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Find the Code (reloaded)
-New day, new session. I was getting a bit frustrated due to two things:
1) The timer. It was freaking me out. [Later edit: still is, but your comments to not worry too much about it help – thanks!]
2) My controller. It kept disconnecting on me, and the computer wouldn’t acknowledge it. It was a PS4 controller. I bought a generic X-Box style controller, and Steam is much happier.
Having a bad controller in Lightning Returns is especially frustrating. I was fighting Meonektons and just kept being unable to press Guard due to disconnects.
Reloading a save just after 2am.
-I’m more mentally settled with the timer. I’ve acknowledged to myself that I won’t do much more than the basic game, and that’s okay. I’ll struggle and die and lose to timed stuff, and that’s okay too.
-I can’t do any main quest stuff until 6am, so let’s explore the Warrens.
-I’m in love with Lightning’s Providence garb, bought at an outfitter.
-I can keep up Chronostasis pretty well as long as I have beatable enemies.
-Found some NPCs I’m sure I’ll come back to. For instance, one kid with cat ears surrounded by cats. Another person who promises he’ll make a potion when someone’s really in need.
-I can “synthesize abilities” into more powerful versions at a sorcery shop. Interesting! A dab of FFIX.
-Defensive abilities cannot be synthesized.
Improving at perfect guards.
-Bought a rare Shaolong Gui shell from a dude who hints he might help us in the Warrens. Maybe he’s the key to getting past the locked door at the neighborhood’s north.
-Oh god. A little girl lost her carbuncle doll. I found it for her, which is fine and all. Then she says it reminds her of her mom, who died in the chaos, which is sad and all.
EXCEPT THAT HER MOM DIED 200 YEARS AGO.
THIS LITTLE GIRL IS 200 YEARS OLD. THIS IS FUCKING HORRIFYING. Time scares the hell out of me at moments like this.
-A weirdo named Baird sells me a Seedhunter Membership Card. Seedhunters collect “soul seeds.” Shiny lights floating in the Chaos. This feels like a hunt/mark mechanic.
-A certain “organization” buys them and makes medicine out of them. That must’ve been the guy I saw in the Warrens.
-And with that, the first day ends. Back to the Ark.
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Ark – After Day One
-Lightning offers her Eradia, and the giant flower thing sprout a blossom.
“Day 2. Six days til the end.” WHAT HAPPENED To 13???
-There’s a red mage garb and some other stuff in a box here. [Non-rhetorical question: do the contents of that box change depending on how well I did during the day?]
-The plant thing is Yggdrasil, the World Tree. The more Eradia I give, the longer I extend the world’s life up to a maximum of 13 days. Got it.
-Hope asks me to focus on five main quest locations in Chrysalia. One each in Yusnaan, Luxerion, Dead Dunes, and two in Wildlands.
-It’s about clearing the Chaos in people’s hearts. I wonder if this is just about helping past XIII characters like Sazh and Noel or if they’ll introduce new LR-only characters.
-Hope urges me to be efficient with my time. Basically, I won’t have time to solve all the side quests.
-Pre-Chaos, there were 13 hours in a day. Now just twelve. The world literally lost time.
-A terrifying datalog says that if I fail to reach the 13th day, I could have to start over.
Please, please, PLEASE DEAR BHUNIVELZE PLEASE let this not happen. I don’t want to have to replay the whole game over, and if it came to that I don’t know that I would. There’s always YouTube.
[Later edit: if it came to this, I’d play it by ear. If I’m enjoying things, maybe I’d replay it. If not, I’d leave it be.]
-Rare abilities have a star. They increase Lightning’s parameters (stats) just by equipping them, and their rare quality is preserved even after synthesis.
-Warping back down.
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Lightning’s Mind
-Wait, where did I warp to? Lumina’s sitting in a throne. Is this Etro’s throne room?
-We briefly see Hope’s camera’s perspective. No Lumina. Is she in Lightning’s imagination?
LUMINA: “Hope can’t hear you or see you. Do you know why? Because we’re inside you. Spooky, huh?”
-She says this place inside Lightning is “like, oh, I don’t know, an Unseen Realm.”
Is that it? Did Lightning take a part of Valhalla into herself?
Oh, another theory: is Lumina some remnant of Etro?
-Lumina wants to advise Lightning, away from Bhunivelze’s prying eyes.
-Lightning claims she has no secrets, but Lumina thinks she’s capable of betraying God. I believe her.
-The way she describes God is also fascinating. Says that God can’t read human hearts, but he can read your facial expressions and the like. What kind of “almighty God” is this? He sounds… well, human.
-JESUS THAT’S CREEPY! She does this twinning thing, where we see Lumina’s and Serah’s faces split side by side, their voices echoing each other.
“Right, sis?”
[Later edit: It hits me both only Snow and Lightning have seen Lumina so far, the two who were closest to Serah. I don’t know what to conclude from that, but it feels significant.]
-Lightning then flies through the Historia Crux type thing. Teleport complete.
-Not-So-Bad Theory Time: Lots of my theories are nonsense, but this one I think is more likely than not. I predict one of the endings to this game is an optional “bad” ending where you reach the end and side against Bhunivelze with Lumina.
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Next time: Finding the code to stop the heretics’ next sacrifice.
[Non-rhetorical question: I’m nervous that I won’t be able to find all the code numbers before the day ends. If that happens, I’m debating whether it would feel like cheating to reload an earlier save with the knowledge I gain through the day. What do y’all think?]
