Allan,

Can this be happening?! People turning on Yoshitaka Amano?!! I have to say, these people must be stopped! Ignorance is killing them! Without knowing and seeing his works, how do they have a right to judge him?!! He's done more than just character designs and video games. Let's look at Animation. Any one hear of a little anime/ novel series known as Vampire Hunter D?!! How about Angel's Egg. G-Force anyone?! This man is brilliant! But he doesn't stop that, not at all! I have a book of his art which I got when his Manhatten Gallery first opened, infact I covered it for Square.net. Seeing all he has done, much more than just games, it was incredible -- beyond words.

But that's just me. Perhaps others have a different opinion. I remind you that while he has been doing some art for FFVIII and others, he is also doing other things as well. Upon arriving here, he began working on two new animations, plus 1001 Nights, the Filmharmonic. He also has done several paintings based on New York. Has anyone seen his New York Nights paintings? I'm going on and on here, back to the point.

I have noticed similarities between characters like Kaien(Cyan) and Rimiuzan, although I've not seen the in-game works of Kartia. One reason one may mistake his characters to be similar is that Amano does almost all of his work with a feminine feel. Basically, most of his characters, both in Video games, and in his other works look somewhat female.

Finally, reguarding the quality of the artwork Amano has done, I remind everyone that there is a reason that they are called character sketches. Oh, and I agree that improving the translation style would be nice. Aside from Xenogears, it has been hard to find a Square game recentally that has been very memorable. FF VII certainly hasn't, at least not on the same level as Xenogears and FF VI.

-Ben Helmer

Every single compliment you gave Amano's work couldn't be more true! Everything about it is a bit of the fantastic, and it contains a level of detail that is my eternal envy (I've wanted to draw like him for a long time). Furthermore, everything is so exotic, especially the clothing that his characters wear. Who can forget Terra's paisley tights or Locke's snazzy bandanna? His artwork is surreal, reminding more imaginitive people of living in a dream world. All his characters look supernatural, but at the same time, they retain an incredible amount of humanity, such that they almost have souls of their own. To see his pictures is to hear the symphony of life, I say. He has successfully blended manga style, impressionism, surrealism, and a whole slew of other relevant genres. The man is a genius!

And let's not forget G-Force! The classic anime series with guys in bird helmets! Who could forget that?

-Chemical Demigod

Dear double agent

?!?!?!? AMANO SUCKS?!?!?! Some people have something called imagination, amano is one of these folks. Tetsuya has a nice style but it looks just like anyone elses (although it is better than MK) Tifa and Rinoa are practically the same person with the same personality description! I still think Sephiroth was the peak of his designs (AWESOME) but still never came near to the zaniness created by Golbez and the undisputed king of crazy kefka (he was crazy and got crazier, little depth there but so what?). And what about Cid? Look at what Tetsuyas done to him! he's a bigger dork than FF6! Tetsuyas art is ok but not very original.

Signed Me

I often see people complain about translations in video games, and the problem lies, often, not with the translator, but the English language. Why you ask? Because conversational English often defys all logical grammer, and can be quite repetative. In order to emphasize certain things we repeat them. "I can't do it... I JUST CAN'T DO IT...." and the like. In Japanese conversation, such repition is not really necessary. Now a translator reads a text in Japanese and translates it word for word. What you end with would be rather humdrum at best. So the translator does his best to "jazz it up" and the script usually goes through the hands of a natural English speaker. Unfortunatly, it is often true that niether the translator's nor the natural English speaker are very talented writers, so the dialogue often comes out seeming very unrealistic... and the translators attempts at conversational English often end up with several completly unneccesisary (sp?) grammatical errors. What needs to be done?? Get writers of real value in translating posistions?? Why won't this be done? A truly talented writer would probably not want to work as a translator. Agree, or disagree or what not... just supplying my two cents....

-Will

Allan, you have the best taste in videogames...EVER! Super Dodgeball is still one of my favorite games too. I also liked Super Spike V-Ball, a very Super Dodgeball-like volleyball game.

-Brud

Since the success of FF7 a lot of RPGs have copied the enviroment of this game. We are seeing a trend to locate the games in a half-futuristic, half-fantasy/medieval worlds(Thousand Arms,Shadow Madness,Lufia III,(Xenogears,not so obvious),Star Ocean and so on. I am not saying that we have to stick to the tipical medieval worlds, but I fear that developers are more concerned about the quality of the graphics than trying to develop original designs. About other things, I disagree with hte opinion of Andrew Kauffmann: I think DQ7 will be released in the US, If a game not so charismatic(Star Ocean) is going to be released, why not the flagship of Enix? I would like to say that suikoden has got the best written and developed story, whta makes the game much shorter.

AndrÚs Macâas

Ok, lets get this started:

First off, it's nice to see all you guys back up on the net after the staff turnover at RPGamer (I still have no idea what all that's about), congratualations for patching things up with Emma (as is my understanding, since the last I heard you were on the verge of breaking up, and, as stated before, I'm pretty much out of the loop). It's also wonderful to here letters with actual adult content (re: communism jokes (I go to a very socialist school as a matter of fact (UVic (the last issue of the campus newspaper had no ads to support International Buy Nothing Day and on it's back hada very communist poster which actually said, "Buy nothing and stop the bloody cogs of capitalism))(are all of these brackets getting annoying yet? I'm having trouble keeping track of them myself)), cocaine jokes, other things that tend to be censored), and well worded and occasionally witty responses.

Anyway, to the questions:

Did you like Earthbound? I know that it's a very acquired taste, and the graphics look like they were for the Nintendo, but the translation is incredible, the plot is good, and the game itself is huge.

What was the Promised Land in Final Fantasy VII? It seemed that after a point in the game that people stopped mentioning it. Was it supposed to be returning to the Lifestream after death?

I've been looking back at Final Fantasy VI, and that game is incredible. It lead the way for the reading-between-the-lines of FF7, had a great plot, characters that were distinct in game play (whereas in FF7 the only differences were in the Limit moves), and was all-in-all a master piece. Just to make this a question, do you agree?

Yours Truly, Thaeus

Word on the street is... happy Thanksgiving!