Beyond The Fantasy

After about 25 hours into Final Fantasy XIII, I can honestly say that I just am not disappointed with the game as I thought I might some how have been. What surprises me is how far into the game you must go before this group actually comes together! The process did bother me a little at first, but then I came to appreciate this change of pace. It certainly allows the player to get to know the characters better in these smaller cells, rather then trying to tell their individual stories amongst the others and risking on getting lost in the shuffle of things.

As far as characters are concerned (READ: SPOILERS BELOW!), I think the character I'm liking the most is easily Sazh. I mean at first glance (back when the characters were being revealed), I didn't think much about the guy who had a Chocobo living in his afro. But after playing through and seeing his story and his struggles, I actually believe and feel for his character a whole world more then I do with what's happening between Snow and Serah.

How can you not feel something about a father whose only wish in the world is to have his son back? And more so, how can you not feel for a man who has no choice, no power but to watch his whole world get taken away from him, right before his very eyes?

I think I can say something similar for Vanille as well, which is actually an interesting thing for me because during my last post, I said I didn't care much for either her or Sazh. Now here I am, thinking these two have a hell of a story behind them and I don't really think they are a bad pairing after all (Snow and Hope, on the other hand, bleh!).

What I like about Vanille is the conflict she endures: She seems to be a kind soul and in an effort to try and stop any more suffering, she fakes memory lost (telling her partner Fang that she knows nothing of what they were supposed to be doing on Cocoon), which in turn sparks a chain of events that leads is the basis of Final Fantasy XIII.

The conflict arises when it is revealed that she (Vanille) was part of the reason why Sazh's son was turned into a l'Ciel, which is the secret that she hid from Sazh more and more once she realized who he was and why the man always seemed so gloomy.

I mean that is a brutal secret to keep! Especially so when you end up traveling with someone you've caused so much inadvertent pain to.

All I can say is those two (Sazh and Vanille) are my two favorite characters by far...

And I was going to yack about some other games I have my eye on in the near/distant future, but I'll just throw out a couple of the names and give a thought or two for the time being. I know I titled this post as "Beyond The Fantasy," but really... I'm not even beyond it just yet!

- Dragon Age: The Awakening: I thought about picking this up on day one, but meh... things are looking otherwise for me at this point. With Final Fantasy XIII taking up all of my attention now and with Heavy Rain still in need of finishing, I suppose this expansion will have to wait a little bit.

- Might And Magic: Clash of Heroes: I was actually extremely interesting in this DS game and was so very close to buying it on a few occasions since the ending of last year. But to my surprise, the game is being ported over (and spiffied up) for release on PSN and Xbox Live sometime this year. Guess it was a good thing I didn't get when I wanted to...

- Just Cause 2: I never played the first Just Cause and I was curious about this one because of the amount of area you can play through (over 30 square miles I believe) and after having played the demo, I must say there is interest here. Truth be told though, I am thinking this is more likely a rental for me (if possible).