ahem.

Do you think that Legend of Mana has a good chance of coming to America? I'm hoping and praying, here. GIA said it had a good chance, but I thought I'd get a second opinion to be sure.

Do you or anyone you know remember the cartoons Captain N the Game Master, any of the Marios, Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, or Unico. I know this doesn't have to do with RPGs but nobody I know remembers any of these.

I hate to nitpick, but you made a mistake. When Powerfree asked about a player for XA files, you answered that modplug would work. Modplug plays XM files. He was asking about XA files. XA files require XAPlay which can be obtained at home.highway.or.jp/soltin/cgame.html Unfortunately the homepage is in Japanese, so I'd suggest getting getting the player from www.phoenix.net/~feldon/psxvideo.html I'm not exactly sure if these kinds of programs are legal. I suspect they would be as long as you don't distribute the files off the CD.

First off, I'm happy to note that so far the game seems really good. I mean, yes, the plot line leaves a tad to be desired but hey, I think that it more then makes up for it every time the main character executes a powerful move and then grunts enthusiastically in Japanese. Nothing like a good heartfelt grunt or two to really get things going!

I'm also impressed with the wide range of sounds and sound effects I have already noticed.(aka worm movement !?!) But this isn't what I was focusing on really. What stuck out to me was how much better a game really becomes when you feel you have some control over the dialogue boxes! I mean hey, I know it sounds trivial, and I should probably be sitting here complaining of the exp. system, or of the difficulty of getting gold, or the fact that when you purchase a "cloak" and equip it the character is suddenly wearing hot pink knickers, or even that I have a serious problem with run on sentences... but no, I actually kinda like the fact that I can scroll though text as I like..That was probably the biggest drawback in Xenogears for me. Not only was there a monstrous amount of text but I found myself fighting the urge to nap while waiting for it to finish scrolling. You know what else? I like the fighting system in LoL too! I think that even though it does take a little time, its fun.. and a little bit different.

Hmmm, looks like an entire letter sans any real questions whatsoever except the rhetorical kind..I feel like I should throw one in just to fill a quota or whatever sooooo, here goes.

Did you find the disembodied head from Ultima "The Black gate" for SNES terrifying to you or anyone you know....or was it just me? (Im tellin ya, that visage was keepin me up at nights!)

your da' bomb!

I will now attempt the impossible, the very thing that has driven many to the brink of insanity and beyond. I will try to make sense of the FF7 ending ::thunder clash::.

First, of course, as we all know, Meteor is coming to kick everyone's behind. However, the power of Holy, fueled by the destruction of Sephiroth who was the one that was preventing it's power from working, stops Meteor and blows it into little tiny pieces. The flying debris hits Midgar and everyone is running around with Meteor shrapnel in their heads yelling, "Aaah! I have Meteor shrapnel in my head!" Midgar becomes uninhabitable because of all the shrapnel, and the dead bodies with the shrapnel in their heads. Meanwhile, Aeris realizes she was never really dead and spends the rest of her life living with a singing lobster named Sebastian.

In a few hundred years, plants have grown over Midgar and it becomes a hang out spot for Nanaki and his kids, who he had from asexual reproduction (don't ask me how).

Now does everyone understand the ending?

Personally, I totally agree with Cloudy Squall on this one - I found FF5 and FFT's platonic plots to be a breath of fresh air in a somewhat cliched genre. Someone ought to remind RPG developers that you don't *need* a romance in the plot line to have a good game.