I finally picked this game up yesterday, admittedly with some trepidation, because I'm not a fan of RPGs that confront me with a pile of numbers. But the games's atmosphere combined with near universal praise for its gameplay has kept it on my should-buy list for a while, and so far I'm enjoying it.
Game is pretty overwhelming in terms of the concepts it introduces early on with regard to items and equipment, not helped by the clunky menu system which I can't pause the game to figure out; but so far the combat and level design hasn't felt unfair. I'm a royal though, so I have that whole soul arrow/magic recharge thing making life easy.
Couple of questions: first of all, is there anywhere in the menu system that will remind me of the meanings of the funky little runes that stand for strength, attack power, durability, etc; or will I need to keep the instruction manual handy until I have them memorized? Second, this may be a stupid question, but is there any point to my smashing smashable stuff, and thus slowly damaging my weapon, if I don't see the obvious glow of an item pickup? Games have taught me to wreck the shit out of everything I see, but I sense this mightn't be necessary in DS.
