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We get that not everyone loves the symphony, but everyone loves Final Fantasy, right? Right. Of course they do. That's why we're so pumped about the London Symphony Orchestra's performance of Final Symphony. It's a collection of music from Final Fantasy VI, VII, and X, and it's one night only.

Though we certainly can't get enough of them, video games like the Final Fantasy series aren't for everybody -- some people just don't appreciate the obsessive micromanaging that comes with the territory. Probably influenced by the closed-minded few that feel RPGs tediously plod along, Square Enix has just released Final Fantasy: All the Bravest for iOS devices everywhere: A game that brings everything you loved about the 16-bit generation of Final Fantasy games, but pumps it full of near lethal amounts of caffeine and amphetamines.

What Square Enix thinks you need more of in your life -- regardless of the fact that we've made it evidently clear otherwise -- is more Final Fantasy XIII. The trailer for the franchise within a franchise's latest installment, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, was initially posted on GameTrailers this morning before quickly being pulled. Since then, the video has been uploaded on YouTube in spades.

At an event today, Square Enix announced a special Final Fantasy box set for the franchise's 25th anniversary. The most notable inclusion in the box set is not a special art book, or limited DLC, but all thirteen main games included in one box. Don't you worry, Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XIII-2 are kept out of your awesome anniversary set.

Anyone that has spent a considerable amount of time playing Final Fantasy titles likely knows that the numbering of the franchise was jumbled outside of Japan back during the NES and SNES days. This is mostly due to the fact that they skipped from Final Fantasy to Final Fantasy IV, but decided to go ahead and label the latter as Final Fantasy II. As it turns out, a working prototype for the game that was actually Final Fantasy II was made for the 1991 Consumer Electronics Show -- and it is up for sale on eBay.

Like I said last time, I only write these open letters when I feel the world is in immediate danger, and without real-life heroes sporting hair that towers into the sky but somehow tastelessly hangs over one of their eyes, sometimes I feel open letters are the only option. With the recent news that Square Enix will be cutting back on big in-house productions and with the re-release of a Final Fantasy VII PC version rather than a full-on remake, there's still one game Square Enix can make that will fit into their new smaller in-house production ideology, and still be pretty great.

Speaking at GDC Tapei, the director of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2, Motomu Toriyama, said that the venerable, though somewhat wavering Square Enix will be moving away from big in-house productions in the future.

When Final Fantasy XIII was announced, it was announced as part of a series of games set in the same universe, dubbed Fabula Nova Crystallis. Included in that series was FFXIII, a mobile game turned PSP game now called Final Fantasy Type-O, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Unveiled at E3 way back in 2006, FFvsXIII has been in development for around seven years now. It has basically become vaporware, so much so that the much maligned Final Fantasy XIII already had a direct sequel while FFvsXIII doesn't even have a demo. E3 is coming up next week, starting June 5, and thanks to what seems to be a leak, there are rumblings that Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be shown off in its new form as a full-fledged Final Fantasy XV. Check out the video leak below the break.

A prisoner serving time in Monmouthshire, Wales was found to have an extensive arsenal of do-it-yourself swords. The swords, made of matchsticks, included a few swords from the Final Fantasy canon, as one can see Cloud's iconic Buster Sword and Squall's Gunblade above, among others.

Back in the day of the height of the Final Fantasy series, each game generally had some sort of fun mini-game, two of which, Triple Triad in Final Fantasy VIII and Tetra Master in Final Fantasy IX, were addictive collectible card games. By way of an announcement over on 4Gamer.net, Square Enix let the world know that a real life Final Fantasy trading card game is being developed, and will be released in Japan on February 25 of next year, published by Hobby Japan.

This makes me extremely happy. And they used all the real elemental symbols! Click to enlarge. (via EPICponyz)

Between Jersey Shore RPG and Monday's Undercover Video Game Boss segment featuring Kefka, someone on CollegeHumor's animation team really, really likes the 16-bit Final Fantasy games. And I'm perfectly happy with that. (h/t THD)

For my money, Final Fantasy VI remains the best game in the series; while its graphics and mechanics were later surpassed, FFVI cares about characters and story in a way rivaled only by FFVII. And it edges even that towering game out by dint of its uncanniness: Elements like Shadow's shadowy backstory, the poisoning of Doma castle, and the truly scary villainy of Kefka gave FFVI an almost literary weight that's hard for any game to amass. And what other game would plop an ten-minute long original and by all appearances rather serious opera towards the end of its first half? (Rather serious, at least, until you fight the giant octopus onstage at the end.) Elder-Geek's Eliot Hagen has given the Dream Oath opera a touchup that will send chills down the spines of many veteran FFVI players. First, he has replaced the occasionally garbled chip-music of the original game with an operatic performance by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Second (and this is the part that took some technical know-how on his part), he has upscaled and reanimated it in 1080p and 16:9 aspect ratio. The culmination of his labor below:

Games and alcohol are two of humankind's oldest pastimes. When homo sapiens first emerged from the simian gene pool over 250 thousand years ago, we'd toss our spears around every so often, drunk on some derivative of fermented yeast. Today, the essentials remain the same. But there's more than the occasional game of wasted dodgeball; now we've found ourselves also in a digital age of gaming. And in such a video game age, 21 year-old college students Mitch Hutts and Travis Broyles of The Drunken Moogle have arrived to curate the world of alcohol. Their website, which regularly collects and invents alcoholic drink recipes based on video games, has been popularly received on Tumblr and beyond, recently serving such gems as the Starcraft II-themed "Zerg Rush" (six shots of Fernet Blanca, Hot n' Sweet, Baileys Irish Cream, and Tabasco sauce in succession, because who attacks with just one Zergling?) and "The Kirby" (cherry jello shot with Malibu, pink lemonade, Bacardi, and blackberry brandy). Geekosystem had the opportunity to chat with Mitch and Travis about the origin of their idea, drunk gaming, and their favorite concoctions.

Bros ice famous movies (CollegeHumor) This guinea pig festival does not end like you expect it to (Telegraph) Harvey Pekar interview in comic form (Smith) Final Fantasy fashion shoot (Styleite) In defense of Buckaroo Banzai (Forces of Geek) LEAVE TWILIGHT FANS ALONE (Salon) The man who hated Deus Ex, ten years later (Rock Paper Shotgun) (title image via Kotaku.)