hmm, I just realized that this confession that I deliberately use a strategy that inefficiently uses in-game currency... kinda conflicts with my previous claim that I always play to win.

a random thought: am I playing to win, or am I playing to "not lose"?

also, sometimes it turns out that I actually did need to save up the in-game currency for an important item in the next town, and so I shouldn't always just spend all the currency as soon as I get it, with the excuse that inflation makes frugality counterproductive.

I also have a tendency to turtle. If there's ever a choice between offense and defense, I choose defense. Or maybe higher speed, for better dodging. Or better yet, the ability to heal. I usually pick the class with the best healing ability. My overly defensive strategies kinda make me no fun to play against, but they generally result in me losing less often.

And yes, I have found games to be useful for showing me when my strategy is suboptimal, and I've been making some attempt to change the bad habits. Though I don't seem to have made much progress at this. I have at least allowed myself to go on a big spending spree when I'm at the last town, and the currency has stopped inflating. And I've allowed myself to use all those rare items in the battle with the final boss, since there's nothing left to save the items for... except maybe later in the battle with the final boss...

So I know that my strategy is suboptimal, and I'm trying to change it, but I'm failing to actually make any significant changes, due to... psychological inertia?

But I still make sure to buy stuff that is actually necessary, or that is obviously a good deal, and I actually do use items that are obviously a good idea to use. And my strategy does work well enough for me actually win often enough, so maybe I'm being too critical...