I tried to not listen to the reviews. I tried to ignore all the words people were passing around regarding Final Fantasy XIII being so slow to start. I figured they were just asking too much out of the game, getting bored way to easily. But no, they weren’t. Final Fantasy XIII is probably the slowest game to pick up in excitement that I have ever played. EVER. And it is driving me crazy.

After about 8 and a half hours of game play, I finally have acquired the new battle abilities such as paradigm shifts and magic that makes fights actually interesting. That definitely helped to ease the ultra boring “run straight and hit a until the enemy dies” cycle I’ve been stuck in. Still, it didn’t really change the focus of the narrative, nor did I really know anymore than I did at the beginning. To be honest, it feels like the past 8 and a half hours have been more like one big game introduction, than the actual game.

This really doesn’t bother me as long as the rest of the game is long. If this is literally half of the game, I really don’t understand how the developers think this is fun. It hasn’t gotten to the point of unbearable, but definitely not something I would play if I wasn’t expecting a pick up. Speaking of pickup, the story definitely has potential to get really awesome if done correctly. I am hoping something along the lines of my team splitting and becoming the main antagonist of the game. That would be rad.

Another problem is just that; besides the mention of the Fal’cie, there is no clear cut antagonist designated. What made Final Fantasy VII so engaging was Sepiroth, and without a bad ass bad guy, what’s the point of doing what we do?

Here’s to hoping I get to the good stuff soon, and Final Fantasy delivers a good bad guy to get me all riled up, before I go crazy.