Day 86

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

Goals Accomplished - Escaped the Wasteland area and got past all those PSICOM folks for now. Learned about everybody's backstory more than I wanted to. Experienced a lot of Numbered Day flashbacks. Made it through the super military robot monster lab woods with Hope and Lightning. Joll-ally walked through the very calm but monster filled forest with Sazh and Vanille. Snow made an appearance here and there. Made it to PalumPolum.
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~

Day 85

Game - Final Fantasy XIII, Day 85
Hours Played/Hours Total - 5-1/2 hrs / 5-1/2 hrs
Starting Point - Beginning of the game.
Current Goal - Beat Final Fantasy XIII! Complete my overall mission! (More or less)

What Happened - So it's finally come! The finally to my massive adventure through the Final Fantasy series. I've had good times and bad times, and now...I have FFXIII to tackle. This will probably be my biggest challenge yet, but I believe in myself. I WILL COMPLETE XIII! LET'S GET IT GOING!
     I start up the game, click new game, and the game...BEGINS! (Obviously) As usual, we start off with a big fancy cutscene. It is just starting off, but I'd like to say...Daaamn this game is pretty! It's panning over a very large landscape that's all HD and shiny. Then I hear people talking, so this game is definitely voiced. I'm pretty sure it's fully voiced even with random NPC voices! So there is that. Now the video is at a train full of people....then FINAL FANTASY XIII comes on the screen. Let's do this!
     An evil looking soldier comes into the train car with all the people, and he starts pointing his gun at them. Then suddenly, IT IS AN ACTION CUTSCENE! One of the people leaps up, starts flying around the room, and attacks all the guards. It's a lady, and she starts fighting with people and shooting things. It's quite exciting. Oh look! Robots and explosions and fighter airships! This is like a scene from an action movie. The train keeps riding on as chaos goes on around us. The train is being attacked by all these fighter airships though, and things aren't looking too good. The lady manages to shoot one down kinda randomly, but then we have another problem...Incoming giant bat-robot thing! It jumps onto the train and manages to bring it to a halt. After all that attacking nonsense, the lady who started all of this is thrust into battle along with a random guy. BOSS BATTLE TIME! TUTORIAL EDITION!
     First and foremost, it refers to the system as the Active Time Battle system. So..we might be seeing a return from the past! Or maybe not. The general idea is Active Time Battle since it has a bar that fills up with time. However, instead of the bar filling up for a single action, the bar is allotted to your actions. Basically, the bar is long enough for me to do two basic actions (IE two attacks) or a specialty action (like Blitz...which is the only one I have that requires two bars). Anyways, back to the BOSS BATTLE at hand, I'm fighting off a large flying robot-bat thing with saw claws and a large tail. This is my very first battle, so I'm not too worried about it. Much like old ATB systems, you have to keep moving and attacking because the enemy will do so regardless. All I can do is attack, so the battle is over quite quickly. The giant robot falls off of the train and downwards to its doom. For my effort, I got a nice little screen where it describes my battle starts and RATES ME! I got...four out of five stars. Go me?
     Anyways, as it fell off, it took the train right off the rails with it. After its defeat, we aren't going to be riding the train anymore. The lady gets off, and she is quickly followed by the random guy. He says something to her about her being a soldier, but she claims to not be. We gloss right past that though, and now I'm free to move. It's only a little ways in, but the game doesn't feel too bad so far. Despite the over-the-top action part back there, it's still kinda turn-based gameplay. You have an action meter much like half the series does, but the combat looks and plays in real time. It's a very pretty game, and it most certainly won't lose as far as graphics are concerned. Our main leading lady here is called Lightning.

Lightning 

That's a name all right...LIGHTNING. The guy with her (but not really a teammate, just a survivor) is called Sazh. He's a black guy with an afro with a baby Chocobo that lives in his hair. 

Sazh Kitzroy

Yeah...that is a thing. We're running along this impossibly long bridge and having to deal with more of those soldiers (labelled as PSICOM). Things are going well, but then they blow the bridge out. This random twosome manages to find a side path, but we have to fight an enemy commander to obtain it. Oh noes!...Is what I would say if it was remotely difficult. In this battle, it explains chain attacks and introduces the Stagger concept of the game. Basically, you constantly wail on an enemy, and this fills up a gauge they have above them. Once the gauge hits the max, they are considered Staggered, and this leaves them weak and open to more damage. The gauge slowly empties out, but you can attack them during this time for (essentially) double damage! This makes the enemy commander pretty darn easy. (Just a note, different enemies require more or less attacks to become staggered. They're not all the same.) 

     With their defeat, Sazh asks Lightning what she is even after. After a bit of prodding, she finally gives in and mentions the word "fal'Cie". That seems to spook the guy, and he stays quiet for the remainder of the scene. They then use their newly acquired transport (a flying bridge) to fly off...and I get a large dose of sudden group changeup! 

     Now I'm in control of a guy named Snow (Seriously, WTF are these names?) along with his band of merry men.

Snow Villiers

They're some sort of civilian-based mercenaries group called NORA. I only learned about this because I looked into the Datalog section in the menu. The Datalog is basically where the game gives you all of the information and random terms that are thrown up. Otherwise, I'd be incredibly clueless on a lot of the major items and terms. Because people totally love extra reading just to understand half of the story at hand. Aaand the game is starting to lose me. Although I'll admit, it makes sense to not have the characters go randomly into a whole explanation about every little thing mentioned, so I'll look over it for now. Time to fight off these oppressive PSICOM people with Snow!
     I charge straight through the bridge and beat all of the PSICOM that get in my way. Once I clear the intial group out, we find some civilians that were captured. The group tells them to prepare to leave, but many of the people want to fight back. They take up guns and help NORA push forward. The people are angry because PSICOM initiated a PURGE of the people because of society things. To explain, I delve into the datalogs and read up. This...will take quite a bit of explaining, but I'll try to shorthand it as I can.
     The people in this society live in a giant floating home/base/whatever known as Cocoon. Cocoon floats above the land below that they call Pulse. As far as the people are concerned, Pulse is something akin to hell and only horrible things come from it. Anybody who is considered to have some taint from Pulse is immediately shipped there. Something happened some time ago, and this entire section/city is considered to be infected by Pulse badness, so they are purging the entire city. That's not all the details, but you get the general idea. People are being killed simply because of something they didn't even know about. (I'll explain more when I come to it later.) Time to move along!
     Of all the people to join NORA in fighting, they make sure to single out a single mother and son. As soon as I saw this, all I could think was...SHE'S GOING TO DIE. Regardless, the group pushes forward and fights off more and more PSICOM soldiers. Things are going well, but then a giant robotic behemoth leaps out of nowhere and attacks the group for BOSS BATTLE TIME!...or maybe not. It's still the opening portion of the game, and all I can do is just plainly attack. So this battle went quite quickly and without much trouble or fun. Also, the behemoth robot was called Beta Behemoth, so it was meant to be what it was. With its defeat, I'm thrust into a cutscene!
     A giant airship flies in now and starts killing pretty much all of the civilians. Lucky for Snow, he spots a bazooka ahead and runs up to try and grab it. He gets to the bazooka but completely fumbles grabbing it. Thankfully for him, mom from earlier manages to nab the bazooka and shoot the airship. With her successful hit, the airship starts to fall apart and then blows up part of the large bridge. This ends up killing several people as they fall off of the collapsing bridge right to their doom. This includes mom person who Snow feels bad about not being able to save her. Then Snow falls...Enough of that though, now I get to go back to Lightning and Sazh.
     Back with these two, they're talking about things and stuff. Lightning was part of some group known as the Guardian Corps. From what it seems like, Guardian Corps are more like the police force of Cocoon while PSICOM is their military unit. Sazh doesn't get the difference, but Lightning disagrees with him and says they are quite different. As they fly along, a huge gate in the top of this....giant-city-cave place opens up. From the gate flies out several airships along with a massive statue they're moving. As they are coming down, Sanctum (the ruling government of Cocoon...more or less) makes an announcement to the people there. They say that they are willing to kill all of those in the city to protect the rest of Cocoon.
     As it turns out, this is all because of the large statue they are bringing into the area. It contains what is known as a fal'Cie. There are apparently fal'Cie all throughout Cocoon, but this one maters because it's from...PULSE! (Dun dun duuuuun) The people that lived in this city and all of Cocoon were completely unaware of the fal'Cie's existence in the statue, but regardless of that, they're all being killed to keep Pulse influence from taking control somehow. I unlocked the data entry for fal'Cie at this point and read up. There are all kinds of fal'Cie it seems, and Cocoon was actually created by them to protect and serve the people. The fal'Cie are magical beings of incredible power. However, they are able to curse people and turn them into l'Cie. Unfortunately, it doesn't explain what an l'Cie is, so I'll bring this back up when I do learn. Lightning heads off towards the statue, and Sazh follows after her. Back to Snow!
     Despite all those other people dying, Snow has survived. He is feeling guilty at all of the people who died though, and most especially, he feels guilty about the mom dying. She died saving him, but before she fell, she asked him to protect her son...and didn't give his name. Of course, she technically died while trying to protect her son. Anyways, Snow wasn't the only survivor of this giant fall. One of his friends from NORA also survived despite everybody else dying! They fight off a group of soldiers and secure themselves a pair of weird airbikes to fly back up. The head on up and find that the entire NORA group seems to have survived. Snow doesn't stop there for long though. He's heading off to the fal'Cie statue to save someone. Then I'm introduced to mom's kid, and his name is Hope. (Seriously...the names.)

Hope Estheim

     Hope is angry at Snow for killing his mom although he didn't actually directly kill her. She sacrificed herself to save all of them. Of course, he wants to yell at Snow about this, so he planned to go up and talk to him...then he chickened out. Hope is accompanied by a girl named Vanille...

Vanille

and I can already tell she's going to be annoying. She encourages Hope to follow after Snow so that he can say his part and make his peace. They end up stealing one of the airbikes to follow after Snow. WIth the airbike, they fly straight towards the giant statue and crash land on it. Once there, they start exploring the area to look for Snow. They don't get too far before OH NO! MONSTERS!
     As with most of the previous fights, these go really fast, but I do have a special mention for these two fighting. Hope is armed with a boomerang, but Vanille (the more she talks, the more I don't like her) is armed with a weird...horn-whip thing. I don't know how to describe it even, but she like whips them with it somehow. Imagine a set of deer antlers where the tips fly off into wires, and then you flail it around like a fishing pole-whip to attack enemies. I do not understand how it could possibly be effective. As I'm looking around here, I find out that I just hit Chapter Two. Chapter One went by pretty darn fast...I almost don't want to call it a chapter.
     Ah well! All three groups of characters are currently located on this statue-place and are heading for the Pulse fal'Cie. They have to be very careful around the fal'Cie though, because it can turn them into l'Cie. And that is bad...Why? Because when it curses them, they're forced to follow its commands or something like that. Once again, I'm kinda left without any form of explanation, and the datalogs don't really have anything right now. I don't get far with these two when suddenly they hear Snow yelling from somewhere else. Time to CHANGE PLACES!
     Now I'm in Snow's shoes again. He's looking for his fiancee Serah. I run over, activate a switch, and then the game changes places again...pretty much in no time. Now I'm with the dynamic duo of Lightning and Sazh again. Lightning is trying to open the door with no luck, but then she realizes something and randomly apologizes to the door. Then it magically opens up because of that. Going to gloss past this because I don't really care. As we enter this big temple place, I get to learn about a specialty item set called Shrouds. They're like weird aerosols that you can spray for different effects involving battles. One type of aerosol (Deciptosol) allows me to avoid enemies OR ambush them easily. (Kinda randomly late to mention it, but enemies are physically there on the map when you walk around. They have a line of sight and will charge at you and all those good things.) Another aerosol I have (forgot its name) has an in-battle effect of giving my party Haste, Bravery, and Faith. I will be looking forward to future aerosols for sure!
     I go ahead and try out one of the Deciptosols. It works pretty well, and I look forward to using it more later. Unfortunately, I don't have very many right now, so I'll probably hold back until I get more. The enemies around here aren't too hard, and they're easy to fight with two people. I fight off a couple groups of monster-robots (I said monsters earlier, but these are more of monster-robot hybirds.), and then I enter a little scene with Lightning and Sazh. Lightning mentions something about soldiers being inside of this place, but she believes they'd be l'Cie by now. Sazh adds in "ENEMIES OF COCOON!" And then we switch back over to Snow.
     I hope you are prepared for an exciting Snow moment. I run over, fight a battle, and then I hit a switch. Now it's time to change places again! I'm back to Hope and Vanille, and they're redescribing the situation to me. Hope wants to confront Snow about the whole "my mom is dead because of you!" issue, but he doesn't know how to go about it. Vanille encourages him to do it though, so we go ahead and move right along. Then we get surrounded by freaky zombie monster people! Vanille identifies them as Cie'th. (l'Cie that don't and/or refuse to complete the task given to them by the fal'Cie.) They're quickly surrounded, but then Snow comes out of nowhere to help save the day! Battle time! We beat the Cie'th almost immediately and then leap right into a scene.
     Snow doesn't know HOW we got up here, but he tells us to go hide and wait while he saves Serah. Then he goes off to explain what's up with her. Turns out, she's a...an l'Cie of the Pulse fal'Cie, but he's here to rescue her! Hope asks why he's going to rescue an l'Cie, and then he says Snow is crazy. (He's still angry about the mom thing.) Snow starts to run off, but then he realizes he shouldn't just leave us her. He turns around and takes us with him. Hope isn't too happy about this, but Vanille encourages him to come along so that he can have his moment with Snow. That's enough of this group (as far as the game is concerned), and we get swapped back to Lightning and Sazh.
     I really hope this back and forth nonsense decides to end here soon. I am very much tired of the nearly constant amount of it. Lighting reveals to Sazh why she's even here. She says that her sister is here and is an l'Cie. (Also pretty sure it's Serah because coincidences are fun!) Sazh doesn't take it too well, but then he asks what her Focus was. He also somewhat explains it by following that up with "What did the fal'Cie order her to do?" Lightning says she doesn't know because she didn't ask, but then doors open and things go down. Now this group gets to meet some Cie'th, and Sazh reiterates what I just learned about them. He points out that she's going to turn into one of those if she doesn't complete her Focus. (On top of having to do it or else, you're also on a time limit it seems.) He suggests to Lightning that they do away with her because she's an l'Cie and there's no way to turn her back into a regular human. Lighting takes offense to this and claims that people like him are to blame for the Purge. They all think that fal'Cie aren't worth being left alive. That's all she has to say though, so they move right along.
     I have to fight off several groups of Cie'th as I move through the area. After I wipe them all out, I head for the elevator and up to the next floor. Up there, we find Serah, and she seems to be both alive and well right now. Then Snow and company show up soon enough. Yay for the happy reunion! OR MAYBE NOT. Serah asks that they save Cocoon, and when Snow agrees to, a big pile of weirdness happens. Serah suddenly floats up into the air and turns into a crystal version of herself. This is followed up with an explanation of what just happened. Basically, if a l'Cie completes their focus, they're given eternal life as a crystal. So...to fully lay it out, you can either become a horrible undying monster or a large undying crystal. Yay for crappy choices!
     Lightning is very angry now, and Snow plans to go speak with the fal'Cie to change this. Lightning doesn't think she can be changed back though, so she plans to kill the fal'Cie. The group runs straight ahead and into a large room. All that appears to be here is a large computer that the group refers to as the fal'Cie. At first, I don't get it, but that's quickly cleared up as the giant metallic dome turns out to be a shell. Lightning attacks it, and the thing reveals its true form, a robot thing with a crystal in its chest. She tells everybody that we have to kill it to save Cocoon. Hope runs away, and Vanille chases after him. This leaves me with Lightning, Snow, and Sazh to fight the thing. BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     I'm facing off against this fal'cie who goes by the name Anima. This boss requires a one-two punch to fight it. It's made up of two drill arms and a main core. You can attack the core directly, but it puts you right in the range to be smacked around by the drills. I destroy the drill arms and then focus on the core. The drills eventually regenerate though, so this battle turns into a rinse and repeat scenario. I had to do it three times in order to beat the fal'Cie, but then it is dead...CUTSCENE!
     The group is all swallowed up in darkness, and then they're all floating in a strange space. They're greeted by a massive magical machine giant. More likely than not, this is the actual fal'Cie. The giant being lights up, grabs the group, and then brands all of them. With the brand left on each one, they're all left to fall into the darkness below. Outside of all of this, the giant statues is being destroyed by a collection of airships. After it's all blown up, they drop the large hunk of fallen apart into the water below. However, as it hits the water, it freezes all of it up. Then, after all that strangeness, the game decides it is time to go into a different scene. On top of this, it's actually a flashback.
     The scene is from a couple days ago, and it is Snow meeting up with Serah. They discuss her current status as a l'Cie, but at this point, she hasn't told Lightning about it yet. She's going to tell Lightning about it soon when they meet with her for her birthday. Then Snow proposes to Serah, and she agrees to marry him. Yaay happy moment. Now we go back to the present, and Snow is waking up. It seems what we saw was the past, but it was also his dream of said past. The group is all alive somehow, and they're on top of the water that magicked itself into ice. I thought it was an ocean, but it turns out to be just a really large lake. It is Lake Breasha, Cocoon Lowlands. As the group is looking around, they realize that the surrounding area has all turned to crystal (not ice). They don't know why it did it, but the datalog said something about the dying fal'Cie turned it all into crystal.
     As they are admiring the scenery, suddenly some Cie'th jump out and attack them. Snow fights them off quite easily though and realizes that he used magic to beat them. They notice that they all have l'Cie brands now, and in turn, this has given them the ability to use magic. They're not exactly too happy about this though. No time to sit and be angry about it though, so we start to move. I don't get too far before the group starts to wonder what their Focus could be. Apparently, the fal'Cie don't tell or give you the Focus. You're only given a dream of a vision that hints at what you are supposed to do. They all had the dream during the cutscene from before, and when they talk about what they saw, it appears that all of them have the same Focus. It seems to involve Ragnarok and some sort of giant beast attacking Eden, the capital of Cocoon. Despite being unsure about their Focus, Snow sets out to find crystallized Serah. He believes she would have survived the fall in her Crystal form, and the group sets out to search. Lightning is all "grrr" about this though, but she goes along anyways.
     After that, I get to learn all about the Paradigm System and the Crystarium. During battle, you are able to change your character's job (fighting style is probably more appropriate) mid-battle. Each character has access to a specific group right now, but there is a pretty wide range to choose from. There is Medic (healing), Ravager (combo time), Commando (damage dealing), and more!...that I don't have. I'll list more later as I get them, but basically, you can shift and change mid-battle to assume the style you need. Each job/role gives you specific abilities and boosts while they are selected.
     The Crystarium is this game's level-up system. Unfortunately, it greatly resembles the Sphere Grid, but it seems to be a bit better. Battles reward you CP (Crystal Points) that you can spend in the Crystarium to learn new abilities and increase your stats. Each job/role (probably just go with role from here on) has their own area where you can spend points, and they each level independently. You can choose to stick with one to fully level it up, or you can spread it out to suit your needs. Any stat and health boosts you gain through each role all go towards the character and carry over regardless of role. This also includes spells and techniques The only things that don't carry over are special abilities that are directly related to the role. It's interesting enough, but I do hope it goes over better than the Sphere Grid. It was always kinda hard to directly tell what your growth was...
     Either way! We're now in Chapter Three although Chapter Two just began like an hour or two ago at most. I move along and fight the Cie'th and other monsters here and there. The group stops a couple different times to talk about their situation. Snow believes that their Focus involves Serah's Focus, and he believes her Focus was to protect Cocoon. So he thinks they are supposed to save Cocoon from Ragnarok. Nobody else seems very sure about that, and only Sazh finally speaks up. He tells him that if he truly thinks that, he'll give at least ONE reason behind it all. Snow claims that it's Serah...She is the reason. Lightning isn't happy to hear this, and as far as she is concerned, Serah is dead. Of course, Lightning appears to be coming off as a fairly angry person. They don't get much time to argue beyond that though because PSICOM soldiers!
     Of course, they weren't much trouble before, and now we all have super powers and magic. So...that wasn't any form of an ordeal. I don't get too far when we (crazily enough) do come upon Crystal Serah. Snow rushes over to her, but she seems to be stuck in the crystallized surroundings. Snow grabs some random hunk of metal and attempts to dig her out. Everybody joins him except for Lightning. Sure, she is still being her angry self, but she comes up with a decent point here. She tells the group that they can't stop now because the army is after them. Snow tells her that he wants to rescue Serah and save Cocoon because he is determined. Lightning tells him that he's all talk, and that Serah didn't sacrifice herself just so he could go down now. Then suddenly...A GIANT ROBOT! It's the same one from the beginning, but it's all messed up now. Regardless, it is up for a fight and BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     This boss battle isn't too hard really, and the game is still sort of on "tutorial mode". It explains to me that I should make use of the Paradigm Shift to change my fighting style during a boss fight. I need to shift between combos and damage to healing when necessary, but I also have to shift back to not lose the Stagger percentage. I beat up the big robot with all my might while constantly switching from damage mode to healing mode. Once I Stagger the big bot, the battle is basically downhill from there. With its defeat, the robot is gone, and the group goes back to their discussion.
     Snow tells Lightning that he can do both things. He will prove to her that he can save Serah AND protect Cocoon. He goes back to digging, and the group decides to leave him behind. The majority doesn't feel right about leaving him behind, but we don't have any time to think on that. After only a short distance away, they spot a big airship in the distance that's dropping off a whole pile of PSICOM people. On top of that, they spot a couple of airships flying over. Lightning says something about them dropping a net to keep the Pulse "infected" people from escaping. Vanille asks why they all hate Pulse so much, but Sazh points out to her that it's less about hatred and more along the line of fear. Also the name Eden is brought up, but they don't say much beyond the name itself, so I have to investigate in the datalogs.
     Datalogs say: Eden is the Cocoon fal'Cie that manages control over ALL of the fal'Cie in Cocoon. As it turns out, there are literally millions of Cocoon fal'Cie throughout the place. They're the reason the people are able to survive in this giant floating shell of a home. The fal'Cie provide everything for the people from food to basic living stuffs. Beyond the providing, the fal'Cie don't really talk or interfere with the humans. Eden is the only one who interacts with them much, and it only steps in to help them judge things at times.
     Back to the group, they need to hurry up and run. They gotta get out before the net goes down, so they go go go! Next big battle teaches me about special techniques that the leader can use. In this case, I learn about Libra. Only the lead character can use this special technique, and they cost a special point (TP, Technical Point) that is earned through successfully fought battles. Libra just shows information on the enemy, but it also causes your AI partners to choose their attacks wisely, like using Fire on enemies with a weakness to it. It's cool that you can do this, but I kinda wish I could just directly control people...or had cooler powers that cost points.
     I'm not far into the game, but I'm kinda split on battles. They're fairly fun and interesting (although I usually just pick the auto command to automatically choose my actions.), but battles just don't last very long. This is a good and bad thing all in one. It's good because you aren't wasting time on lesser enemies because you just wipe them out crazy fast. It's a bad thing because there really isn't any time to actually ENJOY the battle. On top of that, you are rated by how fast you complete battles, so you are kinda forced to speed through them on top of it all. I don't have access to any buffs or debuffs yet, but I doubt I'd have the time with the short time limits. That's enough opinion for now though, so let's move right along.
     There are a few small scenes here and there as we try to escape. The group discusses all sorts of things, but I'm honestly not that interested in any of it. It's either uninteresting or just repeating things that have already been said. If I actually want any details, I have to go look into the datalogs for that. If the battles were a bit longer, I could probably forgive them. At least...at least the game is still really pretty? Is that a completely redeemable trait? Let's find out.
     The next part was all kinds of robot enemies and robotic monster enemies. They weren't anything to go on about though, and I quickly find myself in a random ruins area. It's all full of PSICOM soldiers, but none of them are any real problem for me. An interesting thing that this area shows is that a lot of stuff was actually changed to crystal. The fire in the ruins is all crystallized as well. It looks cool, but there's not much to say beyond that. As we explore, we come upon a large open area, and Vanille splits off to look around. As she does, I get an ominous other camera that's quite obviously a flying monster. It eventually works around and chases after Vanille. Turns out, it's a giant robot dragon! BOSS BATTLE TIME!
     For the recent battles, I've been making use of Lightning, Sazh, and Vanille. No change there. This giant robot dragon monster isn't about to let me kick its butt, but I manage to do so anyways. However, it isn't going down after just ONE round. As I beat it, a cutscene jumps up, and the large beast flies to the back of the area. We chase after it to start up round two. The second round is a bit different than the first round though. The dragon robot now has a barrier up. With the barrier up, I'm unable to do any real kind of damage to it. I have to stagger it before I can put the beast in its place. It takes a little time, but once it's staggered, the battle is straight down from there. With the monster's defeat, the group suddenly spots their escape. There is an airship conveniently placed behind where the battle took place. That's how we are getting out of here! However, as they board it, I'm taken back to where Snow is.
     Snow is still trying to dig Serah out, but he's not really getting anywhere. Unfortunately for him, he's not alone either. As he's digging, a PSICOM ship shows up and starts dropping soldiers down. As Snow, I get to fight off a group of them, but he's already tired after just a couple of them. Looks like Snow is going to die here...then magicalness happens! A random pair of magical ladies are summoned out of nowhere, and they beat up the remaining soldiers. Yay for surviving! But then the magical ladies turn on Snow for...Eidolon Battle Time?
     Yeah, as it turns out, these two lovely ladies are the Eidolon, Shiva. However, despite their helping him, he has to prove his worth before they'll directly give their power to him. I have to beat them/prove myself in battle before I truly gain their power. Of course, this is just the first Eidolon battle, so I get a little information before I begin. The battle isn't about beating them, it's about fighting them effectively and "impressing" them. On top of that, they cast Doom on me at the very beginning. Thus, I have a time limit to impress them. Luckily, despite there being two of them (Shiva Sisters!), I only have to directly fight one. The second one just sits there and heals me as I lay the beatdown on Shiva Sister 1. I mess up the first try on this battle though, and I have to retry. (Kinda wonky fact, you can pause in any battle and reset the battle to the very beginning. You restart with everything used, so you really only lose time.) Even on the second try, I really cut it close, but I still pull through.
     Upon their defeat, the two sisters combine together to make...a motorcycle? Snow leaps atop the Shiva-cycle and rides around a bit. Then he passes out. As this happens, a random lady walks onto the scene. Despite being an l'Cie, she seems to be working with PSICOM. Snow is powerless to do anything, and he's taken captive along with crystal Serah. Enough about that though, let's scene jump back to the other group! They're all onboard the airship, and it takes off. Yay for escaping! But then we are chased by other airships. The remainder of this is just a really long cutscene of airships flying and shooting and dodging. It's all action-y again! As they're flying around, they fly by the large Cocoon fal'Cie (which looks like a weird machine-afied sun) that goes by the name Phoenix. Several enemy airships blow up in there.
     There's also a part of the cutscene where we see the leader of Cocoon talk to the people. He talks about how he handled the Purge and kept them all safe or something like that. Honestly, I didn't make any notes because I didn't really care. The only important part is the group wonders why the fal'Cie Eden didn't step in. Apparently, it steps in during parts where large decisions are to be made. Anyways, the group crash lands in a wasteland area, and we have to figure out what to do from here.
     Lightning is eager to push on, but Sazh is all old and tired. She tells them we should keep moving, but Sazh isn't about to budge. Lightning ends up moving on, and Hope follows after her. Vanille stays behind with Sazh, and the party has officially been split. (My original note went something like this: THEY'RE SPLITTING THE PARTY DAMNIT!) Vanille eventually convinces Sazh to move along, but now they're pretty far behind the other two. Also the path gets destroyed randomly....Apparently that's enough of those two for now, time to change places to the other two.
     Hope catches up to Lightning, and they talk about moving on because being chased or something. They figure the others will catch up, so they'll just move along. Again, I've got such little interest in what they say because they generally don't say much. As of that last boss battle, I've gained some new spots on the Crystarium. I used the boatload of points I gained at some random point and level on up! Woo! Of course, it doesn't actually give me new levels...just more spots to earn. Ah well, Hope joins up and has a few new roles to mess around with. He comes with Ravager, Medic, and Synergist. Synergist is just buffing magic like Protect and Shell. Ah well, it will hopefully prove useful. Also, it turns out I'm Chapter Four now! However, I've had enough of the game at this point, so I hit a save point and close it up for now. It's also where I'll close this post.
     Dear lord, this post is suuuper behind where I wanted it. I figured to have it at the end of last week, but that most certainly didn't happen. I've only gotten like five hours on FFXIII so far, and I would really like to beat it before July...I'm not feeling confident about that. That's how bad this game feels so far. The gameplay isn't really that bad honestly, but I just can't like any of the characters. Lightning is a b*tch, Sazh is just afro with a chocobo, Hope is all WAAAAH, Vanille is TOO cheery, and Snow looks like a damn hobo. I can't get past how much he looks like a hobo. Who the heck designs the Final Fantasy outfits? Whoever it is, they need to stop it, or at least try to do something less creative and flashy and more actually makes sense. I could ramble on forever though, so I'll just stop now and finish up already.
     I won't lie to you. This game is going to be a hard fight to make it through, and I'm not looking forward to it. I believe in myself though! I will succeed in beating FFXIII, and then I'll never look back. You should look forward to more fun Final Fantasy XIII stuff...because that'll be happening all over the place. That's enough for now. Look forward to another post coming eventually, but it won't be soon because this game just sucks the life outta me. Thanks for reading!

Ending Point - Wrack and Ruin - The Vile Peaks.
Current Party -

• Lightning - Commando Lvl 1 , Ravager Lvl 1
• Hope -  Ravager Lvl 1, Synergist Lvl 1, Medic Lvl 1

Goals Accomplished - Start Final Fantasy XIII. Located Lightning's sister/Snow's fiancee, but then she turned into a crystal which is the GOOD l'Cie ending somehow. Met with the fal'Cie that we fought and I assume is dead now. Became l'Cie unfortunately. Traverssed the crystal-ized lake and found an airship. Snow gained the Eidolon Shiva but also got captured. Escaped from the current location but ended up in a wasteland instead. The party has split up...because that's a great idea.
Next Goals - Escape the wastelands. Complete the Focus. Finish Final Fantasy XIII.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Day 84 - Final Fantasy Tactics (Ten Hour Play)

Game - Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Day 84
Total Hours Played - 15-1/2 hrs
Current Goal - Play ten hours of the game and talk about how I love it.

What Happened - With Final Fantasy XII done and XIII coming over the horizon, I figured it was time for a brief intermission in the numbered series. Rather than take an actual break though (because that might throw me off) I decided to play one of the off-titles. For this experience, I'm going to play one of my very favorite in the series...Final Fantasy Tactics. I've played quite a bit of the original PlayStation One version, but for my brief playing, I'm going to try out the PSP remake called Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. Let's start with a brief introduction though.
     The setting of the game makes use of the universe known as Ivalice. As the game opens, you are introduced to the story by a historian by the name of Azlam. He's been researching the history of the land and recently learned that events aren't like they've been told. You learn that the common hero of the past isn't actually the true hero as history knows him. You are thrown into the role of the true hero of the story who was left hidden and forgotten by time.
     This Final Fantasy title probably has one of the deepest and most complex stories of the entire series. Honestly, it kinda reminds me of something along the lines of what I just played (FFXII). It's a story about royalty and kingdoms and the right to rule. Blah blah blah. As you continue through the game, you learn that the rabbit hole goes quite deep and that everything is pretty messed up. I won't reveal it all, but I'll just say that the in-game religion gets involved in it all. That's enough to give you a taste for now. Time to get started!
     You get to name the hero of this tale, but his default name is Ramza, Ramza Beoulves. After the little opening piece, you get to view one of the best parts of the remake. The remake from the original game has added animated cutscenes which look AMAZING. They've got a very interesting and different animation style. Following the opening cutscene, you are thrown into a church. A girl is praying there when suddenly the church is surrounded by mysterious soldiers. They're here for the girl, and you (Ramza) are a part of some hired sellswords who are protecting her. With that all said and done, you are introduced immediately into the first battle of the game.

Cutscene! (Example)

     The game auto-plays most of the units, and you only have control of Ramza. It gives you a general idea of how battles go. Final Fantasy Tactics is a Tactical RPG (If you hadn't already guess by the name), and to describe that would be lengthy at best. To shorten it somewhat, Tactical RPGs are first and foremost what the name describes...a game of tactics. You place your soldiers on the field and move them about the battlefield. The field is split into a large grid of squares, and you move about it and perform actions for the battle. FFT is probably one of the easier tactical RPGs out there though. It's got a lot you can do, but it's far more forgiving than most other games among this kind of series. I'll explain a few more things as I get to them, but for now, we'll get back to the battle.
     There's not much to say about this first battle, and it goes through quite quickly. A couple of the AI controlled units on your side are special units with super awesome abilities. They go around and massacre most of the enemy units while you just sit back and try to stay alive. You can get involved, but you almost don't need to. Anyways, with the battle's conclusion (and victory), you are treated to another cutscene. Turns out, someone should have stayed with the damn princess. A man in fancy armor and a cape has taken her and is currently running away. Ramza spots him and seems to recognize the man as Delita. He wonders what he is doing there...Then the game makes a jump into the past.
     Thus begins the start of Chapter 1 - The Meager. (For those who have only played the PS1 version, the PSP remake looks about the same in general, but they've edited most of the talking to make it sound better for the game world's style and such.) Ramza and Delita are recruits in an academy, and the nation is currently under turmoil. After some major war, the losing side was left with a lot of soldiers and mages who were stripped of their titles and jobs. Of course, this doesn't make them very happy at all, so they've formed up a sort of rebellion force called the Corpse Brigade. The guard that remains is growing thin, and the recruits are about to be sent to help aid them. You will be sent to a nearby castle to take up the rear guard for the main force.
     After that is explained, you find out that some of the Corpse Brigade has made it into the city, and you're about to be sent out to deal with it. The first REAL battle! You are the commander of this group of recruits, and they're the initial units in your army. Your initial troops are a mixture of two jobs: Squires and Chemists. Squires are kinda just plain units and the starting jobs for most soldiers. Chemists are the only units who can use items directly. (Game calls them Jobs rather than Classes.) That's enough for now, but I'll be touching down on this after the battle at hand. You get to place five units, and you have the Guest unit, Delita. With your six units, you have to take down a squad of five very angry criminals. To be fair, they're less of criminals and more of people screwed over by the war. Anyways, they plan to cut through town, but we're there to stop them.
     The battles in Tactics generally last anywhere from twenty to thirty minutes each. (From my experience at least.) This one wasn't any different. I split my team up and mostly just tag teamed enemies as I went to take them down. A couple of my people died, but I finished the battle fast enough that they didn't permanently die. (Quick explanation. When a member falls in battle, you have three rounds to revive him. After that, they permanently die.) With their defeat, I'm rewarded some Gil, a few items, and am whisked off to the world map.

World Map

     On the world map, I'm given a brief explanation of the world map, and then I'm set loose. The world map is just a bunch of connected points you can travel between. You get into random encounters on any non-town location, and the town spots come with three basic places: a store, a tavern, and a recruitment office. They're self-explanatory, so I won't go into detail. I can only go from my current town to a nearby castle with only one spot in between so...I head that way. OR SO I THOUGHT! As soon as I go to leave, I'm met with a scene.
     It seems that Barbaneth Beoulve, assuming the father of the family, is about to pass on. I'm at this family's house, and they're waiting by the old man in his bed. They're talking about the events taking place around, and how the war should be coming to a close quite soon. Ramza comes in shortly later, and he talks with his father briefly. Talks about upholding the family name and becoming a fine knight in the service of the crown. Says to trust in his friend Delita and asks that he watch over his sister, Alma. And then...he passes on. Game has just begun and sad times are already had. Anyways, time to move on!
     I head for Eagrose Castle, but before I can get there, I have to take on another story battle on the Mandalia Plains. STORY BATTLE! (FYI, I won't go over every battle I fight. I'll only cover the story-fied ones with actual content.) This battle lets me place my main guy, Ramza, along with 3 other units. This is your typical start up, so as you play through the game, you'll probably end up using the same team of four every time. The battle begins on the plains, and we come to find that a group of Highwaymen are attacking somebody. We come in, and I get to choose what to say between two options. I can either care more about defeating the Corpse Brigade or saving the guy. Of course, I choose that saving the guy is our priority. The goal for this battle is to "Protect Argath". This isn't too hard really since most of the NPCs can take care of themselves, but I try to be careful because overreliance on them being smart will lead to defeat.
     The battle is only the second real battle you have to fight, so it goes pretty fast. I've got my team of Ramza and three soldiers plus the Guests Delita and Argath. There are only five enemies, and they're easily taken care of. With their defeat, we learn a little more about what happened. Argath is a knight apprentice for the marquis Elmdore de Limberry. Then we find out that the marquis has been taken hostage by the Corpse Brigade, and Argath begs that we help him rescue the marquis. However, before we go after him, we have to go check in at Eagrose first. I'm back on the map, but I head back to the initial town, Gariland, first to buy stuff.
     Once I head to town, I'm informed about some special stuff I can do at the tavern. Something about skirmishes I can enter to test myself without possibly losing people. There are also joint missions that I can do with other people it seems, but that's definitely out. Anyways, I hit up the store and buy some items for the trip. Stock up on potions and phoenix downs, and then I head off to Eagrose Castle. I get another scene upon my arrival there. The group is talking with Ramza's brother, Dycedarg, and they are going to be guarding the castle. He's already heard of the marquis's abduction and has sent Ramza's other brother, Zaalbag, along with a group of soldiers to go after the abductors  Argath begs for a platoon of soldiers to go and avenge his fallen brothers, but Dycedarg tells him that the problem has already been seen to. They will stay and defend the castle.
     With that said and done, the group is now walking outside of the castle. Argath tells us that his family used to be well known and highly regarded like the Beoulve. However, his grandfather was captured during the war and turned traitor. He sold out his friends for his own freedom, but that didn't last long. He was killed shortly after being released, and then one of his former friends escaped and spread word of what he did. And thus, their family lost much of their honor and such. As that story wraps up, the group is greeted by people they know. It's Ramza's brother Zaalbag, his sister Alma, and Delita's sister Tietra. It's mostly a brief chat, but Zaalbag lets us know that a ransom note was received for the marquis. They find this suspicious because the Corpse Brigade is mostly aimed at dealing with nobles, and he doesn't believe they'd simply kidnap the marquis for monies.
     Before leaving, he adds on something about one of his spies in the Corpse being last heard of from a trade city called Dorter. He heads out, and the group talks briefly among themselves before leaving as well. Now I'm free to move between five spots! However, I've learned from past plays that you should NEVER immediately move on. Instead, I'd highly, highly, HIGHLY suggest you spend a couple hours leveling up your team. When you travel over wilderness areas, like the plains, you have a chance of getting into random encounters. These encounters are generally against wild monsters, and these monsters are always set to be around your current levels. (I think it's based on the lead, Ramza.) They're very tough battles, but if you take time and gain extra levels, you can make the next part of the game a breeze (or at least actually beatable). This game has a tendency to lock you in spots where you can't gain extra levels and points, so it's highly suggested to use a little time during open periods to gain some extra experience.
     Now it's time to cover the in-game system! THE JOB SYSTEM! I already glossed over the gameplay for battles. It's tactics. There are squares on a field, and you try to outthink your opponent! (Or in my case, just blast the crap out of each individual one and then move on to the next one until they're all dead.) However, I feel that the best (and my most favorite) thing about Final Fantasy Tactics is the Job System. For those who have been following me since the beginning and/or have played Final Fantasy V, this game takes a big page from that game. However, you can't pick any job you want, you have to earn them first.
     Every unit begins the game with two classes: Squire and Chemist. Squires are just super basic units with no real benefits or downfalls. Chemists are the only units that can learn to use items and throw them around. (I already mentioned these earlier but repeating for good measure.) Of course, these are simply the first two Jobs in the game. The total number of Jobs in FFT is 22. (They added two more jobs with the remake.) Beyond the initial jobs, you have to meet specific level requirements to earn the other jobs. I could go on quite a bit, but I'll just sum it up. Squire takes you down a path that builds towards more of a strength-based jobs like Knight, Archer, Monk, Ninja, and so on. The Chemist is more of the magic-based path with the White Mage, Black Mage, Time Mage, Summoner, and more. There are even some super special classes that requires multiple levels of different jobs. This brings us to the next detail.

The Job Wheel!

     The next details is...well details. Abilities, levels, and the hows and whats. There are five kinds of abilities available: Action, Reaction, Movement, and Support. Each character has one of each abilites that they can set (Action gets two technically). This allows you to customize your character with all kinds of abilities. Abilities are learned through the use of Job Points, which work almost exactly like License Points. Examples include a Knight with the Two Swords ability, a White Mage with Time Magic, and much more. The possibilities are nearly endless for what kind of units you can make.
     Units have their own levels, but they also have levels in Jobs. Your character's level rises independent from their Job level though. Jobs are considered "Mastered" when you have maxed them out to level 8 and purchased all of the abilities with them. Your character's HP and MP are partially based on the equipment you use. This evens out to mages having lighter armor but more MP while knights and such have heavy armor that comes with more HP but less MP. There's a whole lot more I can talk about, but I don't want to ramble on anymore about it. If I were to shorten this all up, I'd just say "Go get the game right now!" (I'd highly suggest the original PS1 version over the PSP version. PSP has lots of improvements but also has random slowdowns.) Time to continue!
     For the next couple hours, I did a bunch of random battles to gain some levels and change around my army's job setup. When you are first given control, you start off with a small army made of your main character, Ramza, as well as six random beginning units with four Squires and two Chemists. My first goal is to get everybody to learn the ability JP Boost from the Squire job. It's probably the most useful Support ability in the game. All it does is simply boost the Job Points you get, but it's a large enough boost that you can Master jobs four or five times faster. On top of that, I plan to abuse easy Job Points by constantly using items and buffing abilities when I get them. Getting lots of Job Points and abilities can really help out with the rest of the game. With that in place, I start working to change around my group's setup. I figure at least two Knights, two Archers, a White Mage, and a Black Mage.
     I spent about five hours doing this, and then I figured it was time to move right along. Also figured I should make the post slightly more exciting than "I fought random battles for like 9 hours." It'll probably still turn out close to that, but it won't be entirely that! With my training done, it was time to move onward to the Siedge Wield. (...What? It used to be just the woods.) My current team ended up being Ramza as a Squire, a Knight, two Squires, two Chemists, and an Archer. I'm more focused on getting things Mastered than fancy job choices it seems. My team was about Level 7 across the board though, so it shouldn't be too hard for this next part. It's just a group of monsters I have to fight, but it's a decent selection here: two Bombs, three goblins, and a wild cat. It was funny because my two Guest members (Delita and Argath) were only Level 3, but the enemies were all up on my level of around 6 and 7. Delita went down almost immediately, but Argath survived with Potions. I wiped out the monsters like they were never there!
     From here, I did a bit more training and actually switched my jobs around. I ended up with Ramza as a Knight, two Knights, an Archer, two Black Mages, and a White Mage. With everybody being around Level 8, this battle is going to be silly amounts of easy. Onward...to Dorter! For the story battles, you have to choose Ramza, so for this battle, I had two Knights, a White Mage, and a Black Mage. Before the battle gets going though, I am shown a small scene of two men speaking. One of them is specially designed, so he's obviously the more important one. He's questioning the other man about the location of someone called Wiegraf and where they put the Marquis. After being put at sword point, the other man reveals the location to be the desert at a place known as The Sand Rat's Sietch. The group begins to approach so the nameless VIP runs off. Delita seems to recognize the man who ran away as someone he saw after the war, but we don't have time to figure out who right now. TO ARMS!
     For this battle, I'm fighting six enemy units composed of two Knights, two Black Mages, and three Archers. Of course, they're only level 4, so I shouldn't have much trouble with them. Just as the battle starts, Delita says he remembered the man as being named Wiegraf. Apparently he was the commander of some group called the Dead Men during the war. They were composed of peasants and such. As it turns out, this makes him the commander of the Corpse Brigade. Oh well! Let's battle on. As I already said, this was pretty much a pushover battle. However, they didn't go down without some fight, and that is proof enough that this game is not to be taken lightly. If I had just come straight here, I would have been completely screwed.
     This game pretty much just requires that you put in a lot of training and random encounters before you fully play the story through. However, unlike some games, training and random encounters can be fun. That, and I really like to build my army as I like. The full customization of your units allows you to create whatever teamup you'd like. It's a good thing. Anyways, I quickly shot through most of the enemy units while my two Guests focused on one unit. One fell, but Guests can't truly die like my characters, so who cares. The other one managed to take down ONE enemy unit. I was able to fully annihilate the other six units even though I mostly toyed with them to get extra experience and job points. With their defeat, I was rewarded a nice pile of Gil and a couple items. Then, it was time for a scene.
     Ramza, Delita, and Argath are in some random building and dealing with one of the enemy units. They're trying to get information out of the guy. They want him to reveal where the Marquis is being kept. Argath is the one trying to get the info, and he beats the guy around a little. Ramza tells him to stop, but the guy has something to say. He talks about how the nobles are all the same. The men gave their lives for the Kingdom, and when the war ended, they turned them out into the streets. He asks what makes the nobles so different? Birth and blood? What difference does that make? Argath points out that they kidnapped the Marquis, but the guy says that the Marquis's kidnapping wasn't Wiegraf's plan. The man claims Wiegraf wouldn't hold a man for ransom.
     Ramza asks who would kidnap him then. The man finally mentions the name Gustav. Delita identifies Gustav as a lieutenant commander in the Dead Men. Argath sees this as the Corpse Brigade still at fault, but the man claims they're trying to end aristocracy rather than become it like Gustav plans. They just want to be treated equal with honor and such. Argath hits him again and asks what he could possibly know about honor. Ramza puts his foot down and tells Argath to stop it. Then Argath asks where Gustav is, and I hear the same place as where the Marquis is supposed to be, the Sand Rat's Sietch. Delita steps in again to explain what this is. Apparently sand rats are unique to a desert north of Dorter known as Zeklaus Desert. Ramza asks if there are anymore towns in that direction, and Delita says not anymore. Argath is confused, but Ramza explains that a sietch is a Sand Rat's burrow, so they seem to figure the man is referring to a hideout in the desert. So...time to move on!
     After some more training! Yeaaah, I'm bad like that. Unlike previous games, the training and battles seem like more fun since results tend to actually show. I also want to get my team more organized and set up as I'd like. At this point, I'm already rounding 9 hours of gameplay though, and I'd like to cover a bit more story before I finish up. So it's time for the Sand Rat's Sietch! TO THE ZEKLAUS DESERT! As we arrive, there are a group of Corpse Brigade guys in a broken down house that's probably their hideout. They are talking about the Order (Order of the Northern Sky. That's what our group is supposed to be based from.) and how they are coming to mess them up. One asks what they should do, and it seems they're considering running. It also seems like they aren't in favor of Wiegraf leading them anymore, but Gustav's name comes up as at least promising them quite a bit of money. It stops at that point though because they spot us just outside. BATTLE TIME!
     This battle is made up of three Knights, two Archers, and two Monks. Basically, you're almost always outnumbered in this game. Thus, another reason you need to fully prepare beforehand with more than enough training. Even with their vast numbers though, they didn't stand a chance. Before it was all said and done, I actually killed one of the Guest members (Argath) so that he wouldn't kill the last guy. I could have killed all of the enemies in like 3 turns with my Black Mage alone. The damage one of them can do is ridiculous! I blasted away the main group in no time, and then I just fiddled about with the last one to farm up extra job points. I didn't spend too much longer though because I should try to get a bit further. With the last one taken down, we were going to infiltrate this little base and look for the Marquis.
     Next scene up, and it's the Wiegraf guy from before, and he seems to be facing off with Gustav. Gustav is in disagreement with Wiegraf's revolution it seems. He says that dreams don't exactly produce food or shelter. Wiegraf says he doesn't see beyond to what is really going on. Wiegraf sees that the crown is faltering and needs to be lead back onto the path. Gustav charges at Wiegraf with his sword, but Wiegraf simply dodges and impales him with his own sword. As that finishes, the trio walks in and sees Wiegraf. He tells them that the Marquis is unharmed, and that we may take him back to Eagrose. Ramza asks why he would simply give the Marquis back, and Wiegraf says that the abduction was poorly done and that it didn't serve the ends he wants. He simply asks that we let him walk free in exchange. Argath disagrees with this, but Delita and Ramza give in for the Marquis's sake. Wiegraf runs off as the group goes around to the Marquis. Argath wants to chase after him, but Delita stops him. He tells Argath that the Corpse Brigade is finished and there's no point fighting more. Time to head back to Eagrose!

BATTLE TIME!

     I got into a few battles before heading completely back, but I hurried on after that. Really wanting to wrap this on up and give some thoughts on it. A fun side effect of all these random battles is that my amount of Gil just begins to SKYROCKET! After so long, money starts to never been an issue ever. It helps if you don't have a massive army to have to equip, but even then, I can generally get by so easily without having to farm up money. I love it so much. Anyways, back to Eagrose Castle! We arrive there, and then it's straight up to a scene.
     Dycedarg is yelling at the group for abandoning the castle and running off into the desert. Ramza is silent at first, and Delita tries to take the blame. Ramza steps forward though and tells Delita not to lie on his behalf. Dycedarg tells Ramza that he shouldn't have ignored the laws and went off like he did. As a knight, it is their solemn duty to adhere to the rules, and being a Beoulve, it is their burden to be an example to them all. He asks if he intends to live up to the name or drag it through the dirt. At this point, a man comes in and tells Dycedarg that he's made his point. The more important part here isn't the how but the what. He seems to be impressed with our rescue of the Marquis, and I have no idea who he is. The characters all bowed to him upon his entrance though...He goes on to add that young men are generally in haste to do great things, and that we aren't unlike themselves when they were younger. (With the remake, they improved the dialogue with a more old-style pattern of talking. Using nicer/fancier words and making it sound more...regal I guess? It's not bad, but it seems overly fluttery at times if you ask me.)
     The man is finally introduced as Duke Larg, and he tells Dycedarg that Ramza's ability is lost on castle walls. Dycedarg takes this in mind and permits us to take part in the final stage of it all. The plan is to make a large number of coordinated strikes on several of the Corpse Brigade dens. We get to lead one of these assaults. Ramza thanks his brother, and the trio leave. Of course, as they leave, the two continue to speak about what sounds like dirty business. Something about things going awry, but our rescuing the Marquis puts them in a good position. It is made mention that the King is nearing death, and they need to make their move soon. So...yeah! Sneaky Royalty business is at work. Well, time to move right along with the story.
     I've actually already passed the ten hour point at this part, but I've considered moving on and beating the first Chapter of the game. It's not that much longer, and I think it'd be worth it to give a good glimpse of the story...Although my review of the story is fairly shorthand. In truth, I think I just want to play more of the game. I hit up "Outfitter" (store) and upgrade all of my equipment before moving on. With all the extra battles, I have more than enough to cover the bill and even some money left over. After that, I head out for a few more battles. After a couple battles, I figure it's time to move right along and straight to the Brigands' Den. The objective here is to wipe out this group of Corpse Brigade, but I have a feeling there will be more to it.
     The first thing I see upon entering is a female Knight named Milleuda. She's talking with the a group there and telling them that their contact is lost. She fears that they are lost as well. One of them asks how she could say such a thing. They haven't even fought yet! A second one chimes in to say that they nobles must answer to what they've caused. Milleuda says it shouldn't have been like this, but her brother was too soft and indecisive. They don't get to talk any longer though because we have approached the field of battle. Argath says he will repay us for our help with the Marquis by aiding us now. The goal for this battle is to simply defeat the Milleuda person, but she isn't alone of course.
     Apart from her (a Knight), I have to fight two White Mages and three Thieves. We're around four levels higher than them, but they put up quite a fight. One of the White Mages had black magic, and she was making fairly good use of it. For my team, Ramza lead as a Knight and was followed by a White Mage, a Black Mage, and a Monk. Monks in this game are basically just super awesome and insanely cheap to use! (I mean actual cost-wise.) They're powerful but require no weapons, and they have some incredible special abilities that don't use MP.  I'd say they might possibly be one of the most useful units in the game, and they're pretty invaluable early on since they are easy to get and cheap to use. Anyways, back to the battle at hand.
     The thieves had some strong attacks, but they didn't come with much health to back that up. I blasted two of them with pretty much my Black Mage alone. As usual, I was kinda mean in beating the crap out of them. I wiped out all of the units except Milleuda, and then I just messed around for a bit before finishing her off. With her defeat, the battle is over and proceeded by a scene. Milleuda isn't too happy with us and wishes we'd just finish her off. Ramza asks why she thinks they're so bad. Argath yells at us to kill her now! She fought as a Corpse and we should make her one now. He goes off to say she's a traitor and an enemy. The world has no place for such wretches and claim her life as forfeit. (Again, all the fancy talk.) He believes if we let her live now, she'll simply come back to kill us later. He's not necessarily WRONG about that thought, but he's being overly harsh.
     Finally, Delita chimes in and says that he just doesn't feel she is the enemy. He tells Argath that she's no more chattel than either of them. Of course, not killing her ends up pissing her off. She says something about a Pox on Beoulves and on his pity to her. She walks away at this, and Ramza wonders if they've done the right thing here. The scene wraps up, and then I'm shown what is currently going on at Eagrose. Apparently, the shit has gone down. There's a lot I could say here, but I'll try to wrap it up quickly. The Corpse Brigade struck out at the castle directly, and they kidnapped Tietra (Delita's sister). They managed to kill a few of the guards before running off with her though. Dycedarg was badly hurt during this as well. So...I'll assume that's my next destination.
     And so I head directly there most directly. Once there, I learn that Dycedarg will be fine, but he's glad to hear our part of the mission went well. He tells Ramza to rest because Zalbag will be leading an army to head off the remains of the Corpse Brigade. Ramza asks about Tietra, and Dycedarg says they're doing what they can to ensure her safety. He says it comes first here. The scene then moves to outside where Ramza is talking with Delita. Delita is determined to find his sister, but Ramza asks him to see reason. We don't even know WHERE to find her. Delita finally sees reason, but then Argath comes out to say his piece. He doesn't see a reason why Dycedarg would waste time to save a "common maid". Delita isn't too happy to hear that of course, and he ends up punching Argath. Argath tells Ramza that he's wasting his time with the "common man" and that he can't be like those of nobel-ness as they are. Ramza says he believes in Delita though, but Delita ends up leaving in anger. Ramza tells Argath to leave now and never return. Argath does go, but he says that Dycedarg told him the location of the enemies' base. It's Ziekden Fortress, and we don't stand a chance unless we take it from the rear.
     I figure to do a bit of training before heading on, but I'm quickly thrown into a scene as I leave Eagrose. It's a lovely animated cutscene! It's Ramza and Delita talking. Not important at all really, but they talk briefly. End scene. A few more battles, and then it's onward to the final part of this chapter. That's right! I've ended up extending this post to last until the end of the first chapter. I could have honestly been finished with the chapter by the time ten hours were up, but I just like battling and enhancing my team. I end up changing my team a little bit before I move on. Before it's all said and done, my team lineup now includes a Summoner and a Thief. I'm almost constantly changing the team setup. I was hoping to Master stuff before changing most of them, but Master status takes more time than I should put in for a "quick play then review" post. This post is probably going to end up being like double what I originally planned. Oh well!
     When it's finally time to go, I head North and up into Lenalian Plateau. The first of three last story battles for Chapter 1. We enter the plateau, and here comes Milleuda with a group of more soldiers. It seems they are trying to run, but we have blocked their path out. One of her fellow soldiers suggests that they lower their weapons and surrender. Milleuda tells her that she'd rather die with honor in battle than in a prison. As for the objective, I just have to slay Milleuda again. She comes with three Knights (including herself), two Black Mages, and a Time Mage. When Delita's turn comes up, he begs with Milleuda to release his sister. Milleuda and co don't realize that Delita and Tietra aren't nobles, and they both got caught up in all this. She goes off into a thing about nobles constantly taking from the lowborn and not giving them anything for it. She's...not a happy person, and the battle continues.

Scene in Mid-Battle (iPhone version I believe)

     I've extended this Chapter more than enough, so I rush in and just attack, attack, attack! It went well enough...until I lost a party member. I mentioned it earlier, but I'll restate it. When a party member falls in battle, you have three rounds to revive them. If you don't, they permanently die and turn into a crystal. The enemy units do this as well, but they can also turn into chests with items. It's possible to pick up crystals to heal yourself OR learn abilities that the fallen unit had. However, I wasn't up for losing one of my units at this point, so I went ahead and reset the game. I reloaded the file and tried the battle again. This time, I charged right in and killed Milleuda. I didn't necessarily have trouble the first time, but the group of Mages kept blasting people from afar and weakening them up for their Knights. It worked quite well for them. Either way, I charged through the second time and finished the battle quickly.
     During the battle, Ramza had asked Milleuda why they were doing this. He didn't seem to understand how they had been wronged, and Milleuda told him. It might not have necessarily been him, but the nobles in general are where her hatred stems from. They've mistreated the lowly people, and she won't stand for it. With the battle's end, she falls for the last time. Delita stands off to the side and wonders what he has become. (She saw and thought he was a noble or whatever.) This game has quite a bit of depth for the overall story, but I think I'm more in it for the gameplay honestly. I just love the fully customization. Enough of that though, I'll talk more about this when I quickly review it near the end. Time for the next battle at Fovoham Windflats!
     I head over and into the scene. Wiegraf is talking with his men and asks why they kidnapped the girl (Tietra). One of them responds and says that they had to take a hostage to escape. Wiegraf asks why they didn't release her once they got away then and if they're going crazy like Gustav. The man confirms they aren't crazy, but the girl is a Beoulve (or so they think). He say their numbers are dwindled, and they are surrounded on all sides by the Order. Nothing else could possibly buy their freedom like her hostage status could. Wiegraf sees that they mean to run then, but where would they go? He feels that if they run now, the nobles will win once again like they always have. He wants their children to have a better future than they have had in the past and shouldn't suffer because of them. He goes into a bit of metaphors after that, but the biggest thing is...the sacrificing. Then the Order shows up, and Wiegraf heads outside to hold us off. He tells them to leave the girl here and make for their fort at Ziekden. The men plan to go through with the plan, but they're probably not leaving Tietra behind.
     Come outside, and our group is facing Wiegraf. He's mad at us because...we killed Milleuda. Turns out, she is his sister. (I think it mentioned this several times before.) He plans to take revenge on those who killed her, and the battle begins. The goal here is just to take down Wiegraf. He comes with a Knight, two Monks, and a Chocobo. He's a specialty class called White Knight. The game lovingly has some specialty classes that only specific named NPCs have. It's kinda a bummer, but there are some cool special classes out there. Anyways, the battle moves right along and I manage to put the boot to Wiegraf. However, he feels that now is not the time or place for him to fall, so he ends up retreating. Before he does though, he gives Ramza something to think about...as well as most of the plot behind the story.
     During the battle, Wiegraf tells Ramza that there is a plot afoot behind all of this. That plot is being put on by two people labelled as the Black and White Lions. They're two potential figures to take over the crown when the King leaves the picture. It seems that Ramza's brothers may be involved in all of this, and he even claims that his brother Dycedarg was directly involved in the Marquis's kidnapping earlier on. Ramza doesn't believe it, but Wiegraf tells him to judge them for himself. Wiegraf believes that those in royalty need to be replaced and some such. There's a lot that was said here, but I did my best to wrap it up. Ramza and Delita enter the windmill here, but of course, Tietra isn't here. Ramza tells Delita we need to hurry to Ziekden Fortress to save her. Delita asks him why this is all happening to him. /end scene
     Time to head to the fortress and finish up this post! Let's go. I show up, and the worst has come to pass. One of the Corpse Brigade is holding Tietra hostage. Argath and Zalbaag are there as well. The man warns them that he'll kill her if they don't stop. Despite Tietra's position as hostage, Zalbaag tells Argath nothing has changed and has him fire. Argath fires an arrow off, and Tietra...is dead. He fires at the soldier as well, but the soldiers manages to crawl into the fort. Delita is distraught to see this, and Ramza can't believe what his brothers have done. Battle begin! Three Knights, Argath the Archer, and two Black Mages. When Ramza's turn comes, he asks Argath why he did it. Argath answers that it was simply his brother's orders.
     He asks Ramza if he would have had them offer up their honor in exchange for the life of a common wench. Ramza says that it's Delita's sister! Argath points out that Ramza needs to realize that they are different from the common people. The common people don't belong here and adds that if they weren't, Tietra wouldn't be dead now. There is a lot of back and forth between the group. Delita is pretty angry overall too, and he plans to fight Ramza once Argath is gone. Why? Basically, Delita seems to blame Ramza for all of this although it's not directly his fault. Argath claims that Ramza is a Beoulve like his family, and that being who they are, they've always been the shield for the highborn. He, Ramza, uses people and blah blah blah. There be a lot of stuff thrown around, and it's all morality and such at stake. It's an interesting story, but it's hard to want to type it all. You're better off experiencing it for yourself.
     Despite my enhanced levels and more powerful people, I get fairly shafted in this battle. I lose a person at one point and have to reset...AGAIN. I don't have any people with Items although I really should. A small complaint here would be that the Raise spell literally has a percentage to hit, so it's possible for it to miss when you revive people. I cast it three times on a character, and it kept freakin' missing. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have had to reset. On my second try, I finally managed to beat him. It was a fairly tough battle overall. The mages had fairly strong magic, and the Knights weren't any pushover. Argath wasn't too bad really, but I wanted to eliminate the rest of them before going for him. For my team, I used my Monk, a Knight, Ramza as a Knight, and a Black Mage. (First time I used a White Mage, but that proved pointless so I swapped out for more power.) With Argath's defeat, I'm treated to another lovely cutscene! (Seriously, these cutscenes are just...so amazingly animated. It's an off-style of animation and looks fantastic.)
     Delita went up to get Tietra on the fortress, but then the place starts to blow. The guy they shot from before went inside the fortress. He warned them it was full of powder, and it seems he made sure that he was going out with a bang. The place began to blow, and Ramza believes Delita to be dead...But as we know from the very beginning, he very much isn't. After that, I'm allowed to save my game and enter back into the current time.
     Ramza is with the group of Sellswords, but the Princess's royal guard (or whatever) is going to give chase to rescue her. The sellswords aren't interested since they weren't paid for that, but Ramza asks that he can go with them. He has to know if that was truly Delita...and thus begins Chapter 2: The Manipulative and The Subservient. Unfortunately, at the same time, I have to put an end to this post. I ended up extending it by like five hours, and I still have to throw up a quick Pros & Cons list before it's truly done. Don't get me wrong! I really enjoy the game, and I'd actually prefer to keep on playing on. I honestly probably will, but I won't be typing up about it. SO! QUICK REVIEW TIME!

     I already described how the game plays and such before, so this will mostly just be Opinionfest 2013. Final Fantasy Tactics - The War of the Lions is a very fun tactical RPG done in the Final Fantasy style. It was the first in the Ivalice Alliance series of games. (Released before they even created that label though.) It offers a vast and rich world of Final Fantasy-ness. There's more than enough to do, and you can easily waste a hundred hours in the game without trying. I could go on and on here, but I'll organize it into Pros & Cons for ease.

PROS

1. Fun and easy to learn tactical RPG.
2. Lots of customization as far as characters and jobs go.
3. Deep and complex story with interesting characters.
4. Challenging gameplay without being overly complex like certain other tactical RPGs. (Namely Disgaea is what I'm talking about here)
5. The remake has some very interesting-looking cutscenes.

CONS

1. Being a tactical RPG, it's really not for everybody.
2. The game can be very difficult and borderline impossible if you don't prepare. Sometimes it is difficult regardless of preparations.
3. Not a TRUE con, but the remake tends to have slowdowns that the original didn't have...But why?
4. The story can be off-putting for those used to the more traditional Final Fantasy storyline that occurs in most of the titles. 
5. Special Guest jobs should be made available to everybody. Even if I have to unlock them...COME ON!
6. Sometimes the in-game number dynamics (Not really the right term) seem to do weird things like some attacks doing half the damage they said. It's probably supposed to, but I still find it weird.

If I were to summon it all up, it's a great game, but it isn't for everybody. I'd still highly recommend it, and I'd say go for the PSone version over the PSP remake. I had an enjoyable break from the numbered series, but it's time for me to go back! Starting in May, I will begin the end of my long journey. Final Fantasy XIII, I am coming for you!


Ending Point - Beginning of Chapter 2 at Orbonne Monastery.
Current Party -

• Ramza - Level 14 / Knight (Level 7) with Mettle (Ramza's Squire command)
• Reynard - Level 14 / Thief (Level 3) with Fundaments (Squire)
• Cyriac - Level 14 / Summoner (Level 4) with Time Magicks 
• Baderon - Level 14 / Monk (Level 5) with Arts of War (Knight)
• Arlette - Level 14 / White Mage (Level 7) with Fundaments
• Fridgia - Level 15 / Black Mage (Level 6) with Items
• Glenda - Level 14 / Knight (Level 6) with Fundaments
• Ladd - Level 8 / Squire (Level 1) with Black Magick
• Alicia - Level 8 / Knight (Level 3) with Items
• Lavian - Level 8 / Knight (Level 3) with Items

Guest Members -

• Gaffgarion - Level 10 / Fell Knight Level 1 with Black Magicks
• Agrias - Level 10 / Holy Knight Level 1 with Black Magicks

Goals Accomplished - Played through the first Chapter of Final Fantasy Tactics - The War of the Lions.
Next Goals - Start Final Fantasy XIII. Try to not waste more time on the awesomeness of Tactics.

SIDE NOTE! I'd like to mention briefly that I borrowed any and all images of this post from Final Fantasy Wiki, and in turn, those were borrowed to display freely or whathaveyou from Final Fantasy Tactics OR the remake Final Fantasy Tactics - The War of the Lions. Either way, they aren't mine in any way beyond simply displaying them to show stuffs off.

~May the Crystals Guide Me~