Final Fantasy XII

It’s always a let down at the end.

 You just can’t spend nearly 80 hours (79 hours and 54 mintues to be exact) playing a game and then expect to be satisfied by the ending. I mean when’s the last time you played any game for eighty hours?

Well, for me that’s easy: it was 2003 and the game was Final Fantasy X. That was the game that made me go out and buy a PS2, starting me down a long path of thumb-twitching and stinging eyeballs when I would periodically remind myself to blink.

I don’t know what it is about this franchise, but I absolutely love it. Something about “levelling up” your characters and teaching them spells and buying them swords and armour just really appeals to my childish romanticisim and my goal-oriented personality. I guess fantasy RPG games are the male equivalents of dressing up your Barbies.

I have to thank my friend Mark Lorenc for getting me into Final Fantasy. Although Lynn hated it (which was reminiscent of my domestic situation the first time around with FFX), the game brought me hours and hours of mindless entertainment as I ran around looking for monsters to slay for their XP. I completed probably about 65% of all the actual stuff you can do in the game, but this time around I didn’t buy the strategy guide. I’m older now, and just can’t be bothered with all those sidequests. I did have to obsessively run to the computer to read the walkthroughs when the dungeons or the enemies defeated me too often (which meant every hour or so).

All in all, the game was great. I had a great time and I’m happy to wait another two years to recover before they introduce the next in the line.