I recently made a backlog list in order to save some money because I buy a lot of games and rarely finish any of them. I decided then to try and finish a good chunk of them before buying any new ones. The list of games on my backlog came to 122 games, I then entered them into a list shuffler. I decided that whatever came in at number one would be the game I tackle and finish. The game that won was Final Fantasy XIII.

I got about 10? hours in and forgot about it at the time. I now realize that I can't remember a single thing about the game or how to even play it. My question to you, the wonderful Giant Bomb community, is whether I should restart it or pick up where I left off?

@obsideondarman: If you're 10 hours in and remember nothing I might vote you start over again. It won't take you that long to get back to where you are.

@demoskinos: Yeah, I think you're right. Thanks.

I would actually vote pick it back up from where you were. There are story logs in the codex thing and there really isn't much progression in the first 10 hours. You might need a quick refresher in the plot but I don't think you will need to fully replay the first 10 hours.

Life's too short to spend it replaying FFXIII. The game starts slow and confusing with jargon and events that you likely won't understand, so skipping/forgetting that stuff isn't too much of a loss. Since you dropped the game and can't remember a thing about it, it sounds like you weren't getting much out of it, so maybe it's not worthwhile to go back to for you. If you do really want to play it, then when you load your game, you can read the story-so-far summary and poke around the in-game encyclopedia to get the gist of things.

As for your backlog approach, I'd recommend thinking of it less as a to-do list and more as an optional idea list. If you feel you must play every one or even most of the games on the list, then it becomes a burden and you'll inevitably chafe against it. Forcing yourself to play a randomly selected game sounds like a job.

Alternatively, if you treat your backlog more as simply a list of ideas of games that you have, at one time or another, thought you might enjoy, then you can pick up games from it only when the mood strikes you to play them. If you never seem to feel like playing a game, that suggests that you should cut it.

In fact, I think it's good to regularly and aggressively cull games from your list that you realize you're not that strongly interested in. Some of these might be games that you added due to pre-release hype, or high review scores, or positive word of mouth, or because it's part of a franchise you've previously enjoyed, or whatever other reason of obligation. If summarizing why a game is on your list in one sentence requires you so say something along the lines of "I should...", rather than "I really want to...", then you should probably cut that game.

Also, the sooner you realize and accept that you'll never be able to play every game that you could possibly put in your backlog, and that that's a good thing, the more of a treat it becomes to find the time and energy to pick up and play an old game that you truly do want to play.

Just keep going from where you were. You are basically being given a free opt out of the worst part of the game.

Other than my advice to maybe not play FF XIII (It has some good parts, but takes far too long to get to them), I'd continue with your save as to avoid the most tutorial-y parts of those first few hours.

I saw you needed advice and saw it was for FFXIII...

I'm disappointed you didn't want recommendations on the most satisfying way to destroy your copy (public ritual, smashing followed by burning FYI).

On topic: 10 hours in? Go ahead, don't start again, you'll suffer less that way and the game does a terrible job of explaining itself without digging into the optional Codex anyway so that "out of the loop" feeling won't go away anyway.

Here's what you need to know if you're ten hours in and need to remember what's going on: "We are pulse L'cie." "What's our focus?" "SERAH!" Mash the x-button.

@savage: Thanks for the advice. I know all too well about the burden of a backlog list. I know what I'm doing with this one. I'm treating it purely as an idea list because I'm trying to play less games.

@obsideondarman: I got about the same distance back at launch, havent' played it since. How is the game? i was thinking about picking it up on PC to play? are you enjoying it? or is it as "bad" as everyone makes it seem

You aren't too far into the tutorial, maybe a third of the way through, so restarting wouldn't be that bad. Then again, you are playing Final Fantasy XIII, and I know personally I never, ever, ever in my entire life want to do any of that game more than once.

FF 13 starts out with a bewildering amount of jargon that it slowly explains throughout the first 20 hours. I would just keep on trucking on your old save. The story doesn't evolve for quite a while, and the parts you missed can be read up.

@luca717: My PS3 sort of died when I reached Chapter 12 or so. I was enjoying it a lot. Now my PS3 refuses to play games which kind of adds to the mystique of that game. Now that I'm primarily a PC gamer I may go back and start it again the next time it's on sale.