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Branded
-I can’t loot treasure spheres with nearby enemies. Makes sense, so I don’t avoid tough fights with a loot ‘n’ scoot.
-The fal’Cie don’t spell out l’Cie Foci. Just give a hazy image.
-Everyone saw a vision of “Ragnarok.” A giant monster destroying the city.
-The datalog for Ragnarok implies this image could be from the past or future. It shows me a clearer shot of the monster. Looks like it has multiple arms and flowing light tentacles behind it.
-Sazh interprets that since they’re Pulse l’Cie, Cocoon’s enemies, we have to help/summon the monster. Snow thinks we should save Coon, per Serah’s wishes.
I don’t think either is right, but I’ll bet Snow is closer in the specific sense that I doubt we’ll be asked to do evil. Like, I think Sazh will be okay in the end with whatever our Focus ends up as.
-Still not sure about how to upgrade weapons. I assume that comes later, but…
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Paradigm – Datalog
-I can craft my own paradigms! Not stuck with the first two.
-The game suggests using a Sentinel-centric party to counter lots of enemies or tough enemies, and swapping to a party with more offensive roles to finish things off.
-Commandos and ravagers are both offensive specialists. I’m a bit confused on the differences, so I’m gonna take a bit to dig in.
Commando Lightning.
-COMs use physical and magic attacks while RAVs use just magic.
-Both interact with the chain gauge and… aha! The gauge and the bonus are different things.
Chain Gauge: Landing successful attacks charge the enemy’s chain gauge. It slowly drains, but continuing to attack drives the “chain bonus” higher.
Chain Bonus: The percentage of damage dealt by each attack.
I assumed the gauge’s only value was to stagger the enemy when full, but that seems to be just an ending bonus.
[Non-rhetorical question: Is this right? Like, if the gauge is at 100% and later 150% but the enemy isn’t staggered, do we do 100% and then 150% bonus damage at those points? Or is it something else?]
[Non-rhetorical question: is there any difference between boosting the chain gauge and chain bonus? Like, can you do one without the other, or do they always boost proportionally to each other?]
Sentinel Snow.
-COM attacks slow the rate of decay. RAVs drive up the chain bonus (and chain gauge) disproportionately to their damage.
-They also have a role bonus. The character in that role deals extra physical and magical damage. Allies get a reduced bonus.
-RAVs can combine different abilities to significantly boost enemy chains. Dunno what this combination means yet.
-Striking at elemental weaknesses further boosts chain bonuses. I’ll watch for that.
-Each role has a bonus it grants to other party members. [Non-rhetorical question: do these bonuses stack? Like, in a RAV-RAV-COM party, does the COM gain bonuses from each RAV?]
-Sentinels and medics are more straightforward. Tanks and healers.
Medic Vanille.
-I like how the star system incentivizes getting away from always relying on a healer. The less I use medics, the more damage I do, the more starts I get, the better the loot.
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Paradigm Decks
-I can set up to six “decks.” Large enough to account for a variety of situations, small enough that I don’t have to spend half of combat scrolling through menus. *glares at FFXI*
-They have pre-set names and descriptions for paradigm! Makes sense, with only so many combos.
-Each deck also gives the party members different ability and target prioritization.
-A few sample paradigms:
Relentless Assault (COM – RAV – RAV): One target at a time. Use when I won’t get lots of overkill.
Ravager Sazh.
Solidarity (COM – SEN – MED): The safest/recovery option.
Tri-disaster (RAV-RAV-RAV): Aggressive chain gauge builder.
I don’t quite know what this “RAVs combine their attacks” means yet, but I assume it’s something like one’s casting fire and the other’s casting ice, and the result is more than the sum of its parts.
[Later edit: I had a lot more here initially. I went through every available combo, theorizing about which specific situation I should use each paradigm for. It overwhelmed and confused me though, so I’m going to try to keep it simple.
Basically:
-COM: Single-target and damage boosting.
-RAV: Magic-specific damage and attack chain building.
-SEN: Protective tanking.
-MED: Heal up.
Use more of each role depending on the specific need. But it also depends so much on who’s in my party at the time and what their strengths, roles, and abilities are. I’ll try to be fluid.]
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Crystarium
-This looks like XIII’s main leveling system.
-I immediately like how characters can develop in a narrow window. Lightning can be a Commando or Ravager, but not a Medic. (Maybe that comes later. I kind of hope not.)
-The art is frigging cool! The layout strongly reminds me of FFX’s sphere grid.
-CP = crystogen points. I earn them through combat and use them to progress along the skill path.
-Abilities only apply in the specific role. Stat bonuses apply across roles.
-I’m not sure how much to specialize. I’ll lean towards giving each party a couple of roles, but it’ll depend on how much CP I have to spare.
-I can gain levels in a specific role. Dunno how. I capped out Lightning’s first COM tier and don’t yet know how to unlock the next, so I’ll assume that gets introduced later.
-Gonna start building Lightning as COM/RAV, Snow as SEN, Vanille as MED. But again, this is very early. I’ll see how the system feels and plays.
Calling this session here. This was a lot of mechanical stuff to process, a lot of questions I’m starting to grapple with. I’ll progress the story next time.
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Next time: Continuing in Lake Bresha.
