Cyrael:
Well, hell. If I could read more than just basic hirigana and katakana I would offer a hand. Since I can't do that, I'll offer to build the site for ya. I work mostly in Flash (which I think I mentioned last week). Drop a line if you want me to do it.
For your questions, I dunno why you can't do that. I haven't even played more than the first battle in FFT... Been waaaaaay too busy with Dance Dance Revolution. Finally, yes I think it is worth it to finish FF8. I enjoyed the ending myself, even though the game wasn't that fun for me.

Googleshng:
Hmm... whether you should finish FF8 or not is really your call. If it'll nag at your soul, you should finish, if you can't stand to look at it, you probably should just sell the thing. Now, as for FFT, hmm... that's the Chocobo fight, right? Well, unless you're using my singing and dancing strategy, which should do nicely there, just try to take them out one at a time. Oh, and please, don't go mailing FFT strategies to Chesh tomorrow. Whenever one person does, everyone seems to. Strange curse of Q&A surrounding the game...

Cyrael:
Wow. Since I'm stuck in Xenogears (Red Rum keeps eating me and I haven't the time to trek into town to get my supplies..) I had no idea exactly HOW deep the story is. Although it is kinda spoiled for me now, I don't really mind. I have heard tons of stuff on this game since long before I even saw it, let alone played it.
I think Sega might develop for Gamecube. They are developing for the GBA right now which is super cool. I don't see whats stopping them... But I'm sure Goog will point something out!

Googleshng:
Actually Cyrael, there aren't many spoilers in there. Go finish the game! Now then, while I could see Sega making RPGs on the Game Cube, I don't see them porting any DC games to it right off the bat. Much more likely than porting to the PSX2, but I still don't see it happening.

Cyrael:
Well, the numbers and letters are Hexadecimal. From left to right they mean: Power, Type, Physical Defense and Magical Defense. At least that is what all the FAQ's say. I'm not too big a fan of the card games myself. I did however enjoy FF9. I think that by now it will take something REALLY inovative to be a truly original story. Oh well. Sorry If I start making sense. I'm really tired...

Googleshng:
Well, while FF9 was fairly fun, it really didn't seem to have ANY creative effort behind it. It's like they started with the idea of paying homage to the SNES games, then got bored and low on time, so they just slapped together characters, story and gameplay elements from those earlier games without much thought behind it.

Cyrael:
Games take a long time to make because people pour a bit of their souls into them. For the most part an RPG takes longer to make than most other Genres because of the complexity of the story and the games interface. In the case of FFX, it is taking longer because 1) It is on a new system that is apparently a pain to develop for and 2) Square seems to try to take their games that extra mile before they are released. Well... Mostly anyways.

Googleshng:
Actually, RPGs, particularly sequels, take a lot less work to create than truly great games of other genres. Even the most original RPGs stick to the same basic format as, well, all of them. Compare a recent game like, say, FF9 to the original Phantasy Star. Granted, there's a few differences, but the actual gameplay is very similar. As the game goes on, the stats of monsters steadily increase to match your characters gaining levels, shops carry better and better equipment, and better spells cost more and more MP. Anyone who has been in the business long enough has had enough time to nail down the winning ratios, leaving nothing but story and graphics. Meanwhile, to make an action game worth playing, one really has to reinvent the wheel. Every aspect of the game has to be tested, difficulty must be tweaked, the developers must hunt out any cheesy tricks or unfair enemies. Relying on past experience doesn't help nearly as much... unless of course you're Capcom. Besides, each new FF game only takes Square about a year, and at that they release plenty of other games in the meantime. That being said, you really should calm down there, and other interesting PSX2 RPGs include Xenosaga, the prequel to Xenogears, and Shadow Hearts, the sequel to Koudelka.

Cyrael:
Wow. You sure had a lot to say on that matter. To counter act that I will keep this short! I like game music. I remember songs from just about every game I have played. I buy the soundtracks to most of them. We got spoiled last year, so play all those cool games you may have missed!

Googleshng:
Let's see. I can only recall two songs from FF9, neither of which I actually like, 2 nice ones from 8, a few from 7, but only the boss music and Red 13's theme are any good in my opinion. Going back to FF6 however, which may I add I haven't really played in YEARS, I can fondly recall the Magitek Factory music, Terra's theme, the Veldt theme, the opera, Ultros' theme, the Zozo music. Do I consider Uematsu's older work superior? By far. However, I don't believe it's an issue of quantity over quality, or simply losing his touch, so much as an issue of following musical trends. Over the last year, in all video games, there has been a trend to move away from distinct songs, and towards more ambient, subliminal music. Personally, I can't stand this. While, granted, a game like Resident Evil benefits from this subdued route, as it helps build up the suspense the game relies on, and a game like Phantasy Star Online has the excuse of cutting down the distractions from the wild action, the mellow background noise in games like FF9 or Shenmue simply detract from the games' memorability. Here's hoping that Uematsu and others come to realize this soon, and for people like Mitsuda (Xenogears, Chrono Cross) and whoever did the music for Valkyrie Profile and Skies of Arcadia to get a lot more work.

Cyrael:
Ahh Grandia 2. I remember that battle well. Basically what I did was kill of the regenerator first, followed by the sword and then finally Melfice himself. I had Tio and Mareg cast All-healer (which I had powered to 5 stars by this time) just about every round. Ryudo and Elena would use Tenseiken Slash and Impact Bomb (both 5 stars too...) to cancel his attacks. If you don't he will use his 3 most evil attacks: Wailing Soul Slash, Demon horde Slash and his Horn attack. They all suck. I didn't have too much trouble with Melfice, but all my friends did though... Good Luck.

Googleshng:
Of all the games I have they've made, there's only two I haven't played, since one of those is this game here, I'm glad that Cyrael was near!

Cyrael:
Mimics need to be able to have an Eq(whatever) to use a weapon (I think). I have played Paper Mario and I had tons of fun with it. It is short, yet quirky, entertaining and just downright fun to play. Go get it. Now. I've never heard of Inu-Yasha. I like Rumiko Takahashi a lot though. Maison Ikkoku and Ranma 1/2 are fun to watch. Oh, and Finish ff5 first. I found that if you set it down, you may never pick it back up.

Googleshng:
Quoth the instructions "Possible to equip: Short Swords other than Ninja Katanas, Rod, Staff, Thief weapons such as Full Moon** and and other Ninja exclusive weapons." So, pretty much everything. With enough jobs mastered it's the best class in the game. I have yet to play Paper Mario, being as I am quite broke, but hear it's great. I notice most people haven't heard of Inu-Yasha, which makes it very hard to brag about having a tape here. Basically, it's the newest series by Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma, Lum, Maison Ikokou, Mermaid's Scar, etc.), is about a bunch of very interesting demons, and the first season of the anime series just started airing in Japan this last... September was it? In any case, it's quite good, but don't expect to see a translation any time soon. Finally, I find FF5 really isn't the sort of game you want to rush through, so I'd play Lunar 2 first.

Odin's my granddaddy (61 generations back) and I've got the records to prove it. Can I get a tilde?
- Alia

The Last Laugh: