Games: The Thirteenth Farewell - A Small Measure of Gratitude to Those Behind Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII, the first part of the trilogy, was released back in 2010 and it centered mainly around Lightning as the lead figure of the series. In the beginning of the game, the story was switching between the characters who form the small group of heroes. This gave every character some screentime and it gave each of them the chance to present their views and reasons. The story held some surprises about them and with each passing chapter the characters started to grow on you some more; be it in a positive or a negative way. As they went through with their ideals and goals, they faced crisis, betrayal and despair. In the end, however, not giving up on their hope and dreams, they were rewarded for their efforts. They managed to save the people of their home, who'd given up on them.

Final Fantasy XIII featured a beautiful and emotionally deep story, and managed to build up a relation between the player and the characters in a way hardly any other RPG was able to. The soundtrack was absolutely astonishing and fitting to the scenes, while the scenery itself was very easy on the eye. Still, this game has received some rather mixed feelings and I won't deny any of that, for they do hold some truth.

In 2012, two years later, the sequel to this game hit us. Final Fantasy XIII-2, as it was called – probably a reference to the earlier developed Final Fantasy X-2 – featured Serah, Lightning's little sister, and the one person Lightning was willing to give her all for. As Lightning was trapped in Valhalla fighting an eternal battle against the main villain of this part of the series, it was on Serah and Noel Kreiss to save the world from the destruction of time and space. Concerning the depth of the characters this sequel sadly couldn't live up to the high standards set by Final Fantasy XIII. For some reason or another, you just wouldn't find yourself as indulged in the story of the two protagonists and consequently wouldn't feel for them as much. There were some improvements to the battle system, which was introduced by Final Fantasy XIII and you had far more optional things to do before or after finishing the game. The music, if at times a little too loud for the voices, once again was beautiful and fitting.

Now – another two years later – we're steadily heading towards the release date for Lightning Returns, the third and final part of the trilogy. The amount of playable characters has been decreasing from the first part and while you were able to choose from six characters in XIII, you could only play two in XIII-2. Now, Square Enix took it a little further still and left only the heroine – Lightning – for the player to control. This, however, enabled them to introduce a completely new battle system as presented in a playable demo version of the game. The graphics of the game improved quite a bit and Lightning, after 500 years of crystal stasis, did become a little prettier.

In twelve days – on Valentine's Day ironically – it's time for European fans to indulge themselves in Lightning's last adventure, and enjoy a series marked by ups and downs coming to an end.

Surely I left out a few facets of the games, as there would be a lot to talk about otherwise, but I wish to get on to the main topic of this whole article.

As the series has been getting some rather rough critics, a fan-made site has decided to take up action and send at little bit of gratitude towards the developers and people behind the scenes. As they stated themselves it's "[...]the positivity, hope and love which keeps us going – the thought of better days, which also played a big part in the ideology of the Final Fantasy XIII saga. To overcome the impossible. To overcome others’ expectations. To overcome yourself. This is the idea behind The Thirteenth Farewell project[...]". They plan on compiling a book full of things showing the gratitude of players for a good time and an enjoyable game. What they need, however, is content. And that's where the fans of the series come into play: A text on how you feel about the game, fan art, photos with self-made figures, anything goes, really.

April 30th, 2014, is set as the deadline for the event and it takes nothing more than to submit your creations in an e-mail, titled "The Thirteenth Farewell" to Square Portal.