Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Yeah, that's mentioned on the boards a lot. If you concentrate on attacks/enhancements that cause enemies' turns to be delayed, you can defeat many bosses without them even getting off an attack. So, naturally, I can't possibly use that tactic!

But it's really pretty much the standard JRPG thing: fight the boss, figure out the status attacks it uses and what it is susceptible to, lose, re-load, make as many characters as possible immune to its status attacks, load up on what it is susceptible to, and defeat the boss.

How often did you folks use the big crystals that you found? I've found a few and bought one, too, but I'm mostly leaving the initial crystal on each character.

I kept the original crystals on all my folks, only upgraded when a better one of the same type came along. For the most part from what I can remember, whatever crystals the game initially gives them makes a lot of sense.

Finished it. I liked it, overall, mostly because I liked the combat so much.

I was really disappointed in that ending concert. I wasn't expecting a whole lot even with them pumping the anticipation up but what I got was the same old background music while the characters animated singing that we couldn't hear! Then the "encore" which was apparently the credits song from one of their previous games while the characters' animations showed them singing something completely different. Worst in-game concert EVER!

But hey, fun battles, no grinding, funny jokes, magic flip phones... if you like old school JRPGs then this one is worth playing.

I'm still amazed that people actually play with game sounds on, lol. I always have my own music pumping instead of the generic, painful sounds that pass for music in most games. I think I que'd up the Nine Inch Nails performance of Reptile from Woodstock '94(a show that I attended in person) for that concert finish in Cold Steel three. Messing with my own music might also be why it tends to take me longer to muddle through most games!

And yes, it's a stellar game. It was between this and Persona Four for me last year to take game of the year, and Cold Steel three won by a handsome margin.