Hey, I haven’t posted one of these monthly updates in a while!
Around the time last year when I was wrapping up Dark Cloud 2, I had plans to grab Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD and finally play and finish it. I had some fond memories of playing parts of it on Playstation 2 back in the day but never really got anywhere with it.
However, Final Fantasy X is a big freaking game. Not even in terms of game length, although that’s up there too, but in sheer amount of story and things happening. I mean, it’s a Final Fantasy game. It kinda demands your time and undivided attention. You don’t sit down and play FFX for 20 minutes and then move on to something else. You gotta commit! And this doesn’t fit my gameplay style, generally speaking.
Although this past year and a half, I have burned through a lot of RPGs which is very unlike me. Earthbound, three Pokemon games, Chrono Trigger, Dark Cloud 2, Kingdom Hearts, the list goes on. While I love a good platformer, the allure of an incredible fantasy environment has been my escape.
I picked up FFX HD during the Steam Summer Sale and fired it up just to get a little excitement going, and the first boss I ran into is the opening cutscene. If ever there was a cutscene that said “this is going to be a long friggin’ cutscene, grab a beer, a water, a coffee, a sandwich, and maybe some cheese and crackers,” it’s the one at the beginning of Final Fantasy X. The piano coming in says it all. I closed the game immediately after hearing it. Not because I didn’t want to keep going, but because I didn’t have 17 free hours to spare.
However! I’ve made myself a promise that I will finally play this damn game, BUT on one condition. Or rather, three conditions. I need to beat the Time-Eating Trifecta that I am currently up against. What’s the Time-Eating Trifecta, aside from a phrase I made up three seconds ago? Simply put:
- Fallout 4
- Pokemon Moon
- Xenoblade Chronicles
These are currently my white elephants that are preventing me from starting absolutely anything else. At this point they’ve actually become weight on my shoulders and it’s killing me slowly. There are games out there I’d love to start, I just ordered The Last Story for Wii, and I want to expand a bit and try some new games. But starting anything with these three monsters in progress is pointless. In some cases, I want to finish a game even when it drives me nuts. In this case, I love all three games, and they are all so different from one another that I always feel like playing at least one. However, they take over your life slowly.
Alas, I have a plan. I am currently about 95% done with Xenoblade Chronicles, at least in terms of the main story. I love this game and every time I play it intending to progress, I get side-tracked, because let’s face it – it’s an incredible game and it’s fun doing anything in it. Right now I’m stuck at Disciple Lorithia, under-leveled, and I’m about to spend a good hour grinding up. I’ve got almost 70 hours logged and I just need to beat it! It will be a huge accomplishment and one of my biggest RPGs of all time.
The next to go after that is probably Fallout 4, which I’m alternating off Xenoblade whenever I need a break from getting ripping in half by Lorithia. I’ve only gotten back into Fallout 4 recently and made it my goal to not get side-tracked. However, the quests in this game are just so damn fun that I allow myself to just go with the flow. I played the whole questline last night for the Silver Shroud and it was totally awesome. I’ve got about 65 hours in this one as well and moving along pretty well. Thing with Fallout 4 is I don’t feel pressured to finish it like I do with Xenoblade or Pokemon.
Last but certainly not least, is Pokemon Moon. I normally burn out a bit with Pokemon games around ~40 hours, but this one happened a lot quicker. These games are great and I love the new style and the shift from the from on beating gym leaders. However, since these games are so linear, you don’t know how far along you are, as opposed to knowing “oh, I’ve beaten five gyms. I can take a break now and explore!” I was spending an hour or so per night just wandering around catching Pokemon, and eventually I didn’t want to pick it up, so I took a break before I got sick of it. I didn’t even realize I was so early on in the game! This one is last but only because I want to end it on a high note.
I’m excited about Final Fantasy X and I hope I can finally get through it this year. When I get committed to a game, I get obsessed with it, and once the gameplay invested hits that 50+ hour mark, I start to get a little insane and anxious for it to end. It’s like a long road trip – maybe you like long road trips, but there comes a time when you start to wonder why the hell you’re still in the damn car. The good news is that the HD version of FFX has those Turbo commands where you can disable random encounters or simply fast forward them. I don’t plan on using them the entire playthrough, but perhaps on the last third I may have to employ them to keep my sanity. Time will tell.
Now I must go grind in Xenoblade Chronicles. Pray for me.
nostalgia trigger 
Oh gosh, that introduction cutscene. That drawn-out, exposition-heavy, grandiloquent introduction cutscene. I remember trying to play FFX last year and enduring that cutscene, only to die in front of the boss because I foolishly neglected to the hero. But hey, I thought this was a scripted event and the game wouldn’t let me die! After that, I quietly put the cartridge back into its box, because I couldn’t bear the thought of suffering through that cutscene once again. I’m honestly not convinced I’ll ever be able to play that game again.
On a more positive note, I commend you for nearly polishing off Xenoblade Chronicles, especially if you have trouble dealing with long games! I was barely able to tolerate this game for one hour before throwing in the towel, and I’m not planning to touch it ever again. As a matter of fact, I sold my copy.
I’ll be curious to know how many hours you’ve poured into Pokemon Moon once you finally finish it. So far, I’ve been playing Sun for 50 hours ans polished off three solo runs, and I’m not done with the pair yet!
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It is so daunting to take on. Currently what’s keeping me from playing FFX is FFX! Aside from the Trifecta of course.
The only other Final Fantasy game I’ve played in full was VII, and the intro was like 3 minutes long, and then you’re thrust into blowing up a reactor. Talk about throwing you right into the thick of it – it was fantastic. “Blow this up now, explain later.” Absolutely loved the chaos in that first segment, and boy did it get 10 year old me into a panic.
I can’t actually believe I’m going to beat Xenoblade soon! I keep running into issues – there are so many damn bosses towards the end of it, it just seems to go on forever. But I know what you mean about the game – I can only say, you need to love the combat system (which is practically ripped straight out of an MMORPG), and initially, it’s pretty boring when you don’t have a lot of moves. You also need to ignore sidequests and progress the story because you complete sidequests incidentally just from normal gameplay (collecting things, killing X number of monsters, etc).
Of course, it is very overwhelming at first and requires a big commitment. Hey, I’m coming back to finish it after a 5 month break!
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