Almost there...

So. I'm almost done with Final Fantasy XIII. Well, correction. I've almost beaten the game, but that doesn't really translate to "almost done" the way this game is set up. Either way, I have all of my part members, all of my Eidolons, and am more or less bee-lining for the "final" battle. I took a small sidequest detour, but decided to come back to that later as some battles were ticking me off.

The game is a lot of fun. I wasn't sold on the battle system at first, but it's a lot more complicated than it initially seems. Some serious strategy goes into it.

One of the big complaints people seem to have is that the game is very linear. You can't backtrack, you can't explore (until a certain point), and there aren't any towns you can go talk to people in. Really, this all makes sense in the storyline. All things considered, going backwards in this game wouldn't make any sense in the storyline. I mean, not to spoil the first hour or two of the game or anything other than the fact I totally am right now, you start out being deported for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and anyone you come in contact with will have the same fate, and then it goes downhill from there so that you're actually running AWAY from the crap that is chasing you.

Yeah, going back? Probably not such a hot idea.

Now, a more valid complaint is that the game takes it's time explaining just what the hell is going on. It's a good 15 hours before you have a pretty good handle on why the main characters are in the situation they're in, and it's probably another 5 to 10 before you REALLY have it figured out. And then the plot twists start coming in a mile a minute.

So, yeah, that's been my week and last weekend. :-p