Yeah, Oath in Felghana is a remade Ys 3 that's supposed to be, I'm pretty sure, like the PS2 one -- so yeah, faster-paced Zelda. And I only played a bit of Alundra, a long time ago -- my brother used to play tons of games and pawn them when he was finished with them, and I didn't get to play them much at all, back in the PS1 era -- but I'd love to play it again someday and finish it.

And if you liked that one, you'll LOVE this one! [Link]

Well then it seems like we're on the exact same page then. Exactly, stuff like Contra you should not ever abuse states on and should earn the right to put or on it. But crap like you mentioned? Yeah, I'd use states on those too. I mean Bart vs. the Space Mutants is a game from my childhood I wouldn't mind beating normally sometime, but gosh it's just so buggy and sloppily designed, you might as well do what you can to deal with that, y'know?

And yes Ys rules. I've only played the first (original version), 3rd (original version) and of course Oath which is a remake of the 3rd... but I have Origins and will play it when I've thoroughly completed Oath, and then I plan on getting I&II on Steam which came out recently. I hope they release more on Steam, that'd make things a lot easier... I can at least get the PS2 one (the 6th I believe?) when I've finished the rest, and I suppose emulate the 4th which I believe only ever came out on the Super Famicom, maybe the 5th too, and the 7th I'd need to get my PSP back from my cousin who's been borrowing it for... 3years? lol

ANYWAY THOUGH YEAH ALSO I LOVE PONIE AND HAVE FOR OVER 2 YEARS. Derpy's one of my absolute favorites. [Link] Here have a recent crappy drawing I did of her.

Oh that's not what I mean at all. If it's a CHALLENGE, I never back down. What I'm saying is simply "if truly completing a game to my standards includes something absolutely ridiculous like playing through a game ALL OVER AGAIN with only MINISCULE CHANGES *AND* it's a game I don't WANT to do that with, then screw it, i'm marking it , because i've done everything I want to with it and I know I'll never, ever go back to it again". But then on the other hand, you have Ys: the Oath in Felghana which I'm playing right now, and absolutely willing to go through SIX TIMES to get all the Steam achievements. Why? Because it's short, and INCREDIBLY fun, and I love it so much I just wanna do that. So it's malleable from game-to-game, when I feel I've truly "completed" it.

But yeah, it has nothing to do with challenge. I LOVE a challenge... I LOVE those old NES games you're talking about, and even though I used to use savestates when I first discovered emulation, now I try my best not to except to just make a state for when I take a break so I can come back to the exact same spot no-fuss. Oh, and I abuse them a bit when playing hacks/mods of old games that make them far, far, far more difficult than they were originally, to the point at which you're EXPECTED to abuse states, heh. But all that being said, I do understand where you're coming from; I used to do the same thing myself and if it REALLY came down to it and I REALLY wanted to finish a game I just couldn't be asked to go out of my way to deal with at the time, I'd probably go ahead and use a savestate or two too if it meant saving enough time and energy and I wasn't having FUN with the game's challenge.