I finally did it

I think this is my first reddit post. That's how excited I am and justed wanted to share my experience.

Ive eyed this game off since launch and finally bought it two weeks ago (I know, stupid). Exploring the first map felt, weird. I hated the Dodge/party system and the combat felt off initially.

I did however love the aesthetic, the atmosphere, soundtrack and the gloomy, mysterious number up on a cliff on a distant island. So I pushed myself through to see more story. I found the first optional boss and got slapped. I forced myself for over an hour, learning the early systems, which was well worth it.

After finally felling the spear lord, I still wasn't convinced. But once I hit the next map, started parrying and using pictos/lumina for a build. I was hooked!

This story, combat, atmosphere and soundtrack has been phenomenal and I've enjoyed every part of this game (not gestral beach though, ughhh).

Anyways, long story short, after farming lumina for a couple of days and perfecting my builds, I finally defeated Simon, without any one hit build, with defenses, terrible parrying and dodging and a skin of my teeth, last hit with a final remaining Sciel (my favorite).

I have felled many of difficult hidden bosses in JRPGs, with FFXs hidden summon being a proud achievement. Simon is now my top, pinnacle, proud moment.

Well done Sandfall, this game is a masterpiece and I hope this IP you have created only gets better and better. E33 now sits as my favorite turn based RPG, kicking shining force 2 off of its glorious, 30 year throne.

Thank you if you read all of my mind vomit, just had to share my positive experience. Onward to new game + and running through with Maelle and Lune who were benched for majority of my playthrough.