Summary: Finding the code. Disrupting the Cult of Etro. Shadow Hunter.
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Find the Code (1-3)
-It’s 6am in Luxerion. Let’s find the code.
-WHEW. Found one number, at least, though another wall with scratches on it doesn’t have a number.
-The camera looks from the perspective of someone watching us. Must be the Shadow Hunter.
-WAIT WHAT THE FUCK, IS THAT NOEL? I briefly saw MC Hammer pants as the figure fled.
-Second number is at the South Station. I’m writing these numbers down, just in case.
-Luxerion’s clock tower is impressive. Not sure what it’s for.
[Non-rhetorical question: what does it mean that the auto-ability has potential for growth? I didn’t think any defensive abilities could be synthesized.]
-I really enjoy the song the street musician is playing.
-The cathedral is home to a “saint” able to converse with the Winds of Chaos. I’m betting this is Lumina.
-The cathedral holds God’s Sanctum, a chamber meant for a ritual the Order performs on the last day.
-I was wrong about Lumina. The churchgoers discuss her as separate from the saint.
-A door near the cathedral needs a key to unlock.
-I have lots of key items and no clue what they’re for. For instance, I just donated a bunch of gil to a cleric and got “Proof of Legendary Title.” Why? Dunno. Maybe it’ll let a cleric talk to me later.
-Killed the Zomok bounty hunt. A tough fight, but REALLY fun. The combat is among the series’ best.
-It’s almost noon. I’ve found three out of four numbers and someone tells me the last one is in the Warrens.
Heading to the barber and telling him I want this.
I don’t know how to get there before midnight. I’ve searched for secret entrances, hidden ladders that make it accessible… nothing.
I assumed the ritual starts at 6pm, since Hope is urging me to find the final number before dusk. Maybe I have until 6am. I hope so.
-An Old Town NPC, Seger, said he’d help me get into the Warrens, but that must be later. No help now.
HOPE: “Find the last number before dusk falls.”
BRO, I GET IT. I HEAR YOU, BUT IT’S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
Even Lightning’s getting annoyed.
-It’s almost 3pm. I’ve done all the side quests I want for the moment and guess I’ll just fight random stuff until midnight. I’m too nervous to leave Luxerion in case I misjudge the time.
I can’t wait to unlock this skunk's side-quest.
-The most frustrating part here is that I STARTED in the Warrens at 6am. If I had just stayed there and explored more, maybe I could’ve found the Warrens number first.
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Find the Code (1-3)
-It’s 6am in Luxerion. Let’s find the code.
-WHEW. Found one number, at least, though another wall with scratches on it doesn’t have a number.
-The camera looks from the perspective of someone watching us. Must be the Shadow Hunter.
-WAIT WHAT THE FUCK, IS THAT NOEL? I briefly saw MC Hammer pants as the figure fled.
-Second number is at the South Station. I’m writing these numbers down, just in case.
-Luxerion’s clock tower is impressive. Not sure what it’s for.
[Non-rhetorical question: what does it mean that the auto-ability has potential for growth? I didn’t think any defensive abilities could be synthesized.]
-I really enjoy the song the street musician is playing.
-The cathedral is home to a “saint” able to converse with the Winds of Chaos. I’m betting this is Lumina.
-The cathedral holds God’s Sanctum, a chamber meant for a ritual the Order performs on the last day.
-I was wrong about Lumina. The churchgoers discuss her as separate from the saint.
-A door near the cathedral needs a key to unlock.
-I have lots of key items and no clue what they’re for. For instance, I just donated a bunch of gil to a cleric and got “Proof of Legendary Title.” Why? Dunno. Maybe it’ll let a cleric talk to me later.
-Killed the Zomok bounty hunt. A tough fight, but REALLY fun. The combat is among the series’ best.
-It’s almost noon. I’ve found three out of four numbers and someone tells me the last one is in the Warrens.
Heading to the barber and telling him I want this.
I don’t know how to get there before midnight. I’ve searched for secret entrances, hidden ladders that make it accessible… nothing.
I assumed the ritual starts at 6pm, since Hope is urging me to find the final number before dusk. Maybe I have until 6am. I hope so.
-An Old Town NPC, Seger, said he’d help me get into the Warrens, but that must be later. No help now.
HOPE: “Find the last number before dusk falls.”
BRO, I GET IT. I HEAR YOU, BUT IT’S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.
Even Lightning’s getting annoyed.
-It’s almost 3pm. I’ve done all the side quests I want for the moment and guess I’ll just fight random stuff until midnight. I’m too nervous to leave Luxerion in case I misjudge the time.
I can’t wait to unlock this skunk's side-quest.
-The most frustrating part here is that I STARTED in the Warrens at 6am. If I had just stayed there and explored more, maybe I could’ve found the Warrens number first.
[Later edit: unless it only shows up after you find the other three.]
-You can access Wildlands and Dead Dunes from the South Station, Yusnaan from the North Station.
-Some of the side quests here have touched on Lumina. She’s a known presence in town rather than a hidden, XIV-Ascian-style manipulator, which I didn’t expect.
She’s also seen as playful and mischievous rather than outright malicious. Like, she stole some Order treasures and scattered them around town. The Order was afraid they were booby-trapped, but no. They were meant as “supplies for the savior.”
She literally helped me with her mischief.
-The numbers I found so far are 4, 8, and 2. I just don’t know the order it should be in.
-Midnight arrives. I finally head into the Warrens.
-Hi, Lumina! “I’m here to help! Oh, and have to have some fun of my own.” I believe her on both counts.
-She shows me an Oracle Drive. I knew one of those was kicking around. The Children of Etro worship it.
-She activates it. It shows an image of fire, and Noel killing Lightning. Yup, he’s the Shadow Hunter.
-It also looks like an image of the “savior” appearing on the final day and dying to the noble hero who stops her.
AND THE NOEL SWOOPS IN! HI BUDDY!
-lolol lumina literally is kicking her feet up and giggling. This whole thing delights her.
-Again, I’ll note that the people Serah was closest too have shown up first. Lightning, Snow, Noel.
-I’m a bit confused though. What in that Oracle Drive makes Noel and the Children of Etro so convinced that Lightning is the harbinger of the end? All I saw were vague images of fire and fighting between Noel and Lightning. Saying that it shows Lightning bringing the end of the world seems like a leap.
[Non-rhetorical question: am I missing something on this? Did I look away from the screen at a key moment when Lightning sneak attacked Noel or said “mwa-ha-ha, time to destroy!”?]
-Whatever the case, Noel has no trust in Lightning. He wants to fulfill his end of the prophecy, which means our fight happens later, not now.
-He leaves. Lumina, too.
-Still, that’s a disturbing prophecy, but likely squirrelly. I believe we’ll reach that fight, just in a different context than what Noel and the Children of Etro expect.
Or maybe Lumina just screwed with the Oracle Drive for fun. (This strikes me as less likely.)
-The datalog suggests an interesting interpretation of Noel’s actions:
“Noel knows better than anyone alive the unseen sorrows that can arise from changing the future. Is this why he seeks to protect the prophecy shown in the Oracle Drive? Or is it simply that, more than anything, he wants it to be true?
Maybe the end of XIII-2 made him so skittish about changing timelines that he’s determined to adhere to the prophecy as closely as possible and is justifying it to himself.
-Reached the phone booth. Phew, the game tells me the right order for the numbers. I’m in.
-Hot dang, these Zomoks in the Chaos are brutal.
Took out a couple, gonna skip the rest. Limited healing items and all that.
-Allow me to reiterate just how happy I am I went with Easy Mode. The time is stressful enough for me. The combat is stressful enough too (though in a good way). I would not have enjoyed the extra challenge of not healing between fights.
-It also seems you don’t heal all the way after a fight, even on easy mode. You just heal a bit. [Non-rhetorical question: how much do you heal on easy mode? Like, 20%?]
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Rites for a Goddess (1-4)
-Reached the cult. They’re really about to sacrifice a random rose-haired woman.
-LIGHTNING IS JUST SO CASUALLY BADASS AND I LOVE HER
-This must be a highlight moment for the cultists. They have the real actual savior swooping in and declaring herself. Too bad they only have another couple of minutes of life left.
-Then Noel swoops in, blasting them away with wind magic. Blasting them verbally for killing innocents.
LIGHTNING: “Having a falling out?”
NOEL: “Don’t insult me, Lightning. You think I’m with these guys?”
DUDE, YOU THINK I’M TRYING TO DESTROY THE WORLD. I actually did assume he was with them, but no. He’s apparently just a mythological figure in their cult, not a direct political/military leader.
-Lightning and Noel fight side by side, mowing these guys down. With some solid verbal sniping back and forth all the while. When the cultists go down, they turn on each other.
You’re both so dramatic.
-Salvation soldiers arrive. Noel skedaddles and asks me to follow.
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Next time: I’ll explore that path up north first, then will follow Noel back to the Warrens.
