Today I woke up to find that Kingdom Hearts III had been announced and that Final Fantasy Versus XIII had been rebranded Final Fantasy XV (here's a trailer) and was coming to the PS4.

I'M EXCITED.

(What I really, really, really want to see in Kingdom Hearts III is the Shibuya of The World Ends With You. I don't know how likely this is - there's never been a Square world in a Kingdom Hearts game, after all, despite the presence of Square characters - but Shibuya was mentioned in Dream Drop Distance, so it definitely exists in the Kingdom Hearts universe!)

And of course there's Lightning Returns coming out in February. Square Enix is going to destroy my bank balance and I'm looking forward to it immensely.

(One thing that does annoy me, though, on the subject of bank balances: the PS4 is to cost almost a hundred pounds more in the United Kingdom than in the United States. That's really quite outrageous. I'm hoping the price will have come down a bit by the time the games I want to play are released, though.)


I'm replaying a bit of Final Fantasy XIII here and there at the moment. I love the way the characters communicate during battle in this game. I love that they'll sometimes address each other directly, or call out to check on someone who's been hurt. It's such a small, charming detail. Sazh saying, 'Thanks, Vanille' when Vanille heals him really makes me smile.

I also smiled when Hope, travelling with Lightning in the Vile Peaks, quietly told himself to calm down. Oh, Hope.

It strikes me as a strange decision to have the party broken up into two groups of two for such a long time. It's good on a story level, allowing the Lightning-Hope and Sazh-Vanille relationships to develop, but the battle system really wasn't designed for fewer than three characters. Not that this is the only time Final Fantasy XIII prioritises story over gameplay, of course.

It's difficult to claim that Final Fantasy XIII is a good game, despite the strength of its battle system - it's a game that actively resents being played and takes every measure it can to minimise the player's input - but it's probably my favourite film. I just adore the way it builds up all these relationships within the party. To me, no other cast in the series felt as strongly bound together.


I've also been replaying Dark Chronicle recently, because apparently I'm in a very videogamey mood. I have my issues with Dark Chronicle - although it's fun and pretty, it's also awfully repetitive and makes me feel a bit empty if I play it for too long - but it's got one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. Just listen to that boss battle theme. Or the Gundorada Workshop music. I nearly linked to six other pieces here, but I'll restrain myself.