Not playing today, but I'll rate the first four chapters since I don't want to just bump the topic
Chapter 1: Ragnar and Healie are both great characters, and seeing Ragnar slaughter enemies with his amazing level ups is very satisfying. However, the chapter is extremely short. There's probably no way to be higher than level 10 by the end, and the fact that the king gives Ragnar some free level ups just shows how short this chapter is. Town -> town -> dungeon -> dungeon and you're done!
Rating - 6/10. Good short start to the story with great characters.
Chapter 2: To make up the short length of the previous chapter, Alena's chapter is much longer than Ragnar's. Her party members Kiryl and Borya are pretty boring and one-dimensional, and Borya is almost completely worthless in battle. However, the story here is really good and the colosseum fight at the end is an interesting alternative to a regular boss battle. While I don't really like cliffhangers at the end of chapters, this one hangs many of them on the player and makes you play more.
Rating - 8/10. A little too long, but has a great story to mask the one-dimensional party members.
Chapter 3: Basically Recettear lite, Torneko's chapter focuses on making money by either dungeon running or running a weapon shop. Obviously there isn't much story to be talked about, and the chapter quickly turns into a grind.
Rating - 4/10. Play Recettear instead =)
Chapter 4: A quick, short chapter, Meena and Maya setting out to avenge their father don't exactly succeed, but the story about Psaro is expanded here, and we meet Oojam who is awesome for that one scene at the end of the chapter. If Maya wasn't useless in battle for her first seven or so levels this chapter would be less of a grind. Of the four, it was definitely the most difficult, and my party got wiped out quite a few times, not including the scripted battle.
Rating - 6/10. Good expansion to the story, huge jump in difficulty for no reason.
So 2 > 1 >= 4 > 3.
I'm also thinking of who to use in my final party. Ragnar is auto-in already, but the other two spots are open so far.
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2010 Game of the Decade Contest - some guy named Black Turtle won the guru for this
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