The Celestial Castle in Valkyrie Profile is a really crappy dungeon. I can't believe that anyone making this thought it would be a good idea to kick you back to the world map after falling off a platform, wasting 2 periods in the process, and there isn't even a save point before there. Most of the hard mode-exclusive dungeons have been really good (especially the Tombs of Amenti) but this is just incredibly cheap.

Up to Chapter 6 in Valkyrie Profile, I've jumped through most of the hoops to get the proper ending, I just need to transfer Lucian, which is a pity since one of his attacks is really good at knocking out crystals. So far hard mode hasn't been too difficult, but there was a big spike at Lezard's Tower where the stupid exploding orb things kept wiping out my entire party.

Since then it's been pretty easy, some of the items you can make with the Creation Jewel are absurdly overpowered. I'm using Grey who's supposed to be the worst character in the game but he still one-shotted the boss in the Citadel of Flame. I'm going to keep him around just for his voice clips, which are fantastically over-the-top.

That was my main complaint too. It got really boring casting status effects repeatedly just to unlock better spells.

I haven't played 3 so I can't comment (it wasn't released in PAL-land), but I'd like there to be some degree of difficulty in a potential sequel. 1&2 gave you this fantastic battle system but wasted it by giving you almost no challenge whatsoever.

Thanks Dice, lots of useful info there.

I bought Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth for £5, I felt like replaying it and this version is far cheaper than the original. It's quite pleasing getting pretty much the same game for more than ten times less than I sold the PS1 version for. I'm going to try hard mode, which for some reason is actually supposed to be easier than normal mode, and has more content. I'm also going to read an FAQ and go through the convoluted steps to get the proper ending. The first time round I got annoyed by the standard non-ending and never touched the game again.

I'm playing Ys Seven too, which is really fun but incredibly easy compared to the previous games. I haven't died once since the first few bosses, whereas I died over and over again to every single boss in Oath and Origin. It's still very enjoyable for the fast-paced combat, I just wish it had some of the challenge the series is known for. I did try hard mode for a few hours but it was a bit boring - it just gave everything a ton of HP, turning it into a tedious slog, rather than genuinely difficult.

Yes, but he's also been Director or Producer for many of their recent games, so he's still going to have a big influence on the overall art style. He wasn't involved in FFIX at all, and it looks completely different to the stuff they've put out recently.

And yes, I realise the irony of posting this when there's a picture of a guy with a belt strapped to his head.

There's a lot of fantastic art there, it really makes me wish they'd make another Final Fantasy without Nomura's grubby hands all over it.

The only thing I don't like about FFIX is that ATB doesn't quite work as it should - with the some of the animations taking so long you end up with lots of commands stacking.

I haven't read the books, but apparently A Storm of Swords is going to be covered by this season and the next one, since it's longer than either of the previous two books.

I'm torn between wanting to read the entirety of ASOIAF to find out what happens next, but not wanting to spoil Game of Thrones (TV) since I really like the show.

I pre-ordered it from HBS when it was 25% off, just before the offer expired. I didn't back the Kickstarter, since I mistakenly got the impression from somewhere that it was going to be mostly about combat, but the gameplay video convinced me otherwise - I didn't expect there to be non-combat areas, dialogue trees and skill checks, which are all positives.

Bah, double post.

I just reached the part where they
And it didn't help that they left out much of the original music, Sephiroth's theme was conspicuously absent - most of the new music is mediocre at best and very ill-fitting. 

Playing Crisis Core and I'm pretty disappointed by it. The main story content is decent, but the side missions are just... ugh. I'm only at 21% completed and I'm already sick of them, I'm fed up of getting into constant battles (sometimes every few seconds) in the exact same areas, with every single misison sharing the same objective. The sheer amount of recycled content here makes Dragon Age 2 look like it was full of unique areas.

I think I'm going to resort to FAQs to work out which of them are worth doing, since the repetition is really spoiling my enjoyment of the game.

That's what the old games did, even the ones Crystal Dynamics made before were much more focused on exploring tombs than fighting waves of disposable mooks.

I finished TitS, I haven't played many JRPGs in recent years and this was just the ticket. The only thing I didn't like about it was that until the last few hours, the combat was a complete cakewalk. Still, it was nice to play an RPG with fixed encounters where you don't feel obligated to fight every monster - I avoided most of the normal enemies and still got more than enough experience fighting bosses.

Now to join everyone else waiting for SC...

FFX International isn't that great anyway. It puts a load of near-impossible bosses (the Dark Aeons), which block you out of certain areas and side-content unless you defeat them first. And they're not even fun bosses either, they're the type where you're supposed to grind your stats to maximum just to stand a chance. It was annoying playing the PAL version missing out on sidequests because there were incredibly overpowered bosses in the way. I would pay $5 not to have the PAL/International version extras.