I purchased FFXIII, FFXIII-2, and Lightning Returns: FFXIII

Square Enix is having a Steam sale because Final Fantasy anniversary or whatever, so I took advantage of the sale to buy this trilogy for a total of ~$23.

I've only played Lightning Returns back when it released in 2013, but I never completed the campaign because I got super scared of running out of time in the game that when I was on 1 Day Left, I just stopped playing out of fear LOL. It never occurred to me to find out what would happen when I had 0 days left. Interestingly, I have never seen or heard of any spoilers for this trilogy whatsoever, so I've lived in ignorance of what happens in that franchise for the past ~12 years. I guess I just never perused the spaces where people talked about it; I also don't think it was wildly unpopular, but I guess if you don't seek the information, you won't hear about it. For instance, I have not seen anyone talk about the plot of FFXVI. At most, I saw people post combos and talk about Clive Rosenfield's model on Twitter but rarely any discussion about the plot or continued conversation to keep it relevant and fresh in my mind. I feel like this happens a lot nowadays for video games: you won't learn about something unless you dig (with the exception of mega popular games like Kingdom Hearts or Persona, like what even happens in the latest God of War?? I just see videos of Kratos punching Heimdall or fighting Thor). But even then, how much of the plot could you learn about a game from other people who usually just make allusions to the events of the game, rather than outright summarize key points for others? I rarely know anything about the sequels following Halo 4, which released in 2012. Do people not talk about the plot online? I'm sure they do, I just happen to not be there. Is that a proper testament to the popularity of the game? Of course not, but it definitely skews my perspective: how popular was the FFXIII trilogy as it released in the early 2010s? Furthermore, it's not like I frequented social media like Twitter in 2013 as a middle schooler haha.

Moving on, I learned a few more things about the trilogy: the first game is significantly larger than the sequels. Respectively, they are of file sizes ~60GB, ~30GB, and ~22GB. Isn't that crazy? My friend mentioned that she tried to watch a walkthrough of it but was put off by a 40-hour runtime of a video.

I'm so excited to play through these games. Lightning Returns is near-and-dear to my heart as a very impactful game despite having such a short existence in my life. I remember a lot from it. I can't wait to revisit but also discover what the heck this flippin' trilogy is even about!!!

I'm planning to do something similar with the FFVII remake, rebirth and whatever the third one is supposed to be called when that releases. I actually have no idea what goes on in those games except Sephiroth is the One-Winged Angel and Zack Fair is dead or something but he was in Birth By Sleep for a few cutscenes so he's not really in my eyes. Me gongaga, he says.