It's been a long time since I played it, but I do remember that Star Successor on hard was definitely...a thing. A thing with lots of cursing and retries.

Really, the boss rush on the last stage was where I came to know the true meaning of hell. Hopefully you make it through with some sanity intact.

Oh buckets. The dragon transformations in Breath of Fire II are more like summon spells... You use a dragon transformation, it does an attack and then you're back to normal. Laaaaaame. I did not expect that.

Well, good luck with Super Metroid. I enjoyed it up until a point myself, then I kinda lost interest. I may go back to it at some point.
I did finish up Breath of Fire a week or two ago, and I'm glad to have put it behind me. Breath of Fire II so far has been notably better. And I swear that the boss battle music is an unused Mega Man X track. It just has those SNES-style guitar riffs that MMX always used. I'll be working on this primarily until I beat it, then hopefully hop into part 3 after that. I guess I just have to figure out if I want to play it on my PSX Classic or my actual PSX or my PS2. I feel like the PS2 is on borrowed time, so even though I'd really dig being able to use the faster disc speed, I may have to stick it out on the native hardware.

As far as Borderlands 3, I'm not really sure. The campaign kinda left a sour taste in my mouth. I got bored with it during the third planet and never rally recovered from it. So that's a big maybe for the moment.

If you're looking to breathe some new life into a game you've played before and challenge yourself at the same time, there's a ROM hack of Final Fantasy VI I've been playing on and off here that might be up your alley. It's called Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World.
It makes changes that I like (characters are restricted in what Espers they can learn from), and changes that I don't like (you can't buy tents... WTF?). The challenge of the game is overall increased too. Enemies are stronger and more of them have reactionary death attacks. Certain characters are also changed, for example, Shadow can dual-wield by default. You also gain what's called "Esper Levels." Each Esper Level can be used to purchase a permanent upgrade to the character (but again, these are restricted by which Espers they can learn from).

Hope you enjoy it! Beware the grind.

I definitely agree that the final boss fight was great. It was a huge improvement over the Galbalan fight in Wanderers From Ys. Then again, Wanderers From Ys had some serious hit box detection issues on the SNES. Music was still great though. I'm surprisingly a fan of the bump system from I & II. I guess it seemed pretty unique to me at the time I played it. Also, Feena was such a cutie pie. As far as a Ys girls go, Feena is definitely my favorite. The bump system was popular enough, it seems, that it was brought back in Ys IV: Mask of the Sun. After that though, it was gone until the I & II remakes. Anyway, timeline-wise, Memories of Celceta takes place after Ys II. So I, II, and IV form a sort of trilogy. The exact order for the rest is a bit fuzzy, but I believe it is V, III, VIII, VI, and then VII. Ys Origins takes place hundreds of years before Ys I & II. Having played them, Origins' story won't spoil anything for you.

I'm definitely down to play Chross Code at some point. Unfortunately for me, Breath of Fire is going to have to wait since a little thing called Dragon Quest XI crossed my path. It's nearly as good as VIII. Not quite, but close. Breath of Fire didn't stand a chance against Dragon Quest. It's pretty boring.

How was your experience with Oath in Felghana? Personally, I think it has the best soundtrack in the series. Story-wise it's just so-so.

Here are all the games I beat in 2019 ranked from least favorite to favorite:

13.) STARWHAL
12.) God Hand
11.) Super Bomberman R
10.) Sakura Dungeon
9.) Mark of the Ninja
8.) Deep Space Waifu: World
7.) [Borderlands 2 DLC] Commander Lilith & The Fight for Sanctuary
6.) Pokemon Ruby
5.) Ys: The Oath in Felghana
4.) Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
3.) Dead Space
2.) Borderlands 3
1.) CrossCode

I'll do that.

Breath of Fire III is supposed to be the best in the series, at least according to a lot of the message boards I've come across over the years. Probably because of the "dragon gene" system it employs. Instead of transforming to one specific dragon type (like in pretty much all the other ones), Ryu can select from a variety of genes that determine what dragon he transforms into. And you can mix and match, like equipping Fire and then adding Opposite, which turns it into an Ice dragon. I guess people were butthurt after having such an amount of freedom only to have to go back to a simpler system. Kinda like how people bein all butthurt that FF9 went back to the class system after VII and VIII.

The big thing about Dragon Quarter is that you're supposed to replay it. Each time, presumably, with a higher D-Ratio which gives you access to more secrets each time you do. You can "stock" experience points and save it between playthroughs, and you don't have to beat the game to restart with your stocked exp. You can also save certain weapons and armor in lockers, if I'm remembering correctly. It isn't a bad game, per se, but pretty far divorced from some of the things that made the series a classic in the first place. It was tough for me, I restarted several times before I was able to play through it completely. And at the end I barely squeaked by - my D-Counter was at 99.3%. Still, I enjoyed it overall. The music was pretty good, from what I recall. "Going Out to See the Sky" is a nice battle theme.

I miss Foxkei. Would love to get the whole gang together again.