After my review of
Final Fantasy XIII-2, I theorized that it wouldn't be long before we saw another direct sequel. Turns out
I was right. But since that experience left me battered and bruised emotionally, I decided rather than wait for the (hopefully) final installment of the saga of the Farron sisters, I would go through older
Final Fantasy titles in order to remind myself of why I enjoy them so much in the first place. My recent reviews of
The Legend of Zelda franchise have moved forward down the official
Zelda timeline. In the
Final Fantasy series, however, the settings are completely separate worlds with no chronological order, giving me no clear direction with which to work. But I figured it would just be easiest to go in reverse order of the release of the major installments. Plus, if I went down that road, the next game up contained that one superboss I could never get to... Therefore, I hooked up my old PlayStation 2 slimline and returned to the world of Ivalice and
Final Fantasy XII.
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| Oh, yeah! It's my old friends, Swashbuckler and Bunnytits! |
In the six years and change since I bought
XII on the day it was released (I even shelled out the extra dough for the Collector's Edition!) I had yet to visit the final dungeon. It seems strange that I never finished a game that I enjoyed playing, even if it wasn't my favorite title in the series. It's just that the dungeon right before the end is about one hundred floors, and the game's real challenges stem from defeating optional bosses and acquiring rare items which have nothing to do with the main storyline. Speaking of, this is also the point in the story when things start to go a little batshit insane, although I do have to give the developers credit for not tacking on some needless trip to outer space (spoiler alert!) or something equally stupid. But in the interest of completion, I finally beat the last boss, watched the end credits, and now I can safely say that I wish I had never gone back to this game.
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| I should have left you under the TV stand, covered in dust. :-( |
More after the jump...
