Beat the Game 1st Play Through

So I have finaly made it through the first playthrough of Final Fantasy XIII-2, and they had better hope they come up with a better ending than what they came up with for the DLC (Download Content) cause the way the main storyline ended was totaly shitty!!

SPOILERS AHEAD TOTAL STORYLINE!

So here goes my explanation of the story.
Lightning begins the story In Valhalla, a place devoid of time and through the power of the Goddess Etro Lightning becomes the guardian of "Etro's Legacy". From Etro's throne Lightning is also able to witness the "Timeline", which in this game the Timeline is ultimately the driver of the story.
At the beginning we see the Villain, Caius lay a young girl to rest in the ocean of Valhalla, upon which he sees a vision of the destruction of Cocoon and its Pillar.
This enrages Caius and he begins a battle against Lightning, what the purpose or expected outcome for Caius is unknown at this time.
During there fight, a gate appears in the sky and Noel Kreiss comes falling out from it.
Lightning catches him and after a break in the battle summons Mog, who quickly becomes a bow.
Lightning asks Noel to travel through time to find her sister Serah, and bring her to Valhalla, she says that the two of them together have the ability to change the future, to which Noel seems really intrigued by this idea.
The fight between Caius and Lightning grows more dangerous as Noel reaches the time gate to go back in time.
We are then taken to Serah, in the year 3 AF (After Fall, the new time to measure after the fall of Cocoon) in the town of New Bodhum, she has a dream of the fight between Lightning and Caius, and also sees Noel, not realizing this was a vision not a dream, during this dream a time displacement takes place during which Serah's outfit changes.
A meteor lands just outside the town causing a commotion in New Bodhum, and all of a sudden monsters begin attacking the citizens. As Serah tries to make sense of what she saw and the new events taking place, the members of NORA doing what they can to protect people.
Noel appears saves Serah and the town and from this point forward the mission begins.
He explains that he is from some time in the future and somehow he ended up in Valhalla and Lightning sent him back to bring Serah to her.
This begins the story and the capability of time travel.
They travel to some recognizable locations such as the Bresha Ruins, Oerba, The Arcelyte Steppe, and some newer locations such as Academia and Serendipity.
Along the way we meet Snow who went off to look for Lightning for Serah after Lightning disappeared. And in order to be strong enough Snow has requested to become a L'Cie once again.
We also run into a 24 year old Hope who we learn has been crucial to setting up the new government regime of the Academy, the Academy has taken it upon themselves to find a way to keep Cocoon afloat as the pillar that holds it is deteriorating, also to help protect the pillar's makers Fang and Vanille.
One of the first attempts to do this was create a man made fal'Cie to power Cocoon and keep it afloat once again. We learned that this was bad as the fal'Cie who was primarily mechanical over took the human race and ended up destroying its makers Hope and his assistant Alyssa.
The next attempt was Hope traveled to 400 AF to the city of Academia and has built a man made Cocoon to replace the old one, and found a power source to keep it afloat. This has worked as Hope tasked Serah and Noel to go through time to search for the power sources needed.
This brings us to the main conflict.
We learn that the Caius was in fact a l'Cie from thousands of years ago who was granted the gift of immortality from the Goddess Etro, in the form of creating a manifestation of her heart within his own, also saving him from the fate of a l'Cie.
Now Etro's place of slumber is within her gate holding back the powers of Chaos, so as she is so close to Chaos, Caius has also been infused with the powers of Chaos allowing him the ability to transform into Bahamut.
He was granted this in order to protect Yuel, a girl born to the tribe of the Farseer's of Pulse. This tribe was said to have the gift of foresight, but one special girl in particular was given the gift of the Eyes of Etro, this was an ability to see the future but it came with a price, she could not use the gift to alter the timeline and as well each time she saw a vision, it took a toll on her body shortening her lifespan. But she would be reincarnated in the same form in every generation. This girl is the very Yuel that Caius was to protect.
We learn that Caius has become enraged by having to live through the centuries and watch Yuel, albeit she tends to have a different personality every time she reincarnates, die over and over again. So his plans are set forth in motion.
When Serah and Noel discover he wishes to stop this cycle of death for Yuel, they figure his plan is to bring down Cocoon, which would cause many a people to die, opening the flood gates of Etro's Gate and allow Chaos into the world and destroy not only the world but time itself, creating a place not unlike Valhalla, a place devoid of time, a place where if the time line never shifted Yuel would never have visions and she would never die.
But then Noel and Serah shift the time line allowing Hope to enact the second plan to save human life and that's build their own Cocoon. And we learn that Caius changes his target from the old Cocoon to the new one. So they are given a mission, Protect the Pillar for Fang and Vanilles sake, Protect the New Cocoon from Caius and destroy him.
Serah and Noel in there journey forward from this point end up separated, due to a plot of Caius and Alyssa actually working together to booby trap the Historia Crux, and in the Void Beyond, an area lost in time before reaching Valhalla, it is here that Noel is stabbed by Caius after facing him alone and we also see Serah stabbed by Caius as well.
This sends Serah to a dream world in which she is offered the chance to stay surrounded by everyone she loves in New Bodhum, including Snow and Lightning. But with the help of the spirits of Fang and Vanille, Serah wakes up and travels forth to a place known as A Dying World in 700 AF, in order to wake up Noel who is also in a dream like state of living out his happiness.
It is here we learn that Caius actually trained Noel to take his place as Guardian, it would seem that Caius was tired of living, but when Noel refused, Caius became angry and left to set his plans in motion in the past. We also learn that Noel was friends with the Yuel of this time as he was being trained to take over being her guardian and when she died he set about on mission to face Caius, he was angry for letting her die. Along the way weary and fatigued Noel actually dies himself and is taken through Etro's Gate to Valhalla, Etro had plans for him, and we know where that led him (the beginning of the story), but before he could be sucked in in the dream state, Serah wakes him and they set fourth to continue saving the future.
Serah herself we learn when she was saved by Etro from her crystal sleep (FFXIII) was also given the gift of the Eyes of Etro and was seeing visions of the future, Noel realizes this and informs her that if they continue she could die.
She doesn't care knowing there are billions of lives at stake and promises to save the future.
They travel forward and end up in New Bodhum 700 AF it is here that Lightning finally appears to Serah and Noel.
She explains what happened to her, she explains that on the day Cocoon fell Etro took pity on the six plus one l'Cie, and she freed them from there crystal stasis, but in order to do this she had to open the gate wide enough for her power to come through, and along with her power some Chaos swept through, causing a time paradox, Chaos made the paradox worse by capturing Lightning and dragging her to Valhalla. This is what caused all the distortions in the time line and angered Caius. So Lightning tells Noel and Serah that they need to correct all the paradoxes and bring Lightning back to the normal time where she belongs and none of this will happen. She is then asked by Serah why she cant come back, and Lightning replies that it is due to Caius' determination to kill the Goddess Etro in order to make the entire world in the image of Valhalla, and live in a world of no time, so until Caius is killed Lightning must remain in Valhalla.
So Serah and Noel set off to defeat Caius, they travel to Academia 500 AF the year Hope plans to launch the new Cocoon to protect it and Defeat Caius.
A great battle ensues ending up in Valhalla once again, the ultimate result ending in Noel being tricked by Caius into killing him, when he decided that he wasn't going to, thus Cocoon survives and the time lines returned to there normal state, Noel and Serah return to 500 AF to see the rise of the new Cocoon, and once it makes it to the air Serah sees a vision and dies, we then hear the voice of Caius, who explaines that by Noel stabbing him through the heart he has killed the Goddess who's manifestation of her heart resided within Caius heart. The world begins to shift and tear apart as it becomes Valhalla, while Noel holds Serah's lifeless body, Mog then dies in Hopes arms. We are then taken to an image of a Crystallized Lightning sitting on Etro's throne, followed by the words to be continued.

This is the ending to the game thus far. I have to state that I am really unhappy if this is really the way the story is going to end. You go through all this hard work, trials and tribulation just to have the world end anyway!!!
And whats with killing the main character of this story!!! Serah dies, but I am assuming this has something to do with Lightning being crystallized instead of returning to the proper timeline.
It was really a sad ending worse then the ending for X.
I really hope they plan to right this wrong with DLC I don't know if I can take a FF that did not have a happy ending!

Final Fantasy XIII-2's previous reviews

I have to say from what we saw in the trailers I wasn't expecting much in the way of storyline in this game. I expected there to be more game play than storyline this go round. And then reading the reviews such as IGN and gameinformer gave on the game only confirmed this even more as they said the game play was great but the story line was seriously lacking.
So when I bought the game I came into it prepared to play quite a bit and not see so many cut scenes. And now as I near the end of my first play through of the main story line I am thinking to myself, what the hell were they talking about!?

SOME SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT FORWARD
This game is full of story line and waiting on abated breath to find out what the hell is going on in the game!
I am beginning to wonder if the game reviewers and I were playing the same game!!!
Serah and Noel together create a very heartwarming story of searching for something more and trying to right the mistakes in the time line for opposite reasons, Serah to find her sister and Noel to not end up as the last human being on the planet in 700 A.F.
Lightning has a dedicated mission to protect the Goddess Etro while she slumbers in Valhalla.
Caius reminds me of a Sephiroth character, where at first he was a protector, he then comes to the conclusion that in order to save the one person he cares about from the fate of dying over and over again and being reborn, he will destroy the entire world just for her.
Hope has worked and worked and worked to protect Vanille and Fang in order to preserve life on Cocoon.
Snow travels through time keeping his promise to Serah by searching for Lightning.
Sazh and Dajh make an appearance at the end of the game flying one of Hopes PSICOM assault ships.
Even Mog has mystery and intrigue in the game!!!
The fight scenes first between Lightning and Caius and then later between Noel and Serah and Caius are EPIC!!
And when Lightning appears to tell you what actually happened after Cocoon, and you see her transform into her Warrior Goddess form...EPIC!!
I actually drew a scene familiar to this part of the game months before the game ever came out of Lightning standing in front of Etro sleeping and being "reformatted" with feathers and what not.
And this scene kinda took place, the difference being Lightning was only standing in front of Etro's crystal throne.

So sufficed to say I have no idea what they were thinking when they were writing lack of story line is so not true!
While many fans are disappointed in the only two playable characters and the monster collecting the game play is amazing as well! Although I haven't quite mastered the use of the monster system.

All in all so far its a great game!! I haven't seen the ending yet but what I do know I am hoping that we get a better one with DLC content cause I don't think I will be happy with the way it ends!

MORE TO COME LATER!!

One Week to GO!!

We are a week away from the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am! I have not spoiled any of the plot for myself, not watched a single ending on YouTube, nothing!

So far not a lot of games have been announced for this year, I am aware that there will be an Assassin's Creed game at the end of the year, and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance will be coming out on the 3Ds hopefully also by the end of the year, if anything early 2013.
As this is it, there is not a whole lot of gaming excitement for me this year!!!

So pouring my excitement into FFXIII-2 is all I really have right now, as it is the only confirmed game title that I have an interest in this year.

But let the countdown begin as we reach the exciting release of the next title in the Final Fantasy series!!!

Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo impressions

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was that they decided to give the US a demo for this game this time around. They didn't give us one for XIII with which I was very disappointed.
But we got one this time around!!!

The demo begins in the Bresha Ruins on Cocoon, in the year 005 AF (after fall). With a narration from Lightning, talking about how sometimes when you search for the future you discover your past, and the pains in your past and how you deal with that pain can determine who you become in the future. In this narrative she is speaking directly to Serah.

The opening sequence we see PSICOM agents guarding a Giant Hand, the hand we know belongs to the creature Atlas. We are also introduced to Alyssa Zaidelle, a top scientist within the Academy, who is studying the ruins and Atlas. We are then taken to the time gate with Noel, Serah and Mog coming out of the gate. Upon arrival a Paradox is created and our three heroes face off against Atlas, although the focus is on his fist, as the rest of him is invisible. Upon defeat PSICOM war ships appear and lay fire upon Atlas causing him to run. At this point I am pretty sure that some other cut scene takes place cause we then get to control Noel and Serah who at some point must have agreed to take down Atlas.

From this point you are then able to wonder around the excavation site freely. It is at this point I went into the menu to see what the menu was like. When I first played through it I explored as Noel, who at first I wasn't quite sure about, but being a sucker for cute boys I fell in love with him. So exploring the site you first get to see the freedom of this game, its not as linear as its predecessor, which was not a problem for me but is still enjoyable to be able to explore. You can talk to random people walking around which is new to the game, also in using Mog and his abilities you can discover hidden treasure chests. You can speak with Alyssa and learn a little bit more about there mission here. And if you have Serah as the leader here, you almost sense that she has a grudge against Serah, for the events that took place 3 years ago. You also meet Chocolina, she is a wondering merchant who shows up in the different time periods, you can purchase items, weapons, accessories, monster items (used to upgrade your monsters in your party). There is in the demo two weapon upgrades one for Serah and one for Noel.
once you have explored the area in full, head further into the ruins, you pick up two side missions from two PSICOM soldiers, one to recover medicinal capsules and one to defeat a Cie'th wondering the ruins.
Here you face your first random encounters, the first being a tutorial of capturing monsters to use in your party. After we discover this ability Noel mentions that Lightning too had herds of monsters at her disposal. Mog also says something a little confusing here he calls Serah " a daughter of Chaos"? My brain is going round and around trying to hone in on what this statement could mean.
You are allowed to have up to 3 monsters in your party at one time, and each monster individually fits a specific role for the Paradigm system. I notice a couple things, while they have made it a little easier to work the crystarium and gain things faster, they have made it harder to stagger monsters, and a little harder to defeat. I noticed the even using Paradigm sets that were pretty effective in XIII, such as two Ravagers and one Comando, didn't really help with certain monsters, so I think this new system will take some getting used to and a little more strategy as well.
You explore and have random encounters, defeating the Cie'th and finding the missing capsules. Until you come across Atlas deeper in the ruins, you have two choices, a machine appears that will allow you to weaken Atlas, or you can face him dead on. If you face him dead on you will die from the first hit. So you go into the ruins further looking for the mysterious device, also to be noted, while exploring there are two other time gates within the area wondering how these gates will branch you off further into the story!? Upon finding the device, you are sucked into a time Paradox, this is an area in which Noel and Serah have to solve a Puzzle to escape the Paradox, I can only imagine that the puzzles get more difficult as the game progresses.
Once the puzzles are complete, you are taken back to the ruins and Atlas is weakened. From here you go and face Atlas, completing the battle with cinematic actions, of which to say if you complete these you get bonuses for doing these scenes perfectly.

This is the end of the demo, but it shows a short game play trailer of the fight at the beginning of the game between Lightning and Caius. Leaving you with the epic feeling of the game itself!

My initial thoughts of this game is I cant wait to get into the meat of it. I am a storyline kinda gamer and I want to know more!!
I cant wait to get into the characters of Noel and Serah too as she was only seen  in a few scenes in the first game. I want to learn Lightnings true reason for being pulled through time and what Caius is really up to.
Mog, I am a little disappointed with the voice acting but I love him all the same!!!
I love the addition of the mog clock, makes it easy to get a preemptive attack almost every time!

All in all I think this game is going to be just as amazing to me as the first, I have my special edition already on hold and paid for I just have to go pic it up!!! I cant wait for the soundtrack, I cant wait for the special art book and more importantly I cant wait to play the game!! I am actually taking two days off work for this game, hahaha!

XIII-2 is close!!!!

Sorry its been a while y'all!

Well with the release of XIII-2 on the horizon, lots of new info has come out pertaining to the game. And I have to say, while I have come close to spoiling the game for my self, as it has been released in Japan since December 15th, I have held back! Sure I have like everyone else watched the amazing battle at the beginning of the game between Lightning and Caius, which I have to say is pretty epic!

If you have avoided all information on this game and wish not to spoil your self, then stop reading!


Lightning as we know was sucked through time by what we now understand is Chaos. She makes it all the way to the edge of time and lands in Valhalla and becomes a guardian protector of the Goddess Etro, she gains her Knight form through a process I have been calling Divine Reformatting and guards the throne of Etro.
The mysterious man we now know as Caius Ballad, is much like Lightning, a guardian of time. It has been noted that Lightning and Caius battle is that between Light and Dark and Heaven and Hell, but do not automatically assume you know which is which.
Serah's story takes place 3 years after the fall of Cocoon, the humans have migrated to Pulse and are attempting to live a live devoid of the shadow of Fal'Cie. A new semi government has risen naming its self the Academy, in which Hope Estime is the leader of. They are attempting to discover a new power source for Cocoon.
Noel is from 700 AF or After Fall. Where in this future he is the only surviving human being. At the beginning of the game during the fight between Lightning and Caius, the Door of Souls is opened and Noel falls from the sky, distracting Lightning from the battle she summons Bahamut and catches him before he falls to his death. She then distracts Caius after summoning a Bow for Noel to give to Serah in the past. He then jumps through a time gate to the past to Serah's time as Lightning summons power to destroy the giant Meteor that Caius has summoned directly above Etro's throne. And that's the end of the opening CG movie.
It is unknown to me at this point as to how and why Noel ends up in Valhalla, and what his purpose is for helping Serah in the past.

It is now confirmed that Noel and Serah, are the only playable characters in the game other than the monsters that you can have join your party later. Lightning is partially playable  at the beginning of the game but no longer after that.

Snow makes an appearance in the Sunleth Waterscape but is not playable.

Vanille and Fang made an appearance in one of the more recent trailers, but no mention of them since the games release. The same can be said for Sazh.

On today of January 10th 2012 they are releasing a 1 hour demo on the PlayStation network. I cannot wait to play!!!

Well I will hopefully put an update once the game is out. In the mean time I will post some pretty new pictures from the game!

New Final Fantasy XIII-2 Info

So with Tokyo Game Show being this weekend more information about XIII-2 has come out. I would like to add my own personal note first and say that TGS, was absolutely lame this year. Usually a lot of cool stuff is seen and explained and this year they were totally lacking in info, newer titles and where there at in production it was just lame, compared to the previous years. Step it up guys don't make this mistake again next year, or the fan boys will protest.

Anyway Final Fantasy XIII-2 the direct sequel to XIII as you know features Sarah Farron and Noel Kriess. Most importantly a release date has been given for North America of January 31, not too long of a wait unless you believe like some that the world will end what was it in November or December? Two trailers have been released giving us some new insight to this game. Charice Pempengco, for those who watch Glee, the girl who plays Sunshine Corazon, will be doing the English versions theme song, New World. I like that they are getting some main line people to do the theme songs for the American versions, for those who don't know Leona Lewis did My Hands for XIII.
Some character reveals took place in the trailer as well:
Hope will be returning a little older:

Snow Villiers will be returning, I don't know what they did to his hair but it looks as though he got in a fight with a Fal'Cie weed whacker and lost. Some one had managed to pull a freeze frame from the trailer and we can see that once again he bares a Pulse mark of a le'cie? (for those who beat FFXIII know at the end there marks were gone.)

 The mysterious man now has a name Kaias, who seems to have a grudge against not only Lightning, but our new hero, Noel? He makes a statement saying he will destroy him. So it appears that he is able to time travel as well. While fighting Lightning he calls her "Warrior Goddess" has she actually achieved Divine status?

This is a new character reveal, her name Is Yuru, oddly enough she is wearing an outfit very similar to Vanille. She is seen traveling with Kaias. She tells Sarah that she and her are alike, and in one scene we see Noel holding her as if she is dying, she states that if she doesn't die, she will be the cause of a time Paradox.

Not much more about story line has been revealed. There was another small tidbit of information stating that not unlike Final Fantasy VII's Golden Saucer, there will be an area in XIII-2 in which you can play mini games and slot machines. Possibly even the return of famous Chocobo Racing?

Other than this info nothing else was given away, a lot of fans were hoping for Final Fantasy Versus XIII info and that was not even touched at TGS. Very disappointed with the lack of info given, usually its every fan boys dream, every day something new and exciting gets released causing them to cream there jeans. But there was no creaming to be had this year, sad panda.



Why No More Final Fantasy VII?

Here we are folks, 25 posts later, the reason why I have written these reviews of the main titles released thus far.

To recap, I am so tired of reading forum after forum about the new games that have come out since Final Fantasy VII (especially after the Compilation FFVII project), and hearing people criticize the new titles, a majority of them saying, " Oh well its no Final Fantasy VII". Guess what its never going to be!

Here are my reasons for you FFVII enthusiasts to let go of what I will admit WAS a great game, otherwise you will never enjoy another FF ever again.

Reason one: IT HAS BEEN DONE! Not only have we all played the original version of Final Fantasy, but we have watched the movie sequel, played the PSP prequel, played the story for the PS2 based on Vincent Valentine, watched the Last Order: FFVII on YouTube. And read the story and occurrences that took place in Before Crisis. We have more FFVII than I think we should have. I understand that its a favored universe and people wanted more of the characters. But with all of you obsessing over it, they feel they have to answer your call for more. Well as a FF fan, and I believe a true fan as I have at least partaken of every title in the series, and enjoyed the FFVII and its Compilation project, I am sick sick sick sick, of Final Fantasy VII.
I hear the name Sephiroth or Cloud and I just wanna cringe.
There is such a thing as too much, and because fans have become sooooooo obsessed with this title they have let it define the series and I think that is a mistake.
Reason two: If you cant let your self enjoy other titles why continue buying the game? If you cannot accept the newer title for what it is, just continue to play VII over and over again? I honestly feel that when the new titles come out, we should hold no previous title expectations to it.
Reason three: Video Game evolution, as Squares main job is to stay in the competative market that is video gaming, they must follow the trends and shift there games slightly to fit these trends. Why do you think they have made not one but two MMORPG's (although XIV flopped), they were trying to compete with games like World of Warcraft and Everquest.
Final Fantasy is an ever evolving game, and I think it should continue to remain that way. They have kept a lot of the elements that make the game "Final Fantasy" for me, but given me new and exciting ways to experience them!
I am a fan of the series and I loved VII just as much as the next person, but its time to open your minds to the possibilities that other titles can be just as great. How one could really not appreciate the beauty and excitement that was Final Fantasy XIII (and I know there are a lot of you out there), is completely insane! And I honestly feel that if you are constantly looking for the next Final Fantasy VII, keep looking because there is never going to be one, that title has had its moment in the spotlight, and I for one am looking forward to experiencing titles that are nothing like the title that came before it. I have come to love Lightning so much so that she has become my favorite character in the series. And I have to say, its because I have kept my self open to the Evolution of Final Fantasy.

I hope you all enjoyed this journey as much as I did and, maybe for a few of you will come to love other titles and continue to give the creators something to move forward with instead of consistently looking to the past.

I have enjoyed reviewing this game series so much, I am going to continue to do so with more of my favorite series. I am not going to venture too far for my next blog, following my next favorite series that combines two of my most favorite things in the world. Final Fantasy and Disney, I know you look at those things and say, that's not possible to combine the two and make it work. I thought so too myself, but I was wrong. Come with me as we review Kingdom Hearts.

End.