Unfinished Business Sir

It's time for a list! I realize that my blog has been overloaded with video game posts lately. What can I say except that I'm a gamer. And a journalist. With the future (unlikely) possibility of being a video game journalist. That and I've been playing a couple of hours of games a day lately so I've really got games on the mind. I also loaded up Final Fantasy XII mostly because I dislike Final Fantasy XIII so much. I never actually got around to finishing the game when it first came out. I was so damn smug and excited that I downloaded and burned the game a week before it was officially released. Somehow I got close to the end but never pulled the trigger on heading towards the final boss. That got me thinking about all the other games that I got at least midway through but never got motivated to fully finish. Let me tell you it's a long list. Here's the top 5 games that I didn't find the time to get to the end.

Five Games I Meant to Finish but Never Did:
Final Fantasy XII
The very game that brought about this list. I actually managed to get to the Bahamut which was the final dungeon. I remember that I didn't finish the game because there was sooooo many distractions that I wanted to finish before beating the game. Espers and hunts and secret dungeons. The monster hunts started to get boring and tedious and eventually it just left me without the motivation to continue and it was swept to the side. More than a year later and I've picked it up and I'm definitely going to finish this one.

Baldur's Gate 2
I never played this classic PC game when it first came out. In fact, I never played it for the first 10 years it was out. Back in 2008 I picked it up on the cheap and decided to give it a shot. I figured it would be decent after seeing it on so many people's best games of all time lists. Plus it was by the same folks that put out the fantastic Knights of the Old Republic games. It lived up to the hype. It was fun with a highly detailed combat system, even if it was a Dungeons and Dragons game. So why did I stop playing? I don't know. Other stuff came along and I just didn't have the time to finish this game. I remember I had just been betrayed by my favorite party member and was almost to the final showdown. Sadly I don't think I'll be going back to this one anytime soon.

Shenmue II
One of my favorite video game series (if you can call two games a series) of all time. This free roaming, slice of life, adventure game from Sega was a huge achievement in gaming. Way ahead of it's time it was a divisive game to the community. Half loved it, half hated it. QTE events were innovated by Shemue. Y'know, those things that are in every single game nowadays. I finished the first game by doing nothing but playing it for a solid week back in... oh 2003 or so. I never got a chance to play Shenmue 2 for myself until I got a 360 in 2007. I bought the second game since the 360 is (somewhat) backwards compatible. I played it and loved it as much as the first one. The only problem is that I had a ton of games for a next gen system. Playing those games took up all my gaming time and I wasn't able to devote the time to Shenmue 2. I still haven't found the time to go back and finish this gem.

Lost Odyssey
Mistwalker's sublime RPG may be the best JRPG released on the 360 so far. There are a few that I haven't played yet, namely Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesparia. It definitely trounced all of Square Enix's efforts. The gameplay was very much like Final Fantasy X and the story was pretty good. The best part was of course the 'Thousand Years of Dreams' stories. Some of the most powerful stories ever to appear in a game. They won't all admit it, but I guarantee you every gamer that ever that read some of the sadder stories teared up. This was another example of me losing interest and time towards the end of the game. Release schedules blend together and I had a ton of surplus income to spend on new games, so I just bypassed this and never went back. I was nearly at the end with only the final dungeon to go and I just dropped it. Partly because there was so much side stuff to do, as in Final Fantasy XII.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
The second half of the Persona 2 double shot and the only one released in the US, I bought this game on the first day it was out back in 2000. I loved this game. It had an amazing modern setting that is rarely seen in games. The demon contact system made a return and was even better than the first Persona. Returning from the first game were most of the characters, two as party members. The story was crazy. Games weren't doing the kind of insanity that was going on in P2. Demon invasions, crazy killers, rumors becoming reality, hackers and feuds with the Triads. It was amazing. The problem came from a particular battle late in the game that I got stuck on and it killed my motivation to keep playing. I had the one save and couldn't go back because I was too close to the end of the game. No going back. Giving up was an unfortunate way for me to end my time playing this game. I loved everything and really wanted closure. If I had played Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the Japan only first chapter, it would have driven me to finish this game no matter what. While this game is my biggest regret at not being able to finish I have a rather poor record with Persona games. I never finished Persona 1. I never finished Persona 3: FES. I haven't finished the translated P2: Innocent Sin. I broke tradition by beating the amazing Persona 4 last summer.

Notice a trend here? All RPGs. I'm not finishing RPGs these days like I used to in high school and early college. The games demand such a time investment and I like to play a diverse selection of games. That's really the big point to take away here. I like to play a lot of different games and experience a wide range of game play. I like diversity and RPGs tie you down for a long time. Finishing these games demands a huge time investment that I'm willing to put in, up to a point. Online games require an even greater time investment to the point where it must become a part of your life. That right there is a major reason I just can't get interested in MMORPGs. It's the same thing over and over, the same game with the same system for as long as you play. Which has to be a long time if you ever want to see what the game truly offers. I can't put 6 hours a day into a game for 10 months just to see 10% of what it offers.

I do plan to go back and finish most of these games at some point. My saves for all of these games still remain (excepting Baldur's Gate 2) and I can jump back in at any time. I'm doing it now for FF12. I may not remember the whole story or the game mechanics right off, but it quickly comes back to me. If I've played it before it all comes flooding back, maybe not every detail but certainly enough for me to become immersed in the game easily.