Went back to another game I'd abandoned at the last level a few years ago, Brave Fencer Musashi. Fuck this game and its stupid compulsory minigames, having a rhythm game as a boss battle is just unacceptable. I'm hopeless at that type of game and there's no way I can get any further now.

Finally killed the last boss in Circle of the Moon (albeit by cheating) after giving up on it a few years ago. I tried many times to kill the damn thing legitimately but had to resort to exploiting the bug that allows you to use DSS cards you don't have in your possession. Even then it took more than a few tries to take it down.

It's definitely my least favourite Metroid-style Castlevania, it feels really clunky compared to the smooth controls of the others.

I thought only FF1 had an easy mode in FFO? That's what the review says and I can't seem to find the option anywhere.

I disagree with Speed Shoes being in there. If you were a kid when Sonic was first released the objective wasn't to complete the game, but to get through each level as fast as possible to show off in front of your friends :P I remember magazines from back then used to publish their fastest times, and it was great fun trying to beat those.

Finished Sigma Star Saga, the final boss took a few tries but was really easy in the end once I worked out how to exploit it. It was well worth the £5 I paid for it, I recommend it to anyone looking for a good fast-paced story as a change of pace from drawn-out 80 hour epics.

I've gone back to Persona 2 and made a small amount of progress, but the game is just too damn long for its own good, and it feels more like work now than gaming. I could stand the ridiculously long dungeons in SMT:N because the battles remained fast and challenging to the very end, but they're too slow and frequent in P2. It doesn't help either having to listen to one of the same 10 or so voice clips at the start of every single battle. If the game was roughly half the length I would've enjoyed it much more, as the first 30 hours were excellent.

You do, but it's only a very small portion of the game. Most of it is spent on "bumfuck planet" and

Finished Psychonauts. I really enjoyed it, up until the last level, which was a total disaster - it seems that the developers went out of their way to make it as frustrating as possible. Thankfully, the last boss was refreshingly easy, and after the frustration I'd had leading up to it I just wanted to complete the game.

CDFN - if you haven't already played it, you should try Lunar 2: Eternal Blue.  It does pretty much everything you've said,  and I wish more games had an epilogue like it.

About 8 hours into Psychonauts. Really fun game, especially now that I've learned to levitate.
Got Sigma Star Saga for just £5, it seems pretty good so far. Save points are a little too scarce though, I keep crashing into the walls in the stages with narrow corridors.

I think I'm getting towards the end of Persona 2: EP and I'm starting to lose interest again. I want to see how the story turns out but I'm disappointed with the lack of difficulty, especially for a Megaten game. Fusion spells are far too powerful, the vast majority of enemies can be taken out in one blow (excluding the handful that are immune to magic), and even the bosses aren't much of challenge either. Battles aren't fun any more when all it takes is a single casting of one of the huge damage elemental fusions.

I might put it on hold and start DDS2 instead.

Re: Akanbe, Suikoden 5 spoilers.



I'm some way into Persona 2 now, and it seems surprisingly not that difficult for a SMT-related game. It still has some very frustrating moments though, whoever came up with the Hula of Misfortune spell deserves to be fired - it halves all your money and there's no way of blocking or dodging it. I lost at least half an hour of progress since I don't want to carry on with 250000 less makka.

It's out next Friday.

Playing Persona 2 and finally up to the point I gave up last time I played through it. Sewers + time limit = my worst nightmare! I'm enjoying it more than the first time though, writing down the correct combinations needed to persuade demons rather than going by memory makes things much smoother.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

+ Excellent dialogue
+ Wide range of character creation options
+ The mansion was very well designed

- Demanding system requirements, it runs poorly even on the recommended specs
- The last quarter of the game was obviously rushed, devolving into dungeon crawling and hack and slash. You could try to make a diplomat-type character, but eventually you'll be forced to focus on combat skills.
- The endings are rather brief and unsatisfying

Next
TES IV: Oblivion or Broken Sword: The Angel Of Death

Grim Fandango

+ Fantastic voice acting, arguably the best there is
+ Original setting and storyline
+ Memorable characters

- Controls are a little clunky compared to the traditional point and click interface
- One or two annoying puzzles (the pumps spring to mind)
- Um.. (struggling here, it's difficult to find anything negative to say about this game) it's the last truly great LucasArts adventure game, it's a bad thing that they haven't released anything to this standard since

Next: Secret of the Stars, or failing that, Ephemeral Fantasia