7th Dragon III: The end is near

 
After 30 hours of play, I'm finally down to the last dungeon. I have 40 dragons left to eradicate, which happen to be all conveniently located in said last dungeon; and since I'm done polishing off all the sidequests available in the game, it's going to be one clean and neat final push from now on. That's just how I like last dungeons to be, so that's perfect.

 

Since my last post about sidequests, I discovered another feature I had neglected to explore until then, namely the romancing. Which has actually little to do with romance and everything to do with having your way with every single major NPC, from big boss Allie to grizzled officer Yoritomo. You can literally get into everybody's pants, regardless of their gender—or yours, for that matter—and regardless of how many other NPCs you've been intimate with before. Isn't that the perfect promiscuity simulator? Add to this the fact that the ultimate carnal knowledge resulting from dating NPCs is very unsubtly signaled by sentences that range from embarrassing to hilarious (I still laugh inside when thinking of Yoritomo offering me dessert before uttering "I did say that I would answer any request, but this... Go easy on my old bones...") and you get a feature that I would have royally ignored if not for the awesome benefits that can be reaped from acting as Nodens' resident sex fiend. Said benefits are nothing less than exclusive powerful weapons for all classes, which can be obtained from every NPC after you get to know them in the biblical sense of the word—which happens after three dates, en passant. Granted, these powerful weapons are bound to become outdated as soon as the 6th item expansion becomes available at the beginning of chapter 7; however, they can make the two ultimate fights of chapter 6 much easier and smoother, so they're totally worth sweating for—in every sense of the word.

 

You've probably noticed by now that I ditched the blue-eyed samurai girl featured on the game's cover and her human sidequicks in favour of a more feline team of Atlantean characters. Things will probably stay that way until the end, because I love both the looks and alchemy of this new trio. For the record, that's a Rune Knight, an Agent and a Fortuner we have here, and they rock together. On the other hand, I didn't click with the last two classes, the Banisher and the Mage. The Banisher is a lot of hassle to handle because of the bomb thing, and the Mage is little more than a copy of the Duelist. I doubt I will ever use my two Banishers and my Mage on the battlefield; their buddy skills, however, can be quite useful, so I'm still keeping them in the back teams.

 

I don't have much to add, really. I'm currently gathering my energy before the last stretch, which will certainly be a slaughtering frenzy. 40 dragons in a single dungeon, people! My Atlantean three currently boast a hefty lv. 65, and I'm confident they can climb up to Lv. 70, if not more, by the time they reach the final boss. With that said, dear fellow gamers, I'm on my march towards destiny. I won't see you again before standing on the final boss' remains, I promise! Until that fateful moment, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!