But you're still hungry.

I played the PS2 remake. This game has A LOT of systems. I had the most fun when I was running around like a headless chicken with no money while getting carried away by whatever event I encountered while traveling; once things calmed down (which was around ER 20, so good job to whoever paced the game) I got choice paralysis and/or no longer felt motivated to trek somewhere else to find a quest — I think the “no grinding” worked too well for me. I was not in an optimizing mood and did not want to think too hard about the systems. I did like that the game doesn’t wait for you though. I think that one annoying aspect of some games (cough cough Cyberpunk 2077, but also most RPGs) is that you have some urgent quest to save the world, yet no one bats an eye at you going off to grind or do side quests or fill out the map or whatever. And in RS, you could do that, but then you’ll lose some Fatestones or miss some events and feel like the grinding was not a great use of your time.

List of reactions in order:

• wow, Albert. I get to pick his gender independently of his appearance!
• oh, Diana. she has almost the same face and hair as Albert, no wonder we could pick our gender when all you need to do is smooth out the hair a little...talk about a drag family resemblance...
• uh oh what if I fight too much and raise my ER prematurely? I am in shiverland and I AM SO POOR...why is everything so costly...
• Why do I walk so slowly??? 2x speed here I come!
• It’s weird to be so free! I traveled by boat to everywhere I could reach on the map, but I’m not really sure what to do besides going to crystal city.
• I clicked apothecary’s choice after I got a lot of herbs from shiverland and ended up with a ton of balms???
• I can’t believe that they fully voiced the dialogue (which forces the townspeople to say more meaningful things) but character expressions never change so they say things like “let’s get married” so stocially.
• I am still so poor, people are like “check out this dungeon” but it doesn’t seem to have that much gold.
• I didn’t realize there was no reward for beating up the mummies in the catacombs after Oh, Mummy, so I got some stat increases and lost some LP from those fights.
• I bought healing water for a second person! but I’m still underleveled (or appropriately leveled??) because every fight sparks new techs and raises a bunch of my stats...I keep spamming the highest-BP techs and praying because I don’t understand when techs combo with each other
• Newly recruited characters don’t have that much HP. But at least I’m not rotating weapons aggressively between my characters to try to raise their stats like I did in SaGa 2, and because techs are weapon type-specific I’m not being completionist and sparking things per-weapon before moving on to the next one...
• Why do I have to pay money for more magic :(
• Bro this guy whose wife and kid kill themselves by jumping after a statue of Yucomb...and then they keep showing him and his remaining son being like “we gotta worship Yucomb more! unlike our dead family members!”
• In terms of the story, I admit I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I like that you’ll go to a new place and there will be something happening that’s fairly independent of other zones. It does make the world feel “alive” vs something that only reveals itself to you because you need it for the plot. The game encourages lots of hopping around with the fast travel system and having its NPCs also wander over time, but I could totally see spending one playthrough just trying to see things unfold in one specific region.
• I do not understand the blacksmith. I’ve been using it because I can’t afford new weapons so I just try to temper my noob weapons with harmonious materials when possible, but also, I feel like that effort is kind of wasted because obviously I should just buy the best weapons and temper them BUT I AM SO POOR AGH
• Wow these Gecklings are just doing their best to not be thought of as just “Saruin’s minions”...also wtf is this map
• The minstrel tales are great. So is the library. I don’t even care that the info is probably relevant I just am happy with the worldbuilding! But thank you RS for not actually requiring me to translate the Geckling text, I am glad Albert is keeping track himself of the translation.
• I returned to Melvir and saw a pirate attack!!! I like feeling the game time passing me by (though my sessions have to be fairly short because I used to rest between “actual things happening” by walking around in circles and watching a show or something while grinding, and now I spend the whole time running like a madman in 2x speed really hoping that my characters don’t die).
• Also I realize I need a mage...I also keep doing things before I go to the inn for LP restoration, like getting accosted by Marina to go to the underground temple or going to the isle of evil...how was I supposed to know that I was triggering a new quest when talking to people???
• Also wow this knights storyline is so long!
• OK I finally stopped accosting/being accosted by random people who would send me on quests. I think I’m at ER 20. What am I supposed to do now, grind before taking on the Trials of Elore?? What a crazy idea!!
• Let’s check out this Pyrix dude — what do you mean I’m just carrying items in a circle for the four elemental lords and then I have to kill a bunch of monster types just to get a weapon? I don’t feel very motivated anymore to do that grinding especially since my stat increases have tapered off LOL
• I got...my first treasure map...not like I have time to use it anymore...
• I thought the ending sequence where you see the nobles you interacted with in the Dominion, Rosalia, Kjar, and Estamir fend off the monsters and interact with each other was really fun and gave an appropriate feeling of gravity to my quest to defeat Saruin; I wish there were more of these scenes throughout. That said, I can understand that the game systems are very deep and most people will probably be happy to spend a lot of time mastering those instead of being like “no I do not want to check Uso every ER to trigger an encounter”.
• Aw man everyone thinks we’re dead! But we’re not! Nooo Diana your brother’s still alive >_<

I don’t want to start a second playthrough even though I am curious what Saruin meant about Elore manipulating us (sorry) but I had fun! Maybe in the future I’ll look up how to get the neutral/evil endings.