[kjjcarpenter]

Me and my fiancé are currently playing through Final Fantasy XIII. The only way I play games these days is with her; I'll play when we both have some spare time and she'll sew or knit while following the story.

Despite all of the criticism I heard about XIII upon its release, it's actually quite a good game. I quite admire the linear style, and the battle system—while remedial—is fast-paced and intuitive. T's more about identifying what job lineup you should employ, however, rather than scrolling through menus, seeking specific abilities, so I can see where the criticism originates.

The story, alas, is incredibly convoluted. You can follow it—clunky as it may be—after about 10 hours, and reading through the game's datalog unearths a lot of the finer details, but there's just too much going on, and the terminology is horrendous. I can't say I'm not enjoying it. The forced exposition is annoying, but tolerable, and the characters are entertaining, some of them empathetic at worst, though I don't hate any of them, which is definitely a good sign.

We'll probably play through the whole trilogy, though I hope the Expanded Universe for XIII is handled better than FFVII.