Allan's note: I wrote this yesterday, but was unable to post it since the FTP to GIA's server was down. I was unamused. But, barring another disaster, DA should be updated tonight as usual.
Today's topic of mockery has nothing to do with anything GIA is actually about. But some things are just too ridiculous not to mention. So, quickly now, head down to Gamefan, read the article, and after the tears of laughter are out of your eyes, continue with me as I examine the wonder that is Floigan Brothers. Okay, show of hands here, who here thinks that Nintendo and Sony are now kicking themselves, saying "Man, Brando looked great in the Island of Doctor Moreau, why don't we put someone with HIS build as a major mascot! I mean, what could be greater than that!"? Do you think Namco is plotting to release Tekken 4: The Junkyard Tournament, to cash in on the bandwagon Sega's about to unleash? Maybe it's me, but the idea of leading around an obese man who lives in a junkyard doesn't get my mojo working. I dunno. I'm crazy that way. I've had choice words about Bernie Stolar in the past, but this time, I have only laughter. Does he honestly think Floigan Brothers is going to be the next Big Thing? Where the hell has he been, these past six years, as more "winner" mascots have struck the gaming industry with the combined impact of a falling platter of raw tofu? Pushing your game as being good is fine, but good lord, when you immediately flout an untested, poorly-named game with a laughable premise as the successor to Mario Bros., you're painting a massive target on your chest. Floigan Brothers may well be a great game. But man, you couldn't tell from the concept. Odds are, fatty and skinny Floigan alike are going to end up sitting at the lonely hearts club for would-be mascots, trading platforming stories with Bonk, Bubsy, and Alex Kidd while trying to inhale the seventeenth whiskey shot of the night without crying. | Playing the right friggin' game | In Aaron's letter he wrote to clarify what his definition of a epic fantasy is. I think the game that would come closest to that is Dragon Warrior 4 undoubtly. I think it fills at least 3 of the 4 requirements he stated. I also think that it is so easy to find the right game to buy for anyone. You went on and on about ignoring hype and researching what game you would enjoy the most. But all you really need to do is do rent the games you think you might be interested in buying! That's one of the reason's they have Blockbuster. It's just plain common sense. There aren't to many other products you can do this with for a cheap price. If you want to buy a computer or a house, you can't just rent the one you're thinking of buying before you decide to actually buy it. It is what I have always done except for the games of the DW series which I knew would be guarnteed favorites of mine. And if you can't wait for a certain game to come out and you have to reserve a copy of it, instead of waiting for it to come out in video rental stores to rent it first, and you get and it isn't as good as you expected....well it's your damn fault for being too impatient. Pendy (who will go postal if DQ7 is not released in America) |
Okay, point taken. Then again, I like to have read a proper review before I even plunk down the few dollars it takes to rent a game. I'm a cheap bastard, no question, and if I spent a dime on a game, it had damn well better be worth the time and money I spend on it. I learned this lesson well after ignoring reviews and renting JJ & Jeff, a TG-16 game, for a week, and nearly crippling myself with the agony that turgid pile of rat shit instilled in me. God, that game sucked. But yes, trying before you buy is generally a good idea. | Linking Xenogears thoughts (spoilers) | <<77. What happened to Xenogears episodes 1-4? One theory holds that episodes I-IV represent previous "stories" of our heroes. Episode V is just the fifth iteration of the endless saga.>> Episode 1- Survivor of the crash Episode 2- Abel Episode 3- Kim Episode 4- Lacan Episode 5- Fei Just thought I'd point that out to ya. Metnut99 |
That's my general idea of how the episodes are divided up, too. It has no basis in fact, since as far as I know, there's no Xenogears sequel in development yet, but it does make sense. Me, I want to play Episode IV. There's something enticing to me about seeing how Lacan really became eeeeeeeevil. I'm the only guy in the world who's looking forward to Star Wars, Episode III more than Episode I, though, so what do I know? I guess I just like depravity and descent into depression, hate, and insanity. | The voices, the VOICES! | Double Agent, I have found a rather unusual, yet enjoyable, way to get drawn into anygame I play. I do a voice over for every dialog scene while I read it.Yes, I mean out loud. I read the dialogue out loud and give each charactera voice. In a way, it helps to give life to the characters. This alsocauses one to think about how the characters would respond ,and in turncreates a better understanding of each character. Obviously, this will notwork in a scene where there is already a voice-over. For example, Icouldn't do this with some of the dialogue in Brave Fencer Musashi or anyof it in Metal Gear Solid. One word of caution, if you are uncomfortablewith getting strange looks from people walking by the room you are playingin then you probably shouldn't partake of this activity. I just felt likesharing. Perhaps this may help someone who is having a hard time gettingdrawn into their games. Tolmek |
Okay, I've got a confession to make. Not only do I rename my character in RPGs, but I make up voices for them. I, too, do voice overs. Not all the time - if a game really sucks, I won't bother with it. Moreover, as I played Xenogears, I started making up my own, nonsensical dialogue during the FMV sequences, since it could hardly sound less natural and less in sync with the animation than the real thing. I actually had a lot of fun, giving Elly a perpetual lisp, and grafting a fondness for the phrase "cool beans" onto everyone in the cast, for reasons only Amy Racecar could appreciate. ... anyhow, Tolmek, you're not the only one who has tried doing their own voice acting for games. Sure, it seems a little silly at first, and earns some strange looks, but indeed it does get you more involved, even if it's at the expense of the game's seriousness. | Star Ocean 2 and backlogs | First off thanks for the info (months earlier then any other website) that this ow so great game know as Star Ocean the second story was getting a U. S translation. I'm hoping you could answer something for me, I have the import & on the option screen you can click onto something called Voice collection there you can listen to most of the voices in the game (more open up the further you go in you quest) there's a total of 1,278 voices tracks (damn that's a a lot). So heres the question, do you know if Sony's gonna dub these voices or maybe use subtitles? It would really suck if they kept the voices in but didn't include subtitles like (Tales of Destiny). Also I can't seem to find that interview you had on the website with the translator of Tales of Destiny. Is it still readable? Thanks Paul |
All prior GIA features, like the Yas Noguchi interview, are archived. Go to the Features section, open up the Archives, and check Interviews for 1999. Voila. As for SO2, we don't know yet. We should be receiving some new information from SCEA regarding it soon, though, so keep your fingers crossed. Brian "There's a reason they call me Slick" is on the case to get the dirt on Star Ocean 2, so fear not. Just be patient. | What you define, you confine | Hello Allan, I guess that it was kind of inevitable that the argument on thedefinition of Fantasy would be dug up again. In reading yesterday'scolumn I nearly punched my computer monitor. How arrogant could a person be to define something like Fantasy?Fantasy is not something that you could define by saying "it needs elvesand knights and castles and such". It isn't something you can describe.Fantasy is something that is undefinable, and it must stay that way.I love to read books, and I read almost everything I can get my handson. I do think that there is a definition between what is fantasy andwhat isn't, but saying that it must be a medieval setting with elves andnymphs and that stuff is idiotic. The best fantasy book I have ever readwould have to be Neverworld from Neil Gaiman, I think it is fantasybecause of the feeling of the story. But it is set in (or moreaccurately, below) modern London. When an author creates a world on paper and animates it and makes itbreath using only his or her imagination, then you have fantasy. When an author uses scientific facts and theories and things that arepossible to write a book then it would be science fiction, a goodexample of this is Arthur C. Clarke. But the inclusion of science intoFantasy doesn't make it Science Fiction. In FF7, there was a whole worldwith its own history and science, created through the imagination andtalent of its writers, and that is why it is Fantasy. To Keep things fresh authors must always push the limits of our andtheir own imaginations. If we gave them rules to write by, the writingwould grow stale and boring. You can not put rules on Art. Remember: "What You Define, You Confine" Thank you -Andrew |
That's a nice rant you've got there, but I'm afraid that everyone classifies. Everyone defines. Everyone judges. Everyone has biases and likes and dislikes and lines they draw up in their heads regarding a million different issues. That is why I felt that Aaron clarifying his definition of fantasy was so critical to understanding why he felt no game had yet been an Epic Fantasy. There's no point of reference, agreed upon or otherwise, unless we have a definition established. Don't blame Aaron for clarifying his position on this issue - I asked him to. Fantasy is, like many things, an issue of creativity and impact. There's no question that an imaginative and boundary-pushing piece of fiction (or game) could and should redefine our personal ideas and definitions of what that genre is, and should be. But in the end, genre is a judgement of organization, not quality, and it's perfectly all right to have a very specific view of what, say, fantasy is. I'm an organized person by nature, and especially since I debate so often, like to have clear definitions of what I'm arguing. So in my mind, Fantasy is a broad heading that contains High Fantasy, and Science Fantasy, and so forth. Others associate Fantasy with swords and sorcery. One of my closest friends considers Alice in Wonderland to be the real core of the Fantasy genre. So who's right? Answer: all of us. We're not giving anyone rules here. We're reacting and classifying, as is human nature, and clarifying our positions for the purposes of discussion. In a loose issue like this, it's even more crucial, since no one is likely to agree. We're not telling the authors to do anything. We're just trying to discuss what we see. And that requires points of reference. And that's where definitions come from. | Bust a Groove hidden tracks | Hello Allan, I was reading your response to the letter about Easter Eggs sent in byRumor, and it made me remember something that has beenpuzzling me about the dancing game BustAGroove for a while. I think themusic in this game is good (most of the time), so I used two programscalled XaEx and Xa2Wav to rip the music (stored in XA format on the CD,with four XA files containing, about seven "channels" of music trackseach). This not only gave me the in-game music in WAV format (which Iconveniently encoded to MP3 ^^), but I also found that there areinstrumental versions of every song in the game, and also the japanesevocal version of Shorty's theme. There was a song I couldnÇt identify inthere too, it sounded like a mix of the ending and the opening song(incidentally, I never found the opening and the ending...maybe itÇsembedded in the FMV?). My question is, do you or anyone else reading this column know if thereis a way to get these "extra" songs in the game. Maybe it doesnÇtqualify as an easter egg, but IÇm very curious about this. -- Sachiel Kuromin (P.S. If anyone is interested in the programs I mentioned above (youshould be...not only can you convert game music, you can also convertFMV!), they can all be found here. The packade you want is calledpsxv120.zip. Also, there is a FAQ regarding usage of PSXVideo, it can befound here. |
Ahhhhh, nifty. A non-RPG related question. Cool beans. Anyhow, the Japanese version of Shorty's theme is in there for no discernable reason, and can only be found by ripping the XA file. There's an FAQ at GameFAQs, in the Bust a Groove section (naturaly) with information on which tracks are which - it's the Music FAQ. I believe that the opening and ending music is indeed embedded in the FMV file itself. As for the instrumental tracks, I seem to recall there being some in-game method to access then, but I can't remember. Help, Groovy Busters? Help? | And the roric spake unto us | Hey Milligan. I'm actually writing a serious letter for once. I'm writing about something that ticks me off more than anything. If there's one thing that makes me angry more than anything, it's people who are already judging FF8. They've already decided their opinions on anything and everything. They KNOW FF8 is going to be the worst game ever. They KNOW FF8 is going to be the greatest RPG of all time. They know everything. There's only one little flaw in their argument, they haven't even played the damn game! These people just sort of "know" everything. They won't even play the game first. They'll just base their opinions on people who have actually played the game and the 3 second AVI they downloaded from your site. Now, I'm not going to get into the social psychology of things, I have more constructive things I can be doing with my time. Nonetheless, I make a strong statement to all of you who already have an opinion on the game: PLAY THE GOD DAMN GAME FIRST, THEN FORM YOUR OPINIONS. I don't care who said what about it. YOU play the game, and YOU form your opinions. You have NO justification whatsoever on why you know it's going to be the best game ever, nor do you have justification on calling it the worst game ever. You have to play the game first. It's the only way you can give such assessments. As usual, if anyone has a problem with this, tell them to flame me, not you. There's no reason for you to get into the middle of this. =:) ~~roric |
Amen.
Closing comments A few things to deal with, yet. As you may have noticed, the Deep Thought has been removed, since response to it has been so lengthy and involved that I think I need to reformat it before reposting. It's all good stuff, but it'd completely take over the column if I put it in, so I may do a sort of "Deep Debate" posting tomorrow, having the original letter, followed by the responses, with a conclusion by me. Or something. All right? Ginchy. Also note that, hopefully by the time this goes up, the FFIV and FFV FMVs are up and viewable at GIA. Special thanks to FFOnline for offering up mirrors for them - any relief to our servers is always a boon, and hey, they offered the mirrors to me in particular. How cool is that? :) Lastly, I've got a bunch of short-and-sweet letters building up, so Friday will probably be Q&A Day. So if you sent me a short letter or question, odds are you'll see them answered on Friday. - Double Agent | | | |
