Okay so, I know people are going to get upset with me over this...but it's my opinion...so don't harm me.

Final Fantasy is one of the most pivotal series in gaming history...regardless of genre. Their story lines are phenomenal, and the push the graphics barrier with every installment. I have never once been disappointed.

...until Final Fantasy XII. I beat the game late last year, and have just been upset about it since haha as sad as that sounds. But no, every time I look at it I'm just like "Blah to you, sir". It was an utter disappointment to me. The reason it was so disappointing to me is that it had SO MUCH potential! Bosch is quite possibly my favorite character of the series! The voice acting was superb, the setting was great. Wasn't a big fan of the combat system since it drastically decreased enemy size and variance, but I can forgive that.

But my first play through, I found myself at the end of the game, beating it and saying "Wait...what? It's over?" I mean...it wasn't short by any means...but I kept expecting the story to develop more and it never did. Vaan was....well....useless! As far as story goes, he just kept walking around saying "I want to be a Sky Pirate!" And that was it! I was hoping for a bond between Thief and Princess, so he would have motive for fighting, but he really didn't.

I was also highly disappointed by the lack of a world map for the second time. I know it's old school...but it's vintage. And I like it. Also, the complete lack of original character skills was annoying...like the fact that everyone learned the same things...that kinda sucked to me. And the summons seemed like they were thrown in there without a point...I never once used them.

The end.

I just want to start off with....WOW. The next documentaries look absolutely astonishing. It is great to see LucasArts finally pouring effort into a big project. Besides KOTOR 1 and KOTOR 2 (mostly heh), there games have been rentable at best in my opinion.

Now, of course, is the issue...so much hype, I really hope it doesn't fall short. It looks like they truly do have a great layout, so the only issues I worry about are:

-Crappy story

-Short game

-Crappy Lightsaber combat

Now the story line seems good so far. We have a good cast of characters, and a good main character, so that seems safe.

Game shortness is an absolute plague of the Next Gen consoles. I understand why it happens, I mean it cost so much more to make games now, and takes so much more time to make them look so good, that it's just too expensive to make 20-30 hour games like back in the old days. But I don't think 15 hours is too much to ask.

Now the Lightsaber combat is definitely my biggest fear. So far, there has been NOTHING about it. The only time I've seen a Lightsaber in action was when it was thrown, or when a Stormtrooper was struck by it and curiously was knocked aside, not cut. I think this was a demonstration of the ability to charge your Lightsaber with Force Lightning, so we'll see. But still, the makers are putting so much into making this the "ultimate Jedi experience" (which EVERY Star Wars game has said if it had Jedi), but they have drawn no attention to the symbol of the Jedi...the Lightsaber.

Yeah it will be amazing to toss guys around like they are nothing, but without a combination of that and amazing Lightsaber sword play, this game will fall short. Now maybe the Lightsaber mechanic is just easy to do and they aren't worried about it, but I wish they would put some time into making it as b.a. as the Force abilities.

Well that's my rant. Thoughts?

Not sure if this has been discussed, but I would like to ramble about my qualms with the Silent Protagonist.

I recently played through Half Life 2, and it's following two episodes and found them to be amazing games with surprising depth. I say surprising because it is hard to believe they got any narration out of it with a lead character who never speaks or contributes anything to the game outside of player control.

I understand the intent of this. I believe it to be that game creators want to create an immersive experience where the player feels like s/he is a part of the game world itself, and not merely a witness to its events. But you see...I think it's also laziness. I mean, how much time and money do the save by giving us this "immersive experience" and denying us a true narrator. Half-Life 2 had no narration, the same goes for FEAR, and many other FPSers.

It is really too bad that this happens the way it does. If the game creators TRULY wanted to give an immersive experience, take a look at the playbook of Top Cow. Their game, The Darkness, while flawed in several ways, had so much depth because of the lead characters strong narrative capabilities. I felt infinitely more drawn in by this then by turning on a game and looking forward to 6 levels strewn together by 6 lines of conversation.

I can't speak for everyone, but I play games primarily for a good story. Fun gameplay is a close, close second, but I will not spend 60 bucks on a game that plays great but has no story. Just won't do it.

These are just my opinions though. Any thoughts?