Thanks Gino, this is beautiful and you should be proud of writing it. My grandfather is also in a bad way and has suffered from cancer previously, so this was more relatable than I would ever expect an article about video games to be. Final Fantasy IX also happens to be my favourite game, thanks in no small part to Vivi's tale. The game is obssessed with life, death and meaning, and it probably doesn't get enough credit for being able to balance general lightheartedness with serious ruminations on the hardships of life and overcoming our own shortcomings, histories, and mortality.
@slag: I'm in a similar boat, but had a good time playing the beta and found it pretty easy to hit combos as it's very lenient for the most part. It's a lot easier to adjust your timings than in SFIV (which I played very little of partly because it felt so tough to do the simplest shit).
@thefriend:it's more about the Pro Tour, as the patch that includes the more notable exclusions is coming in March, so if they'd waited until then for release it would still be before the end of the fiscal year.
@slag: the training mode has a ton of options, but isn't going to teach you how to play the game better unless you're experienced. There's going to be a mode in the March patch that sounds like it will teach new players, so seeing how that shakes out is probably your best bet.
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