RPGamer - Letters for June 12, 2000

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Llama

Googleshng - June 12 '00- 1:00 Eastern Daylight Time

Don't try to make sense out of this column's title. If you think about it for too long, you'll realize it's a terrible pun. Don't say I didn't warn you. Anyway, I was going to use birthday money to buy LoM so I could talk about it today, but someone told me they were mailing me a copy. So, now I'm waiting for that to arrive. The good news is, this way I get the music CD. The bad news is, I can't answer questions about it until I get it.

Any questions?

Ask Googleshng
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Need LoM

Mini LoM review #1

Guess what, cats and kittens, Legend of Mana, contrary to occasional disbelief, does not suck. It, just like most RPG's, requires a bit of time to get used to. Sure, it has a horrendously useless instruction booklet, but it's all good, the game is simple enough. What has created problems for people is that they expect it to be as simple and straightforward as Secret of Mana, which it isn't. The battle system is a cross between ChronoTrigger and SoM, and the whole landmake system is pretty cute, too. There's bunches of NPC's that join you, and you can make your own weapons, instruments, (for casting magic), and golems (to help beat ass), and raise pets, (to help beat ass.) True, there isn't a story that follows your hero, (boy or girl. The boy looks like a girl, but the girl is way cute, dude!) but there are a lot of events surrounding you that continue the length of the game. For example, one major storyline somes out near the end (I think, I haven't beaten the game), and involves hunting dragons. Naturally, there is sinister work afoot. I like this game a lot. It is an obscenely pretty game, and nearly every enemy in it is from SoM. (There are even Chocobo's!) The best graphics are when you talk to a rock face that becomes a face and chats with you. Awesome. PC PS.- oh, and let's not forget, let's NOT forget, how every weapon (10 or so) have 15+ fatalities to reave your enemies. Outstanding.

Googleshng:
I'm probably going to print a couple of these, so I just have one comment to make here. Making golems? YAY!

Dice

Googleshng,

Can you explain to me what it means in Baldur's Gate or in Planescape Torment when it says something like 5d4 , 1d4 , 2d6 , or 3d6? I think it is something about sided dice or something?? If you don't know, could you atleast post this so someone else can answer? Thanks

-Curtis

Googleshng:
I find it odd that they actually list it that way, but yes. That is the standard die notation used in all paper RPGs (well, except the ones that only use 1 kind of die). Basically, it goes number of dice, d, number of sides on them. For example, 3d8 would be 3 8-sided dice.

Training

Yeah, I bet you already knew this, but a great way to increase your weapon's class against beasts, humans, evil, etc... is to find those dummies and beat them. so far, i have found human, beast, and evil dummies.
T"Stupid 'Last Ascension'" BelmontX

Googleshng:
That's fairly good advice. I personally prefer to just go through fighting live opponents, although come to think of it, a spirit dummy would help me out quite a bit at this point. Stupid mages.

Grandia Question

Almighty Heterozygous Googleshng

I was just wondering.... I have been playin Grandia lately and I cant figure out how the heck or why those stars next to certain skills in battles raise. I dont see a difference in the skill, and they seem to randomly go up (they turn yellow.) So please HELP ME!!

Thanks a lot
Brandon 'I'm not heterozygous OR narcoleptic' Daiker

Googleshng:
Those stars go up very slowly as you use those abilities. As for what they do, the more stars, the faster you can use that ability. When you reach Star MAX they go off almost instantaniously. Very nice for, say, H&E Cut. Stars also go up a little on their own for abilities you aren't using, but it's an extremely slow process.

TRPGs

To make up for being pedantic yesterday I present two, two Questions!

1: What SRPG would you recommend to someone (yes, "me") who really liked FF Tactics? I tried Tactics Ogre but it's a little too, um, 16-bitty.

and, 2: Any word on Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth appearing anywhere? (most helpfully, in the US?)

The pictures on the Maxfive website [http://www02.so-net.ne.jp/~maxfive] are pretty, but my Japanese translator's broken. :\

*Muke!

Googleshng:
Well, I really haven't heard anything at all about Hoshigami, other than the fact that it's being made by the FFT team. I can recommend some other good TRPGs while you wait though. First off, there's Vandal Hearts, which has GREAT level design, for example, one fight is on the back of a train where every two rounds a car is disconnected, so you have to rush towards the front as you fight. Then there's Front Mission 3 which has some pretty darn cool customization of your mecha, and Kartia, which let's you make your own equipment, pet monsters, and spells all with the same system... plus spells affect the terrain, which is just cool. Finally, from what I hear, Vanguard Bandits is going to be really cool... and out soon.

Parle vous francais?

Hello! A few days I wrote to brad to tell how in despair I was because Vagrant Story would not be released here in Quebec, Canada till june 6. Well now, it is STILL not released and I guess no one enven KNOW when it will!! ARRRRRGH... I never taught I would have to import a game from USA to be able to play it within a year after it's release!! Last time I bought a game it was Lunar sss and now I HAVE to buy a game and that's vagrant story I want! WAH! And yes I have a question. Thats about Star Ocean 2: I tried to play trough the game at least 6 times. Never been able. I am a lamer, or is it that game who incredibly lacks story, good music, decent graphics and game play?? The fartest i've ever been is those four "trials" or something. Got trapped in the one where walls fall down. I had no exit!! And my playstation crashed. And I took that crap out of the PSX. Sorry for my pityfull english, The sadiSTic bLoody Maniac ps: i wanna have vagrant story! Wah!

Googleshng:
I've been getting an awful lot of letters on this subject actually, and I find the whole thing a bit odd. Appearently the Canadian releases of Vagrant Story and LoM are both being delayed because of some political issue requiring the instructions to be printed in both english and french. Personally, I find this pretty stupid myself. I mean, these are RPGs, well, Action/RPGs. There's a whole bunch of text in the game. Important text. What's the point of having french instructions if the game is in english?

Quickies

Do you know pig latin? -Jordan

Esyay, anday egularray Atinlay ootay.

DIE DIE DIE MY DARLING!!!!

A mixed message.

38? Whatever, it's 42.

Chris

It sure is!

Do you know of any good PSX RPGs that were released only in Japan? It would be a shame if I came back without picking any up.

-Raincrystal

Honestly, I can't think of anything, aside from PSX remakes of FF4 and CT, oh and of course RPGs based on anime. Most PSX stuff comes over.

Short on quickies.

Have time to kill.

I need to get LoM quick.

I also need to beat Vagrant Story.

Then get back to Wild ARMs.

Ooh, I should pick up WA2 soon.

The Last Laugh:

Well, there's the column for you. Hope you enjoyed it. Strangely enough, I got a HUGE ammount of mini-LoM reviews, all of them good. Most of these were saying that everyone keeps bashing LoM. Appearently a couple of magazines gave it bad reviews, but, well, there's only one magazine whose opinion I trust. Most of them have terrible reviewers who you just shouldn't listen to. From everyone I've talked to, LoM is great.

On another note, a while ago, someone sent in a question asking how Working Designs could cram 6 CDs into one case. Better late than never I suppose. this is the case for Dino Crisis. As you can see, it has a thin little foldout flap allowing two CDs to fit in a standard sized case. If you did that with the front and the back, you could fit 6 CDs in a double case with room for instructions. Just thought I'd share.

Googleshng "Need LoM" @rpgamer.com
So far for my birthday, people have given me... nothing. Hey!


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