Weekly Update

This week I concentrated on Final Fantasy XII and Tales of Vesperia. I have started Final Fantasy XII twice before and I really do enjoy it. Outside interruptions have always caused me to fail to complete the game in the past, not my opinion of the game itself. I am working with a guide this time, not to cheat in the main story, but to plan out my license buys and find some of the more obscure side quests. I don't feel bad about this since I have completed more than half the game twice in the past. I really want to work on exploring the battle system a bit more this time. I just completed the rescue of Ashe from the Empire and I currently have at least one mist charge on each character, one (Basch) with all three, and another (Ashe) with two. My main party up until this point: Balthier, Vaan, and Fran only have one mist charge a piece because I have to strategically spend their license points to get through the early game (equipment, spells etc.). Now that I have Basch, Ashe, and Penello, I can make a beeline for their mist charges without heeding other requirements. 

I am enjoying Tales of Vesperia so far, but I am having a bit of trouble adapting to the combat system. I usually control Yuri, and I am constantly getting swarmed. I can't seem to combo for more than about three swings in a row without getting jacked. While I do pretty well against regular enemies, basically through hit and run, the last boss I fought, some kind of winged dog thing, creamed me. It does seem like some elements of the combat system are still being introduced, I only have had Overlimits for an hour or so, so perhaps as more features unlock I will be able to do better. It is also possible that I just don't understand how it works.

I started up Star Ocean: Second Evolution on my PSP after abandoning Lunar, so far it is good, but it has some long cut scenes so it may not be all that conductive to playing on the train.

I have a few reviews in the works for games I have completed like FFX-2, FFXIII-2, Star Ocean, and Valiant Hearts. I will be pushing hard to complete Final Fantasy games over the summer as I have several that I have never completed and I would like to be up-to-date before FFXV drops. That line up currently looks like: FFIII, FFV, FFVIII, Crisis Core, FFXIII Lightning Returns, and Type 0 HD. Main series games will be the first priority, I am not sure that I can stomach FFIII, but I will give it a try. I am really tempted to play FFVII and FFIX again, I haven't played them since I beat them at release, and I really enjoyed both. Of course, this will hurt my backlog process.