I love keeping this thread alive....

Look, lets go back to 2002. There I am, sitting in my room fresh off of a successful run at what was a very easy FFX final boss (probably cause I beat Omega Gold and all and had the sphere grid filled with three characters...) I had just spent a whoping $64.99 on FFX not 1 month ago (at the time about $50 American, today its not that much by any means). Now as I've stated in this column before, I was a bit upset about the stupid story back then, but let it slide. Although I bring this topic up now, imagine what all of you would be saying if I brought it up in 2002?

You wouldn't have FFX-2 to fall back on at all. Unless some really big assumptions would be made, alot of my questions probably wouldn't be answered. As far as Cloud being brought back for FFVII-2 is concerned, no, I wouldn't buy the stupid game, and yes, I would be complaining. I don't like FFX-2 because its a blatant money grab by Square not because we all desired it, its because without it, you can't complete the stupid freaking story.

*FF7, 8 and 9 Spoilers*

Now take a look at all the FFVII spin offs. Advent Children, Crisis Core, Dirge of Cerberus, etc. Why are these different than FFX-2? BECAUSE WE DEMANDED THEM! FFVII summed up its storyline just fine, giving a reasonable conclusion with RedXIII looking down upon a destroyed Midgar several years later after the credits rolled. Obviously, all turned out well. Every other FF was summed up just fine too. VIII had a cliffhanger type ending, but also turned out well upon the credit's completion. IX also had a bit of a cliffhanger with Zidane possibly being dead and all, but again, the story was summed up, no part twos, no fancy gimmicks, one game one QUALITY experience.

Is it just me who realizes that FFX-2 sure didn't take too long to complete? FFX if I'm correct, was released in Dec 01' while FFX-2 was released in Nov 03'. Take a look at how long its taking Square to make XII! Obviously, X-2 was planned from the start, a pure scheme by Square to rack in the Cheddar! Do you honestly think Square planned to make any FF VII sequels back in 97'?

Again, I won't sell out my values and play or watch an FF 7 sequel. I am far too firm on the belief that an RPG game should offer one quality experience summed up in one long game. RPGs take anywhere from 50-200+ hours to complete. In that time, you get to know the characters and the world quite well. Why should you have to do it all again to sum up your journey? If you're going to devote that kind of time to one game, why not get the reward of having a good, concluded ending rather than cliffhangers? Sure platformers offer the same characters over and over, but they don't offer nearly as much story and take far less time to beat. I defeated the three Jak games in a total of 44 hours....thats less time than it took me to complete Grandia III!

I conclude my case with this: I'm getting a bit older now as a gamer (20 years old and not getting any younger) and I don't buy into the hype of big sequels or anything like that anymore. I have college, work and the ever nagging girlfriend to take care of. I can't spend all my time playing games anymore like I could back in high school, and yeah, business school in college is a bit time consuming when you're majoring in Accounting. With that being said, if I'm going to spend my hard earned money on a game, I expect a long, challenging and mind-blowing experience that will keep me busy in my free time and will also keep my mind working. Thats why I buy pretty much nothing butt Role Playing games. With that being said, all the time I invest into these games should warrant some sort of feeling of achievement, and crap like FFX/ FFX-2 not only made each seperate experience less fulfilling, but it ruined my image of Square, a company that had always offerd longer, quality games that had continuously bestowed a sense of achievement upon their conclusion. The ending to X and the release of its sequel just screamed money grab and felt like a slap in the face.

Again, I can't wait for XII, but that may be it for your's truly in the world of videogaming.....