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!!