Summary: The full party reunites aboard the Palamecia and pushes towards the bridge. Choosing members for my core party.
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Luck Be a Lady
-Switch back to Team Fang. They see the Code Purple.
-Whew! Quite a gauntlet I just had to fight through, a roundabout.
-I really dig the biomechanical look of all these enemies, like the vespids.
-Perspective change to the Primarch and Nabaat. He sits stoic in his throne as news of our progress reaches them as she freaks out. “We’re at Code Yellow. Wait, Code Blue?”
Too many codes lol. She breaks her glasses in anger.
PRIMARCH: “Desperate times demand flexibility. Code White.” Does this mean he’s stepping up to the plate? He did say before that he’s a lead-from-the-front guy.
-Vanille and Sazh fight through an engine room and then back to Team Fang.
-The ship is decelerating.
-Btw, where’s Snow in all this? I can’t switch my battle team to add him in.
-This area, the Starboard Weather Deck, has SO MANY ENEMIES! I can duck through trenches to avoid them, though that feels weird. I’m used to fighting as much as possible for xp, but not this many.
-Boss time. A yellow winged creature, the Kalavnika Striker.
I slow it, curse it, protect ourselves against lightning, and it goes down pretty quick.
-It swings around for another pass, and crashes into the ship.
-And out pop Vanille and Sazh!
-The full party takes on the Striker and it goes down again.
-YAY VANILLE AND FANG REUNION
-Fang quickly inspects Vanile’s butt. For her brand. Ahem. Yes, for her brand. She’s still got time.
-I’m 99% sure they’ll probably end up just sisters, but still holding out hope this is a canonically queer couple in the main party of an FF game. Maybe? Please?
-So what’s the plan now that we’re all together?
LIGHTNING: “We’re gonna take down the Sanctum and give Cocoon back to its people.”
I’m not so sure. Unlike, say FFVI’s Gestahlian Empire, much of Cocoon seems supportive of the Sanctum. Purged populations aside.
Maybe Lightning hopes that without Sanctum’s propaganda, things will be different.
-More of these flying XII Zodiark-looking beasts soar overhead when Fang tells Vanille to “go fish… Gran Pulse-style.”
[Later edit: I wonder if this heralds more of these beasts down on Pulse. Probably not – more likely it’s just badass encouragement from one Pulsian to another.]
It’s awesome. She latches her staff’s tendrils onto a flyer and pulls it in. We’ve got a ride.
-And there’s that white owl again, watching us.
What are you dude? Are you related to the Primarch’s “Code White?”
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Luck Be a Lady
-Switch back to Team Fang. They see the Code Purple.
-Whew! Quite a gauntlet I just had to fight through, a roundabout.
-I really dig the biomechanical look of all these enemies, like the vespids.
-Perspective change to the Primarch and Nabaat. He sits stoic in his throne as news of our progress reaches them as she freaks out. “We’re at Code Yellow. Wait, Code Blue?”
Too many codes lol. She breaks her glasses in anger.
PRIMARCH: “Desperate times demand flexibility. Code White.” Does this mean he’s stepping up to the plate? He did say before that he’s a lead-from-the-front guy.
-Vanille and Sazh fight through an engine room and then back to Team Fang.
-The ship is decelerating.
-Btw, where’s Snow in all this? I can’t switch my battle team to add him in.
-This area, the Starboard Weather Deck, has SO MANY ENEMIES! I can duck through trenches to avoid them, though that feels weird. I’m used to fighting as much as possible for xp, but not this many.
-Boss time. A yellow winged creature, the Kalavnika Striker.
I slow it, curse it, protect ourselves against lightning, and it goes down pretty quick.
-It swings around for another pass, and crashes into the ship.
-And out pop Vanille and Sazh!
-The full party takes on the Striker and it goes down again.
-YAY VANILLE AND FANG REUNION
-Fang quickly inspects Vanile’s butt. For her brand. Ahem. Yes, for her brand. She’s still got time.
-I’m 99% sure they’ll probably end up just sisters, but still holding out hope this is a canonically queer couple in the main party of an FF game. Maybe? Please?
-So what’s the plan now that we’re all together?
LIGHTNING: “We’re gonna take down the Sanctum and give Cocoon back to its people.”
I’m not so sure. Unlike, say FFVI’s Gestahlian Empire, much of Cocoon seems supportive of the Sanctum. Purged populations aside.
Maybe Lightning hopes that without Sanctum’s propaganda, things will be different.
-More of these flying XII Zodiark-looking beasts soar overhead when Fang tells Vanille to “go fish… Gran Pulse-style.”
[Later edit: I wonder if this heralds more of these beasts down on Pulse. Probably not – more likely it’s just badass encouragement from one Pulsian to another.]
It’s awesome. She latches her staff’s tendrils onto a flyer and pulls it in. We’ve got a ride.
-And there’s that white owl again, watching us.
What are you dude? Are you related to the Primarch’s “Code White?”
-We ride the beast closer to the Palamecia’s bridge and hop off.
-FANG to VANILLE: “We’re still gonna have our talk, yeah?”
I NEED BACKSTORY ASAP, GAME. PLZ THX.
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Party Review
-Now I can swap battle teams and customize my own. What do I want as my main group? Hm.
-So roles. I find the least use for Sentinel currently. Maybe if I find an area-effect provoke, or against niche bosses, but Snow’s out for the moment.
-Ravagers are situational, depending on enemy weaknesses. What are some of my choices?
LIGHTNING: Thundara, Watera, plus thunder/water physical.
HOPE: Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Watera. No physical
SNOW: Frost and water physical
SAZH: Fira, Aerora, plus fire and thunder physical.
VANILLE: Fira, Aerora.
-For medics, Lightning is okay but not a primary choice. Vanille and Hope are good here.
-Just as with Ravager, synergist and saboteur are situational. What’s good about each party member?
Synergists:
HOPE: Protect, shell, veil (against statuses), and elemental defense buffs.
SAZH: Haste (!!), bravery, faith, vigilance, elemental attack buffs.
I like Sazh more for everyday fighting. Haste is just so flipping good.
Saboteurs:
VANILLE: Phenomenal stuff! Deprotect, deshell, imperil.
FANG: Slow, curse.
This is tough. Slowga is great, but I like Vanille’s kit a bit more.
-Decision time. Lightning’s definitely in, because I adore her as a protag (let alone her raw combat strength). I want one party member with sab, the other with syn, and one of them with medic.
SYN OPTIONS: Hope (medic) or Sazh
SAB OPTIONS: Vanille (medic) or Fang
Going with Sazh and Vanille for now.
Initial paradigm set-up.
-But it really is just “for now.” I ADORE the way FFXIII divides up abilities between characters so that each of them has a place, each has a reason.
It’s something I’ve yearned for in many past FF games. How much better would FFVII have been with this sort of mechanic division to incentivize me to develop each character?
Super happy with this.
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Luck Be a Lady (continued)
-The next area, the Bridge Access, is a complicated network of platforms and stairs. I choose to explore every platform rather than zipping through the middle. Rewarded with some solid treasure.
-I’m starting fights now in Bully (COM-SYN-SA rather than Relentless Assault (COM-RAV-RAV). Fantastic against tougher fights, but effective too even in smaller, shorter fights.
Buffs and debuffs are way more impactful than I’d given them credit.
-WOOOHOO! Got my first star-quality item. Belladonna Wand capped after level 20.
-Upgrading it with Uraninite. Let’s see what happens.
-Changed to Malboro Wand (ew). Improved Debuffing II instead of just Improved Debuffing. And the stat hit is extremely minor for the transformed weapon.
-Having selected a core party helps me focus my weapon upgrades. Currently working on Lightning’s Gladius, Vanille’s Malboro Wand, and Sazh’s Deneb Duellers.
-I regret most of my choices with regards to upgrading weapons. Vanille’s Malboro Wand has that awesome debuff improver, but most seem to just be stat sticks. If I could do it again, I’d wait until I had an interesting modifier.
-Still hoping that the basic weapons have cool transformations.
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Next time: to the bridge.
