I picked both of these up last week, and I'm making my way through the first DDS. I'm about 3 hours in, somewhere in the middle of Manipura. I've been through three numbered gates so far, I think.

The story for the game is awesome so far, but it's just too damn hard! I'm getting my ass handed to me. I guess I just need to level up, but it seems like the difficulty ramped up pretty quickly. Has anyone else checked these out, and have you had these same problems (IE: after years of playing watered down games the real hardcore ones beat your ass into a pulp)?

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Thank you, thank you. Glad to be here.

I noticed that sometimes I get extra turns when I use spells, which rules. I'll just have to remember weaknesses and really plan my battles accordingly. I know I'll have some serious levelling up to do, too, so I can learn multi-target attack spells. Heat has a multi-fire, Argilla has the multi-earth, but I still need to get Serph a multi-ice... back to the Mantra grid (and hours of random battles!).

I read that DDS1 was pretty much just setup, which is fine. I'm in this for the long haul.

Meguro does kick some serious ass. The DDS boxset is one of my current faves... MAN, there's always something sweet to listen to when I put that one on shuffle. I'm a little disappointed by the regular battle themes in-game so far, but the amazing area themes more than make up for it.

I just need to make sure I put down NSMB for long enough to get my stats and spells up to par...

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