Okay, this *isn't* about Xenogears (sorry I had to write that big longthing yesterday, but you seemed to be asking for it ^_-)....

You've heard about those Pokemon-painted planes right? Withpokemon-decorated wings and free toys and peanuts bags and stuff....

Question? Oh yeah...does anyone know if they have pictures of Pikachu (orJigglypuff, better yet) on the planes' barf bags? I think I'd beginlaughing uncontrollably if I saw one.

Now everyone's probably wondering why I wasted your time with thisletter...so am I, so could you answer that for me too? :)

Adieu for now

What kind of a barber are you anyway?

Actually, Colony Wars: Vengence had six different endings, all of whichended with your revolution crushed, or your leader being captured, or shownto be waging a war for a personal vendetta, civil war erupting, or the bestending, you side with the enemy and kill your fearless leader yourself.

It totally messes with how you think of glorious war.

There are a few RPGs I've played that don't have (strictly speaking) happyendings. If you lose to Lavos in Chrono Trigger, you see the worst ending, inwhich the world is ruined. Alright, that's not really a beat-the-gameending, but some of the Ogre Battle endings (as well as other strategy/RPGs)are again bad, but that's based on your performance in-game. On the otherhand, Breath of Fire III's ending <***SPOILERS***> features the world turningto desert because you couldn't live with Maria/Myria's manipulations (and herbrainwashing of Teepo!). In other words, it's all your fault! However, thereis hope, as Momo says, that the people of the world will work out a solution. Nonetheless, that's got to be a somewhat tragic ending.

Just my $0.02 worth,

-- magius

In response to the letter of "Steve" from this column. He says that there are no games with "tragic" endings. I have three words for him: Final Fantasy Tactics. Although Ramza and Alma ride off into the sunset at the end, don't think once that much blood was shed for them to even get there. Don't tell me that he, (assuming that he even played the game) ever thought that each of the true bad guys in the game were bad, as soon as he saw them. There were times when I thought that some of the characters were turing into true hero that would help Ramza considerably. Only, it turns out about 6 hrs later into the game that that person is a ruthless killer and ends up killing someone else. And that's just the bad guys. Don't tell me that a few truly good characters didn't die along the way... Whatever happened to the rest of Ramza & Alma's followers... Into the depths of Hell, that's what... Although I agree that there should be a game that has a wide scoped "tragic" ending, I must say that this is the closest that a game has come. Unless you cound FFVII, where no one on earth knows WTF really happened... Don't even get me started on FFVIII's ending... oops... did I say that??...

Falcon

Well, the demo FINALLY came out today (well, technically yesterday now), and probably like many other of the anxious RPG fans expecting a great release I got right home and played it to the end. I must give the developers of this game credit, especially with certain little things in the demo. Though it took me about half an hour to realize, the characters cannot go above level twelve to dissuade those of us who would spend forever in the demo building up levels because they have nothing better to do. Then at the end of the demo and happy-tease-tease-you-can-play-this scenes, it states in big bold letters that it will be available in Spring of 1999. Of course, my reaction was "yeah, right" and for a split second I thought of how much it's been pushed back, only to be met with the following screen which said, "No, Really." I wonder how many other skeptics went through the same thought process and found themselves rolling on the floor laughing. You gotta admire people who know their customers really well and prepare something for the people like me who are die-hard RPG fans as well as skeptics while managing to make a little fun of themselves.

Viento

I have to say I was sorely dissapointed with the lack of support forXenogears that I saw. I'll try to address some of the points that Ithink were most unjustified.

First off: battles. Well, there was a bug in battles... the 'a monsterhas found you, but you will remain on the main map for a moment or so..but can't jump' bug. This made traveling up through Babel Towerfrustrating, to say the least. And the encounter rate was a bit high(although this was, I believe, countered by the relatively shortdungeons.. I mean, most places were only two or three areas), but havingplayed Xenogears right after Breath Of Fire III, the encounter rateseemed reasonable. This is, of course, due to the insane encounter rateof BOFIII. The actual combat system I thought was quite creative:combinations of attacks could be selected with priority given to lessdamage and higher connection rate, or vice versa, with the option ofusing deathblows (and later on lv.7 deathblows) or instead saving up fora single combo attack that does not invite reprisal and does massivedamage, at the cost of multiple turns of action. You had to think towin hard battles. The mecha combat was similar, but with even moreemphasis on strategy, since all actions drained away from one's limitedfuel supply, and healing wasn't cheap. Magic? ech, it could've beenbetter, but it wasn't the heart of the game... and there WERE usefulspells, just not usefull ATTACK spells. For those of us who want tosmack everything with 9999 damage, this was not good. For those of uswho want 'in-depth gameplay', to use a word so vague as to bemeaningless, the spell system was an acceptable addition to the combat.

Ah, story: I hear people complain about the story, and I just shake myhead. There was so much goodness in the plot for this game... so manysuprises, so many revealations. For example ... Icertainly was taken aback when Graph was revealed to be Lacan(technically a part of him, which was another shocking revealation forme), although I can't honestly say I didn't see it coming... I justdidn't see it coming from the START. The game's pacing and storylineplayed out excellently. Perhaps it was a bit too confusing in thebeginning, but this merely set the stage for the later half of thegame. And what a story it was... an ultamite weapon, merging with a'higher power' to become a God, creates mankind to seed his rebirth andthe completion of its goals... the destruction of its creators, and itsrealization of true Godhead. An interesting concept, and well playedout through the multiple generations. And of course, what really makesa game are the characters.. and the main characters, at least, are allnot only fleshed out but display complex and shifting personalities forus. This is accomplished superbly in Xenogears.

All in all, this game had everything I look for in an RPG, in vastquantities: strategic battles... lots of them . An in depthplot, story, and characters... plenty of it . The art, bothin game and cut-scene, was well done, and the game had atmosphere thatwas only enhanced by the music. I wouldn't call it a perfect game...but I would say that it was an excellent game, and one of the best I canrecall playing.

Oh, and as an aside, I can think of a game with a 'sad' ending...Phantasty Star II. It's been awhile since I last played it, but as I recall the game ends as the heros plunge intoa helpless battle, almost certainly being killed. Sure, the world wassaved, but they weren't. A satisfying ending, without being needlesslyupbeat. Of course, this was the game that brought us the OriginalAttractive Female Lead Killed Off Just Before Halfway Through The Game.

Just my two cents.

--Jason Morrow

Wow, I just heard that Mystaria 3 may be in development for theDreamcast, and I'vegot to say that I'm really excited about that tidbit of news. Mystaria1 could have beena contender, but it really had a lot of problems that offset thegoodies. But, on theDreamcast, Mystaria 3 could really be great; I'm expecting a hugedifference, sort oflike the difference between my father's car and the city bus. IfMicroCabin does a goodjob on this game, it will be great. If not, then it won't.

- Yuro Mama

Hello Double Agent,

After reading over the long list of complaints about Xenogears inyesterday's column, I decided to write in with a few counter points toit.

Surprisingly, I found myself agreeing with many of the points that CSmade. The point about random encounters, and the noise the PSX makesplus the time gap inbetween that noise and the actual start of thebattle, is quite valid and something I found to be very annoying aswell. However, on the issue of gameplay I disagreed very strongly. Yes, the dungeons were are fairly simple to complete (not including thedifficulty of the random battles) and puzzles were all but nonexistent. I personally however, love story. So the lack of puzzles or complexdungeons was not a detriment to my experience.

Regarding the battle system itself, I truly must disagree with CS'sopinion. Xenogears had one of the most innovative battle systems wehave seen in years. The Deathblows were wonderful to watch and wereESSENTIAL to winning most of the battles. CS mentioned that battleswere all about using your most powerful attack, over and over, with theoccasional new combo mixed in. But let's be serious here; what game isthat NOT true for? Do you continue to use older, less powerful attackson advanced bosses in Final Fantasy 6 or in Breath of Fire. Or Tactics,or Ogre Battle, or any game on Earth. No, of course not. And why? Because you won't win the battle if you did. As for magic, well. Ifound the relative unimportance of magic to be refreshing. It was abreak from the old pattern where eventually magic becomes the mostpowerful weapon you have (Does the name "Ultima" ring a bell?) and youtherefore use it often. In Xenogears this was simply not the case. Magic was not one of your greatest weapons. So? It's different, yes. But not bad.

CS's other complaints are regarding the story. This is of coursepurely a matter of opinion, and I simply cannot agree with his. I foundthe story very interesting indeed. The vague and shadowy past of Fei,the odd connections between him and Id. These things took time for thegame to reveal, and I found the waiting to be part of the fun. I reallydon't like it when the story is handed to me on a platter. Not that itdidn't have it's faults. Elly's true parentage is a thread that couldhave been expanded on, or should have been removed if they didn't havethe space in the game to explore it properly. Billy's relationship withhis father was left by the wayside. And Rico's relation to the Kaiserof Nortune demanded further explanation, but got none. Nevertheless,the story I found to be quite satisfying.

Last, the FMV and the anime. Frankly, the anime was useless and thedubbing was the worst I have ever seen. I enjoyed all the FMV though. I do agree the distribution was rather haphazard and could have easilybeen handled better.

Opinions on games really boil down to personal preferences. We alldecide a game was is good based on what we wanted to see, and what Iwanted to see was given to me by Xenogears and I came away happy.

-- Scott Martin