Wednesday, May 15, 2019

FFXIII-2 – Part 18: Rotten Tomato

Summary: Finally pushing past the giant flan. The Coliseum. Return to the Void Beyond.

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Sunleth Waterscape, 300 AF

-I’m a bit embarrassed to say I don’t remember where I left off. I’ve been on a Sekiro binge the past few weeks. It’s done now, but it took me a bit to remember.

-Found the gate I need to continue my fight against the giant flan. It needs the Combat Artefact, one tinged with blood.

-I like how chill Snow can be. He’s not overprotective of Serah going off and having adventures.

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Coliseum - ??? AF

-Creepy arena. A booming voice welcomes us here with a “Who dares? Explain this intrusion!”

-The voice is the Arbiter of Time. We don’t see him.

-oh lol nm, yes we do. He’s faded. He darkles; he tincts.



“Until the bell of the goddess tolls, this realm accepts not the living.”

-He’s already pissed that something else is in these halls that doesn’t belong. An artefact perhaps.

-He… surprisingly agrees? Gives us the artefact on the condition that we leave. No doubt we’ll be back here.

-Noel has a nice moment here berating people like Snow, those using a strangely selfish brand of self-sacrifice. It’s a nice moment because There’s something about that sort of action that clearly has backfired in his past.



After all, someone once left Noel behind.

-The Coliseum’s datalog entry confirms that it’s just what you would think. A place where powerful warriors from every age and reality fight each other. I have no doubt this is an optional endgame area where you can keep challenging tougher and tougher bosses.

-The fragment I got here is the White Hole Gem. A twin of the Black Hole Gem. It has the power to disgorge monsters absorbed by the Black Hole Gem into a different era and place.

-Hopefully, removing the Black and White Hole Gems from play will allow us to take on the Giant Flan.

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Sunleth Waterscape – 300 AF

-Woooo! The Giant Flan is now just a Larger-Than-Average Flan. And Green?

-He’s now called “Mutantomato.” Snow charged him solo and got his ass handed to him.



-And now, a pretty simple fight!

NOEL: “Why did you even try?”
SNOW: “Fang and Vanille, I guess.” They loom large over this whole game. Literally.

-And Noel LAYS INTO him for his selfish actions. He’s not wrong. Snow tries a “we’re the same, we both protect people” thing, but I don’t buy it.

-However, I do like that Snow lacks any sort of the toxic jealousy of Noel that I might have expected from a similar scenario in any other game.

-Snow starts to slip from this time, fading… AH! It’s BECAUSE we resolved this paradox. The timeline’s correcting itself. Snow doesn’t belong here.

-Just now, she notices Snow’s l’Cie brand. That’s gonna be a thing we’ll have to deal with.

NOEL: “He might not have been forced. Maybe it was something he asked for.” Snow’s so big into protecting that he might have done that.



-AWWWW! Serah’s now determined to turn the tables. Snow spent all his time helping l’Cie!Serah. Now’s her chance to return the favor for l’Cie!Snow.

-Picked up a Mysterious Artefact that changes into a Restoration Artefact. Where to now? We step into the gate.

-Caius and Yeul watch us go in.



CAIUS: “Will you allow this?”
YEUL: “It is not for me to decide.” Whose decision is it? The goddess?

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The Void Beyond - ??? AF

-Got the chance to head to one of three beyond-time locations.

-This is that sepia place we’ve been before. Some respite and conversation.

-Interesting. Serah hasn’t dreamt about Lightning of late. Maybe Lightning’s being blocked by Caius.

-Noel shares a bit about Yeul. She’s a reincarnation. A new person in each new Yeul. One from Oerba, one from Yaschas Massif, etc.

NOEL: “They’re all different – and none are the Yeul I know.”


A crystal in the zone that looks almost like an FFXII save point.

-If we keep on changing time, we may eventually change the future to one where Noel never existed. I think he’d be okay with it.

-This place looks like the Void Beyond we saw before, but it’s slightly different. A slightly different shadow of Valhalla, as Mog puts it.

-Unlocked a couple of new space-time areas! “Serendipity,” “Academic 400 AF,” and “Casino.”

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Next time: starting to explore those three areas. In order, I plan to do Casino, Serendipity, and Academia.