Yes, soma. The most miraculous non-existant drug known to man. I reflected coming back from a 2 hour trek to the nearest mall on how many non-RPG references I could piece into a Q & A column at once, and suddenly soma popped into my head. Why soma? Well... I could've really use some. Really. After being completely humiliated at Soul Calibur at Babbage's and Tekken Tag Tournament at the local Namco arcade, I was desperate for some. But lo! I remembered I purchased Final Fantasy Anthology today. Screw soma, Final Fantasy 5 would be my soma. ^_^

My computer reached a milestone today: it encountered its first e-mail virus. My e-mail account was sent the W32/SKA (a.k.a. Happy99) worm today. Bless McAfee Online for catching it.
^-^

But getting back to the topic of soma.(What can I say? It's a private passion...) I'm not going to cleverly hide the reference. Soma is a wonder drug the society in Brave New World uses to get away from their problems. What I'm getting around to is this: Aren't the cast members of Final Fantasy VI similar to the social classes of Brave New World? For example:

• Alpha Class - Edgar, Celes, Setzer, Cyan
• Beta Class - Locke, Terra (without Slave Crown), Relm, Shadow, Sabin
• Gamma Class - Mog
• Delta Class - Gau
• Epsilon Class - Terra (with Slave Crown), Go-go, and Umaro.

I found that strangely disturbing. Oh, and please don't flame me for putting the characters into their respective classes... it's just an opinion, for God sakes! T'was trying to be somewhat funny. I wasn't born a Brad Lohr, after all. Â_Â

Well, that ends my literary rave for the day. On to Q & A mayhem!

I come in peace.
I leave in pieces.
-Busdriverrj

Veronica:
Finish this sentence:

If at first you don't succeed...

P.S. I wouldn't mind if it switched to "Drifting", but whenever I try to hum it, it turns into "Tears of the Moon".

Veronica:
You think you have it bad? I've been singing "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants in Spanish and Biology for 3 weeks now. The entire class knows the lyrics now... it's not pretty. If you're desperate and want a new song in your head that won't plague you so much, remember the following song:

A little bit of Monica in my life, A little bit of Erica by my side.
A little bit of Rita's all I need, A little bit of Tina's what I seek.
A little bit of Sandra in the sun, A little bit of Mary all night long.
A little bit of Jessica, here I am. A little bit of you makes me your man.

A much better choice, don't you agree... *hides in a bomb shelter from angry flamers*

-Googleshng

Veronica:
You're right. The translation time could be short due to the English voice overs in the movies. Right now, Koudelka is slated for a December, 1999 release in Japan. No plans have been announced to bring Koudelka to North America, although I personally think the chances are good for seeing a Koudelka port sometime next year.

Be warned that I just dished up a helping of Opinion Pie. Keyword Opinion, okay?

First of all, I'm trying to get Doomtrain. I have just gotten the Remedy-Pluses and the Steel Pipes. However, I'm at the point in the game in which the sky around Esthar turns red. I haven't been able to find any Malboros to steal their tentacles. The Official Strategy guide says that Malboros are also found in the Grandidi Forest. Where is the Grandidi Forest?

Also, I am interested in getting Cerebus. I tried to fight him three times in Galbadia Garden, but he was too much for me and I had no choice but to abandom him. Is it possible to go back to Galbadia Garden and go after Cerebus again?

I will be waiting until you or someone you work with can help me. Thank you for your time. Good bye.

Veronica:
Well, considering there are MASS forest all over the Esthar continent, Malboro's could be in any of them. A nice hint to finding out where the Grandidi Forest is is to pull up your Menu screen and look at the bottom. It tells you the location you're at and any specific names the region is given. If Grandidi Forest pops up in a forest in the Esthar Continent, then you're obviously there.

I'm not sure if it's possible to go back to Galbadia Garden and battle Cerebus. (mainly because I'm not that far yet. ^^;;)
If you can, you might want to try to go back to Galbadia Garden and battle Cerebus.
You never know until you try. ^_^

1) I was recently thinking of buying Lunar: SSSC. How do I get all the goodies that came with its release? Do the soundtrack, cloth map, (and any other extras I can't remember) come with the game if I buy it off the shelf, or were those special deals only available to those people who pre-ordered?

2) I read a long time ago, that Thousand Arms would also come with some extra things (a soundtrack was one of them). Did I have to pre-order this game in order to get these goodies with it? Or does the soundtrack CD come with the game, even if I buy it off the rack? Even if I don't get the extra things with this game, I'm still buying it, because I think anime is cool.

3) It seems to me, like every RPGamer and his/her mother has created his/her own RPG plot. I've written two. Do you have any RPG plots you've written?

I really hope you have answers to these questions, because when I went to EB today to buy Metal Gear Integral, I forgot to ask these questions to the nice guy behind the counter. I live to far away to go back there daily, and they have an unlisted phone number. Sorry if this letter is long, I just tried to make my questions clear...

-Zack S.

Veronica:
1) When one of my close friends purchased Lunar not long after it was released, I believe she purchased it straight off the shelf and she got it a deluxe package. All of the goodies were inside the collector's pack. I visited Babbages today and saw the game for sale at the same price when it was originally released, but in its regular jewel case. If you really want all of the goodies, ask around for a copy of Lunar at your local store that has the extras. The regualr jewel case with Lunar: SSSC in it is not as ornate as the package you may have seen in ads, so it should be easy to distinguish the two.

2) I haven't played or purchased Thousand Arms yet, but I believe that the soundtrack CD is something you have to send away for via snail mail. I think you pay around $2.00 S & H for it, but that's all I know.

3) If every RPGamer staffer has written one, I'm in the minority. I've never written an RPG plotline, although my first attempted novel could have been turned into a RPG very easily if I had worked on it more.

About another comment you made yesterday.Ê I know Sakaguchi is constantly busy with the next Final Fantasy, but what does Shingeru Miyamoto do when he's not making Zelda.Ê Has he made/designed/produced any other games?

MtMagus

Veronica:
1) If Mike gets to be Shao Kahn, then I get to be Sheeva!!!

2) Miyamoto is considered by many (RPGamers and non-RPGamers alike) as "the god of gaming", and with good reason. When Miyamoto was hired to Nintendo waaaay back in the company's infancy, he came up with the concept for Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros., later followed by The Legend of Zelda. He's worked lightly on many games throughout Nintendo's history. (In terms of non-Zelda RPGs, the only other RPG I can remember him being involved in was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. There are probably others, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.)

Veronica:
Are you familiar with the plot of Death Becomes Her? ^_-