Justin: Welcome to RPGamer's latest roundtable! A lot has happened since our last roundtable, and we've done our best to incorporate some of the most recent news into this week's roundtable. Before we begin, however, I'd like to ask our panel to introduce themselves.

Tony: Greetings all! I'm Tony Green, considered RPGamer's Internal Contributor. Basically, I do a whole bunch of little things and moonlight as TRC's lackey.

Googleshng: I'm Googleshng, and I seem to live in these roundtables, aside from running the Q&A column.

Matt: I'm Matt Stuckwisch, originally a mediaite for RPGamer, I now also do some of the graphics you see on the site.

Alex: I'm Alex. I'm a big fan of RPGs and video games in general, so I tend to take a close look at them.

Doug: I'm Doug Hill, Business Manager for RPGamer. I like Final Fantasy Tactics, Earth and Beyond's beta test, and long walks on the beach. (looks around...) Well, I do...

Justin: I'm Justin, our resident roundtable moderator, and currently addicted to Puzzle Fighter. Now, some very interesting and important news has been released in the past week or so. The RPG juggernaut, Square, has formally announced which games they plan to bring to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. Square support for Nintendo systems has finally arrived with new entries in some of their most beloved series with Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, a new Seiken Densetsu game, and the previously announced Final Fantasy Tactics game. How expected were these games, and what do you feel about each of them?

Doug: I'm excited that we're getting games on GBA. Perhaps it will motivate me to find where I put the system. My current portable of choice is a PSOne and LCD screen, which is so much superior, although not quite as portable.

Googleshng: I was rather surprised to see that Square's planning on starting off their development for the GBA with so many original titles instead of just porting some classics to it.

Tony: Personally, I'd like to see how Final Fantasy Tactics turns out. Technically speaking, it should be rather hard to port it directly, so I'm wondering if it's going to go back to its roots, by which I mean Tactics Ogre-style gameplay.

Alex: I've been growing considerably more wary of Square Soft ever since the FF8 debacle. They just haven't been turning out the same games they used to. However, they've also been turning out games solely for CD-based systems, so this signals a bit of a change. As far as FF:CC, all we have to go on is the movie and screenshots that have been released for the GameCube part. I'd like to think that Square has something really nifty in store for the two systems, but until I get more facts, I'm keeping my distance.

Matt: While I'm highly excited about a new Seiken Densetsu game being developed, I have to wonder how exactly Square plans to model the game. Is it going to be like the 2nd and 3rd games (the third one being my favorite game of all time) or is it going to be like the fourth, which, well, wasn't as enjoyable?

Tony: That brings up an interesting point. Square has, for the most part, been concentrating on next-gen titles. Will these new GBA titles signal a return to the games of the past?

Matt: I hope so, variety is always good. What I mean is, now gamers will have a variety of visual styles to choose from: 2D on portables and 3D on consoles.

Justin: I was extremely excited when hearing about a Seiken Densetsu for the GBA, as Final Fantasy Adventure (the first Seiken Densetsu game) easily makes my top 10. To me, a portable system just feels right for Action-RPGs, and I hope that the transition to a more limited system will help the developers make a more focused game, which I understand is the biggest problem with Legend of Mana (its lack of focus, that is).

Googleshng: You realize that complaining about LoM being unfocused is like griping about how The Matrix is set in virtual reality, right?

Tony: Seiken Densetsu is at a crossroads I think. The problem with Legend of Mana is they tried to get too artsy. To be honest, I think it's a problem a lot of Square games have had. Hopefully making games for the less-powerful GBA will force them to concentrate on the games and not the frills. I think that's the shine of the GBA, to be honest; it's forcing developers to concentrate more on the games themselves and not the FMV or orchestral score or whatever in their games.

Alex: The two titles I'm really getting my hopes up for are FFT and this new Seiken Densetsu. I don't think Square is going to go for the artsy approach on a handheld portable system so I'm looking forward to a more traditional SD game. They'd be hurting themselves if they didn't make the game multiplayer (at least three players) like SD2 (Secret of Mana). Of course I'd rather have it on a console instead.

Doug: First of all, I love multiplayer SoM and I think they would be crazy if they didn't make the game at least four player multiplayer through link cables or through the GameCube. However, I also liked Legend of Mana more than Secret of Mana, but that's a topic for another roundtable. I just have to wonder one thing: Are we underestimating the Chocobo game?

Justin: Well, they haven't yet said the Chocobo game will be an RPG. I wouldn't be surprised if it was another Chocobo Racing, seeing as how the GBA has an influx of racing games.

Doug: I honestly never thought of that.

Alex: The fact that they're bringing FFT to GBA excites me, since Final Fantasy Tactics has to be one of my favorite games, period. I hope they'll do more than simply port it, though. Changes to the story would be awkward, and I'd rather just have a new game, but that might be asking a little much. A multiplayer mode would be very nice.

Justin: Nintendo has to be pushing multiplayer modes for just about every GBA cartridge they screen, since there are a ton of games I would never expect to have a multiplayer mode that ended up including one. That said, I would be extremely surprised if the new Seiken or FFT games didn't have multiplayer modes. Even if Square didn't think it was worth it, I think Nintendo would still try to push it.

Googleshng: That actually brings up a point I've heard a lot of people mentioning. Square's new titles for Nintendo's system seem to be aiming for something of a younger audience than usual if one goes by the visual style. Do you suppose they're trying to attract a new market, or subscribing to the outdated school of thought that Nintendo is just for the youngsters?

Matt: I believe they're trying to get the new market by releasing games based on the old idea that Nintendo dislikes "mature" games, and prefers "childish" games.

Justin: Actually, the visual style reminds me a lot of the Tactics character designs: Childish-looking characters in renaissanceish clothing.

Tony: I'm still almost positive that FFT for the GBA is going to be Tactics Ogre with the Final Fantasy classes, and maybe a new take on the Job system. The hardware just can't support FFT as we know it.

Alex: It can't?

Tony: Take a look at other PSX ports. They all fell short on the GBA

Justin: I wouldn't be so sure; developers have already done rudimentary 3D on the GBA, and that's really all Tactics needs.

Googleshng: The only other port of a PSX game I can think of is Lunar Legends, which isn't so much a question of technical limitations when porting a GBA game as it is a question of applying a new visual style to an old 16-bit game. The GBA is actually superior to the PSX in most respects, and could handle FFT with at most, altered backgrounds.

Alex: I personally think the GBA sounds like an easy platform for FFT. The music and the intro will probably be the only things that suffer.

Doug: Square has done some amazing things in the past with systems that we didn't think had to juice to do what they did, like the PlayStation. I'm sure, no matter how they do FF Tactics on GBA, it'll work, and it will likely work well.