A few thoughts on the upcoming Final Fantasy XII...

Vaan is going to be slashed with Valfrea so hard he'll be coming back straight. And they can't disguise the fact that Fran is just Lulu with rabbit ears, or that Ashe is just but a plot device.

Since it's not coming out in Japan until next year, I'll have plenty of time to buy myself a PS2, Kingdom Hearts, FFX, and Suikoden III. Also Wild Arms III and Wild Arms Alter Code F, and Another Code F if it's out by then.

Because, y'know, I'm not letting this one get away. And I'm not borrowing someone else's system, either- the screenshots make me want to squeal jubilantly. Vaan's pants excite me, though Ashe's skirt looks like it's missing its other half. And V/Balfrea...oooh. Yes. (The big problem with X was the lack of good, plausible yaoi pairings- all of the good pairings usually involved dead people, and anyone who mentions Wakka/Tidus to me will be smited. X also had a villain problem...Seymour was such a fucking pain in the ass to kill, but otherwise, he was a complete pansy with no real connection to the actual evil in the game. These were problems in IX, too, where there weren't any plausible yaoi pairings...anyone who mentions Kuja/Zidane will also be smited. And Kuja was totally the badassest villain since Kefka (don't get me wrong, I adore Sephiroth, but he never actually succeeded in destroying the world. Kuja, on the other hand, went batshit and took down a planet. Woo.) but he wasn't the ultimate evil, and the final battle in IX is such a Deus Ex villain- similar to Zeromus in IV, but at least you had some warning of that before you got to the moon. Actually, now that I think about it, Zeromus could very well be Necron- similar modus operandi, at any rate.) That was an enormous parenthetical, but in case you forgot, I was talking about Balfrea, who really does look like some unholy hybrid of Seifer and Zell- only much, much cooler because he doesn't look like a whiny teenager. I hope Square Enix has learned their lesson over the years; games like VI and VII, where there were very few whiny teenagers, are in general more beloved by the overall populace.

I'm now a bit more excited about XII than I am about Advent Children, because Advent Children is going to suck and make me cry while XII is going to make me splee violently. Also, XII takes place in Ivalice, which means there will potentially be Tactics and Vagrant Story references. *splee*

One last thing before I get a life, I swear...this is purely rhetorical because when I go on about games I'm only talking to myself- but does it bother anyone else that Rikku in thief garb is actually just Jack Sparrow crossed with Schuldig? I know I've mentioned this before, but it disturbs me. A lot.

Ah, well. Off to do work.