MikeLemmer

@meatsofevil: Please invite FioredeiL.

From the TvTropes article on it:

"This game is notorious for the nasty tricks it pulls on the player, most of which were exacerbated by Enix's bean-counting localization team. In an effort to pad out the length, they had a habit of jacking up the damage output and random encounters in their games, rendering some of them unplayable. The English version of 7th Saga is one of the biggest casualties of this approach. Blessedly, it was also one of the last."

"Due to developer carelessness in the US and EU versions, you get smaller bonuses upon levelup, and the game was not rebalanced accordingly. (Naturally there are fan-created patches that fix this.) It's entirely possible for some characters to die on the very first monster they encounter. The amount of level grinding needed to get anywhere borders on the obscene with certain characters. But the game caps your level just a little too soon so you're never quite the level you need to be. Equipment is also overpriced and underpowered. Monsters regularly thrown nasty status effects and instant death attacks at you. It's the hardest RPG on the SNES without question."

Apparently the Japanese version of the game is much more reasonable.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Whew, I was worried for a moment there.

@junkerman: I think it's more she assumes he will eventually (perhaps in another century or two) see things her way and admit she was right and that all his suffering is worth not dying. It's "mother knows best" taken to a life-destroying extreme. She's not ignorant of his suffering, she just believes it's worth immortality.

Granted, we're not sure how much of that is Freya's actual personality. The game confirms after what Odin did to her, she's literally "not all there".

But it also highlights a common vice with the gods: they believe they are above anyone's judgement but their own. Kratos killing Baldur is a retort that no, their actions have consequences. They can't get away with whatever they want just because other gods are fine with it.

Sindri just happening to have mistletoe arrows for Atreus seems like a giant coincidence at first, but given it's implied that Faye knew prophecies about this entire trip and was a friend of Sindri, I could see it handwaved by her convincing Sindri to use mistletoe arrows years ago just to set this up.

I could explain away Thor waiting to confront Kratos for years by Odin being a paranoid, manipulative b**tard. Given that Kratos killed the entire Greek pantheon and Baldur, and with Ragnarok fast approaching, Odin would probably keep Thor busy until everything was in place to assure Kratos & Atreus would not be walking away from that fight.

Atreus being Loki doesn't (yet) imply he'll actually turn evil like in the myths. It's heavily suggested Freya manipulates the myths and stories to turn Kratos and Loki into the bad guys; the actual truth is up in the air, which is a good setup for telling a story about Ragnarok without having every story beat spoiled millenia ago.

@jasonr86: In retrospect, I view that part as a sadistic choice Kratos had to intervene in. He knows from previous experience that killing any god has devastating consequences on the surrounding landscape, and while she may have been fine with dying, letting a major goddess of love die would probably end badly for a lot of people. And since there was no guarantee they wouldn't have to put Baldur down afterwards, it was also a choice between letting 1 god die or potentially letting 2 gods die. Given how many opportunities Kratos gave him to just walk away, his continued insistence on murdering his mother just confirmed he was too far gone and had to be put down.

Also technically, Kratos didn't take away Freya's choice to die; I doubt he would've forcibly intervened if she tried to commit suicide. He took away Baldur's choice to murder her. Important distinction. Freya only wanted to die because Baldur wanted to kill her. From Kratos' experience, he knew getting revenge wouldn't satisfy Baldur. (And if he was satisfied by it, it would just mean he is a complete monster.) So he intervened. On the plus side, it looks like this tangled relationship of being hated by someone you were fond of will carry through the next few games.

As a closing note, I heard some rumors there were hints throughout the game that Kratos will actually be sent back in time and become Tyr. The "big one" is that some images of Tyr look like Kratos without his tattoos, but you could argue how quickly he grasps the fundamentals of realm travel and differences in the flow of time imply he's pretty smart when he's not raging about things. I hope this is true because I find the thought of Kratos turning peacemaker and trader hilarious.

This reminds me of an illuminating quote about "problem players" I read over at TheAngryGM.com:

"Okay, obviously, there ARE problem players. But they aren’t problem PLAYERS. They are problem PEOPLE. Because they are selfish, self-centered, antisocial, obnoxious, rude, or poorly socialized. They lack the basic social skills needed to understand how group games work."

I wouldn't recommend deer; it's dry and has a weird aftertaste.

Yeah, TV watching has dropped off sharply in the US, hence the increase in ads. TV providers are now focusing on the elderly audience (hence a lot of commercials for medicine/healthcare) who made a tradition of watching it, as they're finding it increasingly hard to get younger generations to watch. Even my 60-yr old parents are thinking about cutting the cable because of how little of it they watch.

Game seems meh at best. Extremely tough, extremely random. Hard to make progress, dying a lot due to dumb luck.