As Serah and Noel emerged from the time gate, they found themselves in a place that was at once the metropolis Academia, and at once not. The Academy headquarters could be seen ahead, an alarm rang in the distance, signalling that the great Ark created by Hope was about to be raised into the sky. However, choas had begun to seep into the city, massive objects floated everywhere, in a bizarre dance. This was it, what was bound to be the final conflict between Noel, Serah, and Caius. Could they save the future, and right the past?
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| Academia infused with chaos. |
The characters surmise from all of this that the chaos is seeping in from Valhalla, and seeks to turn the world into Valhalla, a place with no time, no new life, and no death. That is Caius's goal. This makes for a neat dungeon, because three dimensions play a part, where the player can jump great distances to platforms far below there current position. However, the platforms rotate, which means there's a fair amount of waiting for them to change position, which can get tedious. It's fun, but as far as "final dungeons" go in the franchise, I wouldn't rank it too highly.
Noel and Serah negotiate their way through the chaos, defeating a couple bosses along the way. Before they reach the Academy headquarters why are surrounded by black, inky, chaos. From within speaks the voice of Yeul, urging them to turn back, lest they play into Caius's hands. After all, if they kill him, he achieves his goal. It just occurred to me that this is the same set of circumstances as FF13 with Orphan and Barthandelus. I hadn't made that connection before, interesting. Serah and Noel are not sure if this is once again a trick from Caius, and press on. They reach Caius... who transforms into Bahamut (He can do this because of his possession of the Eye of Bahamut). Hope shows up, with a little extra help from the Academy air force, and their best pilot, Sazh Katzroy.
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| Fighting Caius as "Chaos Bahamut" while riding jockey on the back of an airship. |
The final conflict takes place within Valhalla itself. Where Caius unleashes his true power, becoming the massive, and supremely badass looking, Jet Bahamut.
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| He's even got sideburns made from Caius's headband. |
As if that wasn't enough, Jet Bahamut summons his homies Garnet Bahamut and Amber Bahamut, that the player must tangle with first.
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| The battle with the Bahamut gang. |
This battle was definitely challenging, and a little bit frustrating. I think I won on the third try. Judging by my battle results I didn't do a great job though. I remember doing better with this battle my first time through the game, but who knows if I'm remembering correctly.
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| Boooo... Boooooo! |
These battle scores just kick you when you're down. If the battle takes a long time, it means you really worked your but off to win, and then you get a screen as if to say, "Oh, by the way, you suck balls at this. Your Welcome." I really tried to have a good strategy to win against the final boss, but like many other battles in this system, the best defense was a good offense. Attack, attack, attack is what won the day.
After the battle, the player must decide whether they want Noel to kill Caius, or not. I did what I feel like is the proper role-play response, and held back my stroke. Caius then grabbed the sword, and stabbed it through his heart himself. Everything seems great, the new Cocoon is floating, to be called "Bhunivelze" after the sleeping god, the new home of humanity. Then it gets dark... Just as the celebration starts to begin, Serah sees the new future, and dies. Noel realizes that since Caius drove his sword through the Heart of Chaos, Etro is dead, and the chaos she held at bay is now pouring into the world. It's not often I have a true emotional response to a game, but they got me here. The shift from triumph to complete failure happens so suddenly! Even cute little Mog appears to bite the big one... sad face.
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| Instead of a "The End" screen there is a "To Be Continued..." screen. I didn't grab it. Imagine this image with those words at the bottom of the screen. Source. |
In hindsight, Square said that the "To Be Continued..." message wasn't pointing to a third game in the series, but instead to the extra endings, and forthcoming DLC. The potential DLC "real" ending didn't bother me too much, but I think you can find out how most people felt about the announcement at the source page to the above image.
The sweet taste of victory quickly turned bitter as Noel held Serah's lifeless body in his arms. He began to feel the tinge of guilt that Caius must have felt hundreds of times over. Hope looked on in despair as Mog began to falter. Mog explained that Etro was gone... and with her loss, the gate to Valhalla had been blown wide open, releasing chaos into the world. In despair, Lightning could only pray that one day she would have the chance to right these wrongs, and with that prayer, she entered a crystal sleep upon the Throne of Etro.
Thank you friends for joining me on the journey through the tale of Final Fantasy XIII-2. To find out what happens to the world of Nova Chrystallis now that it is overrun with chaos, return for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, here... at This Bard's Tales!
Play Time: 39 hours
Write Time: 2 hours
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