Lightning Flik

Johnny, that's more because everyone's thinking Batista will interfere in the match and cost HHH the match.

Wait... So I'm getting K. Wood now? ... er, I ... m'kay. Still though, clear up the situation on the something like that happening again HQ.

Ok, Vern, just find at least 5 other people who will vote against the trade and it'll be nulled. So that's 6 of 18 people. Oh and that's before tomorrow, cause once its processed, your screwed. Or at least that's the understanding I got when HQ was telling me if someone makes a blunder, its done. I'll let him clarify though, since the official trade stuff on the first post of this thread isn't awfully clear.

On The Block: Cliff Lee - SP Juan Uribe - 2B, 3B, SS

No, I was playing Devil's Advocate with saying Jays win it all and the Yanks and Sox look on the outside. We've got a really solid team this year.

Geezus Christ... These are horrid. Did a five year old make'em? I wouldn't be caught dead with any of them.

Oh and don't bother getting the third Lufia. It sucked really bad. All dungeons were randomly generated. That's how bad it was. Seiken Densetsu was Final Fantasy Adventure. Seiken Densetsu 2 was Secret of Mana. Unless you meant Seiken Densetsu 3 which never did get over here and never will because the creator of Seiken Densetsu hated it. And Treasure of Rudra, was actually quite awesome. I'm amazed the game never game our side. Especially considering you could make up spells as you wanted (well, there was a trick to it but it was still cool).

The Blue Jays will be your World Series winners this year. We'll also get to mock the Yankees and RSoxs by being in the playoffs and they aren't.

III was the on the GB and an absolute disaster. Now then, onto your comment about the different departments: This is true. They are different departments, but the programmers need to make the programming codes and textures work with the game. When you have a script and you've done six months of coding, but you need to make a revision to a script its very hard to do because you might have to totally replan and recode how a whole entire scene went. Totally recoding and replaning of a single scene can cost you anywhere from a week to a whole month depending on the changes. By changing a script, you change the feel of the scene, you change the necessary reactions by certain characters and most of all you have to go through a huge amountage of codes. Easy example of how much code is that over 300,000 lines of code just for the menus for RPGs. Hire more coders based on anticipated sales? Heh... Sorry, that isn't how it works. You can only put as many coders on a product as the originally anticipated sales. Did they expect the numbers Final Fantasy VII? I doubt it. They were probably just thinking double of Final Fantasy VI. Besides you can't just whip up coders who have no idea what's involved with the project to just jump into something that's six months to go. They have no idea why certain things are a certain why, they wouldn't be able to know all the little meanings or why someone did such and such a thing unless they've been sitting in front of that computer for a whole night and day.

Interesting read. He comes acrosss as someone who really loves what he does and says. And I wouldn't be surprised if he had to run through 150 people for his raps. That would definitely explain why he couldn't do them anymore. At least as good as he used to.

Bonds will return by May and not only smash the all-time home run record, but once again prove his dominance at hitting by nailing 100 HRs in a single season.

Fire is a minor nuisance early on, but once you get your skills worked up, your guys are fast enough that they can hit the guy and then move out of the way for the fire spell. The key is to making sure your other party members have enough movement points to move out of the way. The scale at the bottom of the screen should help you with that. Besides, if it is just the gameplay you hate, why don't you try reading the manga? Ah, I see... I didn't realize you could get them fast enought o actually dodge the damn thing. There's a manga for it? Ooo... GIMME. NOW. I didn't read much in terms of advertisment for the game, so I will take you at your world. Its just a plot twist. And the Flame Champion is a title, not just a person. He is just called the Flame Champion because he has no official name. Well, then I guess they were doing the bait and switch then with it, since technically they weren't lying with what they said if the spoiler is true, but still just doesn't sit right with me. Though the official company line is it was up to the player, I'm leaning towards we'll be seeing Jowy and Riou again. If I remember the lore of the True Runes correctly, all the True Runes holders (the final ones) would be there when the final battle happens. Besides, those who hold the True Runes life spans increase dramatically, so Jowy and Riou will probably be kicking for Suikoden V (assuming V will be apart of the Nation Islands). Hm... Didn't think about Hugo's father. I wonder who exactly he is, because he's supposed to be a prominant character and actually if I'm not mistaken, many people guess that's who was being talked about and not Jowy. I still think its Jowy though. I wish he'd show up too. They were two of the most popular characters in the franchise. It felt wrong not having Flik there. I mean, with the SDS being given to Edge I could see Viktor doing that and leaving, but Flik needed to stick around dammit. Oh well... At least means the confrontation between Edge and Viktor will be humorous. You mean it isn't coming stateside? I thought it was. I did enjoy Legend of Dragoon. My problem was that it had nearly every cliche you could pull, the gameplay was a hack job (20 pitiful healing items when spells were hard as bloody hadian didn't help at all), and graphically it was quite bland. For a game that was five years in the making, it was utterly bad. Too bad that everyone who tried to make a sequel to Lufia 1 and 2 basically hack jobbed it and blew up a very good and easy way to do it, in Sir Arek. Hell, the rest of the Lufia games have little to no connection to Lufia 1 and 2. Well, 3 does, but its a flipping hack job.

Blink and you miss him in Vector. Yeah, he DOES die. Or at least was in Vector. Although, you could make the case that Duncan and Bannon are the same guy (hey, why use that EXACT sprite for Duncan). The problem with the WOR is that it pretty much was in ruins and yet everyone who had been a hero from the year previous actually got on with their lives. Um... Excuse me? Hello. I wouldn't be just wasting my damn time for a year and living a shallow existance. I would be trying to find a way to get rid of Kefka. I think that's everyone's problem. Like Locke decided to drop everything to say Rachel, while I think that's quite noble, how about you save the world first THEN try bringing her back. Why bring her back into this world when Kefka could wipe her out just like that? Yeah it was entertaining seeing the storyline between the two, but after I went through it a second time (cause I always play an RPG at least twice through-wait, that means I will touch Suikoden III again, aw fuck no) I looked back and wasn't overly impressed with this. You could've made it so dramatic in that Locke was trying to save the world to save her, but she still dies/commits sacrifice. Would've been far better. Hell, it would've been better if Rachel actually told Locke to move on in his life and to his new found love. Its things like that that just irked me about WoR myself and why I think its second best of the Final Fantasy. WoR was a great concept that was flawed in execution of story-telling. Cinematics over anything else. Its a bad trend that is getting to the point that some games *coughxenocoughsagacough* are just blantantly being a movie with game filled in. To RPG companies these days, it seems like they don't want to actually make a game. This is why I'll tout Tales of Symphonia as the best RPG since the new school ones started. Its about style. The FMVs aren't meaningless yet not long to bore you to death, the game still ranks in as a long game (assuming you DO more than just blitz through), the battles are fun, the characters are well-built and there is plenty of reasons to play and play again. Its pretty much this generations Chrono Trigger. ...oh and yes, I meant to open that can o'worms. Ok, how about I put, "limitations in what FFVI's system could do"? Geezus. Did I say it didn't have good graphics? No. Did I say it had a weak script? No. There's just a limit to what you can do on a SNES. ...you know what, I'm just going programmer mode. Fuck it. I'm saying that when you know the full capabilities of the hardware, you don't need to pressure yourself into going beyond those capabilities, therefore you have extra time to build on the other things. Remember that Final Fantasy VI was the third of the 3 games for the SNES. They had time to master the details to making games on the SNES. Final Fantasy VII was the first RPG ( ok, by Squaresoft) built for the PlayStation. Its a new system, a new design. Everything that was used for Final Fantasy I - VI goes out the window because they aren't even designing for Nintendo now but Sony. You have to build your code different under a different operating system, you have to adhere to a different set of business code ethics when building under a new system, and most importantly you don't know any little "cheats" to make things go faster or better. Hence you don't get the extra luxury to make sure that every detail on that script is right. You've got a deadline to meet and getting that game out the door is more important financially than making sure its like 50 times better than Final Fantasy VI in terms of script. You've got more people trying to digest and maintain lines of code than you do making sure you've got enough people to make sure everything else gets done combined. Add in the factor of everyone expecting this RPG to usher in a new age to gaming and you want to make this game as graphically best as you possibily can (and that's quite debatable). If that's going to cost you a few plot holes and making the deadline it will be taken. Toss the two around and you'd still run up the same problem with Final Fantasy VI and why Final Fantasy VII could be just as damn good as VI. ...and considering I'm a programmer, I know what I'm talking about. BTW, you can get Tales of Symponia for PS2. Don't. Get the Gamecube version as it is highly superior in terms of framerate, sound quality, and overall appearance. Even if there's a few bonus stuff on the PS2 version, seriously don't. Not worth it at all. And glad I'm not the only one who thinks that it rivals Chrono Trigger. Thought I might be going insane. But fire is the main one that kills your own party members. With lightning, wind & earth you don't have to worry about that, and water should only be used for healing. Dammit, I meant Lightning. God dammit, stupid, stupid. Meant to put Fire was absolutely freaking rediculous to use. Lightning was the only good spell. Not that Flame Champion. Whatever of the three main guys you choose becomes the new Flame Champion. ...ok, seriously, they touted the Flame Champion and him alone as the main guy and the other guys stories revolve around his who eventually take precendence. Oh now I remember Edge and SDS. I was laughing so fucking hard when I heard that cause it was like "only Viktor could pull something like that on someone". Ah, ok. I thought you had meant Bright, but when I saw it twice I'm like "no person with that name." Must've meant Blight, but um... Jowy's gone with Riou to God knows where and Jowy's wife wasn't around last I checked. Oh, but still. A Suikoden without Flik just feels so empty... Ok, I just really liked my namesake dammit. I want more of his story cause he needs to finally obtain peace and I'd like to see it. Ah, ok... ...dammit, I seriously need to replay the other two games and then this one cause I forgot how the geography went. Breath of Fire 4 is pretty good, however I consider it the worst of the series. Its still good but I didn't care for it. Dragon Quarter is an interesting, unique and quite possibly most frustrating game that you'll play in a long time. The story is great though, and once you get the hang of it its worthwhile. v_v Sadly its one of the games on my too finish list.

You mean its that bad in IV? Oh lordy.... But yeah, music in RPGs has dropped significantly. I didn't mind the system, but magic (besides Fire I should say) was absolutely rediculous to use. And this game was brutal not in difficulty, but in the way you have to play with the 2 tier 3 part system. I didn't like having 6 people in my main party and not having access to them. If they are going to play that, do it like how Breath of Fire 4 and Final Fantasy X had it where you could switch in and out members (except make it only THAT character). Don't give me 6 guys and leave me hanging. That only pisses me off. He's dead. He fell in love with Sana and gave up the True Fire Rune so that he could grow old with her. Geddoe thinks he is a coward for doing so which is why they had a falling out. I actually thought this was a pretty good plot twist. You can tell how far I got in the game as I didn't get that far, thanks though because knowing this I can safely now go "I ain't playing this again". However, my main grief is that the Suikoden creators specifically said "The Flame Champion is the main hero of this game". ...um, excuse me. No, he's not. He's apart of the supporting cast. I know, but Viktor was declared in Suikoden II as Star Dragon Sword's true master. Why would the sword let him give it up? That makes no sense considering how much the Sword bitched about him being the right guy. As for the rest, guess I either forget how far I got and who joined (since some seem familiar), or at that point just didn't care anymore. And hey, why do you have Bright (Blight) twice? There's only Jowy. I expected Flik because there has to be some closure to him moving on from Odessa's death. That's why I expected him there. That and he was supposed to be adventuring still if I remember correctly. Him not being there is like saying "oh he's still trying to get over it, but to you finding out if he has" II was in a different country than I. II was also 5 years removed from I. Sure, its now 20 years, but dammit. Its like a must that half the gang shows up.

SmartMarks Titles: Supreme - Main Event Title Excellence - Midcard Title Tag Team ...there, enough titles to start with. Man, I wish I had gaming systems... >_< I miss gaming.

Why the Suikoden III hate, Flik? I found it to be rather average. It was certainly nowhere near as good as the original or Suikoden II, but I wouldn't call it horrible or anything. Just curious... Music: Non-existant during the game. Sure, they did it to make it like a Japanese movie, but it was really bad and just made the game feel awfully empty. I'm going through an area and I'd seriously have to put some type of music on because the lack of music drove me up the wall. And even when there was music it was quite mediocre compared to the old Suikodens. Gameplay: Stupid magic nearly kills me all the time to the point that I avoided it. The battle system with its "buddy-assistance" leaves something to be desired as you could only work with 3 characters a round and left you open quite often to getting smacked around like a little bitch. Story: One of the heroes of the game "Flame Champion" (ie: Guy who ends up amounting to NOTHING) doesn't show up till you nearly complete the game and by then is replaced by someone else. I didn't care for having him pimped up to be something for this game (which is what was the MO for the guy) and nothing happens for him. Lack of Oldness: No Lightning Flik (my namesake) or Viktor hurt this game as well (Star Dragon Sword anyone?!). Hell, practically no one that I knew from the old game showed up (if they did, God help me if I could find them). That alone drove me up the wall. I mean, you've got many loose ends from the last two games that don't get resolved in this one that should've been at least ALLUDED TO. Maybe I just never found them. What was the point of the bringing in old data when it did practically nothing? When you compare it to most of the 16-bit RPGs that came before it, the translation isn't too bad. But the praise for it is so blind that many of its fans are the direct cause of many other people responding in kind with venomous hatred. Yup. Nice call there. That's pretty much why I'll never call it Top 3 of Final Fantasy Series. That's unfair to compare really. Because Final Fantasy VI had a good script because it had graphical limitations on it. To switch the two around might cause the same effect just reverse the problem. We'd probably get a really bad translation and script for Final Fantasy VI, but get an awesome one for Final Fantasy VII. That's why I never compare the games in such a fashion. Hell, one could make a case that if Final Fantasy IV got the upgrade it could be the best of the Final Fantasy series. BTW: My Top 3 In Order - IV, VI, IX. I know--but Damu isn't a guy I can easily picture saying something jokingly. Ah... I see. My bad.

Geezus Andrew, we were just making a joke about the last time you went on a rant. Lighten up. No baiting or anything, just having some fun. are absolutely full of it, and leave it at that. Agreed on this point. 100%. Xenogears is not the be end and end all for RPGs. Its a good RPG, but I've got quite a few that I would stick way before it. That's probably because La Pucelle actually came before Disgaea or Phantom Brave. ...hell, La Pucelle was like two or so years old when it was released in North America. I don't think many people would put FFV over FFIV or FFX. But you're right about FF7 and FF6. FF7, I've never understood why it was so popular, I couldn't stand it. FF6 is a good game, however imo the World of Ruin keeps it from being the best all around. Final Fantasy VII, when taken with knowing everything and excusing the horrid translation process is a fairly good game. Its considered one of the top 3 of the Final Fantasys simply because it brought the genre full blown mainstream. And yes, the World of Ruin is a pretty good reason why I could see people saying its not the best all-round. Uh... Guys, I said that would be what most RPGamers would say. That's not my top 3 Final Fantasys. As for some other games I could suggest to Damararu, I would suggest the following titles if you can find them: Grandia (PS), Grandia II (PS2), Baiten Kaitos (GC), Fire Emblem (GBA), Golden Sun (GBA), Golden Sun: The Lost Age (GBA), and Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis (GBA).

Actually Black Lushus, that's a good way of putting it. The backstabbing and reforming that goes on is a little nuts. ...okay, now let's drop this so that Andrew doesn't come along and write a 35 page essay on Xenogears. No offense Andrew, just wanting Damararu to be able to see what suggestions there are.

Pshh. It's still the best FF. And I had fun with FFX-2, that's more than I can say for the PS1 FFs at least. You can call it the best, if that's your opinion, but here's how most RPGamers would tell you: "Blasphemy. Final Fantasy X isn't the best of the 11 Final Fantasys released. Top 3 In No Order: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy V." Seriously though, as an all-round package, FFX isn't best. That would go to Final Fantasy VI. Damararu, Xenogears isn't for everyone. It is one of the better RPGs out there, however if you blink during something the story tells you, you'll miss a good chunk of something that if not known, you'll miss a part of the plot. And that can mess up how good this game can be, but on the flip side it can also annoy you to no end. Dragon Warrior VII is a good game. Not great as mentioned by the user above, but definitely a good game. It strives on the ol' school philosophy of trudging around and fighting a lot of battles (unless, you pick up how to "cheat" the system). There are going to be some periods where you don't even really get to the main plotline and you might be going "why am I doing this again?". Oh yeah, because this is of the ol' school, you'll actually need to talk to most people because they have relevent things to say (well, some do). If you are looking seriously into the turn based style, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness or La Pucelle or Phantom Brave might be the way to go. All revolve around the turn based strategy style. La Pucelle was originally the first of the three to be released in Japan so its actually not as good as Disgaea or Phantom Brave. Disgaea reigns in as undisputed goodness of the three, simply because its freaking hilarious. However, Phantom Brave has a more serious storyline (although it gets sickingly sweet sometimes). And since I'm a dipstick, you probably wouldn't like the Tales of... series because it is action paced. But if you want to play something different, its a good choice as the battle style is a refresh on the turn base, and you don't usually get tired of wasting baddies.

Ok, am I the only one who actually LIKES the new design? No, I'm not joking. Its actually a nicely designed belt. I wouldn't mind that being the new WWE title look.

The RPG master is only adding in his comments to what people have suggested already. I would definitely pick these up, as they are quality RPGs. Different, but quality nevertheless. Only get this one if you like more cinematics than actual substance. Its not that great, and FFX-2 is even worse. Suikoden III is probably the worst of the entire series and should burn in hell for being such a brutally designed (gameplay wise) game. Suikoden IV while isn't as great as the first two, will suffice in being a decent RPG if you want something to pass the time. Wait till you get to the explanation of why Fayt and Maria are the way they are. Everything crashes and burns badly. Basically this game kills off any point to the first two Star Ocean. Xenosaga: Episode 1 is like FFX, except more cinematics and even less to anything else. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne is a pretty good game. The difficulty though is a bit on the harsh side, and you need to make sure that you get the right spirits and stuff. Otherwise you screwed. From what I've heard about Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, its has all the positives and negatives game play wise as Nocturne. Find this for less than $40 used and you got a steal. Very good game. I highly recommend it, and actually the voice acting I think in it is probably near the top of games that have used VA. These are very good games to pick up. Definitely worth finding. Especially Suikoden 2 for the most glorious baddies there were in video games. Luca Blight and Jowy Blight. Classics that every RPGamer should own. I'll add some of my own gems later.

Tales Legendia was originally Project Mel-Fos, for those wondering on what this game was. I'm interested to know if this will be like Tales of Symphonia and have a connection to Tales of Phantasia or perhaps have a connetion to Tales of Eternia. Just for a background: ToE was known here as Tales of Destiny II, due to He-Man copyrights on the word Eternia. Hence because it was called Tales of Destiny II, we were denied the actual Tales of Destiny II. Anyways, I'm hoping this game lives up to what I expect of the Tales of... Series. Good graphics, awesome battles, great music, and of course the ever so wonderful aspect known as it being a game that is a complete package. And yes, Tales of Symphonia was an awesome game and I believe it deserved Best RPG of last year. It was the complete package and I don't consider there to be better (although Phantom Brave makes a good challenger). I still wish I had my Gamecube... I miss playing it. I think I played that game like 5 times through.

Oh, ok, I'll see if that works.

Hope this is the right place to put this... To be honest, I'm tired of trying to find a relatively inexpensive place to find anime to buy. Most places I go to ask for like $50 (Canadian) for a freaking 1 disc DVD that's apart of the whole series I want. And no, I don't have the money currently to buy anime, but I'm out in like 3 months from school and I would like good places to buy anime since I'll soon get a job and make money (and since I'm still living at home, LOTS OF MONEY ... well to me its lots more than I've ever had )! I haven't considered any online sites, because I can only use PayPal, but if you know of a good place to buy that'll accept PayPal then I'll do that. Any help would be appreciated.

Ok, I checked some of the last ones (think its the last 4 to 6) and they have both subs, but in a different fashion to get them, so I probably just don't know how to get the first ones then. I'll play around with it to find out. A cursory glance & knowledge of their past rep says pretty much everything. They're all boots, if you care. Some include the English dub, others not. Oh. Bootlegging I really don't care as I said. Long as I get my anime at a reasonable price, I'm a happy otaku. As for if it has English dubs or not, I don't mind not having them, but I at least like to hear the dubs just to be able to understand in my native language. I mean, I can speed read, but sometimes I don't want to do that, ya know?