On my second playthrough I was able to fully build out my castle and got an achievement (big wow). It was MUCH more difficult than beating the final boss, even though I already had all but a couple of the necessary heroes to operate the shops (ones you got in the first playthrough carry over). Fortunately I didn't have to play any in-game games like cards or "tops" but the final puzzle piece was even more annoying:
In order to stage plays at your theater you must have 3 specific "scripts." You can only get them from specific vendors and they only have a 5% chance of spawning in the vendor inventory. You can wait 30 minutes for inventory to refresh, or save and reload, which is what I did. I got the first two relatively easy, but as usual with such tasks, the third one had me going nuts with over 100 save/reloads. I was beginning to think I was doing something wrong and re-checked the guide before it finally hit.
I hate stuff like this that is impossible to complete without a guide. To do it legit you would have to check every vendor in every town every 30 minutes, which could take weeks. And without a guide you wouldn't even know to do so.
Finished this with 88 clocked through Steam. I did end up using a guide. Not sure what I was thinking contemplating trying without one. I think that's a general wish of mine, playing for the thrill of discovery rather than ensuring I "find" all of the good stuff in a game. Anyway, a guide is definitely the way to go with this one (I used the Neoseekers one; solid).
My goal was to get all the characters and that wasn't too bad. I would have missed a bunch playing on my own, but it wasn't too grindy to get finished. I felt like the game was slow to get going, and the characters were rather uninteresting. However, it redeemed itself in the later parts of the game. The personalities were entertaining and it even felt like a Suikoden game. (I do like building up the castle/base). The story was fine but not spectacular. I actually liked the voice acting overall (and that's something I usually dislike or skip quickly); repetitive voices, but well done.I still laugh at Francesca's line "And stay the hell down!"
So usually in a game that I enjoy this much, I try to collect trophies, but here they were just too grindy. Even with some of the mechanics/mini-games that I liked (like the card game), I'd have to beat every character (100+) to get the trophy. Too many achievements like that to bother, not to even mention the ones with rare items requiring RNG or time sinks. So I'm punting now that the game/plot is done.
There are supposedly a couple plot/story DLC in the works, but they've been delayed with controversy. May pick them up, but will see if they ever show, and what people think before buying. Overall, I enjoyed this. Probably doesn't make my top 10/top 25/whatever, but I don't regret the time played.
Next - I'm partially through Dragon Quest 5 on DS, though I might pivot to something else. More Trails? Jeanne D'Arc? Songs of Conquest? Age of Wonders 4? Final Fantasy IV or VII (original)? Star Wars: Outlaws deep dive? Not sure, but it'll work itself out.
