Rainbow Moon: Even more grinding heaven

Although I've been playing for twenty hours now, it still feels like I'm in the early stages of the game, if not the very early stages. My little Baldren still boasts nothing more than a measly Lv.18, while I've caught a glimpse of Lv.800 (eight hundred) enemies in one of the dungeons I visited lately. (For the record, said Lv.800 foes were secluded behind a locked door, which was quite a relief. The mere sight of the number 800 hovering over their heads was enough to give me chills, I swear.) Not that this bothers me, mind you: I relish the slow pace of my Rainbow Moon saga and I firmly plan to enjoy every minute of that exquisite trip.

It should surprise no one that I'm running solo, sticking to my little Baldren while letting other potential allies bite the dust to keep them conveniently out of my party. The flow of battles is ten times more comfortable and swifter with a single character, all the more so as recruited allies are usually underlevelled and must be carefully protected during the, oh, first dozens of battles they engage in after joining your crew. But really, the main reason why I don't want to deal with extra units are the Rainbow Pearls. My precious, awesome Rainbow Pearls, which I greedily want to keep for my little Baldren and not share with anyone else. See, Rainbow Pearls can be used to raise up stats beyond the average level increases, and such boosting is basically the key to stay ahead of the enemy mass at all times. Each foe drops one Pearl (two on Moon Days) and only the character that gives the final blow to a foe can harvest the resulting Pearl. Do you see the problem here? If I fight with other units, I will have to share Pearls with them, and stingy, greedy little me doesn't want to do that. At all. All must go to Baldren, period.

And why wouldn't it go to my dear little Baldren? This guy is awesome and does a great job on the battlefield. He's conveniently standing halfway between the physical and magical types, his stats are perfectly balanced, his attack ranges are varied and useful, his special skills are wide-ranging and powerful and last but not least, he eats like a bird. Seriously, he can roam for days surviving on mere carrots, apples and water bottles. What an awesome metabolism, at least for the player that controls him! That's certainly better than ever-hungry Dozeru. (I could feel something was fishy with this guy when the quest to recruit him required me to purchase large amounts of nourishing food.) That being said, even though I'm planning to stick with Baldren to the bitter end, I am still fulfilling recruiting quests and stacking up allies, if only because these quests are entertaining. And who knows, I may stumble upon a roadblock later in the game and be in dire need of some extra units. Or I may unearth a totally awesome overpowered character that makes me forget about Baldren on the spot, although I'm not counting too much on that. My little Baldren is starting to show signs of over-levelling, and this condition is only bound to increase in intensity as I keep running solo. But as usual, let's play and see.

Or let's not, actually, because I'm currently taking a small break from Rainbow Moon. This is not due to the fact that I'm growing tired or bored of it, but rather to the exact opposite. My obsession with this game is growing stronger by the hour, and it makes me do really strange things. Not only did I overcome the tiredness that used to grip me after one hour of play, but I'm now finding myself playing for three or four hours at a time, even when I merely intend to play for thirty minutes. The other day I was playing until 3 A.M., and I wanted to play more despite being exhausted! I also find myself wanting to get up and snatch a play session while I'm in bed and trying to fall asleep; the last time this happened to me was after purchasing my Megadrive in the mid-90s, and I'm not too sure I relish that throwback to my teenage years. Oh, and the game's music is looping in my head more or less all around the clock, obviously. This is all a bit overwhelming, and I feel a break is in order to digest all these feelings and reduce my obsession with Rainbow Moon to a more manageable level.

In the meantime, I'm going to indulge in the free demo of Dragon Quest Builders, which I just dowloaded from the PSN. I'm very much on the fence regarding that game, having never played any building and crafting game à la Minecraft before; and this demo comes just at the right time to help me decide whether to purchase DQB or not. I'll see you later for a post about my impressions of that demo, dear fellow gamers, after which I'll dive back senselessly into Rainbow Moon. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!