PixlBit

        50 Hours into Enchanted Arms I had pretty much sailed through the game without too much trouble. Then came the Ice Castle and the final fight with the Ice Queen. I failed the first time, returned to the area just outside the main chamber, and quickly trained up a few choice Golems to execute a particular defensive plan I had combining the use of Healing, Power Up and Barrier spells in support of the brawlers Atsuma and Rygar. It took an hour or so of grinding to practice my strategy and all the TB (cash) I had to buy Mega Skill Gems to increase the Golem’s HP parameters so they would both be over 1000 HP. The result was success! I beat the Ice Queen and her alternate form. The Close achievement popped up and I breathed a sigh of relief.  

            

     Then to my surprise (spoiler alert) I had to fight Atsuma who’d been possessed by the Infinity Devil Golem, the Golem partially grafted into Atsuma’s arm. This was easy, but then, of course, I had to fight the Infinity Devil Golem itself! My team was not ideal for this battle, as a more offensive strategy was called for, so after getting beat several times, I reloaded back to just before the battle with Atsuma, where you can do little but reconfig your party, being trapped with the dormant Infinity Golem. I did so and put all the story characters back in. The battle with Infinity did not go well, however, and I only got two of the three golems supporting Infinity before I ran out of health and EP. The only solution was to reload all the way back before the Ice Queen battle so I could reenter the world, do some leveling, and practice a new more offensive strategy using combo moves.

      Do I want to do this, I ask myself? The game stood me up right at the door to victory! 50 hours of game and I’m halted at heaven’s gate! It’s enough to make one limp home and retread epic beat downs in God Hand. Enchant Arm? I got the power of the God Hand! (cue God Hand theme song)

                                  

      But there are side missions: one, to fight three Pillar Guardians for their God Orbs that, if given to the Sage, will result in new weapons for all the story characters; two, to beat all the Elemental Temple Golems which gives you access to the Holy Beast Shrine where many Lost Golems lie waiting for the ultimate battle challenge. All that gives me a goal to shoot for while I’m leveling and improving my technique for the return to the Ice Castle. The more I think about it, the more I want to do it. I’m so damn close to finishing the game. How can I resist the allure of Enchanted Arms? Oh my…