There's a fireworks show going on in Bodhum! Enjoy the spectacle. I hope nothing terrible happens.
A young couple are flying some sort of hoverbike through the fireworks, which seems dangerous. Nida, who's disembarked to explore the town with you, raises his eyebrows. "Let's not ask those guys to pilot the Garden."
Let's talk about Final Fantasy XIII.
I was really excited by the early trailers for Final Fantasy XIII. It looked so gorgeous! Lightning looked so cool!
Before the game came out, though, I read a scathing review of it, which deflated my enthusiasm. Apparently the game was really bad? That was a shame. Maybe I wouldn't play this one.
Half a year later, a friend of mine played Final Fantasy XIII and summed up their reaction as 'holy crap, possibly my new favorite Final Fantasy?'
I was surprised and intrigued. I'd heard such bad things about this game! But my friend had loved it, so there had to be something to enjoy in there. Maybe I should give it a try.
I didn't have a PS3 at the time, so I first experienced Final Fantasy XIII by watching a playthrough on YouTube. I loved every moment of it. I felt silly for letting other people's opinions discourage me; I love Final Fantasy VIII, after all, and that's a game that gets a lot of criticism as well!
As soon as I got a PS3, I played it myself, and I still loved it just as much with a controller in my hand.
The music and visuals of Final Fantasy XIII are both gorgeous; I still have no idea how they managed to get it looking that good on the PS3. The battle system is engaging. The way the game constantly drives you forward admittedly limits exploration, but, on the positive side, it's great for story pacing. I think the central concept is really interesting: what do you do when a god suddenly hands you a death sentence?
My favourite aspect of Final Fantasy XIII, though, is the character dynamics. The game really takes the time to build up different relationships within the party; dynamics like Sazh-Vanille, Lightning-Hope, Lightning-Snow, Hope-Snow, Hope-Vanille or Fang-Vanille are all very distinct and clearly drawn. It's also fun to have negative dynamics within the party as well as positive ones; I haven't played many RPGs in which some party members outright hate others!
Considering how much I love the characters, I've written surprisingly little Final Fantasy XIII fanfiction. There's With These Signs Upon Our Souls, my Final Fantasy VIII/Final Fantasy XIII crossover, but that focuses on the Final Fantasy VIII characters. Making Space is a tiny piece about Sazh and Vanille's relationship, and Eclipsed is a short Serah/Hope fic for Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Final Fantasy XIII is a deeply underrated game. If you're a fan of the series and you haven't played this one yet, give it a try! (Especially if you enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII, which I assume is reasonably likely, given that you're on a Final Fantasy VIII website; they're both very character-focused games.) Don't expect much gameplay variety or exploration - the environments, gorgeous as they are, are entirely linear - but the characters and their dynamics absolutely shine.