The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Final Fantasy 12 sees nearly 1 year delay. Its Japanese release date is now the middle of 2005, which means we probably won't get it until Christmas 2005 at the earliest.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Oh well.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>All Square needs to do is finish Kingdom Hearts 2 and then they can die in mediocrity and pass the torch to someone else</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>Like? There are really no RPG powerhouses around besides Square-ENIX.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>That's the point. This industry needs new blood because the powerhouses can't make anything creative.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>The problem is that companies like Konami and Capcom aren't doing anything about creativity. That being said, FF12 is being made by the same FFT team, who have produced some of the most creative games Square has seen, so I'm hopeful for it. The delay makes it doubly so.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Look beyond the PS2. Bioware has proven themselves with Neverwinter Nights and KotOR, and their upcoming Jade Empire looks to be very innovative. The long-awaited Fable is coming this summer as well (hopefully).</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>Neverwinter Nights was disappointing to a lot of D&D fans. The XBox port of KotOR was horrible. None of their games really play RPGish, anyway.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>People don't buy creative (see Viewtiful Joe and Beyond Good and Evil), they buy drudge. The industry is going through it's peak of mass market, which means substance isn't a priority to most. In 10 years or so it'll be like the movie industry now, a move towards indie, better quality stuff.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>As I remember, VJ sold pretty well. Everybody was waiting for it.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>NOt really, it was a disappointment both here and Japan. Here it did a little better, but still far below expectations. That's why they've moved the series to PS2, hoping to get it more exposure</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Knights of the Old Republic:

<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/ ... 20Republic

Neverwinter Nights:

<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/ ... >%20Nights

Outdid Square Enix as well:

<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/ ... %20Fantasy
<a href="http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/ ... %20Fantasy


But I don't know any "D&D" fans so I can't speak on them; I haven't met any online either, so I don't even think they are all that common.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>There's Namco</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah, it was a big critical success, but not a huge commercial success</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Hmm, I liked KotOR for Xbox. I never had a single buggy experience, other than long load times.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>Horrible? Did you play it? Best Star Wars game ever made, not to mention one of the best games released last year. Play it!</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>They don't play like console RPGs, no, but there's more than console RPGs.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox/ga ... tml">KotOR: XBox</a>

Click on the Bug FAQ.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>I found plenty of bugs (mind you, I went looking for some). It didn't detract from the gameplay at all... Sine!</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Hey, I died at least a couple of times because of those bugs.</div>