Alundra

Alundra, as mentioned on the XenoGears node, may be charitably reviewed as a thirty-five hour pain in the ass.

Don't get me wrong; it's a great game, with gameplay reminiscent of Zelda reminiscent isn't a strong enough word... ...all right, not just reminiscent; hell reminiscent!, a pretty good soundtrack, and relatively original plot details (always amusing to play a straightforward RPG where half of the villagers die). But you need a high frustration threshhold.

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Also as mentioned on the XenoGears node, Alundra contains the Jump From Hell. Basically, it involves quickly (but not too quickly; wouldn't want them to both go off at once) and precisely (can't have them setting each other off) throwing two bombs down onto the floor near a switch, jumping across a couple of gaps and grabbing a torch, and then jumping back. Naturally, if too much time is taken doing any of these things, the bombs go off, which means you have to start over.

Of course, the only reason one has to grab the torch is to burn down a bush. Since you get a fire wand later in the game, it's always possible to wuss out and come back later and use that. Various pieces of circumstantial evidence make me think that this was impossible at some point (the Japanese version?) in the design phase, however... :-P Given the bitchy nature of the rest of the game, I was *expecting* it to be impossible, so maybe it's just as well.

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VideoGame