Final Fantasy XIII

[Kain Nobel]

I hear they had a very problematic development, so I can kind of see why this game felt like such a clustering bombardment.

I have to say, this game might've been imperfect, but every little bit of it was a masterpiece. For instance, the menu and journal and everything was oh so well designed, but being as you got so much new stuff every corner you took, you could spend 10 hours alone just catching up with everything new. You could get almost entirely through the game before you realize "Oh hey, I can synthesize and upgrade my weapons" or whatever, because the information came so fast and so abundant that you'd miss it, half of it would leave you like "Huh? What are they talking about here?" All in all, this game was a visual and informational overload! I still wish I could've stuck around for the end but I lost track and got bored with the game.

It is interesting to know that Masashi Hamauzu and Nao Ikeda went freelance instead of continuing to work on a big blockbuster game as a FF because of all the frustration. If you take a trip through and look at their work, you can tell they weren't no slackers! I believe the composer is back to do the OST for XIII-2 but I didn't dig around enough to find out.

[Samven]

Good to hear that last bit. I rather liked XIII's OST. The final battle theme in particular wins points because it didn't resort to Ominous Latin Chanting™. RPG's that go down a different route there always score a bit extra from me.