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The Fal’Cie Awaits
-Snow and Gadot advance towards Vestige.
-Each weapon has an experience bar, but Wild Bear is still at 0/300. I hope I learn soon how weapon experience works.
-The two hijack some sweet hoverbike and meet up with NORA. I’d wrongly assumed most died in the attack. (This isn’t an FFXIV thing where I clearly saw them die and now they’re back. I had just assumed.)
-Vanille and Hope are here too.
-Snow wants to help the dead mother’s kid, but has no idea who he is. He could ask I suppose, but that would be awkward. “Hey, any of you see your mom just take a dive?”
-Gadot will stay behind while Snow heads off to the Vestige. Lol I kind of like Gadot.
-Throughout some jokey NORA goodbyes, Hope looks on. He wants to approach Snow, maybe to ask about his mom, but he can’t do it.
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Hope and Vanille
-AND NOW I’M PLAYING AS HOPE AND VANILLE!! I was sure we’d stick with Snow. Loving these shifts.
-Unlike Gadot, I can view details on both Hope and Vanille. Likely regular party members. I expected that of Vanille, not of Hope.
-Hope has weak stats. Low health, low strength and magic. He wields an “Airwing” for sport hunting. No pro soldier, this one.
-The Airwing boosts defense when at critical HP. Does it last even once he’s healed? If so, I’ll hold off on healing until he’s low. FFVIII taught me to use low-health power spikes when possible.
If not, it’s a nice passive boost to compensate for his low health.
-Vanille doesn’t have a weapon. And yet she has way more HP than Hope, and a higher ATB gauge level than any prior party member. This, plus her chill attitude when holding the weapon Snow gave her tells me her cheeriness hides a dangerous side.
-A datalog fills me in on Hope’s hesitance to approach Snow: “A boy watches him leave, eyes filled with rage and loathing. To his grief-stricken mind, Snow is responsible for his mother’s death.”
-As I wrote last time, I think Snow bears some responsibility for throwing untrained civilians right into combat.
More importantly, the mother wanted to help. I don’t want to discredit her agency by blaming Snow for her death. There’s split responsibility. The mother stepped up. She volunteered, knew what she was going into, and I don’t want to remove that agency from her.
I also think it’s likely they had no choice, that PSICOM had the only exit blocked off, forcing a fight.
-One survivor still wears the white garb Lightning and Sazh worse. Is that prison gear? I thought so, but the survivor something the survivor says makes me wonder if there’s a religious element involved:
“I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me.”
-Vanille and Hope hijack a NORA in a hoverbike to head towards Vestige away from a protesting Gadot.
HOPE: “That thing in there… it could make us l’Cie.”
I had assumed l’Cie was just short for fal’Cie, but maybe a l’Cie is a thrall of a fal’Cie.
-I assume Hope is going to confront Snow, but why does Vanille want to get to the Vestige?
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Into the Vestige
-They come in for a rough landing on the Vestige.
HOPE: “Even soldiers know not to go near the fal’Cie. You become a Pulse l’Cie, and you’re finished.”
-I really like Vanille’s accent and voice actor.
-She finds a staff nearby, or maybe a giant slingshot/lacrosse stick that fire stuff?
-It’s a “Binding Rod.” It casts out high-tensile wires, like a taser.
-Datalog confirms my theory. “Pulse l’Cie are the doomed servants of the fal’Cie who created them, despised and feared by the people of Cocoon.”
-This clarifies Sazh’s comment to a panicked prisoner. He told her he’s not l’Cie and she felt relieved.
-L’Cie can use magic, “but also bear the burden of completing a task known as a Focus for their fal’Cie master.”
Okay, new theory: I no longer think Vanille is fal’Cie. I think she’s l’Cie. That’s why she’s so comfortable with the idea of coming aboard this Vestige.
-I get access to a new shop, B&W Outfitters.
-Now comes a question: how do I know what items I should sell and what I should hold onto?
There are symbols on the left of the components, a tech icon and a beast-part icon.
-For now, I’ll just sell the Credit Chip. Its description implies it’s meant to be sold. I’ll hold onto the rest until I learn about the upgrade system.
-Hope’s hunting weapon is a boomerang! I love it.
-A new enemy, “Zwerg Scandroid,” is unusually cute for a mech. It’s got little feets!
-lolol when Vanille runs, she kind of… flounces? Like she’s frolicking through a meadow.
-Ooh, pre-emptive strikes aren’t random! I can sometimes sneak up on an enemy if I attack when outside it’s field of vision (when it wouldn’t get the alert marker above its head).
-There are a couple of other hoverbikes lying around. One must be Snow’s.
-lolol this is such a weird dynamic between hope and Vanille.
HOPE: “omg wtf are we doing here PANIC!”
VANILLE: *huggggz*
-We hear Snow calling out to Serah in the distance. Perspective switch to Snow.
-He flips a switch of some sort, shifting the floating stairs around. This also feeds energy towards a structure at the front of the area.
-Perspective switch to Lightning and Sazh, stuck at a door.
-She kind of whispers to herself, “It was me. This was my fault.” Not sure what that means. Did she somehow initiate the Purge, even as a non-PSICOM?
-She urges Sazh to cover his ears. He runs and does so, expecting a bomb. But no.
LIGHTNING: “I’m so sorry. Please let me in. Please?”
OH SHIT IS SHE TALKING TO THE FAL’CIE? That “This was my fault” wasn’t to herself.
-It listens to her and opens up. Maybe Lightning is l’Cie too for all I know. Or at least on some sort of non-hostile terms with the fal’Cie.
-Datalog: “Did her plea reach the mind of the fal’Cie? Or was another being responsible for opening the portal?” Ah, right. Snow’s energy rerouting could’ve just happened to unlock the door when Lightning apologized.
-There’s a new item type in XIII: shrouds. These items give bonuses at the start of battle. Deceptisol for instance lets me go undetected so I can start with a pre-emptive strike.
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Next time: continuing in the Vestige.
You are correct on what to sell, and pre-emptive strikes heighten the accepted times for ranking by 10%
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