I finished Final Fantasy X last night! Woohoo!

A very satisfying, though somewhat bittersweet ending. Kudos to SquareSoft - they outdid themselves right to the end.

And now I'm planning to stay the heck away from the PlayStation for a while. Thank goodness Final Fantasy X-2 won't come out in the US for a few months. (Final Fantasy X is the first Final Fantasy game to have a direct sequel. The other games in the series share a certain sensibility, but don't use the same setting or characters or even necessarily the same game mechanics. Hence the confusing numbering. There's a Final Fantasy XI on its way, too, but that's not a direct sequel to X.)

I must admit, I have my doubts about Final Fantasy X-2. I mean, in FF X, we've uncovered major revelations about the characters' pasts, fought a god, saved the world, and heavily rewritten the nature of reality. How do you top that? If anyone can pull it off, it's Square, but it's no trivial matter.

I'll almost certainly play the sequel anyway. At the very least, it ought to be fun to spend a little more time with those characters. Though the ending of FF X gives solid reasons to believe that at least two major characters will not be appearing in the sequel. Or at least not appearing as principal party members.

I got a call today about doing some more freelance proposal writing work, for the same folks I did another proposal for back in March. So that'll be something else to keep me away from the PlayStation. If this keeps up (though I have reason to suspect it won't), I'll have to start turning down work. As it is, meeting all my deadlines is going to require some discipline and occasional consumption of heroic quantities of caffeine. I bow before the twin idols of the Handspring Visor and the Starbucks Grande Latte.

Speaking of deadlines, I've got a few more little things to do before I leave the office. Talk to you later!