Googleshng: Moving on, it seems to me that the GBA is really stealing the spotlight in the RPG world. It used to be that portable RPGs were largely ignored by the public, but all of the sudden, we have Golden Sun, we have FFTA, we have the Mother games...

Tomm: Don't forget Shining Soul

Googleshng: Meanwhile consoles are primarily getting obscure artsy titles. Thoughts?

Wesley: Again, I think this is largely due to the fact that a lot of people don't have time.

Wesley: I always considered my generation to be the one that games really came into their own with... and now I have a 40+ hour a week job.

Googleshng: Easier to play a GBA game on the train than to sit in front of a console then?

Tomm: If we think back to our youth (our youther youth), we'd think about whatever RPG we were currently playing while waiting in a line, sitting in class, or on a bus or something--when we were bored. On GBA, we can keep on playing them.

Zack: It might have something to do with the GBA itself, as well.

Wesley: I get home, and sometimes sitting down with a game is tedious in and of itself, but in those spare moments where I have nothing to do on my lunch break, or I'm carpooling? It's the perfect filler.

Googleshng: Also true.

Michael: That's why I love my Game Boy Advance. We can still get some great 2D RPGs, so I think we've got a second RPG renaissance going on right now with the handheld.

Xerox: It seems to me that both portables and non-portables are getting just about the same thing, in terms of amounts of good RPGs.

Zack: Much cheaper and with the largest library of games available to any console, the system sells itself to developers.

Xerox: I think people just tend to be more attracted to the GBA, since it better resembles the time of SNES RPGs that most of us grew up with.

Michael: But in that regard, there's a lot more junk to sift through, Zack. The RPGs have been quite good though.

Wesley: Developers have definitely gotten a bit too focused on graphics... in some ways, 3D is the bane of role playing.

Wesley: We play games to escape reality

Tomm: Now, with the GC/GBA player, you can play RPGs in ideal conditions even when at home, when you don't want to stare at a tiny little screen. Import a Hori SNES style GC pad, and you're set to have a second childhood.

Googleshng: Good games, yes Xerox, but the high profile titles seem to have moved to the small screen.

Wesley: And I myself have no desire to get any closer to it.

Zack: I concur, Tad.

Googleshng: So there's the ease, and there's the nostalgia.

Wesley: 2D, animated graphics are as far removed from real as one can get, and I think it allows all of us to escape the monotony of daily life.

Zack: 3D and realism is well and good in say... Resident Evil or Silent Hill.

Googleshng: I imagine it's also a boon to the inherent laziness of the programmer.

Xerox: I disagree. It seems to me that the PS2 has just the same amount of high-profile games.

Zack: But, give me my super-deformed, pastel sprite-based RPGs any day.

Tomm: Some RPGs are on Game Boy Advance because years ago the young developer said they'd make an amazing portable RPG and is too stubborn to abandon the idea.

Wesley: It's akin to how a drama is sometimes what you really want, and how sometimes you just want a stupid comedy.

Wesley: Complex characters are interesting and all, but I don't necessarily want to know about the hero's mental issues when I'm trying to escape my own. :P

Googleshng: When working on a modern console, you're expected to have mind-blowing graphics, but the GBA lets you slink back into the old sprite-based style.

Xerox: Honestly, the GBA really doesn't have that much, in terms of new RPGs. Golden Sun, Tactics Ogre, Lufia... I really can't name too many.

Zack: FFTA

Googleshng: And, Xerox: There are a decent number of high profile RPGs true... but only Square-Enix is making them.

Wesley: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance...

Googleshng: and even they have a big name on the GBA.

Wesley: Castlevanias...

Xerox: Granted that these are good games, but they still don't outnumber the games on non-portables.

Michael: I think with the 2D graphics, some developers take more time to make the meat of the game (plot, battle systems, etc) better.

Michael: I own more RPGs on my GBA than I do on my PS2.

Xerox: Well, I agree to that, Google.

Googleshng: And again, I'm not saying the GBA has more good games, just more big names.

Wesley: The last game I played on the PS2 was Final Fantasy X.

Googleshng: ... although is IS the home to the bulk of my recent RPG purchases.

Wesley: I haven't touched mine since then.

Zack: Certainly more than the Xbox is seeing with Sudeki pushed back and Fable quiet as it is.

Tomm: RPGs are the hardest genre of game to make, and generally, if you have to spend money making graphics in 3D. You don't want to spend even MORE developing every other area of an RPG. Few companies can afford it. But on GBA, you can have three people doing nicely animated sprites, and still have enough money to pay people to write a deep script, and have good gameplay.

Xerox: Big names? Nah. I mean, who's heard of Camelot before?

Wesley: Yes, but Camelot is fairly heavily tied to Nintendo.

Tomm: Camelot's been making games for EVER, Xerox

Googleshng: Nobody by name, everyone by reputation.

Xerox: It's not so much that they have more games, or more good ones, but more for the reasons that everyone else has mentioned before.

Wesley: Yes and no...

Googleshng: Shining Force is known to all Sega fans, and Beyond the Beyond... well, hey, people have at least heard of it.

Tomm: I'll spend my Mythri plug here--Mythri is coming to GBA. Everyone look forward to it. There, I'm done.

Googleshng: Heh.

Wesley: I can't name very many console RPGs coming out, but I'm more than aware of the GBA ones.

Xerox: They simply reflect a simpler time in RPGs, when it was more about gameplay, and less about graphics.

Tomm: Does anybody see the irony that Nintendo lost most of their RPGs on the N64...and now they have all the important ones on GBA?

Xerox: That's the main pull. You can't really squeeze out fancy videos on a GBA, so you have to make the game FUN.

Googleshng: Indeed.

Michael: Given the PSP though, I think the GBA might be the last bastion of 2D RPGs. After the GBA dies out, we'll never see them in such abundance again. Maybe one or two, but all the focus will be on the 3D to pull in as many customers as possible.

Tomm: By "all the important ones" I mean Mythri and Lunar.

Wesley: I think some of it is offset by the general lack of quality games, too.

Zack: To take a slant I rarely view from, the PC happens to be rather heavily utilized of late, as well.

Wesley: Console gaming has gotten worse, as the increased use of my PC can attest.

Googleshng: Well, in fairness Mike, the original Game Boy had something like a 10 year run.

Googleshng: So I wouldn't worry about the GBA dying off just yet.

Michael: But I believe Nintendo has said they'll have a new portable out to compete directly with the PSP.

Wesley: I'm finding much more fun in PC gaming than I am in console gaming.

Googleshng: Speaking of the PSP though, that gives us a nice segue into our next topic...

Michael: So the GBA might live shorter than we all think.

Tomm: Maybe one day we can have a light AND a headphone jack!

Wesley laughs.

Wesley: A BACK LIGHT! Instead of a front one!

Zack: Yeah... Right.

Tomm: Dual front/rear lights

Wesley: For personal preference. :)

Zack: And we'll have an SNES add-on called the PlayStation, too, right?

Xerox: Maybe it could brush my teeth while I play!

Tomm: Zack--it could play CD ROMs

Googleshng: Speaking of the PSP here...

Tomm: for T2-quality effects

Wesley: Yes, let's move on to the hot topic of the night.