I was right about how close to the end of the game I was, but still there was another chapter after Chapter 7. It was very short, though.
Before that, though, I had some more previous bosses to kill again (adding to the SuckySuck(TM)-ness of the end of game proceedings), and then, with the Xylophone Tower completed, it was time to kill the big dragon baddie thing that Legano (I think that’s his name) turned into. He was actually pretty easy, though.
Then, the game crashed. Again, and again, and again. I couldn’t progress any further, as although I’d saved my game after killing the boss, it wouldn’t let me start the final chapter. I cleaned the cache and physically cleaned the disc, and finally it let me progress. Where I had to kill, well, a bloody great spoiler, actually.
And that was it. The end sequence was almost an hour long, with cut scenes and story, and then some strange “life lessons” from the characters, then the credits, and then a strange little bonus cartoon about Mr Snail and Mr Caterpillar. No, really.
My “game completed” save says 24 hours, 2 minutes. That’s a bit shorter than I was expecting, but still puts it in the realm of “long game” – in my book, anyway. Overall, it was a great RPG. I loved it from start to finish, and the only frustrations I had were with the crashing in the latter half of the game – which seemed to get worse and worse the further in I got.
So that’s the first game of 2008 I’ve completed. Hurrah!