Let me be honest. I haven't played any Final Fantasy XIII since I announced its return to NLID a week ago. Three reasons... first I was way in to a sports game and finished a season for once (not going to say the name because you don't care)... second Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning arrived just the day before I finished Darksiders and third... isn't it obvious? C'mon it's Final Fantasy XIII we are talking about here. I'm just teasing the fans a bit but the first 30 hours is a tough task of heading down corridors to yellow markers and starting boss fights and I have at least 22 hours to go before I reach the part where the game apparently opens up. I digress though because for this post I am going to link to the first three posts of FF13 so you can catch up to where I was when I stopped in mid-October 2011.

Now Loading In-Depth #43: Final Fantasy XIII #1
This post was similar to this one where I hadn't started the game but I had to let my original thoughts on FF13 be known so that I could try to start as fresh as possible. Originally I stopped because after 3 hours of Snow being a jackass, I was sick and tired already.

Now Loading In-Depth #44: Final Fantasy XIII #2
In this really short update I make a progress update and you all laugh at me because I think that after only 6 hours I think I am nearing the Gran Pulse part of the game... that's the "it gets better after 30 hours" part dummy. Lightning did punch that stupid jackass Snow in the face so at least something good happened. Soon after I posted that small update though I had unlocked the ability to improve my weapons. I also mused over the fact that FF13's massive disc size of 17GB could have been avoided if they didn't record FMV of what have to be IN-GAME cut-scenes.

Now Loading In-Depth #45: Final Fantasy XIII #3
In this update I talk about the Final Fantasy XIII battle system like I am an expert. Though these strategies do have merit I just don't think I had quite earned the right to talk details after only 8 hours of play and only a couple of reasonably challenging bosses. Still buff, debuff, stagger, beat up and heal / sentinel when required is the go to strategy.

There you go. You are now all caught up with my first 8 hours with Final Fantasy XIII. If I recall correctly I just started Disc 2. I am going to attempt to get some in tonight as I soon as I finish this little update... I also plan to make it a longer session too as my previous sessions were only about 3 hours long. I've said enough I'm outta here. Loading Complete!