I need to post here more often so I don't make super ultra mega posts.
Speaking of...
PXZ2 - Finished, ages ago.
The final battle gives a pretty good reason for why the penultimate battle was so large. Still kinda annoying, but the last stage is almost reasonably sized, considering. It also sets things up so that once you unlock the ability to fight the big bad, you can just do so. As for the big bad, for the standards of this game, ultra durable. By the standard of Bamco bosses, and PXZ1 bosses, he's pretty ok. By the standard of Bamco final bosses? Wet Tissue Paper level durability.
General thoughts, it is in pretty much every way PXZ1 ++. The only place where that arguably isn't true is in the cast, and even then there's a lot of emphasis on the arguably. A lot of the Solos are really forgettable, though 4 of them really stood out to me. Phoenix and Maya because you get them early and they make enemy shields a joke. They can spend 30 SP to give any pair block busting, and their own attack starts with Psychlocks breaking enemy defenses. Granted, I never used them against any of the ultra blocky enemies, but they can at least do 5 bars which is generally where things top out (they can, for example, trivialise Mettaurs). For damage, Alisa from God Eater does a good job. Just a lot of hits, damage is usually enough to get through defense, and has a strong crit bonus. As for skills, you have Aty who for a long time is your only notable heal all option as you get her early and she has a cheap heal all: 30% skill in Summon: Holy Prahna. Estelle also comes back as notably good as she can heal everyone for 80% now, and has Variable Hex for 15% Def boost for everyone.
As for pair units, I found the Fire Emblem pairing to be strangely underwhelming. Same with the Maverick Hunters, neither of which were as good at getting kills as I felt they should be. Chrom and Lucina are also, sadly, your final team, so you only have them for half the game. As for good units, only one team really stood out. The ninjas. Seriously, the freaking ninjas. They are a touch squishy, though not overly so compared to everyone else, and they are mobile and have absurd damage. If you want something dead, figure out how to get them behind that target and watch it bleed.
I suspect at some point I will try this on NG+ for the hard mode and see if additional difficulty changes my opinion of things when I actually have to pay attention to what I'm doing. But not for a long time.
Fire Emblem - Still slowly plugging away. Iago was kind enough to give me a useful gift. I think trying to hold on to it is making me greedy and causing several needless deaths. Damn.
Pokemon Picross - Still slowly plugging away. I think I'm getting near the point where I'll need to break down and get the Mega Pencil, but am now in that point where I am stubbornly going "spend real money on this thing? Fuck that." Am curious if the Alt-World puzzles give Picrites as 300 is quicker to save for than 500, though let's be honest, at this point, I'm most of the way to getting another picrite/day so I'll just finish that first.
