He sounded mightily eager to be interviewed in last week’s comments, and so here is Shakugan. Say hi!
[drop2]Alright, we have the regular trio of questions to start with: Who are you, how old are you and where do you come from?
Hi TSA. I’m from Finland, I’m 19 years old and my name is Phat Nguyen, doods.
Ah, another one of our Finnish readers. There’s a few of you about. What’s the weather like?
Cold, but it’s starting to warm up.
Do you still have snow?
Yes, and it actually just started snowing again… now.
Haha! It’s really just started snowing again?
You nailed it.
That’s awesome. I prefer snow, but we’ve got stupid, hot sunshine today in England.
You’ve got some interesting usernames for both TSA and PSN, sounding more Japanese than Finnish. How did you come up with them?
Well my username came from an anime called Shakugan no Shana, which I’m a BIG BIG BIG BIG fan of. Seriously I even have figures, posters etc.
I’m just looking it up now, and I see that it started off as a novel, and then jumped to manga and anime. Can you read Japanese, then?
I’m still learning basic Japanese, but yeah it started as a novel, then moved onto a manga and an anime. Ever thought why my name is not a Finnish one?
I come into these things often not really knowing where someone is from, so I did wonder when you said you were Finnish why you had something completely different as your ID.
I’m from Vietnam really, so that’s where my name comes from, but I was born in Finland. I have Japanese-like ID ‘cuz I like anime.
You’ve got a big mix of different cultures in you, then, and it sounds like you speak loads of different languages too. That’s all very cool.
Yes, I speak Japanese a little, Vietnamese, Finnish and Swedish (I only know a few words, so does it count?). I’ve been studying alot just to travel around the world, but i’ve never been to my homeland… yet…
A trip round the world sounds great, and with a few languages under your belt (you forgot to say English!), you’ll be pretty well set.
Ah crap! How did I forgot the most wonderful, awesome, groundbreaking, powerful, beautiful, awesome language English?
English isn’t that great. It’s basically all just stolen pieces from other countries. Anyway, I’m sure Steven’s getting a bit restless, because we’ve not even mentioned video games yet! How did you first get into gaming?
I got into gaming when my dad bought to me a SNES and Game Boy Color at the same time. I mostly spent my time on the Game Boy, playing Pokémon Yellow for 8 hours straight, until the batteries died. On the SNES I played Final Fight 2, Megaman X2 (My favourite), Super Mario World and Chrono Trigger.
Some absolute classic games in there. How long did you stick with those two consoles?
My memory is crap, but I would say about 2-4 years, maybe? I still own them and I will never ever sell them… Well, maybe if someone offered $10k on eBay…
Everyone has their price. Did you stick with Nintendo and move on to the N64 or Gamecube? When did you broaden beyond Nintendo to Sony and/or Microsoft consoles?
I moved onto PS1, where I had about 70+ games, then I got a PS2 with 100+ games and a Nintendo DS with 15 games. After that I had a PSP with 20+ games.
Then I got  Xbox 360, which I sold after I beat the 2 games I had, and now I’m sticking with my PS3 and PC.
Wow. That’s a huge number of games! You’ve played them all?
You jealous? Actually yes, but  50% of them I’ve never actually finished.
Not really jealous, I know I’d never get round to playing them all, let alone finishing half of them.
Damn… I tried to get you mad, but you’ve got good resistance against getting pissed off.
I’m pretty easy going. What was it about the Xbox 360 that meant that you sold it so quickly?
Well, I was very noobish at it, because it was my first next gen console. I really disliked the Xbox 360 games, Live fees and ads too. The games didn’t feel familiar, like on PS1 and PS2. So I sold it to get a PS3.
The 360 is quite a different beast to the PS3, definitely. Since you’ve had so many consoles, I imagine it might be near impossible to pick just one, so what are your three favourite games?
My current gen favourite games are Tales of Graces f, FF XIII-2, Vanquish and NIER.
My favourite game of all time is Suikoden 2. I still play it all the time, and I’m currently on my 8th play through.
It sounds like you really like your RPGs. Would you say that’s your favourite genre?
You guessed it right.
It was an educated guess.
uncleniccius
Good interview; Nice to ‘meet’ you. Out of interest; how do you do the interview? Is it Skype spoken, skype messenger? Or something else?
Taylor Made
I always wondered that too, how they do the interview..
Origami Killer
oh its on Skype, via text :)
teflon
What OK said. :)
yogdog
I did a voice chat for mine with Bunimomike, and tef transcribed it :)
Origami Killer
Funny interview! Loving the bit about the chicken and food near the end.
Shakugan
Glad you like it! :D
Foxhound_Solid
Are the Snes…. good times and one of my psn buddies. Japanese are well eh, noticed that on your comments on psn. Great read ^_^
yogdog
Long time no see dude! Hope you’re well, been a while since we last talked on PSN :)
Shakugan
Yeah it’s been a long time!
TSBonyman
With a tasty dish like orange chicken waiting on the dinner table i can understand your wanting to get the interview over with, lol. Nice to meet you Shakugan.
Shakugan
Nice to meet you too dood! :D
Deathbrin
I’ve been wondering why you weren’t on the TSA’s fastest platinum thread :)
aerobes
Good stuff, a really interesting read and it’s great to learn a little about you. I like the types of games you like too (more please!), have you played Eternal Sonata (no trophies) or the Atelier games? I’m sure you’ve played Disgaea. :)
Shakugan
I have Atelier Rorona, Eternal Sonata, Disgaea 1&2 and i’m planning to get
Disgaea 4 plus Atelier Meruru
aerobes
I thought you might have them all though I wasn’t aware of Atelier Meruru so thank you for that. :)
McProley
Great read and nice to meet you! Can you send me some Orange Chicken please? or at least the recipe. Sounds fantastic!
skibadee
good interview guys :)