Dear Paws,
I just wondered for a moment and it struck me like lightning. How often do RPG's have the main character or hero or heroine as the character with the most powerful sword, gun, or whatever. Do you know of any RPG's that do not make of this? Most companies never make the hero of an RPG with a simple weapon, and have the remainder of the team with more striking weapons. Why can it not be that the main character has the skills of something very unexpected? And also, what do you believe should be the characteristics of a great hero? Maybe you could make this a poll question. One more thing, if you were creating an RPG, what would be your priorities other than plot, to attract the majority of the public to the game. What kinda platform, puzzles, etc would you include to do so? I don't mean you to answer this last question fully but just on a general basis. Thank you.

Paws says:
Well, maybe I just have FFVI on the mind because of that huge list I made earlier, but Terra doesn't have a macho-kill-everything-in-one-hit specialty. Her specialty is unique, very unique, but not something that really blows you away. Plus, how often do you really get to use it, ya know? Parasite Eve was suggested to me; I haven't played it myself so I don't know for sure. The Lufias, and Chrono Trigger (well, without the techs). Guess there's a few of them around ;)

I've never sent anything to RPGamer before, so this is a wonderful way to start:
I know Googleshng's gender! I'm sure you've recieved a thousand letters saying the same thing, but mine's different, because I'm...well...I'm...here! And....uh....stuff like that....

Anyhoo, Chesh gave it away yesterday, or today for me cuz it's kindahard to write in the future...But that's not the point! Goog is a girl, unless this was some kind of carefully planned 'slip of the tounge' designed to confuse countless loyal readers into thinking Goog's a girl, while he's really a boy? But how could you convince anyone that he/she/it was another gender after saying that she's a...well, she? It's a conspiracy! They're putting mind control drugs in the flu shots, hypnotic suggestion machines in my GameBoy!
....Must....buy.....PS2....

Ooh, dizzy now. Gone crosseyed again. Maybe if I had slept this weekend,I would possibly make just a bit more understandable stuff. What's it called? Sense? No more caffiene and Twinkies together anymore. That was just a bad idea to begin with.

How about a question, just to cap it off? Uh...Of the big systems,what's more worth my dollar? I'm leaning towards getting a Dreamcast, but Idon't know what games I should get from the different genres.

-Craven "They're out to get me!" Wolf

Paws says:
I'm leaning towards the DC myself because I really like the controller and I've also seen a lot more games that I like on it (including some non RPGs, go fig). As for your babble to Goog's gender, I'll go with a 'no comment'. I have to admit, I printed it just because it was funny to read =^^=

Hi Paws,

I was looking at those new movie clips for FF X, XI, and TSW, and somethingin the FF X one caught me, grabbed ahold of my soul, started choking, andleft me gasping in pain.

At the beginning, you see a bunch of text rapidly show up, and fade,giving a small bit of story for the game. The first couple lines lookssomething like this:
Dead for a thousand years...A great terror arose from the deep.

So, they're saying this games takes place 1,000 years after some greatevil was killed. By itself, this means little; many RPGs have long-dead evil coming back. But here's the scary part, while this is showing, a bit of Eyes on Me is playing in the background. Given that they've recently announced that the main theme for FF X is done, and Uematsu has no doubt been working on the score for some time, the use of a song from FF VIIIhas to be deliberate. To me, this implies that X is going to be somehowrelated to VIII, perhaps even a true sequel (1,000 years later, but then again,lots of RPG sequels are set then).

All this begs the question, WHY? If they're actually making a directsequel to a former game in the series, why VIII? Its not a bad game, but it isfar from the best in the series. Unless they come up with a different battle system, they'd piss off a lot of gamers, especially after how great IXis. Anyway, I hope I'm wrong about all this. What do you think?

Bart

Paws says:
FFVI won't get out of my brain! I'm gonna go play it now. But, speaking of it, it also starts out with a 1000 year gap. The War of the Espers, destroying nearly all....the world has been rebuilt and technology has been discovered, 1000 years hence.
Besides, there's never been a FF sequel. That's part of the charm of the series, it's always different. Why would they change that now? :)

*Bows to the Kitty*

The current title bar quote is from Valkyrie Profile- it's the incantation for the Celestial Star mega-spell, no matter who uses it.

As for some questions, I'm just a little unclear on a few of the abilities in FF9, could you illuminate?

1. When Quina Trances, what's the point of "Cook"? It seems to have the same effect as his/her normal "Eat" command: Does it have a higher success range or something?

2. What does Eiko's "Guardian Mog" ability do, exactly?

3. How about Vivi's "Magic-Elem-Null"? Does it make all his spells non-elemental? Does it break through opponents' elemental defense? Does it make all incoming attacks non-elemental? Little help, here.

Arigato Gozaimasu!
Nate Railsback

Paws says:
A little late for the quote, but one of those 17 cat faces yesterday were yours.
1. Yep. The success rate is much higher, IF the enemy is already in the 10 or less of max HP needed to Eat.
2. Not sure. Maybe it raises her defense or protects her from physical attacks? Try it and see :)
3. It turns all Vivi's spells to non-elemental. From what I've heard from other players, it's not really worth the cost. Maybe it's good on one or two bosses that are strong to elemental magic, or something along those lines.

Hey there Paws!
Great work over in the reviews section, by the way!

My question is this: I have a PlayStation, and I would like to get an RPG for Christmas. What are your personal favorite RPGs this holiday season?
Thanks for your help!

-Moon

Paws says:
Thank you! =*^^*= Stewart and I try our hardest to keep it tip tup.
Now, as for your question, I didn't ask for any games. My parents hate the fact that I play video games and if they bought me some, it would be encouraging (to them) me to continue working at RPGamer (they hate that I have this job). Don't worry, I wouldn't leave because of them :)
Games for you for the PSX...well, there's Monster Rancher Battle Card ;) I've played it a bit, it's a decent game. CC, BoF4, FFIX, all good choices which you may not have yet. You may also want to consider hitting a used game store; I've seen lots of copies of (wow!) FFT, Kartia, and even Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. There's also some really good racing games that came out in the past couple months. Hope you get what you want =^^=

Hail to my favorite Q & A Personage
Don't ask me why, a thing for cats, thing for Canadians
anywho a real honest to goodness question.
I distinctly remember reading somewhere that for Final Fantasy 9 there was composed something like 8 CD's worth of music. Now since the Final Fantasy 9 OSV is quite obviously not 8 CD's I was wondering if you knew what was up. Will there be a FF9 OSV part 2 or will we just miss out on half the music except in the game?
Thanks for your help.

Sir Quickstar

Hey Paws,

Could you do me a favour and severely mame and destroy Chesh for not marking the letter with the Bahamut/Alexander fight outcome with a spoiler warning? I had been looking forward to that ever since I first saw a screen of it way back when. Now, however, I've lost all interest in playing the game. There's some nummy catnip in it for ya.

Barry

Alas, there is chance sometimes when reading Q&A you will get spoilered. However, it's a tough call on that fight - after all, it was in one of the advertisements, too.

If one train from Chicago is heading for New York at 75 mph, and at the same time, a train from New York is heading for Chicago at 120 mph, then how much lengerie have I stolen while you've wasted your time with math?

~Happosai
"Hee hee hee! Whatta Haul!"

Hey, wait a second.. You kissed the guy that got the quote right first? I demand a recount!

-Nova

The Closing: