Ducking out the back way - July 8th, 1999 - Allan Milligan
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not neccessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Death comes to those who attempt to cross the Grendel. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Money is something important. I've repeated on numerous occasions in this column that money is everything, that money makes the world go round, and so on and so forth. I'm big on money. Money lets you get stuff. Stuff is good. Not just the usual types of stuff that people get, like video games or CDs or cars or processed narcotics, but important stuff. Paying for an education is getting stuff, in a way. I'm heading off to university in September. In another city. Long from my parents, my friends, my sock collection, my dealer... it's going to be rough. Withdrawl is a bitch. Anyhow, to facilitate my getting stuff, I have to make more money. Hence, as of Tuesday of this week, I am now working two jobs. This is having rather large reprecussions on my life. What specifically, you ask? Well, you'll see... | Originality? Different? You're kidding, right? | I was recently viewing your FF9 watch section and happend upon the story "new Final Fantasy Revealed" (http://www.thegia.com/news/n990524a.html) in which many design documents are featured, I just have one comment and request. Those designs are brilliant, they are so creative and different, they are unlike anything currently on the market. I don't know if that truly is a new Square title, or a well thought out hoax, but I have one thing to say if its not a real game, someone hire the person who designed those, give them the best dev staff around, and give them a $10mill. budget and let them loose. Those designs were the first thing to get me excited about a game in along time, its not the same ol same ol, FF8 isnt that attractive to me, dont get me wrong, Im a big RPG fan, but Im getting sick of the same thing after the other. These designs are totally original, and would make a epic game. Its just what we need in the RPG market, something new and different. - Stephen Adams |
Glad you liked them but, er, different? Are we looking at the same design pictures, Stephen? The artwork is very nice, and should make for a very nice game if handled well, but I don't think originality is one of its high points. They're distinctly cute and cuddly sort of designs, certainly a departure from many current RPGs, but it's still a different tone within the same basic conception of the fantasy genre. The dragons still look western-styled. There are swords and spears and such. Superdeformed characters are the norm. Medieval western Europe on crack. It's high fantasy. Which is perfectly fine, but it's far from something dramatically new and original, IMO. Originality, to my mind, would be tackling a new genre entirely, or radically changing the entire look. Imagine an RPG with designs that are reminiscent of H.R. Giger. Or an RPG that looks and feels like it's film Noir. How about one that's got a distinctive Russian style? Or Mayan or Aztec? Any of these, I'd consider "different." Anyone else have any suggestions for artistic and design styles they'd like to see implemented in an RPG, for a radical change of pace? | Touchy censor finger | "Since Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana were released under completely different names and for different consoles, some Americans may not realize that the two are related. In Japan, the series was known as Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu. This translates to Final Fantasy Side Story: The Legend of the Holy Sword. Most Square games released on the Super Nintendo were edited for content due to Nintendo's strict stance on "family friendly" games and common localization practices for American release. They were afraid, in this case, that the word "holy" would not go along well with many gamers plus the Final Fantasy name had greater recognition than "Legend of Holy Sword", so they opted to name the first game Final Fantasy Adventure instead. This is similar to one of the many changes in Final Fantasy II. Rosa's most powerful white magic spell, "White", was originally "Holy" in the Japanese release of the game." I got the above snippet from www.totalrpg.com in a Secret of Mana review. I heard of Nintendo's censoring a lot of Square's stuff, but did they really think that people would be offended by the word "holy"? Did they think that this would cause a mass conversion among children or something? I think Nintendo was a bit paranoid... Eclisis |
Religious material is treated very casually in Japan, but is outright radioactive in America. The Boomerang in Castlevania is a Cross in Japan. White was indeed called Holy in Japan. Very simply, messing with religious themes and images in American media is asking for protest from the religious right, and parents' groups, and that's the tip of the iceberg. So Nintendo of America just put down a policy that Christian imagery will be disguised as much as possible, to prevent future headaches. I can't blame them, frankly. | Which no single company can defeat | I.. can't help but chortle at the comment "no single game companydetermines the outcome of a console." How many people can you think of that bought a Playstation when Squarejumped ship? Hell, I personally never even thought about the PSX myselfuntil I heard FF7 was going to be released for it. Of course, now I'mglad I bought it for so many other games that have come out (like SPF2T). But to prove the point even more, a single _game_ can determine theoutcome of a console. Ever heard of a little game... called Zelda?There's another game that sold a console to me; sure I bought Mario Kart Rand the console itself a year or two earlier.. but I bought it for Zelda. So did a few million people in Japan. ;) Also, the Redbook Audio problem of skipping when loading data is somethingthat can be overcome, and actually might be for the PSX2. I don'tremember if it was Redbook Audio that was talked about, but apparentlymusic will be able to be "streamed" straight off the disc as its playedwhile still loading other data. I can't imagine the logistics of such a thing since I've never written anyhardware drivers, but all it really requires is telling the reader to geta few bits of game data between every few bits of audio data. ---TorgVega Q |
I stand by my comment about no single company, with the possible exception of Nintendo. The N64 is probably the only system that's ever thrived mostly on the basis of its first-party support, a testament to the reputation and customer loyalty that company has built. By the same token, Nintendo's the odd one out. While I may have bought an PSX for Square, essentially, and know others that did so, but there's a lot more PSXes out there than there are copies of FF7. The most successful systems in modern gaming history are those who racked up the support of the third parties, and the audience thereof. Let me illustrate it: Person A bought a PSX to play FF7. Person B bought one to play Tekken. Person C bought one to play a sports game by EA. Alone, each of these groups account for about 200 000 systems sold. A system that sells 200k will be a minor platform at best, a total disaster at worst. It's only when you consider that A, B, and C are all buying games for the same system that the numbers add up, and you've got a success. This is why third-party development is important. This is why the PSX did so well in the 32-bit system war, and why Sega went to such lengths to sign developers for the Dreamcast. Nintendo aside, no one company has a big enough segment of dedicated fans to singlehandedly sell a system in sufficient quantities to dominate a market. It's all about the group. | Grammar | Do commas and periods go inside the quotations marks?I was always taught that they do, but after seeing somany instances in which they don't, I'm beginning towonder. . . Raymond Wu |
I've always been taught that you place punctuation inside the quotation marks. "You're an ignorant son of a monkey, Gibbler," said Mr. Magoo. Not "I slept with your wife and she liked it, so sit down and shut up monkey-man", said Mr. Magoo. | A happy birthday for Drew | A Chrono Trigger sequel is probably not a good idea. With what Square has been given us lately with all the flashy graphics with no plot, terrible translations and such, a sequel might ruin everyone's love of the series. I doubt Square is going to bother trying to make it perfect for us, all they need to do is to slap Chrono on a crappy game and they got a new best seller. - MurkyDeath |
But, don't you see the true art of the modern Square game? The dialogue is equal to anything some hack like Shakespeare ever wrote. It's poetry for the soul. When they say "off course", it's clearly an expression of their lack of hope for the future of their planet. How dare you bash almighty Squaresoft? You will pay for your blasphemy! We will carry you through the streets on the shoulders of the soldiers of the Revolution, and burn your corpse atop a mound of Beyond the Beyond CDs! Huzzah! | Assorted... questions! Wow! | Big Straight Al: I got a couple of straightforward questions for ya to relieve this wave of opinionated letters with no real purpose that I have been reading lately in your Double Agent column. 1) Is there any word on a U.S. release of the PocketStation? I have been seeing so many games lately that will feature PocketStation support, which would be useless if we North Americans don't get the damn peripheral. |
There's no word about the PocketStation. At this stage of the game, I suspect it's a no-go for US release. 2)Do you think there will be many multiplayer online games for PS2? I am really into an online computer game called Tribes, and I think online games rock. |
There'll be some ports of PC games, but I'm not sure how much older companies like Konami, Enix, Capcom, et al. will embrace online gaming. It's just a whole new arena, a new set of variables to design games around. We'll have to wait and see, I guess. 3)How much will FFVIII and FFA cost? My budget is not that tight (I got over $300 bucks to spend, heh heh) but I just wanna know how much I can splurge before I need to stop to save up for those two games. |
Not sure about FFA, but FFVIII's price point will probably be about fifty-sixty bucks. 4) Have you seen the South Park movie? I haven't yet, but I really wanna. Do you even get SP in Canada? |
Yes and yes. I really liked Satan's song in the movie, in particular. 5)Thanks for giving us Chrono Cross, but why are you holding back FFT 2? After all, you ARE Squaresoft, and you can make it possible! |
I had the gold betas of FFT2 eaten by a giant ant last week. It just didn't satisfy me enough to save it from the insect. 6)This isn't a question, but that game Hoshigami looks strikingly similar to(translation=exactly like) FFT. The main character even looks like Ramza! This is all I could think of, I'll leave you alone now. Screw you guys, I'm going home. ZER016 |
Ba-dum-bum. | Okay, so maybe there ARE Dreamcast RPGs a-plenty | Hey Allan, I've been playing Star Ocean 2 the last few weeks, and have in general been bored to death, mostly because I'm caught in a giant fetch quest with very little plot or character development. I was thinking about this excessive boringness when I realized something present in pretty much every Square RPG I can think of: side quests. But the deal with Square's side quests is that they are located at the end of the game, not the beginning. That way, the plot has been developed, your motivations are clear, and all you are doing is discovering all the secrets before fighting the last boss. Therein lies my beef with SO2. It is very non-linear and contains many side quests very early on, so your desire to play doesn't get a chance to develop. I'd say that right now, after many hours of playing, I've only spent 5% of that time on character and plot. I say that Square does it the right way- first make sure that you're drawn into the game, then introduce the non-linearities and side-quests, so they can be performed while still keeping interest in the game as a whole. Oh yeah, as a side comment, the voices really are horrible. Actually, they are so bad they are funny for the most part. But what really gets me is the Come on Bunny super-specialty. For those who don't know, this is where everyone calls a bunny for a special purpose. A bunny. Not a big purple dinosaur. But, none-the-less, every single character says "Here Barney" "Come here Barney" This just totally confuses as to how the voice actors could be such idiots as to not know what they are supposed to be saying in the first place. Gah, are the Japanese voices as bad, or did the Japanese actors do both? That's enough from me, Nation |
Interesting thoughts, sir. | Professional bitching | Sir Allan, I've decided to write about something different today. Extremely different. It's been bothering me the past few days, and I think it needs to be addressed. Well, it doesn't NEED to be addressed, but I'm sure you can relate. Everyone has a complaint about something. I love FF5, everyone hates FF7, Sega sucks, Square is mad with power, translations of games suck, yadda yadda yadda. Sounds like a typical message board: Nothing constructive is ever said and everyone needs to voice their own opinion about something. No one justifies their claim, and when they do, its the same over-exausted argument. With the internet increasing daily, all of a sudden everyone needs to say how they feel, and everyone wants to be heard. I'd found it futile to try and even have a productive argument anymore. Everyone needs to bitch and whine about something. Everyone is so sure that their opinion is right: The materia system sucks, SaGa Frontier is awful, Tactics Ogre is too hard, blah blah blah. There are a lot of RPGers out there. I hate to say it, but a majority of them are also quite stupid, myself included. Individually, they're quite smart, but when a group of them get together, their intelligence gets sucked down a black hole. All rules of sensibility go down the toilet and they have to argue without reason. There are 300-post threads on why Final Fantasy Tactics' translation was awful, and a third of the time it's just two people arguing back and forth. Editorial quality on some sites is equivilant to what I find in my toilet: Shit. I wouldn't mind so much as long as people would be open to change. However, people want to speak. They're determined to have their voice heard. They're so busy shouting at the top of the lungs why Cloud didn't have character development that they don't even care to listen to someone elses opinion and be willing to change their own. Most RPG forums have become a giant bitching session, and; frankly, I don't care anymore. I don't feel like justifying myself on why I like SaGa Frontier, or why Final Fantasy V wasn't enjoyable for me. The people who I'm speaking to aren't going to listen because they're sure that they're right and everyone who challenges their opinion is wrong. Now, all of you people reading this out there now are probably saying to yourselves "Hypocrite. You're bitching now." Yeah, I am bitching now, but there's a different from me and the people who I speak of. I'm willing to change. If you can sucessfully argue to me why I should like Final Fantasy V, then I'll change. I'll say "Hey, you know what? You're right. I never thought of it that way before." So, what can we do about it? Stop bitching, or if you want to bitch, then open up your mind. We're human beings, and none of us are perfect. Open yourselves up a little bit more, and you'll become a person and not a "SolidSnake442" alias that posts crappy editorials or 400-post long message threads. Bitching should be left to the professionals like you Allan, me, and Dennis Miller. =;) ~~roric |
I can think of no more appropriate letter to end this column...
Closing Comments Hey, for once, I have something important to say in Closing Comments! As I said in my opening rant, I now am working two jobs, as preparation for my moving to another city in September for school. This is chewing up a LOT of time. More than I expected, frankly. I have time for eating, sleeping, doing Double Agent, and work. That's about it, so far, and it's only going to get worse. Possible trips to Toronto and Victoria at the end of the summer, Halifax in early September... it'll be nuts. My only reprieve is the weekends, where I only work some shifts on one of the jobs. This is a Problem. Capital 'p.' Then there's the issue of burnout. As many of you have noticed and remarked, I've been getting testier and testier as time has worn on. I'm snippier, I get pissed off more easily, I lose faith in gamers at the drop of a hat... it's a sorry state of affairs. It's the job, really. It's not the fault of any one reader or letter-writer. It's just the nature of the job. Day in and day out, I'm asked questions and asked to defend or refute opinions, and it wears on you after a while. The same topics crop up again and again. The same impasses are reached. It gets harder and harder to just sit back and laugh at things, to take it in stride. It drives you nuts. It really does. My original plans held for me to continue doing Double Agent forever and ever. Then, as my plans for September solidified (and I laid off the sauce), I cut that back to switching duties with Drew as of September - I do weekends, he does weekdays. But money is tight, time even tighter, and I'm fraying around the edges at an incredible rate. So, rather than keep at this when I barely have time and aren't doing the job half as well as I should, I've elected to bow out as Double Agent. Gasp, shock, amazement, I know. It's been one hell of a ride. At its worst, this was the most frustrating job I ever had. At its best, it was some of the most fun I've ever had while clothed. I have regrets, like any sane person should at the close of an eight-month relationship of any stripe, but I'm proud of the column as a whole. And hey, if come September, it turns out that university life isn't as hectic as I expected, I'll probably take over weekends here. Drew is hella accomodating that way. I'll still be around, mind you. My personal GIA email address still works (milligan@thegia.com), and I might even get some Vaults written with what little free time I have. And I'll be reading Double Agent, like always. I have absolute faith in Drew's capability to kick ass in my absence. I just think it's the best choice for me to bow out now. Hope you understand. You should, since I just explained it. Now go write Drew a letter, ya wee bastards. - Allan Milligan, signing off
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