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Chapter 1
[Non-rhetorical question: the chapter title scrolled in quickly and I missed it. What’s this chapter called?]
-Noel emerges from a rip in the sky… wait, that’s not Noel, that’s a meteor or crystal.
LIGHTNING: “Serah… the truth still survives, but only you remember it.”
[Later edit: we got a lot of divergent histories in this session, but reading this quote again reassures me that the end of XIII really happened, that Serah’s memory is correct.]
-Zoom in on Serah in her bed. Dreaming of Lighting’s battle with Caius.
SERAH: “She was fighting… but I guess it was just a dream.”
-The incoming crystal makes Serah’s body pulse with rosy light, though she doesn’t notice. Strands of time magic appear above her.
-She awakens and finds clothes on her. Clothes she didn’t go to sleep in. More mysteries.
-This game has a datalog. I hope it’s used better than in XIII.
-This music here is FANTASTIC! There’s this clapping in the background that makes it for me.
-Serah looks quite fashionable. I like that bag on her hip.
-There’s an “outfits” menu. I have a default outfit, summoner, white mage, and beachwear. Pretty sure this is purely cosmetic. Which is really cool! The more cosmetic options, the better. There are probably some really rare outfits to find in XIII-2.
-Her only key item is an Eternal Crystal. “A crystal that can only be obtained by those who have played Final Fantasy XIII.” I wonder whether it’ll give me extra cutscenes.
-Inventory capacity of 50? BOOOO!! HISSSSS!!!! Not a fan of capping inventory. (Assuming that's what it is.)
-Ooh, I can jump! I wonder why they chose this instead of XIII’s auto-jump.
-The datalog says that Cocoon is now a “broken shell.” The population has relocated to Gran Pulse.
-New calendar system too. The events of XIII happened in “0 AF.” After fal’Cie?
-The settlement down here is New Bodhum. Snow and Serah are engaged.
-The datalog immediately seems repeating the mistakes of XIII, telling you the details before you see them for yourself.
-This is three years since the events of XIII. Fang and Vanille slumber still in the pillar holding up Cocoon.
“There are some who believe Lightning slumbers alongside them.” This is the biggest current mystery to me. Lightning was freed at the end of XIII, right? So how did she come to be in Valhalla?
-Lightning’s own datalog entry says that “shortly after those events, Lightning ceased to exist in this world. Most believe that she gave her life in return for Cocoon’s salvation.”
I literally had to stop and rewatch the XIII ending on YouTube just now, in case I flat-out missed something important. Like, was I mistaking Lightning for Serah? But nope!
-Serah is now a teacher. NORA’s still a thing.
-This room has two beds, btw. Maybe the second is Snow’s.
-??? “LIVE TRIGGER” = DIALOGUE OPTIONS IN MY FF?
[Later edit and non-rhetorical question: can I ever screw anything up by picking the wrong live trigger choice? Like, if I run into a situation where there’s a serious one and a jokey one, will taking the jokey one ever lock me out of gameplay or key story, or is this largely flavor/RP?]
-This feels like a dream. Things outside get very wibbly-wobbly. Probably after effects of the time portal.
-She sees still images of Nora fighting monsters.
-Then suddenly, everything snaps back into reality. The fighting becomes real.
A monster trying to bust out of a portal.
-The monsters warp in from those timey graphics.
-One is about to get Serah. She yells out for Lightning’s help and MY HEART. These past few years must’ve been tough on Serah.
-She’s saved – but by Lebreau. Then Noel steps in with the crossmoogle. She remembers him from the dream.
-He passes the crossmoogle to her.
-I LOVE NOEL’S WEAPON! It’s like two weapons in one. There’s probably a name for it. A Bloodborne boss, Lady Maria, had the same thing.
-The first enemy we fight is listed as a Rift Beast. Lightning said Noel crossed “the Rift,” so that’s gonna be a thing. How cool would it be if we get FFV crossover, where the Rift that Gilgamesh ended up in connects to here?
-Serah and Noel both have symbols. Noel has two crossed blades and Serah has her bow. Defining weapons.
-Really neat art thing I saw: the status screen art when Serah was alone is different from the art with Serah and Noel together.
-The roles look the same so far. Commando, Ravager, Sentinel.
-The description on Noel’s weapon, Flame Fossil, is intriguing. “A weapon unlike any found in present times, forged to resemble dancing flames.” I’d assumed Noel was a rando. I no longer think that.
-Hee! I just noticed that Noel has those baggy Tidus pants.
-Serah’s crossmoogle is “Starseeker”: “Mog transforms into this versatile weapon.” Seems likely that the weapon will be able to vary between sword and bow.
-Ah, it’s a two-handed sword when Serah runs around the ma.
-Each character starts with four accessory slots. I like.
-Paradigm shift animations are much faster now, which I like.
-Double Trouble (COM COM) splits focus between separate targets, while Slash & Burn (COM RAV) focuses the same target. I should use Double Trouble when taking on a few small, weak enemies, and Slash & Burn when I can take advantage of stagger.
-We fend off the attack. This took the town by surprise.
-The meteorite that started this scenario out landed nearby.
-Lebreau is wounded. (Is it just me, or is Lebreau’s design similar to Lulu?)
-Starseeker transforms into its moogle form. The moogle is designed in an almost grotesquely cute way. Creeps me out a bit tbh.
Not that Serah has any problems with them. SHE BOOPS THEIR BELLY! I feel like this would either be something moogles love or find intensely offensive.
-The moogle wields an interesting time-themed scepter.
-It doesn’t really blow Serah’s mind that Noel knows Lightning. She saw the whole Valhalla thing, and something about it felt more vision than dream.
-This reassures her. She knows Lightning is alive in somewhere called Valhalla. I’m personally not so sure. If I didn’t know Lightning would return in “Lightning Returns” (I guess I don’t know for sure, but seems like a safe assumption), I would’ve assumed Valhalla was the afterlife.
-Serah clearly remembers the reunion we saw at the end of XIII.
“But I’m the only one who ever remembered that. No one believes, they say. It’s just a dream from when I slept in the crystal. An illusion.”
Hm. I trust her memory. Perhaps some sort of memory wipe that just didn’t affect her? There’s precedent for XIII memory wipes, especially around fal’Cie shenanigans. We saw that with Fang post-Ragnarok.
-Lightning apparently turned into the crystal pillar holding up Cocoon. BUT NO SHE DIDN’T, I WAS FREAKING THERE AND SAW HER NOT TURN INTO THE PILLAR!
-Cocoon in the sky is intensely beautiful.
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Next time: checking out the meteor’s impact site.
