Looks like the Double Agent schedule is finally back to normal. I really, genuinely wanted to put up various pictures and pieces of interest from E3 for you all, but being my first E3, I had no idea just how much work those dang things were. However, now that everything has slowed back down , relatively speaking, we at the GIA are whipping up a little scrapbook. Think of it as our way of giving the site a little personality and giving you a better idea of the whole E3 experience. Don't think of it as us being a bunch of self-absorbed pretty boys who like to see their own faces on the Internet. Even though that would be the truth, don't think of it that way. Today's column is a special one. I got a whole bunch of good old fashioned questions, just like the kind mom used to make. I like a good, heated debate as much as the next guy, but I'm here to answer your questions, everybody! The more the better, I say. Think of me as your little question slave. Make me serve your questions ice cold lemonade and fan them with palm branches. Make me toil in your questions' cotton fields. Make me totally stray off the subject. I especially like that last one. I understand that it's a lot of fun to write up a snippy retort to someone's opinion you completely disagree with, but honestly, don't hesitate to send me those questions. There really should be more english words that mean "question". That paragraph sounded really repetitive. The next paragraph has nothing to do with this one. Guess who's back? Apparently inspired to write in to my little ol' column after reading Hypespider's letter yesterday, our good friend Stephan Gohan has returned. I guess I won't have any problems making a column tomorrow, that's for sure. And after all that ranting about sending me more questions to round out all the letters on debate. Contradicting yourself rules. :) I'm going to start the column now. | It's time to get real. Okay that was stupid, throw me a frikkin' bone here people | Allan:I just finished reading an an interview that Roger Ebert had with George Lucas, and Lucas mentioned (a lot) the Playstation 2. One of the things that he said was that the PSX2 will have the ability for people to create their own games on it. HUH? I don't remember reading anthing like that here or on any other gaming site. Is it possible that he is confusing the PSX2 with the black Playstation thing (I forget what it is called)? Or is Lucas right? Also, he mentioned that the games are made in real time. What does that mean? Peace, love, dope. -ZER016 |
Sony enjoyed a decent amount of success with the Yaroze, which is what the black development Playstation was called, by the way. A lot of people got into the idea, and Sony was able to sell some of the games the developers-in-training created by putting them on Yaroze collection discs. Not only that, familiarizing those who could very well be the next Shigeru Miyamoto with the Playstation's architecture can only be a good thing for Sony. Unfortunately, development kits for the PS2 are mucho dinero, so we probably won't be seeing a PS2 Yaroze any time soon, but I wouldn't count the idea out. Once Sony is mass producing the PS2, an altered Yaroze version for development is entirely possible. And now to explain what "real time" means as non-abstractly as possible. Ok, you know the FMV you see on most Playstation games? That's called prerendered. They render the movie on much more powerful hardware, like a Silicon Graphics machie of some sort usually, and then save it as a movie file the Playstation can understand. The actual in-game graphics, the poloygonal characters and scenes are being rendered on the fly as you play, those are real time. I hope that helps. | Majesco Sales | Is Majesco Sales still planning on rereleaseing the Saturn? -Doctor Pepper |
For those of you unfamiliar with Majesco Sales, they're a small company that signed a contract with Sega to re-release older platforms and games at greatly reduced price-points. If you've seen the tiny Genesis 3's, you've seen Majesco's handiwork. To answer your question, yeah, Majesco is still on board to re-release the Saturn the last I heard, so it's really just a matter of time. | Just a Phantasy? | Hey Agent - I've been finding the system wars issue very interesting for the last fewdays. However, unlike most people, I'm not going to try to make anypredictions about the success of the next generation systems. What I dowant to do is talk about how Sega can save themselves and the Dreamcast inmy eyes with just three words: Phantasy Star Five. People often refer to the Golden Age of RPGs on the SNES. However, whatmost people seem to ignore is that the Golden Age of RPGs in the early 90'swas not limited to the SNES. Sega had their fair share of great RPGs too,with the Shining Force games on the Genesis, Lunar on the Sega CD, and mostimportantly, Phantasy Star. Final Fantasy was my first console RPG, and Iloved it, but soon after I played Final Fantasy I bought a Genesis and someof my friends told me to try these Phantasy Star games. I headed down tothe Good Guys and picked up the only one they had on their shelves,Phantasy Star 3, which was new at that point, for $70. I thought it waspretty funny when the salesman tried to warn me, a little eleven year oldkid, about buying an RPG - he looked at me, and he said "this game ishard." I just said "that's good, isn't it?" and walked away with my new game. As soon as I plugged the game into my Genesis, I was in enthralled. Theopening music was beautiful, and the intro outlined an epic story that justseemed so much deeper than anything I'd played before. Only ten minutesinto the game the princess, my fiancee, had been kidnapped, and from thatpoint on I couldn't put the game down. I was in love. Sure, these elements (a war 1000 years in the past, a kidnapped princess,the hero thrown in jail) seem almost cliche to us now, but 1991 most gamesweren't exactly big on story. When you compare "After a long journey, fouryoung warriors arrive each holding an orb" with "The legends of Landen,your homeland, tell of world-sweeping wars fought 1,000 years ago..." "Twomonths ago, a young woman washed up on the shores of Landen. The womanremembered nothing of her life prior to waking up on the beach. Thisseemingly minor event sets an epic adventure in motion..." The differenceis just amazing. Watching that intro now almost brings a tear to my eye,even with the less-than-faithful sound reproduction of Kgen. After playing Phantasy Star 3, I bought and played PS2, which I also loved.And just about two years ago, I finally got a chance to play PS4, whichwas one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Playing PS4 made menotice something about the Phantasy Star series which I really enjoy: thefact that the different games are connected to one another. This issomething that I feel is sorely lacking in the Final Fantasy series (whichI still love, BTW). When I realized that Rika was a clone of my long-deadheroin Nei, I practically wanted to hug my screen I was so overjoyed. Irealize that the RPG market may not be Sega's biggest concern, but I wouldbuy the Dreamcast in a second if Sega were releasing Phantasy Star V. Iwould have bought the Saturn if Sega had translated their PS collectioninto English, and I've already played those games. I love lots of RPGs,but I don't think anything tops the Phantasy Star series in my mind, fornostalgic value alone. The games are completely awesome, and I would loveto see another installment in the series. -Kaxon |
The next installment of the Phantasy Star series has supposedly been in development for aeons. First for the Sega CD, then the 32x, and then it was going to come out "for sure" for the Saturn. I don't think Sega has given up on the series, I just think it's fallen by the wayside. Sega has had its work cut out trying to carve a niche in the North American market, unsuccessfully so with the Saturn. Now with the Dreamcast, Sega needs to release games to grab American consumers' attention, or else they've got big trouble. Unfortunately, RPGs like the Phantasy Stars still seem to take a backseat to games like Sonic Adventure with Sega. If the Dreamcast does well in the our little corner of the planet, I wouldn't be surprised to see another Phantasy Star (finally). However, if you're into lesser-known but enjoyable RPGs, may I suggest getting a TurboGrafx-CD? Collecting and playing games like Cosmic Fantasy II, the Ys series, and adventure games like the superb Japanese-only Castlevania: Rhondo of Blood will keep any gamer busy for some time to come :) Okay, that was a terribly shameless plug and I apologize. | Another question. I love these things | H'lo Drew, have a pleasant week? I've got a question for you...Which shouldn't be much of a surprisesince this a Q&A column! Ha ha ha, I'm babbling like an idiot! Can I have a relatively accurate list of the times between FF titlereleases? That is, the time it took between FF1 to FF2, etc? I'm curiousabout something. -Ian |
Don't worry about babbling like an idiot, I do it all the time. And now for something completely different; the answer to your question. - Final Fantasy 1: 1987
- Final Fantasy 2: 1988
- Final Fantasy 3: 1990
- Final Fantasy 4: 1991
- Final Fantasy 5: 1992
- Final Fantasy 6: 1994
- Final Fantasy 7: 1997
- Final Fantasy 8: 1999
Glad to be of service.| Banners? Banners?! We don't need to steekeeng banners! | In case you caught the closing comment where DA said i drilled thebanners, and didn't get the chance to peruse the letter; the wholesarcasm bit was aimed at myself! I was in complete support of the use ofbanners! I have yet to be offended by any of the content, or space/loadtimes. In fact; things have been smoother lately than they have inrecent months (i think). So in case i get reamed about being a nonsupportive, one way ass;let them know that i do care about the future of this site, andunderstand the necessity of seeking help from others. Only thesuperhuman can do it alone. We all may be great; but we're still justcapeless grounddwellers. -Happiness, nash |
I figured it was only fair to give Nash a chance to explain his comments, But to be honest, I wouldn't worry about knocking the banners. I hate the damn things. These anti-drug banners are such an insult to my intelligence they make me want to take up smoking crack just to spite them. Okay not really, but you get my point. Believe me, if these banners weren't completely necessery, we wouldn't have put them up. This world just seems to have such a fixation with monetary gain. We tried buying the server with Andrew Kaufmann's good looks, but it didn't fly. | All the answers | Hello. I do not need any answers from you today. I already have all the answers. No, they are not for sale. Thank you. -Some Guy |
What about tomorrow? Think you'll need any answers tomorrow? C'mon, my answers make good pets. As for buying your answers, you seem to be under the impression that I actually have money. That's really cute. | A series of grueling trials | Hey Drew, I have decided that it be required that you must go through a series of tests before becoming a DA stand in and weekend guy, ok? First, I shall have to press a Golden Crucifix against your skin, wrap a garlic necklace around you, put communion wafers in your bed, and set up mirrors so other can observe what does (or doesn't) show in them. If any of these test cause physical pain or burning of the skin to you in any way, I shall have to shove a sharp spike in your heart, cut off your head, and stuff your mouth full of garlic, ok? Sorry, but that's what you gotta do if you want to be a GIA double agent. -Captain Crunch |
Where were you when I started this weekend gig? It's too late for that now, Allan already bit into my neck real good while I was asleep on my desk. Now I constantly have to be on the lookout for those acursed Belmonts. Those whips really hurt! | There ain't no mountain so high to keep me from my Square | Hey Drew, This is written pretty much in response to all the letters lately sayingthat "PSX2 is gonna be better" or "Dolphin is gonna be better". Now thatI've gotten that straightened out: WHO CARES? I'm an avid Square fan, I gowhere they go with console systems now. If they develop for PSX2, I'm there,if it's Dolphin, gimme that N2000. If they make their own system (yeahright) and publish nothing but Square RPGs for it, I'm there. I admit thatthere may be good games on other systems (I have a PSX and want to playZelda for N64), but just rent the system or trade systems with a friend. Idunno, system wars don't usually bug me, but when "400mhz vs 200mhz" letterclog up an entire letters column that should have questions (not debates)and a few dollops of agenty-type humor. Anyways, that's my two cents. Agreewith me, disagree with me, I don't care. Just don't flame Drew or Allan,flame me. -The Cabbit, writer for www.animeotaku.com |
A lot of people feel that way, to be honest. Why the heck not? If you really like Square games, it makes perfect sense. But then there's Stephan. | And now the moment you've all been waiting for | I have to agree 100% with Hypespider. Final fantasy should die, it's gotten too corrupt. First of all, all the FMV and story has ruined it. FMV is evil, I've already said what I think on that. It makes gamers into shallow eye-candy sloths, which most readers probably are. Let me move on to story. Story and plot should never have developed in RPGs to begin with. RPGs are meant to make the player level up, build character, interact as if they were that character. Why in heck would I want somebody else's personality and story where I could imagine my own? All that show is lack of imagination - again, what most people in America(where I'm glad I wasn't born) have. Just as people become slaves to eye candy, they become slaves to story and just sit, watch the story and nice pictures play out, and get fat. Final Fantasy was perfect in FF1, and almost in FF2 and 3. 4 was tolerable, but kind of sucked since it starts to tend toward story here, and the rest after sucked since they grew more and more towards story and good graphics. 5 would have been great if they'd just canned the dumb character stories and let you choose from many more. 6 was terrible, one big linear story and a ton of completely predefined characters with stories; no room for the imagination at all. And 7...I won't get into 7 anymore. All I can say is, it was one of my friend's favorite movies.We don't play RPGs for that junk, people. We play for the fun and challenge and customization, all of which are 100% gone in all games after 1994. Final Fantasy has become a cancer to be cleaned from the gaming community, as have all games like it. It's nothing but FMV and story. If they don't stop making them, consoles may as well stop making controllers and just add a "play" button, specially made for RPGs, because that's all they're going to need. If FF isn't stopped now, they'll eventually be set in manhattan with 50% FMV, 50% story and very little if any magic involved. And if even part of you doesn't agree with me here, you have no right to call yourselves RPGamers. Go watch a movie or something. -Stephen Gohan |
I'm not going to touch this one with a ten foot pole. Talk amongst yourselves. Closing Comments Okay, after all that talk about how much I like answering questions, I go and print Stephan's letter. I'm such a nut. Honestly though, have fun with this latest of debate/rant topics, and keep coming up with those tough questions, it makes my job more interesting. Later, guys and gals. - Drew Cosner | | | |
