I think I’ve officially outgrown Final Fantasy.
Don’t get me wrong, I used to love the series. Most people had their formative video game experiences with Super Mario Bros. I had mine with Final Fantasy II on the SNES. I remember begging my parents to purchase an obscenely priced Final Fantasy III cartridge for $74.99 at a specialty shop. I even had my relatives pick up an import copy of Final Fantasy V from a trip to Japan even though I knew no Japanese whatsoever. Hell, I was determined to learn kanji as a 12 year old solely to play that game.
Final Fantasy used to be the reason I chose a particular console over another. It was why I wanted the Super Nintendo, Playstation, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3. Each new entry in the franchise was an event. I would spend every free moment lost in the world of Final Fantasy until the epic tale was over.
It took me nearly five months to finish Final Fantasy 13. There were stretches of multiple months where I didn’t even touch the game. I eventually finished the game, but it took a herculean feat of self-motivation to do so.
What happened?