Hi Drew, i am one of the biggest fans of squaresoft, they are like my father tio me, but also i'm a fan of psx. resently, i happenned to hear that square was getting interested on the next generation console system of nintendo( Dolphin). i wouldn,t like it one bit that square went to nintendo. Square has to be loyal to sony, i mean thanks to them the now have a stronger company and a really good rep. Me and my friends have spent nights talking about this and we've decided to do everything possible to prevent this from happening. I know there's lots of fans that feel this way and that want square to be with sony only, but we need some way to let squaresoft know how we feel. Is there any way i could do this. if there is please tell me. i would really hate to see the name final fantasy on nintendo. At least me and my friends would never buy it. thank you for your time. p.s. final fantasy rules!!!!!!!

Hey yo Double Agent,

I just got the FFVIII sound track, which kicks ass IMHO(whatever the hell that means) and i noticed it didn't have a prelude. none! if it wasn't enough to RUIN the fanfare and get rid of the intro to the battle music and have a cheesy pop song and even stupider song at the ending theme, they had to get rid of the prelude. At least the crossing the bridge (aka "final fantasy") is getting better........but my question is, is the prelude in the game, or was Uematsu drunk and forgot all about it, or did square just leave no place to put it?

-Chaos Paladin

Okay. Once and for all, in which points of the game do the FMVs play in the Anthology FF6? I know obvisously in the ending and begginning, but what about the opera movie? Does it play when you're in the opera, or is it just a thing to be seen in the Omake mode?

-Mr. SpeKKles

You mentioned in your columns that "[G]ames are like movies in that they are effect the viewer, or player as the case may be, on an emotional level" and that "Games are now more than just recreation, they're beginning to take the form of an art". I must say that while what you say rings true, I can not agree that this is a good thing, at least, not to some people.

You see, games are just that - games. And while the premise behind a game such as, say Final Fantasy 7, and the premise behind a movie, say Eyes Wide Shut, are similar, they are not the same. While both of these present serious, thought-provoking stories (we didn't go see EWS for the nudity... naw ;), there is a key difference - one is scripted around what the player's input, and the other is not. And I don't talk about just RPGs - ALL console, computer, board, pen and paper, and other games are based on the player's input - the player is in control, he calls the shots. When you start taking that aspect away, these cease to be games - even though they call themselves such. Of course, the easiest form of control is action - you choose when you want to fight, when to talk, when to run like a pansy. It's this action, and the control of it, that we derive entertainment from - at least, in video games.

Unfortunately, this action is easily and even worse, often, taken away in RPGs. Their more story-oriented nature lends toward a scaling back of action. However, this tends to lessen the enjoyment factor in turn. Sure, text-intensive games like Xenogears can be fun - but a book is 100% text-intensive, and is more fun, IMO, than playing Xenogears, because it doesn't try to be something it's not. Xenogears (not to bash it, but it's a glaring example) tries to be more of a story, when it should be more of a game, and that lessened it's effect on the role-playing community - with more action and more control (for action isn't the ONLY method of control, only the easiest) Xenogears could have rivaled some of the greatest - Chrono Trigger for example. Instead, Xeno doesn't even come close, because Xeno offers very little control, whereas in CT, there's a lot of control - you can choose to fight or run without starting up a battle, choices you make affect the outcome, and the action is paced quite well.

Not to say that Xenogears is a bad game - I enjoyed it as much as I could. And I'm sure that people that are really into long, intricate stories (myself one of these people) enjoyed it a lot. But if I want a long, intricate story, I can pick up, say Robert Jordan, or flip to Babylon 5 on television, and get that intiricate story told even better. My point being, games, and especially RPGs, should strive to be first and foremost, a game. Because if they try to be something else, they'll be outclassed - other mediums cover it much better.

-DkPhoenix, Wow that was a long rant 8-)

Oo! Oo! I have a complaint, I have a complaint!

I had to watch the Vagrant Story movie five times before I realized some of the characters were male instead of female. That confuses and enrages my homophobic american male self.

Unsincerely, -Ian P.

http://www.playstation.com/press_releases/show.asp?spec=89

This is why whoever said that Dreamcast is the only console to support HDTV is wrong. The following is the important paragraph from the address (the official Playstation site) above.

"The current PlayStation introduced the concept of the Graphics Synthesizer via the real-time calculation and rendering of a 3D object. This new GS rendering processor is the ultimate incarnation of this concept - delivering unrivaled graphics performance and capability. The rendering function was enhanced to generate image data that supports NTSC/PAL television, High Definition Digital TV and VESA output standards. The quality of the resulting screen image is comparable to movie-quality 3D graphics in real time."

In conclusion- niener niener.

-Locke828

Dear Drew,

Whomever says DVD and HDTV do not mix is either oblivious to fact, or getting their information from some propietery source. For a year, I was the office manager at a store called Hawthorne Appliances, which is a part of ABC Warehouse (a huge chain in Michigan/Ohio). Hawthorne carries the newest technologies on the line, and so we always had HDTV for sale, as well as Panasonic Plasma Screens (which are not HDTV) and a virtually endless supply of DVDs. We sold about 50 of those a day around Christmas, and couldn't keep them on the shelves.

In December, in an effort to interest the public in an $8,000 TV-Set, Hawthorne had a much publicised showing of Mr. Holland's Opus, between the local NBC station, Sony Corporation, and ABC Warehouse. We packed the house, and showed a TRUE HDTV signal (not the tripe that is normally broadcast for an hour a day) on the HDTV. The result was, actually, amazing. There was a depth and clarity which I had never before seen, as if the picture were *real* and not just a picture.

So, the following day, we connected DVDs to the four HDTVs, a Mitsu Rear Projection, and three Sony XBR VEGAs. I watched Dante's peak on them. I know it worked, because I stood there and watched how crystalline the graphics were on the component video, and I know right now that DVD works on HDTV because I saw it with my own eyes. It was marvelous. Not *as* good as the HDTV signal, but VERY close.

Now, a DVD will not run at the highest resolution an HDTV *can* achieve, but the HDTV will take the highest resolution the DVD can offer through a set of component video (R/G/B) cables, and that will blow away your digital satellite, cable, VHS, and normal TV signal faster than you can say "Boink!". As far as DVD goes, it is QUITE compatible with your HDTV.

~D.Greenleaf
Former Office Manager, Hawthorne Appliances

p.s. If you ever want to buy a plasma screen, PLEASE call me and let me know, and I can get you a great deal, and probably save you a grand or two on it.

Surely I'm not the only one who found numerous scenes from the Final Fantasy series, especially VI and VII, to be very funny? I agree they weren't built around a core of humour, but it was certainly there if you share the designers' sense of humour at all. For example, the Turks could be pretty funny, and the Sabin and Gau scenes were hilarious. To me, at least.

For games that really do focus on humour as their reason for being, you probably have to look back to the traditional point-and-click adventures by LucasArts - Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, and so forth. Perhaps one reason we don't see many games based on humour now is that these adventures aren't really being made any more, and even when they are they're not released on the consoles, only the PC.

Still, there were some really great laughs in those old games.

About games taking themselves too seriously: it's really a matter of scale. When you want to make an epic like many of the Final Fantasy games, or Xenogears, you just have to take the story seriously, or it won't feel epic. If you make a game just for laughs, it's unlikely that it's going to keep up anyone's interest for 60+ hours. It's like the difference between drama and sitcoms on TV: drama tends to be an hour, sitcoms only half an hour. It's harder to sustain comedy for a long time.

-Thorfinn Tait