My file is at 23h 20m, but it probably took around 30 hrs.
I completely lost interest and didn't play it for about 2 months. I realized why I got sick of it and that's because it has a very Zelda-like feel to me. In order to plow through to the end, I used a walkthrough. It would have gotten a 6/10, except for Squaresoft's near-fetish during this period of having chase sequences with instant death, as well as other mini-games. Steamwood is extremely annoying (like anyone would actually design anything in such a manner). The final section was the last straw for giving it a positive score, especially the platform jumping to scale the final tower. Add that if you lose to the final form of the final boss, you get sent back to its first form with all of the items you used gone, and that the last save point is before the final guardian (meaning you get to do the atrocious chase and tower climb platforming again), and the end stretch left a terrible taste in my mouth. Reading up on how to get all the action figures, of course they had to have some extremely convoluted way to get one of them.
The game wasn't particularly difficult, as I don't believe any of the bosses took much more than a half-dozen attempts. The stupid timed sections, rail cars, and chase sequences were the biggest stumbling blocks for me. This is yet another Squaresoft PS1 game that I really can't stand.
