Starting a new BoFV run that I'm not sure I'll finish. This is a shit game that I just can't stop myself from coming back to over and over again. Most BoF fans hate this game because it’s a departure from the previous entries in the series in terms of setting, but to me the issues lie elsewhere.

On one hand, the game has a really fun turn based combat system, a great soundtrack, an interesting setting and amazing atmosphere.
On the other hand, battles can start to drag on for too long, and while the music is great, it has very little variation, so you'll be listening to the same few tracks over and over again. The environments themselves can also feel too simplistic and repetitive.
But the worst part of the game by far is the difficulty, combined with limited saves and a bunch of roguelike convoluted systems that force you to restart your playthroughs and farm XP until you're strong enough to progress. You literally slowly die with each step taken, there's a counter in the top right of HUD always reminding you of your impeding death. The director of the game said they did this because the previous game was too easy (and to be fair BoFIV was indeed a bit easy), but I have the impression that wasn't the only reason. To me it seems more like a budget issue and they did this to inflate playtime. For a 2002 PS2 game, BoFV feels cheap in several aspects, from the lack of voice acting to the simple and repetitive environments.

Using save states makes the difficulty more bearable, but I don't like using those. I don't know, it's just a personal pet peeve of mine.