JWH replies:
Uh...I didn't see a question in that. Oh well. As for Square and Nintendo, it's just those wacky Japanese people. Seriously, I think I'm the only person alive who is rooting for Square to not develop for the Gamecube, as that would force me to actually buy one, something I pledged not to do after the disaster (at least for RPGamers) that was the N64. I own, what?, 3 games for it? 1 which sucks (Turok 2), which is okay (Goldeneye), one of which is pretty good, but I just couldn't get into (Zelda). Good god. Writing that out made me realize my Sega CD was a better purchase!

Chimerasame:
Cardassia-same? That's a new idea... I did use the nicks "Garak" and "Legate_Garak" on IRC quite a while back. And occasionally still use "Odo," though that has nothing to do with being Cardassian. I also don't really understand how Square can commit games to a system they don't yet have a licensing agreement for. Maybe Nintendo will start considering more multi-platform releases, maybe not. Perhaps the monetary value of chamomile will fluctuate greatly in large East Asian nations. But what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Oh, and there are root-two-over-two plus negative-root-two-over-two-i lights.

JWH replies:
Who are you to know the mysteries of RPGamer? Isn't it enough that you get a column? How dare you bite the hand that feeds you!

Okay...enough of my pale attempts at humor. Generally the host just forwards us the letters allowing the mighty guesthost to then proceed to humilite the writer as much as possible. Sadly I'm not that good at humilation, which forces me to resort to childish name calling. You're a poopy-head, Zohar!

Chimerasame:
Temporary assimilation by modified Borg nanoprobes. Hey, does anybody have any 29th-century nanoprobes they want to send me? I could use one of those mobile transporter thingies that that One guy had. Seeing as all the RPGirls are in the midwest and all, and here I am stuck in the middle of Texas...

JWH replies:
It's just that everyone likes something when it's bright and shiny and new. When you were a little kid, didn't you want to rush out and get the newest Transformer as it was introduced onto the show? Same thing. When the game is new, all you can see is the good points. However, as people begin to play the game more and more, they begin to notice the flaws, until it reaches the point that scores of web pages are devoted simply to bashing the game as the worst game that was ever made and a travesty to mankind that should be rounded up and destroyed.

Chimerasame:
That about sums it up, I think. Also, people (in America, anyway) are more critical of Final Fantasies than just about anything else.. they just have higher expectations from them. I've never really understood it. A lot of fans asked for it to return more toward the older style... (I don't know about everybody, but I didn't mean SD characters when I asked for that), and now they complain that the game's not original enough. I try not to complain about it much at all. My advice to the people out there who like bashing Final Fantasies: play some other stuff. Don't play Final Fantasies anymore if that's how you feel. Personally I'm tired of hearing the same complaints over and over about games, even if I do agree with them (and I don't happen to agree with the complaint that FF9 wasn't original enough... it might not have been but that didn't matter to me). Well, that was an odd tangent, how'd we get from FF8 to FF9?

JWH replies:
Persona. Ah, the black sheep of the RPG world. Persona is unlike any other RPG you've played, and Persona 1 is really different from Persona 2.

The largest difference between Persona and the average RPG is the fact that in Persona you don't just smash all the enemies in your path willy-nilly. In order to get ANYWHERE you need to converse with them. It's a little harder than it sounds. It's very easy to piss off a demon allowing it to get a free round of attacks. You could also scare the demon away. What you're trying to do, though, is make them interested enough to give you spell cards. By taking the spell cards to the Velvet Room, you can gain new personas. Personas act a little like Guardian Forces. You equip them, and they boost the character stats. However, each persona has a different set of spells, and you can only cast the spells of your equipped persona.

Persona also differs in that it is set in modern day Japan. The only major difference between its world and the real world lies in the existance of demons. As an extension of this, you'll be visiting raves, corporations, TV studios, schools, etc. You'll also be fighting with modern weaponry, like guns.

Persona 2 is a complex game. Together the two parts really form one story (which is why I'm trying to get Innocent Sin), but individually they have enough to stand on their own. Think of them like the Star Wars trilogy. Each film stands on its own, but together they form a grand epic.

Chimerasame:
Conversing with enemies is a good idea. In theory. In theory, comminusm works. In theory. (Yay, another Homer Simpson quote! (And I don't care for communism either, so don't get any ideas :P (though I have always wondered... people say not to judge others as a group, to judge individuals' character. does that apply to communists? Makes you think... (this is a lot of parenthetical notation, ne?))))
Where was I? Oh, Persona. The thing was, you had to converse with a LOT of enemies, the same way, over and over, and the music wasn't that interesting, and the dungeons were very mazelike, and the monster AI for conversations wasn't too wonderful. If you like the game, though, more power to you!

JWH replies:
What? You do know you have a little tendency to ramble on, right?

Anways, like I said, I'm just an average RPG playing college student. However I'm not average in that I was willing to give up my copy of Panzer Dragoon Saga. Oh well. It's not like I owned a Saturn. If you really wanna get to know me, I hang out at (Shameless plug!) the RPG Maker Pavilion at www.rpgpavilion.net. You'll find me on the message boards under the name Patryn23...

Chimerasame:
It seems you were thwapped on December 1 as a result of a bad pun. I'm probably going to get thwapped a lot of times if that's a going pattern, because I tend to make bad puns almost constantly. For example, what do you call 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 piccolos? (Answer at bottom)

JWH replies:
1.)(SPOILER...sorta...)
I have a nice trick to get JP and EXP which I used to get Cloud up to level 42 in one battle. You need one mage with white magic and walk/gain MP, your character you want to gain JP, a character with strong defense, and someone with the ability to stop or paralyze an enemy. Start a random battle and kill all but one or two enemies. Paralyze or stop them (Mustadio works great here). Now proceed to have the character you want to gain JP attack the character with the strong defense, who should be defending. If you have Gain JP Up on the one you're training, he should be getting around 15-20 JP a hit. When your character being attacked gets low on HP, have the mage heal him. When he's not healing, have him walk around to gain his MP back. This takes some time, but if you're willing to stick with it, you'll have them with tons of JP in no time.

2.)FF6 is FF6. FF3 was my first SNES game way back 7(?) years ago and I played the hell out of it. Frankly I feel that the FMV only adds to the game. It's not the problem. The real issue I have with FFA is the emulation. I just can't take the slowdown. Do Sabin's fire dance to get a painful example of it. It seems like the game is drugged, to the point that I'd rather play my FF3 cart than suffer through it.

3.)I'm more of an old-school RPGamer, so I feel that DK64 is a adventure game. It should be noted that I haven't played it, so I'm not certain, but all I've heard about it says it's a Banjo-Kazooie clone, which most definitely is not a RPG.

Non-rpg 1.)I have no rhythm whatsoever. At all. In fact, I think there's a law against me being allowed on a dance floor. Honestly. Thus, I've never played any rhythm game at all, so I can't comment on this at all.

Non-rpg 2.)Again, I'm not qualified, but then again I'm not qualified to guest host either. So I'd have to say that the odds are not that good. From what I've heard, the rhythm genre doesn't come overseas that much, so this will probably stay on that side of the Pacific.

Chimerasame:
1.) Well, you can do different things... personally if I wanted to gain JP fast without having to think, I'd kill all the enemies but one and turn it into a frog or something, then sit around and use Yell and Accumulate on myself for a long time. If I happened to have a mediator, I'd try to raise my brave and faith as well.

2.) I thought it added a bit to the feel, though I never actually played the PSX version much. It's too slow. FF6 is a great game either way, but like JWH I'd rather play the fast version. :)

3.) Though we cover them, I personally don't even consider Zelda games RPGs. They're adventures. I haven't played DK64, but I'm guessing it'd probably be an adventure by my rather loose definition as well. To me, RPGs, except for old ones, involve a lot more choice. In Zelda, there were three suits of armor, four swords, and three shields, and each in each category was clearly and distinctly better than the last. Furthermore, once you got the opportunity to get one, nothing stopped you from getting it. Whereas, say, in FFIV (FFII in America), which has probably less choice than many RPGs (though it's still my favorite), you've got to decide whether or not to spend money on a new weapon when you find it on sale. In the Dwarf Castle, you may not be able to buy everything for everyone, and even if you can, you've got to decide whether the DwarfAxe is more worthwhile than your other weapon. Late in the game, you have to weigh the Avenger Sword against other weapons for Kain (Avenger casting auto-Berserk is beneficial in that you have a LOT of attack power, but you also sacrifice using a shield or being able to use non-fight commands.) Or, theoretically, you could even put Avenger on Cecil, but I prefer Defense or Excalibur until I get Crystal/Ragnarok. Heh. I could go on about FFIV's details for hours, but there are more questions to answer.

1b.) Rhythm games sound kinda fun, but I haven't tried it. Plus, I don't listen to a lot of normal music, it's pretty much all VG soundtracks, classical, and sometimes Weird Al. Oh, and Supreme Beings of Leisure, a friend introduced me t-- hey! Actually, you may know that friend, she's Ivy McKnight and guest hosted a while back.

2b.) I think they should translate it, sure! But whether they will is a different story. They should translate SuikoGaiden, but don't get your hopes up.