Kinney

True, but I'm finding that I tend to out-level the story content even with the auxiliary battle cap on Hard. (Granted, this is on NG+.) And yeah, Cindered Shadows on Hard was a good challenge.

I'm on my 5th playthrough of Three Houses and still finding ways to get better at the game. One thing I realized too late was that in any difficulty below Maddening it's very easy to use auxiliary battles to grind to the point where the story content becomes trivial, and that doing so wasn't actually making me a better player or improving my understanding of game mechanics.

Favorites of the decade: Europa Universalis IV (PC, 2013) Civilization V (PC, 2010) Crusader Kings II (PC, 2012) The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (Multi, 2015) DOTA 2 (PC, 2013) Divinity: Original Sin II (Multi, 2017) XCOM 2: War of the Chosen (Multi, 2016) Fallout: New Vegas (Multi, 2010) Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch, 2019) Total War: Shogun II (PC, 2011) My all-time list is going to involve a lot of stuff from the 90's and even the 80's. It's not that I'm some kind of retro gaming hipster, I'm just old. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn (PC, 2000) Deus Ex (PC, 2000) Mega Man 2 (NES, 1988) Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994) Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PSX, 1997) Rome: Total War (PC, 2004) Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995) Ultima VII: the Black Gate (PC, 1992) Starcraft (PC, 1998) Unreal Tournament (PC, 1999) Betrayal at Krondor (PC, 1993) Crystalis (NES, 1990) Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX, 1997) Dragon Force (Saturn, 1996) One Must Fall: 2097 (PC, 1994) Europa Universalis IV (PC, 2013) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (PC, 2003) Civilization V (PC, 2010) Dragon Age: Origins (PC, 2009) Crusader Kings II (PC, 2012)

This has been brewing ever since 7th generation consoles all got Internet connectivity. Since everything's online now, it's all too easy to skimp on QA, entice a bunch of early purchasers with pre-order bonuses, use them as unpaid beta testers, and rush out a patch once complaints start rolling in. Bungie and Ubisoft tend to do this, and I'm convinced it's official Sega policy for its subsidiaries considering Creative Assembly and Sports Interactive have been trying to get away with it for over a decade. It's only gotten worse now that games can sell early access, as we're now moving from paying for an unfinished product to paying for a product that may never be finished.