So I've been trying to finish SC on Hard for the past year or so. I stopped playing around Chapter 8 for a number of reason. What in the fuck were they thinking with this chapter? Taking all that glorious momentum that was slowly building (and at a fine pace) throughout the whole game, then dumping you into a chapter right before the finale where you walk around places you've been at least two (if not three or four) times before doing a main quest in every region. WHY? I get it, it's kind of a way to say goodbye to each region, but you've essentially been doing that throughout the entirety of SC already. Really bothers me, particularly because there are some absolutely INSANE difficulty spikes on Hard in this chapter, particularly in the Bracer sidequests that you are basically forced into doing to keep abreast with the level curve. I played through all of FC and up to this point in SC on Hard and loved it, despite there being a few annoying fights that slowed down my progress. But things like Armored Hydra and the Doom archaisms are just fucking ridiculous anti-fun garbage encounters. Makes me wonder if they even tested this portion on Hard difficulty thoroughly before release. I just keep picking it up after a few months in hopes that a fresh perspective will give me the patience to wade through Chapter 8, but then end up only playing for an hour (or sometimes less) before I put down my controller in disgust. I come posting now straight from one such horribly disappointing session.
So anyway, rant aside, my biggest frustration is that this shit is keeping me from continuing with this series that I overall love. I wish there was a way to just switch back to normal difficulty, so I could finish the game without banging my head against the wall. I've looked for ways to alter my save files, and have only found hex editor solutions for FC and 3rd.
And the other major point of this post: if this stuff has slowed down my playthough to this degree, will I enjoy Hard difficulty in the Cold Steel series? Again, I love the challenge and way it urges you to use each turn to its fullest, but bullshit bloat and insane one-shots on my level 78 party is not what I consider a fair challenge. Just poor design. Also, if anyone knows how I can alter my save file to switch it to Normal difficulty, let me know, because it would save the end of this game for me. Sad thing is that these last few chapters have really soured my experience with SC, which was a very enjoyable experience for the most part. Now I want nothing more than to finish it, be done with it, and probably never play it again.
