Final Fantasy Unlimited is an animated Final Fantasy, like Legend of the Crystals or Episode Denzel. Unlike those, it’s not related to any particular Final Fantasy. Rather, it’s blending common elements of all of them. It’s also schizophrenic and insane at times as a result. What starts as a story of two twelve year olds, Ai and Yu Hayakawa, trying to find their parents very quickly turns into an adventure as they board a train leaving for the world outside their reality, into a strange world that more than earns the moniker wonderland. On the way, they meet a Martial Artist named Lisa, a mysterious cloaked Vincent clone gunman named Kaze, and a Chocobo that enjoys the taste of human hair.

For these first two episodes, we’ve gone and gotten myself and two people who’ve never seen the show before, Tennyo and Gym Leader Devil, to do the first two of several commentaries for this show.

So sit back, relax, and get your copy of Unlimited Ready, because we’ve got commentaries for the first and second episodes. So right click, save the commentaries, get your copy of Final Fantasy Unlimited ready to go and join us on the train ride through the strange and unusual world of Wonderland.

So on July 13, 2011 you can begin trying to keep Aerith away from Sephiroth in LittleBigPlanet2. Thanks to forum member Zeuz for the heads-up.

Here it is, folks. The commentary we’ve known we had to do since we recorded the first one.
Yes, it’s The Spirits Within. Brace yourselves.

This movie is credited as single handedly ruining Square and leading to Square Enix. But is it as bad as the press it’s gotten? Honestly, No. It’s actually an enjoyable, very pretty film, and it would probably be seen as such if not for two simple things.

Final.

And Fantasy.

These two words are what takes a perfectly good Science Fiction action flick, and turn it into a film perhaps unjustly hated now, a month shy of one decade after its release.
Because apart from that, this movie's pretty good. Certainly it's a lot better than most of the schlock you get on the Scifi channel (Their name change is another ill advised branding decision, IMO), and it's still one of the best looking photorealistic CG films in the world at large. Plus, it has Steve Buscemi playing himself.

So Click this link or the picture at the top of the page to listen to or download the commentary, and enjoy. Make sure you listen again on July 13th, the 10th anniversary of the film.

Day 01 – Your favourite FF game!
Day 02 – Your least favourite Final Fantasy game.
Day 03 – Your favourite Final Fantasy theme/song.
Day 04 – Your favourite Final Fantasy party from your favourite game.
Day 05 – Your favourite Final Fantasy City/Town.
Day 06 – Favourite part of your favourite Final Fantasy game.
Day 07 – Least favourite part of your favourite Final Fantasy game.
Day 08 – Favourite Chocobo Version.
Day 09 – Favourite Moogle Version.
Day 10 – Best Final Fantasy scene ever.
Day 11 – Final Fantasy game that disappointed you.
Day 12 – Final Fantasy game you’ve played more than 5 times.
Day 13 – Your favourite version of Cid.
Day 14 – Favourite Final Fantasy male character.
Day 15 – Favourite Final Fantasy female character.
Day 16 – Your favourite Final Fantasy limit break.
Day 17 – Favourite Final Fantasy mini game.
Day 18 – Favourite Final Fantasy opening sequence.
Day 19 – Best Final Fantasy outfit.
Day 20 – Best Final Fantasy hair.
Day 21 – Favourite Final Fantasy pairing/ship.
Day 22 – Favourite Final Fantasy summon.
Day 23 – Least Favourite Final Fantasy mini game.
Day 24 – Best Final Fantasy quote.
Day 25 – Final Fantasy game you plan on playing (old or new).
Day 26 – OMG WTF? Final Fantasy moment.
Day 27 – Best Final Fantasy storyline.
Day 28 – First Final Fantasy game obsession.
Day 29 – Current Final Fantasy game obsession.
Day 30 – Saddest Final Fantasy character death.

I got the idea to post about it from LiveJournal user Xi-Feng, who got the idea from LJ user toffeethesnob, who got the idea from LJ user Korynth, who got the idea from LJ user wheatcakes.

(Sheesh! I hope that’s all the credits where credit is due.)

Anywho, it’s been a lot of fun, and I’m making this frontpage post to invite more of you to get in on it. It’s not too late to take part, as it’s only up to Day 06 on the forum right now (I myself am only up to Day 05, as I started a day later than everybody else).

So, come join us. =) Share your favorites, your least favorites, your disappointments, and the Final Fantasy moments that inspired you, made you cry, or that you’ll never forget for whatever other reasons.

You may be interested to know exactly what circumstances determine who you hear on a given day — and perhaps even a given time on a given day. Read on for more.

We now have the answer to this cute little mystery thanks to pg. 570 of the Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Ultimania: RPG Side. A scan of the relevant part of the page — a title call chart — was made available to fans courtesy of toffeethesnob over on the ffchaoticcosmos blog.

Basically, it works like this: The first 10 days of each month, you’ll most likely hear one of the 10 heroes featured in the story from cycle 013. After that, the timing for most of the remaining characters roughly corresponds to double-digit days ending with the number of the game from which they originate. Things do get somewhat more complicated than that with some of the characters, though.

Below is toffeethesnob’s scan (click on it to enlarge it) of the chart from the Ultimania page in question, as well as my translation of the chart. Enjoy.

Days each character performs their title call
*Regardless of month
Lightning: 13th
Vaan: 12th
Laguna: 18th
Yuna: 20th
Kain: 14th
Tifa: 17th
Warrior of Light: 1st
Firion: 2nd
Onion Knight: 3rd
Cecil: 4th
Bartz: 5th
Terra: 6th
Cloud: 7th
Squall: 8th
Zidane: 9th
Tidus: 10th
Garland: 21st and 31st
Emperor: 22nd
Cloud of Darkness: 23rd
Golbez: 24th
Exdeath: 15th and 25th
Kefka: 16th and 26th
Sephiroth: 27th
Ultimecia: 28th
Kuja: 19th and 29th
Jecht: 30th
Shantotto: 11th
Gabranth: 12th (midnight hour; noon hour; 12th minute of every hour)
Prishe(*1): 11th (11th hour; 23rd hour; 11th minute of every hour)
Gilgamesh (*1): 15th
Chaos(*2): Every minute (5% probability)
Cosmos: After loading save data on your Special Day
Great Will(*3): 1st (1st hour; 13th hour; 1st minute of every hour)*4
Aerith(*5): 7th, 17th, 27th (7th hour; 19th hour; 7th minute of every hour)

*1: These characters will sound off once they’re available
*2: Will sound off once Feral Chaos is available
*3: After cycle 013 is cleared
*4: May also sound off at startup after cycle 013 is cleared the first time
*5: Must be selectable as an Assist Character

We hope that this article enhances your enjoyment and appreciation of Dissidia, and perhaps your understanding of it as well.


• What is the world that serves as the battleground for Dissidia?
What I often refer to as a Katamari ball of the various Final Fantasy worlds, the world in which the Dissidia conflict takes place is an amalgamation of the worlds of the first 13 main Final Fantasy titles, with the World B version of the first FF’s world serving as the base template into which everything else is placed.

Its status as such is confirmed twice during the Shade Impulse portion of the first Dissidia. First, in a conversation between the Emperor and Golbez from Shade Impulse cutscene 14 (Golbez: “This world is formed of shards brought from different realms by the two gods”); second, in a conversation between Sephiroth and Garland during SI Chapter 3-2 (Garland: “… This world is composed of elements collected from different realms”).

An apparent consequence of this shattering of worlds and realms is that all their inhabitants — with the exception of Chaos and Cosmos’s chosen warriors — are but disembodied consciousnesses in the realm of Dissidia; lost souls drifting around the world.

In Chaos Report 5 from the first Dissidia, Cid of the Lufaine mentions trying to give physical form to some of these spirits:

“Harmony and discord are both created beings.
While observing how they acquired pawns to
fight in their conflict, I found that a great
number of the consciousnesses had drifted to
this world from other dimensions.
I wondered if I might be able to give those
consciousnesses physical form. After countless
experiments, finally my testing reached success.
The failures were sealed in the Interdimensional
Rift.”

Reports 15 and 16 from Dissidia 012 elaborate on this matter, explaining that Cid of the Lufaine also attempted to use his own memories as the basis for a new life form. He was only successful in creating one such being, however, and from his own memories only:

(From Report 15)
“Attempts at embedding my own memories to
manikins fail.

Like the ‘failures’ of my old experiments,
they do not retain human likeness.

No complete memory transplant could be done.”

(From Report 16)
“Memory successfully embedded in experiment.
Confirmed non-crystallization of body.

Difficult to sense any will in its eyes,
perhaps caused by incomplete transplant.”

Read on for more about Cid’s work and its consequences.

• Were the shattered worlds ever restored?
The various worlds included in the battle world’s composition were restored to their proper places when the cycles of conflict were brought to an end, per Golbez’s remarks in Shade Impulse scene 14: “As long as Chaos reigns, the shards are fated to sink into endless darkness. But if Chaos perishes, the shards would be released, returning to where they once were.”

The Warriors of Light must have asked Laguna for directions to Cornelia here. Better late than never?

While the game never spells the point out directly, World A is the world of the first Final Fantasy, from which Cid of the Lufaine hails. World B is the world discovered on the other side of a gateway to the Interdimensional Rift by Lufenian scientists — a world in ruins, but one which bears the same world map as World A.

World B is the version of this planet that serves as the basis for the conflict of the gods seen in Dissidia.

Whether they are different time periods of the same world, or different dimensions’ incarnations of the same world, is unclear.

• What are the orbs of light on the world map?
In all likelihood, these orbs are the spirits/disembodied consciousnesses of the unfortunate denizens of all the realms that were sundered by the circumstances of the war. Notice that the first of every four orbs broken and absorbed carries the message “A frail power of the dead dwells.”

• What is that white tower on the world map?
That’s Order’s Sanctuary. It’s Cosmos’s place.

• What are the manikins?
Reports 8, 9 and 10 speak of a mysterious form of life with the appearance of a crystal ore. It changes form in reaction to the appearances of nearby life forms, but has no discernible will of its own.

The ore was discovered by Lufenian scientists who sent investigation teams to World B through a gateway to the Interdimensional Rift. They used this ore for many experiments in which they attempted to produce artificial life, and named these simulated life forms manikins.

They still demonstrated no will of their own, however, and so the scientists attempted to grant them consciousnesses via imbuing them with transplanted memories.

In almost all cases, these experiments failed to produce the intended results.

As detailed in Chaos Report 5 from the first Dissidia, as well as Reports 15 and 16 from Dissidia 012, Cid later attempted to create more perfect manikins, but only succeeded in creating one — and from his own memories. All his failed experiments were sealed in the Interdimensional Rift and would later be discovered by Exdeath, according to his in-game Museum profile, to become the army utilized by the warriors of Chaos in cycle 012:

“Possessing considerable insight regarding the Rift, he is the one who discovered its long forgotten door. Exdeath opens the portal and exhumes the manikins to torture the warriors of Cosmos.”

Fearful symmetry?

It may well be that the crystal ore discovered by the Lufenian scientists is either material from Crystal World, or at least something very much like it, such that it imitates the appearances of others the way the ore in Crystal World did after Kuja resurrected the 4 Chaoses there.

At the very least, we know there is some strong association between memories, crystals and life given their repeating, interrelated appearances in such Final Fantasy titles as FFVII, IX and X/X-2, as well as the “Source of Power” article on pg. 8 of the Final Fantasy 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 2: Scenario guide. If the graph under “Circle of Life” on that page is any indication, it seems that planets with Lifestreams — which grow from the accumulation of memory — have crystals at their cores.

Given that Cid and the other Lufenian scientists were successful in producing genuine life — Chaos, Cosmos and the Warrior of Light — from inserting memories into the crystal-like ore that so resembles that of the material composing Crystal World, it may not be a stretch to surmise that the first living creatures were produced in a similar way given that there was no other physical material present in Crystal World.

• Who is the Great Will?
In a metatextual capacity, the player is identified as the Great Will at the end of Inward Chaos from the first game.

As far as the story itself goes, however, Cid of the Lufaine is identified as the Great Will in the Chaos Reports, specifically Chaos Report 10. Earlier hints to his identity came from Garland telling Chaos that he had guided him “in accordance to the Great Will’s wish,” since Cid mentions in Chaos Report 4 that he’d gotten Garland to agree to “stand at the right hand of discord.”

As well, both Shinryu’s profile in the first Dissidia’s Museum and Shinryu’s brief dialogue with Chaos near the end of Shade Impulse makes it clear that he had been assigned a task by the Great Will. In Chaos Report 3, Cid mentions that he’d made a pact with “a certain dragon wandering through space and time”; this dragon, of course, was Shinryu.

For its part, Dissidia 012 outright refers to Cid of the Lufaine as the Great Will in his in-game profile under the Museum, and Cosmos addresses him as such in the cutscene from Report 20 (Japanese version only):
だから 大いなる意思
あなたも自分の道を歩んでください
さようなら シド.

(In the official English translation, Cosmos’s use of “Great Will” is replaced with “my divine creator.”)

• What are Chaos & Cosmos?
KOS-MOS is a powerful, armored gynoid, developed by the interstellar conglomerate Vector Industries, while chaos is the failsafe of the universe, the human incarnation of the power of Anima.

… Wait, wrong game.

[Note: The following information in this and the next question’s response either come straight from or are a synthesis of information in the Cosmos Reports, Chaos Reports, Shade Impulse, Inward Chaos storyline and Secret Ending of the first Dissidia, and the Museum Character Files, text-only portions of the Reports and Confessions of the Creator elements of Dissidia 012]

Chaos is both an anthropomorphic entity embodying the concept of discord, and a successful manikin created by Cid of the Lufaine and scientists of the Onrac nation from the memories of 10 or more unidentified individuals.

Who these people were or whether they were unusual in any way is unknown, though it is known that they were executed afterward for confidentiality purposes.

Cosmos, meanwhile, is both an anthropomorphic cosmic entity embodying harmony, and a successful manikin created by Onrac scientists from the memories of the manikin that would become Chaos.

Following his creation by the Onrac scientists, the military recognized Chaos’s magnificent magic potential and intended to use him as a weapon to defend itself from other nations, one of which commanded summon creatures as well as the robot Omega from Final Fantasy V. While preparing him for his introduction to the battlefield, Chaos — who had a beastly but nonetheless childlike form — was raised by Cid and his wife.

For reasons I will elaborate upon a couple of responses further down in this Q&A, Chaos had no interest in destroying anything unnecessarily, so once the military called upon him, they ordered Cid’s wife — whom the creature viewed as its mother — to command him to destroy the nation in command of the summons and Omega.

Despite its own immense power, Omega was banished to the Interdimensional Rift along with the summons, and the nation they served was reduced to what Report 2 calls “hell itself.”

Afterward, Cid’s wife was plagued by guilt and refused to be party to further violence. Consequently, she and Cid were locked up, branded traitors, and a new manikin was created — this one a similitude of Cid’s wife, formed with Chaos’s memories of her as the basis. They named this clone Cosmos.

• How did the war of Dissidia begin?
Not long after their imprisonment by the Onrac military (covered in the previous response of this Q&A), Cid and his wife learned of the similitude’s existence and the military’s intention to use her as a means of controlling Chaos. Unwilling to allow this, they escaped from their prison and infiltrated the lab where Chaos and Cosmos were being kept.

As they prepared to escape with Chaos, a guard shot Cid’s wife, injuring her. Seeing his mother so wounded, Chaos was filled with rage and lashed out with the power of discord, opening a gate to the Interdimensional Rift in the process. The facility was destroyed, and Cid, Chaos and Cosmos were all lost to the Rift.

Some time later, they encountered Garland, as well as the cosmic dragon Shinryu, a traveler of time and space via the Rift.

Seeking revenge against the Onrac military, Cid entered into a bargain with Shinryu: Cosmos and Chaos would be pitted against one another in war, utilizing pawns summoned from many worlds. As the pawns battled, they would accumulate experiences — memories — that would then be harvested by Shinryu once one side had lost. The condition of losing would be met when either all warriors on one side died or their respective deity was felled.

Shinryu would then reset the pieces on the board, reviving whichever god had died along with any dead warriors on either side.

After absorbing the memories of the combatants to gain more power, Shinryu would share some of the newly accumulated power with Chaos, and, thus, both would become more powerful with each cycle. In this way, Shinryu received payment for his involvement in Cid’s war.

In addition, Cid asked that Shinryu give him immortality by taking his body and allowing him to reside in the realm as a disembodied consciousness observing all developments of the war.

Though Chaos initially had no interest in fighting against Cosmos, as she was his mother’s clone, Cid was able to get Garland to convince him to fight. Garland was also the one to give Chaos his name, which he did at this time.

Though XIII stripped away from FF much of the gameplay elements that we associate with both the FF series and RPGs in general — not the least of which were the immersive qualities of exploration and towns full of NPCs to talk to — it still featured some of the most strongly written characterization in the series. And while far too much of the plot and details of the setting were relegated to the emotionless, text-only Datalog, it was still a well-conceived plot and interesting setting.

While Dissidia 012 has not forgotten all of those things, the scattered and needlessly puzzle-like presentation of the plot left me thinking that it had for a couple of weeks.

I should acknowledge up front, by the way, that the story is usually the most significant element of an RPG for me. As such, that will be the focus of this article.

Gameplay is absolutely important to any, well … game … and can make a great story that much more fun to experience. That being said, I suffered through Final Fantasy IX’s sluggish and infuriating gameplay for a second and third playthrough of its story — and it’s not even one of my favorites in the series.

Of course, this wouldn’t be much of a review if I didn’t say a word or two about the gameplay of Dissidia 012.

Though I did play the first Dissidia, and quite enjoyed it, I haven’t had any time with the controls of the prequel. However, several other staff members and a number of forum users here at TLS have spent quite a bit of time with it. By all accounts, the new characters are great additions to what is still a competent, fun-in-a-popcorn-movie-kind-of-way fighting game/action RPG mechanic, now better balanced and with enhanced controls for some returning characters.

The breadth of content offered by the game is also respectable due to the implementation of a world map for story progression, the inclusion of the original game’s storyline, and a new extremely difficult campaign that puts the first game’s Inward Chaos to shame.

No, I’m not dissatisfied with the gameplay features of 012. What complaints I have are largely with the presentation of the story, an area in which Square titles were once invariably acclaimed for excellence.

The problems with storytelling are numerous. While inconsistencies between this title and the original Dissidia have been — despite all expectations and in spite of initial reports — kept to a jaw-dropping minimum, there are a number of scenes that should pack an emotional punch but which instead lack any impact other than a raised eyebrow, and a number of failures in competent writing and wasted potential.

It would be fair to say that Dissidia 012 is a disappointment right from the opening CG movie — a random accretion of new clips and footage from the old game’s CG opening. Unlike the original game’s opening, however, the newer one is not presented with any narrative of its own, nor does it have any relation to that of the overall story.

Speaking of the opening, do you want to see Vaan and Gabranth have some new kind of interaction, given their history together in FFXII? Too bad! What you get in that opening movie is it.

The developers can spend the entirety of one of the game’s 20 short, supplementary segments (Report 9) on Vaan calling the Onion Knight his little brother, but they can’t provide any new meaningful interaction between Vaan and the guy who killed his actual brother? What the fruity hell is this?

Worse still, players will eventually learn that — despite what the opening implies — Vaan and Gabranth aren’t even taking part in the war depicted in Dissidia at the same time, so they couldn’t possibly have crossed paths in the first place.

What about Cloud’s death scene in Report 7? Cloud barely appears in the game at all prior to making a stand against Chaos and embarrassing himself — and then Chaos summarily strikes him down with an attack hidden behind a fade-to-black, and Cloud dies a few seconds later.

Really, Square Enix, this is how you kill off the only character on Chaos’ side who chooses to openly stand against him?

If you’re going to try to sell us on a scene like Cloud’s death — which they were obviously banking on — you have to do more with him in this particular narrative than rely on our knowledge of his past stories to make us feel emotionally involved. While the first Dissidia didn’t exactly have gripping journeys for its characters, it did walk them each through a properly constructed tale, and you knew what each had taken from their experiences by the time they got to the end — even amongst the villains.

012 gave up on trying that with almost everyone but the new characters; which, I’ll admit, is understandable to a point given how they’re only around for this one game.

Even the Cloud/Tifa interaction that is here in Report 5 — which seems to be the selling point of the aforementioned death scene — doesn’t really do much for either character or add to Cloud’s dying prayer in any meaningful way. I suppose there is something there for CloudxTifa shippers in depicting Cloud — who has all his memories — choosing to fight an enemy he couldn’t hope to beat in order to protect an amnesiac Tifa — who he fears will be unable to fight if she regains her memories of him — but there’s little else for everyone else.

Even looking at it from that angle of fanservice, though, what do Cloud’s failure and final request of Cosmos to protect Tifa say about him? We already knew he would die to protect Tifa. We already knew he loves her. What’s being done with Cloud here that we couldn’t and haven’t already gotten elsewhere — aside from an unceremonious, lackluster death scene?

While we’re discussing death scenes involving FFVII characters, by the way, where is Sephiroth’s suicide? Mentioned twice in the original Dissidia, it was supposed to have occurred during the twelfth cycle of the war of the gods — during Dissidia 012. Where is it? Mention of it — including an explanation for his motivation — is mentioned under his in-game profile, but Square Enix should take notes now that this was an extremely unmemorable way to depict one of their most popular characters offing himself.

Hell, you can’t even call it a depiction. We still don’t know how he went about committing suicide. Did he manage to run himself through with that 15-foot sword of his somehow or what? A lot of us would actually like to know!

Guess fans who have been asking to see this since the first Dissidia came out are just SOL.

Moving on — or living in the past if you prefer — where is Squall’s death? It isn’t depicted in any of the game’s nine main chapters, nor in any of its 20 Reports.

Given the presence in this story of his father, Laguna, there was a lot of room to do something special with the two. Instead, they barely have any screentime together, Squall doesn’t seem to have his memories of Laguna from FFVIII, and the closest we see him come to dying is in Report 1 while battling Kuja — an opponent who wasn’t actually trying to kill him. He then escapes along with Zidane and Bartz, who go on to be killed themselves by Kain.

And, really, SE, you can’t at least have some kind of ironic exchange between Squall and Laguna where we get to chortle inside because we know they’re father and son even if their forgetful asses don’t?

Up next, where is the Onion Knight’s death? He barely gets any meaningful screentime this whole game outside of Report 9, which I discussed earlier. His most meaningful scene is a kindred spirit moment with Squall, the two sharing irritation at Laguna and Vaan.

How about Cecil? Brother to Golbez, the mastermind behind ending the war of Dissidia, and something like a brother to Kain, who lays the groundwork for Golbez’s plot — why does his death warrant no depiction given the emotional weight it could carry if delivered by his own family in order to save him?

All these opportunities for powerful moments, and no capitalization. We know all these characters were supposed to have died during the twelfth cycle in the war, so where are these scenes? How did these characters die? Did Kain kill Squall, Cecil and Onion Knight too?

The deaths of all the heroes were among the moments most eagerly anticipated by a number of fans, and there’s no delivery at all for some of them. Several others (Zidane, Bartz, Firion) have their lead-in or follow-ups depicted, but none feature the fatal attacks involved. We just know that Kain killed them.

[EDIT on May 4, 2011: Apparently, there is some DLC called Official Quests in which it's revealed what happened to Cecil, Squall and Onion Knight -- and it's only available to Japanese players right now. Lame that this wasn’t included in the physical copies of the game, nor been made available to players worldwide.]

Same deal with the final stand of 012′s six fallen heroes. We do get to see Lightning, Vaan, Kain and Tifa go down fighting, succumbing to their wounds, but we don’t see them receive their wounds. We just see fallen enemies at their feet and still more approaching.

Yuna and Laguna’s deaths are even more disappointing. We see Yuna’s body laying on the ground in the aforementioned scene, but don’t even get a look at Laguna’s. Not that it would matter much anyway since we wouldn’t have gotten to see his heroic fall.

[EDIT on April 20, 2011: It was brought to my attention by Spiroth_Kweehh on GameFAQs that we actually can see Laguna's body in the same shot we see Yuna's. It's on the other side of the manikin near her. We can also see it again right as Lightning finally falls. Her head blocks our brief look at him when it hits the ground. Thanks for pointing this out, SK.]

Speaking of Lightning and co.’s noble final stand — and this will be a point where I harp on gameplay — why isn’t it interactive? Zack’s identical scenario in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII was, and the scene was all the more powerful for players thanks to that interactivity — knowing that no matter how long and hard one fought, the outcome would not and could not change.

And that game was released only a few years ago. Has Square Enix already forgotten that genuinely brilliant element of an otherwise mediocre title?

One of the few things that Crisis Core did extremely well was allow us to step into Zack’s shoes as he went up against an unbeatable force. Like the last playable sequence of Shadow of the Colossus, that sense of struggling against a tension that you can’t overcome makes the whole thing poignant and palpable in a way that just hearing about it can’t.

Here, the player gets no part in the party’s final, desperate moments — no chance to be emotionally involved as the inevitable outcome becomes ever more apparent. Hell, we don’t even get to watch the situation deteriorate to that point for the heroes. We just join the scene as they’re hitting the floor.

Bad move, SE.

While the build-up to the march of the manikin army was none too bad — even if a bit too long-winded — it had me excited to see where things went. I expected a gladiatorial melee of swords, magic and pulverized crystalline enemies. Instead, I see a few broken paperweights on the ground and six of my favorite Final Fantasy characters eking out their last breaths.

As missed opportunities go, this has to the very biggest in the game. A chance to be side-by-side, so to speak, with these characters we love as their hope fails them could have really done something to us emotionally. Rather than sad, I was more pissed off at the fact that I didn’t even feel like I was being asked to cry.

Wherever it was, I’m in no rush to get there.

Oh, right! It’s time for the last FF: Legend of the Crystal release! Released not exactly in time for, but in honor of the combined Birthday of my fellow commentors Forcestealer and Tennyo. A fitting end, since I released the first of these on my own birthday. Oh, and I guess it’s also being in honor of the release of some game or somethi- Dissidia! That’s the ticket. But definitely more the Birthday thing.

Nothing new and fancy here, folks, aside from some recovered outtakes at the end, but now you can power through all four episodes as Force, Tenny, and I did, back to back.

The whole thing should be synched up, and it is within each episode, but Disc/File load times, etc. Just adjust as necessary. For the first part, just start when I say click, and make sure to synch up each episode start with my welcome to it.

Ridiculous swords and silly poses- now a Final Fantasy Staple.

Anyways, enjoy one last time, folks, if you can tear your eyes away from Dissidia. Pay attention, though. We plan on doing The Spirits Within at some point. And from there, who knows.

Have we really reached the end? The final chapter of our Legend of the Crystals commentary?

Yes. Sort of.

This is the last chapter of the OVA, the Star Chapter, and it’s the last chapter of Forcestealer, Tennyo, and my- Ryushikaze’s- commentaries on them. But it’s not the last release of the Legend of the Crystals commentaries.

For those of you who want to watch it exactly as we saw it, I’ll be releasing all four episodes grouped together shortly. In the meantime though, enjoy the final chapter on its own, and try and wrap your mind around the strangeness that lies within.

So, what strangeness lies within this episode? Airship fights, giant boss fights, face kicking, brain hugging, and Choco-Laser, to name a few.

Oh, and Cid holds his own brain like an Ood. Nothing strange here, folks.

So quit your lollygagging and listen to the commentary already! Download it and get it ready on your MP3 player of choice and above all else, enjoy.

Hello again. Forcestealer, Tennyo, and I, Ryushikaze, have fallen through time and space again to bring you the third episode of the Legend of the Crystals Fan’s Eye View commentary series, focusing on the Dragon Chapter, which is rather lacking in Dragon for the most part.

In this chapter, our heroes meet Princess Amidala, Clean out the royal basement, fight a rock monster, and someone gets kidnapped. Guess who!

Oh, and Rogue gets Bling

So what are you waiting for? Go download the commentary, load it onto your MP3 player of choice, and enjoy the insanity.

In this chapter, our heroes fight the army, get caught by pirates, meet the series’ Pikachu and blow up an Island.

Oh, and Teddy Roosevelt bots Tickle Pretz.

So, what are you waiting for, download the audio already, get your MP3 player ready, and enjoy.

Well, it certainly looks like Square-Enix was indeed holding back at TGS for this, as there is a veritable flood of tiny snippets and bigger trailers and the like. I’m going to make an attempt at consolidating some of this for you. I may not have all the sources as stuff is literally coming in from all over, but pictures and trailers are almost assuredly legitimate. I’ll stuff it all after the break.

For as long as it lasts, there is the Final Fantasy Versus XIII Trailer featuring plenty of gameplay.

Tennyo already posted it, but just for convenience here is the Final Fantasy XIII-2 Trailer.

This is the trailer for the Final Fantasy Type-0 we reported was registered a little while ago. It turns out that this is the new name for Final Fantasy Agito XIII as it has nothing to do with the Fabula Nova Crystallis. It will also apparently be released on two UMDs.

Revenge!

Lastly, Dissida 012. Apparently there is a (purportedly substantial) demo that you must purchase, but it comes with a code to unlock Aerith as an assist only character. Gilgamesh (FFV and others) and Prische (FFXI) have joined Chaos and Cosmos, respectively. The word is that Tidus is on the side of Chaos, interestingly. There has been no word on Cloud’s alignment, but his absence on the cover of the special edition soundtrack has led many to believe he may be in Septhiroth flunky mode.

Forum members DrakeClawFang  and ShikamaruNara (Fighter alt) also provided these images of new alternates: