Finished Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) last Friday. My total playing time was 48 hours. Not too bad considering I didn't use a guide (yes, still sealed) and I managed to complete a lot of sidequests on my own. The story and characters didn't really grow on me like with previous FF games. I didn't find any emotional parts that were that special or interesting to me. The story itself is pretty simple and plain. I wasn't engrossed with the overall plot as much as I thought. The dialogue was pretty cheesy and awkward and there were points that were somewhat convoluted as well. I wasn't really fully immersed with the world nor did I really care about the characters at the end. And as for the ending, it was also a meh to me.

The game is still gorgeous through and through but this may be on of the weaker FF games in terms of character development and story. The best thing about the game is the combat. If you don't like the combat than you're gonna be really disappointed because it only gets harder and more complex as the game progresses. The enemies in the second half of the game are pretty ridiculous in terms of difficulty and don't get me started on the last boss. Holy crap.

Anyways, FFXIII was fun in terms of its combat but everything else like the characters/story were mediocre to me. This is definitely one of the weaker FF games in the franchise. It's gorgeous though so it's worth playing for all the eye candy. It's definitely a must-play for FF and RPG fans but everyone else should give it a rental first. It's a big commitment if you wanna beat it.

Started playing Deadly Premonition (360) over the weekend. I only played through the Prologue and I'm in the middle of the first chapter but this game is just bizarre and weird. There are some pretty hilarious dialogue which is either from the poorly written dialogue/voice acting and character animations. It's so bad but so good. If you're curious how weird it is, just check out the Quick Looks from Giant Bomb. I'll probably talk about it more once I make more progress.