On a videogame related note, Dreamcast - FF8 release is exactly one month away. This has got to be the biggest videogame hoopla to hit us in recent memory. FF 8 and Dreamcast all in one week. Thousand Arms and Suikoden 2, 2 weeks before and after the "big" week. What a time to be a videogamer, eh?

What? No Christina Aguilera pic? I can hear the disappointed growls. ;) You see this is what happened. Apparently a few letters came to our attention, here at RPGamer. Calling me sexist of all things! Ladies didn't that Newt Gingrich and Richard Simmons picture, hit the spot? If it hasn't here's one more to satisfy your insatiabilities.

Heeh-heh. Ok Just Kidding!
In all seriousness, I have always paid close attention to you readers. No I'm not devoid of taking reader suggestions into consideration, no matter how small that group is. So I ask all you readers, in particular the female group, for feedback on this, before I make my final consideration. Do you want male/female pictures to stop? Do you female readers want male pictures, if so who (shrugs) :) (kidding). You decide. I'll be here to read 'em.

JD,

do you know somewhere on the internet I could find .bmp or .jpg or something for the bromides of the Lunar Silver Star Story Complete game? (and what a huge name that is...)

JD:
http://www.rpgamer.com/games/lunar/lsss/lsss-ss.html

I got Lunar: SSSC a few days ago...and all I have to say is it's one of the best RPG's i've played in a long time. Was the first one i've played where I talked to the characters. ;) No, like when Jessica speaks for the first time at that Lann village, after the movie scene I said..."I'm gonna like this girl" and I did cause she always spoke her mind, etc, etc. But anyways, I got just a couple questions.

1.) Do you know of any upcoming RPG's where they will talk though the whole game, so you don't have to read what they say. Cause when they talked in Lunar: SSSC I actually heard emotion in their voices and it brought me closer to them. And if not do you think that's something they will eventually do in RPG's (well, all videogames) so that you don't have to read every little thing?
2.) What is this Lunar 2: Eternal Blue's relation with Lunar: SSSC. Is it a remake also or a whole new game? I've looked at it on your site but I wasn't able to decipher those types of questions from it. ;)
Thanks for your time.

-Tek

JD:
1. Voice acting has been one of the less treaded paths in the rpg world, sadly, other than Turbo Duo rpg's that had a ton of voice actors. To my knowledge only Lunar 2 and perhaps Thousand Arms will be featuring voice throughout the game.
2. Well the game is set 1000 years after Lunar SSSC. It will be a remake of the Lunar 2 - Eternal Blue that was released 4 years ago for the Sega CD.

Hey JD,

1. do you know if any RPG's with the good old fashioned graphics are comin out? Im really tired of all these new RPG's with terrible 3D graphics, if youre not gonna use good graphics (ie FF7/8,any PC RPG,etc) than stck with the hand drawn stuff (ie: Lufia1/2, FF1-6, FFT etc) im really tired of watching giant pixels move around the screen (ie xenogears,ocean 2) just give me the old fasioned 3/4 overview hand rendered art, its really much more appealing, at least that way i can tell a dog from a rock.
2. Im also wondering where the good old-fashionded characters went to, whats up with all these new retarded characters (ie cloud in FF7) i could go for some more games like FF2 (USA) via the lets go change into a paladin and charge around the world, throw in the death of the twins, and you have the best plot (except maybe FF3 (USA) in console RPG's i think you guys are great thanks for keepin up the good work, ohh yeah
3. does anyone know how much later PSX2 is comin out then Dreamcast? and do you know what companies are bound to Sony and Sega? (will squaresoft stilll only make games for sony) and are there any RPG's lined up for the the new sony system? well thanks again, you rock!

-Joel

Since I have noticed on your latest update a minor little error regarding this game, I thought I would correct it. I own Baldur's Gate for the PC, and it is NOT an Online Game. Ultima Online is designed to run Online and that is the only way you can use it. Baldurs Gate is a somewhat linear CRPG with an option for multiplayer capability via the internet. Now, if they are totally redoing the game for Dreamcast(which I doubt since it is also going to be coming out as a DVD game), then it MIGHT be an Online Game, but then it wouldn't really be Baldur's Gate. Basically, think of Fallout and Fallout 2, but with other people having the ability to control the people who tag along with the Main Character.

-Jack

JD:
Thanks for the word up on that. As many of you know I dislike PC rpgs and under no circumstances will I waste my time reading info about them. (Generally speaking of course)

YAAAYYY! JD! You're back! Whoopee!

1) What's with all the crap about Canadians and beer? It's senseless! (hmm...then again, the accusations are probably made by people who played the Lunar Drinking Game one too many times...) We have no right to talk.
2) Xenogears dubbing. (shudder). I just realized something the other day! (I think?) Considering what Square has brought us since the birth of the PSX, I wouldn't be surprised if they left the same anime from the Japanese version of Xenogears. If the original scenes had been dubbed for Japanese, that would explain why it is so off for English. Please tell me if this is a reasonable conclusion, PLEEEASE oh, omnipotent one?
3) About all this music stuff! Personally, I've never heard of YS until I read your column (May God strike me down with a big fat lightning bolt), but heard mounds of praise from everyone I've spoken with, for the music. If it's really that good, other game companies should take it as an example. I mean, what fun is it to sit in front of a TV screen for hours on end, listening to crappy music? I mean, when the music in ANYTHING is good, such as movies, TV shows, and the like, they get better ratings and more tickets sold at the box office. Of course, there has to be a good storyline, but music sets the moods. It's more important than we give it credit for! (hehe. Just HAD to get that out.)
4) If you're going to be putting pictures of Christina Aguilera (?) up, could you find some of cute guys (like yourself...<:-)) and post them? We girls need something to look at too!
5) Would it be worth it to grovel at my parents feet like a dog asking them to buy me DC? I tell ya, 7 smackeroos a week isn't nearly enough.
6) Star Ocean DOES get some story after the 4 fields are done. Not much.
7) Wow. This is a LONG sucker, ain't it? Do I sound remotely like a 13 year-old? God help us all.

-Kali "Motormouth" Donovan

JD:
1. The whole beer thing is more senseless ranting brought to you by reader opinions.
2. I'm not sure about this one. Anyone know? I just chalked it up to the usual Square "bad follow through" in the translating department.
3. Most YS music fans, and game music fans in general buy the soundtrack albums so they can listen to it in the car, cd player, and so on.
4. Hah. Speaking of posting pictures of staffers our Zac (PC Coverage) asked me to post a picture of his as soon as he gets it scanned. I guess he needs me to "hook him up."
5. Depends...If you like Arcade and sports games, DC has no comparison. The first batch of DC games Evolution, Black Matrix, and Seventh Cross are above average RPGs. So if it's RPGs you want, go with FF8, Thousand Arms, Suikoden 2, Grandia, FFA.
6. Wee, guess I have a lot to look forward to. 2nd field.
7. Hell yes. :)

I read the letters yeah, and i write them like a charm but only when i really feel the need but when i read a letter and i say "DAMN STRAIGHT" to myself too many time i know i have to voice my opinion on the subject.

It's all this stuff surfacing on how FF7 really wasn't so good. Well DUH of course it wasn't. This is evidence of something even more big and evil. It's the 50-75 percent of this nation that is easily hypnotized by simple peer pressure. Think about it. When N64 came out don't you know why everyone who like PSX despised N64 fans so much? Cause most of the N64 fans were following the crowd and buying what was supposed to be the HOT NEW thing. Now it's happening to psx fans. Sure Square rules but we as fans have the right to be hypocritical and turn our heads to them if they start dishing out crap (wich is what they have been doing lately EG. parasite eve and FF7 wich wasn't on par with the quality expected out of them). I think that a lot of the inexperienced gamers and newbies are victims to this form of hypnotization.

Lately i've been greatly offended by the number of people saying they didn't want to buy Dreamcast because Saturn was so bad or just said that Dreamcast sucks without giving a reason. Then when i try to prove them wrong they don't listen. Listen now, sure saturn wasn't soooo good but think about why. It's still selling better than N64 in japan because all the awesome games stayed there. It had plenty of great games though, they weren't brought here and those responsible for making such a failure were fired so there're really no more problems. .....gee i'm sorry i guess i started trailing off........anyhow the main message here is yeah psx2 will probably rule and all but Dreamcast is coming out first and a lot of gamers aren't poor.....buy both. Trust me, even if everything after the launch lineup sucks (wich will not happen at all) it'll still be a good buy.

-Ross Levine

JD:
Sadly the incredible RPGs for the Saturn like, Sakura Taisen and Tengai Makyo Far East of Eden: Apocalypse, and Langrisser were never translated for the US. Then when Panzer Dragoon Saga was finally released it was done in such liminted fashion. Then Shining Force 3 Part 2 and 3 were never translated either. Sega rocks, if you know where to look.

I need your opinion on something. Are filoviruses simply mutated rhabdoviruses or paramyxoviruses? I do know that they more closely resemble rhabdoviruses, but...since they are all negative-stranded families, and are nonsegmented, I was wondering if you could clarify this. Also, I was wondering. What would rhabdoviruses be classified as? Filoviruses are viral hemorrhagic fevers, but what would rabies cause? Hydrophobia...yes...Loss of muscular cordination...yes...Violent behavior...yes (Which, oddly enough, is somewhat similar to the final stages of Ebola, in which the infected person has violent seizures and sprays infected body fluids everywhere), but what is it CALLED? I mean, when a rhabdovirus goes through extreme amplification, there surely must be a name for the symptoms. What is it!?! Okay. Thanks for the...help...

-Kirin

JD:
This is either funny in a morbid idiotic sense, or just plain wack. I haven't decided yet.