音時雨 ～Regentropfen～

At the very, very beginning, let me say it otherwise I won't have a chance to switch topic:

Happy holidays and enjoy the time being a NEET~ (ヽ´ω`)

About the title:

ToraYagi (= TigerGoat) = TrYaGain = Try Again.

I was already spoiled through the OST of Biohazard: Code Veronica, so I was never surprised while seeing Steve's end. Anyway, the real men in Biohazard series are Chris, Leon and Wesker! xD

Continued from last time, I finally cleared this game this morning.
↓ my "shinning" record:

I never complain about my playing rank -- I bet the actual death/continue count would go over 100 (remember my 2-hour boss fight!).

Until last night, I suddenly realised who's the guy on the game start screen:

Chris!!!
I apologise! I'm too used to your muscle build in bio5. ^^;

Chris' turn indeed graded up the game difficulty. Not mentioning the earthworm we all know well from bio3, our beloved leader Wesker soon unlocked my biggest trauma: hunters. And yet two types this time, while one of them can poison you! Σ(ﾟДﾟ)
At least we now remember the importance of blue herbs... (I didn't use it at all in bio3 by the way.)

But really shotgun is my romance (I love it over magnum). Two shots make hunters down, then plus a few knife stabs Chris can make them through with no damage. Maybe you'll laugh, but I don't know how to aim a single monster properly with a submachine gun (and they occupy two item slots).

Eventually I made my way to the Antarctic base (every one in this game is resistant to being frozen). Right beside the Antarctic mansion, Capcom staff gave us a nostalgic feeling of bio1: the blue room + a statue, the tiger + 2 gems, and even the interior of the 1F hall.
And here it began my another endless retrying = Claire's struggle with the crystal ball (which took me at least 30 minutes), and escape (I didn't know I should run or fire) from the "reborn Steve", followed by Chris' mini last-boss fight = Alexia (no matter how I think she's like a fire-magician). I was surprised that 10 shotgun shells made it, but before that I got my neck twisted twice just because her hands reached me.
When biohazard became such a instant-killing game?? ~_~

The most amazing thing was, the final boss didn't make me headache. I almost misunderstood Wesker was the real final boss but there's no reason for him to die (think about bio5!).
Now I could believe that all biohazard final bosses are supposed to be finished by a sort of special weapon, like a rocket launcher in "1" and "2", the rail canon in "3", and the thing (forgot its name...) in "Veronica". As a result, I haven't used the magnum for even one single time, and due to my early stage worry about ammunition, I managed to die and retry survive with a combat knife.

Later on, all walkthroughs I've found mentioned this game was harder than most others in this series. While obtaining S rank seemed impossible for me, maybe I should aim for unlocking Wesker in the extra mini game.
-- But now I'm going to start bio4 (Leon <3)~

In the day with shortest daytime, I got my longest "nightmare" -- A boss who can be dealt with less than 7 rifle bullets cost me 2 hours to fight. It's 2x times longer than the Seven-Lucky-Gods I just did recently in Shadow Hearts II. Not because of it's HP-rich, but simply due to Capcom was too demanding I didn't know how to shoot without an auto-aim (I'm now worrying about how I could make through biohazard 4+).
Since the event was triggered after I got the rifle, I believed it would be the silver bullet for the coming boss fight. I knew I was supposed to shoot the boss' heart, but I didn't know how to aim properly while dodging his attacks. So during the 2 hours, I lost count of my death-time: retry > "attempt" to shoot > out of bullets OR got slapped and fall off from the platform (= instant death).

↑↑↑ Biohazard -Code Veronica-, the Antarctic poisonous boss (and as usual I never know the real name of any enemy).
Meanwhile, this game is probably the meanest game I've done so far. Thus in this post, the topic is my gameplay experience.
-- No images, as I couldn't take screen shots.

-Prison-
I almost missed the combat knife in the very first map area. In the little square after graveyard, I got lost and went back and forth, and eventually found the door after 20 minutes. Then, entering the building with metal-sensitive security boxes, I got confused again and spent another 20 minutes to figure out what I was supposed to do. orz
Up to this point, I already sent Claire to heaven for at least 3 times. So at the early stage, I got my first impression that this bio was so unfriendly.

-Iron Bridge-
A straight path, but why the wooden box wasn't burnt up by the flame? :p

-Palace-
I encountered the "crow" enemy in this place = bats. Walk, no quick turn, and everything should be fine. There were lots of unopened doors with either silver or gold signs: I knew I would forget which one was what very quick! While in the other side it was the airport, and my hunch told me it could be the last area I should go in this game.

-Factory-
Again, unopened doors with this or that sign, plus some card readers. Since when did Biohazard become a memory-game?! When I was anxious to go further due to the lack of save points/herbs, the following save point led me to the first boss(-ish) fight.
Boss = enemy you have to get rid off. But the golden thing with a stretchable rubber hand just died after being shot for ~8 times.
↑ At that moment, I never knew that kind of thing would reappear again and again.

-Private Residence-
Checking the items whenever you get stuck. That's how I opened secretary's room. The music box passcode cost me for 1 hour as I kept thinking I was supposed to see it opening rather than read the digits directly. Soon, the golden thing broke the glass... to be honest, it's much less terrifying compared to the scene when a licker breaking the glass in bio2.
I was then led to the mansion of the psycho bro-and-sis (I love the BGM though). Their music box pair indeed bothered me a lot. While looking for the red/blue-ants, I was completely lost and wandered for another 1 hours.

-Part I last boss-
Which was our friend Mr. T! and was even weaker than bio1.
I thought Mr. T was the final boss of the entire story, but it didn't make sense as the gameplay was way too short. I fought hard during the battle in the plane, yet soon realised I didn't have to fight at all...
And in the cutscene, I realised there are some handgun bullets under the tank. ^^;

-The Freezer-
Claire, although you said you preferred Hawaii, Capcom staff sent you to The Antarctic.
Regardless how the moth made me feeling sick, I redid this area because I missed the assault rifle in the weapon storage. Some shotgun shells also indicated the gun would sometime show up (shotgun = my romance <3).
Before I figured out how to get the shinning attaché case together with the zombie in the diamond-cutter room, it was the time for the third boss fight. In the very first round, I sillily used up the assault rifle, and wanted to retry. And everything else can now get connected to the beginning of this post~

The boss made me fight for 2 hours. How the game judges whether or not you're targeting the boss' heart was confusing me. At least I somehow made it, and immediately saved my progress -- I won't let it turning to a double-nightmare!

Too much RPG recently!! ∑(ﾟДﾟ)

Without any risk(?), I've smoothly cleared Shadow Hearts II last night. I've got my lesson from Shadow Hearts I, so this time, my saves were separated, and while not being spoiled in terms of the story, I've found a well written guide site to save me some time. Thus I have to apologise to the staff that I had zero intention to figure out their riddles or find a way out of the maze dungeons myself -- I do think they were well designed. I'd do it in a horror game but I can't focus in a RPG as you're forced to fight--or to flee--every a few steps. u_u
An impatient RPG player's conclusion: a non-story-spoiling guide is absolutely necessary! The total time of SH2 with playing guide was more than four times compared to the time I spent on SH2.... Silent Hill 2 completely on my own! To think how long it would take to finish the game with no help makes me headache...

Again, like everyone who played this series said, the stories are really good. SH2 was even a little shocking for both of its endings. It bothered me a lot last night about Kallen's ending. The photo in her hand indicated (based on the hairstyle) she became Uru's mother (=Anne)?! In game it did mention that Uru's name was also his mother's first love's name, which makes sense. But isn't Anne a Russian? And why Kallen still wears the orange outfit? I'm so confused! xD
In the bad ending, what drove Uru to have Roger Bacon to become his father? Althought he's a joyful mysterious being. Well, think in another way, the worldline was changed so this Roger was not that Roger any more... Impossible. It's not Steins;Gate!!

They say the final bosses in Ar Tonelico II were the ones that people don't want to fight, I indeed enjoyed it a lot mainly because Akiko's EXEC_over.METHOD_SUBLIMATION/. I-II blowed up all my other feelings (and I do think Nenesha is annoying..). While Kato was the final boss that I don't want to fight at all. The boss BGM was excellent though.
However, since I spent over 1 hour to fight the 30K HP boss: Seven-Lucky-Gods. The final boss and his familiar spirits lost their standing completely. After the 30K boss fight, everything was like a joke. ^^;

↓ 1 hour!!! (￣д￣)ｴｰ

top: play time before fighting the 30K HP boss.
bottom: play time after the fight and a quick event.
The top save slot is also my never-change main party. I love girls, but for lots of reasons I don't feel like to use any of the SH2 girls. If they could turn Yoshiko to a magic girl I (and Blanca) will be happy. (･ω･)
At last, Joachim was such a fun guy!! (ヽ´ω`)

Speaking of magic girls. It was too late when I realised the colours I eventually chose for "Perfect Pitch" resembled someone in a magic girl anime...

I retried so many times to either fine-tune or start over for an overall balance, and never thought the ribbon's colour caused the most problem. Maybe I should have drawn a bow tie instead (too bad it's too late). At first I used series of pale colours, and soon changed my mind.
The result of using saturated hues reminded me "her" in an anime -- at least my daughter's hair isn't golden. ↓

"Perfect Pitch" -- I wish I had it.

Since I hardly draw background/props myself, this time I was more excited while drawing the magic circle as usual~ and actually there is a cello version (which certainly means the heroine is...) but I'm afraid I can't make it until next year -- regardless the draft was done in early November.. ._.

Bonus:
↓ My favourite scene in Shadow Hearts II