Always been a grind-happy game; just be glad in this iteration you're not forced to constantly use the Training battles to have your teams wail on each other to keep everyone equivalent in level. The original TO on the PS1 pretty much required it.

I think I only have 3 more battles in this forest... Team's developing quite well, two of the classes are level 21 even, all the rest are 20.

Those no-good curs on Lephua Coast have finally met their match. It was still a relatively difficult battle, I had to sacrifice a Blessing Stone or two to win. Their Brimstone Hails and Poison Rains were destructive. In Grimsby, the road to which they were blocking, I unexpectedly met Martym, one of the dark knights who'd gone rogue... Isn't he supposed to be at the Hanging Gardens? Obviously, I won't kill him in this battle... Anyway, I'll be saving a fusilier (gun-using class) he was just about to kill. Hopefully he joins me afterwards.

Started the first Hanging Gardens battle, and I gotta say it's still relatively tough despite leveling up... Dudes are still one level above my units. I took 12 Mend Leaf+2s, 16 Magic Leaf+2s, and I think 12 Blessing Stones... Hopefully they are enough for this 18-floor dungeon. At first, I tried to use the fusilier so he can go up a few levels and maybe even help in the last battles... But the fool died after the first attack on him, so I restarted without him. Shame he had to join so late.

What can I say... The only other SRPG I've beaten is Tactics. This isn't as good as Tactics, although I enjoy the fact that there is no supernatural nonsense like the Lucavi in Tactics, it's just straight-up war/power struggle. Denam is cool, but merely Ramza-lite, and Vyce is just a loser in comparison to Delita. Hanging Gardens was really unnecessary - the game should've ended upon Brantyn's defeat. The story has practically been over for many hours for me now (because I had to level up and shit). I don't like that. But it's still a highly enjoyable game. Lots of things it does better than Tactics, too - particularly, no overpowered units/classes (except bow/crossbow finishing moves). Ninjas are much tamer here than in Tactics, for instance. I really like that some units are practically immune to ninja attacks and others - golems, for instance, you can only beat with magic.

Five battles done out of the 18... The game feels a bit on the easy side now, it's really frustrating when this happens - first you're desperately weak, then you level up a bit, come back and you're too strong for the challenge offered... Oh well. Maybe battles'll get tougher as I near the end.

I defeated Andoras, and then, a couple of battles later, Barbas and Martym, too. Barbas and Martym were pretty tough, actually, but the game let me pit 5 units against just the two of them... So they had no chance. I actually tried with just Denam, Catiua and Canopus first, but they smashed me. Should've probably tried with 4 for maximum challenge.

Before I fought them, with the help of the Xenobian sword, they had undone the seal to the underworld or whatever, where apparently King Dorgalua had gone (he was only presumed dead). And, once I beat them, naturally Dorgalua appeared and demanded Denam hang him over the sword... Denam naturally didn't, and a battle ensued... against Dorgalua and an exact replica of my party that he summoned! Very interesting - if I had, for instance, used just Denam for this battle, I would've fought Dorgalua and Denam's clone... That would've been fun. But I naturally fielded a full 12-unit party. The battle is difficult - the copies have the exact same skills and weapons as my units, so you can imagine they're tough. I took down a few of them, but I'm not sure if I can make it on the first try - a couple of my units are down, too.

So Catiua was crowned, and then Denam reminisced about various important moments. The Xenobians (sans Lanselot and Warren who'd gone missing) left for Xenobia, and Denam promised he'd visit them.And he's about to do just that, as the game's credits start rolling...

This game is amazing in offering an even better option that New Game+. You and your party are placed after the final boss battle, but right before the events shown in the ending. You can wander around and do more side quests (I decided to see the options and started a newly appeared one where you actually encounter Canopus' sister!). And get that, you can even go back along the branches in the story, with your party just as it is now, and take different paths! How convenient.

All in all, great game... Not as amazing as Tactics, but still a marvel, both for its time and today. Its strongest asset by far is your choices actually mattering and changing the whole story, as opposed to only affecting secondary stuff like in the modern Mass Effects and Walking Deads which get so heavily advertised for giving the player the ability to choose a path...