Andrew Long: Hello everyone, and welcome to the inaugural edition of the RPGamer News Roundtable Discussions. Well, it's not really the inaugural version, but the original cool was eaten by my cat, so we have to start fresh. Before we begin, each of our panelists will introduce themselves, and let them know what they do for the site. I'm Andrew Long, the head of the news department, and I'll be moderating the discussion.

Brandon Daiker: Hm. I'm Brandon, I'm a newsie, and I'm second alphabetically, giving nobody to really copy the intro from.

Googleshng: I'm Googleshng, I run Q&A along with some other random things most people could care less about.

Matthew Stuckwisch: Hi, I'm Matthew Stuckwisch and I'm a mediate here.

Justin Harwood: I'm Justin Harwood, and I'm a newsie, as well as a couple other cool things in my free time.

Justin Weiss: I'm Justin Weiss, and I'm also a newsie, and the only one in this roundtable to actually be AT E3.

Andrew: Well, it's convenient you should mention that, because we're going to begin our discussion with a review of this year's E3. A number of big announcements were made on the RPG front: Enix, Working Designs, and Nintendo all had big announcements regarding upcoming titles, Square's presentation of FFXI was very impressive, and Sony in particular had a wide array of online titles that look very promising. As he already alluded to, only one of our panelists was at the show this year, Justin Weiss. Let's kick off the festivities by getting his take on the show. Justin, if you had to pick one thing at E3 that impressed you the most, what would it be?

Justin W: RPG-related, I'd have to say either .hack, with Kingdom Hearts coming in a close second. Both slightly interested me when I collected information on them for news stories, but both really impressed me with things I wasn't expecting -- .Hack's realistic modeling of a MMORPG in a single-player game (and free T-shirts!), and Kingdom Hearts' almost Seiken Densetsu-style gameplay. .hack was really immersive in that it had a fake e-mail client, fake message boards, different "Zones" in which to play, and NPCs with really "Player-Character" dialogue.

Brandon: I'm really excited about Kingdom Hearts, actually. I haven't heard enough about .hack yet to really get psyched up on that front, but it does sound really innovative.

Justin H: Kingdom Hearts is a game that interested me at first for sheer novelty value, but that continues to shape up impressively.

Googleshng: I still don't see the appeal myself. Square games tend to suffer from being so easy you can pass out during combat, and whenever a Disney license comes into a game, things get watered down quiet a bit. Sure there's the novelty value, but I can't see the gameplay having any real substance to it.

Justin W: Actually, during the Gladiator-style arena battle on display at E3, I noticed quite a few people dying, and I made it through on the skin of my teeth.

Googleshng: Well, I'm not saying I don't think Kingdom Hearts will fail at what it's aiming for, I'm just saying what it's aiming for isn't what the average RPGamer wants.

Justin W: Kingdom Hearts did have a much more action-oriented battle system than I expected. You actually lock on to enemies and hit buttons to perform combo maneuvers, and it looked like the other party members pretty much act on their own.

Justin H: Now that last part bothers me. I generally hate it when other party members act on their own, and while I have confidence in Square to tweak the battle system, the thought of two characters acting on their own tends to make me twinge a little bit.

Justin W: Well, Goofy and Donald did a pretty decent job of keeping enemies off my back.

Justin H: Yes, I've played the SDs, but even the computer controlled characters in those games always tended to screw up just when I needed it the least. The computer controlled characters in the Seiken Densetsu series always seemed to goof up just at the wrong time, and that gives me a few chills. I still look forward to playing Kingdom Hearts this fall, for the sheer insanity of it. I only wish they were leaving Donald's speech in Japanese, so the game could be even more out there. But I'm hardly mainstream.

Andrew: Speaking of the characters' speech, did you get to hear any of the voice acting?

Justin W: No, it was way too loud to hear most of the voice acting, but I've heard some of the other staff members compliment it. I look at it this way -- Disney movies feature celebrities all the time, and people rarely complain about its quality... so it would probably resemble the quality of a Disney movie, especially because the regular Disney characters are being voiced by their original actors.

Andrew: Do you think the decision to hire big-name actors to do the voice acting might have a positive impact upon voice acting in RPGs as a whole?

Justin W: I hope so. It gives RPGs a more movie-like feeling, which, considering that most RPGamers concentrate primarily on the story of the RPG, could be a good thing.

Googleshng: Not particularly no. Most companies don't really have the budget to hire big name actors for voice rolls, so I don't see it as something that will become all that commonplace.

Andrew: Based on what you've seen, do you think it'd be unfair to hold the game suspect solely based upon Square and Disneys' prior reputation?

Justin W: Well, I don't see why you would... both companies have published some great games, and both look to publish more great games for years to come. But if you're one of those gamers that hates Disney or Square, you probably wouldn't like this game, since it's a "Let's see how many references we can throw in" kind of game

Justin H: I think that KH has the ability to draw non-RPGers in because of the Disney franchise, and while I'd prefer not to have a ton of KH clones running around, bringing new blood into RPG's can only be a good thing for everyone. Which suddenly starts to make Square's reason's for doing this game seem a whole lot saner than previously thought.

Andrew: Briefly mentioned earlier was whether or not Square and Disney were aiming for the right audience. Another game shown at E3 has had some people outraged at its "new look." What are your opinions on Shigeru Miyamoto's decision to give The Legend of Zelda a cel-shaded and extremely cartoonish look?

Justin W: Well, I know a lot of people complained about the original look of the new Zelda, and how it looked too childish. Well, between Spaceworld and E3, Link's face seemed to change a little, which made a HUGE difference. Second of all, the black borders around all the objects have disappeared, making it look like a real cartoon. The various special effects, like heat distortion, made the game look absolutely gorgeous, and it was easily the best looking cel-shaded game I saw at E3 (and there were a LOT). Plus, the fact that it was shown alongside "A Link to the Past" made it much easier to see the evolution between the games. Fans of the N64's gameplay will be pleased to know that the engine is mostly the same, with a ton of new moves added (like a crawl, and a dangle off the edge). I think the cel shading gives the game a much warmer feeling... you actually feel like the environment is alive, whereas Resident Evil-quality graphics would give the worlds a much more cold and sterile appearance, especially in a world as alive as Hyrule.

Googleshng: All the gasping I've heard about the game reminds me of how people thought Legend of Mana looked too cartoonish, while Secret of Mana had you save Santa.

Justin H: I was in a "wait-and-see" position with the new look for Zelda, and I have to say that I've been extremely impressed. The question is whether or not the fans who were counting on it to look like a next-generation version of the N64 game will be swayed.

Andrew: So do you believe that the cel-shaded look is the right direction for the game?

Googleshng: Most companies trying cel-shading tend to end up with awful-looking games, and very few games look better than they would without cel-shading.

Justin H: Cel-shading seems to be the new baby the developers love, and I'm sorry to say that it still looks like Zelda is the only game to be taking advantage of what Cel-shading has to offer. Unfortunately, since so many games are now using cel-shading, the novelty value of it is starting to wear thin. Take the upcoming Dark Cloud 2 for instance, which uses cel-shading to create a game that, while visually appealing, doesn't seem to be using cel-shading to drastically alter or impact the gameplay itself. Zelda's cel-shading actually enhances the style of the game, showing that Nintendo knows more than just how to create pretty graphics.