The End of XII Approaches

Hello everybody, this will be my first official post on "East vs. West" and tommorrow will mark my fourth podcast recording. Im excited to be a part of this and cant wait to see some feedback and see what topics come up in the future. Anyways, after about 9 months of playing this game off and on, I am finally approaching the end and I cant wait to see the credits role so that I can set down my controller and reflect on the experience. I am talking about non other than SquareEnix's most recent addition to their most famous RPG franchise, Final Fantasy XII. This is a game that was released on Halloween of 2006 but its conclusion has eluded me due to the restrictions of my schedule but now that summer has finally arrived, I can finally bring it to a close.

I have been a dedicated fan of Final Fantasy since Final Fantasy VII became a greatest hits title on the playstation one. This may shock and disgust some but I cant bring myself to play the earlier games in the franchise because for some reason or another, I dont get the same amount of enjoyment as these later 3-D entries. Upon completion of these later entries, I have always been filled with sheer disbelief and intrigue at how brilliant the stories were, how well the music was composed (I am actually listening to the Final Fantasy VIII OST as I type this), and how deep and addicting the gameplay was. As I quickly approach the end of XII, I cant help but feel that something is a bit different. I think to myself and wonder what has taken me so long to beat this game. The fact is that with any past entry in big franchises such as Final Fantasy, Zelda, and Resident Evil, I have been able to breeze through them and beat them in a matter of weeks no matter how filled my schedule became. I beat twilight princess in a matter of 2 weeks and that was a 50 hour game. Here I am 9 months after its release and I am about to hit the 70 hour mark! So what is the problem? Could it be the story is clearly more complex and serious than previous entries? Or perhaps that the soundtrack doesn't seem quite as polished as its predecessors? Or even that the gameplay mechanics are not as fun? To be honest, I wont know for sure until I complete the game this weekend and see how it all comes together. One things for sure, I have not been crazy addicted to this entry in the series like I have been in the past with such amazing entries as Final Fantasy IX and X. I will post my impressions and my full review in the upcoming weeks. Take care everyone.