So the pair doesn't really fight Caius... they actually just chase him through the rain-soaked, Cieth-infested streets of Academia. Noel finds it a bit strange that Caius is using proxies rather than engaging them directly. At the termination of a roadway, they find Yeul. Once again, it is not the Yeul that Noel knows. They rescue her from a pack of Cieth, only for her to be thrown in the air by the tentacles of a unique Cieth, one of the Undying.
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| This beast. As far as the Undying go, it's not too bad. I find certain enemies ability to be "Capable of temporary invulnerability" a waste of time though. |
After the battle, Noel holds Yeul in his arms, and she soon passes. It is revealed that as Serah and Noel change the timeline, Yeul sees all. The more visions she sees, the closer she comes to death. Serah realizes their time-travel is causing Yeul to die. Noel reveals that all seers see their own death, but their law forbids them to avoid it, lest they create a contradiction in time, and terrifying consequences. It is a sad fate for the seers, they know of the circumstances of their own death, and none of them live to see 20 years of age.
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| Noel holds the dying Yeul in his arms. Source. |
Yeul leaves an artefact behind, the key to a nearby time gate. The last thing Serah contemplates before stepping through are some of Yeul's words "Caius is not in this city." If that is true, who did Noel and Serah chase?
Stepping through the gate, Noel and Serah find themselves in a huge tower. They are immediately reminded of Caius word's in Academia, "You were imprisoned in that tower." The tower is called Augusta. It was created by the Academy, and seems to be under the control of some kind of AI. They also encounter Alyssa, although, it's not Alyssa. It turns out to be a duplicate, created by the AI. This duplicate helpfully leads the pair to an elevator which will take them to the top of the tower.
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| "Alyssa" in the Augusta Tower. |
As the elevator ride begins, "Alyssa" begins to get a bit weird, or... weirder. A projected image shows Hope and the real Alyssa. There is a conflict between the new AI and its creators, in response, it summons machines that murder Hope and Alyssa! This is the forbidden history, the duplicate explains, as monsters arrive to harry Noel and Serah. The AI wished for the new Fal'Cie to be created with full powers, most notably the power to create l'Cie and Cieth. Hope, understandably, did not agree with this, and was thus put down!
Noel and Serah fight through waves of bots, eventually making it to the top of the tower, where they meet Yeul. This is still not the Yeul that Noel once knew, but she IS a Yeul that Noel KNOWS. What you say? This is 200AF, the same year that Noel and Serah first went to Oerba, and this is therefore the same Yeul they met there. She explains that the Caius in Academia was a fake, but the real one brought her here. The "fake Caius" thing just seems like an unnecessary addition to an already overly complicated plot, in my opinion. This Yeul gives them a key to enter into the AI, after which she sees a vision of a new future, one where people are smiling... and then dies. Caius picks up her body, sheds tears, and says something along the lines of "how many times must I witness this?"
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| Serah and Noel standing before what I presume is the AI's CPU. |
Entering the AI, in what I think is explained as a virtual environment, but it is also a crossroads, like the Void, where time-travel is possible. Erm... The Fabula Nova Chrystallis games don't sweat the deets, what can I say? Either the designers didn't care about details, or the mythology is so complicated it has to be explained quickly in the interest of time. It is quite possibly the latter, as the "mythology" was created first, and was under development for a good many years before the game's release.
Since time-travel is possible in this environment, the man-made Fal'Cie saw it's danger, and traveled back in time to command the AI to create it with full power. Noel and Serah defeat numerous reincarnations of the Fal'Cie, which seems to be recreated in an endless loop, a true paradox. Eventually, Serah gets fed up. Since the Fal'Cie could manipulate the past, perhaps they could too? She yells a message to Hope not to create the damn thing! It works... presumably Hope saw Serah yell this message in an Oracle Drive, and it stopped him from creating the Fal'Cie. If that doesn't make a lot of sense to you, I welcome you again, to the world of Nova Chrystallis!
With the Fal'Cie issue resolved, Noel and Serah are able to travel to an alternate Academia, the one Yeul saw, where people are happy and smiling. They are greeted by... Hope and Alyssa! They slept in a time capsule, which I don't even care to explain. I think you get the idea how this game works. Hope has come up with a new idea, instead of creating a Fal'Cie to float Cocoon, they have discovered that things called "graviton cores" could be used to float Cocoon. They have already begun building a new Cocoon. The cores are not readily available, so it will take Serah and Noel's unique abilities of time-travel to get enough of them.
If the're going to build a whole new Cocoon and go through the trouble of floating it just to move everyone and everything from the old Cocoon, why not just move those people and things to Pulse, right? I dunno man, I dunno.
Once this graviton core quest starts, the middle of the game becomes a bit of fetch quest filler as the two move up and down the timeline to find cores. It is a good excuse to explore all of the areas the game has to offer though. I'm not going to detail this part of the game, it's not all that exciting, but here are some screenshots!
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| In 300AF, snow falls in the Bresha Ruins. There are some great weather effects in the game, the snow here accumulates on characters and monsters. When it's raining, rain drops appear on screen as if it was an actual camera following Noel and Serah on their quest. |
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| In the Yaschas Massif, there is a series of side-quests that can be obtained from these red orbs, which are the remains of regretful folk swallowed by the advancing chaos. |
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| The Vile Peaks also has a quest that involves traveling the time-line to reassemble a squadron of soldiers who're fighting some powerful creature. |
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| Noel and Serah must cut off the source of its power... |
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| and discover it is Twilight Odin, a dark echo of the Eidolon that Lightning fought here in the previous game. |
After collecting all the necessary graviton cores, a new gate appears in Academia. Noel and Serah feel that the conflict is coming to it's head. Does Caius lie on the other side? They try to sneak away unannounced, but Hope and Alyssa catch them just before they enter the gate to send them off! All reminisce about the past, and look forward to a new future, one filled with hope and happiness. As Noel and Serah enter the gate... something is immediately wrong. The Historia Crux begins to fall apart! Noel and Serah can't hang on as they are torn apart in time! The last thing they hear is Alyssa's voice trailing after them, "I had to do something... because in the future you wish to create, I do not exist."
Play Time: 30 hours
Write Time: 2 hours
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