Final Fantasy XIII was a disappointment, theres nothing that I can really say that anyone else hasn't already. A game whose first twenty hours felt like "babies first rpg" a game whose story and characters were mediocre at best and while it was a beautiful game with some great music it left the majority of us a little upset. Now, the game is not without merit, often when asked how I felt about it I say "this first half of this game is the worst Final Fantasy game I've ever played, but the second half is without a doubt my favorite."

 The battle system had me hooked, once you hit Gran Pulse and you are doing hunts and fighting tougher enemies and the game actually gives you the tools to have fun it becomes a great ride. A funny thing happened while I was playing too, the more the game gave to me the more I cared about it, I wanted Fang in my party because I liked that character and I kicked Vanille out immediately because, like many of you I couldn't stand her. The game had me invested, my save file ended up with over 100 hours on it and I really enjoyed it.


But still, to those that disliked the game as a whole are completely justified. So why XIII-2? Why come back to this universe that left the JRPG community feeling all around disappointed? Some of you won't even give it a chance based on your experience with XIII and I really wouldn't blame you. But to those of you that question why they would even revisit that world I say, let's just wait and see. Lets just all take a deep breath and give Square the benefit of the doubt, I know thats hard. Ten years ago pretty much everyone would be on board, but the past decade has not been so kind to Squeenix or to their fan base. A lot of misfires, a lot of disappointments, even fantastic games like FFXII who many regard as a true advancement for the series was met by a lot of negative fan feedback.

                                                                                                   No thanks

I feel like FFXIII went out strong, it left me feeling good about that game and the direction they went with it, it just took them twenty hours to get there. Thats why I'm excited to see what XIII-2 can bring to the table. They can throw us right back into the thick of it and learn from their mistakes.They have a good opportunity here to get back some fans they may have lost. When X-2 released I didn't really care, I thought the game had a good battle system marred by a fan service cash in. We didn't need it, X ended well and it played well there was no reason for us to come back to that world and I felt it was better left alone. XIII is in a unique spot, a game where they were on to something but made mistakes in terms of plot, pacing and character development. This may be as close to acknowledgement of a mistake or an apology we will get. So lets, for now, stay calm and see what they bring to the table. Who knows? It might be good, they have a chance to make it up to us, lets see if they do.