Having both resolved the paradox and defeated the colossus Atlas, Noel and Serah step into a new gate. They find themselves on Gran Pulse. They know this because they can see Cocoon in the sky, however, the sky is dark, Cocoon is eclipsed, by... what, in a recurring theme, must be a paradox!
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| The eclipse seen from the Yaschas Massif. |
Noel has vague memories of this eclipse occurring, but not in this time period, thus the pair determine that it's presence here is a paradox. Further exploring the Massif, the pair find a large group of researchers at an excavation of ruins. These are members of the Academy, an institution borne from the fallout of the conflict with the Fal'Cie (in Final Fantasy 13). The Academy is made up mostly of former members of the Fal'Cie controlled Sanctum. The head of the Academy also happens to be present at this site with his assistant, Alyssa. He is an old friend of Serah's.
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| Serah reunites with the older, and thankfully much less annoying, Hope Estheim. |
Hope and Serah are happy to see each other, but quickly get down to business. Hope and his team are here investigating the paradox activity. They have determined that the ruins are from a city called Paddra. The people who occupied it are called Farseers, and their civilization ended in a tragic civil war. As Hope expands on this, it seems Noel may be hiding something...
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| A giant head in the Paddra ruins. There is a certain aesthetic throughout the Final Fantasy series that is exemplified here. I find it quite enchanting. |
At this point in the game, I had started two different branches, which are depicted literally on the games "map". It's called the Historia Crux, and it's how the player moves between different zones.
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| The Historia Crux navigation screen. |
One branch was what I just described, finding the eclipse on the Yaschas Massif. In the other, Serah had reunited with another character from the previous game, her fiance Snow. Snow had traveled to the Sunleth Waterscape, near the crystal pillar holding up Cocoon. There a horde of flan (jelly creatures that are recurring in the FF series) are combining into a massive tomato that will eventually erode the pillar and cause the fall of Cocoon.
I found I COULD in fact move between the story lines without missing a beat, each just resumed where I had left off upon returning. This is a neat feature, an obvious counter to the much-maligned linearity of this game's predecessor.
Looking at my notes, I proceeded though the eclipse first, ending up in Oerba 200 AF, the hometown of Fang and Vanille from FF13 (The game starts in 3 AF). The area is littered with spatial distortions that must be resolved in order to proceed.
After exploring Oerba fully, on top of the old school house, a mysterious girl appears. Noel recognizes her as Yeul. However, she says "I am not the Yeul you know." a large man with a massive sword appears. He says a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about the sins of altering the timeline. "If you change the future, you change the past," is a key phrase. This could be considered the theme of the game, which is odd, because at least in American pop-culture it usually goes the other way around. Although it doesn't make a lot of sense, it is original. As the future is changed, the past changes to make it make sense. Impressions are left though, such as how Serah still remembers meeting Lightning after Cocoon is caught by the crystal pillar, but no one else does.
Both Noel and Serah recognize the mysterious man. Serah knows him from her dream as the man fighting Lightning in Valhalla. Noel seems to be much closer to him, and knows his name, Caius. There are many battles with Caius, some of which are very difficult. In this case he went down easily with an application of poison.
"You have committed a grave sin, altering the timeline," said the large man, "and the wage of your sin... is death!"
He charged at Noel and Serah, swinging his massive sword in quick but wide arcs. He glowed with the power of the Heart of Chaos, red and beating in his breast. Within the hilt of his sword lay the Eye of Bahamut. Despite the power of these artifacts, Noel and Serah were able to bring Caius to his knees. However, the Heart of Chaos rejuvenated him, and Caius escaped into the rift of time.
Time to Post: 5 hours
Total Time: 11.5 hours
Write Time: 1 hour
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