clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

BCB Mailbag #4: We're a video game site now

Hey everyone welcome to our fourth mailbag where we answer the world's, nay, the universes most important questions. If you have one you'd like answered leave it in the comment section!

By Derek Harvey
Tom Hauck/Getty Images

Drezdn asks two vitally important questions: 1) How can I give my Pokemon better names? 2) What's a good party make-up?

Unfortunately I don't have a very good answer for this. I have played "Pokemon" but not since the original Red/Blue versions. I found it an immensely enjoyable game but I just never picked up the sequels. As for naming you Pokemon I'm not sure. I did find this somewhat humorous article displaying funny names people chose for theirs as a substitute. As for choosing your party I just recommend playing with the ones you enjoy the most. You can always find the right combination to face a certain gym as I believe they all have their own unique themes but in general the point is to have fun. So just go with whatever is the most fun to you.

JP asks another essential gaming question: I want to see what Derek's rankings of the Final Fantasy games are (main numbered titles only, otherwise it gets too weird).

I have to be honest: The first "Final Fantasy" game I ever played was VII. I remember seeing commercials for it on television. It blew my mind that such graphics could exist in a video game. Up to this point I had only ever seen a game on my NES, SNES, or Sega Genesis. In fact, I remember the first time I came across an advertisement for the Sony Playstation. I had no idea what it was. I saw the word "playstation" and thought it was one of those uber rigs with a gaming chair and speakers in a combo package. Sometimes you'd see stuff like in gaming magazines. So I thought it was literally a gaming station. Yes I was a dumb 9 year old.

Anyway, back to the question. I think my top FF would probably be VII for the nostalgia factor. I got it for Christmas and played the bejeezus out of it. Seriously, there are few games I've spent more time with in my life. I remember hearing a rumor that if you leveled up all your characters to lvl 99 before a certain point in the game then you could save Aeris. This was before the internet was ubiquitous. I spent a week the following summer leveling up everyone to 99 when the normal level for that part of the game was probably around 20. She still died.

Then I'd go with VI followed by IX and then IV. I thought XII was okay. I actually didn't care for VIII, X, and XIII. Sorry. Actually my favorite Square/Squaresoft/Square Enix RPGs aren't FF games: Secret of Mana, Legend of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, Super Mario RPG.

P.S. I have to mention FF Tactics. I love that game. I'm a big fan of that style of RPG. Also love the Disgaea series. I saw a reference to the Dragon Warrior games as "Grind: The Game." Maybe that was a reference to just the first. I never played those games sadly. But Disgaea is definitely "Grind: The Game." It's actually a prominent feature of the game. You can actually level your character to 9999. And you can "reincarnate" your character which returns it to Lvl 1 but with a stat boost. Doing this several times is required to beat the strongest (additional) boss in the game. You can also level up your items which is required. You do that by "entering" the item and clearing maps of enemies. Each item has 100 levels. It gets way more indepth but I should probably walk away.

AKBrewerfan asks a non video game related question for some reason: If/when I choose an MLS team, which one should it be? Or, if you'd prefer, what should be my favorite NHL team when "whoever Scotty Gomez is currently playing for" is no longer an option?

I'm actually totally ignorant of MLS I'm sorry to say. It's something I should remedy because every time I watch a soccer game I find it a lot of fun. Maybe someone in the comments today can give us some recommendations?

I've also only seen about 10 non-Admirals hockey games in my life. I actually don't ever remember seeing anything about hockey growing up aside from "The Might Ducks" movie and my GameBoy copy of "NHL '95." I have a friend who is a big fan of the Kings so I've watched games with him, especially if/when they make the playoffs.

Drezdn attempts to create a paradox: You have a time machine. After you eliminate baby Hitler... You can stop one trade in the history of the Brewers. Which trade do you put the kibosh on?

Burke Badenhop for Luis Ortega

And from Twitter:

Well they recently just hired Derek Johnson to be their pitching coach. I'm impressed with his resume so I'm encouraged by the hiring. I suppose they could hire an assistant pitching coach but I assume Maddux will want a larger role and he can probably find that elsewhere. But I'm just guessing.

This is an interesting twist on the "when will they be competitive again" question. Because I think there is a very strong likelihood that the Brewers will become competitive before they become better than the Cubs. The Cubs are going to be good for a long time and I bet they're going to be better on paper than they were this year for a long time.I think the Brewers will be at their strongest starting around 2018--though I think there is a chance they could make some noise in 2017. But they might not be full strength until 2019. It's around then I believe they can start competing with the Cubs and other upper echelon teams. Or at least if they're ever going to be at that point in the near future that's when I think it will be.

No but olive.

_____

That's it for today boils and ghouls ahahahahahha! Have a happy Halloween! By the way, what's everyone dressing up as? And as always if you have a question you want answered leave it in the comment section. You can also hit us up on Twitter @BrewCrewBall and on Facebook.

More From Brew Crew Ball