Original image located here. Accessed 15th July 2018
Clearly I liked the first one enough to find out what happens next.
Well what can i say about this one? There's a lot of charm to it, the dialogue is hilarious, the plot has some great twists and the boss battles are nothing short of epic. Funnily enough, I've often found with RPGs that I spend more time grinding to a point where the final boss seems like a pushover when compared to their predecessors - but this one was a rare exception. The end boss was just as challenging as some of the previous bosses that, somehow, the grinding didn't really feel like I was levelling the playing field.
Which is fine by me as I enjoy a challenge and appreciate the fact that the game was keeping me on my toes.
Ultimately though, this game has had an interesting localization history: It came out eight years after it's initial release, and the localization team, XSeed, had a series of well-documented troubles of their own to deal with. You often hear about how fans are left hanging when their favorite series comes to an abrupt end (Firefly anyone?) but you never hear (as much) about how fans are grateful when their favorite series has a proper follow-up let alone one that resolves everything.
So while I have no idea if anyone within XSeed would bother with this corner of cyberspace, may I say the following regardless:
You did good.
You put yourselves through a lot to get this game to the eager punters who have been left hanging.
You went out of your way to make sure the cliffhanger in the first game was properly resolved.
You did a Herculean task in translating a game with a monumentally large amount of dialogue
And I, along with so many gamers, are grateful for the effort.
And you have certainly earned those big sales.
You did good.
