is it me, or is that a good sign? 4) Why do some games come in those thick CD cases when they only haveone disc, even though I've seen computer software CDs come in a normalCD case but have 2 CDs in it? I'm starting to run out of space forthose and have two games which are 1 CD games which come in thosethick CD cases. 5) Is my writing this letter a sign of boredom, even though I shouldbe studying for a test in religion class tomorrow? |
1) Yes. Simple as that. 2) I'd say FF Tactics, for sure. I personally just adored FF Tactics, andthe ending gives you something to think about. 3) Coming soon could mean anything, when Working Designs is involved. Totheir credit, they're perfectionists. That same perfectionist attitudeis also one of their weaknesses. Just goes to show you can't please anywayany of the time. 4) Big CD cases have multiple uses, if you ask me. Companies will tell youit's because it's the only way they can get thick instruction booklets andother materials in the case. My addendum to that is that if you see a bigCD case next to a small one, and you're not sure which one to get, you're goingto say "Oh look big case! Two CDs! I'll buy it!" even though, in fine print,it points out that the game is only one CD. 5) Studying... that's what I should be doing... but I'm not. So don't you studyeither! No one is allowed to make better grades than me! | Help, I see math | Hey hey, AK, my man... Why are these ultimate big bosses in RPGs so damn strong? Take the Giant Wels in Xenogears, for example. The larger it got, the stronger it became. According to physics, however, if any object (such as the Giant Wels) were to have its size doubled, its weight would increase eightfold, and its strength would only quadruple. In other words, the ratio of strength to weight would be 1/2, meaning that the larger it becomes, the weaker it becomes. Behemoth and BehemothSr in Final Fantasy VI. They're massive creatures, but according to physics, their weight would be so great that they would find it difficult to even lift themselves off the ground. Same thing with the Midgar Zolom in FF7. That snake is physically impossible, for something of that build and that size would be crushed by its own weight. It couldn't even raise its head that far, let alone beat the hell out of Cloud and Co. I could cite lots of other examples, but don't intend to bore anyone. Sure, Square's got a lot of astrologists (Tactics), theologans (Xenogears, Tactics), and experts on Norse mythology (just about every FF game), but they do need some physicists. But then again, it's just a game, right? -Matt Blackie |
Matt, you make some interesting points, I think. My brain self destructedon about the third line, though. You have got WAY too much time on your hands. Want to do my Calculushomework for me?
Closing comments Have any of you ever wondered who figured out where to put the fretson a guitar so the pitches are just right? And I'm still waiting for the Splat Man to show up. -- Andrew Kaufmann | | | |
