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It was a clear, warm night in the small sea-side village of New Bodhum. A myriad of stars shown from within the mellow night sky. Serah and her new companion, Noel, were patrolling outside of the village, nearing the site where a meteorite had very recently made land fall.
The landscape began to warp, and within the air, images of a some other, blasted land, intermixed with Bodhum's greenery.
"Paradoxes" as they exist in Final Fantasy 13-2, are introduced early as New Bodhum's sky gets warped by these images. Noel and Mog have some insight into the event, it appears that something has caused these disturbances throughout the timeline. Based on her dream about Lightning, and the appearance of Noel and Mog, Serah decides she has been tasked with fixing the paradoxes in the timeline, and decides to enter the mysterious time gate found at the meteor's impact site.
Serah had become somewhat comfortable in her life in New Bodhum. She was a school teacher, molding the young children's mind's toward great futures. Her friends were there, the members of team NORA. Then there was the NORA house cat, whom she had named Snow. That in itself was a reminder of what there was to not be content about. Her fiance, Snow, had been gone a couple years now. Most all, she missed her sister, Lightning. That in the end, was her motivation to leave this comfort behind and step into the timeline, to reunite with her sister.
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| Serah rides a chocobo near New Bodhum. Cocoon sits comfortably in its crystal cradle. |
The truth of Noel's time travel was confirmed as the pair stepped into the time gate. They emerged in the midst of ruins, with rain droplets falling steadily from the grey sky. A massive robotic hand stuck up from the ground.
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| Serah stands before a time gate... in the rain. |
The pair finds out soon enough that they are now in the future, two years to be precise. The location is the Bresha Ruins, near Lake Bresha, the site where the new l'Cie landed after falling from Cocoon in FF13. It appears to be some kind of excavation site, with the massive hand sticking up from the ground resembling that of the colossal Pulse Fal'Cie Titan, also from the previous game. The hand flies into the air and attacks! As Noel points out "It's probably not looking to shake hands!" Har har... The giant hand belongs to a mecha-colossus that has been dubbed "Atlas". Its appearance is very similar to the Fal'Cie Titan, but it appears to have been created by humans in another time, thus its presence here is... a paradox!
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| The giant hand. Source. |
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| Atlas looms in the distance, waiting patiently. |
At this point the game introduces a fork that becomes a recurring device in the game. Atlas has manifested in the ruins, and also a strange mechanism appears that researchers think may be it's control device. The player may choose to attack head-on, or to find the device first and see if they can control or weaken the beast. I did try fighting Atlas head-on once, just to see what would happen, and was not surprisingly quickly squished.
Readers may remember Cieth, which played a prominent part in FF13. They are l'Cie who have failed at their focus, becoming tormented monsters. In FF13, they were some of the more difficult encounters, with the most powerful of them being an exercise in torture. In the Bresha ruins I picked up a quest to kill a Cieth that had been wandering the ruins attacking soldiers. Thankfully this one wasn't too difficult, and I received a "fragment" as a reward. After defeating the Cieth, Noel made an interesting statement, that his memories were like "looking through fogged glass". I don't remember how it related to the Cieth, but it gave a little insight into Noel's character.
The fragments are a little confusing at first, they sound a lot like "artefacts" which are used to open time gates. The separation between the two becomes clearer as the game progresses. All the player really knows at this point is that game contains over a hundred fragments, and that they get CP as a reward for finding them, CP are Crystarium Points, this game's version of experience points.
To resolve the paradox, the pair must find a device in the ruins. The device is accompanied by a mysterious time disturbance. To resolve the disturbance, the two must... solve a mini-game! There are a few different types of games: following a path of falling tiles, connecting matching gemstones, and one involving clock hands. Though it doesn't make a lot of sense that mini-games solve time disturbances, they are relatively entertaining little diversions.
With the time disturbance resolved, Serah and Noel prepared their weapons to face the massive colossus. The beast, Atlas, swung his glowing fist in long wide arcs, shaking the ground every time it landed in concussive blows. Dodging nimbly, Serah and Noel eventually wore the colossus down. "I think I see a weak point!" Serah yelled, she gestured to an orange crystal protruding from the back of the giant's head.
Coordinating their attacks Noel combined his two swords mechanically into a javelin, and buried it deep in the crystal. "Now Serah!" he yelled.
Serah nodded, her bow drawn, and let loose the arrow which would fell the giant, bringing it down with a quake that shook the ruins.
Play Time to Post: 4 hours
Estimated Total Play Time: 6.5 hours
Estimated Time to Write Post: 2.75 hours
Readers may remember Cieth, which played a prominent part in FF13. They are l'Cie who have failed at their focus, becoming tormented monsters. In FF13, they were some of the more difficult encounters, with the most powerful of them being an exercise in torture. In the Bresha ruins I picked up a quest to kill a Cieth that had been wandering the ruins attacking soldiers. Thankfully this one wasn't too difficult, and I received a "fragment" as a reward. After defeating the Cieth, Noel made an interesting statement, that his memories were like "looking through fogged glass". I don't remember how it related to the Cieth, but it gave a little insight into Noel's character.
The fragments are a little confusing at first, they sound a lot like "artefacts" which are used to open time gates. The separation between the two becomes clearer as the game progresses. All the player really knows at this point is that game contains over a hundred fragments, and that they get CP as a reward for finding them, CP are Crystarium Points, this game's version of experience points.
To resolve the paradox, the pair must find a device in the ruins. The device is accompanied by a mysterious time disturbance. To resolve the disturbance, the two must... solve a mini-game! There are a few different types of games: following a path of falling tiles, connecting matching gemstones, and one involving clock hands. Though it doesn't make a lot of sense that mini-games solve time disturbances, they are relatively entertaining little diversions.
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| Serah finds the mysterious device. |
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| Serah must find the right path to resolve the time disturbance. |
Coordinating their attacks Noel combined his two swords mechanically into a javelin, and buried it deep in the crystal. "Now Serah!" he yelled.
Serah nodded, her bow drawn, and let loose the arrow which would fell the giant, bringing it down with a quake that shook the ruins.
Play Time to Post: 4 hours
Estimated Total Play Time: 6.5 hours
Estimated Time to Write Post: 2.75 hours
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