You guys have no idea how difficult it is to come up with witty intro messages for the duration of my stay as the temporary host of Q&AK. So I'll just have to explain it briefly:
   Andrew gone. He lazy. I host now. Not for long. Until he get back. You have question? Email to me. Or no get post until Andrew get back. But Brian better than Andrew. You know that, right?

Q: There's been a little debate on the FF-SNES message board about whether or not Shadow kills himself at the very end of the game. I was under the impression that he just disappears to start a new life, but others say he stays in Kefka's Tower and dies. Can you possibly clear this up for us?

BG: Hey, who do you think we are? Some sort of experts on RPG games?
   (Consults with Mike for advice on how to answer...)
   Ah, I guess it turns out we -are- supposed to be experts on RPGs. Oops. =)
   Unfortunately, no one, with the exception of Final Fantasy VI's story writers, can say for sure what exactly happened to Shadow. You see, the game leaves it open-ended as to what happened after the ending to the game (as it should). He could have killed himself, or he could have been abandoning all aspects of his current life in an effort to have a fresh start in the world.
   My personal opinion is the latter. With Kefka defeated, the world is released and is free to slowly heal and rebuild towards the peace they have been striving for for such a long time. In essence, this is a rebirth, and perhaps Shadow feels it is time to abandon his cold, unemotional exterior and start again as a new man. This is pure speculation, however...as I mentioned, the game's writers are the only ones who can say what they intended for the character. I doubt anyone else involved at Squaresoft can say for certain.

Q: I was wondering if you could tell me how well Breath of Fire 3 has sold here? I know it was well received in Japan, but here its always a different story. I hope it sold well, because when the next Breath of Fire game comes out, I would like to see it come here also. That won't happen if BOF3 sold bad.
   -Cable Thorne

BG: Looking in my magic ball of sources, I can see that Breath of Fire III is doing well in North America. Not spectacularly well, but not bad either. My local Electronics Boutique sold out of the game a couple days ago, and other stores have reported the same. Although not many were ordered in the first place, the game has been selling briskly enough to most likely inspire yet another sequel. Now, the question is...will they be able to create another original storyline from the series?

Q: Brian, getting right to the point, what do the characters under the Final Fantasy Tactics logo translate as?

BG: Although I don't know Japanese, and I haven't consulted with anyone to translate this, I'd guess that it means "Final Fantasy Tactics". The only other reasonable possibility is "Zodiac Brave Story", but since the starting screen and logo for Tactics is identical in both English and Japanese, Square would have put the game's name in the logo so that fans wouldn't have to figure out what those weird English characters call the game.

Q: How much do you suppose gil is to the dollar?

BG: At current international rates, one gil is equivalent to $1.83 US dollars, or $4.52 Canadian.

Q: Brian-
   About your question in Q&AK yesterday. Are you a schizo? I mean, you sent a message to yourself. If you're just talking to yourself, I quote the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game"
   "Talking to yourself is the first sign of impending mental collapse"
   -Aeon

BG: I'm not the schizo if you think I -really- typed out an email message, addressed it to myself, hit "Send", and then exclaimed in delight upon discovering I had new mail. =)
   I hand-wrote a message, and delivered it overnight to my home address through Federal Express, of course.