Gameblogging: FFXIII-2 (for real)

[sincere]

Are you prepared? I'm going to do it this time. I will actually select New Game this time. slayerofgod suggests that my stupid DLC will be available once I am playing Serah, so we'll see.


The comments will contain some spoilers, but please do not add spoilers of your own.

Comments

[sincere]

Serah is having dreams about Lightning kicking ass. Can't say that I blame her. Then her house is hit by a meteor, and her clothes transformed from Schoolgirl to Skankovitch.

[sincere]

Disclaimer: I don't hate her outfit, I just hate the giant holes in it.

[sincere]

This is the slowest an FFXIII character has ever moved.

[sincere]

Why did they decide to show that Serah can walk places right now, when a meteor crashed outside her house, there's loud crowds freaking out outside, and her clothes magically transformed? This is the time to walk?

Okay, the nitpickiest, done now.

[rainfall]

Summoners garb yeah

--crotch-less pants?

[sincere]

orz I am in despair, even the Summoner's Garb has crotch cutouts

But at least I have it. /burns everyone in a fire

[rainfall]

WE HAVE TO CONTROL SERAH'S THOUGHTS

I GUESS SHE CAN'T HAVE THEM ON HER OWN

badumtish

[canavasary]

/dead

[sincere]

What, what is going on. Serah wonders what's going on, and then I have the following options:

"Was that a vision of the future?"
"Am I still dreaming?"
"A message from Lightning?"
"Is someone coming here?"

[sincere]

I especially like "Is someone coming here," which is, of course, the most natural assumption to make when you dream about your sister fighting, experience a meteor crash, and then your clothes change.

[rainfall]

Now the game trusts you to jump! GASP

[sincere]

I had to walkjump very slowly over an obstacle, and now Serah runs.

[sincere]

LIVE TRIGGER AGAIN! Serah rushes (for once) outside and then the scenery distorts and becomes wacky and foreign. She wonders what happened to the village, where is she, and my options are:

"Is everything I remember a lie?" (wtf, this isn't a sign you're on the Truman Show)
"Is this still a dream?"
"Is this the future?" (why would you think that?)
"Have I died?"

[canavasary]

I'm starting to wonder about Serah.

[sincere]

Snow's boobtacular friend Lebreau is kind of awesome. "SUCK IT UP, SERAH, LIGHTNING IS DEAD, SHE CAN'T PROTECT YOU ANYMORE."

Sora is really trying to be Snow Mk II. Dude, she already has a Snow. Back off.

[rainfall]

.... /giggles again

[rainfall]

"Can you fight?"
"If I have to"

I actually kind of respect this answer, in spite of the fact -- or maybe because of the fact -- that Serah was just tripping over her own feet, bursting into tears, and begging Lightning to save her.

(So, Snow. Chopped liver? Ouch.)

And she has now received the moogle!

[canavasary]

Moggle!Weapon = best character in the game so far from my pov ♥

[sincere]

So anyway, Serah hallucinated a miserable landscape, walked around for a while, and then unhallucinated, and her village was being attacked by monsters. Snow's gang is trying to save everyone, but Serah is not yet a protagonist, so she is defenseless and squeaky and Lebreau has to save her.

Then Noel arrives dramatically and is all "IF YOU WANT SERAH YOU MUST GO THROUGH ME FIRST" and makes a speech about never lying down to wait to die, which I guess is the same thing as being a defenseless civilian. He gives her the mooglebow and we fight.

[sincere]

Three ATB gauges feels so tiny. Still clearing the beach.

[rainfall]

Heehee.

[sincere]

Noel carries a wounded Lebreau off the beach like a goddamn man. /swoons /ships it??

[sincere]

omfg the bow turned back into a moogle

[rainfall]

It's a good thing Sora doesn't have any pesky knowledge or anything.

Serah: I believed Noel in spite of how obviously it was all nonsense because of my desperate grief and need for counseling.

... :|a So, everyone thinks Lightning = Vanille/Fang...?

[sincere]

Okay, so everyone thinks that Lightning is the one who turned into the crystal pillar that stopped cocoon's fall, and they tell Serah that she hallucinated any encounters with Lightning that happened afterward; that Lightning is dead. Bummer.

[canavasary]

Wait, what? But... but they were all there when she uncrystalized.

[sincere]

Cocoon is this immense, gorgeous glowy thing. It's beautiful. But I would not want to have windows facing it at night. You would never get to sleep.

[sincere]

LIVE TRIGGER! Noel's response to Serah wanting to know more about wtf is he doing here having just met Lightning is met with "Curiosity killed the cat, you know." Is he threatening us?

"Did you really see Lightning?"
"Tell me about Valhalla." (Did you or did you not dream the cutscene where he arrived four minutes before it exploded?)
"You're a hunter?"
"Where are you from?"

I don't think Serah should care more about the mysterious baggy-pantsed stranger than Lightning, so Lightning it is.

[sincere]

"What did she look like? What was she wearing?" That's your priority, Serah.

I'm just being silly, she wanted to verify that he saw the same thing she saw in the dream. Although this is a stupid thing because it's assuming that's the only thing I might want to ask about Lightning.

[sincere]

Noelsora is wearing motherfucking Hammer pants. Give me strength.

[sincere]

Tutorial on how to get into battles. I twitch a little because apparently I'm on a timer; if I attack the enemy reallyfast, I get an advantage, and if I wait, it attacks me first and I don't get a retry option. This offends my naturally wary nature!

[sincere]

Noel: I didn't think Cocoon would be that beautiful. It's exactly like in the legend.

He's from the futuuuuure. In the future we all wear Hammer pants.

[sincere]

LIVE TRIGGER! Noel is staring at Cocoon "like he's seeing it for the first time", which of course he is, did you not just hear him?

"My sister is there." For those of us who believe the word of strangers that Lightning is in a pillar under Cocoon over Serah's own dream and Noel's own word that Lightning is in Valhalla. How stupid...?
"Not used to seeing Cocoon?"
"What do you mean, in the legend?"
"You seem a bit shaken."

Legend all the way.

[sincere]

There's an end battle pose where Serah's weapon poofs back into a moogle and leaps into her arms adorably. I forgive you, game.

[sincere]

Datalog staring intermission.

The game just explained to me what roles Snow's minions play in NORA ("right hand man!" "mechanical genius!") and Lebreau is just down as their cook.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much when this is a 2 out of 2 for FFXIII on the "main character is female" slate, but. I still do a little bit.

[rainfall]

Selectively intelligent characters make me sulky.

I'm a little confused about Serah's entire attitude towards Noel right now; her questions confirm that he's really from the dream, and she seems confused that a guy who came from VALHALLA might not have seen Cocoon before. I mean, believing that he's from Valhalla doesn't have to mean you believe he's from the future -- but it's a place that is NOT here... how hard is it to imagine that Cocoon might not be visible from every corner of the globe...?

I'd be less bugged by this if she hadn't said thirty seconds ago that she believed everything Noel told her completely. I get that what she really meant by that was I BELIEVED HIM ABOUT LIGHTNING BECAUSE I WANT LIGHTNING TO BE ALIVE, but even that's undercut by the dialogue option that results in, "Maybe you really DID see her!"

Maybe? Maybe?

[sincere]

I did choose the option that, in retrospect, was doubting him. I just think it was stupid that the option was there, and the only option addressing the fact that he met Lightning.

[sincere]

Mog really, really wants me to know when treasure spheres are around. It's cute.

[sincere]

Never mind. He isn't actually that useful. He really, really wanted me to go find a plot relevant treasure sphere, but he didn't care so much when it was just a sphere with a librascope in it.