From what we've all seen, 13 is a very unlucky number for Square Enix. The Fabula Nova Crystalis Project, announced sometime around 2005-ish has been going for as long as the current-gen consoles lifetimes. Final Fantasy Type-0 (formerly Final Fantasy Agito XIII) for the PSP has already been out in Japan for some time now and has yet to come out overseas and probably never will as the PSVita is now Sony's pride and joy, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, the game that many people as well as myself have been looking forward to, has been in development for quite some time and recently a rumor had spread that the game was cancelled but was later debunked (that game better not get cancelled for real I'm serious. This game better come out, and it better be good, because it looks mighty fine). Final Fantasy XIII has come out, and was met with reception unheard of from a Final Fantasy game since Mystic Quest (or if you really hate this game, Final Fantasy XII). While Critics mostly praised the game, we got a warning sign when it first came out in Japan when everyone was horrified by how linear the game was. Many of us didn't want to believe that the game that at the time we've been anticipating for a very long time was a total turd, Final Fantasy X didn't have an overworld, but that game is loved by many. When the game came out overseas, it got the same treatment. The main complaints were that the dungeons were insultingly linear, the characters were extremely annoying (especially Hope Esthiem), you only control one character and if they die, it's game over. After this game, many more people declared Motomu Toriyama to be Satan S-E to be a part of the Video Game Axis of Evil (Consisting of EA, Activison, previously SEGA, and now S-E and Capcom).
   I've played FF13, and I will say that it pretty obvious that Square wanted this to be an amazing game. You can see that they put their heart in this game. They wanted to make an RPG that told a constantly moving story in a way done differently. This effort, however, didn't really work too well. I didn't like the cutscenes, the graphics and music were awesome, but characters weren't very likable except for Sazh and Lightning (although later flashbacks she seemed less likable), and the gameplay doesn't really get interesting for 20 hours. I wanted to like the game, I liked the idea of the story, I liked the idea of the battle system, but it was way too flawed in reality to let it's good traits shine through.

   When they announced Final Fantasy XIII-2, the fist thing that came to my mind was "What the heck are they thinking? They still have Type-0 and Versus to finish!", but when I saw some of the trailers, it looked like a better game. There was actually a point for the map to exist, Hope grew up and hopefully grew a pair (no pun intended). When the reviews came pouring in, 13-2 was more better received than its predecessor. To many, it was as if Square went through a list of things that went wrong with the first game and fix them up. There was more content, and the game had a time travel mechanic that game the game a less linear feel with multiple endings. It was like the were redeeming the game they wanted everyone to like. I never played XIII-2, because now I have a reason to torture myself through the original 13 before I go for the better sequel.

   the Sequel, however, introduces a new problem. I can't tell you exactly what happens in the end since I've never played the game, but the end of FF13-2 basically makes everything you did in the game seem like it was all for nothing, leaving off with a "To be Continued"-type ending, something that has never been done in a Final Fantasy before. Many were pissed. A lot of people said that Square had made an 'incomplete game' (although in reality, this is what you'd call a cliff hanger, Megaman Legends 2 had one and it's getting a sequel soon- oh wait, Capcom cancelled it   But if you want a real incomplete game, see Sonic 3, which gamers had to fork out more cash to get the complete game by locking on with  Sonic and Knuckles) Many assumed that Square was holding the ending back wand was going to release it as dlc. Someone I knew believed this and tried to tell me this was true, but so far, the only dlc for the game are costumes, extra bosses, and extra scenarios that are anything but the ending.

   So far nothing has been said about how the Lightning Saga will end, but right now I want you to tell me, what do you think Square should do?

• Should they make the ending of the game a dlc? it would be the easiest thing to do, but everyone will be going crazy, saying "I TOLD YOU SQUARE WAS EVIL, HOLDING BACK THEIR ENDINGS!!!"
• Should the Ending be Final Fantasy XIII-3? It would look less like Square's an evil, greedy corporation, but this would come off as dragging out a controversial entry in the FF series a bit too long, plus they still have Versus to finish and FFXIV to not look like a rushed MMO because Square wanted to prove that they can take quicker than five years to finish a Final Fantasy.
• Or should they do something no one really thought of, a short OVA continuation to Final Fantasy XIII-2? Square has made movie sequels to FFV and FFVII, so maybe they can do it for 13-2, plus it would be, IMO, the safest way out. They won't look like they withheld content from their game, and they won't be dragging the Saga out into a trilogy. If they wanted to save money and not get a whole team to make a had drawn anime, they could just make it CGI using the same graphic engine they used to make the games. The only problem would be it there's enough they could do for an ending to make up and entire one hour and thirty minute film, and will they be able to give each Main Character a proper role unlike what they did with Advent Children? (basically, will the black guy get more than jut two lines?)
  

   Vote in the poll and tell me what you think in the thread.

Do what they did for Final Fantasy VII: Make an animated movie that has amazing graphics and a story that acctually makes sense in the world that it's based in, or something like that.

dazzsheil : What I meant by "The Gaming Axis of Evil (GAoE)" was that they were people and companies that are either strongly detested or not taken seriously anymore. SEGA used to be in it because of they Sonic games between Heroes to Sonic 4: Ep 1, but they saved themselves and got their respect back when they made Sonic Colors and Generations. I'm not saying I hate any of these companies when I say they're in the GAoE, but I just made up that term because a lot of people seem to act negatively when these people are brought up. EA because they seem to embody every 'sin' of the gaming industry today (misusing dlc, anti-used games ideology, making a lot of 'modern warfare-type' games...) -E just got put into it because of FFXIII, Capcom because they cancelled Mega Man Legends 3, Mega Man Universe, and misused dlc in Street Fighter x Tekken (though I felt that the 16 character dlc was Sony bribing Capcom to get Vitas to sell more) Activision's in it because they publish Call of Duty and although they are really popular games, some people call them rehashes and every sequel is the same although another series back in the day did the same thing. Yoshio Sakamoto, the co-creator of the Metroid series and I believe is the creator of all of its characters, including Samus, just got put into it as well due to writing the story for Metroid: Other M, which got mixed reviews and was bashed by fans for "ruining Samus' character" when she obsesses over the baby metroid from Super Metroid, Goes through authorization that keeps her from using her suit powers, and freezes up when she find out that Ridley's back for the 6th time.That and the misconception that he made the Prime trilogy non-canon. Personally, I don't think Other M is really as bad as everyone makes it out to be (Samus is still a bad ass; everyone forgets that she fishes out monsters out of the lava with her grapple beam and supplexes aliens), I do think that the story could have been better written but it doesn't really 'ruin' her, it just was written really awkward, making it look like samus isn't bad ass, but that's a whole other story.

SES Serotonin : Well I agreed with you 100% Final Fantasy versus 13 going to be epic!

SES Serotonin : Versus is going to be amazing. I can't wait

Well guys, looks like S-E decided to make XIII-3, only it's called Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. What we know so far is that it will have open world game play, the paradigm shift system will return but with some tweaks, including being able to move lightning around on the battlefield. I've also heard that you can change the appearance of Lightning's weapons and clothes (Square's dabbling in cosplay again) and the game will have a time system were you have 13 days to save the world from extinction similar to Majora's Mask, allowing for multiple playthroughs. The game's producers are also allowing people to go on their Twitter or Facebook profiles to share their thoughts and experiences of the FF13 series so they can get some fan feedback to make this the game everyone wants (hopefully).

Looks like this may be the game I was hoping for the original XIII to be. It looks like Square is actually trying to improve after these dark two years outside the awesome Kingdom Hearts series for them. With this and Final Fantasy XIV: A World Reborn, Let's hope that both will turn out great and people will finally revoke S-E from The Gaming 'Axis of Evil', although news of a new FF13 something will make people say that Square is milking people with garbage.

What do you guys think? Personally I just want Square to be done with FNC and release Versus and KH3 already.