Josh - 6:53 EST

A New Rune has been added to the field! Remember, you can change your Rune as often as you like before your first roll. Say hello to the Gravity Rune! The Gold Hairpin has also been modified a bit, and some extra items have shown up! Lastly, the Blind Rage spell has been tweaked slightly.

Also...gaze in awe at the THONG board...2.0! I -think- I'm done...I had one or two more things I was thinking about. Also, I'll probably be starting the game before I have a finalized list of Items and Games, but I'm positive I'll have it before any of you come remotely close to it. ^^ Regardless, I hope to start this next Saturday, but we shall see...hehehe.

Vicissitude is cohosting tomorrow! Send mail! ^^

Hey Josh/Ouro/whatever you want to be called,

And on your topic of finally overcoming big challenges in RPGs, I remember when I finished Dragon Quest 7. The final boss was giving me such a hard time that for the first several times, I couldn't get much into his second phase (of five or six). It seemed like I was going to have to level up for a long time, especially because the help I was getting trying to beat him suggested I was very much underleveled. I tried just building up experience in the area just before fighting him, and eventually my characters learned a few key spells (TwinHits in particular), and was able to finally win on my next try. The kicker was that directly after it told me he was defeated, the game crashed on me, and I was frantically checking a walkthrough afterwards to make sure he actually was the last boss and I really did beat the game, because I sure didn't want to go through that again.

-- Arpijy

Josh "You can call me Susan if it makes you happy." I did something like that with...I want to say it was Chrono Cross. I basically smacked the power button with my foot accidentally and just stared at the screen in disbelief. Luckily the boss wasn't too irritating, but man does it get frustrating when you do dumb things like that ^^;. I feel your pain, and offer e-cookies in return.

Hi there Ouro

I thought I'd chime in on a few things

First on the listening to the same song over and over for no bloody reason and staring off into space I do that darn near anytime I fire up my computer ^^;; I always play some uber cheesy song to try and draw or write to but end up with my brain turned to mush, spewing out lyrics that sorta sound like the song ^^;; and despite this I still don't know much of anything about music ^^;;

As far as a puzzle that kept me guessing for years it would have to be from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for the gameboy, I got the game in either 95 or 96, played through it to the eighth dungeon, Turtle's Rock, I found the room with the magic wand in but it was locked, and I had no key so in order to get a key I looked everywhere in frustation, finally one day when OoT was soon to be released I finally found a place to bomb that got me to a room with one of those slidey things you have to fill in the floor with, I filled it in, got the key and beat the dungeon after being stuck for all those years, I was oh so very happy but oh so very dissapointed at my bad puzzle solving skills and if not for the internet and strategy guides I'd probably still be stuck in the Water temple in OoT ^^;; just cause I like puzzles doesn't mean I'm good at em

More recently there was the whole ToP puzzle in the evil dude's hideout and I never thought Arche could fly outside of battle but I shared that one last time ^^

Also due to the fact the power went out where I live earlier today I started playing Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation for the GBA, and so far I'm enjoying it despite having no idea what the pilot stats mean, I could have read the manual by candlelight but where's the fun in that

Even earlier today before the power died, I got in some more DoC, and thus far I still haven't died though I never seem to have money to upgrade my weapons but still, I'm just happy I haven't got my --- handed to me yet !.! *Arros sucks at shooting things outside of the ducks from duck hunt...*

And I uh don't really have a question so um uh yeah keep up the good work

Arros Raikou
*craves power to hide his shame of puzzle solving*

It’s not an RPG but this happened to me 2 years ago and I’ve never let myself live it down so…ONWARD!

When I was in elementary school I had a Nintendo and got into the groove of renting a Nintendo game every weekend or so from the local video store. One of the games I got was called Mappy Land (I hear people groaning already) and there’s 4 worlds with 8 levels (unlike a certain other classic Nintendo game where it’s exactly the opposite.) So. In these 4 worlds you have to get cheese in order to pass. I reached the last level of the 4th world and collected all the cheese in order to pass.

”SORRY MAPPY, YOU ARE LATE FOR MY BIRTHDAY. NO BONUS.”

Or so I thought…at the time. I tried again and again…and again…and again…and started crying in frustration and eventually declared I would never rent or play this game again.

Fast forward about 15 years…I’m in my senior year of college, I’m bored, and I’m playing Mappy Land on an emulator. It is then when…

I DISCOVER A PIECE OF CHEESE, WHICH WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF A PORTRAIT ON THE WALL, THAT I HAD NOT NOTICED SO MANY YEARS AGO. Level cleared…

Please root for me to finally defeat the Bishop of the White Night in LostMagic so I’ll have a NEW story to tell!!

Bucket NezuMi

Hei herra hyvae Josh!

At least we're in agreement on the despicable nature of McDonald's. Sadly, I have no In-N-Out access. Look up Eureka, California on the map mmmkay? Now look at how far it is from anything of note. North of San Francisco is a gigantic part of this state where almost no one lives and nothing happens! Jack in the Box only came here 5 years ago, begorrah! I will say that on the fleetingly few tastes of In-N-Out I've experience they were superior to any other burger chain.

If the rumor mill is to be believed Nintendo is having a press conference on September 14 to unveil information regarding the Wii. This seems a bit late to announce the console's appearance, but Nintendo has somehow managed to keep everything secret this far so managing it another three weeks ought not be beyond them. It should be noted that if I were to buy a next-gen console it would probably be the Wii, though loan payments keep sucking up most of my income.

RPGamer doesn't seem to have any coverage of the Age of Empires games. Do you have the expertise to denounce or respect this decision?

Drakengard. All I know about these two titles is their apparent mix of a number of elements from disparate games in a less-than-stellar fashion. Then I saw a random ad from a few months ago and got to thinking about them again. What do you know?

Bill & Ted I consider less emblematic to any one decade. You're right about them being perfectly deserving of an RPG treatment though, far more than B&B. No matter what else he does, Keanu Reeves will always be Ted to me.

This probably comes from my extensive experience with the system, but here's a quick list of titles you will want whenever a Saturn shows itself in your life. Shining Force III - naturally. NiGHTS I'm still puzzling over but it's super cheap on eBay compared to a lot of Saturn stuff. Panzer Dragoon Saga is still different from anything else I've played, and superior to a lot of it - I'll write a review of it soon. Shining the Holy Ark I consider very enjoyable. Guardian Heroes is an interesting and crazy meshing of the beat-em-up and RPG genres which I come back to every now and again. Albert Odyssey is just really funny. Dragon Force will keep you busy for weeks, and no matter what comes out on a current console you won't care while playing that title. Hm - that short list by itself will drain your bank account probably as much as a PS3 will. Radiant Silvergun is brilliant but just as expensive as Panzer Dragoon Saga - ugh.

What's your Fire Emblem expertise?

Quality RPG content on the N64 is to be found in Ogre Battle, Paper Mario, and the Zelda titles. Have I missed anything here? Incidentally I have never played anything on N64 - shall I be denigrated?

Oh dear - Jurassic Park IV is under production with a script involving the government making weapons out of the dinosaurs. The concept of Jurassic Park is not too bad for an RPG but do we really need ANOTHER movie?

Please, Marquis Ouro - reveal to us your expertise in RPGs that were never released in English. You have played Seiken Densetsu 3 more than I (I'll remedy that before the end of the year) but what other treasures denied to the unadventurous have you partaken of?

Dragon Ball/Z/GT. We all know about it. Is it possible to make a good RPG based off of the series? Sound off!

I tend not to notice blatant similarities between music (only upon close examination can I note the copyright infringment George Harrison perpetrated with My Sweet Lord upon the Chiffons' He's So Fine). I will relate that while playing Grandia 2 in the observation of some dorm-mates it was observed by one fellow that the battle music reminded him of You've Got Another Thing Coming by Judas Priest. Also some other music in the game reminded him of ESPN SportsCenter. Poor Noriyuke Iwadare, reduced to plagiarizing Judas Priest....

And yes, I consider myself a pretty good player. No one sounded off with a 'You suck! Gimme that!' while I was destroying Grandia 2's Pope. Admittedly no one else in the room was much of an RPGamer but still....

As for tough encounters, there's a nasty boss fight in Shining the Holy Ark that utterly destroyed me the first time I played the game. What makes it nastier is that it is impossible to escape once you've set out after it. Wandering through an area you've already been to with a new character to take care of, you're suddenly taken to a new area from which there is no escape. There is no way to save outside of a town in Shining the Holy Ark, and the spell and item to get your team out of a dungeon doesn't work in this place. So I did my best to get into a lot of fights on the way up and ran into a duo of nasty enemies that, if they both used Freeze level 3 at the same time, would have utterly destroyed me. They didn't, but I used up damn near everything I had taking them down. Then they were revived and got a boost from Rilix, one of the main enemies. She used Spark 2 and increased the attack of the evil spirits, signaling the doom of my healer. I had one revival item at the time and had already used it against the evil spirits. When everyone is taken up with healing using items, victory is impossible. So I died. I then spent about 4 hours running around getting into fights, and came back with a few new spells learned. It was still a rough fight and possibly the nastiest in the game - certainly the final battles aren't that rough.

At this point in Princess Crown I've completed the main quest. Upon that task being fulfilled the option of playing through a shorter scenario detailing what one of the side characters was up to is opened, and I completed Edward's scenario also. Now Portgus the pirate and Proserpina the witch's scenario's are opened up to play. Portgus's is pretty short but fun - he's a pirate with a peg leg! Haven't tried Proserpina's yet because I need to open up a FAQ for it when she has to run around gathering ingredients for a potion. This is not easy to figure out when all the text that relates to the task is in Japanese.

If you haven't seen Monster A Go-go, I strongly encourage you to. It is, in my judgment, the worst movie they ever did. Say what you will about Manos (and there is a LOT to say) but it has continuity and Torgo and the Master can be said to be acting in some variety. Neither applies to Monster A Go-Go, literally constructed from unfinished pieces of footage.

Jaelkeenpaein!
JuMeSyn

Vicissitude is up to bat, so send letters! Give 'em something fun to answer, or poke the brain for a bit ^^

THONG2 is coming, no? More stuff will be added/changed before the start, and just a reminder, you can change your Rune at any time before you first roll. Hope you guys got some more challenges to divulge to us, as I take a break and see you guys tomorrow! Later!

***Josh has a 61 inch TV downstairs.