*Spoiler Alert*
*Spoiler Alert*
*Spoiler Alert*

We good now?

Awsome....

I just completed Final Fantasy XIII. By completed, I mean that I was on Orphan 2 weeks ago and decided to explore more, ending up killing many of the marks that youtube tries to tell me I need to have done post game. Nothing a little grinding (and a lot of dead Ochus couldn't fix). Why did I do that? I wanted to give the game the utmost chance (gets on soapbox). I have been playing Final Fantasy since the release of the original, and RPGs, since Nintendo overprinted Dragon Warrior and the Sears Outlet in Manchester Connecticut stocked it on the cheap shortly after release. I pride myself in geekdom as being an original US RPG player and have kept it a relative secret to protect my street cred. Final Fantasy I was like nothing I had seen, as Garland actually came back. He was a real villian in the early days who has a real (okay 1990 complex) plot for time domination (not Kompression, thanks Ultimacia). The game had story, music, the 4 fiends....yeah it was cool (off soapbox)

This brings me to XIII. It took me over 3 years to rack up enough play time to finish XII, which was a great game that I ruined by prejudging and taking too long to finish (although Vayne and Gabranth fell flat). I would've enjoyed XII more if I got of my butt and completed it. XIII, thus became a marathon in the middle of a hectic semester of law school. So how was it.....

.....not that good. The story is one of the best in the series. The characters are mostly good. Lightning is one of my favorites. Fang doesn't come off as important as she needs to be though. Vanille is opposite, comes up important, but she just misses being a great character for a lot of reasons. Still, the story has heart and "My Hands" is used very effectively at the end. The problem is, the game itself is a poor man's version of X2 in a lot of ways. Too limited. Linear, which is usually fine in my book if done right, to a fault. Limited world interaction. Disposable villians in the Darth Maul sense (seriously, Cid Raines could've been awsome). I did like the Psicom leader, and Barthadulus was adequate. It just didn't fit. XIII is a mediocre game in a great series, but if this is the "new" Final Fantasy, I may be passing. XIV is online so Im already out, and thats hard to do with a Uematsu soundtrack. Speaking of which....

What happened to the Series theme? An emotionally charged ending made the game worth playing. It even was feeling Final Fantasy ish, going through the ending and the credits and then it stabbed at me with the lack of series theme. This is a deal to me as its like saying goodbye to a story. Its the reminder of the epic scale of the series. And its not there. Which shows me that this is now a whole different series. Its fine, I grew up, so must the first video game series that showed me emotion. Afterall, Square did give all old fans like me a parting gift in Dissidia. What I mean by this is beside the borderline repetive combat, Dissidia is the game that connect Final Fantasy I-XII together. Its I part 2 showing that the Light Warriors never accomplished there goal and that Chaos survived and is not using other worlds villians instead of fiends. And it does it subtly by watching everyone disappear as the Warrior of Light walks toward Coneria (meaning the world being saved it the world of Final Fantasy I) with the credits bringing the Final Fantasy theme.

That was the end of the series and the real "Final" Fantasy.