Hello Paws, you anthropomorphic cat you...

Anyway, the quote Sandman-Ash gave you, "Cities are not people. But, like people, cities have their own personalities. A city is a collection of lives and buildings, and it has identity and personality... " Is, I think, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld book, Reaper Man. I'm not one hundred percent sure on it, but I think that's correct.

Also, do you have any idea as to the future of the Final Fantasy series? From what I understand from reading this site and others, is that FF XI will be online, such as Everquest or Asheron's Call. My question is, do you know if any future games (i.e., FFXII, FFXIII, FFIV, etc.) Will continue to be online RPGs or will they revert back to a single player game?

Thanks a bunch, Paws!

Cirrus Strife

Paws says:
Hmm, nope, I'm afraid that answer is wrong. You go down to 1000$ dollars now, I'm afraid. Play again some time though ;)
As for FFXI, It won't be a PC game, as is Everqueer, er Everquest. It will be played through the PS2. Supposedly it's supposed to have no offline playability, but I think Square would be shooting themselves in the foot if there wasn't.

Paws,

Hey. An interesting question came up between my friends about which RPG would be the best "first RPG" for a newbie player. One of my friends had finished playing Metal Gear Solid and he loved it. He's interested in the FF series (we talk about it all the time) and was wondering if FF7 would be the best place to start. What do you think? Personally, FF6 was my first FF, but I suggested 7 because I thought MGS would be closer to FF7 than 6, 8, or 9 would. Good choice? And what do you think would be a good first RPG outside of the FFs? He's never played RPGs before, but he mentioned the one thing he liked most about MGS was its story.

As a side note, Sandman-Ash's quote is from the SimCity instruction booklet I believe. Your quote sounds like something from Blink 182, but I have no clue about your music preference, so I can't be sure. Watch me be way off base.

-Red "Where's my list?" Raven

Paws says:
Hmm....tough choice. I'd say go with VII followed up by IX then VI. As for outside the series, Xenogears if he has patience, Chrono Trigger, and Suikoden are some good ones to start off with, thought Suikoden's story is a tad shallow. Kartia has a wicked story and some really dynamic battle strategies. OB64's story is really well done as well, and of course customizeable.
As for the quote, sorry, wrong answer both ways. You're better off writing reviews than guessing quotes ;)
Oops, the list! =^^;;;= Remind me next time I call, mmkay? We miss you in the channel, come back soon.

Hey Paws.

First off, congrats on getting a copy of FF IX. I've only been able to get to see about an hour into it's opening, but so far it looks spectacular and I hear it only gets better.

Second, I'm just curious if you or any of the readers of your column could answer a question of mine. In Vandal Hearts there's some vocals and I'm wondering if there's any site out there which would have the lyrics to them, or even just the language it's in (ie. English, French, or some sort of mishmash of languages) since I'm sure I've picked out some English lines and one that's almost definatly French while the rest sounds almost Arabic.

Well, back to the texts...

Da Scapegoat

Paws says:
Unfortunately, my copy of IX has yet to make it safely to me. The post office has lost it TWICE in 3 weeks. *gets a knife, slits a few throats*. Anyway, I know a lot of info about it because I watched (and even played some) of the first 2 CDs in Japanese a few months back. If I ever run into problems, I have half a dozen friends who have it and I ask them. Hopefully my third copy will get here soon.

Hmm, translations of lyrics...well, if you haven't checked our info guides, get crackin'! ;) If anyone else knows where one would be, please email me. Thanks =^^=
Google: I'm almost positive this was answered in the column a few months back, because before then I went crazy for years trying to find out what language that was. I seem to recall it turned out to be a mixture of french and... polish? If you're in a real hurry to find out, you can try digging through the archives. Think it was like 3-6 months ago.

Paws,

Ah... the first feline to host Q/A. Anyway I wanted to write in about todays letter that wondered "why dont people have time to finish RPGs. I can think of two really good reasons why I, and probably many more like me havent finished a number of RPGs yet.

1. I go to one of the most competitive art colleges in the country. Some weeks I only sleep oneor two hours a night in between the drawing, and painting, and polygon creation and all the rest. If I am lucky enough to have relax time, I may play a video game, or eat or sleep.

2. It is because we love RPGs so much that we dont finish them. I haven't beaten FF9 yet, I could but wheres the fun in rushing straight through to the end. I like to watch all the Active Time Events, playing cards and digging with my Chocobo. The game was made to be enjoyed, not rushed through and put away never to be seen again.

Well theres my two cents. I just get frustrated when people claim how fast they beat the newest game, why does it matter? RPG's have some of the deepest plots of all video games, why not explore them fully.

Patrick
Put

"Tceles B Hsup? A Magic Spell..."

Paws says:
Very valid points. I too agree that rushin through a game is kinda pointless. Yeah, you may get bragging rights, but can you truly enjoy something if you're madly dashing through it merely trying to reach the end? Whatever happened to 'stop and smell the roses'? I know I enjoy RPGs because I can sit down and relax when playing them. Maybe that's not something a reviwer should say, but even if my reviews are later, I like to think they're a better judgement of the game because I haven't blown through it, I've experienced it. There, that's my two cents too =^^=

HEY paws,

I actually have Rpg maker 95 and 2k for computer and just wanted to let everyone know that you can get them both from http://rpgmaker.chat.ru They are also free, I beleive, not shareware...

-Mirk "Quotes aren't cool"

Paws says:
Here it is, for everyone that emailed me telling me they couldn't find it anywhere. Be warned however several people also emailed me and told me it was a Russian secret plot to take over the world *sage nod*.
As for quote not being cool, I'd like to know why not. Quotes are a fun way to exercise your brain by using your memory and an interesting game to play on the side. Note the entire column isn't about quotes, and when people guess they also send in legitimate questions (in fact, I get more printable material than I can ever put up), so what harm does it do? If you can't guess them, just ignore them :P.

No quickies today?

The Closing: