Aaah, two exams out of three finished with. I'll tell
ya, finals aren't fun, but it's one way to force you to learn a
complicated subject really, really quickly. And then forget it just as
quickly. Oh well.
I'm Brian Glick, and I'm the temporary host of Q&AK
(or Q&BG, as many have been calling it) until the article's namesake
himself, Andrew Kaufmann, returns from charming the ladies. Please email questions directly to me for
the time being. And save me the trouble of editing your emails; at least
try to use some semblance of grammar and spelling. =)
Q:
In response to the person who asked:
"Brian, getting right to the point, what do the
characters under the Final
Fantasy Tactics logo translate as?"
The lettering under the logo is written in katakana.
Katakana is a version of the Japanese alphabet used commonly to spell
words of foreign origin
phonetically. It basically spells out "Fa-i-na-ru Fa-n-ta-shi
Ta-ku-chi-ku-
su" (or something like that...I would give a direct translation, but I
couldn't read the small picture in the manual very well...). It doesn't
mean
anything special, it's just the closest the Japanese can come to spelling
"Final Fantasy Tactics" using their alphabet.
BG:
Thanks for confirming my guess. I received a large volume of mail from
fans eager to explain how Katakana works, and I learn more and more every
day writing this column.
Okay, so the above Q wasn't really a question, but you
all don't have to email me about that, either.
Q:
Lemme get this straight. One gil is equal to $1.83 US. Then why the hell
does it cost 200 gil just to play the motorcycle game in the Gold Saucer
of Final Fantasy 7? You're telling me we're paying $366 for a little
arcade game? What is this, major inflation? What is the FF7 world coming
to? AHHH!!!!
-Clyde Hudman
BG:
They didn't gold-plate that saucer by charging a quarter or two for
arcade games, you know
Great insight there, Clyde. I laughed out loud when I
read this. Not many letters I get do that. =) (Oh, and to all the
irate Canadians who didn't like my Canadian conversion rate comment...I'm
Canadian too. Live with it, eh?)
Q:
Have you ever had a question that deals with the English language just
like this one:
There are three words in the English language that end
in gry. ONE
is angry and the other is hungry, everyONE knows what the third ONE
means and what it stands for, everyONE uses them everyday, and if you
listen carefully I've given you the third word. What is it?
Do you know anything about this question? I asked my
friends if they
knew what it was and they didn't even understand the question itself.
-Kevin
BG:
The true answer to this mind-boggling riddle is that there is no answer.
This is the most perverse form of English riddles: a literary hoax. The
question has no real answer, even though there are some uncommon English
words such as "augry" and "anhungry".
The real riddle, however, has been lost in the
retelling of the question. It goes something like this:
Two words that end in "gry" are "hungry" and "angry". There are
three words in the English language. What is the third word? Everyone
knows what it means and what it stands for. Everyone uses it every day.
And if you listened carefully, I've already given you the third word.
What is it?"
The answer is "language".
Q:
Will Lufia 3 have the pet monster system? Thanks.
-Darin
BG:
It's really hard to say at this point. Little has been confirmed or
announced about the gameplay of Lufia III at the moment, but as our vast
string of underground sources discover more, we'll certainly let you
know. Check out the Lufia III Preview
for everything we know so far.
Q:
Hey Mr. B!
It's not that I don't like you writing this column but
when AK comes
back what will you become? Some cheap miserable moron who must spend
the rest of his life in a closet? I hope not! So anyway, what will
happen to you after the Loverboy comes back?
BG:
What, you think I do nothing else on RPGamer? I'm certainly not going to
be kicked out on the streets when Andy returns!
They're going to have me go through every single file
and capitalize all the HTML tags. And you thought I'd be out of a job...
Q:
If you had 5 minutes to yourself before the world's end, what would you
do
with your last moments on Earth?
BG:
I'd be writing up a final Q&AK article. That just shows how devoted
I am to my loyal readers. =) (Of course, you'd all be running around
screaming anyway...)
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