I played through all of Final Fantasy XIII, which featured a plot defined by melodrama and resolved by cheesy "love conquers all" deus ex machina that completely contradicted any gravitas the melodrama might have been building toward. Nothing from either XIII-2 or now XIII-3 has given any indication that this trend has been reversed. We have Lightning running through some comparatively bland city environments with a dramatic voice over narration culminating in her taking off a pair of sunglasses like the reverse of CSI: Miami. A trailer is designed to excite, and this trailer does nothing for me.

But I wasn't even exclusively referring to Final Fantasy XIII when I made the disparaging comment about stories in Square Enix games. I wasn't even referring exclusively to Final Fantasy games. Hell, Kingdom Hearts--as much as I have loved damn near every entry in the series--has become an absolute mess of storytelling. While I've found the stories of many Final Fantasy games enjoyable, there is much better writing going on in the industry.

And you should know me better than to think I'm actively looking for something to complain about, GoBo. I've gone from one of the most vocal critics to one of the most vocal proponents of Final Fantasy XIV on this forum. I want nothing more than for Square Enix to succeed and start making games that excite me again. I'm genuinely excited for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. I'd love to get a proper US release of Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. I keep hoping that we hear something new about the progress with Versus XIII.

Final Fantasy XIII was the first Final Fantasy game I have ever sold after completing. It was the first time I have reached the end of a Final Fantasy game and felt completely unmoved and underwhelmed. It's the first Final Fantasy game that I do not just regard as a bad Final Fantasy title but as a bad game (and believe me, there's a significant distinction between the two). Excuse me for being utterly disappointed that Square continues to dump effort into FFXIII when they have other projects sitting on the sidelines that I find much more interesting.