Excellent. The first two seasons struggle somewhat, especially the second, but seasons three and four rival the best of A:TLA.

Realizing it doesn't help can be huge too. I honestly saw beating myself up as virtuous and thought all my shortcomings were because I didn't have the strength to take myself ENOUGH to task. When I learned that, to the contrary, that was at the root of a lot of problems and it would be better not to do it, it was a…

Upvoted for original and best Master

A.V. Club account holdout here. I will not make a Disqus account until forced to, no matter how many times I get randomly logged out.

Oh yes, I dearly love that game. The class-changes and the chance to pick your own party are wonderful (in fact, it feels like a precursor to Dragon Age: Origins). I only wish you could transition to your final class sooner than right before the final dungeon.

Nothing wrong with that, but for me it was pure completist compulsion. I actually hated being so overpowered for fights, thus rendering any need for battle tactics (my favorite part) null. Doing something I found to be a tedious chore, the only result of which was to make the part I was looking forward to less fun.…

Good point. In fact, that threw me off quite a bit. I had come to that game from Zelda LTTP, which definitely isn't turn-based and was the only other nominally RPG-style game I had played before SoM. I actually beat SoM more than once before I realized you were supposed to wait for your turn-meter to fill up again…

I would think they'd at least have started referring to the guy they knew as Thawne once they found out he was an impostor. It's like they give more weight to their perception of him as Wells than to the fact that he… you know… wasn't.

I was definitely one of the kids hit hard by Aerith's death. I was so sure she would get revived. I mean, she has her own weapon type. Come on. Then I got to the next town and there were no staves for sale. That's when it hit me.

I did that with Secret of Mana (my first RPG that involved EXP-based leveling). I started out doing no grinding. Then once I realized that was a thing, I felt like I HAD to get every character to their maximum skill level with every weapon and every spell before moving on, even if I never used them. I spent the whole…

Every time I start FFIV I think, "Man, the Dark Knight is so badass. I wish I could just stay a Dark Knight instead of going all goody-goody and putting a bone in my hair." By the time I get through Mount Ordeals, I am so incredibly exited to be a Paladin, leave behind my tainted past and right wrongs. I don't know…

I couldn't really get into III either, but it gets a pass for me for being the beginning of the road that led to Final Fantasy Tactics, one of the only games from that era I still come back to.

If anyone else wants to Google that concept art, do yourself a favor and enable safe-search. Jesus Christ, people.

I love that you picked the Sealed Cave to focus on. I always thought there was something special about the atmosphere of that mission, and you hit the nail on the head in picking out just what it was. It almost feels like one of those claustrophobic settings from a Don Bluth movie somehow even with the simplistic…

I agree, but I would add that you should find a translation of the original Japanese FFIV release, rather than the dumbed-down American FFII version. The American version was the one I originally played, but the Japanese one doesn't lose anything and adds a lot. The only caveat would be if you're really attached to…

Chrono Trigger was my entry to proper JRPGs (well, depends if you want to count Secret of Mana, though that wasn't turn-based), then FFIII, then FFII. I borrowed the FFII cartridge from my friend in seventh grade. I remember it sitting in my backpack all day. It was the longest day of my life. The anticipation I felt…

What makes you think Hillary doesn't want to rig the economy so its even easier for the rich to build their wealth and influence at the expense of everyone else? Bill was a huge part of allowing them to concentrate that much wealth in the first place. And Hilary is funded largely by those same wealthy people, for the…

BATMANGA is correct that the main thing keeping us from addressing climate change is powerful business interests who caused the problem in the first place and would stand to lose the most if we addressed it in earnest. Clinton accepts money from those interests just as much as the Republicans do. She talks about…

I buy the idea that she didn't expect him to care, and had second thoughts when he did. It makes her position a bit more understandable. But shifting motivations or no, if someone comes to a romantic prospect with "I'm moving away to do what I've always wanted to do. Aren't you going to beg me to stay, and thus take…

I seem to be the only person who prefers the American Psycho book. In the movie, the yuppie serial killer angle is played for contrast: "He has it all, yet he still has the need to kill." In the book it seemed as though serial killing was just the next logical progression of the yuppie worldview. It started to seem…