My FF XII quest was sidetracked by Civilization V.  I've already beaten two full Standard-map games on Warlord difficulty (level 3 of 7, I think) in about 2.5 days.  That's a lot of Civ.

All of the below are from Super Castlevania IV, but they're respectively the signature tunes of Cv 4, 2, 1, and 3.  Goddammit I love Castlevania in 2D.

Simon's Theme
Bloody Tears
Vampire Killer
Beginning

Oh and I love Actraiser's soundtrack as well.  It always gave me a Castlevania vibe. 

Filmore Stage 1
Bloodpool Stage 1

If you're playing the DS version, there's some brief-but-mostly-entertaining postgame content that's worth checking out. 

I saw TDKR at a midnight showing, got home, saw it was almost 4AM, played Final Fantasy XII for two hours, then went to work at around 6:45 like normal.  When I got home, I immediately took a recovery nap and five-ish hours later here I am. 

Movie was pretty good.

Level 21 in FF XII, getting through the rains on the plains. 

I mostly collect games and English-language artbooks and info books.  I do own about a dozen Dragon Quest Sofubi Monsters, though: http://dragon-quest.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest_Sofubi_Monster.  I'd get more if money wasn't quite so tight.

I wish I could pick door A, but right now money's too important to ignore.  I'm in a job I don't love, but I live in an area I do love and I recently bought a house.  Ideally I'd be using my degree a little more, creating sociopolitical maps or taking data samples on a coastal engineering/observation station, but for now I have to stick to this job that lets me live in a good place with good salary and benefits.  For now I'm walking through door B, but once I've decided that I'm prepared enough I'll do everything I can to switch it up. 

Yeah, that sounds about right.  I don't think I'm going to change my gameplan or expectations.  I'll just do what hunts and find what Espers I come across.  Won't be grinding for postgame superweapons or anything. 

Re FF XII stuff: I had heard of the Zodiac Spear and similar stories, but wasn't aware it got that bad! I wasn't planning on doing any endgame or postgame loot hunts to begin with (mostly want to cross the game off my backlog list more than anything), but now I definitely won't.  Out of curiosity, what equipment are you referring to? I have a big license board poster and I'd like to know what I definitely won't be getting.

The fifth chapter is longer than the first four put together.  It's the real meat of the game.  I always liked DQ IV; I hope you enjoy the remainder.

Got my first Esper in FF XII, and I gave it to Balthier.  I kinda felt obligated to since Ashe tricked him into thinking that there was a real treasure in the tomb.  I'm delighted at the numerous similarities to FF Tactics I'm noticing. 

I hear ya.  When I was maybe 7 years old I could beat Super Castlevania IV on the SNES in about 80 minutes.  Now I don't think I could beat it without using savestates.

Played Cards Against Humanity for almost four straight hours as part of a group of seven.  We ended the game when we ran out of black cards, and we had to reshuffle the white cards twice. 

Backlog update. 

Current Backlog
Mass Effect
Grandia II
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Red Dead Redemption
Star Ocean: Second Evolution
Persona 3 FES
Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue
Final Fantasy XII

Persona 3 and Red Dead Redemption were stellar.  Could go on and on about those two.  Star Ocean 2 was pretty good, but I feel that its plot and environments didn't live up to the fun battle system and skill system. 

Deathspank 2 is basically just like the first one, but a little bigger and better.  I think it'll be the end of my Deathspank career when I beat it, though.  FF XII is solid so far, about 10-11 hours in. 

Things moving along quite well in Final Fantasy XII.  I'm ~10 hours in with six party members, I've done a bunch of marks, and I'm about to cross the desert into the tomb of an ancient king.  License Board isn't my favorite thing ever, but the combat is better than I expected and I like the guild framework they use for sidequests (it's totally ubiquitous now, but it still works).  I doubt I'll see this thing through to get every weapon and summon and bounty, but I'll get some decent mileage out of it before the credits roll.

First real "day off from stuff" in weeks.  Gonna go to the gym and then play FF XII for several hours.