If you want some really wild old storage tech, a normal VHS cassette could hold 3-5gb of data. But we didn’t have any use for that much storage at the time, and CDs were taking over by the time we did, so nobody bought the VHS storage hardware.

9 was even worse for that, every fight drags on for ages. It’s the only one I struggle to replay.

For 8, it’s generally best to avoid combat anyway because of the way level scaling worked. Enemies get stronger much faster than you do, even with good junctions. And it seems like the devs knew this a, since Diablos is available so early and built for low-level play. It lets you reduce or eliminate random encounters (and very cheaply), lets you refine status magic that comes in handy at low levels, and its attack has great utility against hard targets.

The slower fights aren’t as big of a deal when you aren’t doing as many of them, they feel more “cinematic” instead.

If you haven’t already, definitely give 4 a try. The gameplay isn’t as polished, but you can see where everything you loved about 5 came from. And the story/characters are arguably even better than 5.

Persona 3-5 and Doom 2016 win by virtue of being the only ones I listen to regularly outside of playing the games. Doom is probably at the top, the album version is just incredible.

Honorable mentions go to the entire Zelda and Mario catalog, especially LttP and Super Mario World. They’re the nostalgic sounds of my childhood and stuck in my head often, I just don’t go out of my way to listen to them.

The only reason would be playing games online, old firmware gets locked out a couple weeks after an update releases.

But there’s also no real reason not to if you’re already running CFW. As long as Luma is reasonably up-to-date, a system update can’t break anything.

Agreed. And when you do want the old intensity back, you can try a challenge run or fire up a randomizer for some chaos.