Josh - 10:16 CST

Three day weekends are nice. It means I can stay up late on Sunday playing FFIII and not have to worry about trying to wake up at a reasonable hour the next day. On the other hand, I started working on a novel (again...one of these days I will finish one), with the intent to actually finish it. Right now the goal is 30,000 words by the time I leave training (Feb 23). Here's hoping. Don't ask to see it, 'cause I won't show you 'till it's done.

On the other side of things, I own 3 of the 4 James Bond collections, and I'll probably pick up the fourth sometime with my giant Amazon.com gift certificate I got from tossing all of my change into a Coinstar (~$174). Then, of course, the rest will be games and the like. I'm gonna head on up to Auburn University tonight to see a friend and grab some grub, then I'll be back down here to post this thing.

Hi Josh.

I had no idea you were going to join the air force. Enjoy your time. I'm guessing it has something to do with your degree or did you just really love Topgun?

What're you going to do there, and for how long? Here in Israel army service is mandatory for three years. I really enjoyed the first half of my service, until I moved to a different job (role? position? assignment?) with... the air force. The people there weren't that nice, compared to where I was before. :-)

Anyway, I have similarly succumbed to the DS. Mine isn't here yet - I've got some friends coming over from the US in two weeks. I've got a friend here who already has a DS and plenty of games, so that's good news. On the other hand, in exactly two weeks, all of my tests begin. I guess an hour a night will have to do.

I think what broke the camel's back was FFIII. It seems like so much fun, and I like job systems a lot.

Zohar Gilboa

Hey hey hey fellas and beautiful ladies. Matt, and Ouro, you two rule. Just had to point that out, not that yall don't do a great job of that already. Anyway, let's get down to the brass here.

I'm really disappointed in the lack of action RPG's these days. The only two games I'm looking forward to are Dawn of Mana, and Rogue Galaxy. It's about time they took Mana into the 3rd dimension. I've been saying that for years, and it's finally come true. I'd love to see a remake of the first in 3D. A perfect parallel 3d of Secret of Mana. Secret of Mana is still the best action rpg adventure ever! So my first question is, when is it coming out? Huh huh? Because it's my biggest jones right now. Or when do you speculate it is going to come out, or if we'll even get it? I'd would be certainly become a mouse in a teapot at a Mad Hatter un-birthday hearing the word, you know, C-A-T!

The only action rpg second to the first Mana in my opinioin is Illusion of Gaia. Yes, I enjoyed it far more than Terranigma, even though I still love that game as well. Gaia just seemed to be the more refined game, and I thought the story was much more enthralling. So here is my next question...why doesn't the ol' S-E make another one of these in 3D? That would be slicker than grease! Are at least a fancy port of all three of those games to the DS, or GBA??? I'm getting a little sick of the Final Fantasy blitz we've seen in the last decade by Square. I was super joyed when I heard Enix was going to Square, because I knew they would breathe life into them, but I've expected a little more.

So that's it, been buggin' to get that off the ol' chest there, but we got it. And on my last note, you guys should consider letting Carabbit hosting, her taste is flawless, and she's absolutely gorgeous, so come on, just ask her.

Ian William
P.S. Last Exile rules

Lieutenant Martz -

One letter, man that's some bull, now I feel bad for not writing in yesterday. Anyways, welcome back, merry christmas and happy new year to ya. Let me just start off by saying thanks for your service to our country. My former roomate/current roomates brother is in the Air Force in Georgia right now, he just had a son yesterday (if she just could have held off two more days me and the kid coulda shared a birthday, oh well) and I've got lot's of family in various branches of the military, and while I'm against this war in Iraq, I do hope all of our guys kill the hell out of anyone trying to kill them. I know emotions run deep on that issue so I won't say any more about it, but thanks.

I see Okami is no longer on your current RPG's list, so I assume you beat it. I just polished it off today, it turned out to be much deeper than I had expected in a very pleasant way. I really thought I was going to be done with it round the time I got my Wii, and it became my weekend game after that with Zelda being played during the week after work, but I'm glad I pressed forward with it. A really well put together game that kept adding new elements that kept me interested consistently the whole way through, enough so that the copy of FF XII I got for Christmas is still in plastic, although that will change as soon as I catch up on my basketball season in NBA 2K7.

I also see the GTA's on your list of RPG's, isn't that some form of blasphemy. Don't get me wrong I've played and enjoyed them both (Vice City Stories is really the one to play in my book, I really love the feeling of flying in those games. Oh, I just thought of this, I know in the Navy pilots are officers pretty much automatically, are you training to be a pilot?) anyways I thought the consensus around these parts was those don't count. Although in my opinion San Andreas is close just because you really can build stats like health and stamina; and skills in how good you are with your various guns, driving skill, piloting skills, heck even riding bikes, that game's deep.

Christmas for me consisted of the afore mentioned FF XII and a contribution towards the computer I'm writing to you with as a combination early Christamas/birthday several months ago (did I mention I'm 30 on Sunday, old, old ,old, old, old). I should be getting a copy of Sega Genesis Collection for my PSP for that birthday too, portable Phantasy Star goodness, oh boy!

As for the DS winning the portable war, I'd say in some ways it has to be expected. I mean it has an automatic library in the GBA games, which is a big incentive, both for people who already owned the GBA to stay the path of Nintendo, and to people like me who didn't and now have a chance to hop on things like the FF ports and Golden Sun and such. I know I had a blast playing FF IV last summer, and although I'm not very far in yet, I'm enjoying what I've played so far of FF III. I do have to say though that on technical merits I like my PSP more. I enjoy the fact that on my lunch break at work I can watch an episode of The Office, or Weeds,or whatever while I eat and then switch over and game for whatever time I have left on break. Also the games themselves are just incredible to play, I'm way more impressed with how it renders things in 3D as opposed to the one game I've played on DS that actually tried it (Metroid Prime Hunters), and we should have some good ones coming in Crisis Core, and the Tactics remake, and Jeanne d' Arc. If Sony can stick with it and make their next portable backwards compatible I think the generation yet to come could be a much closer battle.

Anyway's, once again I write as I watch football, and the Saint's are trying to do something late, so I think I'll be going.

Out like Trout,
kezzy

You think you can take me? Go ahead on. It's your move!

In related news, I cannot find my VHS copy of Final Justice. Damnit. But we had to have a Joe Don Baker day sooner or later.

Actual tie-in of MST3K to RPG playing! While fighting on a roll of film in San Francisco, I encountered a couple of kinds of aliens. One is that thing with the visible brain from This Island Earth (I SHOULD remember the name but all I can think of is Crow saying 'Is he wearing slacks?'). The other is the Venusian pickle from It Conquered the World.

Oh boy... played some more Tengai Makyou IV this morning. This included a shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone with three guys dressed up like bandits in a Western, then a fight with their leader, Madame Appetit. Who first sang to me an ode to the glories of food, from what I could gather. Incidentally she's a giant pig woman with an ugly cat slung around her shoulders. And she hit hard. With nasty attacks like 'Happy Hour.' Right afterwards the game went even further beyond normal bounds, with what looked like a satellite from orbit sending a gigantic laser beam to eradicate Tombstone. In 1899. Yup.

Now I have to hit the Carlsbad Caverns to reach Houston from Arizona! Gotta get the disc change to work!

Langrisser III, so I hear, plays somewhat like the Growlanser games. But regardless of how it looks, I couldn't understand what I was doing in battle. And that's not a good sign in a tactical title. Hell, you were able to play a Langrisser title in Korean - good evidence of how instinctive the usual combat system is. III is not nearly as intuitive, and that repels me unless I find a good FAQ.

Alright Ouro. Enough skating around this. I've reviewed the first two Sakura Wars games on RPGamer, and I want you to read both of those reviews. Once that's done, you'll know roughly 133.268^4 times more about the games than you currently do. If you still want to make fitfully amusing comments about them afterwards, be my guest. But learn enough to be informed! Particularly when Sakura Wars 3 and 4 have arrived.

The new issue of EGM packs some interesting reviews. Twilight Princess garners three 10's, earning it a Platinum. Final Fantasy V earns two 9's and an 8.5. Last issue FFIII garnered two 8's and a 7. Interesting. Random thought; has anyone considered putting pampas grass as an enemy into an RPG? The stuff can be damned hard to kill after all.

I noticed that you bowed out of this, leaving it all to Bainick. But no more dodging the question - with $2000 US on the table, and the ONLY outlet acquisition of a Saturn library, what will you buy? It's not THAT hard, although you'll have to delve into imports. So divulge!

Buzz off! YOU buzz off! BUZZ OFF!! BUZZ OFF, KID!!!
JuMeSyn

Blast! Break's almost over, and I've yet to beat a single game! Use your magical powers and fix this! With the holiday rush behind us, what is there to look forward to? Not that I'll get around to playing any new games for years to come with my massive backlog...

Vicissitude

Let's see...Rogue Galaxy, WoW:Burning Crusade (if that's your thing), Chrono Break (kidding), Ar Tonelico, Lunar Knights, Pokemon Diamond/Pearl...Surprisingly, there aren't too many RPGs coming out in the next two months or so, so you should have a nice break with which you can play catch up!

Hey! Welcome back! Of course we missed you. We just didn't know you when were coming back. I guess my main question is... When the world needs saving, which do I save, Dalmasca or Hyrule? Christmas has opened so many possibilities. Now I just have to figure out if that is a good thing or bad thing.

Draconn

That's a toughie. I'd go with Hyrule, just because you can probably beat Zelda faster than you can beat Final Fantasy XII. Both are great games, though. But, if you play FFXII first, you're going to be jonesing for Zelda for a lot longer than if you did it vice-versa.

Luca Phase:
Luca Blight charges up!

Movement Phase:
Bainick moves to Tile 17.
Leaper moves to Tile 46.
BLG moves to Tile 36.
Bucket moves to Tile 8.
Draconn moves to Tile 53.
Slashlen moves to Tile 54.
JuMeSyn moves to Tile 3.
Arpijy moves to Tile 43.
Vicissitude moves to Tile 37.
JDX moves to Tile 51.
Tabor moves to Tile 54.
Aurelius moves to Tile 48.

Great, now Ouro outranks me.

Answer to #L39: C. The South
Most votes! 7!

#L40.
Which of the following summons is included in FFVI Advance?

A. Gilgamesh
B. Typhoon
C. Knights of the Round
D. Ultimecia
E. Beatrix
F. Ogopogo

Another day come and gone. Good stuff, though. So while I sit here munching on my Honey Nut Chex Mix, why not sit down and share your thoughts? Not a running monologue, mind you, but something poetic. Let your muse flow.

Or, you know...just start talking. Whatever. See if I care. :)

***Josh is irritated with Sony.