The other day I did an incredibly rare thing – I purchased a video game on a whim, without any forethought or questioning, without any rhyme or reason. In all my years of gaming, the act of purchasing a game has never been something I’ve taken lightly. I tend to play it close to the chest when buying games, preferring to stick with franchises I know and trust or games that I’ve thoroughly read up on and believe are worth my hard earned sixty dollars. But in the case of this very capricious choice, I went against my own rules and sensibilities.
No need to hold on to your butts here; the game I purchased wasn’t anything all that far-flung, just Final Fantasy XIII-2. Yep, that’s all, simply a Final Fantasy game. I turned on the Xbox, noticed its little sale ad on the homepage, and made the purchase. And I can’t explain why.

Though I’ve never watched FFXIII-2 in action, I’ve read plenty about it, and most everything made me want to stay far away from this most recent “Lightning” trilogy. Though I like the few FF games I’ve played well enough, I wouldn’t call myself a fan of the series. I like turn-based combat fine, but my understanding was that the FFXIII games deviated from that norm in ways not terribly pleasant. TL;DR Final Fantasy XIII-2 was never on my radar. And yet here I am now the proud(?) owner of it, and I’m not holding out hope that I’ll actually have time to really sink my teeth into it in the near future.