Matt Demers - 22:54 EST

I DROPPED BY THE LOCAL EB Games today, and picked up my brand new copy of Final Fantasy V Advance. It's amazing, isn't it? I have to hand it to Square Enix for catering to gamers who haven't decided to go next-gen yet. They released Final Fantasy Origins on the PS1 well into the lifecycle of the PS2, and now, Final Fantasy V will prove that the GBA is still a worthy little system to have. I'm so proud!

Ah, I don't have too much to say up here today, so I'll leap right into letters today.

As for sight... Doh, I guess there was (and still is) a Peep spell, too wasn't there? I could've sworn it was Sight in battle as well as out. Sorry didn't mean to slip like that.

As for FFIV:A... I do realize that the 'original' for the SNES was in fact a FF:lite version as it were. That is not what has taken me by surprise, nor what has made me somewhat sad.

It's the music for one. I've played the original often enough that I have almost every piece of music learned by heart, but this new addition has changed up some of the songs a bit. It's subtle, I know, but still I know it is there, and I think it is subliminally throwing me off a little when I play the game.

For two, it's just strange to read the new translation. It's a good translation, I'll admit it, but it's like picking up a Pier Anthony novel to find it has been rewritten by say Robert Jordan. Again it's subtle, but still throws me off a bit.

I guess that's what I get for playing a game enough times that I've got it mostly memorized. Silly of me really, right?

The big changes that throw me are the addition of items like Dwarven Bread (Sight) and Hourglass (Stop). Just not used to it, I guess.

On a happier note, I finished the journal in KHII, so now I can go on and beat the game with a clear mind. My inner completest has been put to rest on that game. It was amazing, I just lined up the three tasks left, and resolved them in a matter of hours. I've been trying to complete them for months, and they just snapped into place last night. Yeay!

SOCK!
#366 - d) Luminous Intensity
#367 - e) The Hanged Man

Have a great one!
Maggie ^_^

Congrats! It seems like a lot of people are playing through Kingdom Hearts II at the moment! There may be lots of new and exciting games coming out right now, but come on! A lot of us have got a lot of games to finish up first! My poor copy of Grandia III. Sigh.

Thanks, Maggie, for writing in!

Hi Matt

You called for letters? I am now about twenty hours into FF12 and have a couple of observations. Unlike most other rpgs in this one I am spending most of my time on team over watch. It is refreshing to just have to observe things like whether the team is attacking correctly and less about pushing the same damn attack button over and over and over again. I like the flexibility that the new gambit system provides. I have several heavies that attack ground based targets quite well. The game through some nasty fliers at me last night but to defeat them all I had to do was equip some magic licenses and change some of the gambit priorities without having to change the basic equipment of the characters. Fascinating.

Unlike you I tend to have favourite characters. There are several in this game that I do not care for in the least. As a result I do not play them and they do not advance in levels. Normally this would mean that they would become anemic and useless. Since the characters do accumulate license points even if they are not played this has led to another neat use. I use these characters to explore the license grid. Even unplayed they are then useful. Neat.

Anyway, my two cents.

A

Ah, yes. I just can't stand to let some characters go into the abyss of uselessness, no matter how crappy they might seem, no matter what game I'm playing. FFXII will be no exception to that rule, I'm sure. Though I guess it depends on the game in general, and how "twisty" the storyline is, who knows when you might need their help?

Thanks for the update! I'll likely get my next dose of the game tonight.

Ever wonder, in a game, how far you are into it? I have in FF12 a few times, especially since I take a leisurely pace, storyline-wise, in my constant hunt for subquests and a couple of level/gil gaining expeditions. I'm just about to enter the jungle stage (not very spoilerish, I hope), and I'm on my 32nd or so hour of play, and I wonder how much more I have to go. It FEELS like there's quite a bit more, which'll make FF12 my longest game experience since the infamous Dragon Warrior VII, but I can't find out without spoilering anything for myself, and I'm determined to make it through without a hint of clue for either story or gameplay. I guess I'll just have to find out the hard way: by playing it!

And I'd like to repeat a question to Josh to you: how are you building (or wanting to build) your FF12 characters? My letter with my character growth is in Josh's last column, so I won't repeat it here!

As with most games featuring customizable-characters, I'm really trying to differentiate every character from each other in a hurry. I refuse to teach Vaan the elementary healing spells for exactly that reason: He's not a white-magey person! I haven't opened more than a few licenses for every character so far, though, so it's hard to tell exactly how they'll branch out in the end, but I really want to aim for very distinct characters, each with unique traits that make them special (and useful). It is the way of me!

Greetings Matt!

First off, congrats on prioritising word length - now maybe it won't take me an hour to wade through the column!

I promised I'd answer JuMeSyn's stuff, but I'll try to be brief:

- Song is "Dress You Up" by Madonna. I'm not a big fan of 80's music, just that I grew up with it along with tons of boyband music, so while I'd have to thank you for the kind offer, I'm going to pass.

- I actually requested for it since Matt was reluctant to pass your letter. I figured if I'm going to do one Q&A column my whole life, I might as well do something significant, and what better mark to hunt down than one of your legendary long letters?

- My reflexes are bunk in action games, but I can play DDR Hard Mode and Pop'n Music and other music games no problem. I could take on Sonic, but it takes a little more effort than the God-given reflexes of guys. Is there something wrong with me or is this just a horrible malady of being a female gamer, Matt? ;__;

- I'm not too sure about the complete end of Sakura Wars, but Sumire's character as well as the seiyuu have retired (not quite a spoiler since it was heavily publicised in Japan), so if any more of the seiyuu retire, we'll see more characters leave the show. It's definitely preferable to having a replacement seiyuu, since fans deeply associate the characters with their voices.

- Stalin, since at least his regime enabled women to be freer.

And now to be on topic, I've a question for Matt. I read an article that the PS3 will either make or break Sony. They've got a 100,000 units ready for shipping in Japan, with an expected loss due to Cell technology research. Is there a reason why they don't want to produce more, or would it just incur more losses than if they were to understock? Since they say the PS3's sales will gradually cover the cost of the research, wouldn't producing more cover it faster? Am I making any sense?

Have a good week ahead!

#364: (a)
#365: (c)

DMJewelle

Part of me suspects that Sony is purposefully holding off for awhile, because with every month that passes, the technology will likely become cheaper to produce. As it stands, they are suffering heavy losses, and it's all to try their darnedest to control the next generation media race. There is honestly so much hype, though, that I'm not sure that the Playstation 3 could ever be a complete and utter failure at this point, despite all of the mishappenings.

An interesting note: In remarkable contrast to Sony's bleaker financial picture, apparently Nintendo is projected to make a nearly disgusting profit of one hundred billion yen (almost $1 billion, in US funds) this year. As a company, it's doing fantastically in comparison to its multitasking competitors, even though it's really seen most of its success in the handheld market lately. If Wii catches fire too, then wow. The sky's the limit. It makes you wonder why on earth they're going to charge such an exorbitant amount for the darn controllers...

'Whoooa, a storm is threatenin', my very life today, if I don't get some shelter, whoooa I'm gonna fade away. War, children! It's just a shot away, it's just a shot away! War, children! It's just a shot away, it's just a shot away!'

NAME THAT SONG! I accept no excuses here, Matt. This is hardly an obscure song - and I've even mentioned the group that performs it in Q&A before (long time ago though).

Heh heh heh - I'm going to give you this link. What you do with it is your business, I only ask that you look at what is onscreen and decide if the game warrants the thorough trashing it receives: http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=1423

Matt I have to admit that I had a really good laugh while reading this "review". You guys should take a look, if you like seeing horrible-looking old games; plus, the people who wrote it seem to have a really good sense of humour. Just from a glance, it looks pretty darn bad. I think it's pretty safe to say that we won't see anything like this grace Nintendo Wii's Virtual Console, wouldn't you say?

Do you have any thoughts about the Summon Night games Atlus has recently brought over the Pacific for the venerable GBA? As genuine GBA titles that people on the message boards tell me are worthwhile, I'm giving consideration to them.

Arrrgh. Remember that Sword of Vermilion I brought up? I talked at much greater length to Josh about the game than I did to you - research his columns for full details. In short; I have given it up thanks to the shoddiest boss controls I've ever seen. Act Raiser was positively glowing compared to this crap. In essence, a boss fight takes place akin to a fighting game - although the boss's sprite is roughly 5 times my own size. All my character can do is duck and swing his sword. He can't move fast, he can't jump, he has no ranged attack. I somehow beat an INCREDIBLY IRRITATING boss that threw high and low fireballs at me just by getting lucky on the third try, then I ran into a flying boss. If the controls were better its pathetic AI would be easy, but nooooo, my character moved too slowly to get out from under it as the thing landed. Repeated hits were landed thanks to it sitting on top of me, then it flew up and LANDED ON ME AGAIN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! In case I wasn't clear above, this discomfited me. I don't like losing to a boss in 10 seconds. I DON'T LIKE IT!

And here's a Symphony of the Night track to tantalize you. http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/120/24 While I COULD give you another Saturn-exclusive piece ( and probably will in the future - nya ha ha ha!) this is on every version. And it's rather cool. RPGamers who have played it ought to recognize the groove.

While I'm thinking about this; there is apparently no bonus in any way to Marth (or whoever the lord in FE 2 is) to compensate for lacking promotion. And in fact Marth's stat growths are supposedly worse than Eliwood's by far, leading many people to question his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Melee when he apparently stinks. I will give you my own findings when they are available.

And now we go into my current obsession of Sakura Wars. I'm debating over whether to play it again immediately after finishing or head on the Sakura Wars 2. Y'see, there are multiple endings depending upon which of the Teikokukagekidan is most in my favor at game's end. Along with different scenes also dependent upon who is most in my (well, Ohgami's) favor along the way. I realize being the only male member of a fighting force isn't really your thing, but the game is quite akin to playing an anime. There isn't as much voice acting as really should be present with that concept, but then it's only on 2 CDs. And there is plentiful voice acting as it stands, I would just like more. Especially since I understand things when they are spoken that I wouldn't get just by looking at the Japanese text onscreen.

That brings me to a central difficulty of enjoying Sakura Wara: it is very gaijin- protective. If you haven't heard this term, it refers to having pieces of the game that cannot be understood without Japanese knowledge. Sakura Wars is set in the early 20's, meaning that to better capture the mood of that era very little Katakana is used - and what IS used frequently spells out Japanese words that make no sense anyway. Such as a 'mogiri' - that is spelled out in Katakana, but do you know what it is? According to context it's a ticket-taker. Or a 'hebi' - apparently that's a word for snake. I'm slowly picking up some Hiragana thanks to its prominent usage here, but Hiragana is harder to work with than Katakana because it always spells out Japanese words instead of words that (usually) originate in another language.

So how do I deal with it? By going to GameFAQs, copying out the translation a very kind person put of 95% of the game, putting it into Notepad, and reading it as I go along. It makes a BIG difference to know what people are saying. The FAQ doesn't deal with the battles, because they really won't be a challenge to figure out - although since all the options are in Kanji in battle some trial is necessary to gauge exactly what does what.

This is why I'm so angry at Sega of America (nothing new, that). As Sega releases Sakura Wars titles in Japan it ought to be Sega's bailiwick to bring the titles over the ocean, and it has manifestly failed to do this. The manga is currently being released, all but the most recent anime has been brought - by companies not Sega - yet the start of the Sakura Wars craze remains in Japan. Why, Sega, WHYYYY?

Okay, enough Sakura Wars for now. I'll just ask you this, Earl of Slimes: how did it come to pass that you completed Chrono Cross and not Chrono Trigger?

I think we've had enough Shining Force III voice acting for awhile. Listen now to Synbios's battle theme in Scenario 1: http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/1780/1234 It never fails to get me energized for stomping enemy hides into the dirt.

Kitare, rengoku no hono yo!
JuMeSyn

Ah, this is the Synbios' theme that you were talking about in the last letter of yours I posted! It's a bit meaty, and definitely very soldiery, though it definitely retains the sound of the other music in the game. Not bad, but knightly themes are rarely my favourites.

That's all for now, JuMeSyn! Thanks for your letter.

Now, thanks to Dawn of Sorrow, I've gone on a big Castlevania kick. I think that one of the most endearing things about the game is that all sorts of enemies that have been around since the original games that I played are here and in DS form; I'm finding the game slightly addictive, and a bit tugging-at-the-ol'-heartstrings-ish. I want Portrait of Ruin. I want. I want, I want, I want!

Also, any fears I had about Final Fantasy XII being "too easy" have been totally blown out of the water. This is, honest to goodness, the hardest game I've played in a very long time. No joke.

#366. e) Magnetic Induction - 2,000 points
Oh ho ho, yes. There's a character called "Tesla" in the game, according to a couple of FAQs I read online. I was GOING to say that yeah, I can create good trivia about games I've never played, but apparently there are other sources that list his name as "Telsa". What an annoyance. Anyway, look up the word in the dictionary if you've never heard it before. Or take a first-year physics course, like the one I nearly failed. <3 In any case, because this question may or may not be correct (I hate the internet), everyone who tried this question will get the points.

#367. d) The Fool - 2,000 points
According to Boojum, this refers to the tarot cards used in Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. Good job to all of you who guessed this one correctly!

#368:
Which of the following SOCK items cannot be leveled up using a "Rare Candy"? (2,500 points)

a) Summon Encyclopedia
b) Rare Candy
c) Six-Fingered Sneak Glove
d) Item Supermagnet
e) Meteoga Spell

These are the fourth and third-to-last questions that will be involved in SOCK! Isn't it sad? I'm a little misty just thinking about it.

That will be all for today! It's time to float off to Final Fantasy V land, while I don't have giga-assignments staring me down. Please, write in, and you might find yourself on Q&A one day soon! See you tomorrow~