The Shrine

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Wild Arms 3, I just started playing it a few days ago, finally. I'm only a few hours in, but it's a damn fun game.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I really, really enjoyed it. They designed it so the real meat of the game is the boss battles, and random battles get phased out significantly if you explore enough. Plus the final battle is 11 bosses in one!</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>No kidding. I probably should have given it more of a chance. I rented it, and it just seemed like more of the same after a few hours, so I lost interest.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I never gave it a chance, played it for like 3 hours, got bored then traded it in for Shurikoden 3. Or however you spell it.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>The game's short, though - did a little bit of optional content, but not a ton of it (and not the Abyss), and still finished in 31 hours.

Basically, if you explore some, you find items that raise your ECM gauge, so you can skip more random battles and harder ones. I capped out my gauge and ended up having to find a total of one random battle in the entire final dungeon (which was an ambush).

It's not the greatest RPG ever, but it's a nice diversion, and the fact that you can tone down random battles and get adequate money and experience from the boss battles (Mystic + Lucky Card = 2x exp for a battle, plus an additional .1 modifier for every Personal Skill activated) means that you really don't need to fight the random battles in order to make it through.

My only recommendation is that you look up a Boss FAQ - not for the boss strategies, but to see which bosses actually give you experience and money, and which don't - Lucky Cards are very limited, and you don't want to waste them on a battle that won't actually reward you with the exp you need.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>It's probably not a game I will finish in the short term since I am already playing like 4 other RPG's, and most of my focus is on Ogre Battle 64; also a very fun game. I always liked Quest's games because of their historical references; Ogre Battle 64 is an metaphor of the Byzantine Empire against the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Final Fantasy Tactics is a metaphor of the fall of the Roman Empire.

The other games I am playing are FFIII (almost finished, I just got the Setzer and the second airship), Illusions of Gaia (a longer game than I remember), and I am considering Tales of Symphonia, but I have watched others play it and it looks like it's on the production scale of FF10 or Xenosaga, so I don't want to get started on that one just yet.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>You haven't beat Orge Battle 64 yet?!</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Of course not, it's one of the longest games I have ever played. I am just damn glad it comes with a built in encyclopedia =P</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>I REALLY want to play that game, I wish there was a ROM.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I've got a copy here that you can have for $50 US if you want. Free shipping, Box and Manual.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>My N64 is in storage. That's why I need a ROM. :)</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Ahhh, gotya. I have all my systems laid out over my house. So I can play any of them at anytime.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Suikoden was always just a big treasure hunt for characters with no real plot (what little that exists is diluted by the 108 characters deal). However S3 has some pretty difficult battles at least.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>It's funny how it's still difficult to get even a cheap second hand N64 title. The EB games here is still selling them at an average of about 30 bucks a game (Hockey titles aside, there's always like 60 copies of each game for sale).</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Hell, they system is only $25 used up here. If you REALLY want to play it, we can arrange a system as well :-)</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "arial narrow"; text-align: left; padding: 0% 5% 0% 5%; '>The EB here sells them for less than $20 usually (with the exception of games like Zelda or Goldeneye). I was just in Virginia this weekend and the EB in Newport was selling most of their N64 titles for 99 cents!</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Yesus, I'm going to have to go down to Virginia. I'm just a little worried about being shot at by inbreds in that section of the continent =P</div>

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Here that Kup? Mes and yous may bee bruthors and stufff! Ayuh, Auhee!</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>"Hey, I can see my ma from up here. HEY, MA! GET OFF THE DANG ROOF!"</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "Stylus BT"; text-align: left; '>As an aside, I picked up Suikoden III last year and it's still in it's plastic packaging. Never had to urge to play it mainly due to other games I'm going through. I do like the first two games of that series though.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Most folk'll never eat a skunk, but then again, some folk'll...like Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokelllllllll!</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Just FYI, I believe Suikoden III is out of print now. If you keep it sealed up, it could probably fetch a decent price on eBay in a couple years. I say this because I own it, tried playing it, and lost interest about a third of the way through.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I think S3 is out of print because no one wanted it so they destroyed all the copies.</div>