Nearly Done Everything In COE33

 Naturally, a game with as many hidden secrets and such will always leave you with a sense that there's something left to get. There are also some Gestral Beach minigames that, well, we'll see about (the volleyball one is particularly nasty, though I've only made one or two attempts on the climbing wall - I did finally get up the super-high obstacle course where you climb over random objects).

Anyway, after defeating the monster found in the Painter's Workshops (actually, now I'm wondering if there are three of them - I don't think so, but worth checking out) I've made myself through Renoir's Drafts, and have entered the Abyss zone, hidden within the former, though I haven't tried going further.

I'm still aching a bit from the melancholy ambiguity over what the "good" ending of the game is (while I think I have a decent philosophical defense for my choice, the cutscene that plays sure tinges things with a sense that something terrible has happened) it has been somewhat pleasant to be able to continue engaging with the really fun gameplay in a manner somewhat less couched in existential angst and grief.

That being said, I think I'm reaching a point where I'm ok for it to be over. Make no mistake, this game is incredible, and well worth checking out if you are willing to play a turn-based RPG that nevertheless requires action-like reflexes (the comparisons with souls-likes are not unfounded - there's a very similar feeling of mastery when you finally figure out the timing on a boss's attacks and can effectively parry them - one thing I highly recommend is keeping an ear out for sound effects, which are usually a good queue for when precisely to hit that parry button).

Still, I've been playing this pretty extensively, when my roommate isn't on his own playthrough (I'm waiting for him to get to the Monolith, where the game's biggest plot revelations begin to unfold).

Anyway, I might check out Final Fantasy IX after this, which said roommate had started playing before I got this, and which I've always heard good things about. Might be nice to play a turn-based RPG that is less reflex-driven.