RPG Ranks: Up to 190

You know I nearly forgot that I had to do one of these considering both how long it's been since I did one and the fact that The Magic of Scheherazade, the last game I played, was so short and I almost forgot I did it as my 190th RPG. Anyways, let's go ahead and do another one of these rankings, including the rest of the ones from beforehand.

190. Deep Dungeon 3 (#114)
189. Golvellius: Valley of Doom (#21)
188. Hydlide: (#53)
187. Deep Dungeon (#112)
186. Startropics (#12)
185. The Guardian Legend (#15)
184. Deep Dungeon 2 (#113)
183. Minelvaton Saga: Ragon no Fukkatsu (#118)
182. Shining Wisdom (#52)
181. Popful Mail (#103)
180. Deep Dungeon 4 (#124)
179. Ys. (#96)
178. Secret of the Stars (#107)
177. Dragon Quest (#76)
176. Dual Orb II (#86)
175. Ys. III (#123)
174. Ys II (#102)
173. Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna (#144)
172. Majin Eiyuuden Wataru Gaiden (#19)
171. Dragon Quest II (#79)

170. Lagoon (#184)

This action RPG's ranking here is here because of how short your sword is. Yeah, seriously. Your sword is SHORT. It certainly has that early Ys. feel to it, but many criticize Lagoon for basically not doing what Ys. did. At least it tried, had a decent-enough story to go by as well as regenerating health. I ended up figuring out enemy patterns and timing the sword fairly well to get some enemies defeated, but this is another action RPG where it looks like magic reigns more supreme in how to hit things, at least until you run out.

169. Crusader of Centy (#8)
168. Orphen: Scion of Sorcery (#131) 

167. Magic Knight Rayearth (#48)
166. Digimon World 4 (#174)

165. Alundra 2 (#188)

Alundra 2 isn't a bad sequel, it was just not a good game. Having nothing to do with the original title didn't make this game bad, what made it bad were bad camera controls, annoying knockbacks, the puzzles combined with the camera, and a fairly cookie-cutter plot of "bad guy forces hero to do stuff while other bad guy schemes behind the scenes on everything". Oh and having to earn better combo attacks for the sword swiping, the oddities of mercy invincibility for this game, and that magic is overpowered compared to everything else. Shame too, we got some great voice actors like Scott Menville who actually lent their voices to this title.

164. The 7th Saga (#77)
163. Final Fantasy Legend II (#46)
162. Final Fantasy Legend III (#54)
161. Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (#17)
160. Ranma 1/2: Treasure of the Red Cat Gang (#121)
159. Grandia III (#133)
158. Final Fantasy (#2)
157. Final Fantasy Legend (#43)
156. Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn (#143)
155. Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds (#142)
154. Lunar: Walking School (#44)
153. Silva Saga (#119)
152. Great Greed (#47)
151. Tenchi Muyo! Game Hen (#93)
150. Phantasy Star II (#16)
149. Silva Saga II (#122)
148. Lufia & The Fortress of Doom (#6)
147. Robotrek (#101)
146. Final Fantasy Adventure (#105)
145. Warsong (#56)
144. Final Fantasy II (#135)
143. Dragon Quest IV (#94)
142. Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya (#129)
141. Shining Force (#106)
140. Shining in the Darkness (#82)

139. Shining Force II (#186)

With my experience having slugged through two other Shining Force games, I had a much better reception of Shining Force II. Well, apart from some of the names being recycled for totally different characters and such, the Shining Force's universe is so oddly intertwined. But even with that said I just found Shining Force II more enjoyable, more immersive, than the chapter-based predecessor. I certainly won't ever forget the annoying Mithril RNG above all else though.

138. Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom: (#146)
137. Wild ARMs 4 (#136)
136. Phantasy Star III (#71)
135. Romancing SaGa (#61)
134. Dragon Quest III (#89)
133. Princess Crown (#126)
132. Might and Magic Book One: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum (#153)
131. Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (#147)
130. Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World (#154)
129. Breath of Fire (#9)
128. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (#75)
127. Wizardry: Proving Grounds for the Mad Overlord (#141)
126. Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra (#157)
125. Might and Magic IV: Clouds of Xeen (#158)
124. Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen (#159)
123. Phantasy Star (#3)
122. Dragon Quest V (#104)
121. Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (#84)
120. Earthbound ZERO (#88)
119. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny (#161)
118. Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (#164)
117. Digimon World (#171)
116. Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (#145)
115. Chocobo's Dungeon 2 (#165)
114. Jade Cocoon (#58)
113. Koudelka (#163)
112. Vandal Hearts II (#162)
111. Digimon World 3 (#173)
110. Tales of Destiny 2 (#176)
109. Digimon World 2 (#172)
108. Wild ARMs (#22)

107. Moon: Remix RPG Adventure (#183)

Also known as just Moon, this game, originally a Playstation title, finally got a Western release recently, and I had to check it out via the Steam release. And it's something completely different. Sure, it starts out simple enough...wait what? You're actually going through the television? Actually living in the world your hero knight had set out on a journey with? No combat? But yet you can still die if you screw yourself with your own energy. Spread the love while deconstructing what regular RPGs were about. No wonder this game inspired Toby Fox's creations.

106. Star Ocean: Blue Sphere (#109)
105. SaGa Frontier 2 (#132)

104. Dragon Quest VI (#116)
103. Sailor Moon: Another Story (#37)
102. Star Ocean (#67)
101. Final Fantasy III (#55)
100. Tales of Eternia (#136)
99. Xenogears (#30)
98. Odin Sphere (#34)
97. Spectrobes (#152)
96. Illusion of Gaia (#51)

95. Brain Lord (#189)

At least when Enix, or rather Produce!, produced this one, it wasn't ENTIRELY the worst thing. But they decided on the name Brain Lord for a reason. Prepare to tease your brain with some riddling block and boulder puzzles! Oddly the game is short though, you can go through it well aside from the puzzles, as the combat is really nothing to write home about and the familiars you get as allies really do help make combat mostly an easy affair. It's got some ties to Mystic Ark and the 7th Saga only with character names too.

94. Langrisser II (#73)
93. The Legend of Dragoon (#60)
92. Final Fantasy IV (#4)
91. Kartia: The Word of Fate (#63)
90. Lufia: The Ruins of Lore (#139)
89. Final Fantasy V (#65)
88. Romancing SaGa 3 (#83)
87. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (#140)
86. Mystic Ark (#137)

85. Alundra (#187)

Finally I got around to playing Alundra after so long, only to find it's a Link to the Past clone! I blame this game for making me play A Link to the Past Randomizer for some time by the way. But enough of that. This game I will consider an action RPG, it nails the immersion perfectly with a nice, grassy world, a village full of people you get to know (and mourn when several die), and have to deal with religious zealots and the like. And the music is a chef's kiss. Ugh!

84. Dragon Quest VII (#127)
83. Wild ARMs 2 (#24)
82. Vandal Hearts (#160)
81. Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land (#156)
80. Dragon Quest VIII (#138)
79. Thousand Arms (#69)
78. La Pucelle: Tactics (#117)
77. Threads of Fate (#1)
76. Tales of Destiny (#39)
75. Suikoden IV (#66)
74. Wild ARMs: Alter Code F (#29)
73. Sword of Mana (#14)
72. Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time (#62)
71. Legend of Legaia (#80)
70. Lufia: The Legend Returns (#36)
69. Star Ocean: The Second Story (#98)
68. Secret of Evermore (#10)
67. Secret of Mana (#110)
66. Seiken Densetsu 3 (#120)
65. Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (#148)
64. Soul Blazer (#42)

63. Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits (#181)

Honestly when it comes down to it, I think all the Arc the Lad games (except End of Darkness which I have yet to play) are very decent. So me ranking Twilight of the Spirits with the rest of the pack makes a ton of sense. This being the first Playstation 2 title, they went with more open movement, usage of some spirit items, and best of all, two separate parties which allows for back-and-forth immersion. Arguably am not a big fan of the game being a humongous time skip from the previous three, but they made this game work well.

62. Arc the Lad III (#179)
61. Arc the Lad (#177)
60. Arc the Lad II (#178)
59. Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (#7)
58. Tales of Phantasia (#18)
57. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (#26)
56. Breath of Fire III (#13)
55. Brave Fencer Musashi (#59)
54. Breath of Fire IV (#28)
53. Paper Mario (#64)
52. Growlanser III: The Dual Darkness (#74)
51. Suikoden Tactics (#81)
50. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (#31)
49. Romancing SaGa 2 (#78)
48. Suikoden III (#38)
47. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (#128)
46. Suikoden V (#108)
45. Grandia (#32)
44. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (#175)
43. Growlanser II: The Sense of Justice (#57)
42. SaGa Frontier (#97)
41. Might and Magic IX: The Writ of Fate (#169)

40. Wizardry 8 (#149)
39. Pokemon Yellow (#151)
38. Pokemon Red/Blue (#150)

37. Final Fantasy X-2 (#185)

There's just so much to do in Final Fantasy X-2 that the idea of 100%ing this game is one of the biggest challenges I thought I could try. But I didn't. But it serves as an interesting contrast to its predecessor Final Fantasy X, seeing as how that game was very linear and this one is nonlinear from the get-go. Still, it's more recommended to play that game over this, it establishes everything I liked about Spira and the characters, and while this one fledges more out while adding in some new flair, it's incredibly easy to lose yourself in the sidequests.

36. Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria: (#182)

While I do love me some Valkyrie Profile, I have got to admit, this does a lot of things that make it feel like a messed-up sequel. Loving the way combat is done is definitely something, the gritty atmosphere of the world still sets a fabulously eerie mood, breaking off enemy parts and crafting finishers is another great thing. But it's missing the pizzazz of Einherjar backstories, opting for just Silmeria to get her Einherjar back after they were lost and having Alicia do all sorts of legwork. Speaking of which yeah the platforming in this one is back, not too bad, neither is playing as many known characters from the first game. But it is a game that feels like a prequel despite being a sequel and then throwing people off in a time loop all of a sudden. It's so weird.

35. Might and Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer (#168)
34. Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (#166)
33. Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (#167)

32. The Magic of Scheherazade (#190)

I've played hidden gems and I've played hidden gems and The Magic of Scheherazade is a hidden gem. It's a "little of everything" RPG, action RPG combat with Zelda-like navigation, Dragon Quest-style turn-based combat, regular HP, MP, experience, money gaining, weird party members, chapter-based plot progression, class changes at a temple, and heck, even price haggling for discounts! And all for an Arabian-themed game on the NES.

31. Crystalis (#5)
30. Final Fantasy VIII (#85)
29. Final Fantasy IX (#115)
28. Tales of Symphonia (#180)
27. Earthbound (#99)
26. Skies of Arcadia (#90)
25. Treasure of the Rudras (#87)
24. Phantasy Star IV (#92)
23. Chrono Cross (#40)
22. Final Fantasy VII (#50)
21. Terranigma (#68)
20. Grandia II (#41)
19. Makai Kingdom (#170)
18. Final Fantasy X (#155)
17. Vagrant Story (#70)
16. Final Fantasy Tactics (#95)
15. Suikoden (#27)
14. Suikoden II (#33)
13. Breath of Fire II (#11)
12. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (#130)
11. Bahamut Lagoon (#125)
10. MOTHER 3 (#111)
9. Live-A-Live (#49)
8. Wild ARMs 3 (#35)
7. Final Fantasy VI (#45)
6. Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (#23)
5. Phantom Brave (#91)
4. The World Ends With You (#100)
3. Chrono Trigger (#20)
2. Valkyrie Profile (#25)
1. Soul Nomad & The World Eaters (#72)

A look back at: The Magic of Scheherazade

So it's been only three days since I last made a post and already I finished a game. Technically, two days were spent on The Magic of Scheherazade; this game is an NES game that has a password system (no saving) and Legend of Zelda-style movement. And yet aside from action RPG combat, they also went ahead and gave us Dragon Quest-style turn-based stuff too. Along with jobs that impact stats like Final Fantasy 3, time travel like Chrono Trigger and many others, a weird solar eclipse that comes by which reminded me of Castlevania 2's day/night system, different tools and magic to use like many other action RPGs. All of this, Culture Brain, somehow you managed to do all of these before the more famous ones did, and yet you get barely even a mention even among other RPG gurus!

So yeah, The Magic of Scheherazade is a game I recommend everyone to look at at least once. It's got that "little of everything" spice to it which means it doesn't actually hit a stride anywhere, but it provides consistent enjoyment. At least, when it's enjoyable. Money isn't a problem usually. Experience is usually not a problem. Filling up HP and MP with the items is unorthodox and took me a while to figure out. Some enemies just spawn in annoying places. Some spells are overpowering like the "change forms" spell, both me and some of the opposing bosses can utilize this and it reminded me of Duke Nukem 3D's shrink ray in that it renders the target helpless and easily killable. For the bosses that had this change form spell, I really just had to spam magic at them, and for the record, the Magician class is the most recommended class, but others are necessary for certain plot-related things.

The two things I personally didn't like are the lack of a save system (obviously) and the turn-based battles. While it seemed innovative at the time to incorporate random turn-based battles upon screen transitions and such, it lends itself to a number of problems. First, fighting alone is totally not recommended, you die much easier that way. Second the magic your main character has isn't enough compared to what they can use on the field, your allies can use some of this though which doesn't make sense. Oh yeah, the allies? What the heck are their stats supposed to increase, when I increase? I guess that makes some sense. Often times I had to rely on them, some interesting formation attacks, or the recruitable troopers to get by some of these surprisingly tough turn-based battles. And then I said screw it. I would escape these things. Because ultimately the biggest issue with turn-based battles is that they are a total pace-killer. You gain experience much faster and easier in the action RPG battles, and while I appreciate using strategy in turn-based battles, it's also how these battles are shown up, enemies already in a formation where they TOO can use a group attack to soften up or straight up instakill in the case of the Mondiburn spell, and the recipes for frustration are more than enough for me to just escape or use loads of troopers to get through them.

Still, the fact I beat the game in two days shows just how dedicated I am to the fabric of this kind of stuff. And this really is the last game for my summer break, the rest will be much slower to come by.

A look back at: Brain Lord

Hey look, Google finally fixed image uploads, yeah. I still hate them for that. Anyways, this game didn't take me a week to beat. However, it's been somewhat of a while since I last made a lookback, so let's blame ALTTP Randomizer. I was having just too much fun with that game so much that I played other stuff simultaneously with it, including some Doom stuff as well as eventually this game, which I got to once I was finished documenting some more map secrets.

So yeah, this didn't last long, which I am quite thankful for as I wasn't really feeling like playing a long game at the moment, but they really didn't call it Brain Lord for nothing. You will have puzzles, the game has special rooms that require a ton of knowledge on how to push certain objects to fit for certain switches, or do other stuff outside the box. Other than that, the game's combat is super wonky, enemies are actually not too concerning considering how dumb their AI is, and how you have multiple tools at your disposal. I mean, the sword range is great, the ranged weapons have infinite ammo, the magic spells are just a charge without any MP consumption, and the morning stars were fun to use. Plus, the jades helped out in battles a lot, though ultimately I didn't rely on them, which mind you is a GREAT THING. You don't really need them, but they make things easier for combat. You can grind them to good levels so they are of more help, but again, not really necessary. I appreciate it when helpful game mechanics aren't required, after all.

Overall though, the difficulty is all about the puzzle-solving, as well as figuring out where you need to go. Five dungeons, and yet they are all memorable. The Tower of Light sets the stage, it's huge to go through but has basic puzzles. The ancient civilization and its tech spice things up a lot, as it's even bigger and has more things to it like dark rooms and floating platforms. The ice palace, well I don't need to go into detail with those ice floors, but I will say the game trolls you with poisonous springs and even poison signs. The Droog volcano is my least favorite owing entirely to those rock mazes that shift and really don't have a good pattern to how they work at all. And the Platinum Shrine is appropriate for a final dungeon, backtracking to make things longer, crazy statues that attack, but those damn dark rooms (which the light jade can't even illuminate) end up being the biggest trial and error show with where the walls are. I won't forget these.

A look back at: Alundra 2

GREAT JOB GOOGLE YOU ROGUE COMPANY YOU RUINED THE ABILITY TO POST IMAGES ON BLOGSPOT NOW I AM USING A URL.

So I had of course planned to play Alundra 2, or should I say Flint, since that's the protagonist's name? Whatever, we can actually all tell that despite being a sequel, this game has literally nothing to do with the first Alundra, and many people hated it for that. I hated this game for something totally different.

The game, it's just honestly ugly. And I'm not talking about JUST the graphics. One of the things that I can't really get with certain action games is if the action gets to a point of tedium. And that's what actually can happen easily here. Alundra 2 thankfully allows the usage of combos, but you must unlock them with puzzle pieces as an optional sidequest. And then there's magic, which gives you both long-animated summons that do tons of damage and the simpler spells that are more on-the-spot. That's cool. The game is super awkward about its mercy invincibility after a successful hit, on either you or enemies. And the knockback, jeez, this is it, and even the first few enemies will do it, taking you like five seconds to get back up after just one blow. Not every enemy does this, thankfully, but it prevents the bum rush strategies that some other action RPGs or Zelda-like games seem to be okay with. Damage discrepancies are another thing I disliked, you seem to do very low damage, but this is fine since the enemies don't have a whole lot of health. But at the same time, it looks like you'll always be dealt tons of damage in return since you have so much more.

Not helping matters is that game cutscenes seem out of sync, or maybe that's just emulator settings, which I still don't know what the absolute best ones are for this game. And the bosses? Well, they are quite predictable after a while, some still annoying especially the ones where you have to wait until you FINALLY can charge in for an opening, and you can usually only hit them with one combo before the invisible mercy invincibility comes in and you have to wait again. Yeah, the bosses aren't really hard, they just take a while. The first Alundra also had this issue though. And of course, the puzzles take some getting used to to figure out, with the timed ones being the worst. Magic is, unfortunately, the game breaker here too, you will WANT to use it to defeat the most annoying enemy encounters in a single hit, and hey, notice those health and EP bars? Yeah, they're high enough that they go all the way to 999.

The plot is okay, nothing like the harrowing nature of the first Alundra, but still quite terrifying considering the main villain puts wind-up keys that turn things into homicidal creatures, which can include humans or even a gigantic whale who of course ends up being an entire dungeon. The music is nowhere near as great as the previous game, which oozed of atmosphere, and the cutscenes show off the slapstick comedy which may or may not be quite overdone (seriously how the heck can pirates build a raft out of a destroyed ship while BEING IN MIDAIR). So the plot oddly enough ended up being the game's strongest point, the gameplay revolves around annoying knockbacks, waiting for bosses to come through for an attack, and overpowered magic spells. Oh, and minigames, which were honestly more fun than the main game itself.

A look back at: Alundra

Three in one month, let's go! And I do plan on doing the sequel game next.

This game is one that certainly has been on the backburner, and its strongest quality has to be its sensational music track. I'm familiar with Dust to Dust, the somber theme, Coastal Cave, as well as Kline's Nightmare from playing Doom wads for a while, so to actually hear them in the original orchestration was great. Better yet, the tracks can all be listened to in one room! Though you do have to progress in-game to get to some of this stuff eventually, that's fine.

On to the gameplay, and it's basically a Playstation version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. A fine game in and of itself, so that's a hurdle that can't be crossed. But at least this game has plenty of hallmarks to coincide with its attempt at a similar yet different premise. Sword-swinging, arrows and bombs (here you get infinite ammo), medicines to heal, seven crests to pick up (like the seven crystals), life vessels (the heart containers), a religious sanctuary with a cemetery next to it, a swamp, lake, desert, and mountain, boss fights with strategy, just one village, upgrading weaponry, and plenty, and I mean PLENTY of annoying dungeon puzzles. What makes it even moreso here than in ALTTP is that you do have platforming and puzzles combined, and many dungeons actually feel way longer than they should because of these puzzle moments. If the music wasn't so good, I would have hated this.

I was hoping for a truly perfect playthrough of this, but unfortunately I capped out at 49 hit points and 49 Gilded Falcons. Three of each can be done in the casino section, and I got two, but for some reason, the roulette section was unfortunately completely bugged and I was in a dead-end room with no way out other than reloading, so that was the only one I couldn't get to. Also sometimes some textures end up disappearing when I try to save and load and speaking of loading, those loading times are quite annoying. So would I consider this a true action RPG? It's really complicated. There's significantly more immersion in this plot in my opinion, and the upgrades to weapons are certainly a thing. So I really could care less. This one does feel RPG enough to me.

A look back at: Shining Force II

A.K.A. Shining Force-but-with-a-different-plotline-that-isn't-exactly-original-because-a-hero's-hometown-is-destroyed-demons-did-it-a-princess-gets-kidnapped-and-also-many-character-names-are-recycled-and-the-gameplay-is-not-different.

Literally all this game is.in hindsight. It's seen as the better Shining Force, since you can actually progress in a nonlinear fashion at certain points, and have a much easier time to grind up your characters. Of course, this most likely means Egress'ing away from battle before you finish it, but there are some locations that trigger the closest thing this game has to random battles. The caravan is excellent for depositing items, especially those hidden Mithril pieces, but we'll get to THAT soon enough.

Yeah, plotwise, it's got the clichés I summarized above. And the character class archetypes are in display here, as is the completely intact battle system. Misses due to dodging, possible double attacks, counterattacks (I can't remember if this was new though), and experience discrepancies making several character classes like the Warrior really suffer. Thankfully, you can get secret character promotions like Baron and Master Monk, and I aimed for this stuff, it really works out so well. Bowie the Hero has to keep himself alive, and Peter the Phoenix is certainly an overpowered character. These two make the game easier, but getting the Master Monks as well as Ninja for Slade also are big deals. Some characters who join much later are worthless due to circumstances, like Rohde being horrible for movement despite being a strong long-range attacker.

Can we also discuss these names? Cause many of them are reused, plenty from the Sword of Hayja which I already checked out. Sarah for instance is a name already used by a priest in that game, and Chester was an archer. It's more egregious with names like Eric and Jaha, since the characters of those names here are in the SAME CLASSES as the ones from there! Eric starts out as a centaur knight, and Jaha starts out as a warrior. The name Luke is used for a bird warrior here, and that was used in the previous two Shining Force games I played. Could they at least give newer names so I don't get confused? This is a sequel after all, and the Sword of Hayja established that not only does Nick return in that game (he was the hero in the first Gaiden game), but also the ninja and samurai from Shining Force 1 also come into play too.

Anyways, what I definitely won't miss is the smithing of penultimate weapons. I say penultimate first cause the ultimate weapons are either the Hero's Holy Sword or cursed weapons with drawbacks like lowered defense. Finding the Mithril basically requires a guide, this is the easy part. Then you give the Mithril to a special smithy, leave town, come back, and you get your weapon. And it's always a frickin' Critical Sword. I had suffered a lot from trying to get Gisarme for Slade or Levanter for Bowie, looking all over the internet and thankfully, people HAVE been researching this RNG issue for quite a while. Therefore, it's not necessarily new. But I just wanted those weapons and timesinked a lot of the endgame until I basically gave in and finished the game. Yeah, that's certainly something that even with the research done is still a frustration moment.

At least the game can still be beaten without this stuff. It feels easier but that's cause of my experience with the former game overall.

A look back at: Final Fantasy X-2

 

I had fun. I also didn't have fun. That's the gist of it. Oh wait, did I quote some character here? I did.

Funny enough, I had a choice to check either this game out first, or Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Considering the fact it is summer break and I don't have a lot of work in the summer, this was the better option at the moment. I knew this game would take a long, long time to go through. I knew there were sidequests, minigames, and grinding. That last part, well, it's mostly the ability grinding. By the end my girls were pushing Lv75 but levels don't matter. Abilities and dresspheres do, as do all the rewards for doing all sorts of things as well. More garment grids! More dresspheres! More accessories! Half the time it felt like I was really doing a nonlinear collectathon.

That's arguably the game's biggest strength in my opinion. It's nonlinear from the start. Final Fantasy X-2 only has a measly 5 chapters, those who want to do the story will realize that the chapters don't really take as long as they really do. But since you can explore every part of Spira (except in those scenarios where places are locked), that lends way to all the sidequests, which could impact other chapters and DEFINITELY impact the percentage of completion later on. Sadly, I didn't really get 100%, this is because I decided that doing Via Infinito (among other things) was gonna take way too long, and I wanted to check out other games later. I still used a cheat code to actually put the game's completion at 100% and found out that the only thing that it really does is add new ending scenes.

I'm a little desensitized with Final Fantasy as a franchise from having played so many games in it. Tons of stuff make this a good game, the customizable garment grids and ability grinding were the gist of my gaming experience here. The return to the Active-Time battle system works out alright, being able to change your dressphere in the midst of combat is a nice touch, but in the end not entirely necessary for most battles that aren't boss battles. This is cause bar specific enemies, a good-leveled party just breezes through encounters. You only have problems whenever the encounter rate dictates you have a battle every three steps, you get ambushed quite a lot (me thinks it is an attempt to balance easy encounters), and most encounters that are troublesome have fixed-damage attacks (those annoying amorphous gel enemies in particular). Oh, and the Oversoul gimmick! Kinda cool, kinda annoying with some encounters, but really not as consequential as it looks.

Character-wise, it's nice to see new faces, who were arguably the most interesting, and the returning ones are either moving on or unfortunately got on my nerves (looking at you, Rikku and Brother). Minigames are so worth talking about. Blitzball is significantly worse but thankfully not truly necessary, but it's better playing than coaching. Gunner's Gauntlet is a kind-of fun third person shooter gimmick but I got all the prizes after figuring things out. Sphere Break is a fun math game but unfortunately requires some luck and math knowledge. The massage minigame is ENTIRELY luck, you want to hit the right spots and that is up to total chance. Shoving the band into the airship elevator was completely unnecessary. The Calm Lands minigames are also not necessary but the publicity stuff sucks. That Cactuar war minigame is beyond stupid, thankfully it's not necessary to win. Thunder Plains tower calibration was quite fun the first time, then not once you got to the last few towers. They give you directions and tutorials on most everything at least. So a varied experience, and honestly a quite worthy sequel in my book, but given how much time things took, and how I felt my usual RPG fatigue at the end, it's obvious that no NG+ playthroughs of any kind will come in soon.