Googleshng:
Interesting point. Back in the days when towns were tiny little things with just a dozen or so people, talking to everyone seemed only natural. Especially since they tended to have a single sentence to say to you. These days though, there's towns with 50 people each of which has 2 or 3 different things to say or more. A lot of those are pretty verbose too. Game Arts is the worst. Although a good chunk of their stuff gets translated by working designs, and humor balances out the drudgery of talking to everyone. CC and VP aren't too bad by the way. FF8's the worst since it has randomly occurring and moving people. Anyway, the bright side is, there's no real reason to talk to these masses. These days RPGs always tell you who it is that has all the important info in a town, so you can just skip the rest. Seems like something of a waste, but it does save you a good hour. Oh, and as for PC RPGs, traditionally they're even worse in that regard. Diablo 2 is nice. Fallout I THINK is nice. Most though... *shudder*

Googleshng:
Ah yes, the gate is quite the easter egg. Teach those other dimensions a lesson! I didn't do much there yet though... too busy. In PE2... well, your question is something of a matter of opinion. I really like the machine gun, it's great for clearing out bunnies, but uh... it's not exactly high damage. Then of course the really big stuff has very limited ammo. In any case though, I doubt I'll ever finish PE2. It's a terribly botched attempt at copying the RE series, and it just gets more annoying as I go on. Oh, and as for anime. If you haven't watched Escaflowne yet, do so... unless it's the hideous Fox dub. Also Lost Universe and Those Who Hunt Elves if you like Slayers.

Googleshng:
I don't think Pokémon is overrated. I think it's overhyped, and there's a huge difference. Heck, a lot of people have obsessions with Pokémon that have never even played the game! Anyway though, as for the virtues of the game itself, the combat can actually be unbelievably strategic. While you don't get much of a challenge in the game itself until the very end, if you hook up two gameboys and actually have a fight instead of just trading, you really gain an appreciation of the thing. There's the strategy involved in choosing your 6 Pokémon, which moves to give them, which order to deploy them in, and even during fights there's strategy involved with certain moves. For example, Skull Bash seems lowsy until your opponent decides to use Fly.

Googleshng:
You realize of course that you just described Zork. 8) Except of course you don't start with a spoon, or near a town, so you're pretty much stuck going through the window. Seriously though, I've been told that's the drive behind Shen Mue. It's set in the real world, in the 80s. You can wander around to arcades, find a kitten to take care of, and the plot evidently branchs a bit. Then it also contains those slightly controllable movie segment type things... it confuses me.

Googleshng:
The coin of fortune makes you get more experience. Make sure you always have it equipped, unlike me. As for difficulty, I played on normal and got the B ending. Next I'll do hard and A, then easy and C just for laughs.

Googleshng:
I'd have to disagree on the sega.net comment. I've played Chuchu rocket 4 way via earthlink, which is one of the most mainstream and therefore sluggish ISPs out there and had no problems at all. Besides, the only way you can have a lag free online experience is with broadband, and that'll be available for the DC very soon. As for your second comment. That's a first. I made a mistake, only one person corrected it, and they included something else. WOOHOO! Thanks.

The Last Laugh: