Yuji Horii

Good Things Come in Small Packages

HIGH Finding a rare piece of equipment in one of the game's numerous optional dungeons.

LOW Grinding for hours on end so you can afford to buy new gear.

WTF Why is it so damn hard to unlock most of the advanced jobs? We're not masochists, Level-5...

We try our best to keep things positive, but Tim screws it up in the home stretch. The topic is "New RPG's We (Mostly) Love" and that means Dragon Quest IX, Etrian Odyssey III, Puzzle Quest 2, and DeathSpank. Guess which one we don't love! Plus we premiere a new segment: "Quote of the Week." With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "Spahnk" Spaeth.

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Topics discussed:

• 1 vs. 100
• Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
• Etrian Odyssey III
• Puzzle Quest 2
• DeathSpank

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

Where Dragon Quest VIII truly distinguishes itself from other RPGs is in the size and scope of its world. Beautiful and lush landscapes stretch for miles in every direction, and walking between towns feels like an adventure unto itself, with fields, mountains, deserts, and oceans.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Simulated Gambling, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes

Game Description: Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King is the latest installment of the immensely popular Dragon Quest series and the first to be released for the PlayStation2 computer entertainment system. For the first time ever, the colorful characters, exotic environments, and daunting dungeons of the Dragon Quest universe have made the transition to glorious 3D. In their continent-spanning adventure, players will be immersed in a unique world of seemingly limitless possibilities.

We've all lost people we love. I'm not referring to the spectacular cataclysms of Hollywood fare, but to the more typical losses caused by errors of the heart—mistakes that we were too vain to foresee and too proud to atone. If you could revisit that moment of your past, try to win back that person's trust, would you go?

Videogames have come under heavy criticism in recent years for conventions they refuse to retire, conventions that, the argument goes, are rendered absurd by the graphical realism and sophisticated 3D environments that have become commonplace. The RPG genre in particular has been the target of much of this criticism, but the reason is fairly complicated.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mild Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes

Game Description:  An fantasy adventure game of epic proportions, Dragon Warrior VII follows the adventures of the hero, his mischievous friend Prince Kiefer, and the feisty Maribel. The trio learns that the peace and tranquility of their island home is soon to be disrupted. Solving time-traveling puzzles transports them back in time, where they discover lost continents. Once in the past, they must solve the mysteries of the continents in order to save the future. If they accomplish this task, the world will be complete; if they fail, the lost lands and their inhabitants will be forever doomed.

R-P-G. In the world of video games, not only do these three letters stand for role-playing game, but its mere mention also evokes more loyalty, passion and debate than perhaps any other genre. Though I write that last sentence as if it were common knowledge, I ponder what made RPGs so endearing to me and millions of gamers around the world to begin with.