Gabe's had this royal air, this cocksure swagger since that Square/Nintendo info got out - obviously, that's not something we could pass up as strip fodder. No-one is quite sure what all this means, yet - and while theories abound, in the short run I'm enjoying the mystery. The latest Double Agent (The GIA's essential letters column) was flush with prognostication, and I must say, I've done a fair bit of imagineering myself. An important thing to note about Square's dalliance with Nintendo is that the original project they bring to the system must exploit the connectivity between the Cube and the GBA. When I think of what such a union might mean in an RPG context, I nearly black out.
So, let's invite grievous, fall-related head injury: What kinds of shit could one pull with such a setup?
The most basic thing you could do would be to put a prequel out first on the GBA, and imbue the actions/experience/equipment and relationships with ramifications for the eventual GameCube version. Carrying a character through a series of games used to be commonplace on the PC - I need but invoke the legendary "Gold Box" or "Quest For Glory" series, and a generation of gamers will nod their head in silent agreement that we've taken a step back of late. The concept, though - fairly simplistic. Still satisfying.
Like the Dreamcast's VMU, the GBA could be used to depict information during play. It could behave as though it were some device in game, something the player owns perhaps, and in this role could serve any number of functions. Unlike a VMU, the GameBoy Advance could take a much more active role, being (as it is) a highly specialized controller. It could take center stage in a variety of mini-games, or might allow a friend to interact with the larger game in ways parallel to your own: getting information on enemies, controlling inventory management, plotting waypoints, etc. Those are only the most rudimentary possibilities, and already I'm starting to feel woozy.
Let's get all the way live. You take your GBA to a friend's house, and teach his characters special techniques your own party has discovered, swap unique party members, or enact trades of goods. On the GameBoy Advance, you can play the character's dream selves when saving at an Inn. The GBA can "translate" the languages spoken by the strange denizens you encounter. You don't even have to come up with these ideas. The ideas come up with themselves.
The relationship between Nintendo's flagship products is something that I think is unique, something that could potentially shake off the kitsch curse I might have expected from a pairing like this. It could give the term "Next-Generation" something to actually describe.
Strider Kojiro sent this in when I was writing mein newsposten:
"Okay, what the hell's going on here..? Gamesages was once the best site in the whole universe to find codes and stuff for games, and now it's a pay site. Is there anywhere else I can go to get my fix..? Also, are they going to turn into another bitch ass pay site just when I need them the most..? I swear to fucking GOD I just got codes from there like 3 days ago..."
I'm the last person to piss a guy because he provides a service and wants payment in return - but when the service consists of raw data, um, we're sort of connected to a global network. Click and be soothed, ye code hungry masses. I'm shocked that anyone was unaware of GameFaqs - without them to get me through the stupid parts of otherwise great games, I'd need another hobby altogether.
The new update script is now in full effect, and this fills me with delight - let me thank with all my might Ramius, who toiled to produce the product you see before you. It might seem largely cosmetic, and there is certainly a cosmetic element, but it has two important differences. One, it stores all the posts for a given strip, not just the newspost - our previous Newspro setup wouldn't do that. The second thing it does is tell you how late I stay up writing these posts. That's sort of embarrassing, but it probably explains a lot. In my defense, I've never really gotten the hang of sleep.
(CW)TB out.
listen here, young lady
