hellojed I finished it a couple nights ago, or at least got to the cooldown post-final boss fight part where you can walk around and talk to all the NPCs, and I haven’t talked to all the NPCs yet. It took me a while to work through it too, however: I was also dealing with a volatile roommate situation at the time which consumed all my energy. Not ideal conditions!
The humour was a big motivator to keep me going and I do think Fox’s gags still land more often than they don’t, particularly with (these are not spoilers) the two bathroom guys or when you can buy Kris or Noelle tea, or the Butler Juice. I remember Chapter 1 left me thinking there would be conditions to use the combat abilities but that hasn’t come up that I could see—I mean besides the boxing segments. Maybe I’m missing something I’d need to be an ultra fan to know about. I was expecting one of the themes in this game to be a comment on Undertale’s idealistic adherence to the idea that all conflict can be won nonviolently.
I stopped playing FFXIII for a while but am back on it. There was this scene at the end of Chapter 9 where Fang’s dialogue just straight up does not play. This had already happened once or twice earlier in my playthrough, and I was worried that something might be wrong with my PS3’s hard drive, which made me sad and put off finishing the game until I could replace it with an SSD. But now I see that it just seems to be a glitch with the NTSC-A version of the game—PHEW but also THAT BLOWS.
I’m far enough in that the combat system has really opened itself up and enemies now pose kind of a serious threat if you’re caught unprepared. Weapon upgrading is opaque but straightforward once you’ve consulted a guide. I like these characters a lot. My mid-game impression: FFXIII is good, actually.
