Well, I'm probably 80% through Persona 4 on Expert, and I'm loving it. I'm closing in on solving the mystery, I think.

It's really a lot better than P3, but I'd be sad if I didn't play P3. The stories are very different, and on a much different scale. I really think that playing P4 first is a disservice to yourself, since it would spoil 3 in a lot of ways, in terms of gameplay improvements.

I bought a TE Fightstick to get good at SFIV, BlazBlue, and some arcade titles, and Persona 4 has made that impossible. Soon enough!

Be warned though, Rittai Picross is a long term commitment. I must have spent a good 60+ hours on that game so far. That is, if you go for a completion run. Needing to not make any mistakes on a puzzle can lead to some terrible situations where (and this happened to me) you have literally one block left to remove ... and then I sleepily chipped out the wrong one. Welp, 10 minutes of my life wasted. Loaded it back up, and did the same thing again.

Tier 4 is where it gets really tough, some of the time limits are really hard to get past with 3 stars. I've finished a whole bunch of 10 minute challenge limits with times like 9.57, 9.58, 10.02 (damn it). The time limits for the puzzles I have left are all 15 minutes minimum, and that's the challenge time btw. And I'm struggling to beat them. You can see how a single puzzle can eat up 30, or 45 minutes, if you slip up.

Bloody love this game. I hate it in many ways too, but ... so addictive. I went back to play a bit of old Picross DS (for purposes) recently and it felt so drab by comparison. I just hope it is a very, very long time before they announce a 3D Picross sequel. One of these games every 2 years is more than enough thank you very much.

Don't you worry, you're old school entourage. I don't say it in front of the others, but you were always my favourite.