Did anyone else find that the difficulty varied unusually? The first two rounds were relatively easy to me. The third and fourth rounds were hellacious. The final round, however, seemed ridiculously easy.

Landing the cactoid compact indeed took many perfect "rounds" but I got the cactoid commendation on one of the only 3 perfect rounds I managed to pull off. I know you have a 10% chance of landing each, and I'm grateful that I got lucky in the 4th round.

The final round seemed almost like a "gimme." Sure the code for the Nebra Riverking is 8 buttons long, but the timing seemed very forgiving. Plus, the code came up every time on every round. I only got the other codes during the round in which I finally landed the king, after I had done so.

I'm not complaining, as after the 4th round I was grateful for the reprieve :D

I haven't tried it myself yet, though I did recall reading that parts of it were really awfully difficult. I guess I'll find out sooner or later...

I know I still have to do the Foot race. I'm having flashbacks to the Athlete Queen event in IX. I got that award, but I've never gotten Lord of Skipping. I got to just over 300 :(

I got the cactoid commendation at my first perfect. I thought everyone got the same. Anyway it is a lot easier to get than c.compact.

I did'nt find it to hard, quite easy i thought.

Maybe I'm getting old ;)

If it's anything like trying to get the Athlete Queen, then I'm doomed. I was no good at that game at all.

The Footrace in Balfonheim is like the Athlete Queen. Fishing is just inputing sequences of buttons before they scroll off the screen.

E.g., Nebra River King code: R1, L2, Up, Square, R2, L1, X, Right

Well, that's not so bad, necessarily. It sounds to me like the tower calibration from FFX-2.

Yeah, it does. I didn't get horribly far in X-2 before deciding it wasn't for me, so that didn't spring to mind, but yes just like that.