Note: it’s been a little while since I last played, so forgive my rustiness on story and mechanics.]
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Yaschas Massif – 01X AF
-First, I want to use my new mog toss on that frigging treasure that’s eluded me here.
-FINALLY! Got an “Old Battery.” This is needed for “Amur’s Sphere,” for the worker in 10 AF who needs it for some retro gaming or w/e.
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Yaschas Massif – 010 AF
-I bring it to him, and he says he’s collecting the old stuff because he’s a time traveler too! A paradox threw him into the future. But he doesn’t want to leave this time period; he married, settled down.
-The fragment lore seems unrelated. Lenora’s Garage has been running into tech issues getting materials delivered, so they borrowed space on the Moogleworks system.
“Say, wouldn’t it be wild if that shop was run by a real live moogle?” Well, now I’m 100% sure that it is.
Hee! That’s so cool to learn that Lenora is actually a person. She also says she doesn’t care much about this tech trouble since she only started her business as a hobby. I def know folks like that.
[Later edit: the only relation I can see between the lore and the fragment is that both are about tech stuff.]
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New Bodhum – 003 AF
-Last time I was in New Bodhum, I had reset the place with a gate closing and only got a little ways into the replay. Came back here to get back up to speed, but it was already up to speed.
[Non-rhetorical question: when I close a gate, do I have to finish the place in one go? Why didn’t it make me pick up from halfway through the zone replay? Not that I’m complaining![
-Gadot meets me at this gate. [Later edit: I had to edit this. I accidentally typed “Wakka” instead of Gadot. I don’t blame myself at all. I have to imagine that Gadot’s design very deliberately used Wakka’s as an influence.]
We’ve only been gone from his perspective for a couple of hours and he notices how different we seem. That confirms for him that Noel was telling the truth about time travel.
-The NORA members in town recognize I’ve been gone a while, but that’s it. “Come back to say hi every once in a while!”
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Bresha Ruins – 005 AF
-A new marker appears on my map, to use Mog near the dormant Atlas. Glad the game guides me there.
-OMG BRILLIANT!! CHOCOLINA SELLS GYSAHL GREENS HERE! I had been out of stock for a while.
-I toss poor Mog above Atlas and he finds me a Holding Cell key. This lets me unlock the barred door from the zones start.
-Deeper in is an Army Comm Device from the old Sanctum Army. As I open is, Noel says, “Oh… so that’s where…” What do you know about this? Did you fight in the Sanctum Army at some point in your time travel days?
I doubt it. He first saw Cocoon with us. Maybe I just misheard, and it was a passing soldier instead of Noel. Or I’m just misunderstanding something badly.
-There’s a gate here that needs another wild artefact. Don’t have one available at the moment.
-OHO!!! There was a guard earlier whose comms were being messed with by a signal identical to his own. This device must be some alternate realilty version that slipped in here via paradox.
-The new fragment lore is a journal entry. Someone in NORA talking about Serah’s departure. I think it’s from the woman in the group whose name I can’t remember right now. She wrote that Serah is the one who used to do all the cooking, and now that other woman is the house cook.
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Yaschas Massif – 01X AF
-Before I go through another gate in the Sunleth Waterscape, there’s this one last thing I want to check out. I want to take another lap – mounted – through the zone to find the third of those colored crystals.
-No luck. I did a full lap of the zone without Mog’s bobble lighting up even once.
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Sunleth Waterscape – 300 AF
-There are two gates available here. I start with the one near the big flan, using my Thundering Artefact.
-But Snow’s not coming with?
NOEL: “For every road, there’s a different gate. Somehow, I don’t think this one is yours.”
-Snow of course laughs this off… but a barrier blocks him from entering.
How did Noel know that? Random time travelly intuition? This feels sort of random.
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The Archylte Steppe – Year Unknown
-The intro screen tells me there are 12 possible fragments here. Big zone.
-No time is given. Going to the past? I guess not. The warp screen says “??? AF,” not “BF.”
-This place looks like a smoggy mess. Are we in the Twilight World?
-We immediately see a group of chocobo riders, hunting urdimmu.
-OOH, I wonder… will Titan be here?
-LOLOL THEY HAVE A RED CACTUAR STATUE – Why is it red? Why a statue?
-New primer, “Living on the Steppe.” Life is harsh here so I should build my reputation by helping hunters with their sidequests.
-Loving this music! Has a steady, primal feel.
-Chocolina sells more Gysahl Greens. Good. I won’t need to go back to Bresha Ruins for these.
-We meet a dude named Tipur. The prey is scarce here, but that’s a recent event.
This storm scared the game away, and hunters who investigated the storm never returned.
That sounds like the central mystery of this zone.
-Our first task to prove ourselves – and thus gain more info – is to drive off some goblins.
-There’s a gizmo around the camp. No clue what it does, but it looks high tech.
-The chocobos here are different from usual. They have tentacular jowls, almost like a coeurl.
-The red cactuar turns out to be a waystone that ports me back to camp. Super handy in a zone this big.
-New lore fragment, “Tablet of Memory”:
“Valhalla is connected to every age, every timeline. When the seeress of the Farseers gazes into the future, Valhalla is at the heart of the vision.”
The seeress can also send her “inner voice” through Valhalla and to a time and place of her choosing.
“However, only those with great chaos in their hearts are able to hear the words of the seeress.”
I’m more confused than ever about the role and meaning of chaos in the world of XIII-2, but at least this hints at why Yeul has such a strong connection to Caius, whose name is basically “Chaos” and who turns into Chaos Bahamut.
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Next time: solving the nomads’ goblin problem.
