I understand where my problem was. Everything was kinda being dumped in my lap at the same time so, in my mind, I thought it all happened at the same time. That El Nido was created before the experiment thing. But, now I know the Time Crash happened, everyone got sucked into the past, and THEN El Nido was made. That is much more sensible.

AND I BEAT THE GAME!!!! Even got the Real Ending. I say it's all pure luck. Once he...she....it stops spamming Green Elements, you have a chance for victory. I played defensive, saving up everyone's Stamina best I could and making damned sure to keep Serge's Stamina full. I got all the way through Yellow, Red, Green, Blue and Black before he finally got a damned move in. But guess what move it was? PHOTON BEAM! Yep, White! Thank you, video game AI for loving me.

I think I might go to sleep and collect my thoughts on the ending and teh game as a whole but I'm gonna say this right now.

What disappointed me about the ending? Not the little kids with their exposition - couldn't care less about that. The fact Balthasar somehow arranged ALL of this? That is kind of annoying but, hey, wouldn't be the first monumentally and impossibly complex scheme in fiction.

No, what bugged me was Lynx and FATE dying. AND NO ONE CARED. Admittedly right after this there was a big problem in the form of the Dragon God but come on. Lynx has been our central antagonist for 98% of the game. He has bee a driving force of malice and evil and is tied up in a lot of characte's plots. He's also Serge's poor, mind-screwed father.

Nobody cares. He just...dies. No deathbed monologue, not even a little scene between him and Kid or him and Serge or...or someone! What the hell, game. There's just no frickin' closure at all. It was so disappointing in fact that I honestly didn't think the FATE boss fight was the end of him. I was half-certain Lynx would reappear somehow at some point but, nope. That was his end, in all its complete anticlimactic glory.

Good game though and that was only a minor nitpick on the whole. Just saying what is fresh in my mind.