Depends on how you play I suppose. I am 10 hours in and I just got to the fighter's arena. I bet most get there in 5.

I went into the Astral Caves before going into the arena so I cannot recruit Ashlay ever :'(
And he has some cool moves to teach Roddick.

To make things worse, I have Cyuss this play and now I don't think I can recruit Phia. I believe to get her, you can't have Cyuss or Ashlay. She looks to be much like Aston too.

Guess that means I will have to play 3 times minimum to see all entire cast.

FOR SHAME! How horrible to have to play an awesome game more than twice! Somehow though, I think you can bare this burden.

Sarcasm aside, I hope you are enjoying it as much as I did. I didn't leave the battle arena till Roddick was C class, I believe. Actually, I did some level grinding around here. The dungeon to the west of town gives some pretty good experience. Even better idea is once you are strong enough, dump Ilia and Cyuss if you don't plan to use them as final characters and just pay with Roddick... he'll be getting three times the EXP then... which helps greatly.

Also, have you had that problem with melee characters dumping every drop of MP they have to their name as fast as possible?

Anyway, back to the arena... the class A rank fight (which is the final rank, btw) has this one enemy in the first round that can split. If you get a paralysis charm or something to prevent paralysis, equip it and try and coax that guy to split. I was getting 81k EXP for doing that, no lie. You just have to be strong enough to take him.

I am 30 hours in and I have done all but 5 of the 107 private actions. Actually, of the 107, only 85 or so are available with my party selections. I am also working on raising Ronyx and Ilia's Affection Points to at least nine for each other. Its an invisible stat but I know I am still under nine because the final PA for them won't execute until I raise it to nine. In it [spoiler]Ronyx proposes to Ilia[/spoiler] and unlocks a special scene after the credits. I am wondering if it is that they [spoiler]get together and have Claude[/spoiler]. That would be interesting for sure.

I have all but one of the kings' emblems. Once the four PA's that are only available before collecting all emblems are completed, I will push ahead with the story and see what I can do with the Cave of Trials (is that what its called in FD?)

Right now, Roddick is level 51, Cyuss lvl 50, Millie lvl 38, Ronyx lvl 38, and my current backup is: Ilia lvl 48, Ioshua lvl 47, Mavelle lvl 30, Pericci lvl 40. I plan to try them all out and level them all to 50-60 to see how they work with each other as well as to raise their Affection Points for each other.

I have avoided the Old Race Ruins because I know I could lose [spoiler]Mavelle[/spoiler] if I go there and I want to see the coupling of [spoiler]her and Ioshua end game.[/spoiler]

I am really having a blast with the customization and item creation. I am pushing each character to develop the talents they lack as well by using the skills they tend to fail in. Roddick has all but 3 talents so far. I haven't used many Super Specialty skills yet other than Group Appraisal to lower costs at stores. That came in extremely handy when buying EXPENSIVE items from Santa.

The Special Arts (Killer Moves) do in fact unlock newer ones when they are used so many times in battle. Shockwave Swirl, for example, unlocks Pheonix Blast around 400-450 uses so long as you found the Four Beasts SFT Skill. There are others as well of course. Also when you get Link Combo accessory, link it to one of your spellcasters. Not only does it let you link two pairs of Specialty Arts together, but by linking with a spell caster, they have no SA's to lose and the L and R set spells remain. There is absolutely no loss this way. A small exploit for sure but significant none the less.

I know most have moved on to other games, but have any of you played this recently? What party members do you have? Levels and hours played?

I can't get past the Purgatorium... can't find the true entrance. Gave up on it. So early into the game too.

Its just [spoiler]around the corner of the mountain on the world map. It has no world map icon so it is easy to miss. Just walk to the right of the entrance you can see along the mountain[/spoiler] and you will find it.

I had a little problem with that too. The new world map for SO1 was so different from its SNES counterpart, it was almost entirely new. But yeah, [spoiler]hug the wall, always be touching it as you walk around and you'll eventually stumble into it.[/spoiler]

I haven't started up my second play through just yet... and it'll probably be a while before I do. But There are challenges yet to be met that I must... meet.

I know this a really stupid question, but in this remake, do the end battle spoils (Fol, exp, items.) still come out of a treasure chest or a crate?

Unfortunately no... I kind of liked that about the original.

I can still here that "bwomp" sound of things popping out.

haha, I have no idea what sound you are talking about as I've never had sound turned on while playing the game.

O_o and why on earth would yo do that?

*SQUEALS*
I am getting close to the end of the game! I am going into [spoiler]the Demon World[/spoiler] and I know its near the end. I was a little surprised when [spoiler]those monster b*tches blew up that town.[/spoiler] I need to go back to the arena and win Omega SFT before going any further towards the final areas.

My party is sitting around level 65-70 and I just hit 35 hours not 10 minutes ago. I'm pretty sure I could rush through to the end and not have to worry about leveling more than what would naturally occur on my way. Its my hope that with all the PA's out of the way (with the exception of one that only becomes available when you save just before the final boss) that I can get to the end in about 5 hours. Maybe I can even save up enough for the final items in Santa's Shop, with the help of Cinderella Glass and Group Appraisal of course.

I haven't tried Contraband Super Specialty at all yet as it has a 20% probability of lowering the party's Affection Points across the board. That would be catastrophic. All my hard work with all the Private Actions would be wasted. I do look forward to using it once I enter the Seven Star Cave (after beating the game of course) and maxing out like mad. I already reached max proficiency with a few Special Arts (999 uses in battle) for Roddick and Ilia. I am also going down the list in the easier battles to max Ronyx's magic uses.

I don't understand why they even gave Ronyx such weak ass spells like Thunderbolt and Graive. By the time he joins the part, those are nearly useless. I do use Thunderbolt in [spoiler]the second visit to the Purgatorium[/spoiler] because it has such a fast cast time and recover time that I can interrupt the enemies. They are also weak to it and it some times stuns them for an added bonus. And at 1MP, its flying out like ten times in a forty second battle.

Oh and Millie really is the glue of my party. I just have her set to "Do what ever it takes!" and she is throwing around stat altering spells for the party as well as against the enemy. She is also a faithful healer and still finds time to use her offensive magic. I find myself controlling Ronyx the majority of the time and when things get tough I switch between him and Millie to keep the spells and items flowing and to constantly interrupt the enemy. I take control of Roddick only when his Special Arts are doing 0 damage (due to elemental affinities) and have him melee and use items.

So I beat the game a few days ago. The end boss was pretty easy. But I then went into the Cave of the Seven Stars. At first it was a bit hard and then, after maxing all my skills (especially battle skills) it got pretty easy. There were a couple battles that I game-overed but not nearly as much as I thought. I spent a good 10 or so hours in the lower floors just grinding levels so I could advance into the cave. I just finished the CotSS and I have to say the end battle was hella hard. I used all 20 resurrection elixirs and a few other resuscitation items as well as many raise dead spells. I was constantly healing and using stat boosting items. Once the sorcerer was out of the way it was a bit easier though. I barely won.

After the battle I raced to the exit (its 30 floors) turning off training and enlightenment just to be safe. I also played The Lonely Blues song to fight fewer enemies. I was really worried that I was going to lose a battle and have to go back 3 hours to my last save. I did get out of there but it was close. So now that I beat the game and the CotSS, I will put this aside for SO:SE. I do plan to come back to this game and play again for more characters. I also missed a movie this play through (the one in the second row, far right.)

So how is everyone else doing?

I haven't hit os the Co7S yet... but I plan to on my second run through. I've already been playing SE for a while though (getting close to picking up Ashton). But I plan to hit up FD again sometime after I beat TLH.

Quick question guys. I'm stuck in the trial in the Van kingdom. How the cluck to I get past that annoying moon puzzle? [spoiler]I just love how the full moon room leads you to a stupid message which doesn't help in the least.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]just go the room and flip switches 1, 3, 4, and 5. Switch 1 being the far left and such.[/spoiler]