Extreme Tale of Woe Regarding Importing Final Fantasy XIII

[charlesintaiwan]

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Gentlemen (and a small handful of ladies),

I have a tale of woe so terrible, you'll look at your huge debts, your chronic, debilitating disease, your totaled car, your dead spouse's grave, etc. and think "I'm so lucky not to have had happen to me what happened to Charles."

My name is Charles. I am an English teacher living in Taiwan, on the small island of Cijin off the coast of Kaohsiung.

I have been a Final Fantasy fan since at least 1998.

I first imported a Final Fantasy in 1999 (Final Fantasy VIII).

On December 17, 2009, I got Final Fantasy XIII -- I had pre-ordered it and it released the same day in Taiwan as it did in Japan.

I have beaten every mainstream, non-spinoff, new Final Fantasy before its English release since 2000 -- in other words, this is a ten-year tradition.

I played Final Fantasy XIII valiantly, I really did. I have gotten all of about eight hours of sleep over the course of three days. I have subsisted on caffeine-rich 7-Eleven brand black tea and Coca-Cola. I have fought tooth and nail to finish the game and continue my ten-year tradition, perhaps playing 12 to 16 hours a day for the past several days. This morning, I reached Orphan! I kicked the ass of Galenth, and went onto Orphan.

It destroyed Lightning with a one-hit KO. And then it did it again. And again. And again.

I tried again. And again. And again. Perhaps 20 or 30 times.

And you know what? I am not going to finish the game without getting new equipment and doing MORE CP grinding.

The ten-year tradition is broken.

The game will come out in America in English in about a half hour or so. I just had the epiphany about an hour ago that I'm not going to finish it. Another five fights against Orphan are going to go exactly the same way...

And this is how my ten-year hardcore Final Fantasy fan tradition came to an end -- put out of business in the last 1% of the game, in the last hour of Japanese exclusivity.

Be glad your problems are just a nasty divorce, grinding poverty, your horrible disfigurement, or your unborn child in Big Bertha's womb... It could be worse. You could be me right now.

[CrimsonSquall]

Originally Posted by charlesintaiwan

Gentlemen (and a small handful of ladies),

I have a tale of woe so terrible, you'll look at your huge debts, your chronic, debilitating disease, your totaled car, your dead spouse's grave, etc. and think "I'm so lucky not to have had happen to me what happened to Charles."

My name is Charles. I am an English teacher living in Taiwan, on the small island of Cijin off the coast of Kaohsiung.

I have been a Final Fantasy fan since at least 1998.

I first imported a Final Fantasy in 1999 (Final Fantasy VIII).

On December 17, 2009, I got Final Fantasy XIII -- I had pre-ordered it and it released the same day in Taiwan as it did in Japan.

I have beaten every mainstream, non-spinoff, new Final Fantasy before its English release since 2000 -- in other words, this is a ten-year tradition.

I played Final Fantasy XIII valiantly, I really did. I have gotten all of about eight hours of sleep over the course of three days. I have subsisted on caffeine-rich 7-Eleven brand black tea and Coca-Cola. I have fought tooth and nail to finish the game and continue my ten-year tradition, perhaps playing 12 to 16 hours a day for the past several days. This morning, I reached Orphan! I kicked the ass of Galenth, and went onto Orphan.

It destroyed Lightning with a one-hit KO. And then it did it again. And again. And again.

I tried again. And again. And again. Perhaps 20 or 30 times.

And you know what? I am not going to finish the game without getting new equipment and doing MORE CP grinding.

The ten-year tradition is broken.

The game will come out in America in English in about a half hour or so. I just had the epiphany about an hour ago that I'm not going to finish it. Another five fights against Orphan are going to go exactly the same way...

And this is how my ten-year hardcore Final Fantasy fan tradition came to an end -- put out of business in the last 1% of the game, in the last hour of Japanese exclusivity.

Be glad your problems are just a nasty divorce, grinding poverty, your horrible disfigurement, or your unborn child in Big Bertha's womb... It could be worse. You could be me right now.

Dude. Shut up

[charlesintaiwan]

You sound like a really nice guy.

[Theta Zero]

Sorry to hear that. But I'm always glad to see a game require a bit more than just fighting what crosses your path and nothing more.

[june34]

dude im sorry but some traditions must be broken at times, cant anyone help this guy, it seems like he's really determind to get this done befor tommarow

[Tiger Lily]

All good things must come to an end, my friend.

My sympathies...

[charlesintaiwan]

june34 and Dirtyred70,

Thanks for your sympathies.

It's not the end of the world.

I mean, I still have a tradition of importing them.

And I still have a tradition of getting at least 3/4 of the way through each one before the English release, since '99.

I guess I'll just enjoy the rest of my day and take a walk on the beach, and perhaps share the tale with my Junior High students... Half of them have probably finished it already, knowing 15-year-old Taiwanese guys, and can probably tell me exactly how I could have finished it with ten minutes to spare. :-)

[Whiplash]

I hope they can help you because you're getting suspended for posting this thread with that little detail about the final Bosses outside the Spoiler forum.

[burentto]

I fail to see how being incapable of finishing a relatively easy video game is worse than debt, diseases, and death...

[Whiplash]

I see you're unfamiliar with humorous exaggeration. Or perhaps, just humour.

[burentto]

I guess so.

[cdrewitt]

Hey this is a message for charlesintaiwan, just looking around to see if i can find the release date of FF13 for 360 in taiwan. Seems impossible to find any information. Should be out today but you never know. Anyways saw you play and just checking if you play any other games. I was thinking about picking up a ps3 and want to find people to play online with in my timezone. Let me know .