Finished Final Fantasy XIII

So four days I finally got to the conclusion of Final Fantasy XIII with a total play time of 6o hours and 51 minutes. As I struggle to deal with the fact that I have finished the game, I now look back fondly with the time I spend on the game. Let me start with a statement: I don't give a rat's ass about the lower than expected reviews that the game has received and nor do I really care how many people ended up hating the game for some odd reason. Final Fantasy XIII is one of the finest JRPG this generation and easily the best looking game ever made.

The battle system was really well thought out and it was a total blast to get into battles. The system reminded me a lot of the ones found in Final Fantasy X-2 and the Tales, and job system making a subtle return was also cool. In my opinion all RPGs should have some sort of a job system and FFXIII version was pretty neat. I would have loved a little more depth in the character development like the ones in FFX and FFXII but this game's character development was still good (as compared to another high profile shooter...errr action RPG)

If I talk about the characters I think the game had some very decent ones, esp the main lead Lightning with her tough as nail exterior yet a soft and gentle heart. I mean if you take a look at some of the 'emo' main leads from the very popular FFVII and FFVIII or the over the tops one in FFIX and FFX, then Lightning finds a perfect balance and hence making her an awesome character.

A special mention HAS to go to Sazh. The first time I heard him talk in the game I was like '..ok so this guy is the comedy relief..'. But kudos to the Square-Enix for making him a fascinating character and the best thing was his awesome black American demon, making him one of my most characters in games.

Do not make me mention Vanille and Hope. I though the runt in FFXII was a bad idea, but these two were not good at all. Initially I thought Hope would be like Vivi from FFIX, but ended up being quite irritating. But one that same gauge, Vanille was quite incredible. I mean she has to be the worst FF character ever conceived. I hated her voice, hated her cheery disposition and her stupid fishing pole. I still dunno how and why such a character was thought up in the first place

Fang and Snow were pretty solid and I generally did not have any problems with them on the whole.

Ok now to the negative part. I though the story was a big missed opportunity. Its not to say the plot was bad, but it was not great. The pacing of the plot was on fast forward and it not have the serpentine quality of the FF of the past, and that is quite a shame really. But honestly when the game ended and I witnessed an incredible conclusion, it made up for this fact. The ending was EPIC.

Anyways 4 years of waiting and 9 months of playing the game non stop, I felt the game was worth the wait and in the end I was really satisfied with this game. My rating for this game is a 9.2!