It wasn't until the next year that I decided to give it another try, on the 7th of March. With morale restored and a new platform to play on: Play Station 3
I got the game a couple of years ago and did a good couple of challenges after beating the game for the first time ever(Yes, I've known this game since I was 3, emulated it since I was like 12, and didn't beat it until I was 19 for weird personal reasons). THE POINT BEING that now I have a version very close to the original and without cheats. The closest thing to cheats this thing has is giving me unlimited Memory Cards, now that's something I wish I had as a kid. Also, decided to try my mom's old TV and it looks soooo cool, reminds me of when my cousin played it on my grandma's huge TV when I was a baby. This TV didn't last long tho, it took too much space and I didn't really use it, so the next pics will all feature my LED TV.
This is the attempt I've stuck with until today (4/Jul/2023)
Yeah, took me a while to post my first update, on the 8th of June, and of course it was for Crush Dance. This is actually when I recovered the desire to document my challenge, and for some reason I recorded this instead of taking a picture, so here's a GIF to not keep you guessing what it looks like, sorry for the garbage quality. This is where my progress REALLY gets going.
And thus begins the habit of updating at every level! And this time it took me only 5 days! On top of that, I broke 10000 Gold, and that's actually a milestone since that means I can buy a Legend Casque AS SOON AS I GET TO LOHAN, which would make whomever wears it almost immmune to magic damage, AKA it's absolutely OP and that's why it costs so much.
Level 17! Took me only 2 days and I'm now caught up to my previous attempt :D
Here I also start checking on my own progress percentually/proportionally to the goal, and as we can see, it's just 2% of the way through. Seems discouraging, but I'm honestly ready to go the distance >:D
Once again, 2 days. This was my first time reaching one thousand EXP in a single day, something that would become quite the important breakthrough. Also, the quality of the picture is so clear because I used a capture card to play while on the PC and thus took a relatively native screenshot. Neat, ain't it? :D
Yet again, 2 days! This was also the beginning of levels taking 2K EXP each to reach. Thankfully, by this point in the challenge I was prepared.
IN A SINGLE DAY, I got the 2K EXP needed to get to lvl 20, proving how much EXP I can get on a good day. Also, this is the point where Dart gets over one thousand HP, and enemies only deal A SINGLE HP PER ATTACK. Considering that the Guard command heals 10% of the user's HP and cuts all incoming damage by half, this makes it so I can heal from at least 100 attacks in a single turn AND nullifying all incoming damage, allowing me to heal to full whenever I want. As if dealing 10 times the monsters' HP with the weakest attacks wasn't enough :P
Not much is new, I organized the grind to be able to level up on the next day, and here we have it: Level 21!
This is no exaggeration, and I'll elaborate why.
I discoverd this game when I was 3 years old thanks to my cousin Gastón. The Legend of Dragoon quickly became one of the favorite games of my family, to this day my mom, aunts and uncle recognize the names of Dart, Rose, Shana and Lavitz at least, and I bet also can quote Dart's voiceover for Double Slash.
At one point, Disc 2 was lost... We could never find it, so we got stuck on Disc 1, and could do nothing but play it over and over until we got our PS1s hacked and got some burnt copies of the game years later... But this trap inside Disc 1 stuck with me for a while, so I did get a taste for mild grinding. I did get Dart and Lavitz to Dragoon Level 5, got all of Lavitz's additions, and mastered all additions of Dart up to Crush Dance, because I thought it was practically impossible to reach level 22 before Disc 2, and that the grind would be unbearably slow. To give you an idea of how much I played Disc 1, I learnt how to do Albert's Flower Storm laying upside down on the bed with my eyes closed.
So, to me, finally seeing Madness Hero existing in Disc 1... Furthermore, RIGHT OUTSIDE SELES, BEFORE SETTING FOOT IN HELLENA PRISON, is actually fulfilling a childhood dream... And there's more of this to come, and I will gladly share these memories with you as they become relevant in the challenge >:D
Only a bit over 500 EXP later, not even a quarter of the way to level 23, I have performed Madness Hero 99 times. I did it on the same freaking day, and even had lunch before I did it. Don't I tell you B)