Summary: Back to Lake Bresha 005 AF. Diving into XIII-2’s vast monster ally system, including the horrifying infusion mechanic. Many questions.
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Monster Allies
-Defeated a couple of enemies who turned into crystal. Unlocked a “paradigm pack.”
MOG: “Servant of time, daughter of chaos, unto the world unseen, guide the untamed.” Uhhhh
-Lightning had monsters fighting alongside her in Valhalla. We have the same power.
-I can use different Paradigm Packs to summon monsters. Seems like that instead of a third full party member, we’ll use a rotating array of monster allies.
-I can have three active monsters in my paradigms. For instance, I can bring a Cait Sith healer to supplement my RAV RAV combo. WHAT A COOL FRIGGING SYSTEM!
-Every monster ally has a special “Feral Link” ability, like a monster limit break I can use when a special gauge fills. Chaining attacks or using items on them increases it.
[Non-rhetorical question: does a monster using heals or buffs increase its feral link gauge?]
You have to be kidding me. The Cait Sith’s feral link is called “Kitty Clock.” This is too great.
-I try out Kitty Clock. Cait Sith comes out of his floating sock thingy and whaps at the enemy. I have to do a cinematic action type deal, pressing a button quickly.
[Later edit: I’ve now tried Kitty Clock a few times. I like that it uses the same cinematic action button combo each time, Y + X, but maybe it’s random and I just got a small sample size.]
-“Serah’s ability to summon monsters is another power born from chaos.” Chaos, chaos, everywhere. Especially since Serah’s using it, I have to imagine Caius isn’t gonna be unmitigated evil.
“The summoner seals defeated creatures in crystals, and calls them forth when needed.” Pokemon, straight-up.
-I enhance monsters’ passive abilities through “infusion.” Not sure how I exactly do that.
-If my monster ally is wounded in battle and I swap them out, the replacement monster is also wounded. I actually like this a lot. It removes the incentive to just use up one monster and “full heal” it by swapping it out, encourages me to use my full resources.
Though I wonder – does the feral link gauge reset when I swap monsters?
[Later edit: the game’s solution is kind of elegant. Each monster keeps its feral link gauge through swaps and battles. If Monster A is at 80% and I swap it out, then even if I bring it back out two fights from now, it’ll pick back up at 80%.]
-Defeating an enemy using feral link makes me more likely to capture the monster.
[Non-rhetorical questions: Does this only work if I land the killing blow with Feral Link? If not, does using multiple feral links increase the chance of capturing a monster, or does the benefit cap out after the first feral link?]
-I obtain special “monster materials” from battle that I can use to raise my monster allies. It impacts the kind of bonuses granted. Some might raise the monster’s stamina, or its mana, etc.
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Monster Allies
-Defeated a couple of enemies who turned into crystal. Unlocked a “paradigm pack.”
MOG: “Servant of time, daughter of chaos, unto the world unseen, guide the untamed.” Uhhhh
-Lightning had monsters fighting alongside her in Valhalla. We have the same power.
-I can use different Paradigm Packs to summon monsters. Seems like that instead of a third full party member, we’ll use a rotating array of monster allies.
-I can have three active monsters in my paradigms. For instance, I can bring a Cait Sith healer to supplement my RAV RAV combo. WHAT A COOL FRIGGING SYSTEM!
-Every monster ally has a special “Feral Link” ability, like a monster limit break I can use when a special gauge fills. Chaining attacks or using items on them increases it.
[Non-rhetorical question: does a monster using heals or buffs increase its feral link gauge?]
You have to be kidding me. The Cait Sith’s feral link is called “Kitty Clock.” This is too great.
-I try out Kitty Clock. Cait Sith comes out of his floating sock thingy and whaps at the enemy. I have to do a cinematic action type deal, pressing a button quickly.
[Later edit: I’ve now tried Kitty Clock a few times. I like that it uses the same cinematic action button combo each time, Y + X, but maybe it’s random and I just got a small sample size.]
-“Serah’s ability to summon monsters is another power born from chaos.” Chaos, chaos, everywhere. Especially since Serah’s using it, I have to imagine Caius isn’t gonna be unmitigated evil.
“The summoner seals defeated creatures in crystals, and calls them forth when needed.” Pokemon, straight-up.
-I enhance monsters’ passive abilities through “infusion.” Not sure how I exactly do that.
-If my monster ally is wounded in battle and I swap them out, the replacement monster is also wounded. I actually like this a lot. It removes the incentive to just use up one monster and “full heal” it by swapping it out, encourages me to use my full resources.
Though I wonder – does the feral link gauge reset when I swap monsters?
[Later edit: the game’s solution is kind of elegant. Each monster keeps its feral link gauge through swaps and battles. If Monster A is at 80% and I swap it out, then even if I bring it back out two fights from now, it’ll pick back up at 80%.]
-Defeating an enemy using feral link makes me more likely to capture the monster.
[Non-rhetorical questions: Does this only work if I land the killing blow with Feral Link? If not, does using multiple feral links increase the chance of capturing a monster, or does the benefit cap out after the first feral link?]
-I obtain special “monster materials” from battle that I can use to raise my monster allies. It impacts the kind of bonuses granted. Some might raise the monster’s stamina, or its mana, etc.
-Monsters have growth traits.
EARLY PEAKER: Max level 20, but grows quickly.
WELL-GROWN: Standard growth.
LATE BLOOMER: Capable of getting past level 70.
STRONG/MAGICAL/HEARTY: Strength/magic/HP are easily increased. This is important. I don’t want to waste, say, magic materials on a non-“Magical” monster.
Late Bloomers sound like the way to go. [Later edit: at least, for the most versatile allies like my healing monsters. The more niche monsters – such as ones that only do a specific damage type – I could probably get away with using Well-Grown or even Early Peaker.]
-Each monster has a growth item grade on a scale of 1-5. I have to use grade-appropriate items for each monsters. I read this to mean I can’t use a five-star item on a one-star monster.
Again, I REALLY LIKE THIS! I was afraid I’d have to just save up all my materials for the “good” monsters, but it sounds like the materials that build my newbie monsters are different from those that built the top end monsters. I can safely use my items as I go.
-Bots require mechanical components while beasts require non-mechanical. Like the synthetic/mechanical components in XIII.
-I can customize monsters with adornments. So this is what my Lebreau’s Olive Dye is for.
-“Infusion” lets me go full Shou Tucker, adding one monster’s ability to another monster, consuming the first monster in the process.
Let's infuse!
Monsters have limited numbers of ability slots. I gotta be selective.
-The bestiary shows whether a monster I fought is already tamed, untamed but tameable, or untameable. Good. I won’t have to waste my time farming untameable monsters.
“By continuously infusing a monster with the abilities of a creature with a different role, it will learn a hidden ability.” Gotta remember this, to crossbreed my chimeras.
-XIII-2’s status ailments are similar to XIII, though I see some differences.
-Curse increases wound damage taken.
-Vile increases resistance specifically to Debrave, Defaith, Slow, and Daze.
-Reraise and Regen cannot be dispelled.
-While most status ailments can be cancelled by their counterparts (e.g. Brave cancels Debrave), Haste doesn’t cancel Slow. [Non-rhetorical question: was that the case in XIII also, or is this new?]
[Non-rhetorical question: this is kind of annoying. I can’t seem to find a way to hover over my monsters’ traits to learn what they do. Like, my Cait Sith is a Late Bloomer, Hexproof, and Calm. How do I find out what “Hexproof” and “Calm” mean?
Some of these are easy to guess. Like, Lightningproof tells me the monster is immune to lightning damage, but even here, I don’t know if it’s immune or just resistant. Maybe “Hexproof” means can’t be targeted by any magic? Or not targeted by status abilities?
I’ve spent a while trying to find the tooltip telling me what these mean in game. No luck. Grr.]
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Into the Lake Bresha 005 AF Ruins
We move forward a bit and there’s minor quake. Atlas is active.
-omg I can name my pets from a pre-set list. MUPPY! ETHEL!
Interesting icon choice for a ceramic shard...
-Some parts of the Bresha Ruins are closed off to me. I started to panic a bit (“What am I missing? Why am I so bad at jumping that I can’t get into these areas? Will I forever lose out on secrets if I move on?”] but then remembered the first zone. I’m not (necessarily) missing something. They’ll probably open later.
-This is a rainy, night time zone. It’s a cool atmosphere, but visually distracting and hard to make stuff out.
-There’s another gate here. I need to find the relevant artefact.
-Rumor: former Sanctum government members may be trying to regain power from the provisional government.
-New fragment side mission: Retrieve a stolen experimental drug for the local captain here.
-Live trigger: what might something that doesn’t belong in this time be that can open the portal? I’m taking these a bit more seriously, trying to read them as a puzzle. There are four options:
1) Alyssa. No, she’s from this time.
2) The artefact we used last time. No, that is from a specific time.
3) Us? Too easy. I can’t imagine we just touch it and it opens.
4) Atlas. I think this is it.
Yes! Bingo.
Into the Lake Bresha 005 AF Ruins
We move forward a bit and there’s minor quake. Atlas is active.
-omg I can name my pets from a pre-set list. MUPPY! ETHEL!
Interesting icon choice for a ceramic shard...
-Some parts of the Bresha Ruins are closed off to me. I started to panic a bit (“What am I missing? Why am I so bad at jumping that I can’t get into these areas? Will I forever lose out on secrets if I move on?”] but then remembered the first zone. I’m not (necessarily) missing something. They’ll probably open later.
-This is a rainy, night time zone. It’s a cool atmosphere, but visually distracting and hard to make stuff out.
-There’s another gate here. I need to find the relevant artefact.
-Rumor: former Sanctum government members may be trying to regain power from the provisional government.
-New fragment side mission: Retrieve a stolen experimental drug for the local captain here.
-Live trigger: what might something that doesn’t belong in this time be that can open the portal? I’m taking these a bit more seriously, trying to read them as a puzzle. There are four options:
1) Alyssa. No, she’s from this time.
2) The artefact we used last time. No, that is from a specific time.
3) Us? Too easy. I can’t imagine we just touch it and it opens.
4) Atlas. I think this is it.
Yes! Bingo.
-New mechanic: “The Moogle Hunt.” There will occasionally be treasure or
other objects out of phase with this timeline. If I press RB near them,
Mog will do his thing so I can access it.
-Fragment mission: Someone spotted a Cie’th in the tunnels here. Those are rare nowadays. Take it out.
-Serah wonders if we can trust Alyssa. I think we can, but it’s a fair question. She’s kind of using us.
Noel hears this and relates a story of someone who bossed him around when he was a kid. One day, Noel refused. The guy went hunting alone, and Noel never saw him again.
“So now, I just do my best to help out.”
That’s definitely sad, though I feel like he’s drawing the lesson of “let people use you, it’s better than them dying.” Which is not super healthy.
Or maybe he’s just saying to give people the benefit of the doubt and see them asking for your help as a sign of your value, as long as the askers aren’t malicious.
-There’s yet ANOTHER gate deeper in! Either someone has been hiding these, or they suddenly popped in.
Next live trigger. What are the gates and why did they appear? I think they caused the paradox effect.
Or not. Could be the opposite – the paradoxes could be spawning the gates.
Alyssa has been hitting the pot shards.
-Found both capsules in the ruins and returned them, completing the “Unio Mystica” mission.
-The lore from this fragment tells of the Pulse Vestige and how Serah became a l’Cie. She still has magic, even with her brand gone.
“I wonder if the power just stayed inside her after she was cured. Or is it new, from somewhere else?” I’d put money on option B.
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Monster Stuff
-I love how spaced out the spells in monster crystariums are. Like, it’ll take a lot of leveling to get Cait Sith’s next cure spell.
I like this because it encourages me to build a wide roster. Get some key low-level abilities on a bunch of different monsters to use in my toolbox rather than just committing to one. (That was a huge problem I had with weapon upgrades in XIII.)
-Was going to try infusing my Cait Sith with a Pulse Knight, but the Pulse Knight had no passive abilities to transfer. It may still help unlock “hidden abilities” for Cait Sith because of the cross-role thing.
But I’ll try to wait until I either have duplicate Pulse Knights or until there are passive abilities to transfer.
[Non-rhetorical question: Why is my Gremlin’s portrait glowing and animated?]
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Next time: deeper into the Bresha Ruins to find the Cie’th.
-Fragment mission: Someone spotted a Cie’th in the tunnels here. Those are rare nowadays. Take it out.
-Serah wonders if we can trust Alyssa. I think we can, but it’s a fair question. She’s kind of using us.
Noel hears this and relates a story of someone who bossed him around when he was a kid. One day, Noel refused. The guy went hunting alone, and Noel never saw him again.
“So now, I just do my best to help out.”
That’s definitely sad, though I feel like he’s drawing the lesson of “let people use you, it’s better than them dying.” Which is not super healthy.
Or maybe he’s just saying to give people the benefit of the doubt and see them asking for your help as a sign of your value, as long as the askers aren’t malicious.
-There’s yet ANOTHER gate deeper in! Either someone has been hiding these, or they suddenly popped in.
Next live trigger. What are the gates and why did they appear? I think they caused the paradox effect.
Or not. Could be the opposite – the paradoxes could be spawning the gates.
Alyssa has been hitting the pot shards.
-Found both capsules in the ruins and returned them, completing the “Unio Mystica” mission.
-The lore from this fragment tells of the Pulse Vestige and how Serah became a l’Cie. She still has magic, even with her brand gone.
“I wonder if the power just stayed inside her after she was cured. Or is it new, from somewhere else?” I’d put money on option B.
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Monster Stuff
-I love how spaced out the spells in monster crystariums are. Like, it’ll take a lot of leveling to get Cait Sith’s next cure spell.
I like this because it encourages me to build a wide roster. Get some key low-level abilities on a bunch of different monsters to use in my toolbox rather than just committing to one. (That was a huge problem I had with weapon upgrades in XIII.)
-Was going to try infusing my Cait Sith with a Pulse Knight, but the Pulse Knight had no passive abilities to transfer. It may still help unlock “hidden abilities” for Cait Sith because of the cross-role thing.
But I’ll try to wait until I either have duplicate Pulse Knights or until there are passive abilities to transfer.
[Non-rhetorical question: Why is my Gremlin’s portrait glowing and animated?]
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Next time: deeper into the Bresha Ruins to find the Cie’th.
