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A Common Goal
-I move forward and immediately face a double Humbaba pack. Y’know what? I don’t need this. I’m skipping this.
NEVER MIND, FUCK THAT, LET’S DO THIS
GOT EM!!! Used a Deceptisol to take one out (they’re very easy when hit pre-emptively) and stayed in Tri-Disaster (triple RAV) so that the other one was nearly staggered when it reached the second stage.
-I reach Edenhall. Bubbles or crystals float in the air. That last analect makes me wonder if those are actually souls. Feels sorta lifestreamy.
-OH! Maybe we’re seeing up close what looked like it was leaking out of Cocoon.
-Dysley’s face appears large above us. He taunts us that this is Cocoon’s torment, and the Maker will return.
-Barthandelus keeps taunting us to go up top where he waits. Why though? Doesn’t he want us to stop so Cavalry kills Orphan and the Maker returns? Why does he need us?
-Gonna try taking on one of the big turtles outside the hall.
it didn’t work lol
-That same Adamantoise starts to walk into Edenhall and falls through the floor. Poor guy. The architecture wasn’t built with world-shaking monstrosities in mind.
-The inside of Edenhall is like a giant, modern airport in its feel.
-So Eden is in here, and Orphan, “the battery.” I wonder if we’ll get to talk to Eden. I would be shocked if we got to talk to Orphan. She sounds kind of inert, more like Atomos than Barthandelus.
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Misjudged Benevolence
-A squad of soldiers up ahead all of a sudden gets transformed into hulking Cie’th.
SAZH: “Just a reminder that we’re all on borrowed time.”
These new Cie’th are called “Sacrifice.” Fuck the fal’Cie, example #704.
-nonnonono – they can cast Death. That’s scarier here than in most games with the leader system. If my leader gets hit, I lose.
-At the end of a hall waits a big scorpion mech, with dead Cie’th nearby. Rosch’s Proudclad.
-It obliterates me. The Proudclad entered an “aerial defense mode” and bombed me with retaliatory strikes.
-They’re “retaliatory.” Maybe I don’t attack when it goes into that phase.
-WHEEEW!!! That strategy worked out. He never retaliated as long as I just healed and buffed then.
-The next challenge in the fight is basically Rosch’s limit break phase. He healed to full, then took much more damage while dealing much more. I constantly had to swap between Relentless Assault (COM RAV RAV), Tri-Disaster (RAV RAV RAV), Diversity (COM RAV MED), and Convalescence (MED SYN MED).
-Rosch steps out of the mech, bleeding. He sees his soldiers turned Cie’th around him.
ROSCH: “Under fal’Cie orders, I’ve orchestrated mass murder. All to answer the fears of a panicked populace.” Major regret from this dude.
-He thought the fal’Cie still knew best for Cocoon. “But it seems I misjudged their benevolence.”
-This game has done a great job of making very few true villains.
-Rosch gets on his com channels, and finally calls off the l’Cie operations.
“All units should focus their efforts on evacuating the civilian population. I do not issue this order as an absolute. You are free to make the choice.”
…I get where he’s coming from, and I’m happy to welcome him to Team Free Will, but this seems like one of those cases where he SHOULD issue the order as an absolute.
-We walk on, and the camera stays with him. He sits there among the wreckage of his morphed, dead soldiers. Two Pulsian behemoths approach him. He readies a grenade.
“This is the end – the end which I have chosen!”
RIP Rosch. We feel the explosion beyond.
-New shop access, to Eden Pharmaceuticals. It RULES. I can buy shrouds and libras.
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The Cradle Will Fall
-I head to the elevator which gives me an ominous question: “Descend into the heart of Edenhall?” Yes.
-The next area is the Edenhall Reliquary, Orphan’s Cradle.
-It’s a beautiful room too, in a “church that’s probably evil” way.
-Cavalry must be up ahead. Sacrifices wander towards us, their leftovers.
-The stained glass suddenly crashes in as light emanates from the angel statue in front of us.
-uhhhhhh this is weird. Are we inside a hard drive now?
-This area is “Orphan’s Cradle: The Nascent Throne.”
-A trio of beings stand around us. They look like spindly angels with giant sundials on their backs.
I assume they’re fal’Cie of some sort. So many of these creatures make me think of the Cenobites.
-They summon gates! One’s a gate to Gran Pulse. A gift from Barthandelus. And I legit thank him.
-WHEW! It gives me the chance to warp back to Gran Pulse. I take it. This feels like my chance to go back and try for more Cie’th stones and see what I missed before finishing the game.
-I’m now in chapter 13. 13 days, 13 series entries, 13 chapters. The beginning of the end.
-Datalog also gives me some details on Orphan’s Cradle. It’s a pocket dimension created by Eden at Barthandelus’ command. It sits at Cocoon’s center.
“The sea of data flowing through Eden has materialized as physical matter, forming the shell that shelters the sleeping Orphan in a space that hovers between reality and dream.”
Now I see why it looked like a hard drive.
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Next time: Back to Gran Pulse for more hunts and exploration before the final push.
