Thanks! OCD helps; I do all of the things, because I have to, and one of my greatest fixations is lists, and this has almost everything completely listed out, which also helped a great deal. That and it was just fun throwing in an address and going on an adventure, however short, and if I could find a new monster or item or whatever down there, all the better. The plot bits are linear and all, but the Stargate Chaos Gate offered an unusually high level of freedom for a JRPG; it's not exactly SaGa Frontier, but still more than you usually get.

I'm weird, but I have a strange obsession with interfaces; it was one of the things that I really loved about the Wii when I first fired one up. It's a perfectly valid criticism that there's a bit too much "I better log out and check my e-mail," when there's a perfectly good quick mail system, but I really liked it, and the default settings were lovely, because of how strange and mysterious they made it all seem; it was great for reading all those bizarre news stories and forum posts right at the beginning. There was SO DAMN MUCH READING at the beginning, but being as old as I am, I understand the value of this supplemental stuff for the sake of immersion; Fallout's instruction manual did a great job of letting me know, "Hey, this is going to be an unforgettable experience," and all it really did was explain what happens when a nuke goes off, with all the most horrifying minutia. Once I just forced myself to sit down and read it all - I'm more of a writer than a reader, personally - I knew that this was going to be something special, too, and it was. It was even neat finally meeting some of these people. Hey! It's AppleStar! AND BUTT-RICE!!! He used the wrong omega, by the bye; he used lower-case, whereas the ohm is represented by the upper-case. .hack did a lot of things that I've never really seen done anywhere else; it was a very unique experience that I'd recommend to many types of players. It's a shame that more people don't talk about it, especially given how damn many games there are for it; you'd think it'd be more popular than it is.

I mean, Gabi is Gabi. He's just so over-the-top cornball, and the voice actor completely nails it; I'd have a hard time believing that there's anyone who doesn't love Gabi. Even tsuper tsundere Bordeaux openly loves him.

No, that makes perfect sense to me, and I guess I didn't really miss anything if there isn't a canonical explanation of what actually happened with them. The most important part of the question was answered: there aren't actual people behind them. Granted, I didn't ask that, but I hadn't considered that as a possibility; with everything that happened with AIDA and all, I'd just assumed that something had warped them into the twisted figures I got to know. Well, "know", but you know what I mean. With Aura being the AI that transcended systems, it would make sense that she could bring other stuff with her, whether or not she was aware of it.

And hey: don't sweat it; I've been known to make 3-post responses out of almost nothing, so it's no big deal to me when others do the same. This is especially true when you're gushing about something that you love; it makes for an absolutely worthless game review, but in a personal conversation like this, it's a wonderful thing to have, because you get to discuss obscure little details that nobody ever mentions, like that dark rainbow room at the end of the ice cavern in Ocarina of Time.

Oh, and I did eventually fully embrace those anime tropes, which I don't usually do, but will, if I'm really into it; Keijo got me to do that, too. I started having a lot more fun once I decided to lean into the absurdity of it all, and that plays a big part in why Endrance became one of my favorite characters. I mean, Pi is basically Rose from Legend of Dragoon, so she was always going to be my favorite, but Endrance was still the one I took to the altar. I did eventually watch all of the different wedding and "best wishes" sequences, but Endrance's was still my favorite. And that was another thing that I really liked about it: the game was SO comfortable with gay characters; none of them other than Endrance and Hiiragi were super pronounced, and you'd probably miss it, if you weren't paying attention. The way that Hiiragi was handled made me cringe a few times, but it wasn't as bad as the second Raidou Kuzunoha game.

So, I've finished the .hack collection, and it was a blast. I really wound up getting into it, more than I'd thought that I would. By the end, I was genuinely attached to even some of the random palette swap PCs that run around. Watched all the videos that came with the collection, got everyone's affection maxed out, watched all the wedding scenes; everything. My favorite was still Pi, but Endrance became a very close second; he's ridiculous, and always made me smile; Liam O'Brien is a national treasure.

There's still one thing that bothers me, because they never answered it: how did the Azure Knights come to be? I watched the things, and I know about Kite, Balmung, and Orca, but it never really explained how they turned into a trio of ultra-powerful, shark-toothed demigods.

Oh, now you got the old wind bag going...

Well, it's like this: [Link] Similarly, my favorite character from Phantasy Star 4 was Alys. I've got strong maternal instincts, and I often try to be that soft, caring mother figure, but I grew up in that little backwater village where every cookie-cutter JRPG starts out; sometimes, my country roots start showing, and my motherly instincts are to brandish a rolling pin with a matronly bellow to scare the kids off from spoiling their dinner. Another character that I really want to like is Hiiragi, but I'm on the fence about her; I love well-written trans characters, but there's a very blurry line between being sassy and flying that freak flag fly (Earth Angel's mama-san from the Yakuza series) and just being a living punchline (basically all of the Magypsies from Mother 3), and I DO NOT appreciate the latter. I have a lot of friends in the community; they have enough to deal with on their own without the judgement and mockery of others. I just hope she gets more screen time, so she gets more development, but I feel like that's not going to happen.

So, this guy is found in a back alley with 53 bicycles and a bullet in his head; why? Because Bicycle is a brand of playing cards, which come 52 in a deck; he was cheating. It's just a stupid joke, but of course, I took this as an opportunity to consider how the language allows riddles like this to even exist, and how amazing it is, because the language wasn't designed that way; it's all by coincidence, as far as we know. Of course, Ancient Hebrew is rooted in math; the letters of their words for mother and father, when added together mathematically, make the letters for the word for child. Chinese, I'm told, has other such things in its alphabet; I used to work with a pharmacist from Hong Kong, and she told me that the character for "trouble" looked like two of the character for "woman" standing together. And of course, that in and of itself has a lot to unpack. It never ends. But this is what my idle mind spends time digesting.

It is a neat moment when you've been part of a community like that and can step back to admire the time you've spent together; the adventures you've had. I'm not sure that I've ever been part of such a thing directly, because I've never been big on joining groups/movements/what have you, but I somehow feel like I've experienced this idea in a more general way. Could even be the remnants of some past life I've got rattling around upstairs, assuming that you'd entertain the idea; like you say: individuality and unique experiences and all that.

That and another neat philosophy was when Atoli was talking about admiring the beautiful scenery and appreciating the details of the environments. Her character is obnoxious, but I've had this philosophy about game worlds for a very long time. Hell, I maintained a weekly feature at my old website for years that was written almost like a living travel brochure for video game worlds. There are definitely a few intellectual jewels in this cavern.

My OCD-addled brain needs some kind of thing to tell me when to stop. I'm a lot better at it, now that I've gotten into a few WRPGs, but even they have some kind of goal; some kind of end. MMOs are more like a snack, except that snack is the one doing the eating, and the eucalyptus to its koala is your time. They seem to me kind of a living contradiction; they exist as a thing to jump into when you just want to go on an adventure with no strings attached, but on the other hand, if you don't do that often enough, you're underleveled, and can't keep up with the world around you. They're meant to be a casual affair, but also to have you make friends and get hooked on adventuring together to turn that little fling into a full relationship.

Oh, is THAT what that thing is? I'd heard things about a "Terminal Disc" and whisperings that it was about the story so far, but that was before I knew about there being an entire series that happened before the ones I'm playing - forgive my geriatric ass; I can't keep all the letters straight, because I'm new to it, and I've always been terrible at abbreviations - but I'll be sure to check that out once I've made my way through it all. I'm going to need some kind of closure after what may be over 200 hours of gameplay... But yes: YouTube is my friend; I almost always check that out before picking up something that I'm not sure about. That and going to GameFAQs and reading the lowest-rated reader review. The big boys are useless, and you're always more descriptive when you're bashing something - 10/10 reviews are just filled with worthless fanboy gushing about nothing and empty phrases, like "What can I say about this game that hasn't already been said?" - so I read their gripes and ask myself if those kinds of things would piss me off.

As I'm getting further, a lot of it is starting to unravel in one of two ways:
1) This thing that happened is explained more-or-less by other things going on, and it's clear that they're holding back details for the ending.
2) That part was just the Dimension of Swirling Lights, and I'm not supposed to be thinking that hard about it.
That and it was utilizing that writing tactic that all TV show writers use, where the season ends on a cliffhanger, either because they have no faith that the viewer will return otherwise, or because that's what everyone else is doing. Being a writer is both a gift and a curse.

I'm usually awake at Godforsaken o'clock, depending on your definition, but yeah, I can imagine that'd be something to experience. Luckily, I'm usually the one screaming or babbling incoherently, and we live out in the country, so we don't have much in the way of neighbors; that's best for everyone.

It took me 3 tries to get past the first hour or so of Golden Sun, and in truth, the first game gets to be about decent by the end, but the direct sequel is more than worth the hassle of getting that far. I've heard nothing good about the third game on the DS, which I have, but haven't played yet. I'm a total whore for a good class system, though, and since it has the same class system as the previous 2 games, I'm sure I'll enjoy it, regardless.

Oh, it's a dead end, alright...

I wouldn't know; the only online RPG I've ever played didn't have you running into other players, because it was just a Java applet thing. I didn't pay much attention to that Everquest thing, and World of Warcraft always just seemed like another job, except with the pay arrangement reversed. Anyway, it shouldn't surprise you that an old battleaxe like me like Pi and Antares best so far.

I honestly don't know much about it; I heard bits and pieces about it, and when Lady Pelvic mentioned it on her channel, I took a moderate interest. Wound up winning what I thought was the entire series, but apparently, there's another series that takes place before it and maybe has some characters that I was supposed to get to know before starting these? One of the trading cards or box arts or something I saw had a picture of Kite looking like a happy little kid, instead of some shark-toothed One Piece fan character. There are some things going on that I don't fully understand, and I can't tell if that's because of the writing or because I missed something.

But I am having fun with it. I'm not that big into anime, and I'm both a cynic and a writer, so I have to rag on the incessant anime tropes, but you know what else has bad writing? Even worse writing? Golden Sun. And Golden Sun is probably last JRPG I've enjoyed this much, so despite what the JRPG crowd will tell you, the writing isn't everything, and isn't even always important. I can lean into how ridiculous this is getting, and the fact that it takes itself as serious as it does is just more laughs. Some of that voice acting, too; most of it is good, but then you have characters like Atoli, who sounds like Mayor Quimby's girlfriend, and Alkaid, who sounds a little girl making fun of how a little boy talks. And then, you have Haseo going from belly shirt made of belt buckles to more sensible, but with a big caboose ribbon to really cool, but the demon spine neck scarf is a little overdoing it. It's batshit absurd, but it's one hell of a ride, and I can appreciate it even just for that. I'm totally fine with it being button-mashy, so long as it's competent; most action-based RPG battle systems can't handle that. Besides, I have OCD; ritualistically going into dungeon after dungeon to complete the same tasks to fill out lists and max out bars falls WELL within my wheelhouse.

That doesn't sound absurd to me at all; you never know what's going to kick you in the brain and make you realize something that you'd never have considered before. I've philosophized over the one about the guy and the 53 bicycles, even though it's just a dumb joke of a riddle.

And don't worry about rambling; I'm always rambling and musing about whatever, sometimes even in the middle of a sentence. That and if you're helping to put something into context, I definitely get that; there are a lot of games out there that are less enjoyable if you don't know THAT ONE THING about them, and enjoying games is, after all, why we're playing them. You know, there's a line between passionate and obsessed, and only one thing holds true about it: no two people draw it in the same place about any one thing. If you like something, then like it; be a fan, just not a fanboy/girl, and where I draw that line is whether or not you can accept fault in the thing that you love.

OLD!? I've been a hardcore Mega Man fan since before the third game came out; you wanna talk about old! I was alive during the Wood Age and everything! But things like that don't make me feel old; the only thing that kinda makes me feel old is having maternal instincts toward people in their thirties.

"Huh. There's a message from Alice... Meet me at Omega Burning Psycho Mother, eh? Sounds like a trap..." *You've learned a new bookmark!*

Can say, if you're on any True End route, you'll be seeing the most epic computer boot-up sequence ever courtesy of the Song.

Ar tonelico Qoga has an excellent story and wraps up the entire trilogy quite nicely.