I made it about 20 hours into Final Fantasy X, and I have decided to drop the game. Spoiler alert I guess, but this game is like 20 years old so Im not gonna format all this.

(As a trade, I have re-started playing througj Fate Extra, if that counts as a JRPG)

The part in the story that I last saw was Yuna stopped “sending” Seymour at their “wedding” in Bevelle. I have no idea how close this is to the end of the game, but for whatever reason I feel like its about 50% and I am not having it for another 50%.

I am no longer having fun or enjoying the game. There are a few reasons:

• One thing I really dislike about the game are the parts I call “Boss Rush,” or " Enemy Rush." Long sections of the game without any save points and all you have is just scripted combat one after another after another. And its just repeated combat with absolutely nothing inbetween and you cannot leave unless you successfully complete all combat encounters. I hate this. If the combat was more action oriented it wouldnt be so bad, but because combat is turn based, it leads to extreme over-repetition of combat animation and effectively kills the sense of immediacy that these moments are supposed to have.

• The story, particularly the characterization of some characters and their contrarian actions. For example, Yuna is a devout person of her religion. She is never shown, so far in the story I have seen, to ever question or doubt it. However, suddenly with the Seymour wedding, she just completely gives up on all of that because her friends have a minute risk of injury. It does not make sense, she would want to do what would be best for all of Spira, not only her and her friends. This was a repeated thing that she constantly said. But now suddenly that’s all thrown out the window I guess. I also do not like the dynamic between Waka and Rikku. The bickering and arguing is grating, and the arguments that Waka uses are like someone who knows nothing about their own beliefs, despite Waka revealing information to Tidus proving he has a great deal of knowledge about his faith and that his beliefs are truly his. Perhaps the only way I can explain this is a person that is not religious, or perhaps even anti-religious, wrote these arguments and used Rikku as a character specifically to try to “prove religion is bad” or something. I dont know exactly how to describe it, but that is the feeling I get from whatever is going on between Rikku and Waka. Either way, I don’t like either character.

• I do not like the main character. Tidus is annoying. He is whatever is convenient for the plot at the time, and is constantly flipping between both sides of the same coin. He shows up in Spira and completely disrespects the various people’s cultures on many occasions with zero consequences. He should play the lottery, he would probably win every time he played.

• Regarding antagonists, every time I see Jecht, I just wish he was the main character instead. He is a bit more of a jerk, but at least his character design is actually pretty good. Jecht being Sin was extremely predictable, to the point of being disappointing. Seymour was so obviously an antagonist I saw it right from the first moment his pixels showed up on the screen. At least Jecht needed a few cutscenes of Tidus’ daddy issues, Seymour has instant bad guy energy.

Honestly, if this is among the best that Final Fantasy has to offer, with it consistently ranking among the top 3 for players and critics, I can see why the series remains unappealing to me. It is rather unfortunate that I spent 20 hours on it, but I am glad I know definitively that FF is simply not made for me.

Now, for what I liked, so this isn’t me just dogpiling on the game:

• I actually liked Lulu. She didn’t really talk all that much, but her actions were not inconsistent like other characters. I don’t know what was going on with her dress though, she must get very cold with that strapped design.

• I also like Auron. Not a big speaker, but since is mouth is hidden most of the time his voice acting was actually consistently decent. Not really sure what was up with the whole arm thing, but since I am dropping the game at this point I don’t really care. He only beats Khimari because Khimari stsrted talking more and I liked him better when he was non-vocal (I always expected him to speak, I just expected it would have been for a really important moment, such as at the end of the game).

• The music is pretty good. Some of it is forgettable, but I do like the music at Macalania, Lake Macalania, Luca, Moonflow, the Title/Intro song (the piano one), that one song that sounds like a ripoff of Greensleeves (Baaj?), the song that plays when Auron is the focus (maybe his theme), and the various choir versions of that temple song are all quite good.

• The temples. I actually liked the puzzles, though they were incredibly simple. I wish they had been more complex, and had multiple additional puzzle chambers.

My guess for how the story ends: Jecht is Sin because actually its all a dream, Jecht is dead and Tidus is to blame for it. The writers will feel really smart because “Jecht represents the Sin of Tidus” or something. Also Yuna will not do the thing that all the other Summoners did (I think it was called Final Sending?) And instead do something else that allows her to live.

I am playing Final Fantasy VII for the first time. Yes, I’m very late to the party. Managed to snag a copy for PSX and I’m playing it on a CRT to get the OG experience. So far I am loving it and beginning to understand the hype.

So, I’m on month four of Witcher 3 - but I’ve reached Blood & Wine and already did quite a bit of the side quests in February. This month I’ll likely start a JRPG.

My backlog has a few I’m really looking forward to: SMT V Vengeance, Octopath 2, Super Mario RPG, Baten Kaitos 1 & 2, Star Ocean 2 Remake and Metaphor. I’ll likely start with either Baten Kaitos or Metaphor, since I love anything related to SMT and anything made by Monolith. But feel free to recommend your favorite out of the bunch!

I think Vengeance is the least likely one. I love base SMT V so much, I’m probably saving it for my next vacation.

My partner has convinced me to give JRPGs a try again after over a decade so I’ll be playing Persona 4 Golden.

The Golden Sun series. Again. Last month I was playing the Dragon Quest 3 remake, but got to a part where the bosses and enemies drastically ramped up in difficulty which really out me off of it. I’ll return to it a bit later, probably. Still a really fun game.

might give phantasy star 1 a go this month. robotrek, star ocean, lufia II and lunar are coming due too

Didn’t play any JRPG in February, though I did finish my Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed playthrough on 1st Feb, so I guess we can count that.

Haven’t started any RPG after that cause I can sometimes burn out playing long RPGs back-to-back, and I want to start Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definite Edition this month. Plan to pre-load and start playing day-1. Can’t wait!

Playing “Trails through Daybreak 2”, and have two more in my wishlist for this month: “Atelier Yumia” and “Xenoblade X DE”.

I finished Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Trails through Daybreak 2 last month. Enjoyed both. Rebirth’s soundtrack is crazy good. Also firmly bounced off Live a Live, unfortunately.

March is looking like a wildcard month for me. Stuff like Tenchi wo Kurau 2, Breath of Fire IV, or Rune Factory 5 are possibilities. Or maybe I’ll continue on with Atelier (I’ll still very early on in Escha & Logy).

The Suikoden remasters are coming out, but I just did a replay of the first one not long ago, and I’m on the fence about paying the asking price for just the second. Could very well end up getting it if reviews/word-of-mouth on the remaster quality are good. Suiko2 is one of my top 10 in the genre, after all.

Currently getting back into Shin Megami Tensei V after putting it down for a while. I can see why people like it, the combat has a lot of depth to it, but man it can really be grind/pre-prep heavy. Though I wish there was more room to keep demons, there are so many cool designs but storage is very limited

I haven’t played a jrpg in February, as mentioned before. But i have time again to play something and i bought a few things like Trails into Reverie or the Boundless Trails Nayuta… spinnoff. As well as a Fairy Fencer game (would be my first), Eternights and Chained Echoes. But i think i start with either Octopath Traveler II or Persona 5 Tactica, because both game are longer on my list.