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Earthbound 64

-- CX (His name is short for CabbitXtreme, but he doesn't use it)

Originally intended as a 64DD release game, Earthbound 64 has changed, a lot. Now a 256 megabit cart, Earthbound 64 will probably lose some of its particularly nifty features, like the "real" day/night cycle which kept time to the 64DD's internal clock. As for my thoughts on Earthbound, I only got to play it for a few minutes, but it seemed decent, except for the graphics. I'm really looking forward to EB64. Not to sound like a (as I oh-so-tastefully call them) graphics whore, but has anyone seen the spooky forest? It's insanely good.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Of the world.

Well, I've only been reading the section for a little while now, but I seem to be attracted to your wacky humor (very similar to mine I might add). Anywho, my question is, what is your stance on importing games? Should gamers wait for the official release or spend more money than I can count on a game they can't even read?

Though I can't speak for everyone (and if I could, they'd be too busy chanting "Thor rules!" to bother answering your question), I can give ya my stance: Only if there's no chance of a translation. Now that RPGs are growing more and more story focused, a lot of the experience is lost when you're playing with a basic understanding of Japanese, or a bare bones walkthrough.

-- Dark Wizard

Soul Blazer ruled. Gotta love how almost everyone thought they needed that sword to beat the Mantis, even though you couldn't get the blasted thing until after you beat him. :D

You can go ahead and ask Xenogears questions, I'll just need to summon an Elder God or two to help me out with 'em. It's really no trouble, except for the blood. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to clean blood out of a Q&A column?)

Fun with pikchurez

Peter Cushing, better known as "that weird old guy from Top Secret" and "that weird old guy from Star Wars" looks like Charles? Gee, I dunno. I can't remember what Peter Cushing looks like... hey! Here's a picture which directly compares the two so all Ask Thor readers can form their own conclusions. Fancy finding a thing like that!

Well, if you wanna get technical...

Whereas in Xenogears, characters start on predetermined levels. Makes a little more sense, but shouldn't Emeralda have started on Level, oh, say 10? :)

Ayup, that's the technical answer. I don't believe Princess Artemis was wondering how they gain levels, so much as why. She wanted some sort of logical, storyline-based explanation, and there simply is none. Kind of like "Why did anyone like the Spice Girls, ever?" We may never know.

The greatest mystery the world has ever known!

When I get days off school, and I check the RPGamer website, you always seem to update by around 12:00pm, how do you do that? Don't you have school?

Nope, no school. (I'm 18; there's plenty of time for tedium later.) You're right about the time, though. I always update noon or earlier. I never could stand sites which, say, print the "February 16" update on February 16 -- at 8:00pm. My way, you can send me a letter before bed and see it in print by the time you get back from work or school. And this way, my friends can catch the column before work/college/raping, pillaging and plundering nearby tribes. (So I know a few vikings, big deal.)

My bad.

Notice it says "and our role play game Chrono Trigger.." and not "our series of Chrono Trigger role playing games" or something to that extent... the ad doesnt mention at all that CHrono Trigger is a series, but infact states that it is a single game... just thought i'd point that out.

-- webrunner

What you have witnessed was one of the most confusing and huge typos in the history of, uh, me. The story is so jumbled, I've decided to sort the facts out into a little list:

• Thor reads; decides to print letter. Original letter contained the following clip:

  SQUARE is one of the most successful games developers in the world. Our "Final Fantasy" series of role playing games has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and the first title in the recently released "Chrono Trigger" series has rapidly reached sales of 2 million copies.

• Thor types up response. Original response copied and "fiddled" with the clip, poorly attempting to prove a point.
• Thor decides that it's wordy and redundant and rewrites his response, this time only quoting one line instead of trying to spoof the clip.
• Sadly, Thor is a blundering oaf and accidently "fiddled" with the letter's clip, not the response's.
• Lorelai say Thor no get cookies today. Thor sad.

Lufia II debate(!).
(Lufia II spoilers! FEAR!)

Ahh, you rule. If only everyone acted as if their theories weren't fact. Ya know, the world would be a much better place if we all gave me lots of money. Oh, and admitted our theories were personal opinion. That too.

The Sinistrals were Gods and Goddesses, plain and simple. We all know that Arek had Duel Blade, a magical blade that would make a ringing sound. The question he was asking was along the lines of "are Humans capable of shaping their own lives?" Remember, Duel Blade was a weapon for Gods, Goddesses, and such. When a man/woman capable of wielding Duel Blade was born, the Duel Blade would ring, signaling the birth of one who could defeat the Sinistrals. The evil Sinistrals are sent to stop and destroy that person(remember when Maxim, Dekar, and Guy killed Gades. Iris said that if Maxim died, peace would return. That points to the fact that the Sinistrals are capable of defeating people. Maxim did not die, so the fight continued, showing that there were people, or at least a person, capable of fighting the Sinistrals.) Maxim and his friends kill Daos(Lord of Terror), Erim(Mistress of Death), Gades(Lord of Destruction), and Amon(Lord of Chaos). In a last attempt to kill th! e hero spiritually and physically, Daos tries to smash Doom Island into the city where Jeros lived. He(Daos) failed and died. So the Sinistrals leave to who-knows-where.

The symbolic meaning to the end is that people have the ability to choose his or her own destiny and control his or her own life. The Sinistrals, or dieties, are no longer needed and leave.

-- James Thorne

Groovy.

***

--Zelgadis <(((_^)))>

Double groovy. You know, Lufia 1/2 is next on my "To Win" list. After Xenogears. And Zelda 64. And then Lunar: SSSC. Wait, make that Xenogears, Zelda 64, Final Fantasy VIII and then, when its released, Lunar: SSSC. Heh heh.

Unfit for Print

-- Z.C.

I agree, Z.C. would make a far better Q&A guy than me--if someone were to sharpen the end of a vacuum cleaner to a fine point, sneak up behind me, jam the tube into my ear and suck out every last bit of brains from my head. Even then, it'd be a close tie, but I think Z.C. would beat me in the end. I think. But, that's not all! Z.C. send in this additional letter a minute later:

***

And this brings us to today's moral: Begging to have your letter printed never, ever works. (Unless it's used as an UfP example, naturally.) Neither does daring, which is what some people say instead of "begging" for unknown reasons.

Let it be known that all FF4-6j FMV "oddities", such as Butz' white hair or Edgar's strange resemblance to David Bowie in Labrynth are due to the fact that Square is staying true to Amano's original concepts. // Imp Mayhem wanted to know about copying files from one PlayStation Memory Card to another. Just slide your old card, and a new spare in the machine; make sure there are no games in it, and turn the system on. You'll see a nice little audio CD player/memory card manager program. Joy! // New Anime Thor hacks are in. Today's features include LunatiC's adorable Pokethor concept, and a (sadly unnamed) RPGamer's funky idea. I like it, an' all, but what about Metallica? <sniff> // And finally, Bowser said: "Bwa ha ha! I know your secret! You watch the Teletubbies! Bwa ha ha!" Yeah, well, at least I don't date 'em. What's that, Bow? "Just friends"? Yeah, right. I suppose "just friends" explains the purple felt stuck to your fly!

My formal apologies for the previous paragraph of nightmare fuel.

A couple of girls wrote in to let me know that conversations focused around Tifa's breasts don't offend them. I didn't think it offended all but the most prudish of gals, but I do know my firends're sick of it. Not offended, just tired. Though honestly, I wrote that blip on Monday more or less to torture 90% of my readers, rather than actually help anyone. It was Monday, I'm allowed to be evil.)

And now for something completely different.

I had a dream. In my dream, I was walking along a campground (one I visit often in my dreams), when a girl -- never got a good look at her face, though I knew she was a pal -- leapt from behind a tree and thrust a couple of magazines in my hands. I glanced down at the cover, and realized they were the new issues of EGM and Expert Gamer.

EGM's cover looked rather like the Shiva summon from Final Fantasy VII pulling the Master Sword from a stone, with blue/white light flooding everywhere. It was beautiful, but Expert Gamer's cover won my interest, not because of cover art, but because of a small logo and a bit of text in the lower lefthand corner: "Special Feature: Ask Thor!" Sure enough, Expert Gamer was running a feature which printed the top ten Ask Thor letters.

While EGM didn't mention a feature of this sort on its cover -- EGM is too big for that; they listed only important games, or so my dream-logic told me -- sure enough, clear as day, under the index: "Thor Antrim: Memorable Quotes".

Then, I was contacted by Alex (the RPGamer guy, ya know?). He told me that Mike was going to do an RPGamer feature on Ask Thor as well, a combination of quotes and something else, maybe a list of files mentioned in Ask Thor.

I marveled at my sudden fame, but before I could gloat too much, it hit me. I had spent so long reading about the column, I had totally forgotten to update Ask Thor. And now (as my dream-logic told me), it was at least after 5pm -- a good seven hours late.

Then I woke up.

Read into it what you will. I just know someone's going to write in a letter claiming that according to Freud, I'm "obviously attracted to Leonardo DiCaprio".

Freud sucks.

- Thor "Dream a little dream of me" Antrim
I loved that one issue of Sandman with all the "Sandman" songs, but they forgot Enter Sandman!