So how is everyone doing?

[Shoeberto]

Square Enix is a baffling company these days. This generation they basically doubled down on the worst tropes of Japanese games to serve the shrinking niche audience; XIII's awful story is a testament to that. XII was the end of a great era for them. I think it's a game that will only grow more respected as time goes by. The worldbuilding and localization are phenomenal. That writing, man! So good. (IX still owns my heart too).

Weirdly, their best output this gen has come from Eidos, who they bought a few years back. I hope they put out some great games again in the future, but I think they need some management shakeup to get some new blood in there.

Dude. You need to hang out here more. This is the kind of game industry talk that I wish we had more of here

Wow, I wish I'd realized there were so many EoFFers in the northwest before I left Seattle!

So do the people who've come back still play Final Fantasy? I know it was never a prerequisite for posting on the forums to begin with, but I was wondering whether people had just got out of the habit of posting or whether they'd moved on from FF (or even gaming) altogether. Maybe you're all too busy with spouses/kids for vidja games these days.

For my part, I still like the old FFs, and give my favourites a replay every couple of years or so (IX for life, yo). But I didn't really care for XII, and the dozen or so different versions of XIII just confuse me, so I've kind of fallen out of touch. Interested to hear about other people though.

I still play VI and VII pretty regularly, but I never really got into anything after IX.

Hello. I don't even know if many people remember me, but we all have to throw our hat in.

It's so nice and refreshing to see some of these usernames. It's like a Mills Day miracle.

Teek! How could we forget you?

But where the hell is BOU?

I was going to respond to this saying I tweeted BOU before I saw his post. But then I remembered Bleys's original audio introduction to the staff when I looked at your name and laughed and laughed and laughed.

If I ever made you laugh or think or grow: It was probably unintentional.

I know you say this jokingly but you're really responsible for me growing a lot when I was younger. I was thinking recently about the big influences on my life and a lot of it points back to you. I probably wouldn't be in to game design and programming if it wasn't for Sick Irony, or into film if it wasn't for your ASC articles, or listen to as much soul-enriching music if you didn't go on about Radiohead and Pink Floyd and Elliot Smith back in the day. I don't think I ever intentionally tried to imitate you back then, but I just thought you were one of the coolest mothersmurfers online and liked your taste in things a lot. I literally don't think I'd be where I am or who I am if it wasn't for you.

Thanks.