Well, finally beat the game. What can I say...it's a fun game, overall, but there's a few things which the game could have done without:
1- Playing "musical chairs" with the party. I know, it's part of the story, and, initially, I found it refreshing to have my party members leave my party for an actual reason. Later on in the game, however, it became all too common for my returning party member to be 10 (or more) levels below the rest of my party. Also, after the third or fourth time this happened, I realized it was pointless to try to level up my party, as soon some of them would be leaving again. This holds true all the way to the end of the game.
2- No enemy "Life Bar" or damage indicator. For the most part, the system used works very well...until you get to a boss, that is. There's no indication whatsoever (aside from the white color flash) that your hit actually connected, but the damage inflicted is anyone's guess. For the final boss, I used over 15 "Mega Oil B" items, along with my party's strongest spells (Nova, Force B, and Inferno) for 8-10 rounds, and the boss was...just fine, thank you very much. Now, like most of the people playing this game, I consulted Ritchie's FAQ, and he suggests "...use Doll's magic of strength D (80MP) on the group and use normal attack", which I then decided to try since, you know, my 8-10 consecutive rounds of strongest magic coupled with "Mega Oil B" attacks didn't faze him. The result? I had all my party members switch to physical attacks, with occasional healing, and within 3 rounds, the final boss succumbed. This leads me to my final point:
3- Unclear game logic. In RPG's, there is a clear cut difference between physical attacks and magical attacks. This is an established RPG convention. "Aretha" takes into account both "Def" and "MDef" for characters, so the designers were aware of this as well. However, in game, this appears to apply only to party members, as enemy bosses seem to be frustratingly resistant to ALL magic attacks. "Ah!", you say, "I'll just switch to 'Mega Oil B' attacks then, since 'Mega Oil B' is supposed to deal "Catastrophic damage to all enemies."" A sound tactic, considering that 'Mega Oil B' is an item you purchase/find in-game, therefore it counts as a PHYSICAL attack. Well, guess what? That logic doesn't work with bosses...for just about every other enemy, this logic does work, but bosses appear to be an exception to this rule. It seems that, if you wish to use a PHYSICAL attack on a boss, you must strike it with your weapons (let's not even mention the fact that I didn't spend much time with Mixed Form, so my weapons are all from shops/chests, so the damage isn't very high either). Yet, with these same weapons, I was able to defeat the final boss using only physical attacks in three rounds. That...makes no sense. This is probably why the enemies
are seemingly impossible to kill. I think we're all going in with this preconceived logic, but this game turns that logic on its head.
Overall, the game is enjoyable, and the translation is very good. There's still a few things I need to do in-game (reach level 99 without the Testament, make a complete list of the Mixed Form items/weapons/armor so I can check all the item descriptions, and defeat the two spoilered enemies above). Reaching level 99 will probably take me several days, as I can only stand grinding 8-10 levels per session (I'm at lv. 75 presently, so it won't take me too long to reach 99 anyway). I already reached the max amount of money (999,999), and defeating more enemies will not cause problems with the money 'rolling over', as the "999,999" limit appears to be properly implemented.
Since the remaining things to do are somewhat time-consuming, I decided to beat the game so I can start working on actual reports. These reports will only contain bugs/glitches or things in need of correction, and I'll upload these as I have been doing. On the side, I'll keep plugging away at the rest of the game.
Oh, and it figures you wouldn't (see spoiler below):
Maybe the second game in the series will pick up where this one left off. In any case, it was a fun game, so...thank you, D-D, for the chance to play it in English! With that, I'm off to write some reports!