I received many letters informing me that "Crabbit" originated as "Cabbit" in the Tenchi Muyo anime. They were essentially a cross between a cat and a rabbit ("Cabbit," woo, creative) and bounced around filling joy into the hearts of young children everywhere ... And then they turned into huge spaceships. I'll never understand anime. (Note: Do not flame me, anime lovers)

Also, readers have been suggesting that I put the hidden text in a random place each column, since everyone already know where it is. I find this to be a good idea, so starting today, you'll have to search for the hidden text. Don't want to? You'll just be missing out on the fun! :D

Now that I have that stuff out of the way, we can move on to the actual letters. Well, unless I decide to not put up any letters. But, if the letters are there, you'll know I decided to use them. Well, I actually planned to from the beginning, and these few sentences are here for the sole purpose of confusing the hell out of you. Yeah, okay.

Hey, Alex!

Asked Jeff this, but he didn't answer, so I thought I'd send it to you. After all, you did want questions, and mine haven't been answered! So...

OK, I know Ryan said Greenhut's gone and not to ask questions about it, but... I LOVED his gimmick with the Darwin awards! Well, I thought it was hilarious anyway. Any of the three new "Ask" guys gonna pick that up? (And who's gonna do the editorials now? Editorials were the first thing that got me hooked on RPGamer a little over a year and a half ago.)

I don't see why we shouldn't continue with the Darwin Awards, as long as some of you readers send in your stories. And as far as editorials are concerned, we're still planning, I think (read: I'm malinformed).

Oh, and what time zones are y'all in? Cause I'm kinda getting tired of not seeing the column updates till after midnight, and sometimes not till the next morning. I'm not saying it has to be updated by noon (though that was nice, when Thor was still nocturnal, cause sometimes he'd get the update in before I left for work), but I'd like to be able to read, for example, Monday's update on Monday...

Well, I'm in Eastern (The best time zone. Uh oh, time zone debate!@), JD's in Pacific, and Ryan's in Central. You're generally not going to see any updates before 4:00 PM EST.

Aw, hell, I just realized I din't ask anything RPG related! OK, um... Have you played Legend of Legaia yet? I'm a little less than halfway through, and I'm hooked. Graphics, storyline, gameplay... I love it! Damn slot machines are addictive, though. And Noa's so cute! (Not that way, I'm female :)) Your thoughts?

I haven't played Legaia yet. The other day when I was at Blockbuster, I was thinking of renting it, but I picked up Pocket Fighter instead. Does that officially make me stupid?

Oh, yeah, I rember you from way back. Glad to see you again. Good job on your first column back, and I hope you get more to work with today!

Heh, thanks. :)

PS - Ryan's 15? Jeez, I feel like an old fart! Please tell me you're at least legal!

Alex:
Unfortunately, I'm 15 as well. Fear my immaturity, or something.

Ok, everyone seems to like Xenogears, right? Everyone seems to love it, and play all 70 hours of it, right? Well, how come I can't get into it. I'm 20 hours in, I just got Billy, and I'm bored to hell of the game. Why didn't they just make it a friggin' book? Or a movie, better yet? It's got too much text for a game. And the gameplay does get pretty monotonous. But mostly, it's the endless pages of text. So how can you stand it?

Besides, Plot and Music and such are NOT better than Gameplay. Oh, and it isn't very challenging, either (though I ain't very far in it, but it's harder than FF7 at least.)

Mike Dore

MrEarthbound

Ok then, Alex, you've a lack of letters? Well then, I'm curious about something. Which of these game are you most anticipating? Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy Anthology, Lunar 2, or Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. (RE's an RPG, right?) I seem to change my mind almost daily. Right now I'm hooked on RE3. How about you? BTW, those are the only RPGs I could think of off the top o' my head, so feel free to include others if you wish.

-Zap "Did you hear that?"

Hey Alex:

The other day, I was reading about a product called "Grand Theft Auto: London 1969". Not sure if you're familiar with it, but its what's called a mission pack -- meaning it serves as an add-on to the original Grand Theft Auto. Rumor has it that something like this is coming out for Metal Gear Solid as well.

My question is: do you think this technology will ever be used in an RPG? I mean, who wouldn't want to play a few more small missions with their favorite RPG characters? I'd love an add-on to Xenogears, and I'm sure that if Square ever made an "Aeris quest" add-on to FF7, it would sell millions and millions of copies.

What do you think?

Alex:
The problem with this is that any "add-on" to an RPG would essentially be a sequel, or a spin-off. Sure, it'd be fun to have games focused on less-emphasized characters, but designing it to be an add-on would be a bit pointless.

Alex...

Okay, I read the thing about Xenogears "Episode V"...okay, the "Episodes" are Fei's selves thoughout time. The first is a passenger on the Eldridge. The second is Abel. The third is Kim. The fourth is Lacan. The fifth is the current Fei we all know and think is damn cool. Just thought I'd clear that up.

-Jeff

PS: Have you had any Prozac cookies before? I wanna know what they taste like.

I think I had one when I was little. Which basically explains why I act how I do today.