I never got too into Civilization that much. I would probably enjoy it, I've just never put forth the effort to sit down and relax with a game of it. I played a lot of Lords of the Realm II in my heyday, though. There was nothing like creating a ton of archers and hearing the satisfying "thwipthwipthwip" of their bows as they attacked the forces in a castle...hehehe.

Civilization is more of a sim game, in my opinion. Sure, there are some fighting elements, but for the most part, it's developing your area faster than everyone else and keeping it safe. If they added a story, it would just be more of an RTS, like Warcraft III. Role-playing games, while story-intensive, aren't the only genre to have them. Most games have a story of some sort, just RPGs tend to develop them in greater detail.

And hybrid games are good for the environment! You get two genres in one game! That's conservation, my friend. ^^

A campaign speech? Now? Shouldn't you have asked me that earlier? Well, ok...

I was coming to this site ever since the Unofficial Squaresoft Home Page, and when it became the monstrosity that it is today, I started becoming more involved. I sent in a review for the GBA version of Breath of Fire ages ago (not my best piece of writing, but I was young), and then I started reading the Q&A columns practically daily. Those are pretty much what did it for me. It seemed like the guys running it actually enjoyed doing it, even though it was a volunteer job. I had always wanted to try that out, since I love to write, and I have to point out to people that I'm better than them that I want to help, even though if it's just by answering a question. Besides, this job is fun!

As for changes...hmmm. Well, a chicken in every garage, and a car in every pot sounds like a good start. Maybe from there I'll work on getting everyone proper dental, because Carlisle needs it. Also...wait. Overlords don't need to make campaign speeches! We just take over, and you'll like what happens, because if you don't, I'll destroy you! See? Plain and simple. You'll like what's in store. ^^

Yeah, yeah...Italy won. Maybe I'll get lucky and get stationed there when I get in the service...hehehe (Italian women are gorgeous...).

Anyway...oops. Yeah, I'm not too familiar with Total War, but by looking it up, I can see what you are getting at. My apologies ^^;. While I can see what sort of game you are envisioning, it seems like you just want a PC strategy RPG with more plot and development. That's not a bad thing, mind you, as I'd love for more games like that to take the time out to keep the player immersed with more than just the clash of metal on metal. Having the kings with their individual exploits and such would be interesting. I think actually reversing the focus of the Suikoden games, but keeping the same modes would be closer to what you are getting at. Focus more on the full scale battles (and, of course, actually adding more strategy, rather than the simplistic way the game works now), but provide some areas for your kings and generals and what have you to achieve their gains. Cool. ^^b.

As always, a pleasure responding to you!

The 1-3 was arbitrary when I started. I -did- say this was an experiment. The next one will be much more refined. :P

White Magic was horrible in FFT. I always made sure I had some people with Throw and Phoenix Down + X-Potion, as well as Auto-Potion on. That saved me countless times. Those Chocobos were easily the hardest enemies in that game, though. With Choco Heal, Choco Meteor, and Choco Ball, those things could destroy my party like nothing else. I dreaded fighting them, and since I saved after every fight in that game, I usually reloaded my game if I entered that fight.

Ruby Weapon was simple once you got the trick down right. Bahamut ZERO, HP Absorb, Quadra Magic, and Mime are your friends. Trying to fight that boss in any sort of normal fashion always proved fruitless, in my experience.

FF8 was by far one of the easiest FFs to date. Why? The Recover command. No MP, full HP regen. Same with Revive. Oh, and the repeatable Limit Breaks also factored into it too. I can't really think of a battle in that game that gave me any trouble. Besides, I was a card whore and never transformed any of my cards into items for fear of never getting them back (yes, now I know you CAN).

I got to the final dungeon of WA2, but just never beat it. I guess I just got bored with it, as it really wasn't that great of a game. Translation was bad, graphics were bad, dungeons dragged on for no reason...yeah. Didn't enjoy it too much, and I'm not sure how I made it as far as I did.

As for the dragon battles in DQ8, I know there are ways to have no problems, provided you went down the proper weapon trees for the characters...I, however, did not, unfortunately, so I was forced to whittle away ;_;.

You're almost there! GO FOR BROKE! ^^;;

No...no, you aren't. Sadly. :P

Those Italians! Always stealing our orange-overalled princesses! I swear, if it happens again, I'll headbutt the lot of them!

*runs from the masses of red-card-carrying referees who speak English and Spanish, but not French and Italian.*

Ourobolus casts ROULETTE!
Tile 14 is unaffected.
Leaper moves 1 space to tile 4.
Macstorm moves 2 spaces to tile 10.
Ourobolus casts SLOW on Macstorm!
Macstorm falls 1 space to tile 9.
Bainick moves 1 space to tile 13.
Vicissitude moves 3 spaces to Tile 14.
Arros Raikou moves 3 spaces to Tile 19.
Roku moves 3 spaces to Tile 9.