Here are the facts: Final Fantasy XIII has been out for a while now – got mine a week and a half ago. I am only 9 hours into the game and alas, it seems it will take me a long time to finish this. The Final Fantasy series has always prided itself on offering a deep experience and that is great. However… I find myself lacking time. It’s been a very long time since I spent that much time on a game. One reviewer claims it took him 60 hours to complete the main game. That is a lot. Enough complaining.

I thought I’d take this time to remember my Final Fantasy experiences. I haven’t played all the games of the series – mainly because when I was younger I couldn’t get my hands on a Playstation so I am not a hardcore fan. But I did play at least two Final Fantasy games and loved them both(three if you’re counting XIII as well).

My first was Final Fantasy VIII. The first one is always the best :). This was made over 10 years ago – 12, I think – on the PS One. The fine folks at Square Enix were nice enough to port it to the PC as well and so I got to play it too. It was an interesting and emotional experience (yeah, well..) but I have to admit I choked at the end – I simply couldn’t finish the final battle. This is what usually happens if you don’t develop enough your characters or don’t master the battle system. But that was a long, long time ago. In a galaxy not so far away. Moving on.

A few years later, I played Final Fantasy IX. I was in high school and the PS2 was all the rage. However, FF IX was a PS One game. FF IX had my favorite FF character, the melancholic, cute but all so powerful dark mage, Vivi :). I don’t know why but he simply feels like he was the bast character they ever created. This one, I actually finished.

I played a bit of Final Fantasy X & X-2 and XII but lacking time I put them off to a later time which probably will never come. I never touched Final Fantasy XI which is an MMOR{G – I don’t like the genre very much and my past WoW addiction should keep me away from any MMO for a while. Supposedly FF XIV will also be an MMO – what a waste of good talent :).

At some point, when I was in my teens, the Final Fantasy movie came out (The Spirits Within). It was, at the time, the most accomplished CG movie. Unlike Toy Story from Pixar, they had human characters closely modeled of real people and the movie felt more like an actual live action movie than a cartoon. Trust me, it was revolutionary at the time. Aki Ross, anyone?

Which brings us to the Fantasy at hand – XIII. Like I said earlier I am only 8 hours or so into the game and I do have some trouble mastering the battle system. I find myself fearing I will not be able to handle the final battle. So in a way – this game is a lot like life (shorter, though) – it makes me fear the future, the lack of preparation for what awaits. Brilliant…

My favorite character so far is Lightning (for obvious reasons). I leave you with this nice trailer.

P.S.

Seriously, you don’t know what Final Fantasy is? Leave the rock you live under and fire up youtube. And then get a Playstation or an Xbox 360. Geez…