“…half the guys he listed WERE DEAD.”

LMAO xD

Spoony I agree with you on Final Fantasy XIII.

I am currently right before the final boss, about 45 hours in I think and I haven't touched the game for 3 weeks because it's just boring. I forced myself through the whole game up to that point and I won't finish this game, I don't want to finish it. This game is the first game where I said “Fuck this, I quit.”. And the worst part is that it's not THAT bad, it's terrible but I finished worse games. The fighting system is very fun and it does require some amount of strategy but that doesn't save the game for me.

The one thing I hope for, and this will be a once in a lifetime wish, is that Square-Enix will have the common sense to realize that they need to go back to the old games in terms of setting and story. I mean, the only reason FF13 sold is because it's another Final Fantasy title, and people eat that stuff up. Slap “Final Fantasy” on a goat and have it wear a spiky-hair wig, and I bet you the raving fanboys will want that goat.

I keep going back to Final Fantasy IX every time I think about Final Fantasy, because that was a great game with simple mechanics and a decent story. Hell, when I think Final Fantasy, I don't think about FF7 or any of the other sci-fi-themed entries. It's all about the medieval fantasy setting with elements of steampunk mixed in.

But as much as I enjoyed FF9, I'm not saying Square should retain that old formula of two rows of people parallel from another, playing red rover. I like how the battle system is set up for FF13, and how the characters and monsters move about on the screen. I agree with Spoony when he says they should innovate. We got a few decent things out of FF13 at the sacrifice of plot and common sense, in my opinion.

…Man, I just realized how long I've been writing this post for, and now I have to go to work :P

I think if it takes longer than a day's worth of playing a fucking video game then as a developer you really need to hire some new people to write your games. That's ridiculous. Glad I didn't buy it.

And yeah, Wrestlemania was a huge disappointment. I'd just watch ROH and CHIKARA if I were you.

today is my birthday and nothing i love more then spoony vlog thanks for making this bday rock

You don't know Snow? What's there not to get that's up with Snow?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D39Lm_HRfOs

Sorry.. couldn't resist. Was the first thing that came to mind when I heard a character was named Snow.

I haven’t played FF13, and truthfully, I never had any desire to. After Final Fantasy 7, everything kinda went downhill. I liked 12, it in my opinion being the best Final Fantasy since 6 (I didn’t really care for 7), but I recognized that it was basically a fluke, and Square-Enix is pretty much done. I never cared for the persona series myself, or really anything in the Shin Megami Tensai series. I just never thought they were particularly good games. But all this crap that’s going on with FF13, well, I heard a wise man once say that the more words you have to invent for your fantasy, the worse the fantasy is. This has been universally true with every fantasy game and movie I’ve ever seen. A few words here and there is okay, but seriously.

Okay, well, you go and get rest, Spoony. Out of everything you’ve done over the past years, you deserve it. I check back on this site nearly every day, but I can wait, and so can everyone else, even if they don’t say it. Or believe it. You put out quality stuff, and while I don’t think that’ll change, I know that you put everything you have into this site and I want to see it continue strong and not fall apart because you work yourself to death. Peace out.

You did get Resonance of Fate? Fuck yeah! I emailed you about it as soon as you mentioned FFXIII. You're gonna love it, man. I dunno how you'll like the story, it isn't all that deep, but it's funny, the characters are likable (Vashyron in particular), and the battle system alone will have you entertained. Shit ton of side missions and optional fights, too. Warning you, though, it's hard as fuck. I mean REALLY fucking hard. I've heard it called the Ninja Gaiden of RPGs.

I gotta agree with the linearity, but even considering that, I gotta say that FFXIII is probably my favorite FF since 9, but all the characters get some character developement and by the end, I think they are all pretty likeable. Even hope who at first was seriously annoying, was one of my favorite character by the end.

Also, the story wasn't so bad either.

*SPOILER* The Focus is explained to the characters by good ol' Dysley, so you get that done too. The thing is, the stuff happens that explains alot of the stuff.

While FFXIII does have its flaws I still enjoy it. I agree completely that they don't gradually introduce you to the setting and rely too much on the datalog. And it is very, almost entirely linear for the first 10 chapters. Chapter 11 (where I am now) is very different and feels more like traditional FF, a big wide area that you can explore and do optional sidequests.

Much like FFX the “freedom” of the leveling system is intended mainly for the end game, when you can theoritically max out your character to insane degree. Though admittedly I doubt I will bother that much, and I'm the one who likes the game. As it is though I find it fun to fill in the bubbles on my own far more then getting a Dragon Quest styled “Taloon has leveled up. He receives +13 HP, +2 STR, +1 DEF” as it creates a level of interactivity to gaining your stats rather then just being told “Hey you're .5% more awesome then you were a minute ago. It's an illusion of choice, sure, but one I slightly prefer.

Oh and leveling your weapons is worthwhile, even for guys like Hope because you'll notice it doesn't just raise the stats of your strength but of magic as well. If you're not leveling Hope's weapon you're leaving him at a serious disadvantage. Though I agree that the weapon leveling system is flawed and not nearly as interesting as it should be.

I'm not saying you should love it, and I understand that if you aren't having fun now you should probably just leave it rather then continue to the play on the notion that you “might” have more fun later on but I am enjoying and enjoyed it pretty much from the start.

ya im playing resonance of fate right now as well over XIII but i think the implausibility of the customization system might drive you more nuts then the gunblade did, but if you do get into it the best advice i could give is to master the tri-attack system and grenades rape early on.

Ugg, sooo many degrees of agree; with everything you said.

I bought FF13, the day it came out, and any hope for the game died at the 10 hour mark… I'm still trying to beat it, mostly because I'm hoping that the endgame makes up for it, but judging by the comments, that sounds unlikely (Though the second to last paragraph of mikeaoJ's post makes me smile). The only thing I have to say is I liked Lightning too, back when she was beating up Snow and threatening to kill her sister for being a L'Cie, but once she realized she was becoming too likable, and droped the 'beating up the annoying twats' part of her, and instead became a moping emo twat, basically becoming the kind of character I used to love seeing her beat up.

However, despite all the disappoint from FF13… I am optimistic for Nier, an RPG by Square-Enix coming out on the 27th, mostly because it has a simple story (guy is looking for cure to plague that his daughter caught), and it uses real-time fighting, something that worked well in Kingdom Hearts for Square. So, though FF is pretty much dead, at least Square may go on to still make decent RPGs.

At the expense of college and significant other time, I dedicated the full 80+ hours to getting every achievement in Final Fantasy XIII. 80 hours I could stand to get back… Though I still don’t think the reward was worth it (because essentially, it was an extremely slow rail shooter) I felt that the characters, the plot and the battle system were worth experiencing if only for a little while.

You seem to be really into the old turn based rpgs spoony, just thought I’d ask but how did you feel about games like Fallout and Oblivion? Another poster also mentioned that they would love to see you say a few words about your favorite console games and I happen to agree.

Some good psx games to check out (if you haven’t already) : Legend of Dragoon (someone already mentioned it), Xenogears, Beyond the Beyond, Wild Arms, Vagrant Story and Vandal Hearts (the first one only heh).

Keep up the great work!

I find it somewhat ironic that you are saying that you would not make the “best” mage in the game a commando even if you have the choice, yet you harped on 8 where you had total control over how you spent your points. AS you said in your video it would make more sense for Squall to be a better melee fighter than the girls but if the player allocates the spells properly it dosen't matter.

Well, FFXIII looks like its going to suck. I don't know if I'm even going to get it now because every little bit of info I hear about it just makes it sound worse. “Imagine FFX, doing everything it did wrong, just ten times worse.” What in the world was so wrong with FFXII's style that we had to make a huge sudden break from everything it did? Because the “fans” complained? The fans always complain! They hate everything! That's what being a “fan” is all about: hating everything.

Seriously, is there any reason to play this game?

This comment has no relation to the vlog, but I figure I gotta find a place to say it…(well, there's somewhat of a link, since I've thought of it after you said no more wrestling talk…)

I just wanted to say, even though there won't be any more wrestling talk, you gotta find a way to keep your Ultimate Warrior character!! You gotta keep using that somehow!!!

Who's with me?

The way I see it, Final Fantasy 13 is like what people ripped on with Fable. But at least Fable was fun to play, and you weren't limited to one town, you could go to Oakvale the second you get out of the Guild. Not to mention I personally liked Fable's storyline and I enjoy playing it repeatedly in the Summer like I do with Oblivion. Final Fantasy…pretty much all of them I've never liked from the start. I didn't get far in X before just downright quitting, and I didn't really get into VII, maybe one day the makers will get smart. Then again they only made two Kingdom Hearts and made 13 of these FF's.

with the FFXIII not giving exposition, it's a bit like playing Dragon age in that regard, unless you read EVERY piece of text you're given you know nothing about the world

I read the Hogfather, watched someone play the game (I think it's called disc world: it glitched the first time, and it was pretty far in too, so it was some time before I sat though the entire game) but I'm not yet a fan. I like the stuff, but I have no idea were to start, otherwise I just reread The hitchhikers guides books, ( yes even the new one by Colfer, I've read some of his stuff too so it wasn't really a bother to me.)

Announcements! I can't wait, Hopefully nothing bad or disappointing. Of course you sound pretty excited about them yourself so I suspect that they may be entertaining if not good.

I never read any of the texts you were given in DA:O, and I never came close to feeling confused. FF13, on the other hand, acts like a sequel that I missed the prequel for, and despite reading every bit of text other than the stuff that explains the combat, I still often find myself lost. Maybe I just had an easier time with DA:O over FF13, but to compare the necessity of reading the text in DA:O and FF13 just doesn't work.

I would disagree, the stuff in DAO was completely optional in your understanding of the basic plot. It was for the diehard completest who wanted to learn about all the fables and past history of the world. But you were told the plot straight up, you grasped the world around you easily, for the most part.

I am amazed that you still can find things to bitch about after 5 months of this kind of torture. I thought that you would get immune to the pain by now. I stopped watching wrestling on a full time basis about a decade ago.

You really should watch Ring of Honor, at least the stuff that came after Cornette took over the book last year. Instead of being spotfests, marathon matches, and that hardcore crap they did originally, it now feels like the correct balance of high energy and psychology that I normally get watching Lucha Libre on univision.

Sure, it still has spots, but now there is an emphasis on basic ring psychology. When the spots take place, it is not done to impress the people. Now, there is some in match meaning to them.

The thing about a bad game that inspires hate is that hate is still an emotion whereas a game that inspires boredom fails to even elicit an emotion. In that respect, a game like FFVIII that makes me rage is still a better game than FFIX which bored me to tears. I'd rather be sentenced to an eternity of triple triad hell than play one hour of the choco-mog dig game in FFIX which literally made me go to sleep from pure boredom. A hot cold dig game? What the hell were you thinking Squarenix? Hate means you still cared but were dissapointed whereas boredom means you don't care at all. If FFXIII is anywhere near that level of bordeom I don't ever want to play it. There is nothing worse than playing a game that you are bored of.

My guess is no, as it's still plausible (in video game logic) for a dude to fight with claws when everyone else has a melee weapon of some sort.

It doesn't get better Spoony, that's coming from someone who gave up after getting all trophies but the CRAZY BORING ones. SPOILER (kinda but not really) Chapter 11 you get this huge ass zone that takes like 5-10 minutes to run from side to side… it's like a Hallway Hub… many hallways connected to this huge zone, and you're like wow finally I can run around. Trust me, 40% of the trophies, and I'm not kidding, you spend in this one zone, killing 3 different types of monsters. Behemoth/Big lion thing (a spot which is best to grind CP) and TURTLES.

Every, single, trophy, past the storyline and missions, are about killing fucking turtles. I gave up… 20 hours past the ending of killing turtles did it for me, and I had about 40 more hours to do, killing turtles. Those fucking turtles man, SquareEnix put every single item you need past the storyline (which is 2 items) on ONE type of monster, and that's turtles. To make the best weapons, you need a certain item. Sold at 2mil gil or rare dropped from TURTLES. Thing is, those turtles are tough, toughest mobs in the game. So what? to get the best weapons, I need to kill the toughest type of monster… YEAH! Makes sense right SquareEnix, thank you for sucking so much.

I was wondering if you had finished persona 4. My God man, finish it already! It is easily in my top 2 favorite rpgs, tied with Glory of Heracles for the NDS. Both those games have really fun stories and I never got bored with either one.

Every time Spoony mentions the Shin Megami Tensei games (here they're Persona 3 & 4) , the SMT fanboy in me squeels. Hardly anyone I talk to knows about the SMT RPGs, and those who do only remember their “evil” reputation pre-SMT:Nocturne.

Anyway, I'm glad you tore FFXIII open. I was waiting for someone to go in depth with the stupidity of the villains in that game. The character names are dumb and the linear pathways are hollow to the point of feeling like I'm playing a corpse rather than a game (a pretty corpse with shiny make-up and ribbons tied to its funeral suit, but a corpse none the less).
-Still, I saw the potential in the title and like you I didn't feel enraged so much as depressed. Lightning had potential. Snow had potential. Fuck, with better character design (in terms of the character's personality and influence on the setting around them) Hope could've been as deep and lovable as Ken Amada (Persona 3)!

I wish ATLUS would bring the SMT franchise to the current gen platforms. Though if it meant the games would turn out like FFXIII, then I'd rather it stay on the PS2.

FF13 IS the worst FF so far…hands down, no contest. It's funny that everyone claims this game ''gets better'' after 25-30 hours..but that's when I had my fill of the game. The game is terrible and the biggest let down of the current-gen consoles….XII is superior in every way.

I can completely understand your qualms with FF13, yet from where you mentioned you were at, I would suggest at least putting a couple of more hours in to at least reach the portion where the story explains itself a bit more and also where the game gives your big areas to actually roam around in. I myself just reached that point and it’s a breath of fresh air. Admittedly, players shouldn’t -have- to dredge tough hours on hours of ‘hallway’ adventures, but I would really look forward to seeing your comment on the game after that point.

Also, the crystarium (whatever the leveling system’s name is) does open up to options, although it’s a bit of a slap in the face, and it’s pretty obvious shortly after unlocking it. The item system was confusing at first (with the damn exp bonus multipliers) until you notice the theme, then it’s just a ‘grinding’ mechanism for your equipment… which could have been done in such a better way.

Also, you should show off what boardgames you do enjoy, I think it’d make a pretty good Vlog.

P.S: Play Devil Survivor for the DS, I found it to be so amazing, so much so I wish the other shin tegami games were more like it.

p.s. do something like AVGN with your board games like his Board James segment. That could be fun!

XIII is basically the extreme opposite of XII. The way I see it XII is the best in series and for many reasons. I beat XIII not too long ago and that game fucking hurts. It's a good thing you stopped playing that horrid pile of armadillo turd. As for it getting “good” 20 hours in, bullshit. The game caught my interest for about an hour or two, into that 20 hour mark, and then SPOILERS* CId drops the Bayonetta bomb and tells me the grand scheme of the fal'cie is to kill the tens of millions of Cacoon citizens to awaken the Maker of humans and Fal'cie alike. And the story gets even shittier, dumber and more boring as you progress even further. Sure it might be heavy on symbolism like X but really? why bother?.
And XIV is going to be an MMO, pff just great. It seems to me ever since IX came out the FF series have been coming out in a pattern: Futuristic melodramatic low IQ title (X/XII) followed by an MMO (XI/XIV) followed by a deep mature realistic title (XII/XV?) lol

If you're on the lookout for good console RPGs, you gotta try Demon's Souls. It'll wash the sugary foulness of FFXIII right out off your mouth.

I think FFXII is awesome myself.

I love how spoony's always like “kay, this videos done” in his vlogs, then keeps talking for another ten minutes. xD

you should start Resonance of Fate! its surprisingly good…. the story is sorta wonky, but the battlesystem makes up for all of it. the game gets friggen hard really fast, but its good in the way that if you get good at the battlesystem and actually manage to beat a boss, it feels REALLY rewarding. Not to mention how much better it is when it comes to creative ways to eliminate the feeling of linearity. It actually feels like you got freedom, even though if you take a closer look you have none at all. but yea… its alot better than FFXIII

I’m currently about 3 hours into FFXIII. Thought I’d play it non-stop this weekend but I ended ut shutting my 360 down after 10 minutes =(. I have no will playing it AT ALL. I ended up dusting off my PS1 and started playing FFIX.

No I loved your Wrestleing talks, vids, and comments you make it insanely funny. Don't stop please at least every once and a while another “Watching Wrestleing with Spoony.

I understand if you don't but seriosuly you make this great.

i like listening to you opinons about games and soon, would love to talk to you in person but yeah, let's be realistic, it is impossible.
but i liked your points, pretty interesting how you point you opinion, it is totally not rage, and if it can be classifeid as such, it is totally justified.

can wait to listen to your opionos about persona 4(if you finish it some time soon) and about resonance of fate, especially this last one, it kinda came out of nowhere to me, and even thought it has flaws i liked it, hope to hear you opinion about it

Such a disappointment, Im glad I didnt rush out and get FF13..but please don't cut Dr. Insano, hes my hero, lol.

Geez, there IS a wikipedia page for “gunblades.” Naturally, they look pretty stupid.

You're a girl judging from your pic? I think 7 overall was more a boys thing with the tone and the subjects and the way the characters were portrayed. That's how I feel it atleast. 7 Was actually quite innovative for it's time. It blended a very cinematic experience quite well with gameplay and the scale of the story felt quite big (the cinematics helped quite a bit for that goal tho) Gameplay wise it was also quite refreshing with so many great and different minigames, at least imho. Also, the setting was so fresh at the time. So yeah, FF7 in my opinion quite a breath of fresh air. Might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but for what it was it was quite good.

FF9 IS a good game, but for a game that harkens back to the golden FF games so much, a lot from those old games is not present in it. So for the oldschool fans I think a lot of the good qualities in that game get overlooked just because it reminds us so much of the old games and what was missing from it. Especially at the time when it was released. I for one hated the game back then, altho now my opinion has changed on it. I really like how subtle the story is in a way and how many layers it has. It puts the newer games to shame in so many ways.

I didn't play FFXIII, so I'm gonna ask: They turn to crystal if they succeed? Geez, doing something for an unknown force and then being transformed to a giant rock … I'd do whatever I want while I still have the time to, and once I'm a zombie I shall wander the world of these strange lazy gods. °,…,° I mean, you're screwed anyways, so who cares.

Loved the log, I found Sherlock Holmes kinda boring though.

i honestly like FF13 a lot. i never understood why the linearity is a bad thing. if the experience and pacing are good from start to finish, why is it a problem? i mean, there are a ton of games that are extremely linear that people love (god of war, gears of war, modern warfare, etc.), yet nobody complains about the design of those games. to a certain extent i get it, but at the same time it's not like final fantasy is fallout 3 where there are no restrictions about anything you can do.

The only good gunblade is the one held by Cervantes.

Thank God you're not a professional reviewer, but just a random casual gamer, who states his opinion.
And yeah. The first 20 hours of FF 13 are pretty much as boring as these 40 minutes of your stating the obvious. It's just a shame you're bitching about a game you didn't even bother to play till the end. Heck, you didn't even play half of it. Pathetic.

I got the World War Z audiobook off Audible, and I was annoyed about how much they cut from it. The North Korea story's gone, the story about the guys on the Chinese submarine are gone, most of the stuff from the Holy Russian Empire is gone, Kondo and Komonaga never meet… basically, half the book is gone. Why, could they not afford more voice actors?

Fortunately, I can get a lot of audiobooks from my local library. They've got most of Neil Gaiman's work, my favourite author, lots of Douglas Adams, bestsellers and classics, and a lot of other things. It's pretty cool.

My friend has been playing Final Fantasy XIII and is insisting it's good so that he doesn't look like a dumbass, but one thing that has been intriguing me about it is the concept of the l'Cie. Granted, since the game is all linear, you're just rolling yourself along a rail until everyone in your party becomes a zombie or a crystal (Vanille can't come to either conclusion soon enough), and though it's aggravating that they just get arbitrarily turned into l'Cie and aren't told what their Focus is, it's an idea that interests me. All these people have been put to an intense test, their existence is rapidly drawing to one of two conclusions, and it's up to them and only them to achieve the right one. I find it cool how much is at stake for each of them on an individual basis, but it's rubbish because you know that, since these characters have such unappealing personalities you won't care if they find out or turn to zombies, and again, since this game is on a rail, they're just going to switch at some point according to the story's progression, and I imagine you can see it coming. Isn't one of the points of a “game” in that it's interactive, and you might be able to tweak the story's outcome, or open up something new about it?

Why the Fal'cie do this to certain people, I'm still unclear, but then again I barely know what a Fal'cie is. Some kind of magic robot? I don't necessarily think they l'Cie people to make them useful to society or something, they just like handing out these tests to people that they'd like to see do it. Seems like we're all rats in a maze, then, or puppets on strings. Possibly another interesting way to look at it, if it didn't regress to just toying with these character's unconvincing feelings. :S

I DON’T WANNA REINVENT WHEELS

I dunno Spoony, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on Final Fantasy 13. It wasn't a terrible game by any means, it wasn't great but it wasn't bad. The fact that it was linear wasn't such a bad thing, it moved the story along didn't it? I'll agree that it gets a little repetitive but a ways into the game you actually gain a lot of freedom and see one of the most beautiful areas of the game. If you're going to talk about it, at least play up until that point. The plot had it's share of problems as did the characters but I've seen worse. It's good points definitely make up for the parts it lacks in my opinion.

Have you ever seen the Sherlock Holmes TV show with Jeremy Brett and if so what do you think of it?

i agree with spoony on ffXIII everything he said was 100% accurate , im told to play the game 25 hours in aswell, but its just not going to happen if im bored i dont play the game….theres no point going to see a bad film just because the endings good.

The problem is that if it gets good at hour 20, and you have three hours to play every day, thenu would need to waste your leisure time for a WEEK before it would begin to pay off. There is something very, VERY wrong with that. There are plenty of other games I could play that are great from start to finish. Why would I waste my time with FFXIII?

Totally agree with you on Wrestlemania, Spoony. It just didn't feel like a Wrestlemania event; it felt more like one of the off-month PPVs, to be honest.

I'm pathetic because I don't want to play through all sixty hours of a boring as shit game? I don't need to experience the full course of the Ebola virus to know that it sucks, chief.

So FF13 is trying to be a mashup of Catch 22 and The Manchurian Candidate? Could have been something special….

I also like the whole Transforming gunblade. It looks like a gun, and then it transforms like a butterfly knife and turns into a sword

So you played the first 20 hours and watched this 40 minute video, thought they were both boring, and you didn't think to stop at one point and say to yourself, “man, this is pretty boring, I should go to something with my life.”?

Go you.

I can't blame you for being tired of wrestling, Spoony… Botchamania's the only thing keeping me interested

Frankly, most JRPG's nowadays are by-the-number affairs… Investing too much money into advertising and graphics and too afraid of making too many changes to the established gameplay formula of menu navigation and typical shonen manga angst
It's no wonder the Role-Playing genre is being dominated by western studios like Bethesda and Bioware – at least they're not afraid of changing up the mechanics every now and then and actually giving you some control over how the story pans out instead of leading you around by the leash

Regarding FFXIII, I just dont care to save Cacoon. We didn't really experience life in Cacoon, or any relationship to it other than “Oh we must save it because my sister said so” I didn't have any enthusiasm towards saving Cacoon which is why i didn't care for the entire plot. Such a big disappointment from something that calls itself a final fantasy… I regret my purchase.

Persona 4 is amazing and yes it's pretty much the only console game outside of NHL 10 that I've been playing. Would love to see a review of it from ya, to show us the awesomeness that it actually is.

Spoony, I hope you could give FF13 a bit more time, least till you get out of the 'hallway adventure'. To me it was a breath of fresh air. The leveling and item systems do suck in the own ways, and the story gets a little better just a bit later.. but I would like to see your follow up after that point anyways.

Also, please do a Vlog over your board games, I'm quite curious myself as to which games you enjoy playing.

P.S: Try Devil Survivor for the DS, amazing game for a shin tegami game.

Spoony, the funny thing was that I went and played a bit of Final Fantasy 7 again when 13 came out and was somehow much more impressed with it and the story actually makes me feel something.

Thanks for putting into words the hate I have for FF13. You are a better man than me because I quit at 10 hours. I hated all the characters, the plot is insane and its boring. Even my friends say “you need to play it after an X amount of hours and it gets good”.

So after two weeks, I traded it in for a better game; Tales of Vespira.

It is a shame that you didn't have enough time to get to get far enough into the game to see the characters become more fleshed out or for everything in the game world to all come together. For as far as you've been able to play, your opinion is valid. But do me a favor and pick up the game sometime in the future, when the bad memories have subsided. Once you reach Chapter 11, the world begins to open up and become more sandbox-like, the story gets progressively better, and the experience becomes all the more enjoyable. You'll not regret investing a few more hours into it.

Perhaps you'll be more likely to enjoy the game if I give you a little backstory to work with.

On a planet called Gran Pulse, a vague entity called The Maker created two major species: Humans and Fal'Cie. Humans are the special, versatile creatures that can do anything they put their mind to; while Fal'Cie are more like elemental titans which were created to perform only a single role, yet they do it better than anything else on the planet.

Eventually, The Maker got bored and left Gran Pulse. Everyone pretty much panicked, and chaos ensued. In an attempt to bring back The Maker, humans and Fal'Cie worked together to build the floating world of Cocoon. And as you would expect between two societies, centuries of living apart caused them to become untrusting of one another, and a cold war of sorts broke out.

The thing is, Fal'Cie really suck at fighting each other, seeing how their potential for growth or change is extremely limited. So the Fal'Cie invented the process of turning humans into L'Cie, who would then do the fighting for them.

L'Cie are basically humans fused with a Fal'Cie's essence. They get awesome superpowers, but are forced to perform a Focus, a single objective that appears in a vision. If they manage to complete the Focus before time runs out, they get turned into crystal statues until the Fal'Cie decides to use their services again. Otherwise, they get turned into Cie'th, monstrous-looking sad sacks that can only shamble around wallowing in despair for all eternity.

Lightning and the gang are Pulse L'Cie, which means they have to complete a mission for one of the Fal'Cie of Gran Pulse, or get turned into miserable zombie creatures. And it happens that their mission is to destroy Cocoon.

There, hope that cleared up any confusion.

Tactics was the last genuinly excellent game in the final fantasy series (I don't know if it was released before or after 7, I think after), for me, its all gone downhill with brief periods of excellence (9, kingdoms hearts (it kinda counts)

On the same boat as you with FFXIII. Bought it about 3 weeks ago, barely past chapter 4/5. It feels like a chore to sit down and play it. Normally with these games I'm engaged in the story so much, that I really want to play it whenever I can, here…not so much. Hell even my sister who's been playing the game for only TWO days has nearly overtaken me.

Looking forward for the next part of the FFX by the way, first part was fucking hilarious.

enlightening, never was much of a wrestling fan, just didn’t grow up with it or get into it, none of my friends did so I only know the big names. Persona, great series and as far as the final fantasies go, I really enjoyed 9, I’ve noticed you haven’t said anything about it except a vlog or two ago where you mentioned you didn’t play it cause of the backlash from 8 and the art style, but if you can get past the super-deformed characters I think you’d enjoy it, but thats only going off your “review and vlog persona” won’t pretend to know “you”

side note, if you’re interested I noted you said “Stories by a 4 year old”, this one’s by a 5 year old but same difference. http://www.axecop.com, I think you might enjoy it, its ridiculous but fun

thanks for everything man!

Despite you being as tired as you say you are? This Vlog actually has you ranting with as much energy as your actual mainstream canon reviews. Especially when you started up on the gunblade.

It gets good 25 hours in… that's like saying a movie gets good an hour and twenty minutes in. Who needs that? I haven't bought a Final Fantasy game since 9 & the last RPG I played to the end was the first Lunar on PS1 (this was like last year). I think these days the developers focus is on mind blowing graphics & very little is spent on gameplay like it was back in the days of NES or even PS1.

Speaking as a MAJOR Final Fantasy fan, I agree with virtually every word you spoke regarding XIII. It really is a huge dissapointment, in that it looked so promising, and you can tell that it has a lot of potential, but it fails so spectacularly to deliver. But I do have a few points to address, if you'll indulge me.

First I would disagree that VII was the last great FF, though nothing since has been quite as good.. I would instead attribute that to IX, at least in terms of story and character. Crisis Core, which is a prequel to VII, was also good in regards to story, even if the gameplay was repetitive and some of the characters (I'm looking at you Genesis) were horrible.

I might not actually disagree regarding your statement that FF movies are bad as a rule. I would remind you however that to every rule, there is an exception. Advent Children Complete, the extended version of Advent Children, is actually fairly good. Granted Advent Children sucked on every level, from its confusing as hell plot to its non-existent character developement. But Complete has an extra thirty minutes worth the footage, and it works freaking miracles man. Its almost like a different movie in that the plot is coherent, and the characters are developed and explained.

I'm also glad to see that I'm not the only person who tolerates XII. Anyway, assuming you read this comment, I've taken enough of your time. So have a good night/day, and I look forward to upcoming reviews.

Are you actually stealing insults from seifer? (chicken-shit)

Good to hear from you Spoony. Keep up the good work, and get some rest man ^_^

If it had 100 hours which I doubt, then the only enjoyable part is 88% of the game.

Totally agree with you about Watson and Adler – loved the former, hated the latter. Still don't regret seeing the movie three times, though.

I'm sorry Dr. Insano is so hard on you, because he really is a great character. Maybe it could become an April Fool's tradition where Dr. Insano does a review? Because the Ferris Bueller was truly killer.

Yeah, I hate to say it but I have to agree with you about Final Fantasy XIII Spoony. There were moments early on in Final Fantasy XIII's story where I actually thought, “This is going to be a really fantastic game, and may finally surpass VII in everybody's minds.” I imagined that there would be a ton of different locations, different NPCs, different sub plots etc. Instead the story wasted a tremendous amount of time doing literally nothing.

As you said there are good things about Final Fantasy XIII. If Square Enix took the rather innovative combat system from Final Fantasy XIII, combined it with the open world exploration of Final Fantasy XII, added the customization of games like Final Fantasy V, and gave it a story similar in pacing to Final Fantasy VI or VII, I imagine you would get a very solid RPG.

Seriously, Persona 4 is absolutely amazing. It has the best character development of any RPG I have ever played, and the battle system is intoxicating. You need to finish it.

OH NOOOO!!!! How could they make a bunch of hallways. This is a terrible thing that they introduced in FFX and I HATED it. I thought this stupidity was behind me and news of this only makes me reluctant to buy one of the games I was looking foreword to most. Nothing that reminds me of FFX is a terrible thing.

FFXIII was a massive let down in every way. I can't believe your defending the combat system. FFXII started this whole autopilot, hands-off approach to combat that is such a step backwards. XIII is easily just as bad in this regard. There is absolutely no depth to the combat system at all. Switching paradigm's is their lazy ass way of taking all customization and strategy out of the game. Now instead of figuring out an enemies weakness and exploiting it it's boiled down to should I use a physical attack or a magic one. Because beyond that the game literally does the rest on its own. I have said it before and i'll say it again. FFXIII is quite literally “babies first RPG”. It holds your damn hand in every way possible. In combat, in exploration, in skill and stat management, in equipment and items. Every aspect of the RPG formula was either completely removed or dumbed down so much it's barely even there at all. As it is I would only recommend this game to small children who seriously can't go wrong with it. It's shiny to keep their attention and it's so god damn simple that they can't screw it up.

I agree with everything you said FFXIII. I to kept playing the game thinking it would get better and it didn't. If you can believe I to put Persona 4 on hold for FXIII. I also went through the process of thought that I must have been crazy to stop Persona 4 for Final Fantasy XIII. I am back playing Persona 4 and everything is right in the world again. Oh and they have announced they are working on Persona 5 YAY.

-OK, I've got basically nothing to add here on the subject of wrestling, since I've never watched a show in my life and it doesn't sound like my cup of tea. I only know about it from your videos and word of mouth from all of my friends. That said, I have plenty to say about the rest of this.

-First of all, I find it rather ironic that this and the related Tweet are the first mentions of Yahtzee you've given since he plugged you in that interview so long ago, because I haven't been so disgusted with one of his videos since the second one on E3, the one where, possibly out of fatigue, he resorts to childish namecalling before finishing with a blanket condemnation of humanity and especially his readership, one of those heaping spoonfuls of misanthropy that makes me wonder why the hell I got into this asshole in the first place. My “favorite” part of the review was near the end, where he asserts that he is an unbiased critic, “Shut up! I am!” But he isn't, is he. He can give his self-effacing sheepish little admission if he likes, but acknowledging the problem doesn't remove it.

What I'm getting at is that my favorite ZP videos are the ones where I learn something, be it a good game that I've overlooked or a lesson on what not to do. In the aforementioned two videos, I learned nothing; if I didn't know any better, I'd say I learned less than nothing, having finished them dumber than when I started. I knew I would hate the video the instant I saw the thumbnail on his archive.

Still, I'm probably overreacting. This isn't really my equivalent of Spoony's FF8, where I have to admit that something I used to like just isn't any good anymore. I'll probably still watch these videos trying my best to like them and I probably will, most of the time. At least I hope so.

-Anyway, to get back on track, yes, I do have a bit of a hard time believing that you don't inherently hate Final Fantasy, although it's not impossible for me to believe it like it was in Yahtzee's case. I just remember your overblown histrionics regarding Tidus, which have become significantly less funny to me the more I dwell on them, and I can't believe that this is how you would really react, that you're not putting on a show for the benefit of people who share your opinion.

Maybe I don't have the benefit of nostalgic memories of the first six games, but I just can't muster up the energy required to be a fan or a hater. I have more emotional attachment to Lost than even my favorite Final Fantasies, and you can interpret that however you will.

I haven't watched any of your FF8 videos in months. I see the rest of your oeuvre on a weekly to monthly basis. I'll probably never touch your FF10 videos except to look at them the first time, and yeah, I'll probably laugh, but soon that'll be taken over by discomfort. I like you, Spoony, I think it'd be awesome hanging out with you, but I just can't get behind this position of yours.

-FF12 is one of my top three, for much of the same reasons you described. It's the closest one of the main games has ever gotten to simulating a real world with a real civilization (and I'm excluding FF11 because that's probably my least favorite out of all of them). It strikes a good balance between the open, freely-explorable but mostly empty worlds of the first nine games and the populated but linear worlds of 10 and 13.

By the way, I'm making a lot of assumptions about 13 because I've never played it, and I doubt I will anytime soon. I'll probably see a Let's Play or something before I play it myself.

-Your point about leveling up weapons brings me to one of the games that I was sorely disappointed by: Disgaea. I was told that this game had a kickass, funny story, and to my dismay, it turned out that you needed to grind yourself to the fucking marrow to get the next cutscene. You can level up not just every character, but every item and piece of equipment, and the level cap is 9999! This is what people who hate JRPG game mechanics think all of those games play like.

And there's another thing I hate about Nippon Ichi games. You know how in the comments to the first FF10 video that I couldn't fathom not wanting to play a game based on the art style alone? Those games, especially Soul Nomad and the World Eaters, put the lie to that statement. Soul Nomad's poorly-drawn stick figure people make me ill, which is a shame because the story isn't half bad (I know from the LP, of course. I doubt I could stomach actually playing the game.). Maybe endlessly repeating the same map in order to get that extra level, or playing through a endurance-straining gauntlet in the Item World is your bag, but it isn't mine.

-Your bit on exposition, which is helpful for me to hear, by the way, reminds me of the Nostalgia Critic's Quest for Camelot review. I keep picturing you going through FF13, or FF8 for that matter, yelling, “Explain, Squaresoft! Explain!” Probably not a deal-breaker for me as a reader, but I'll try my best not to do any of that in my own stories.

-YES! I cannot agree with you more about Watson! That was the main selling point for the Sherlock Holmes movie, which I still haven't seen yet.

So thanks for putting up with me, if you've read this far. I don't comment on this sort of thing often, but when I do, I tend to ramble on.

So you picked up Resonance of Fate? I'm thinking of picking it up once the semester ends, but it would be cool to hear some first impressions on it, anything at all.

I'll start with what I agree with, hah. Wrestling has been dead to me for a long time, basically, since Rock left, for me. I guess that's when the Attitude Era ended. I got tired of Triple H getting every fucking thing he wanted just because he was screwing Stephanie. And, it just, well…got boring to me and, watching your rants, it made me glad I stopped watching.

Second, Sherlock Holmes is an amazing movie. Trailer sold me. What I really, REALLY liked about it was that it was a Private Eye story. On tv, all you see is the ensemble crime dramas, i.e. CSI, Law and Order, and there's so damn many of the and they all just seem samey to me. I do like NCIS, but it's more for the characters, not the crimes. I'd just love to see a return of the Private Eye. Monk is…eh…I don't even know if that counts as a P.I show and I can't think of any others. But, Sherlock Holmes was a return to that genre and I hope it can bring about a resurgence of it.

Now, to Final Fantasy. I'm not going to rant about how you are wrong, Spoony. We just share a difference of opinion and I'm one (of the few, maybe?) of the fanbase that understands that not everyone is going to love the series or every entry. Personally, 8 is my second favorite. I still thought your review was hilarious, though and I can't wait to see the rest of the X review. Yes, I loved X also, haha. The only FF to disappoint me is 12. If you're going to have open field combat, don't base it off ATB. What's the point of having an open field battle system if it's not real time? Though, maybe, 4 years of WoW made me loathe it's likeness to an MMO.

After being disappointed with 12, 13 is like a breathe of fresh air. There isn't much about the game I don't like to be honest. I do gripe that you only control 1 character in combat, but the A.I. is smart enough to make up for it. I don't mind being thrown into a story without knowledge of anything and being told things in flashbacks. It only makes me more interested in figuring out why. The combat if fast paced and just outright awesome to me. The Crystarium isn't bad, but I Can't say I love it. It's better than that damn License Board in 12, imo.

You do bring up a good point. What ever did happen to just leveling up and getting boosts that way? I always think of a good point when it comes to the PS1 and beyond FF games. What happened to when characters mattered? Take 7 for example. Combat-wise, what's the difference between the characters? Weapon and Limit Break. Fundamentally, that's it! It's was that way in every FF since 7 besides 9. It's about the only gripe I've had with FF for the past 13 years, well, besides 12. Other than that, I've enjoyed every entry.

I've given this discussion my 2 cents a bit. I do disagree with you, Spoony, but I do understand the idea of differing opinions. So, I'm not going to be like many FF fans and bitch and moan at you for not liking them. I'll enjoy my FF games and still laugh at your reviews of them. Deal? ^_^

fucking gunblade
- noun
(plural: fucking gunblades)

1. [Spoony] See 'gunblade'

Hmm, I had high hopes for XIII, I haven’t liked an FF game since VII and it looked really promising. You’re right on the tons of good RPGs thing, too. I personally find a good number of series to be better than Final Fantasy including Tales of…, Persona and Shin Megami Tensei as a whole.

And Spoony, make sure you stick with Persona 4, you wouldn’t believe just how good the story gets.

That mister anderson..
wasent he MR kennedy on WWE?
didnt even notice he was off the WWE when i'd seen TNA after hearing spooney here bitching about impact
and that crap is really so bad.
when watching TNA, and you watch WWE, it is wrestling gold compared to TNA. again, i feel sorry for Hogan, he's my wrestling hero, TNA has to stop killing wrestling, hope it's going to be like nitro, and TNA dies verry soon (A)

and final fantasy.. never liked it, never will,
peace of boring crap, to long to lame etc etc.

Noah, thanks for the vids though bro, alwasy cool watching you talk about this crap xD
but yeah, try to minimalise the wrestling stuff, once in the month or somthing could be nice?

oh btw, zombie nation isent sutch a bad game, think about it, your a floting head spitting on new york and eating zombies xD how cool's that xD:P

Friday Night Smackdown shocked me within the first ten minutes. First of all, it was totally by chance that I even sat down to watch it. I turned on the television to have some background noise while I ate my dinner. First off, it has been some time since I watched wrestling (last time being before the Royal Rumble), and I was shocked to see Jericho with the title. (Didn't that jabroni lose his job or something a while back?) The fact he beat Edge shocked me even more. Then when Edge came out and the audience was cheering for Edge shocked me into oblivion. What the hell has happened? Edge was a heel and now he seems to be winning the hearts of the fans. Figuring that maybe his character might be getting a rewrite, I “edged” on. Not even two minutes later, I finally realized why you have been ranting about this crap called “wrestling” for as long as you have. I love the reviews you do, but one does not truly understand the pain and suffering you went through until you sit through an episode of this god-awful crap.

And the crap hit the fan when Jack Swagger became champion in front of my very eyes. WHY? WHAT? WHO in the hell thought it was a good idea to throw Jack Swagger into champion status overnight? I was sick to my stomach and couldn't finish eating. During the commerical break my friend came over and I ran past him the horrible incident that had just occurred. Agreeing that Swagger may be a fresh of breath air, we decided to give Smackdown another chance and keep watching.

Hey everyone look! A good match! John Morrison and R-Truth vs Crime Time. The match begins and my friend and I guess who might win, both agreeing it will be a close and interesting…WTF???? The match is over? In less than a minute, this “what should have been a good match that lasted at least 7-10 mins” is over…And on top of that, Crime Time gets in a skirmish and apparently may no longer be together. I turned the television off. I am not gonna sit here and watch this. I had paint drying in the next room I needed to watch. I personally don't mind if you rant on wrestling because I love listening to you do it. I just have to say kudos to you my friend. YOU HAVE BALLS!!!! How else could one stand through not just one hour, but two hours of this? To see something I loved watching every week back in the day fall so far, its disheartening.

And speaking of falling so far, Final Fantasy XIII. What's left to say that you haven't? I love Final Fantasy and will continue to do so. Personally VI and VII are my favorites, but there was something about each installment I liked (even FFX and XII). With each new game in the franchise, there was something different, be that materia or battle system, or mini games, what have you. Although Final Fantasy XIII is the sexiest piece of eye candy I have ever laid my eyes on, that's all it really is. Eye candy.

Even before the game came to American shores, there was a lot of complaints on the internet about those who imported a copy and then complained about how linear the game was. I gave FFXIII the benefit of the doubt, especially after Square-Enix came out and said why they made it linear, to get more in touch with the characters. To this extent, they managed to do okay. The characters are decent, although each has their own quirks. Fang was by far my favorite character of the game, followed by Sazh, last place goes to Hope. He just seemed to say cheesy cliched lines that even a kid of 10 would know is uber lame. With the linear structure of the game, I agree that it felt confined, not being able to branch off with no real choices. But again, Square-Enix's reasoning allowed me to ignore the (minor) annoyance and play on. The story is mediocre at best. There were plenty of plot holes that could have used better explanation, even after I used the Datalog to research the subject. Although there were some intense moments, most of it was monotonous and one may have just wanted to skip the crap (I didn't because it was my first time playing through.) Even the main villains of the game…I just didn't give a crap about. But it's actually been that way with every FF since VIII. Edea and Ultimecia from 8…Kuja from 9…Seymour, Jecht and Sin from 10…and Vayne (if that's his name) from 12. Dysley and Orphan just don't stand out like Sephiroth or Kefka.

Music-wise, most of the score was nice, although there were several songs that sounded similar, just in different tempos. The battle system and Paradigms were interesting and fun for the most part to participate in. Forming strategies before battle was a breath of fresh air. But after a while it kind of became stale, especially when farming for gil or CP near the end of the game or post-game. Which brings me to Gran Pulse.

A lot of people, as you commented, say it gets better around 25-30 hour mark. While one may be able to change party members and do mission side quests, I didn't see any real difference. Granted, yes, the world became a little more open to explore, and it was nice to run around and do the missions, but it didn't have much “substance”. I don't have an exact word for it but it's kinda like when one says you either have it or you don't…Well FFXIII doesn't have it.

This was Square-Enix's biggest mistake with this title. They literally tried to fool you into thinking there was depth to this game ie the Upgrade and Crystarium but there's not. With the Crystarium grid, it was as you said, very limited in choices. In the end, it really came down to who you really wanted in your party to fight with. The only reason it might be a difficult choice is for that one special move that each character possesses, whether that be Vanille's Death spell, Fang's Highwind, Lightining's Army of One, etc. With the upgrade, you will spend plenty of hours farming for gil and components to upgrade your weapons. The only real reason anyone in their right mind would do this is for the trophy/achievement. It is one of the last trophies I need and I really don't feel like getting it. I might throw in an hour here and there, but I'm not dedicating myself to it like I did for the rest of the game. Take out the Upgrade system and the amount of time leveling up the Crystarium, there's only roaming around and side quests (this includes the chocobo digging).

For the first time in Final Fantasy history, I don't plan on replaying this any time soon. On Final Fantasy XII, I played the game all the way through at least twice, each time amassing over 100 hours on each file, enjoying the entire experience. I didn't feel the same with this installment. Hell, more than half the time, it felt like I was playing Metal Gear Fantasy or Final Gear Solid. The only sad thing about that comparison is that at least with Snake, there was more exploring early on in the game. Final Fantasy XIII wasn't a horrible game and it's still good enough to be considered a Final Fantasy game in my eyes. I just hope that Square-Enix learns from this and improves on it. Keep it pretty but breathe some magic back into the series. It's understandable to want to appeal to both old and new fans of the genre. But keep what we love about the games, and improve when needed. Quit worrying about having a song added into the game (My Hands wasn't a bad song, but was it really necessary to have it included in the game?)

Enough about Final Fantasy, let's wrap it up. Sherlock Holmes was a great film, I thought Downey Jr. did a great Holmes and Law was a great Watson. It was fun, witty and charming all at once. I would love to see what board games you are playing, you kinda peaked my interest with that. Persona 3 and 4 are a couple of the greatest RPGs I have ever played in my life, and I don't blame you if you put down the FFXIII and throw in some SMT. Looking forward to your annoucements, and take care of yourself.

Completely agree with you on ff xiii. I was hugely let down by this game. Not because I thought that it would be a great new entry to follow up ff7 and ff8, but beacuse I hoped (really hoped) that atleast it couldn't get worse than ff xii. Sadly, I was mistaken. I'm still going to finish the game 'cause I bought it, but I'm in no hurry man. I've been playing for somewhat 40 hours, and 'yes' it opens up a bit after 25-30 hours of gameplay. Those steppes (huge open area with pretty cool encounters) is the only fun to be had in ff xiii (or some can probably enjoy paradigm for 60 hours+; I can not). This is the second ff where I couldn't stand any of the charcters (last one was ff ix, in ff x I had Auron and i found myself laughing a couple of times of Balthier(?) in ff xii). I thought I would stand Snow judging from the trailers, but he's a fucking idiot. I'd rather hear Vanille talk for 24h than listening to one of his over-the-top insanely stupid lines. Okok, looking forward to your next ff x review, or whatever game review you're doing next Noah. Thanks once again for a good vlog.

I must say, I agree entirely. I too, have been struggling through XIII – and you know what? I just don't want to anymore. It's like you said, it's bad in a way that's sad, it really could have been so good.

I also really wanted to bitch slap the emo out of Hope.

I don't think Square-Enix is going to learn anything, because no matter what they do, the Final Fantasy series makes them good money. They probably think they're doing people a favor by trying to reinvent the wheel with each game.

You can ride Chocobos.

I personally have a big problem with current games coming out which focus too much on graphics and looking pretty. Take modern warfare, its a nice game, shooting is fun and intuitive and the storyline was interesting.

But the game is suppose to be about warfare, yet you get no choice on ammo, particular upgrades, in fact you have to grind levels to get upgrades, and some of the requirements are just a joke and even then thats only for multi-player, which I won't touch with a bargepole becuase it has street fighter 4 syndrome where all the players on the otherside either play the game 24/7 or cheat. You can't even choose your equipment for missions, or pick up different ammo, upgrades.

For all of the graphical sparkles in the game, it totally fails at truly equipping you for what the game sets out to play, war. In fact its not even war, you play an elite team of about 4-5 people and near the end its just you and one other guy. And one more thing, co-op play, old retro games like Srg.Chaos, Project Eden and even Halo were excellent becuase you could play with your friends, it allowed you to both or all experience the adventure and action together so that you could talk about it afterwards (which is probably why Halo does so well), and not just online but the actual f-ing story.

A lot of games these days just paint a very nice picture instead of focusing on a story as well, I would be happy to play a FF7 graphical version of FF13 if freedom to explore was added.

Oh and you should play FF9 when you get the chance, its plays a bit like FF5 in style, very good story, (well as they go). In fact although I agree some of the FF10 characters are a little annoying, I really liked the artistic style and colour that went into it, plus a nice story and puzzles, actually I really liked the puzzles

Different topic, I watched the watchmen yesterday and out of rickshaw(I know its spelt differently) the comedian and the guy who talks about how he likes Alexander one second then gos psycho over pharohs, I though every other character was a prissy little bitch who had the mental age of a 5-year old, I mean the part where BSMD girl (who for some reason uses mascara instead of a mask) whines at Dr Smurf (who we know is an asshole becuase he left his wife becuase she got old), he gives her a really complex and intelligent answer, at which she brakes (knowing that physics 101 states that air cannot move in a vacuum therefore the vibration should of stopped) his santuary of solitude and he goes “you make a vaild point”….Bullshit!

And the fact super Alan titmarsh is such an f-ing pussy (his suit is totally not aero-dynamic and I can only guess he got is powers from being bit by a radioactive blue tit) and goes head over heels at getting Dr Smurfs sloppy seconds, you could seriously swap Seifer and Squall for Dr Smurf and Super Alan Titmarsh. If you took out Dr. Smurf, BSMD girl and lady, then the story is actually awesome.

I had high hopes for XIII, but I guess Square have just lost their magic. I'm pretty skeptical on how they're handling Deus Ex 3.

By the way Spoony, make sure you stick with Persona 4, you wouldn't believe how good the story gets.

I finished FF XIII and I felt SO relieved when I was finished, I actully checked when I started to have “fun” and it sure as hell wasn't 20 and a half hours worth waiting fun, it was more meh fun.
I entered the game with bad attitude, I admit that but I got it cheaper and I atlest thought I would get an ok game.
I seriously couldnt belive how dissapointed I was.

on a diffrent note: I actully got persona 4 (my first shin megami tensei game) after spoony talked about it and I LOVED it, I honestly couldn't belive how much I liked it. ever since then I got ALL the newer shin megami tensei games and trying geting the older one but it is REALLY hard living in EU and that stupid region lock -.-
god I love that series now :D

Never played another FF games after FF8, guess i just growned up of fairy tales,
appreciate more mature and serious contend in RPGs like The Witcher or Fallout series,
that kind of taste made me just rolling on the flor with laughter when i listened about your bitching spoony,
completely moronic story with your delivery = pure win

Cool, a Vlog on my birthday.
Too bad I was away, on a travel, and didn't see this yesterday…

Final Fantasy XIII…I don't have it yet, but I plan on getting it. I've known the story's nonsensical and that it's extremely linear long before this vlog, yet I'm fairly certain that it will entertain me anyway. It's basically, from what I've seen, just an upgraded Final Fantasy X. Linear paths, grid system, several annoying characters, a story that tries too hard to be deep and epic, etc. However, I managed to enjoy X and even X-2, amazingly enough.

As for XII…I actually had the reaction you're having to XIII: It bored me out of my mind. It's not a bad game, just…the combat system was such a blatant lie to me. I thought it would be like Kingdom Hearts, which had a GREAT combat system that was actually real time. FFXII's is just giving the illusion of real time. In reality, it's the ATB-styled turn-based system of the PSX FF's, only without the “SWSHHHH” battle transition screen.

Then there was the grinding. The incessant, mind-numbingly tedious grinding. I remember one part of the game where I needed cash, so I went into the mines (This was early in the game) and started LOOOOOONG chain of Skeleton kills for like two fucking hours. When I maxed out the drops, I sold them off for some decent money, which was quickly burned at the various shops in town. I had to do grinding like that throughout the whole game. I mean sweet fucking Jesus, that's annoying.

I will, however, say what I loved about XII: The monster hunts, which I thought were excellent side quests that pitted you against very unique and fun mobs, and the soundtrack. The music in XII is a-fucking-mazing. I even got the OST and listen to it to this day. There's not a single track I don't like, which is just incredible.

Anyway, it's nice to see you're bringing more stuff our way, and I look forward to all of it. And despite how much it may hurt you both physically and emotionally, I hope you get back to your FFX review eventually. Seriously, the way you tear into that game is nothing short of comedic genius. Keep it up.

Are you wearing a Mythbusters shirt? All I can see on it during the video is “I reject your reality…” Wonder if it says below that or on the back of the shirt “…And Substitute my own.”

You said that your done with wrestling? And needed to watch something new? How about UFC. Watch the PPV on April tenth. And watch for Anderson Silva and BJ Penn. Those guys are true champions. And it'll probably be funny to you to see Brock Lesnar as the Heavyweight Champ. And Joe Rogan is the shit as a commentator.

Keep up the good work.

please dont stop making wrestling videos, theyre so funny

Vince has wisely gone back to turning wrestling into a kid's product for years now. For all the faults he has, he's definitely a savvy businessman. Meanwhile, us old school fans just have to move on, or just be a bitter smark that bitches about everything. Even ROH has strayed from its mainly wrestling product.

Persona is a great series. I don't know why you insist on continuing with FF. Most of the old school FF lovers (1-7) can't even play the recent games if they want to. It's torture. An hour with Tidus made me break the disc in 2.

Please condense your “Dr. Insano” and various character work to separate videos. Put your necessary TWGTG plugs in them too as fodder.

Don't worry, Spoony. I liked FFXII too.

And people say FFX was linnear, at least there was town exploration. You could go into a few different shops. like a weapons shop, an armory, a sundries shop, and so on. I was a bit pissed when you just get a floating computer chip, and you shop there. Even in FF7, you got to explore at least a little bit of Midgar, mostly the slums, and the shinra building, but you did explore most of the other cities. I can ignore the sphere grid stuff, I don't know why, I just can. I always compared Vanille to Selphie, and react to both the same way. I'm both charmed, and repulsed by her character at the same exact time.
I do like the game for some unbeknownst reason, but I do feel it's certainly not good enough to create a limited edition 360 system bundle.
Well, I still have A LOT of JRPG's to finish, FF4, 3, 9, 10, Chrono Trigger, and Chrono Cross to name a few.

Spoony, you are such a trooper…after FFX, i don't know how you can find it in yourself to play XIII…i HATED FFX…X-2 was quite decent, I will admit…although I haven't really played much of the earlier ones, so i don't have too much to compare to, but it was ok…FFX, i couldn't make it through it. I was like you, were every time tidus opened my mouth i was like”OMG SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UUUUPPPP!” I don't even want to attempt XIII. BTW, i probably have already sad this before, but if you are looking for a new, interesting game to try out, look up Star Ocean 3: Til The End of Time…it is amazing! Original, great storyline, and the fighting is really exciting. It is a two disk-er, but it is well worth it! Just throwing it out there!!! :)

There's always Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which was confirmed to be more action oriented, have a world map, AND have you fly around the world map in your… flying machine thing (whatever the fuck the name of those are).

I'm hoping it gets finished before the end of the year, maybe we'll see actual gameplay at E3 (although I doubt it). This may also be the first rated M Final Fantasy we may see.

I completly agree with you about XII's battle system, though I would add “with the ability to run around, which does nothing to help you”. Prior to getting the game, even review I read said it was a huge step forward, and when I heard you ould run around I was under the impression it would actually affect the gameplay. When I first got the game, I ran as far away from a monster to see if it would affect the damage from the attack. I took the same damage. I then tried to hide behind a rock, again to see if this would change the amount of damage I took. Result – No change. While I never had a problem with the random battles and/or the old battle system, either make it like Rogue Galaxy (which IMO is what XII's battle system SHOULD have been) or keep it like the classic one. Having “the old timed system with the option to run around” is not good in my eyes. Maybe having the characters line up isn't realistic but at least the row option allows for a bit of strategy. Much like FFVIII, it seemed like XII abolished that idea.

Of course I got about four hours in before I lost the will to play the game.

Anyway, I personally liked the Sphere Grtid in FFX. Though it was linear at first I liked the way it would open up once you completed a character's “section”, allowing you to mix and match characters' abilities. I create some interesting and fun mixtures thanks to that. Still, if you don't like it Noah I'm interested in hearing your opinion (though fact fans might like to know the European version of FFX (we got extras due to having to wait about six extra months) included an alternative, more “advanced” Sphere Grid).

All weapons in ff 13 have advantages and disadvantages. The first weapon is as good as any, but as a matter of reference, use a guide to see the perks.

Also, to make things less annoying, just buy 40 of any organic upgrade (symbol is a claw) for a x3 multiplier, and then use a shitload of a digital upgrades at once (symbol is a screw).

If it makes you feel better, ~22 hours in, you get ff 12 styled freedom.

“in the end, gave you the feeling of choice,”

In the end, you end up doing the exact same thing no matter what, you see the same ending sequence, the same everything.

All the Final Fantasy games have crazy weird stuff, pretty much since VII, and frankly XIII is the only one so far that I think has been coherent the whole way through without unrealistic plot interruptions and side quests.

jaja i know you're tire of this but wouldnt a gunblade be a rifle with a bayonet?, anyway, greta review but you should try to rest more, it would be a sad day if we found out we were to remain spoonyless forever more

your joking right? so you mean to tell me at after playing for 5 hours you understood what was going on? i did not even understand what was going on till about 25 30 hours in.to me that does not add up to being “coherent” sorry.

I'm big fan of the Grandia series, and I think one of the reasons why SquareEnix published Grandia III was because Enix published the first two, possibly X-treme was well, in Japan. I think the changes made in III were to make it more marketable, but in my opinion, the first two were much better because they were more original and less like a Final Fantasy game.

I think XIII does a lot of neat things as far as the battle system goes, but I think two key limitations were the in system are the inability to manage paradigms in-battle and the inability to switch the party leader in battle, these two simple changes would have made it perfect. It's a really fun system either way, and I think the idea of Paradigm Shifts and the new limit-break/stagger system are a lot of fun, but it is very similar to Grandia, which is, I think a good thing, because Grandia's battle system were the best turn-based systems.

I think everyone in these comments are missing the point why Squall's gunblade was ridiculous.
It's not because it would be like a gun with a bayonet, you would break your wrist if you tried to swing it due to holding it with a gun grip that's shaped almost 90% degrees down from the blade.
Lightning's gunblade is actually shaped like a sword however. But that again makes the gun part quite useless.

By the way, the game opens up a HUGE area to do side missions and explore later-

Final Fantasy XIII is a disappointment. Way too linear, a much better RPG style game is Yakuza 3 on PS3, you should check that out, loving it sooo much more than FFXIII.

Agree that Sherlock Holmes rocked!!!

Never stop your late night, disjointed, confused v-logs. I love 'em.

Persona 5 was announced, be excited.

Also, use a guide to beat persona 4. You need to select the right answers to get the good ending and you most likely won't get it without a guide.

RoH is the way to go, Spoony. Hit that shit up.

I think we could all agree to call Sazh's bird a 'Frocobo.'

Hi,

First thing, I really really like your stuff, big fan of yours!

I pretty want to comment about, of course, you Final Fantasy 13 “review”. As, too, a big fan of Final Fantasy games, I pretty much hated Final Fantasy from X, which was, maybe the worst game I've ever played(in my opinion, I know there's really bad games, but that game touches me personally) and even if you have pointed out most of the thing that make me hate the game in your Final Fantasy X Part 1, there's even more thing I found frustrating. Well it was not the subject.

So, I bought Final Fantasy 13 with no expectation at all, I mean I even tough I would be badder that X, but I really find it surprising, I was into the story. Well, I won't say that it's a good game, I pretty much agree with what you said, except for the combat system, I don't like it, the only good thing is its beautiful, but it's much button smashing A on “auto-attack”, even at end-game. I didn't finish that game yet, and I don't think I will, as pretty much everyone, I thought too the game would be better at 20-25h in, but in fact it just made me quit the game, the combat with simple enemy was getting really long and the sub-quest is really, really repetitive, its pretty much artificial game lenght play time, it's useless and you lost the bit of story you had in the beginning in Pulse. Anyway, Final Fantasy 13 is better than X, but it's still far far from good and I don't think the series will ever be good since the producer of the firsts Final Final games have quited Square Enix to create MistWalker(and by the way you should try Lost Odyssey). As for a Final Fantasy 7 remake…I personally don't want one, I think it'll pretty much break the “spirit” that Final Fantasy 7 had and create an ever more enormous annoying Fan boys/girls.

I unfortunately never played any Persona games and they look really good, but they are rare now and they are hard to find and their price are pretty high, maybe something I'll have the chance of at least trying one Persona.

So I think it'll be the end of this message, just want to say thank you for your videos, really awesome(I'm even thinking of creating a series of videos about video games, as I'm doing cinema class, I'tll maybe be a good start for me, who knows :p ), and I can't wait for your second part of Final Fantasy X!

PS: I didn't really like Sherlock Holmes :p

ff13 makes ff8 look good Spoony should review it he makes intresting points in his reviews aswell as keeping the viewers entertained Please review ff13

Final Fantasy XII was decent, except for one major flaw: it is next to impossible to get all of the best equipment and to hunt all of the monsters.  (Just try to encounter the big-ass red chocobo, much less defeat it when you do.)  When you’re given odds of 1/356 (or something close to that) for a horse demon monster dropping the best armor (and if I remember correctly you had to do something time consuming just to get the damn horse demon to appear) it is endlessly frustrating.  Plus Vaan is basically the reincarnation of Tidus.  I couldn’t believe I had to play another blonde prepubescent androgynous pussy wearing some ridiculous outfit with his chest showing as the lead character.  Balthier and Fran were two of the best characters the franchise has come up with in a long time, and yet they were treated as marginal characters.  (They’re barely even in the game’s finale.)  If the game got rid of Vaan and revolved around Balthier and Fran, and made it at least possible to get the best items and equipment in a reasonable amount of time, then it would have probably been one of the best games in the series. 
 
Is it just me or do the makers of Final Fantasy seriously need to stop naming characters after weather patterns?  First it was Cloud, then Squall, now it’s Lightning (and apparently another secondary character named Snow, for goodness sake.)  What’s next, Typhoon?  Tsunami?  Hail?  I didn’t mind Cloud, I guess because it was the first time they tried it, but come on it’s really getting old.  Naming the lead character something like Lightning won’t recapture the magic (nor the sales) of FFVII.
 
I haven’t played 13 and have no intention of doing so.  From what I’ve heard, they’ve taken out every single good thing that made me love playing Final Fantasy games since I was a kid, of course with the exception of FFX.  (Thank you Spoony for ripping that game to shreds.  It really does make FFVIII look good.  And that says a lot.)

and yes the story of ffxiii was a tad confusing at times but ffvii confused the crap out of me too, infact probably more so.