Thoughts on: Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Finally, my soul is free to be reborn in the world without Lightning.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 was a pleasant surprise (even if not the greatest game) after the horrible pointlessness of XIII. So you could expect Lightning Returns, aka XIII-3 to be even better. Nope, it completely destroys everything that it could’ve had going for it. While being absolutely sure it’s doing great.

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Thoughts on: Final Fantasy XIII-2

After suffering through Final Fantasy XIII where nothing happened, I didn’t expect the direct sequel to be any better. The first game of the “Lightning saga” wasted all of the potential it had in the mythology and themes, so I didn’t expect that Square Enix can somehow make it so the sequel fixes all of the problems. I was not ready for Final Fantasy XIII-2. It’s impossible to be ready for this game. It’s a bizarre mix of pleasant and unpleasant changes and new ideas that somehow manage to fit the conventions of the series.

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Thoughts on: Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII was released in 2009 and after the initial wave of praise, it started getting very different opinions thrown about it. I read all those opinions and had certain expectations, but… It’s Final Fantasy, come on! I played all of the previous titles, though have not finished any of the PS2 games. X just didn’t click with me at all, due to characters and the setting, while XII was completely almost 100%, but I got bored during the final boss fight and watched the ending online. Hopefully, it gets a re-release in HD someday, preferably on PC and I’ll definitely play it again. Anyway, I couldn’t skip FF XIII, all of the “Trilogy”. And it starts… well, atrociously.

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Quick thoughts on: Pillars of Eternity (with The White March)

Pillars of Eternity и The White March. Переплетение душ

After supporting the game on Kickstarter (one of very few games I supported), after patiently waiting for two part expansion to get released, I finally played Pillars of Eternity in it’s complete current 3.x version and it was an amazing adventure to have. All of my expectations were met and exceeded and not just because we sadly lacked games with truly great stories for the past decade, but because even if there were many, Pillars would be just as great. It’s everything you loved about Black Isle, early Bioware, Troika and, of course, Obsidian themselves, but perfected, taken to a new level, despite the very nostalgic interface. It’s simple enough to get sucked into it, but complex and deep enough not to be a very fast food-ish feeling game a lot more recent AAA RPGs have become.

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