---
NORA’s Advance
-Something bothers me about Snow’s design. For a rebel, he looks so… idk, fashionable? Like a model cosplaying a rebel.
Same with the other NORA fighters, Gadot and Lebreau. Btw, Gadot looks a bit like Wakka, no?
It’s not a major complaint, just a personal flavor thing. (I have the same issue with much of “American Horror Story.”) It could be just part of the game’s aesthetic I’ll have to adjust to.
-Gadot and a woman named Lebreau join us. We move forward against PSICOM.
-PSICOM is the “Public Security and Intelligence Command,” one of Sanctum’s two main military wings. It’s the special operations unit specifically aimed at fighting Pulse.
-I doubt Lebreau and Gadot will be main party members. I can’t change their equipment or see their status.
-We reach our target, a group of civilians being moved to Pulse. Many of them volunteer to help us fight.
-Most are younger, but one middle aged mother joins us too. I immediately like her.
-A young redheaded woman also takes a weapon and seems to be kind of goofy/playful with it. Which is concerning given that you’re playing with a frigging assault rifle.
“First impression of Snow? All talk.”
Uhhhh is she a Sanctum spy gathering intel? A fal’Cie?
-I’m not sure I agree that he’s all talk, but NORA on the whole seems jollier and more light-hearted on this first impression than I’d expect of a rebel group.
-The new troops head off to fight PSICOM. The mother’s kid, Hope, looks on anxiously.
-We push on and fight a mini-boss, the Beta Behemoth. I can’t do much except attack.
-We’re doing pretty well overall until a gunship appears overhead, raining bullets on the rebels.
-Snow makes a flying leap for a gun… and totally overshoots it lolol. He winds up vulnerable.
-The gunship’s about to blow him away when the mom WRECKS ITS SHIT WITH A BAZOOKA!
I hope we get her as a full party member.
Now that I think about it, has the FF series had an older woman as a main party member? Like, ever?
-NOOOO WTF, she gets blown up like three seconds later. As Hope watches from afar.
Or no, she’s still alive and badly wounded.
-JESUS THIS IS BRUTAL. All the rah-rah enthusiasm from two minutes ago has been turned on its head as the bridge we’re on collapses. Most of NORA and the new volunteers plummet to their deaths below.
-The bridge also sends Snow and the mother down. He’s clinging to the bridge, she’s clinging to him.
MOTHER: “Get him home. Please.” NONONO DON’T KILL HER, COME ON
-Aaaand she dies and falls. All with her son watching.
-The girl - maybe a friend or just a fellow Purge victim – gets Hope moving. Her name’s Vanille.
---
Taste of Defeat
-Scene change to Sazh and Lightning, watching the massacre.
SAZH: “Those people won’t even live long enough to die on Pulse.”
LIGHTNING: “That was the idea.”
The Purge was just an excuse for a slaughter.
-Lightning knew this all along since she had a view from the inside. Sazh is shocked though.
-Never mind. The Purge was all PSICOM, while Lightning was part of the Guardian Corps. But she at least had a better sense of what Sanctum is capable of than Sazh.
-Sazh doesn’t really give a shit about that Guardians/PSICOM distinction right now. Soldiers are soldiers.
SAZH: “How about you? Orders say shoot, you pull the trigger?”
LIGHTNING: “…”
SAZH: “Fine! Forget I asked.”
I really like how Lightning isn’t defending herself here, or really caring about Sazh. Like, it’s not that I think it’s a good thing morally, but it’s interesting to see her aloof like this. She just met this guy after all.
-After a brief fight against a Myrmidon, a giant Sanctum mothership opens up from above and sends a… thing? down. Idk what it is. Looks like an odd, sharp metal structure.
-Snow sees it and says “Serah.” Dunno who Serah is (but I assume it’s a person).
-Sazh sees it as what Lightning’s after. The Pulse fal’Cie is in that structure?
-Scene change to the civilian survivors who didn’t join the fight. Vanille (whose design I like a lot) gives some brief comfort and a hug to Hope before running off.
She’s REALLY upbeat. “Ciao!”
“You said it might you happy when I smiled, didn’t you? But really, I was afraid. I was always afraid.”
…Never mind. The chipper and upbeat personality is a put-on. Verrrry interesting. What’s Vanille’s deal?
Terrible Prediction Time: I think she’s the Pulse fal’Cie who was somehow hiding amongst the people being shipped to Pulse.
-Back to Lightning. She ignores Sazh’s questions and jumps off the bridge, activating her Snappy Zappy grav-unit on the way down.
SAZH: “Damn. If she can do it, so can we.” Uhhh what? Are you gonna let Chocobo give you a ride, all 2 pounds of him?
-HE JUMPS WHATTT
-Oh. Lightning created a grav bubble below that must’ve absorbed and dispersed the energy from his fall, letting him land on it safely. STILL! That had to be a super precise jump my dude!
-That unit looks a lot like a person standing with outstretched arms.
-Back to Snow, helping Gadot up. He’s in a bad way, thinking about everyone who died under his watch. And y’know what? He should feel a bit guilty. He took a bunch of randos right into the teeth of a fight from a traumatic captivity, with no training beyond “GET EM!”
-Snow is haunted by that mother’s words. “’Get him home.’ Get who home?”
-Gadot hints that Snow’s “bride-to-be” is on the ship that Lightning and Sazh went to. That must be Serah. A prisoner?
---
Datalog Updates
-Cocoon’s fear of Pulse is so great that any contact with a Pulsian element immediately renders a Cocoon native suspect and “corrupt.”
This explains how Sanctum felt comfortable enough instigating the Purge.
-Everyone’s heading towards a Pulse Vestige, an artifact that holds the Pulse fal’Cie.
-Ah, I see what happened. The Vestige was just a part of Bodhum for a long time, but only recently was the fal’Cie discovered inside it. I wonder if the fal’Cie is still dormant, or if something about its awakening is what made everyone notice it.
Something I don’t yet get: “[Snow] emerges from his gloom when Gadot reminds him that the fal’Cie is holding a certain young lady captive.”
-The Fal’Cie are powerful and magical. Cocoon’s fal’Cie protect humanity while Pulse’s oppose it.
“Humans who encounter Pulse fal’Cie are cursed, being turned to l’Cie and ordered to destroy Cocoon.” Brainwashing is always fucked up.
-And yet, I’ll withhold judgment. This is under the “History and Myth” datalog. Sanctum could be using this myth to keep people turned against Pulse.
-I had assumed the Beta Behemoth and that first Manasvin Warmech were just pure mechs, but nope.
It’s worse. They’re specially bred, trained, and augmented wildlife. Bioweapons.
-Lightning’s grav thingy is a product of “Antimatter Manipulation Principle (AMP).” Humans can’t use magic usually, so this is the next best thing.
Basically, magitek.
---
Next time: to the Vestige.
Hey!! I'm loving the slow pace at which you are taking this game! Especially since the cutscenes by themselves dont make it very clear what everything is, so you kinda have to read the glossary stuff at this starting point. That is one of the points people criticize a lot. It doesnt receive begginers very well! I partially agree, but I'm also a big Souls fan so I'm super used to only understanding the story after many item description reading and sheer atmospheric clues to understand the story haha
ReplyDeleteFinally, to answer one of your questions, dont stress TOO much about battle ranking. You can get through the game just fine with lots of 3 stars. It only changes the extra loot you'd get from the fight for weapon upgrades. But otherwise, the game will supply you with the bare necessities. Doimg really good is how you go above and beyond.