Greetings from Nerddom

Since March 9, I have pretty much devoted nearly every waking moment to Final Fantasy XIII. I beat the game this Sunday eager to finish the story. While the story opened with intense action and excitement and all kinds of epicness, the ending was underwhelming. It just did not have the richness that I've come to expect out of the Final Fantasy games. I also missed having a good love story that was the either the center of the story or was hinted at but never revealed (until the fanfiction rolls around). I felt the love story was flat and devoid of passion; I think my main qualm was the two characters in love (Serah and Snow) had zero in common and little to no interaction. I'm of the fangirl camp of Lightning and Snow shippers. I was so excited for this game because of the main female protagonist. However, Lightning's story was not the central focus of the game and her character was underdeveloped. I really liked her for her strength and overall badassness, but surprisingly she was not my favorite character. I ended up favoring Vanille, who I thought I would hate. She originally seemed a stereotypical bubbly female side character who would be really weak and lame in battle. The main story was hers and Fang's too. Her personality was very strong and fairly complex; she just felt very real to me. I enjoyed the game overall, especially many of the new changes in the battle system. I just felt it lacked a strong story in spite of some rocking characters. Now, I'm just waiting on some decent fanfiction to come out. 

It's been three days since I beat the game. I kinda don't know what to do with myself now, silly as it sounds. I need a new game with a good, well-developed story, and it can't be too difficult to play as I'm a casual gamer. I need to finish Final Fantasy IX which I was almost finished with before XIII came out. At least I know I'll get my love story there. I'm wondering about Final Fantasy XIII: Versus, however there's no set release date. Just looking at the trailer, I can't be certain whether there will be a definite love story, though I can see hints.

I'm currently playing a little detective game on the DS called Trace Memory. It's kind of a point and click sort of game. You explore rooms, search for clues, solve a few puzzles, and everything is framed within the context of a mystery story. It reminds me a lot of a similar game called Touch Detective. Touch Detective was quirky and shorter--with four small mysteries instead of one big overarching mystery.  Nevertheless, this game is fun and a little challenging at times. Plus, I'm actually using my DS Dustin bought me for Christmas. He's been playing it more than I have. :P