Matthew Demers - 17:55 EST

FIRE EMBLEM is a game that has begun to haunt me. It is, for me, the ultimate tactical RPG series, because it combines a good, focused plot with extremely well-thought-out battles that become incredibly absorbing. It's the only TRPG besides Shining Force that I've played where every character is a unique, well-defined character and not just a handful of randomly-determined stats with a face painted on. And even though the battle system and class system might seem simplistic at first, especially next to games like Final Fantasy Tactics, there is an underlying depth to the gameplay that is really, really hard to define (and thus describe).

Fire Emblem is like a dependence. I can't sleep without playing a chapter every night. It's so hard to believe I waited so long to jump on and play the games. If you haven't played any games from the series, and you like tactical RPGs, don't be like me. Find and play them NOW, so you can talk excitedly to me about them!

Hiya, Matt! Or Whoever's-on-duty-today!

Zeeb GREETINGS. MATT UNAVAILABLE. I AM SUBSTITUTE Q AND A HOST. I MEAN NO HARM. GIVE ME Y-

Matt *punts* I don't know where that came from. Sorry, what do you have in mind? Or on your mind, rather?

Since Xenosaga Episode III is much talked about these days, I figured I'd write in on it, as I've seen some disturbing things on message boards!

Feel free to correct me, but I do believe Monolith Soft stated that the trilogy of Xenosaga games that were released over the last few years were a prequel to the world of Xenogears. I see some message board goers stating that the two series have nothing to do with each other!

Now, I can't blame Xenogears for not wanting to be related to Xenosaga... or Xenogears fans wanting the two series to be related. (Lets face it, 'saga just doesn't compare to 'gears.) But you cannot deny the fun little things that go on (optional bosses like Weltall- *ahem* Omega Universetas...) and key characters like Abel and objects like Zohar.

But then again, maybe I'm just crazy? Maybe this is something that's been talked about a lot before and just never crossed my line of sight... Maybe I'm not quite the Xeno-fanboy I thought I was. I'd really like to know if I'm right or not. ^^;

By the way, are you interested in the upcoming .hack//G.U.? There's a advertisement for it on the back of XSIII's manual and I was very happy to see it. I kinda wish more story elements could be disclosed about that game, but alas, for any who wish to know the big picture behind it all must watch ..hack//Roots.

Thanks!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Let me dig around for my old notepad that I used at E3 in May! You see, I was one of the lucky guys who got to interview Namco Bandai, and I got a lot of information that might be interesting to know. Just for reference, the people there seemed far more excited about .hack//G.U. than either Xenosaga Episode III or Tales of the Abyss. Anyway, I'll grab my notes!

~Ta-ta-tum... ya-da-dee~

There, got 'em! OK. What!?! It appears that I didn't take notes about that game... I must have left that one for one of my RPGamer teammates to record. Well, damn. There wasn't that much that was revealed, though, to be honest. I do remember that it's the beginning of a new trilogy of games, so the first .hack//G.U. will be followed up by two others. The idea is similar to past .hack games, where problems arise in an in-game virtual gaming world and such, so nothing has changed dramatically there.

As we get closer to its North American release, I'm sure that we'll hear more details on the plot. It's been out in Japan for awhile by now, and it should be released in North America next month!

Do you know what happened to Xseed games? They have not announced anything in months and the web site has not been updated since May. Are they working on any games right now? Were they even at E3?

Nope. They weren't at E3.

XSEED formed in 2004, and it didn't take them long to get the ball rolling with the production of the North American versions of Wild Arms 4 and Shadow Hearts: From the New World, both of which were released early this year. You're right, though; all has been quiet on the so-called western front, and their website hasn't done anything in months. A bit of a search around doesn't really yield any extra information, either.

Maybe they went on a vacation to Filgaia. Who knows? If and when they come back to the table to do some more publishing, I'm sure that their website will be updated to reflect it. Until then, I'm afraid you'll just have to wonder, wonder, wonder, with the rest of us.

Having read your "letters" for some time, I must thank you for a job well done. I don't remember my first rpg anymore, but believe it to be the much fabled Dragon Warrior. It may have been some strange computer game though. The only Dragon Warrior which is not currently within my very humble abode is seven-which my friend owns and will bring someday. We share our collection which includes them all: even III, V, and VI for the Super Famicom. I love gambling with my friends (at the in-game casinos) while we all sit around drinking. We have done this for years now and have tons of tokens (slots mainly) in DW VIII, and an incredible amount of tokens in Dragon Warrior IV earned in poker mainly (which I found at some Funcoland for 45$ about six years ago. The battery was ineffective at saving, so we went to a hardware store, opened it, determined the battery size and voltage and acquired one at Osco. It is now played only on a top-loading system, and is only rarely exchanged-of late with DWIII). This is great for all of us, and is just generally fun. Also love mimigames (they are fun for me alone), and the general game, I like to play with a close friend usually: although these may be intertwined in any permutation. Could you help me with any more RPG's with gambling? Thank you very much. Have not played Disgaea due to assumed dark content, but like Phantom Brave. Recent games of joy: The most esteemed Dragon Warrior (Quest) VIII (still fighting the Dragon), Final Fantasy X-2 (have not finished-but have done all along the way), Radiata Stories (have not finished, just begun), Baten Kaitos, Fire Emblem (have not finished-Gamecube sound went out, waiting for new system), Ephemeral Fantasia (have not finished-waiting for guitar from Guitar Heroes), Magna Carta, Suikoden V, Choro Q (excellent RPG racer), Haven (have not finished-not RPG), Dragon Warrior III, and last but not least Dragon Warrior IV (my true love).

All right, let's go from the top-down, shall we?

First of all, thanks for the kind words! I do the best I can to write interesting columns, but if anyone ever has a question, suggestion, or concern nonetheless about Q&A itself, don't hesitate to ask me about it!

Dragon Quest games have always contained fantastic and addictive in-game casinos. Well, not always, technically; Dragon Warrior II was the first to contain a lottery, and that quickly expanded to other things like battle colosseums, poker tables, slime racing, memory matching, and Bingo! I actually didn't find the casino games in DQVIII to be quite as absorbing as in past versions, though. For me, just like yourself, it was all about Dragon Warrior IV and the poker tables, though I know I spent hours at the slot machines too.

Other games featuring similar gambling diversions? There are a few, though the quality is extremely hit or miss. Pokémon games have always featured casinos with terrible win rates and abysmal payout; statistically, it makes more sense to just save up the tokens to get the obscure items or pokémon without playing a single game.

Golden Sun was a series that did a little bit better in this regard, but not a whole lot better. There was a pretty wide variety of games to choose from in a couple of the towns in the Golden Sun world, and I remember being mildly entertained for a bit.

Other than those, I'm hard-pressed to find many other examples for you, I'm afraid, though I'm sure that many more exist.

Finally, to address that list of games of yours, it sounds like you have a lot on your plate! Oh, and Disgaea might be "dark-humoured" at times, but it is simultaneously the most light-hearted game on the market, too. It's not like there's blood, gore, and twisted floating heads firing subliminal messages telling you to worship Satan and such. We're talking kid allies with the strengthening special attack of "Milk," knife-wielding exploding penguins that dance gracefully, and hospitals that reward you with prizes the more you die in battle. Despite the "demon" backdrop, I think it would be pretty difficult to find anything terribly offensive about the game.

Thanks for writing in!

Ou est le Soleil, Matt?

My central problem seems to be thinking of too many topics for use in a Q&A letter. But fine, everyone wants me to conform. Heartless bastards. So I'll stick to a central topic today: the trials and tribulations of an import RPGamer. The recent experience with my Action Replay breaking and leaving me bereft of import Saturn titles to play makes this all the more topical. I did just win a new Action Replay on eBay; but the seller is stranded in the Dark Ages of money exchange. I have to send a check, because getting a money order is even more bothersome, and actually use an envelope with postage! Plus I think he's ripping me off on the shipping - $8.95 for parcel post? Whatever, though. Half of the best Saturn titles remained stranded in Japan thanks to the Saturn's initial poor sales vis a vis the Playstation in this hemisphere, and the consequent reluctance of publishers to invest great amounts of time into translation late in its life.

Sans Saturn playing for the time being, I put Langrisser 2 into my import-accepting Sega Genesis. Making cartridge-based systems accept imports is pathetically easy if one has a drill, since there is a physical difference between the regional cartridges. Knock out the obstructions to putting a non-North America cartridge into the slot and it will work just fine. My old Super Nintendo was import-ready - but stupid Amtrak broke it! One of these days I will make the replacement (off eBay, naturally) import-ready.

Back to Langrisser 2: I don't wonder at the lack of Langrisser talk in Q&A, since there hasn't been a new title in at least 5 years and all but the first were never released in English. It's a fun game though. If one has never played Langrisser I could suggest reading my Warsong review, as I covered it reasonably well there - suffice it to say that the troops generals can purchase prior to battle are entirely expendable, with no carry-over to the next battle and no reward for keeping them alive. Take out the general commanding the troops, and all the general's troops die. Generals are stronger than their troops however, so taking them out can prove problematic with their troops still getting in the way. Also, generals have a command area within which their soldiers receive bonuses. The AI will never leave this command area, so that's an exploitable situation.

Langrisser 2 has thus far been difficult for me because of my failure to understand exactly what was required of me in two missions, thanks to all the story being in Japanese - I can pick up character names and not much else. I lost the first mission thanks to a cleric named Riana being kidnapped by some guy, and I thought letting him escape was the way to succeed since he had powerful friends temporarily distracted by reinforcements. Oh how wrong was I; letting the guy escape proved to garner me a Game Over (conveniently in English onscreen). The second and third missions I succeeded at, then in the fourth mission I saw some clerics being attacked and doing poorly, which I inferred to mean it was a rescue mission. So I charged ahead and lost most of my soldiers taking out the soldiers between the enemy commander and myself, whereupon I saw some mysterious reinforcements pop up and rush over to wipe out the troops attacking the clerics. Sadly the enemy commander has stronger troops than any of his subordinates, and they promptly killed my commander-in-chief Elwin. Game Over again. I succeeded in the mission last night by taking it slower, knowing that the mysterious reinforcements would get there. Turns out the leader of those reinforcements is a woman named Sherry (or Shari, any spelling really) who appears to have joined me. Since she's mega-powerful I accept gladly.

Artwork critique of the Langrisser series here. Anyone who has seen Satoshi Urushihara's artwork knows he likes to give females - ahem - form-fitting attire. Doesn't it seem profoundly uncomfortable to try fighting with nothing but a thong and boots to cover the entire area under the waist? I wonder what happens if I hit a snowy battlefield.... Naturally men are fully clothed except for the occasional bare arms.

The importer for Nintendo handhelds has it easy - there is no regional lockout device. I haven't done it because there aren't too many titles (aside maybe from Magical Vacation and Fire Emblem 6) I would want to slog through in Japanese on the GBA. And those two titles almost never show up on eBay, with their occasional appearances fetching absurd prices - $85 for FE6? No thank you!

Sony importers I haven't studied too much. I gather it will require the maximum effort of rewiring the system and installing a mod chip however. What RPGs (aside from some Langrisser ports from Sega systems) have not made it away from Japan and cause Playstation owners to pine away? I want to know!

I think the Gamecube also requires a mod chip, but what is there to mod it for? That's a serious question; are there any good titles that Nintendo hasn't brought over?

I KNOW there isn't anything worth importing for Xbox or 360 that Microsoft didn't already bring over.

I don't think the PSP has a lockout device. But I can't be bothered to look it up right now.

This isn't really related to importing (unless one wishes to avoid the sky-high eBay prices for Panzer Dragoon Saga by getting the Japanese version), but this track is really good. http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/570/22 The Atolm Dragon is fought three times in the game, and each fight is quite memorable, especially with a battle theme like this one.

Since I vowed to speak of Shining Force III more often, here we go with a little name game somewhat similar to what I did with Dragon Force 2. In this case however, I'm going to give a few names that were changed (I think for the better) in Scenario 1's translation. Along with a few characters who show up later with ... interesting names. Ready?

Spiriel (she of the incredibly stimulated voice actress) was originally named Spirited. I think the name change is good. What say you, Matt? The Emperor is named Domaric. Originally his name was Dominate, however. Comments?

Emperor Domaric's advisor is named Fiderit - or Fidelity? Gimme some kind of sign!

The ruler of the Republic area of Barrand seized by the Empire, leading to the dispute starting the game, is named Tybalt. Or is his name Tyranny? Seems a bit leading to me.

A general who can join in Scenario 3 is named either Produn or Profound. Another general who can join is Edmund - or Equal?

And now for a couple of characters who don't have an English name. A pegasus will join up in Scenario 3, and her name is Honesty. This always seemed an odd choice of a name to me, and really a bit too hopeful. Any suggestions, Matt?

A bow knight who joins early in Scenario 2 has the odd name of Waltz. If Waltz is an acceptable name, then I expect to see characters named Tango and Foxtrot also. Wait... flashback of 80's Sylvester Stallone & Kurt Russell movie coming... gah!

I'll leave off again with a quick remonstation of Sega's voice actors for Shining Force III: http://www.audioatrocities.com/games/shiningforce3/clip2.mp3 Basanda will very likely kill off characters thanks to her powerful Thanatos summons and her position, but if she uses Blaze 3 on people she'll say that. How threatening.

Was this a slightly more workable length? I hope so, because it came naturally to me!

JuMeSyn

Well, it's better than usual. This is kind of like the first splurge meal of my new Q&A diet, though; 1,350 words is still pretty darn long.

Regardless, JuMeSyn, it's been a pleasure as always. You're a never-ending fountain of knowledge about games the rest of us likely haven't played, and dammit, I still can't get that wonderfully awful sound link out of my mind.

Thanks for writing in!

Anyway, in regards to your shorter column, I'm a little relieved myself. Those long letters and lots of them in one column were getting to be hard to read. I even skipped a couple cause I was running out of time to read them! Sorry bout that.

So, yeah, don't mind new format. Should be a break for your sanity as well, right?

SOCK
#310 - c) Lightning - always my favorite spell
#311 - c) Something to be cooked and eaten for HP replenishment or HP increase if HP are already full

Have a fantastic one!
Maggie ^_^

I think that you're just one of dozens that think that way, Maggie. Q&A is a fun place to come to discuss RPG news, talk about the latest games, share fun opinions, answer hypothetical questions, or reminisce upon fond nostalgic memories. I don't want readers to have to slog through fifteen pages of writing every time they open the page, though, and this is the chief reason that I'm trying to lighten things up.

The fact that I have a busy year ahead of me is another important reason, but it's not central. Truly, the day that reading Q&A becomes a chore will be the day that this site has outgrown me.

Thanks for your input!! And to everybody else: Maggie is going to be joining us to co-host on Friday! We haven't had one in quite a little while, so it should be a most exciting event indeed.

Whoooo-whee. I didn't get much sleep again last night, for some unknown reason. However, I still managed to get my sorry behind onto campus to register at the gym for this semester. When I got to the registration room, however, my jaw hit the floor. The check-out was arranged in four lines, you see; three of them were for debit or cash payment, and each of those lines had at least twenty people, many of whom looked like they had been waiting forever. The "credit only" line was the fourth, however. Luckily, I was carrying my credit card, because there was only one person ahead of me in that one!

What's the moral of that story? Hmmm... there is something negative about debit cards after all? I dunno, it's pretty weak.

#310. a) Fire - 620 points
It was SO CLOSE, too!! Here were the tallies:

1. a) Fire: 13 votes
2. b) Ice: 5 votes
3. c) Lightning: 12 votes
4. d) Water: 1 vote
5. e) Wind: 3 votes

Macstorm casts Blind! The questions were obscured!

#312:
W... do Y0i NeE- t. .ake wIYh - GrsiN (f sakT i- --. ..ve any hOP# Of oB%aqning s ruBg#r cHuvk$n? (650 points)

a) tEh Ro05^..'s ..mB
b) HOLE $18
c) Th- --.rby f98ntsIN
d) a Nagic wgG
e) ... F!ux 5hpp

I guess it's a Blind sort of week, isn't it? Do your best!

STRAGGLERS:
(people who I love, but who still need to check their e-mail or somehow get in touch with me because they have unclaimed items- if you fall off the list after a week, it's TOO LATE FOR YOU! Check your spam/trash folders for my messages if you're not getting them, and I'll check mine, too!)

• none to speak of!

I've got a growing line of opinions on Final Fantasy XII mounting in my inbox, just waiting for tomorrow's column. Do you want to add to the discussion? Feel free to write in and tell me what you're anticipating about the year's most anticipated game!

Otherwise, that's all from me for now. I'll be back tomorrow as always. Take care!

***Matt is... hungry!