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Beginning of the End
-With your input, I restarted the game on easy difficulty.
-Practicing my Guard timing, not attacking. After about 8 guard attempts on an Anubys, I get “Perfect Timing” achievement – must’ve just nailed the perfect guard for the first time. Tight timing window!
-Before chasing Snow through this hotel, let’s check out the main menus.
-Quests! I’m apparently trying to banish five concentrations of Chaos across the world.
-There are four quest locations. Yusnaan, Wildlands, Dead Dunes, and Luxerion. I’m in Yusnaan.
-I only have space for 6 recovery items. Not STACKS of items. Items. That’s… very little.
-Two garbs currently: Equilibrium (the Savior one) and Dark Muse. Dark Muse has a lower default Equilibrium.
Each garb has a “Maximum ATB” of 0. Maybe that means bonus max ATB.
-Two weapons: Crimson Blitz and Scramasax. The Blitz is a swords bestowed upon the savior, but Lumina messed it up.
-Scramasax (which I remember as a Tactics series juggler blade) is an aggressive blade. It has a rank, one sword out of five. “(Basic)”. This tells me that the Crimson Blitz will be a story-based blade that follows me through the game while Scramasax is more expendable.
-There are two shields too, Night Lotus and Double Cross. Night Lotus seems to go with Crimson Blitz, while Double Cross has that same 1/5 ranking.
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Early Datalog
-Both Niblet and Anubys are Chaos Beasts.
-Lightning woke up 500 years after Serah’s death in XIII-2. “Someone has roused the sleeping warrior. He is the almighty god, Bhunivelze, and he tasks her with a new duty… as the savior of souls.”
So THAT’S the god she serves! I thought he would be a boss. Maybe he will be.
-Lumina can control the Chaos and likes to get in Lightning’s way. She has some history with Snow.
“Still, [Lightning] cannot deny that the girl bears a striking similarity to Serah. But Serah is dead, and this Lumina seems to have her own goals.” I FRIGGING KNEW THEY LOOKED ALIKE!
Maybe this is like FFIV: The After Years, where Kain had split apart.
-Hope has withdrawn from society, “hiding himself away to labor in God’s service.”
-Snow rules the city of Yusnaan, hidden away. A broody boy. Not without reason, given XIII-2.
-God can’t see the fog of Chaos, hence its “unseen Chaos” title. Dead souls are thought to return to it.
[Later edit: seeing “God” so much is disconcerting. Strong monotheistic connotations in the US.]
-EP seems tied to special abilities, including overclock.
-Some treasure spheres require keys to access.
-A Black Market Dealer sells recovery items. YOU, SIR, ARE NO CHOCOLINA.
-I don’t mind it the recovery item limit. In the past, I mindlessly bought all recovery items. This injects strategy into it. I hope the game compensates by not making fights require a million elixirs to survive.
Actually, this system is similar to XIII-2’s “Wounds.” It discourages turtling up, which makes me happy.
-I can initiate “GREAT” battles if I attack before the enemy notices.
-I have to be careful with dashing. It drains an action gauge, and I can’t draw my weapon to attack when that gauge is empty. Gotta moderate my dash when enemies are about.
-Ooh, jumping while dashing nets me longer jumps!
-OH GOD, ONE OF THE DATALOG IMAGES SHOWS A TIMER AND I’M FUCKING TERRIFIED. I hate timers.
-I can add my own markers to a map! Not sure how yet.
-Schema seem tied to garb. I wonder if I can mix different garbs with different weapons/shields, or if each garb it tied to a specific corresponding weapon/shield.
-Perfect timing applies to attacks as well as guards, but I have no clue what the game’s trying to tell me.
“Physical Attacks: Right when the last physical attack strikes.”
“Magic attacks: Right when the last spell is unleashed.”
[Non-rhetorical question: Help! So for physical attacks, does this mean I have to watch when the enemy uses a physical attack and strike right then? And magic attacks, I have to wait until I see an enemy use a magic attack to use my own perfectly?]
At least the game will be clear when I land one.
“If you perform an action with perfect timing, you will see a glowing aura surround Lightning.”
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Continuing Through the Hotel
-My next fight teaches me about fighting multiple enemies. That seems like it can get confusing. Thank goodness for a pan-out camera angle.
-Snow is the city’s Patron. He started out helping everyone and just got the title foisted on him. Not that he enjoys it, or even does that much beyond “ruling” the nightly revelry.
[Non-rhetorical question: If an enemy has its back to me, will it have a higher chance of turning around and seeing me if I’m sprinting than if I’m walking slowly? Basically: is sound/stealth a thing?]
Sneaky Lightning.
-This is a small thing, but this game has the COOLEST LADDER CLIMBING EVER. Lightning sprints up like three rungs at a time.
-It’s just so damn satisfying when I land a perfect guard on these Anubyses and see that burst of light!
-Reached a part where Hope warns the Chaos readings spiked. Smells like a tutorial boss.
-I hear Lumina’s giggles in the fog beyond. That looks like her.
She looks amazing, like a wicked witch.
-She’s surprised that Lightning can even see in this darkness. Not all servants of God can.
-Hope doesn’t know who Lightning’s talking to. My first thought is whether this is leading up to a “Lumina just is in Lightning’s head” reveal. But probably not – Snow saw her.
-She summons a big ol’ dragon. Yup, tutorial boss.
Zeltys.
-Stagger tutorial: I stagger enemies by attacking their weak point “or striking them in the opening between attacks.” I don’t know what the latter means.
[Non-rhetorical question: what does it mean?]
-That’s what the heart monitor thing is! I want to push it from nothing to blue to yellow to red.
-After a successful guard, there’s an opening to land several attacks and greatly boost the stagger wave.
[Non-rhetorical question: do attacks immediately after a guard boost the stagger gauge more than the same number of attacks used not without a successful guard beforehand?]
-Staggered it! Some abilities I get will have special effects on staggered enemies, such as being more powerful or boosting the stagger wave disproportionately.
-Used Overclock. It slows time for the enemies, so it’s nice to use when the enemy is staggered.
Got him! I can’t describe how much I love that combat system. Like, even now I want to go back and redo the Zeltys fight, now that I know her attack patterns. I’d watch out more for the quick swipes, and use my resources more efficiently.
-Hope’s trying to scan through the Chaos but can’t see much. It scrambles things.
-Gonna save and call it for now.
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Next time: continuing to pursue Snow.
