Game - Final Fantasy XIII, Day 86
Hours Played/Hours Total - 8 hrs / 13-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Wrack and Ruin - The Vile Peaks.
Current Goal - Something or other.... Complete the Focus and save the world.
What Happened - Here it begins! Another fine post for Final Fantasy XIII. Will I survive this game? If I do, I'll finish what I started with just a few minor details left. Let's skip the pleasantries and get right into the main course. FFXIII...HOOOOO!
All right, where I left off, I was about to venture through this wasteland with Hope and Lightning. I don't get too far along when Hope needs to stop and rest. Lightning doesn't really approve of this though, but seems to not really approve of anything at this point. Hopes asks if she knows where she is going. Lightning explains that she has been on missions here before, so she seems to have some general idea. Then he jumps right into the whole Purge thing. I didn't take great notes about this, so I might be missing a piece. I believe he blames all of the military forces for this, but Lightning explains that there are two parts to it. (This subject has been brought up twice now, but yet we can't get details about other things.) Basically, there are two arms of Cocoon's military. There is the People's Security and Intelligence Command (PSICOM), and then there are the Guardian Corps. The former is more of the powerhouse and more traditional military while the Guardian Corps appear to be more of a police force. After explaining this, Hope asks why she would possibly be on the train for the Purge then.
Lightning's answer involves Serah, and then we go right into another flashback to explain it. It is...DAY 13! (The flashbacks all involves the thirteen days that occurred before the current events of the Purge, aka where Lightning and co all became l'Cie.) On Day 13, the people were being forced on the train from the first cutscene. Lightning comes up and asks to get on the train. The PSICOM soldiers tells her that Sanctum staff and such are exempt from the Purge, but she isn't about to let that stop her. She resigns her position right then and there and gets in line to board the train. Sazh, who doesn't know her yet, follows behind her and asks what she is doing. There's a bit of a conversation here, but basically, she suggests that some major shit is about to go down on that train. He ends up following her into this, and then we return to the present. Lightning says she did all of it for Serah, and she was only able to do so by joining the Purge. Hope asks how she could have chosen that. Lightning tells him that it wasn't a choice...It was simply done. From there, she climbs up a nearby wall and leaves Hope behind. Time to change places and revisit Sazh and Vanille!
Of course, where we left them, they were unable to take the same path as Lightning and Hope, so they are proceeding down a different way. This isn't a very fun walk though, because my current team doesn't have a Commando. I had to make do with a pair of Ravagers. It's okay for damage, but you can't really build up a good stagger with just Ravagers. I don't get too far before the pair runs right into Hope. He's all bummed out and depressed because he sucks....Not really, but that's how I felt about it. Vanille assures Hope that they'll get him home, but he doesn't seem to care about home since his mother is dead. Vanille asks about his dad, but he doesn't react very positively to that. Then we get thrown into another day flashback...Day 11.
Hope and his mother are watching fireworks and having a great time. Then she mentions his dad, but that just makes him angry because he has some daddy issues. That's about all for the flashback though. Hope then says that the town was sealed the very next day, and that they couldn't go home then. Back in the present, Hope is all GRR! SNOW IS TO BLAME FOR ALL THIS! (Although he's really not.) Vanille tries again to assure him that he'll get home. Sazh adds into all this that a father always cares, and the way they went with that, he's obviously a father. However, we aren't going to go into that right now. Time to catch up to Lightning! Sazh hits up a machine that moves things around, and we are now able to climb the wall!
I don't get too far though because I'm given a short (actually IN-GAME) history review! It's not a very long one, but it does clear up facts if you don't read the datalogs. Vanille asks them what is up with all of the Pulse junk around them. Sazh and Hope figure that she must have slept through history classes and go into the explanation. Basically, long long ago, Pulse-ians tried to invade Cocoon. The Cocoon fal'Cie quickly beat their faces in, but the Pulse-ians did quite a bit of damage to the outer rim of the place. The Cocoon fal'Cie ended up using junk from Pulse to repair the place. Thus....why there is all this random Pulse stuff around them (in this case, an actual airship).
I'm going to make a prediction right here, right now. I might be wrong, but I really feel like Vanille is going to have a big secret. That part is obvious of course, but I believe that "big secret" will be that she's from Pulse and not Cocoon. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but she seems to be completely clueless about Cocoon stuff and seems really out of place compared to everybody else. Ah well! No point fretting on it now. Time to move right along!
The next part isn't very much fun because of my current party setup. It's composed of three mages, and they just can't really put out much damage. (It's mostly the Ravager role.) Spells are cast kinda slow in comparison to physical attacks, and you just can't stagger enemies for shit. Thankfully, I don't have to deal with this position for very long. The group catches up with Lightning, and she's all forms of unhappy with us but does join back up. Hope is out, and I'm back with Lightning, Sazh, and Vanille as my party. Immediately see a change in how effectively battles can be fought. (Once again, it's mostly the roles...Commando in this case.) Commando is meant for straight up attacking. It's faster than spells, does good damage, and it slows down the rate of the Stagger gauge. Ravager just spends too much time doing flourishes and fanciness with the spells.
I move right along but don't get too far before... OH NO! ROBOT WALKER! BOSS BATTLE TIME! (Sorry for the caps) Lightning identifies it as a Pulse armament, so the fal'Cie didn't do much of a job with the junk left after the repair. Fully working Pulse machines and weapons are all around the place. Anyways, the giant robot doesn't seem too hard. I quickly beat its face in and achieve Stagger. The Stagger makes it all BLARGH AND URGH, but then the machine breaks the ground beneath us and shifts us into part two of the battle. Of course, there's really not much to add with the transition here...I just pound away at its health, and the big bot goes down again for GOOD this time. Upon defeat, I gain access to some new roles for a couple of characters. Sazh gets Commando, Medic for Lightning, and the ability to upgrade my weapons now! Woo!
Woo is what I would have thought if it was actually a cool upgrade and customization system. As far as it looks though, it is neither cool nor interesting. The short explanation is this. You sacrifice loot you find and earn through battle, and that gives the weapon or accessory experience. Give them enough experience and they level up. Leveling up gives them better stats or new abilities. If you level them enough, they eventually max out and have to be morphed into new items that can be leveled even MORE. The only special thing that happens during all of this upgrading is you can get an experience multiplier so things level up faster, but that's it really. There are only weapons and accessories as far as equipment goes. However, I was hoping for something a little more exciting and more forms of customization. There is a variety of weapons I have so far, but mostly the weapons seem to follow one of three formulas: equal in physical and magical, higher physical, or higher magical. That's enough about all of that, so I'm going to move right along.
We fight some enemies, move through a few areas, and come to another scene. The group has stopped for a brief rest on a random piece of Pulse junk. Sazh wonders what they are doing next and asks Lightning. She points up to the sky, and he's all "LE GASP!" She's pointing to a large floating object waaay up in the sky, and Sazh identifies it as Eden. Eden is the main fal'Cie of Cocoon, and it controls all of the other fal'Cie located throughout. (Datalogs information again.) Eden is also the name of the capital city where the fal'Cie Eden resides...because it wasn't confusing enough. Anyways, Lightning is all angry about their position and figures that Sanctum is up in arms to kill the l'Cie. Let's just take it right to their doorstep! She also wants to destroy Eden (again, Cocoon fal'Cie that runs everything) because it's a fal'Cie, and who cares who or where it comes from. Sazh responds to this with something like "Huh-bubba-wha?"
Of course, the group points out to her that destroying Eden would essentially mean the destruction of all of Cocoon. Lighting seems to be okay with that though, but Vanille argues with her blah blah blah (I didn't write it down because who cares? Sorry.) Lightning goes on to say she doesn't follow any fal'Cie and plans to live her own way. After saying this, she heads in her own direction, and Hope follows after her. SO WE ARE SPLITTING THE PARTY AGAIN! Hope and Lighting head wherever she's wanting to go and runs right into a group of PSICOM soldiers. We beat them pretty quickly, but not before they blow up the path they took to get there. Thus, Sazh and Vanille definitely aren't coming this way. After the battle, Lighting reveals that her plan is to head to the nearest city and find transportation to Eden (capital city).
The game briefly glances back at the other two. Lighting and Hope have been cut off from Vanille and Sazh. They plan to head elsewhere since they don't know what to do otherwise. Back to Lightning and Hope, their first goal is to reach Palumpolum (WTF kind name is this?), which is Hope's Hometown. The two of them don't get too far before they come up on a couple of PSICOM soldiers checking out a Pulse waremech. We ambush them and beat them up quite easily. After the quickie, Hope sees the Warmach and hops on it for a joy ride. I get to pilot the warmech through a small pathway. All you do is walk it down while either stepping on or smacking around enemies. I don't think I got anything for doing it, so overall, it was a huge waste of time and completely pointless. At the end, the mech crashes and is no longer functioning. Hope is all safe though, and we continue on regardless.
I go a little further and hit a lovely little scene. To summarize in the simplest yet quite accurate way, it went something like this... Lightning "YOU ARE WEAK! I AM ABANDONING YOU! 8U" Hope responds with a simple "NOOOOOO D8" (Apologies for the emoticons, but I felt they accurately represented the emotions.) After all that emotion, suddenly, Lightning shoots a robot man out of her body, and the giant robot goes to attack Hope. Lightning blocks the giant robot's big sword with her own sword, and now it's EIDOLON BATTLE TIME! Let me just say...This battle didn't go well. The Eidolon, Odin, was pretty strong for what my levels were, and he was able to deal out quite a bit of damage. I ended up having to fight this battle five or six times before I finally beat him.
Basically, the battle was switching between two things: "Don't die" mode and "Attack while he stands there!" mode. The general problem came with him doing more damage per hit than I could generally handle, and he'd end up killing Hope at some point. I couldn't catch up at that point, so I'd basically just have to restart. In the end, I'm pretty sure I only one because I cheated with an aerosol. The additional buffs for the battle really pulled me through, but even then, it wasn't so simple and straightforward. With his defeat, Odin transformed into a horse, and Lightning boarded him. It's fairly appropriate if you compare it to Shiva. Two ladies that merge together to become a motorcycle...Yeah.
After all the battling is said and done, Lightning apologizes to Hope (sorta), and the two continue forward. The first battle after Odin introduces me to Summoning. Basically, you spend a few Technical Points, and you summon the character's Eidolon into battle. The Eidolon fights alongside the character kinda like how it did in Final Fantasy XII. The Eidolon's gauge will diminish from both time and damage. However, at the same time, it's Gestalt gauge will slowly fill up. Whenever you want, you can activate it's Gestalt mode and go into a sort of super frenzy of attacks. In Odin's case, it changes into the horse, and Lightning jumps aboard. You can do a select grouping of specialty attacks or just let the Eidolon autofight it. You also get the typical Eidolon super special attack, but this ends both the Gestalt mode and the Eidolon in general. It's sort of cool and interesting, but the cost to do it almost isn't worth the trade off. After a few more battles, Hope is all tired, so they end up stopping and resting. Group shift!
Now we're back over with Sazh and Vanille. They're wandering into a completely different area and just discussing things. Sazh figures the other two are heading for PalumPolum, but he thinks they should still remain all cautious and such. If they are found (l'Cie), then the people will all freak out and CHAOS! Sazh believes that all the Pulse l'Cie should just be destroyed, but Vanille brings up a point about how everybody is afraid of Pulse despite knowing nothing about it. Sazh sorta agrees with that, but he adds that it gets worse when you're older like he is. Oh well! Time to move right along.
It's your usual path with a couple new enemies, but it's certainly weird switching back over to this group. They're basically the same pair as the other two really...One's more focused on being the power person (Sazh) while the other is more attuned for magical abilities (Vanille) or....that's how I am building them at least. Anyways, I come to a large area with a large machine in the middle and a roundabout of paths. There are switches all over and hitting all four of them turns on the middle device, a generator I guess, and opens up the gate to the next area. The pair of runaways find a quite spot here and make camp for the night. This leaves us with a perfect opportunity to switch over to Snow!
First off, it opens with a fancy and pretty cutscene. It's a nice looking sky and there are airships flying about all pretty-like. Then it goes into the larger airship where Snow is being held captive. The largest ship meets up with an even LARGER ship, and it docks onto it. As it turns out, this largest ship is called the Lindblum. Snow is taken aboard to meet with the commander here, Cid Raines. (Normally I'd be excited, but this guy doesn't really feel like a Cid to me. Cid should be old and mechanic-y.) Cid Raines is the General for this PSICOM fleet here. They talk a bit back and forth, but the main point grasped near the end is that Snow is going to be publicly executed. The public is all panicked over the Pulse thing, and he figures this will calm their franticness. Then we get a lovely dose of Day flashback. We get a nice hit of Day 7 here.
To summarize it, Serah tried to break up with Snow because she's a Pulse l'Cie. Obviously, that fell through because he does propose to her on a later day. Then it cuts to a part where I get to walk around as Snow in the past. I'm unsure of why they would have me do this though. I mean...it's literally just to walk to another spot for a follow up cutscene. This could have just been 10 to 30 seconds of a cutscene. Seriously guys, this is just stupid and pointless. Snow comes up to Serah, and the two magically makeup right here immediately. Then he promises to help her with her Focus. /end scene
Now I'm back to Lightning and Hope. It's Chapter Five, and now we are at the GAPRA WHITEWOOD. They plan to travel through here to make it to the next location. This area is a militarized zone that separates the old wastelands from PalumPolum. We have to pass through here and hope to avoid PSICOM detection as well. For this part, I'm switched over to play as Hope rather than Lightning. She just got her fancy Eidolon summon, but I totally wouldn't want to have access to that at all. /end sarcasm I'm very un-stoked about playing as Hope because I do not like him (or any character for that matter?).
This area is like a fancy technologically enhanced woods place. There's nothing super awesome or interesting about it though. The entire area is just pathway, enemies, pathway, enemies, scene, and then repeat. I found the first cutscene sorta pointless and boring, so I won't even mention it. The next cutscene is slightly more relevant though. Hope is worried about Vanille and Sazh. Lightning, in her optimism, thinks they'll get caught eventually and have to fight or surrender. (Surrender isn't really an option for them though...) The two of them start talking about Snow and how they disapprove of them. That's it for that chat though. Then I hit up an elevator, and that leads almost immediately into another scene.
The place we are in is more than a large technological based woods. It's also the bioweapons research lab where the military turns wild monsters into domesticated robot military monsters. Each small area is separated by electric fences that will only deactivate after I kill all of the monsters. It's a simple enough concept, and it allows me to get more than enough Crystal Points. I fought off several "new" enemies that are actually just old enemies but regular monsters rather than military monsters. I eventually come face-to-face with a Behemoth! BOSS BATTLE TIME!...or so I thought. Turns out, it wasn't that at all. Despite being a Behemoth (generally an end-game super monster) the Behemoth was just like a regular enemy except it took slightly longer to kill. After we beat it, Lightning says something about us tripping an alarm, so we need to get moving.
We move along, fight monsters, climb a tree, and then a scene! Hope needs to rest for a bit because he's completely out of shape for this. Yet Lightning never gets tired and never needs to rest. As she's waiting on him, she finally realizes that something is up with him, and that he's most definitely angry. She asks him about it and eventually works out that Snow is the root of his anger. Hope doesn't want to talk about it, but she tells him they are partners. Then he completely spills the beans. He tells her that his mother died, and that Snow is to completely be blamed for it. He extends this argument to say that Snow is the reason that they're l'Cie and how Serah is a crystal now. He wants to make Snow pay for what he's done, but he has to get stronger to do this. What he neglects to mention is that his mother actually gave her life to protect her son and everybody else. Snow may have indirectly killed her by asking people for help, but he isn't as directly responsible like Hope seems to think.
After that little scene, I'm given control of Lightning again. (Yay for slight improvement!) We fight a couple more battles and DANG IT SCENE. It's unimportant talk between Hope and Lightning, but that leads up to the flashback for Day 12. On Day 12, Serah told Lightning about her l'Cie status and Snow's proposal to her. Of course, none of this goes down well with Lightning. She figures that Serah was lying to her about being an l'Cie because that's totally something she'd lie about. Also it was Lightning's birthday, and Serah got her a Survival Knife. Lightning carries around the knife and loaned it to Hope for whatever reason. I kinda get why she did it, but then again I don't. He has his fancy boomerang thing...Why would she give him that knife? In his hands, it's less of a knife and more of a short sword. WHATEVER! Let's go along.
Honestly, this area, game, and story is kinda boring over all. The setting of everything is nice and pretty, but the game feels like a horrible combination of Final Fantasy X and XII. It's not good...not at all. Anyways, this is followed with another scene shortly after the previous one. The two spot a group of dead PSICOM people, and she figures they ran into something too big for them to handle. Then we ignore that idea completely and go right into Hope time. He wants to help, but Lightning gives him kinda bad advice instead.
She tells him to channel everything into his mission and forget everything else around it. Focus on that one thing and use his instinct to keep after it. Now Hope is totally more determined than ever to kill Snow, and now he gives it all a label...OPERATION NORA! Because, as it turns out, Nora was his mother's name, but it's also Snow's group's name...Yeah. Lightning realizes she may have over done it all, and then she refocuses some of that hate energy. She tells him that Sanctum is also responsible for killing his mother, and that he should aim his fury straight at them. Lighting is the best role model. We don't get too much further when we encounter a giant plant monster! OH NOES! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
Short answer for this battle: The giant plant keeps shifting elements, and I have to change up my attacks to match it's current weakness. Long explanation for this battle will now commence. The giant military plant monster is all RAWR! I HAVE STRONG ATTACKS AND KEEP CHANGING COLORS! My initial response to this battle was to stick with the general Role combo of Commando and Ravager. Unfortunately, plain physical strikes are basically worthless on the big plant. Even with Hope being Ravager, it was taking me forever to stagger the big plant.
As I battled, it seemed the best option was to switch between three different Role combos. I'd shift between Ravager + Ravager to build up a stagger and damage it. I'd use Commando + Ravager to lock in the stagger gauge. Ever so often, I'd switch to Medic + whatever to heal up because of all the damage it was dealing out. It didn't hurt to make Hope a Synergist ever so often for Protect spells, but otherwise, it's best just to keep on striking. Definitely helps to bring out double Ravager in all of this though. Like I already said, physical strikes aren't worth the time or effort in most cases. It mostly comes down to using elements against it to take advantage of its current weakness. With its defeat behind us, it's time to leave this weird woods behind.
They spot PalumPolum in the distance, but Hope doesn't want to go there because he has daddy issues. His father is there, and he doesn't want anything to do with the guy it seems. Lighting tells Hope that he should at least tell his father about what went done. Enough of that though, it's time to change places and check out what's up with Snow on the Lindblum ship. Not too much is said here, but I do get another Day 12 flashback. It's all action-y because Snow and Serah are on the run from PSICOM. Her Pulse l'Cie status has been discovered, so they are giving chase. They jump on Snow's hoverbike thinger, and they start flying away. Of course, PSICOM has a pile of ships out, and the two of them almost goet shot down. He drops her off at a random spot on the nearby statue, but as it turns out, this was the Pulse fal'Cie statue, and she gets stucked into it or something. That's all for the flashback. Now he's joined up with this group to help them hunt down l'Cie...CHANGE PLACES!
We're back with Mr. Sazh and Ms. Vanille. They've wandered into a pretty forest area known as the SUNLETH WATERSCAPE. Last time I was with them, they were in the giant wasteland, but now they're suddenly in a pretty forest. Thanks for skipping on all the details of the jump guys! They're just walking along when a host of ships fly over their heads. They're heading towards PalumPolum, and the two start to wander about Hope and Lightning...Then they decide to go the opposite way and keep running! Onward, to Nautilus! Also, it's now Chapter Six.
Compared to the GAPRA WHITEWOOD, this area isn't too bad. It's a lot nicer looking without being all tech-y gaudy. There are lots of monsters that look and seem better placed than the previous area. Sazh and Vanille's roles seem to be advancing better and faster than the other pair. On top of this, I start off with 5,000+ Crystal Points to spend with the two of them. We wander along the path, and I wonder how all these characters can magically super jump like 6+ feet in the air. After a brief walk through this pretty forest, we finally reach a cliffside area with a view and a scene!
Sazh makes mention of him bring previously married, and so the conversation goes into that. Vanille tries to inquire more about it, but he doesn't give up a lot of information. He does let her know that he has a son, but it seems things are a bit complicated there. He's also unsure of what to do about that situation with the whole l'Cie thing in place. Vanille reminds him that he's a father regardless of all of this though, and we jump into a Day 11 Flashback. (SO...MANY...FLASHBACKS.) It's the day of the fireworks, and Sazh is there with his son Dajh. There's really not much to say right here, but there's obviously more going on here than what is currently seen. Sazh isn't happy, and Dajh wants him to be happy. We'll learn more about this coming soon.
When the Day flashback ends, I'm taken back to the real world and giving a little "tutorial" of what lies ahead. All it says is that there is a specific enemy ahead that is really tough for two people, and it suggests that I should avoid it. That's kinda lame if you ask me. The game is suggesting that I completely avoid an enemy because it's too hard. I go ahead and tempt fate by trying to fight one anyways. Unfortunately, it's almost exactly as it said. They made an overly hard enemy just to tell me to avoid it. It's a huge armored lizard with a massive defense and a slow stagger gauge. If you stagger it, it loses the armor for a brief period, but it still comes with a surprisingly strong hit here and there. It managed to drop me because of a mistake on my part. Anyways, I reloaded and just avoided all the armored lizards for the next bit.
This just made me kinda sad though. It didn't feel like clever or interesting design. These enemies were simply built to be annoying and force me around them. Even worse, just beyond the group of armored lizards was a pile of super weak enemies. So...that's just great. From there, it was just a hop, skip, and another scene! The two stop briefly in a quiet area for a quick nap. However, when Vanille wakes up, Sazh seems to have walked off. I get to leap up and find him, but he's only like a couple hundred feet away. I head over to find him for another scene.
Of course, he comes out and drops the big bombshell of what's up. I figured it was coming, and I kinda had an inkling of what it was. The way he was acting around all of these events and people seemed to suggest he had previous experience dealing with an l'Cie before all this. As it turns out, this was because his son, Dajh, had just become one recently! (DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!) It proceeds into a little scene of where and how it happened as well. Sazh took Dajh to see some special site where a Sanctum fal'Cie lives and performs its duty. Dajh wandered off at some point and right into the wrong situation. The stupid part about this scene is they hint at something else going down as well. You briefly see a person hanging over Dajh who I am pretty sure is Vanille. It didn't show her face or anything, but it was pretty super obvious that it's her. Sazh comes in and finds that Dajh had been marked and made an l'Cie by the Sanctum fal'Cie (learn later that it's Kujata).
The Sanctum fal'Cie detected some Pulse business going on around, and it panicked. Dajh came in at the wrong time, and it made him into an l'Cie to investigate whatever Pulse was wandering around. As Sazh found Dajh, then PSICOM came along and claimed his son. Despite being an l'Cie, they had no idea what his Focus was, and they didn't have any way to figure it out either. In the end, Dajh's l'Cie status gave him the ability to locate Pulse stuff, and he's the one who found the Pulse fal'Cie. All of this has been weighing heavily on him because he's figuring one of three outcomes from this. His son is either a crystal, a Cie'th, or the group will end up having to die because they're enemies. That's about it for the conversation, so I have to refer to the datalogs for more information.
Once again, datalogs is where they've thrown more information that they should have just given out. Like this random PSICOM lady who ended up helping Sazh out during all of this. She was also shown in the previous scene of the happenings and the Day 11 flashback. It didn't even make a mention of the Sanctum fal'Cie's name. I had to look that up. I was also slightly confused for a bit...For some reason, I thought Cocoon fal'Cie and Sanctum fal'Cie would refer to the same thing, but it's actually just Sanctum fal'Cie although they work for Cocoon's benefit. OH WELL! I don't really care to go into it, so let's just jump on down the path ahead.
What do you know? There's a giant glowing orb! If we touch it, it causes the weather in the nearby area to change. This affects both the background look of the area, and it causes the enemies to change out to an alternate set. You can change the area's weather from sunny to rainy and back again. It just swaps in new enemies and makes some areas easier to pass through or whatever. There are a couple new enemies wandering around, but it's mostly just the forest enemies. I end up finally dealing with one of the armored lizards at this point, and I manage to beat it without much trouble. It does take more time to fight than I'd like since I'm having to slowly but surely knock down its health. I also remembered its super special breath attack from the previous encounter, so I was prepared for that by keeping my health up.
This area didn't provide too much trouble outside of one battle. I had to fight off this dragon while also dealing with a pair of enemies with higher ranked magic (-ra spells that I finally just got myself). It wasn't directly hard persay, but I had to be quick and careful about it all. I was forced to deal with the little guys first to eliminate their stronger magic. Then I had to focus on the big ol' dragon-type. Again, this battle really only came down to time and patience rather than anything specifically. It always helps to throw Sazh into Synergist role for a bit, but really the best spell to use on the dragon was my recently acquired Poison spell. It's not under Ravager though, it's a Saboteur spell. After that particular battle, nothing else really caused me any strife.
Finally, I come to a large area with two great big monsters and a short scene. Being the pansies they are, they tried to slip past the slumbering giants. Of course, that was never going to work, so we're forced into another round of BOSS BATTLE TIME! The enemies on hand are a pair of monsters that look like a cross between a Behemoth and Treant. One is water element, and the other is lightning element. Basically, I have to go completely opposite on each one of them to beat them. Overall, this was a decently challenging battle, but it wasn't like mind boggling difficulty. Once you discover what each one's element is, it's just a matter of following up with their weakness. I did find that the Auto command didn't work for a flip right here, so I had to manually choose to use the correct spell. It feels sad that 99% of the battle so far have mostly been "Auto" command over and over. Anyways, once you blast them down to about half health, they gain a few extra buffs to help them out. They weren't pushovers for sure, but they also aren't especially difficult if you focus on one at a time. With their defeat, I get an expanded Crystarium!...but I don't get any new roles or role levels to learn.
We climb out of that small area and find that we're right next to a small train station. There is a fence keeping us out, but there's also a conveniently placed hole in the face! We head through and right towards another scene. As they start to talk, rain starts pouring down and getting them wet. Vanille suddenly comes out with a "Do you hate Pulse?" As she says it, she has this look about her that (to me) says "I AM FROM PULSE BUT YOU GUYS WON'T BE HEARING THAT ANYTIME SOON." Seriously Square, you are dropping the hints way too heavily at this point. Sazh says he hasn't always hated Pulse, and for the longest time, he was suspicious about how Sanctum talks about Pulse. They're always trying to convince people of the evil and horribleness of Pulse, so being a cynic and very paranoid, Sazh wasn't sure what to think of it most of the time. However, current events have kinda changed his mind about it overall, and he's mad about Pulse for making his son get involved in it all. Vanille starts to cry, but then she dashes into the rain so Sazh won't see her crying. Again, it feels like they're being obviously hint-y towards her true origins. Maybe I'm reading more into it than regular people, but it won't be a surprise unless she ISN'T from Pulse.
I finally leave these two behind and jump over to a lovely cutscene. There's a pile of airships and troops being deployed in this city. (It's PalumPolum.) There's a PSICOM guy who's labelled as Rosch who is making this big ol' hateful announcement. He talks about how Pulse l'Cie are walking among them and ruining everything with their evil and tyranny and blah blah blah. And being as this is PalumPolum, we're back with my favorite (lie) duo of Lightning and Hope. Their goal is to sneak through this area and hitch a ride on a train to Eden. Being from here, Hope knows a few ways of getting around. He suggests a nearby set of pipes to sneak past the army. Also it's Chapter 7 now. From here, I save my game and call it quits for this post.
This has been a kinda uneventful post. There's not much that's really gone down, but we're already to Chapter 7 of...I want to say they probably did 13 to match up with the game's number, but it might be more. (I'll try to look it up here soon if I remember to.) Anyways, this game is going by quite slowly, and it's not even other games distracting me this time! It's just a general dis-liking of Final Fantasy XIII. Of course, I don't plan to quit now, and I'm so close that I can taste the championship cup of "completing Final Fantasy series". It's still a ways off though, but I shall persevere! Enough has been said for now. Thanks for reading the post and/or at least giving it a shot. Look forward to a few extra posts before May is up! If I don't get them up soon, I am officially labeling myself as a failure! And I'm out.
Ending Point - Palumpolum - The Metrostile.
Current Party -
- Lightning - Commando Lvl 2, Ravager Lvl 2, Medic Lvl 1
- Hope - Ravager Lvl 2, Synergist Lvl 2, Medic Lvl 2
Next Goals - Make it through Palumpolum and head for Eden. Do whatever it is that Sazh and Vanille are going to do...probably be wimps.
~May the Crystals Guide Me~
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