I'm not a completionist, but I am a stop to smell the roses. I've started playing more Final Fantasy XII recently (after deciding to drop the last ten or so hours of Persona 3 until later... I think I overdosed on that one slightly... I'll come back to it later), and in the past five hours, I spent it creating a lengthy chain of some fairly difficult foes, complete one hunt, complete one main plot point, and defeat an elemental. I also talked to a number of people, and have started an odd little side quest where I have to retrieve some kind of rod.

If I focused on the main game, I could have probably been a good ways towards the end by now. My characters seem to be a little ahead of the curve, so I can probably plow through the next set of enemies on the main story path.

When I played Batman: Arkham Asylum, I think I was trying to play the game slower than it was designed to go. I was scanning everything, despite a relative dearth of things to scan, and hunting down the riddler's challenges pretty extensively... so much so, that I managed to find 75% of them in my first run-through. But the Riddler's challenge was really the only thing that rewarded looking through every nook and cranny.

What's interesting is what happens when a game changes my habits. Playing BioShock, I started it by looking for every audio log, checking out all the little details in the environment, and generally just sinking myself into rapture, instead of rushing through and taking down splicers as fast as I could get to them. But after the twist, I HAD to know what was going to happen, and began to rush through the game, to see how it ended. Normally, though, I don't want to miss anything.

But that's the thing about Final Fantasy XII... it indulges my habits too much. This is a series that has built itself on having an innumerable number of things to uncover if you dig far enough into it.

I'm torn. I really want to push forward Final Fantasy XII's excellent and underrated story, and I've got Blue Dragon, Planescape Torment, Persona 4 and Knights of the Old Republic to get to. On the other hand, I'm enjoying myself. It's just kind of depressing to see my hour totals continually inflate when there are other RPGs in my collection of a similar quality calibre sit, waiting for me to finish a ridiculously long Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Age playthroughs.

Plus, I swore to myself I wouldn't touch Final Fantasy XIII until I finish a few of my RPGs.

I guess I'll have to push through certain games more than others. Blue Dragon is a game I'm enjoying primarily for the gameplay and visuals... I can probably stand to power through that one. Dragon Age, on the other hand, has an intriguing and deep fantasy universe to explore... I'm much more inclined to discover every nook and cranny.

I just have to cut back on talking to NPCs.