For the last several weeks (and for many more at the rate I am going), I have been venturing further and further through the dangerous and foreboding Palace of the Dead in
Tactics Ogre, an optional endeavor for the brave warrior such as myself that is easily taking just as long as the entirety of the core game itself (and this is an RPG we're talking about). The Palace of the Dead is a dreadful place filled with aimless but hostile spirits of the dead, but also the menacing necromancers who control them and some of the strongest dragons and griffon beasts known to inhabit the land. It runs 100 levels deep into the earth, which means 100 battles of about 30 to 45 minutes each in length, consisting of yours truly and the brave army of knights, clerics, and the many heroic main characters of the Tactics Ogre story that I lead as the young hero named Will Paven (his official name in the story is Denam Paven, but that name is stupid and I like to immerse myself in further in RPG's like these by naming them after myself IRL instead when I have the choice to, as I can become that character more easily when I am able to determine the moral path they lead in life through their choices in the course of the game for myself), against a party of monsters and evil spirits somewhat equal in number to my own group. I am only at battle 35 of 100 in this place as of now, and my battalion of heroes is likely growing weary and discouraged by now (I almost lost a couple of them in battle permanently so far, barely reviving them from KO status in time before they died, but still we soldier on bravely, and I am flattered to find that everyone in my battalion except for one person has such faith in me as a leader that they would follow me to hell and back no matter what decision I make). Especially (of course, seeing as I am Sarah's Knight and I try to model the main character after my ideal self), the four dutiful and honorable Phoraena sisters that it turns out I knew and befriended from childhood, and eventually through time chose to join me in my quest to liberate the kingdom from constant strife and war with itself.
This game really does have an excellent and involving story if I can think this way of it, becoming so attached to the characters and imagining myself as Will Paven in the story, when it is still but a game, a work of fiction.
This is a nice picture I happened to find of the main character Will Paven and my personal favorite among the Phoraena sisters, Cistina:
