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Historia Crux
-A new datalog confirms: “The goddess is dead. Noel plunged his sword into the Heart of Chaos, and Etro’s very presence faded like mist.” She’s really dead.
-So is that her body we saw on the throne last time?
-The chaos of the Unseen Realm destroyed Etro’s Gate and encompassed all existence. Bleak ending.
-Aha! It’s not Etro, it’s Lightning herself on the throne.
“At the height of her battle with Caius, Lightning realized this fate was unavoidable. The weary warrior accepted her defeat, and entered into crystal slumber with but one wish in her heart.”
I’m guessing “Lightning Returns” will get into that wish. Maybe it’s a wish to protect a few people, or a wish to make existence whole again. We’ll see.
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Serendipity
-Checking in with the Mystic on my new Paradox Scope ability.
-The description is vague: “Invoke a paradox to explore new potential histories.” Hm.
-Nothing immediately jumps out to me in Historia Crux when I return. NO new big flashing zones.
-Wait. There are three new zones left of New Bodhum 003 AF now. Valhalla, Serendipity, Coliseum. Maybe these are the DLCs?
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Other Serendipity
-Intro cutscene with Sazh gambling, flipping a coin.
SAZH: “I’m stuck in this place where time stands still. All because of what happened that day.”
Wait, does the DLC show other character perspectives on XIII-2? That’d be cool.
-We see the past. Sazh flying a plane. Is this before XIII? Nah, must be post-XIII’s happy ending. Maybe? Dajh is here.
-A tear in the sky opens. Suddenly, Sazh finds himself in the time-stopped Serendipity.
-The owner approaches Sazh. “You are no longer alive. However, that does not mean you are dead.”
-He’s in between life and death. Could go either way, like a coin toss.
-It apparently depends on Sazh’s gambling. He must win his and Dajh’s life.
-He dramatically flips a coin. Heads is the goddess, tails is a skull. It comes up… chocobos. Lol wtf.
-The chocobo chick flies by! No doubt, this’ll be Chocolina. They’ll team up to find Dajh.
-There are three games available: Serendipity Poker, Chronobind, Slot Machines. I can reunite with Dajh if I win enough Fortune Medals, which can only be collected at card tables. I guess the slot machines are just for fun. Dunno if Chronobind is a card game.
-I get 10,000 coins to start. Can only ask for more for a limited time.
-Tried the poker. It’s… fine? I mean, it’s straight up poker.
Not my thing. I’ll pass on this and just watch any story through YouTube after.
-Found Chocolina in the mystic’s tent. SHE’S SO HAPPY TO SEE SAZH!
-He doesn’t know her, but she definitely knows him. She wants Sazh’s help to find her missing chicks throughout the casino.
-I wish Chocolina would share that she used to be Sazh’s chick. Maybe that comes at the end.
-Looked around the casino and I don’t find any. Maybe they come when I win games.
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Coliseum - ??? AF
-Next, let’s check out the Coliseum.
-The Arbiter of Time looks so cool! Similar to an XII judge.
-HI GILGAMESH! He always collected weapons, and in his XIII-2 incarnation, he collects guns.
-Snow’s here too. Maybe this is his story.
-Lightning joins the fray against Gilgamesh. Then Ultros and Typhon… This is so strange. Pure fan service. (I don’t see that as a negative at all, in this post-game context.)
-OH MY GOD IT’S THE FFVIII ALIENS. That’s legit unexpected.
-Omega joins, and Nabaat. Haven’t thought of Nabaat in a while. Amodar joins too.
-Noel and Serah join too? I guess they said this happens in all times/no times, so doesn’t need to fit into canon necessarily.
-“Snow’s Story: Perpetual Battlefield.”
-Again, I doubt I’ll play much of this, but I’m glad I entered it. That intro with random characters across FF was pretty sweet. The Pupus were the best surprise.
-It sounds like if I defeat opponents, I can summon them as allies. Interesting! A sort of mini-game that adapts the monster pack.
-Tried the PuPu encounter and they wrecked me hard. I like their little UFO.
-This feels like something I’d come back to when I optimize my gear and stats. Calling it on the coliseum. I’m comfortable on this first run just beating the main story and skipping challenge modes.
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Valhalla
-The last DLC seems to be in Valhalla, “Requiem of the Goddess.”
-It’s Lightning. “Would my endless prayer ever reach you? Serah… can I ever make things right?”
-She’s battling Caius. He disappears midfight, replaced with a vision of Serah dying from the seeress sight. I think she’s the only one who sees this, cause Caius takes the chance to slam her.
-The unconscious Lightning fades into a pool of black smoke. Huh?
CAIUS: “Lightning is dead. I killed her with my own hands.” WOW! He wasn’t lying. He really thought he killed Lightning.
-Later, Lightning wakes up. She sees an unconscious Serah floating in front of Etro’s throne, black smoke around her.
“Your sister – she is the same as us. And so she is with us. Always with us. Until time is destroyed, she will sleep with us. When the world ends, she will end with us.”
I think the black smoke speaking is the collective voice of the Seeresses/Yeuls.
-Jesus. Serah starts bleeding darkness from her eyes. Creepy imagery.
Are the Yeuls really this malicious? No way. I’m not so sure this is the seeresses. Maybe this is the embodiment of the chaos.
-The darkness turns into Caius, and I really don’t understand what’s happening now.
LIGHTNING: “Was this battle a dream? Or reality? Would a victory here even help to set you free? I didn’t even know what would happen when the end finally came. I had no choice – all I could do was fight.”
At least things are as ambiguous for her as they are for me.
“This was the war that would decide the future.” Really? I thought you weren’t sure if it was a dream.
-Okay, tutorial. In this story, I play as Lightning. I can only heal with items, a set number of them from the start of battle.
Just like with the prior DLC, I’ll try it out, but I don’t care too much about finishing it. It feels extra, bonus content.
-Gaining CP at the end of battle levels me up and grants me access to new roles and abilities.
-Whoa! My roles now are Paladin, Mage, Shaman, Knight.
-Died.. but got some CP anyway. So maybe this is something where I’m not really meant to win, just meant to keep getting better and better? Idk.
-I’ll try again, now that I have a better sense of what these are. Paladin is like commando, high damage and low defense. Mage and shaman are ravager/caster types, and Knight is sentinel-esque.
-The second try goes a lot better. But it’s a looooong fight. And he heals up. I think I’m going to just let him kill me because I’m not interested in continuing this.
-Unlocked the synergist-esque conjurer and ranked up to level 3. Yeah, I think I’m done.
-Lots of cool postgame content, even if it doesn’t strike my fancy at the moment! Will probably seek out a YouTube LP to see what I missed.
That’s it for my XIII-2 journey for now.
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Next time: Final thoughts on XIII-2. A brief break, and starting Lightning Returns in mid-July.
