After 146:32 of playtime (well, not entirely 146 hours, I’m sure it sat for a dozen or so hours while I got up to do other things) I’ve wrapped up all I’m going to do in Dragon Quest VIII.
Not a bad game, obviously I’m going to say that if I played that much, and got the two big endings in it. I didn’t do absolutely everything there is to do though, because after four of the Trials (none of this is really a spoiler because it’s far too vague) the necessary amount of levelling just became too much to bear. At over 100k experience a pop, and only 800-1500 experience available in a battle (outside of those pesky, unreliable metal slimes of all breeds), it’s just not worth it.
I will say, though, that I wouldn’t play it again. Certain mechanics, like the Ice attacks that wipe out all party bonuses (including tension levels), are just too annoying.
So, at my brother’s suggestion, I gave Final Fantasy X a try. The theory was that the levelling system was close enough to V to make it worth a try (I and V being the only Final Fantasy games I respect). but when it took an hour for me to past the tiresome opening movies, I got bored and quit.
Not sure what to play now. I’d like a good RPG with flexible character progression along the lines of La Pucelle or Final Fantasy V. Maybe I’ll just work on ToME 3 some more.