With the coming release of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIV Online, I decided to make a review of all the Final Fantasy games that I have played.

I did not get into the series till after FFVII was released. As a kid, back then, I was overtaken by this game. I had never had a console game take a hold of me quite like this one. A buddy and I stayed up night after night playing this. The story and the cut scenes were just amazing.

After we finished with FFVII we moved onto FF Tactics which was an "ok" game at best. It didn't have quite the hold as VII but fun never less. I couldn't wait for VIII.

Then FFVIII released and I was quite disappointed with it. The story to me was just meh and the summoning system was horrible. I think I could honestly say I only chalked up 10 hours to this game.

With the disappointment with VIII, I skipped over playing IX. I have no idea what it was like except that it went back to the Final Fantasy roots with classes.

So after all this, they release FFX. The graphics were great. Storyline was pretty good and the skill system was something very new. Unfortunately, my time in online MMO's had changed the way I played. I found that grinding mobs was boring so I moved through the content way too fast. I ended up at a boss that I could not kill. I tried repeatedly and ended up giving up on the game.

I skipped X2.

Square decided to put their hands into the MMO market with FFXI. Some loved it, others hated it. I was on the hate side of the fence. Two things killed this game for me. Controls were so bad. By this time I had a lot of time in other MMO's and I found their PC controls were downright disgusting. The second was the big killer. I got to level 10-15ish; I quit and said what I always say... I'll come back later. That's not the case with FFXI, if you let your account go inactive for too long, they purge your characters. HORRIBLE DESIGN. I will never play it again.

FFXII was ok. I didn't get into it much just because of stuff in my life. But they decided to go with a new Real time combat system, which in itself was interesting.

Closing thought: Square makes great games. Most do not live up to my expectations of FFVII. I have been following FFXIII and I have high hopes this will be the one that turns me back onto the series. Only time will tell. Oh, releasing it on Xbox360 is an A+ in my book.