Oh my, its the former Q&A host himself, Lusipurr. I remember you. I think you may have responded rudely to a letter I sent intended for either Sean or Matt (in a hilarious manner at least). Are you talking about the chair with your name engraved on it? I'm afraid I had it reduced to kindling upon taking the job. You see I prefer something a bit more uncomfortable:

I'll let Michael Scott field that question...

Go play every last Kawazu directed game and write me a 2500 word essay on why he's a genius and maybe we'll talk! (Then again why don't you just run your own Q&A on your site? With blackjack? and hookers?)

Oh good, a more tame letter (I mean this in a good way)!

I think you should give Legend of Heroes another shot. Keep in mind the game moves at an especially slow pace early on, and a lot of the game is intended to give the world and characters lots of depth. Just take it at its own pace, explore the world, and I think you'll get into it!

Wow, impressive sir! I will have to take the time to print out the rules and dig in. Completing the ruleset, even though I'm sure you'll want to tweak it and such, must be an incredible accomplishment. As someone who gets distracted from projects easily, I can understand how hard it is to stay focused and finish something.

I can tell just by the length of the rulebook that this will likely be so much easier to pickup and play. People may think creating something lighter is easier, but it really isn't. You have to strike a good balance between making things easy to understand, but also leaving enough complexity so that the rules still allow for lots of fun. In this, just skimming the book, I think you have done an impressive job. Hopefully I can find a group to give it a try!

Interesting choose. I have never played Ultima 7, but I should probably get on that given that I liked the earlier games. Speaking of Ultima, can you please bring that series back EA? I mean, hand it off to BioWare already. How has this not already happened?

What about something like say, Romancing SaGa? It has vaguely been compared to games like Ultima, so it could provide for a good structure for a JRPG Ultima. Certainly, a focus on exploration would be important, and a player created character would be a must. I think this could provide for a pretty interesting game, maybe even throwing in some dungeons in the style of the obscure Ultima: Runes of Virtue gameboy games. Did you ever play those? They had a great sense of humor. Anyway, I'm all for this idea.

Well, for your first question, the Western game I would most like to see get a JRPG makeover would have to be Dragon Age or Knights of the Old Republic. I know, you're saying "huh?" but I think BioWare could really learn a lot by looking at the interface used in Final Fantasy XII, which obviously plays a lot like both of those games. Final Fantasy XII makes it incredibly easy to pause and issue commands to characters, and also makes inventory management a breeze. Both of these things are by far the worst elements of Dragon Age and Knights of the Old Republicin my opinion. I think if you combine BioWare's great story telling, with some better console focused control and combat expertise of a company like Square Enix, the result would be something amazing. This, in my opinion, is what WRPGs need to look at JRPGs for. Too often WRPGs stick to traditional PC type controls and combat, which don't always play well on consoles. I know that isn't exactly the kind of answer you're looking for, but there you are! I'd also love a Baldur's Gate II remake with classic Final Fantasy combat.

I would most like to see a sequel to Resonance of Fate probably more than anything else at the moment. In a perfect world it would feature the cast of the original in some new adventure, and even allow you to import your progress from the first game and play the new game at a harder difficulty from the start. Unlikely to happen I know, but a man can dream!

As always, good to hear from you, looking forward to your next letter!

It is me! Though there are actually others with my exact name out there, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one doing any writing about video games. Anyway, it's a venture I jumped into with the hope of getting to write about some non-RPGs, but instead I somehow ended up writing about a near-RPG and a classic PS1 RPG. Whoops! Anyway, please let me know how Pandora's Tower is. Also, how are you enjoying The Witcher 2?

As I'm sure you know, I highly reccomend you give both of these games a second chance. I don't think it was just the PAL manual that didn't explain Dragon Quarter all that well. Certainly the game itself could have done a better job, but it's really something best learned by doing, and getting a better feel for the game. Dragon Quarter can be a tough game, but you should stick with it and try to get the hang of things, because it is one of, if not the, best RPGs on the PS2. As for Resonance of Fate, I think the tutorial does a good job explaining how the various mechanics work, but an awful job explaining what to do with them, and which ones are important. It spends way too much time on getting enemies airborn and slamming them down and such, when it should be explaining that you need to learn to use your hero actions effectively so that you are constantly refilling your bezels and never running out. This is especially hard to do early on in the game, when you only have a few. The tutorials never really impress this importance on the player. To get the hang of Resonance of Fate, you need to learn to startegize around constantly refilling bezells, even if that means ignoring the tougher enemies early on and having to survive some strong attacks. In fact, I rarely used some of the things the tutorial went to great lengths to explain. So that's the issue there. The tutorial explains way too much that isn't required. Try the game again, and instead of worrying about all that, instead strategize in battles around taking out enemies or parts of enemies to keep your bezels up, and see if you have a better time with the game. You may still dislike the game, its not for everyone, but give it a try!

Well if my above statements don't convince you, or help you, those resources may help as well. I think I used gamefaqs a few times to get me going in both games. So yes, if you think those resources will hep, go for it, and don't feel ashamed at having to do so. These games both do share the issue of not being able to describe their features welll enough. I encourage you to above all else, explore their mechanics on your own and experiment with them. This is especially true for Resonance of Fate, where using all three kinds of weapons and various bullets and grendade types is essential for succeeding. Also try switching weapons between characters frequently, as this will help level your characters quickly. Be sure to let me know how those second chances are going, and I'd be happy to offer more help if needed!

Looking forward to hearing about any progress you make.