While you read Cyrael's intro here, bear in mind that for MY job, I spend 12 hours playing games, then 4 hours talking about'em. Who has the strongest need to get out more?

Cyrael: Hey guys, it's me for just one more day. How will you ever survive. Since I've said a bunch of stuff in my previous columns, I'll just leave you with this. I am such a loser, and this is why: Saturday, I work all day at a video game store. Saturday night me and my friends goto the Arcade to play video games. Afterwards we drive around listening to video game soundtracks for a few hours, and then head over to someones house to stay up and play video games all night. Ahh what a life. Oh well, Onwards!

Yeah!!! Whoohooo Escaflowne!!! Awesome series, recommended to any out there who haven't seen it. Dilandau rocks, and so does Folken and the rest of the Dragonslayers!! Whose your favourite character?
I've been getting the DVDs as they come out and watching them on my PSX2 (I knew it would come in handy for something while I waited for Darkcloud- by the way, when is that gracing us with it's presence?)
..... only DVDs 5 and 6 don't work on it!! >.<

Pity me, the Esca-deprived....
SLS

Googleshng:
Favorite Esca character eh? That would be a toss up between Van and Dilandu I think. I really like characters who get into combat and totally flip out. Episode 14 rules.

Hello, Google-sama and Cyrael-sama. While we all know about Google's hatred toward MMORPGs, I'm asking these anyway:
1. What is your favorite already released MMORPG, or which one do you think looks the kewlest?
2. Which looks more promising: Star Wars Galaxies or Final Fantasy XI?
Ok, that's all I've got today. After reading through the entire archive of Real Life Comics, one starts to develop an interest in MMORPGs.

BL Alien

Googleshng:
I don't hate MMORPGs, I just feel no desire to play them. As for those, well, anything Star Wars related that isn't about the actual characters from the movies has a tendancy to suck. That puts FF11 a little ahead I think. Of course I have my qualms with both concepts, and refuse to pay monthly fees for games, so I'm not one to be comparing.

Googleshng:
I'd pay a lot more than $15 for Vandal Hearts if I saw it, but "a few scratches" is a phrase I avoid in the used game field. Now, as for Vanguard Bandits, you managed to get yourself the killing spree ending. Basically, when you get to then end of the Kingdom branch, Faulkner tries to work his evil mind control magic on you. Much like the protagonist of a Magical Girl show, if you have the love and support of your friends, you can resist. If not, well, you get possessed and have to kill them. Now then, as for how to keep them happy, in addition to making decisions that don't make you come off as a total psycho or incompetant, which you seem to have handled, keep people from dying, that ticks'em off quite a bit. Try to keep everyone on roughly the same level, since people don't like being ignored, and, most importantly, ALWAYS talk to three people between fights. When I finished, one of the girls loved me (red heart), another liked me quite a bit (pink diamond), and Devlin was slightly ticked (green triangle), and I got the good ending. I believe nobody being REALLY unhappy is slightly more important than having someone love you, but it's really not that hard to keep everyone in pretty good spirits. Then of course for a couple more upbeat endings, hit level 8 before the end of the third fight and you're on the Empire path. That has two pretty pleasant endings on it.

Dear Mr. Google sir,

What's new? Well enough with the chit chat, let's get to the questions.

1) Have you ever seen the anime Oh My Goddess! It's my favorite.

Googleshng:
I've read the manga, I've seen the OAV series, and I've seen a bit of the weird TV series where all the godesses are shrunken and hanging out with the rat. The OAV series I don't care for, but the others REALLY have their momments.

2) What are your thoughts on Grandia, the BOF series, and the Suikoden series?

Googleshng:
Way too easy, decent but not that appealing, and the first is way too short respectively.

3) Are you a mullet fan?

Googleshng:
What an odd question...

4) Were you as disappointed with The Bouncer as I was?

That's all...

~ The Great Didingo

Googleshng:
I've been told The Bouncer is a short, unbalanced, Double Dragon clone. Between that and the fact it's on a system I don't own, I didn't give it the chance to let me down.

Hi there!
I'm thinking about buying a used dreamcast and buying Skies of Arcadia and Grandia II so...
1-What others games are worth buying? (I'm not interested in PSO).

Googleshng:
Those are the only RPGs I've personally played on the system, but I've heard most others are pretty decent. Speaking firsthand, some other nice non-RPGs include Chuchu Rocket, Soul Calibur, Power Stone 1 and 2, and of course Resident Evil: Code Veronica.

2-Are they going to make Skies of Arcadia II on the dreamcast?

Googleshng:
Well, they're making one. What system is up in the air though. If not the DC, my money's on the Gamecube.

3-If Shenmue 1 is the prelude and Shenmue 2 is not the end of the story, will the other Shenmue games be on Playstation 2?

Googleshng:
Shenmue 3, which will be the last game in the series, will be on the Dreamcast. All three games use the same engine, have been in simultanious development (some of the first Shenmue screens are actually from Shenmue 2), and well, your character transfers over between them!

4-How long is Grandia II this time around?

Thank you for your time!
Mel.

Googleshng:
Hmm... Grandia 2... I should get back to that some time.

Hi Google and Cyrael. Just some general comments. I've tried HTMLizing this, but I don't know if it will work as intended...
1) In Chrono Cross, when you had an "enter code" shtick, each of the four buttons was assigned to a letter, and the L1 and R1 keys were L and R. I figure they'll do something similar.

Googleshng:
Oh yeah. I forgot all about CC's LARA bit.

2)I think that Square has probably used its time to clean at least SOME of the bugs out of Final Fantasy Chronologies' FFIV. I hope and pray.

Googleshng:
While Square has had every spare person they can find touching up older FFs, the PSX version of FF4 isn't the one getting the facelift. I really doubt we'll get a bug free release.

3) "Zophar" is from LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue and EB Complete.

Googleshng:
Oops. I meant to point that out yesterday...

4) On the whole, you seemed rather uninterested in FF Chronologies. I quote: "Well, considering that one of the reasons Square gave for not putting FF4 in the US release of FFA was that it was "too buggy", and FF6 came out so nasty I can't believe they let it out the door, unless Square has Working Designs translate it, the two movies and 2 or 3 newmenu options won't be worth it. They're also retranslating all the text. Considering that Square's recent translation efforts have been fairly nasty compared to their older stuff, well, see above comment." Does this mean you don't plan to get FFC? Not that it'll affect my decision, but I was curious.
--scifantasy

Googleshng:
Well, if I wanted to play FF4, I could just pop it into my SNES. No load times, no 3 second battle swirls, no movies with rendered Amano characters. Chrono Trigger I can also play on my SNES. Of course, I HAVE gone all the way through 17 consecutive times, so that's not the strongest of my desires. So all I would get in exchange for my hard earned $50 is a collection of movies, which I would have to access by sitting through a game I can play with my eyes closed. Not worth it. Of course, for those of you who missed Chrono Cross the first time around, grab it! Not if you missed FF4 though. Hold out for the real rerelease there.

First off, do you know of a site that tells where the bromides in the game are? I've found a lot, but I want to make sure I find them all on my second time through.

Second, how do I open the first door in the "Brave Labyrinth"? thats the dungeon north of Horam in the epilogue) It's one big room, with four glowing sword shaped marks in the cardinal directions, and two six pointed stars in the center.

Ok, I think thats all.

"When the horizon darkens most, we all need to believe there is hope."
--Oneiros

Googleshng:
I'm 95% sure that RPGamer has a Bromide FAQ in the Lunar 2 section. Especially since I recall checking it after I finished the game to make sure I didn't miss any.

hey google,

alright... i've been a hard-kore fan of this site for almost 2 years now, but this is my first time writing in to u... here are a few questions for u, slime-babe!!! ;-) lol...

1. Where can I find a copy of Perfect Works for Xenogears... Is there a link to a website that has it translated anywhere???

Googleshng:
Cyrael seems to have missed this letter, so it's just me for a little. Perfect Works was only available in Japan, and has been thoroughly snapped up, so just look on eBay for someone sick of looking at the pretty pictures and trying to translate it.

2. I found a copy of Suikoden for 10 bucks a few weeks ago... I bought it, but haven't really started to play it... Is it worth getting into while I still have to buy Lunar 2, a Dreamcast, etc??? Or should i just wait until I ::accidentally:: lose it, come across it some day in 5 years, and act surprised that I found it???

Googleshng:
For a game where you get a party of 108 characters, Suikoden is shockingly short, like 20 hours I believe. Might as well plow through it while scraping up cash for all that.

3. Was it just my computer, or was today's column messed up? it wouldn't scroll down past the SNES rpg question... sigh...

Googleshng:
It was your computer.

4. Is it at all a possibility that Sega might re-release their Phantasy Star games on a new console? I, unfortunatly, was just a young-un when they were released and knew very little about them...

Googleshng:
HMMMMMM! They very well might. After all, every other RPG developer has been doing that these days, and it seems to be working out pretty well for them. Plus if they do, I'll be able to get more people to actually play the original. Sega Master Systems aren't easy to come by, let alone games for'em.

5. I love Madonna... and if ANYONE begs to differ her excellency, I dare them to take me on... :-)

Googleshng:
THERE'S a random comment!

6. I'm SOOO excited about the FFIV/CT re-release... Am I the only one in the world who still has faith that Squaresoft can kick ass... I know that the argument belongs in the Editorials, but they're amazing... They've had a so-so track record the past few years, but think about what they've done for our communtiy... If it wasn't for FFVII, there wouldn't have been the burst of rpg's that there was... And where would we be now then?

Googleshng:
I kind of have a love/hate thing going with Squaresoft. At least out of what I've played, Squaresoft has made more great RPGs than any other developer, and talent doesn't just go away (well, except for the bit where a brilliant development team leaves Square to go out on their own every year or so at least). On the other hand though, if you take the PERCENTAGE of each developer's RPGs that are really great, Squaresoft ranks pretty darn low. I can't name a real dud from Sega, Enix has only bombed twice that I recall, Game Arts does nicely if you don't mind the ease of the Grandias, but Square has released it's share of utter garbage, and a lot of it in recent years. If you can even classify PE2 as an RPG, it's a real lemon flat out. I don't know anyone who exactly adored Legend of Mana, and of course the entire SaGa series just screams the fact it hasn't been playtested enough. Again though, the occassional release of a game like Xenogears, Chrono Cross, or FF9 (despite my being a tad sick of the series as a whole) DOES give me confidence that they can make some really good games. They just need some feedback from us so they know what's gold and what's garbage. Since the only real way they have to get that feedback is sales numbers, just try not to grab the games that don't rule, even if they do have FF in the title. Oh, and that's a good point about FF7 there.

7. One more ::little:: rant... When people are describing a game that totally blows, could you not use the word "gay" in reference to it? It would be appreciated from the ultra-rare breed of gay guys who play video games... Thanx!!!

Thank you for reading my (kinda?) long email... BYE!

Googleshng:
I don't tend to call bad stuff "gay". I don't say "it blows" either. I go with "sucks". By the way, isn't it odd that "This blows!" and "This sucks!" mean the same thing? The normal words are opposites, so one of those should mean "This rules!" Oh, and I'm not so sure on that "ultra-rare" comment. A pretty good chunk of all people I know pretty well are both homosexual, and seriously into RPGs. Let's not have a debate starting on THIS though, I can't stand dumping that sort of thing on CC right at the start of the weekend.

• Shenmue: SimStrayKitten
• Sakura Wars: I'm dating a 10 year old!
• Fraggle Rock: Not what people mean when they say "Frag"

• You name a Square game, I'll name an upcoming sequel/prequel/remake... unless you name one of THOSE.
• Shadow Hearts: If I say it enough, you might care!
• Sega's making GameCube games. Is that a flying pig I see?