Dragon's Dogma
About two thirds of the way through a New Game +.
I haven't done a New Game + in many years, and I'm sort of reminded of why, because this is silly. None of the enemies are upgraded, so it's a matter of slaughtering my way through trivial encounters while I build my fast travel network for this/possible future playthroughs.
I'll be glad to get back to the "postgame" (which is really more like a short World of Ruin than something like the Seraphic Gate; the frue ending is in "postgame," for instance), where the combat is as involving as the system deserves and fewer NPCs are speaking.
Although by the end I didn't mind the NPCs speaking. A few of them (Mason, Madeline, Mercedes... okay, only those whose names start with M) ended up being quite entertaining. Still, the game is at its best when you're climbing up the back of a giant monster to cut one of its heads off, not when you're talking to some schmuck.
As games are actually reviewed, this one is a 9/10. The best in its genre, fun to play, fun to explore, good-looking in all the ways that matter, with a story that reaches levels of non-terrible by the end (putting it, again, at least on par with anything else in its genre). If games were legitimately reviewed on a 1-10 scale it would be a 7.5 or 8, because there are real and significant flaws here, but they're no worse than those in, say, Skyrim.
Wild ARMs Alter Code F
I have a working PS2 again!
I decided to celebrate by playing this for a while, since my old PS2 broke when I went to do so. lol at Cecilia having more MP than it would cost to cast Fire every turn through her first five levels, and MP regenerating when you level. Also, is it my imagination or are the towns much smaller than in the original version of WA1?