Playing Final Fantasy 14 over the past few weeks has really gotten me into a big Final Fantasy mood. I've been going back to listening to soundtracks of the series that I haven't heard in ages and have been excitingly reminiscing about my favorites of the franchise with Bear and our roommate. For some reason, I feel "it's okay to like Final Fantasy again." XD It's not that that I don't like Final Fantasy, I have a lot of old favorites of the series and Bear and I actually liked 13; it's more like I can't really get myself to care for the recent spin-off, iterations, remakes, ports, nor the big company that spouts them out; I always get a sour feeling when I think about Squeenix.

FF14 just seems to push a lot of the right buttons that make me reminisce and remember what I loved about the old games. The feeling reminds me of how I felt about Disney after playing Kingdom Hearts. XD I loathed Disney for a long time, but then was reminded that there were actually a lot of Disney movies I really like and that before bashing a title because it's under the Disney banner, it's not "Disney" that you're watching, you're watching a combination of a lot of peoples' hard work; artists, directors, animators, programmers, etc. It's not fair to hate their work just because of the name of the company that hangs over their heads; the same can be said for the gaming industry; we shouldn't be fans of a company because of a game or franchise we like, we should be fans of and follow the creators!~ (of course unless you really like how a company is run and its corporate decisions etc. =x)

Since starting FF14, Bear and I've met a number of new people and have made new friends; it's very exciting! For some, FF14 is their first Final Fantasy game and for others, it's their first MMO! It's really neat to see the game introducing new people to the franchise and genre! XD Final Fantasy 14 is definitely a great place to start! Though I don't expect FF14's story to be as emotionally moving or engrossing as most other entries of the series, I can't help but to hope that they end up enjoying the game and making strong meaningful memories. =)