Correction: Somehow the mighty Mike has been duped. There is no "FF Collection" in Japan. There were remakes of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V. I also hear that FF VI is underway (?). Since I can't check officially on a Saturday, it's possible that my information on VI is outdated. If I find out otherwise, I'll be sure to let you know.

As to the question, how can a PSX run such software with so little hardware compared to a PC, there were two responses that describe different, yet detailed reasons on why the consoles hardware does so well.

The archives page has also been updated. Be sure to check out on any ones you might have missed.

Q: Why does Parasite Eve have a mature rating? Are the scenes to graphic or something. I don't get the rating thing; Forsaken (not an RPG) got a mature rating too, but the game was exactly like Descent with the addition of a blood stain. Those rating people are kinda weird.

Mike: The major reason has to be the sexual references in the game. Another really good reason could be the artwork in the manual. There is also a general amount of gore, which could add to the rating. The rating people are not weird, but they do seem to raise the rating of games easily, though this is not a bad thing.

Q: What ever happened to Final fantasy 5 on the PC, Square confirmed it, so where is it? And if it does make it then will the FMV from the PSX Remake be in it.

Mike: Back when Eidos was porting FF VII, they were saying that they would follow right after with FF V. Later along in production, they said they would have to wait and see how well FF VII did before they could discuss FFV. Now all has fallen silent. From what I read to you all yesterday, it's very possible that this includes Final Fantasy V for the PC. I am very sad about this, should this be true.

Q: Is the FFVIII demo coming out in the States? If not, what game should I import to get it? (I can still get the translations to it, it's just a pain and the game that comes with it, or rather it comes with, will be hard to read. =P)

Mike: Parasite Eve comes with a promotional movie. As far as anyone knows, we will get the Final Fantasy VIII demo with Brave Fencer Musashi, just as it occurred in Japan.

Q: Is it true that you'll see all three characters running around in the world in FFVIII. They tried this in Chrono Trigger, and it sucked!

Adam-San,
the annoying letter writer

Mike: Yes, it is true. In the demo, the other two characters followed Squall's exact movements. I don't think it's all that bad, and it makes for almost seamless transition into the FMVs. But then I thought Chrono Trigger did it pretty good, and back then there was no FMV to compensate for.

Q: 1) Those quotes that are put on the main page titlebar of RPGamer are just awesome! Why not make a file or a page that retires each quote after each day, along with the game that it's from and some background info. For example: "And then, I dealt the imp a hard blow" would be from FF4, and is said by the old man in Toroia on the second floor of the place where you can purchase the pass. You could just write that quote and the info on its own page. I think that that would be pretty cool
   2) The main page isn't updated anymore, so some people are missing the letters section. It still says that the newest letters section is from September 7th.
   3) In FF4, there is a strange door in the Tower of Bab-il (after you fight Rubicant). If you use the Game Genie Code that allows you to walk through walls (0CCA-AF6F, turn on the Game Genie AFTER you beat Rubicant, then walk into the crystal room, and turn left and walk through the wall, then walk up. You'll see a door like in Mysidia...go into in and you'll be on a passageway. Follow it to the door that I'm referring to). Do you have any idea what that door is for?
   4) Obviously the RPGamer staff does other stuff besides RPGamer and video games. There's school, and sports, and eating to name a few. Why not make bios of yourselves on the page?
   That's it, I'm out of Q's. Thanks for taking the time to answer them.

      -Jason Cetron

Mike: 1) Funny that you would mention that quote, as it was chosen yesterday, and I received this over two days ago. As for a quote page, it's an idea we will discuss among the staff. I personally think it's a good idea. It's possible we may even have submissions of quotes. Just wait and see.
   2) I've heard a couple people are having this problem. Always make sure you are getting the latest copy of main, and not a response from cache, or from a proxy server.
   3) I don't really know what you're talking about, because I really dislike the Game Genie, and Game Shark. They alter the way the game was meant to be played, and in my opinion, that's simply no fun at all.
   4) That's actually an idea that is on our "To Do List" We get tons of e-mail asking us about ourselves, and I think we will be working on this soon.

Q: On PSX IGN in the list they have going with games that support the Dual Shock it lists Parasite Eve as one of them. But my game doesn't shake one little bit. Is there something you can do like in Tekken 3 to get it to shake. I think that would be cool.

Mike: The support is for the analog control, not for the shaking feature. I don't think there is any way to make it shake for you, sorry.

Q: First of all, to congratulate you in a job you do well. Anyway I was wondering:
   1)From 1 to 10, how would you grade yourself as an RPG gamer???
   2)One needs a low brave level to find items in the Deep Dungeon (FFTactics) to find items, right? Can one lower his brave (with spells like Beowulf's Chicken) in battle or does it have to be before the battle?
   3)Where do you get all those damn games? Do you have an extraordinary amount of money to buy them/rent them or are they borrowed from friends?
   4)Do you think Cloud is worth finding in FFTactics?
   5)"Master using it....." is from Zelda 1 (duh!) and there was an SNES game like FFTactics, it was Quest's Tactics Ogre which was rereleased for the PSX.
   6)Will you do like AK and go to party around and send BG to fill in your shoes? Thanks!

Mike: 1) I am between 7 and an 8. I have played the mainstream, and quite a few imports. However, I do not have the smaller systems, or anything from Sega. I would like to get these of course, but being overly practical with that silly thing called money, I don't see myself getting them soon.
   2) You're talking to someone who has become frustrated with retrieving these items. However, I have learned that it's what your brave is at the time, but if you use certain abilities to lower it, they invalidate it... somehow. It's a really tricky concept. I'm also annoyed to find out Scream raises your brave 2 permanently.
   3) RPGamer makes enough money off the ads to afford to buy the games we need to cover. For older games, we share our individual libraries to those on staff who may need a copy.
   4) Cloud's lower Limits are very handy for a quick hard strike. Is he "worth finding"... he's not all that powerful, and working his level up from 1 is a major pain. But he's fun, and if you haven't done it before, it is worth doing. He's just not that strong of a character once you have him.
   5) Yep, good call. As for OB or TO being like Tactics, true, TO is the 3D version I was thinking of. I simply got the names confused, and many of you guessed. It was late, and I goofed.
   6) Woah, wait. AK went off to party?? He told me he had computer trouble. I feel so betrayed. As for myself, I can't run off to party anymore, I am married. I guess you're all stuck with me now, hahaha.

Q: There's a chocobo in Parasite Eve! I swear! Well, just a picture of one, anyway. On the Manhattan Island Map, Select the American Museum of Natual History. You'll notice a blue banner with a picture of a chocobo on the front. If you wait and let the camera pan around the building, you'll get a closer view, and it even says "Chocobo" underneath.

Mike: Hey cool! Thanks for the info.

Q: You took a poll about if we had enough FF8 info recently. Although 2/3 of the people said no, about 1/3 said yes. Don't you think it is still unfair that you put more FF8 spoilers on your site? This might please those people who want to ruin the whole experience, but what about the other 1/3 of us. And isn't it your obligation as the premium RPG site to do what is right and stop posting spoilers? Thank you.

Mike: Now wait a second. You want us to cater to the minority? I don't follow your logic. There is 1/3 of the audience who does not want to see anything more about Final Fantasy VIII, but there are twice as many who want to see everything. What we have done is taken extra precautions to mark what is about FF VIII, and what would be considered a spoiler. I think that's the only way to please everyone.

Q: You want to know something that sucks, mike? well, i'll tell you. It's the fact that everybody changes the button configurations of games from the original japanese versions. My question is WHY?? Why does it make sense to have the 'CIRCLE' button cancel and the 'X' button accept? for one thing, everybody who was used to the SNES was used to the standard 'B' cancels and 'A' accepts. Why did they change that for the PSX?? the buttons are in the same position. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm ranting, but it makes no sense to me as I think it would cause more trouble to go and reconfigure the buttons. Am I not right?

Mike: I hear you loud and clear man. I don't know how many times I have picked up a controller, and screwed up on which button does what when I change games. Is it that hard to have a configuration of what the buttons are supposed to do? It can't possibly take up much memory, and for coding, the controls would only have to be variables. It seems really simple to me. Maybe we need a real programmable controller that allows us to reverse the signals sent to the PSX? Now that would be a really nice device.