The trouble with playing a lot of great games in a row is that once you break the streak you lose a lot of your motivation to play anything else. I've been playing a ridiculous number of fantastic games this year so far so I guess it was only a matter of time before I hit this point. After finishing Persona 4 I started playing Gothic II for PC which, while good, just couldn't hold my interest. I found myself wasting hours on the internet instead of playing the game. Since I have a baby on the way I really can't afford to waste the next two months, what with them being the last two months of solid gaming time. So rather then slog through a title I decided to haul out another game I had been meaning to play for a long time.

I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy series and am looking forward to XIII despite being rather disappointed with XII. To date there are three games in the series that I have yet to play. Final Fantasy II which I own on the PS1 Final Fantasy Origins compilation, chances are I'll play that one after the baby is born. Final Fantasy III which hasn't seen a proper North American release aside from the DS remake. Since I don't have (or want) a DS I don't think I'll be playing it any time soon, maybe never. And finally Final Fantasy V, I've owned it for ages and had started it a couple times but could never get into it for some reason. The last time I abandoned it was when I tried to play it on my PS3 and found that it was one of the very few titles that don't work properly on the 60Gb PS3. A couple night ago I figured "If you can play and enjoy Final Fantasy I and IV there is no reason you can't enjoy FF V". So I unboxed my PS2, slapped in a PS1 memory card and went to town. I think I'll be able to stick with it this time and at my age I'm better able to appreciate it then I would have been years ago. Sure it's on the dull side with it's frequent random battles but there is a part of me that really enjoys that. Probably the part of me that's still sitting on the floor of the family room playing FF VI on my SNES. Strangely enough though I find myself underwhelmed by FF V for a number of reasons. Namely the story and characters, I expected more since I enjoyed FF IV so much. Sure it was simple but Cecil, Rosa, Rydia, and the rest just had a better story, I they were characters you understood. Maybe it will get better as it goes on but the setup for FF V was just weak, Perhaps it's more reminiscent of the heroes of FF I with no real backstory, just coming out to save the world. Sure it's already has better character development then FF XII but I really enjoyed FF IV and considering that FF VI is still one of my favorite games in the series I hoped that V would offer a story comparable to those two. But maybe this is me not realizing that I'm wearing my rose tinted nostalgia glasses. Maybe in a year or two when I'm playing FF XIII I'll think back on the story of FF V fondly. On the positive side the job system is fun and adds more strategy to the grind, and with it's 16bit visuals and simple soundtrack the whole game is rubbing my love of older games. I'm hoping that while I'm not loving it to pieces now that as the story progresses I'll get sucked into it and fall for it's charms.

I'm trying to work on a couple ideas I've had for blog posts when I feel like it. The first part of one of them is nearly finished and might get posted in the next week or so. I find I get a lot of ideas for things I'd like to talk abou there but I seldom actually sit down in front of my PC and bang them out. It's rare that I just sit down like I am now and type up a blog post with no prior thought. Maybe I should do so more often, then again maybe I should be spending more time playing games as opposed to talking about them.