We decided that the two sexiest staff members should go, so, despite Psychotics insistence that it was Opposite Day, Del Murder and I went. They put us up in a swanky city-folk hotel, and, to keep this part of the story short, we jumped on the bed, ate candy, and made rainbows. Not sexually. Necronopticous and Marshall Banana actually work right by the Square Enix building, so they picked us up for tacos and strawberry-tasting milkstuffs. I enjoyed an octopus tostada.
The next day, after having more candy for breakfast, we brought our asses and our coffee house beverages down the the lobby, where the rest of our Final Fantasy nerd group was far too easy to spot. I think there were representatives for... six other sites there. Some of them had stayed up way too late because they had never seen an ocean before; it was cute.
After collecting our non-disclosure agreements, our lovely SE Reps, Liz and Lola, led us upstairs, to a room filled with XBox 360s and PlayStation 3s. And food. Which we ate.
Bellies full, we scurried to our stations and adorned our headphones. We played Final Fantasy XIII-2 for three hours that day. I've never heard so much quiet in a room before. We were all so in our own worlds, yet so together--it was quite the touching geek moment, I think.
Okay, I wasn't completely in my own world. I kept glancing at Del's screen, trying to figure out how he kept being so damn far ahead of me, and he kept looking at mine in order to mock me. And then there was that moment where we both discovered the jump button. Our eyes met. It was magic. And then I think he texted Miriel, the tease.
They gave us each a spiral notebook for, uh, notes. Someone (I'm guessing Lola) wrote a note in the front of each one saying not to share anything in it until the 23rd, so Del will have to break open The Book of Secrets for you tomorrow.
After what I'm convinced was about forty-five minutes (I am unapologetically a fan of this game so far), we were told to shut it down and get ready to meet producer Yoshinori Kitase and art director Isamu Kamikokuryo. Which was awesome. I wish I would've gotten a seat in the front row instead of getting popcorn, but there were only two rows so I can't complain.
As I sat there, trying to, like, suck on my popcorn because chewing it felt too loud, Kitase-san's eyes met mine. Probably because I was staring at him on account of someone's head was blocking my view of the translator and Kamikokuryo-san mostly stared at the floor. You could tell he felt weird with us all pointing our cameras at him even while he was doing nothing because, well, no one really wants video of the translator. Or maybe I just felt awkward on his behalf.
I'll tell you the rest of that part on Saturday. With video!
After the party, a few people left, and Lola treated a few of us to Inn & Out, which I think the out-of-towners especially enjoyed. We cut out a little early so I could drive Del to the airport, but that was probably for the best.
Kitase-san also gave me a moogle charm! Just me. No one else. Especially not Del. And he didn't just hand it to me because an SE Rep handed it to him to hand it to me. Nono, he totally pulled it from his pocket and was like "I want you to have this, Shlup-chan." That's how it happened. Shut up.
Also recently, SE sent us swag in the mail, which I posted in another thread: a Mog shirt and the above photo in a frame. Which I thought was exceptionally thoughtful.
So starting tomorrow we're going to be regaling you with a ton of facts about the game, and I think Del is going to post his review of it. I will post my review also soon, and then I plan on posting a summary of the Q&A session on Saturday.
Also tomorrow, in this very thread, we're going to play Where's Del??, by which I mean I'm going to post the group photo from the event, and you have to guess which one is Del. Unless he chickens out, which he might. I have a whole bushel of cute pictures of him and a cute video of him and he won't even let me post them because he's not wearing his fedora.
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