I know. I know. "Andi," you say with a petulant frown. "You gave that game so much crap when it first debuted because of the battle system and the dungeon-like level, not to mention the lack of a real world map." I KNOW, OKAY, BUT THAT WAS BEFORE I GOT FURTHER THAN THE FIRST BIG "DUNGEON" AND ACTUALLY BEGAN PLAYING THE GAME, AND NOW THEY'RE ALL MY BABIES ;A;

No really, the battle system is...I actually like it? I'm lazy as heck, and the paradigm thing...I heard about it, and I scowled but now that I play it, the stupid feature comes in handy. Like okay the first truly tough boss of the game, this fal'Cie dude on an airship, he whipped my seven ways to Sunday the first time I gave it a go. Then I took a long look at my paradigms to figure out how I could modify them and customize them to best fit this battle (and like any other FF game, I went back and leveled up and maxed everyone out on the Crystariums) AND LO AND BEHOLD I DEFEAT HIM.

Speaking of the Crystarium, that is a lot like the sphere grid from X, so no big deal there. Leveling up weapons until I got to this airship, where enemies actually started dropping good components for me to use, but I still don't like it. I just like having to buy new and sticking with it until something better comes along but the game doesn't want you to do that, I guess.

You know what else I'm loving? NOT HAVING TO RELY ON ITEMS HALF AS MUCH. You heal instantly once battle's over, no statuses carry over (not even KOs), the gauge for using Techniques does take forever to reload but that's easy enough to fill if you get five stars in a battle. Kinda took me a bit to get used to that but once I had someone learn Cure and Esuna, it was over. I was undefeated (until fal'Cie dude).

I just love how there's lack of a love development story, like Snow's devoted to Serah (it's kinda weird, since she looks 14 and he looks 30 but nah they're like 18 and 20-something, plus height difference I mean alsfkl;sdkf;sdfksl;f oNE OF MY FAVES) but it's what I enjoyed about XII? There wasn't this big realization that one person is in love with someone else; it's just about camaraderie and a common goal and developing bonds of friendship and trust. Don't get me wrong; IX will forever and always be my favorite title in the series because it's as close to perfection as one can get

...so okay. I have a shipping mind now. And as this game progresses, I'm just...Fang and Vanille. akl;fsl;fdl;fkl;sdfs;ld AND I KNOW THE STORYLINE OF THE SECOND ONE, AND HOPE IS GROWN UP IN IT FOR THE MOST PART AND SHUT UP I THINK OLDER HIM WOULD WORK SO PERFECTLY WITH LIGHTNING EVEN THOUGH SHE'S MISS INDEPENDENT, SHE CAN STAY THAT WAY TBH, I LOVE IT, BUT UGHHHHHH THERE WOULD BE SO MUCH RESPECT AND ADMIRATION AND "I GOT YOUR BACK" AND IT COULD BE A LOVE THAT FORMS OUT OF A DEEP FRIENDSHIP THAT HAS LASTED FOR AGES. I need to take a breath. Good god. Like in the first game, it's comrades turned friends, and that's fine, he really is 14 years old, but then with the other games, I...TT^TT

Don't usually get that way with shipping, but wow these emotions...

Is it just me or did the layout do a switcheroo? Not a big one, but the taskbar on the left got moved to the right? It's like this across all my browsers (even IE, which is just gathering dust for the most part) so I don't believe it's an error on my end. Or it could be, but if anyone else is seeing it, then cool. It's not a big deal, but if it IS an error, I gotta see if I can fix it or if I need some uh assistance lmao

Loving the new layout, I sound like a brown noser but I really do. It's so neat and simple and the big green thing is gone, and IT'S BLUUUUUUE :3 now if only this layout could carry over to the other sister sites...

Speaking of layout things, how does everyone like that new Group PM feature? :D it makes things sooooooo much easier on so many levels, and I know it's been talked about for years but there was no way the old layout could handle it. But yeah, for those still using the old layout, just remember that these new features and a lot of support are not going to be on the old layout, it's just impossible. I know Chrome breaks on me whenever I try to switch to the old layout to figure out a problem someone's expressed in a blog or something...

Many thanks to the lovely, dorky, philosophical admin for the new feature! I'll have a Maß in your honor at Volksfest!