I find that I don't mind the battles as long as there is a purpose (i.e. leveling like mad, 'cos d00d! I LOVE seeing a low level-character speeding through the levels after KO'ing a high level creature. It is so satisfying.) And I have been messing with the party set-up, even got some of the real high-level combination spells working. And ohhh 'Thunder God' is kind of cool. Next on my agenda I'm going to try and get some of the mythical group combination attacks working. Reinbach's rune attack is just fecking hilarious. The spot lights! *laughs*

I have to agree with you, I find that the characters in suiko4 are bit better rounded. My favourite party consist of four all-rounders rather than a specific tank, two all-rounders and a magic-user. And omfg, I remember some of those fights in suik03. The strategy battles caused me a bit of pain in the beginning until I figured out the trick.

Mao and Nao! Mushroom ant armies! WAHH! This is sooooo fun!

First play-thru, I'm trying to get all 108 stars. That's pretty much my only goal, I can get everything else in my second play-thru.

Q2: Exactly. I go to Middleport and Nay-Nal like mad, buying ANY pearl they have, sit back and check up on Mordo every 20mins or so, and sell them as a batch at 8000. Such wonderful potch-earner *_* And THANK YOU very much! The FAQ makes it much easier to remember where to buy and sell items. I'm hoping it won't change either.