Cortney:
Well, I don't own WA3 yet...or a PS2 for that matter. Such is the tragic fate of a jobless college grad in today's economy. The closest I've gotten to WA3 was the demo at Wal-Mart (yes, I shop there...but not for clothes). From what I can tell, the weapons upgrade system looks like the one in WA2. During my arduous journey through WA2, I tried to balance out my upgrades, leaning toward power and bullets, but not neglecting accuracy. Remember: all that power won't save your behind if it misses most of the time.

Googleshng:
ARM upgrading in WA2 was a no brainer really. Crank power up a ton, up the bullets enough to use, remember you can just use Lock On so who needs accuracy, remember you have several characters better than Brad so who even cares? In WA3, ARMs are your regular weapons though, plus there's two new stats. Accuracy you should bring up if you're noticing you miss a lot, which is only really an issue for Jet. Crit can be largely ignored. Then comes bullets and weight. Weight affects the cost of using Gatling. Specifically, the cost per shot drops by 1 for every weight upgrade. That doesn't seem significant at first, but if you really pump it up, a full FP bar can yield a nice 10 shots at once (assuming you have the 10 bullets). Getting the full bar is easy once you hit the point where you have hot and cold running F. Carrots too. Just Mystic one every other turn and you're good to go. This leaves you with a few more upgrades, which can be pumped into power, giving you roughly 30 times the oomph of your starting attack every other round, which after factoring in reloads and fluke misses tends to be a bit more total damage than just maxing out power I think, and makes things obscene with proper spellplay. HOWEVER...

At the moment, I have Virginia set up like this. When I come across something with a high defense, she barely touches it. So don't put all your eggs in one basket, and make sure at least one person (Clive, since Lock On is honestly more cost effective than Gatling), goes the raw power route. Personally I have Jet between the two extremes, and if you really insist on tweaking Gallows' little peashooter, you might as well pump up the crit so on the rare occassions when he hits something it actually has a chance of doing damage.

Cortney:
I'll just look the other way to avoid any spoilers.

Googleshng:
Actually, I'm not all that far, but here's a quick tip: If you're in an area where dodging an encounter takes out half your bar, toughen yourself up before you explore there. Hundred floor dungeons are a late game sort of thing anyway really. Oh, and hey, at least WA3 makes the concession of displaying exact map coordinates. My sources say it's at 25210,10200.

Cortney:
I suppose the grand summons of Final Fantasy have spoiled us a bit. The animations on the previous WA games were rather unimpressive, but I was usually more concerned with the effect on the enemy rather than the effect on my eyes. Nevertheless, not using the full capabilities of the PS2 is quite a shame.

Googleshng:
I'm really more curious why you're even bothering with summons. The WA series has always had this little habit of making them far less powerful than would be worth it for the cost... although theoretically enough full carrots and the time summon is enough to win any fight using just one character without taking a scratch, but do you WANT a long grandiose animation if you're doing that?

Cortney:
I have no idea.

Googleshng:
In theory, if you bought a large number of gimmicky add-ons with questionablity on their U.S. releases, you can turn a PS2 into a fully functional PC and install linux on it. However, the resulting PC would be a total piece of garbage, so seeing how you clearly already have one, I would not recommend doing so. Particularly since as is you can have a console and a comp running at the same time, you know?

Cortney:
Also unlikely, since they dared to scrap the one for the N64. I thought it was rather tacky to do so, especially after teasing us with pictures in Nintendo Power. It's a shame...I played the SNES Earthbound over and over back in the day.

Googleshng:
Well, since Earthbound 64 was only scrapped because the piece of hardware it was being designed for never hit the market and there wasn't time to retool it before the N64 stopped being a viable platform, I'd actually say there's a darn good chance of the series reviving on the GameCube.

Oh, and speaking of 64DD fiascos, did everyone read that new Zelda story? Now THAT'S a jaw-dropper.

Cortney:
The "damsel in distress" is a common element in RPGs due to overt male dominance and the systematic patriarchal oppression of women. I would greatly enjoy seeing Zelda rescue Link from Gannon's clutches just once. It would be a bold step in the women's movement in the RPG genre. I cannot estimate how many RPGs feature women needing the aid of men, but I do believe that female role-players must unite to support the few games that place women in positions of power. I, for one, am looking forward to the estrogen-powered Final Fantasy X-2, in spite of the "sexploitation" of Yuna's gluteus maximus. If enough of us unite together, we can end the days of low statistics and smash through glass ceiling in character development!

Googleshng:
I can think of a few HUNDRED. Please don't make me list them. If you want games which don't contain any girls in need of rescuing there's still a ton. In any case though, I'd recommend both of you grab yon GBA anthology of the Phantasy Star series. You should be quite happy with the plot of the first, the second has a girl you WISH would be kidnapped to free up the party slot (think Merle from Escaflowne made into a near useless RPG character), and PS3... uh... Well, PS3 was made by a different development team, and starts with your fiancée being kidnapped, then when you rescue her you have a choice of dumping her for a random girl on your party (and I strongly recommend you do in fact). Incidentally, PS3 also kinda sucks. Why couldn't they skip it and include 4 tanjit? Ahem, where were we?

Cortney:
Even though I haven't played FFX, I can answer this one. "Girlfriend" has two connotations. One is that she is your best friend. The other is that you engage in activities beyond friendship. The first connotation is the most common one among women. Furthermore, I have yet to hear many lesbians refer to their partners as "girlfriends." Then again, I don't know too many lesbians. In any case, if Yuna and Rikku are indeed cousins, chances are they are "girlfriends" in the sense of good friends, as in "you go, girlfriend!" Ugh, I despise that tawdry colloquialism.

Googleshng:
Oh I was just picking on FF10's new... graphical style by making a joke related to another famous Eidos game. Don't mind me or assume I know anything about FF10-2 you don't.

Of course, if censorship of Sailor Moon has taught us anything it's that it's far more socially acceptable to be a lesbian if you're sleeping with your cousin than a non-relative.

Cortney:
One of our earlier stories reported that it was coming out on November 13. Who knows what happened with the folks at Ubi Soft? Aren't they allowed to change their minds? Or perhaps they hit a snag? *clicks into objective news mode* RPGamer will continue to bring you any information on Lunar Legend as it becomes available.

Googleshng:
It was pushed back a month since the writing of that story, and since I last checked the date pretty recently, that one kinda threw me. More importantly though, does anyone really care? Lunar has been rereleased more times than anything not by Capcom (except possibly the original Kirby), and die hard fans always declare that each newer version sucks more than the last. Seeing how with this one you're getting a slight facelift in exchange for a ton of screen size and a nice anime cutscene every 5 minutes, you'd be better off just hunting down a used copy of the PSX version. Unless of course you think dropping a Working Designs translation is a GOOD thing I suppose, but even then you're still grabbing a Genesis RPG when you could be grabbing a collection of 2 and an SMS one for the same price on the same system around the same time.

... I should quit pimping out PSC so much seeing how odds are most people reading this column can't stand oldschool RPG gameplay shouldn't I.

Cortney:
I recall a horrid shortage of Berries during my regrettable romp through WA2. I'm dismayed to hear that this trend may continue in WA3. Either the game is easy, or you are lucky, or even incredibly good.

Googleshng:
OK, first off, a curse upon you for that quote there. That out of the way, the difficulty of WA3 picks up a bit in the not too distant future, particularly if you decide to go exploring places you have no reason to, but as a general rule it tends to stay in that "hard enough to break a sweat, but you'll almost definitely win every fight" band of difficulty, which demographically speaking is the best place to aim for. Again though, you're still early on and there is such a thing as a difficulty curve out there.

Oh, and WA3 isn't NEARLY as easy as 2. What the smurf were they thinking with that First Aid spell? Seriously. The only way you could die was if something could take you down with full HP, and I don't recall anything that could.

Cortney:
Someone mentioned me by name! Robust Stu, you have made this insignificant newsie's day! As for FF5, the major disappointment for me was Faris's horrible pirate accent. It was outright annoying and stereotypical. I think a light cockney accent might have suited her better. Even simply slicing off the "g"s in her "ing"s (as in "jumpin'" and "slicin'") would have worked. Graphically, it didn't seem to differ from FF4, which makes me wonder if the games were in production at the same time. The story wasn't too bad for its day, but I enjoyed the job change system

Googleshng:
OK, first off, FF5 looks worse than 4 only because you are looking at 4 through nostalgia glasses and 5 through one of the sloppiest port/emulation jobs ever done. That goes double for the sound, although 4 did have a very distinctive musical style going for it. It looked pretty snazzy for the time, especially when you've climbing that one tower. FF3 had a job system, but it sucked because it didn't have any sort of job levels/abilities system whatsoever. The story works just fine for me although it's kinda creepy how many princesses are on your party, but I am totally with you on the translation. Worst work I think Square has ever done in that department. Glaring errors all over the place, and UGH, Faris...

Cortney:
I never played any of the Final Fantasy Legend games. They are just a handful of the numerous games that I've never tried in my 22 years.

Googleshng:
1 and 2 are mindless dungeon crawls, so blech. 3 I dug at the time, but then when Sunsoft rereleased it they left out the handy chart you really needed if you wanted to make people the best things possible, so uh... it's 6 AM and I'm tired tanjit!

Cortney:
Of the three, I'd say Earthbound. During the final boss battle, Pokey hints at his return, and I'd really enjoy an opportunity to stomp a mudhole in that devious little adipose swine.

Googleshng:
Same answer here. You just can't go and make a sequel to Ragnarok, and I couldn't even stand playing through VS ONE time. I would however like to see it turned into a comic book (or "graphic novel" if you want to be a snob about it). It very clearly wants to be, and it's a complete failure when it comes to being a GAME. (Send all virulent replies to me, not the weekend guy please.)

Cortney:
Bahamut Lagoon, without a doubt. I feel so cheated without it.

Googleshng:
Of those, SD3, but could you explain to me why I'm not allowed to pick Front Mission?

Cortney:
Well, any inquisition that doesn't end in being burned at the stake is a good one! I've never played Quest for Glory. Thankfully, that will not mean a hug from the Iron Maiden...those were bloody days indeed.

Googleshng:
Actually, as a staffer, were Cortney to write a review she'd have to push it through a torturous gulag, but all you readers can submit away freely. Oh, and I have minimal experience with the QfG games, but put a lot of time into various other * Quests from the same people.