Final Fantasy XIII-2, Chapter 7: Can There Only Be One?

Serah landed uncomfortably within the Void Beyond, that place which was a mirror of Valhalla, a place between time and space, where time had no meaning. Mog lied next her in the form of her weapon, but he did not respond. Tears began forming at the edge of her eyelids, "Mog? What's wrong, where am I?" she fretted.

Then, there was movement in the distance, "Is that a woman?" She thought, beginning to run.

Serah lands in the Void Beyond, a place where the player has been a couple times before, but has not been able to explore. She is followed by what I like to call "Ghost Mog", an outline that will still help her in battle, but does not talk or do Mog's other functions: the Mog Finder(TM) and Moogle Throw(TM).

Serah walks through a haze, followed by Ghost Mog(TM).

Within the Void, she encounters a series of Yeuls, from different time periods. After talking with them, she now knows that she is the same. She has been gifted with the Eyes of Etro(TM). This is the name for the ability that lets the seeress see the future. This also means, that Serah, like Yeul, will die if she continues to have visions. Her vacation in the Void culminates with a vision of Caius stabbing Noel, and a fake Yeul (Which is Caius) trying to deter her. She duels for a bit with Caius, who comments that Noel accepted defeat much more quickly. After a tough fight, Serah defeats Caius, who once again is saved by the Heart of Chaos(TM pending... jk).

Serah woke slowly... the fight with Caius was quickly fading in her mind, as if it had been but a dream. She was in... grass, laying in the grass. The light touch of the blades of grass moving in the gentle breeze felt good against her skin. There was a familiar smell, she could almost taste it on her tongue. It was the ocean, like back in New Bodhum. Had it all been a dream?

Serah awakens from an apparent nap in the twilight back at New Bodhum. She's dressed in her regular outfit from FF13. Lebreau, the female member of team NORA, scolds her for napping outside. After all, what would the students think if they saw their teacher dozing off in the grass?

New Bodhum?

As Serah explores, she finds out that all of her friends are here, everyone thinking she's tripping out a bit. Heading back to NORA house, she finds that even Snow is here. She asks him about going to find Lightning. His response is why would he leave to find her, when she's right there in New Bodhum? Serah begins to tear up and runs outside. There is someone waiting on the end of the dock... It's Lightning. Serah realizes this world is fake, but she also acknowledges that everything is here that will make her happy, all she wants is in this place. The apparition of Lightning reaches out, inviting her to stay. Serah, knowing in her heart she will never fully accept a fake future, rejects her offer. Vanille and Fang then make an appearance, and somehow Fang jamming her spear into the ground makes a portal for Serah. It's better not to ask too many questions.

The player is given the option to accept or not. Interestingly, it's not a Morton's Fork. If you choose to stay, an alternate ending plays, where Serah is happy, but is haunted by faded memories of an important person she feels she knew, but can't remember his name or face. A shade of Noel appears, letting the player know it is him she cannot seem to recall. This is an example of a Paradox Ending, one of many alternate endings in the game. After it plays out, the player is returned to before they made the decision. There are 5 or 6 or so of these alternate endings, but the're really not that impressive, just short little diversions ranging from dark to absurd. The're kind of cute, but I think I'm not happy with them because I don't think the reward reflects the work you have to do to get them. Or, it's that they don't reflect anything you did. It's not like multiple choices you made make for a different ending. For example, if you end up defeating Atlas without resolving the paradox first (which is harder) you end up dooming the world to an apocalyptic battle between these giant machines. Meh.

Using the time portal that Fang creates from Serah's "dream world", she is able to connect with Noel. When she first encounters him, Noel is lost in his dream, and doesn't see Serah. She witnesses his past, he has hunted a massive behemoth solo for a feast. It's Yeul's birthday.

Noel's home is a blasted wasteland of white sand. Until he snaps out of his dream, the sky is an angry red.

As she walks around the world, visions of people can be seen, if she tries to use the moogle ability to reveal them, they burn! I think this is just a poetic way of telling you everyone else has died off. Only Noel, Caius, and Yeul remain in this future. Serah witnesses a match between Caius and Noel. Caius wishes for Noel to kill him, killing the Heart of Chaos, which will in turn kill the goddess Etro. If Etro is dead, there will be no more time, which means no more visions, and thus Yeul will be saved. However, Noel refuses, he wishes to fight Caius to test his skill, then protect Yeul together. Caius insists that "There can only be one." Noel defeats Caius, but will not kill him. Following this, the player witnesses the perhaps most pivotal moment in Noel's life, when Yeul dies in his arms on her 15th birthday.

The pair both snap out of their dreams, and Mog is recovered from being lost in the Void. Noel surmises that they must now stay in this time, where there is no future, so that Serah sees no more visions, lest she die. Serah shuts him up, saying she has made up her mind, she is determined to right the past, no matter what the risk to herself. They jump into a gate! They end up in... New Bodhum? Sort of, it is New Bodhum, but the time period appears to be the same as Noel's blasted wasteland of a future.

The blasted New Bodhum.

A vision of Lightning appears again... however, she is dressed in the livery of her position as champion to the goddess Etro. This is not so much a vision, as a projection of the real Lightning. She apologizes to Serah for getting her into this mess, saying it's Lightning's fault. However, Serah is determined to push on. A gate opens...

Play Time: 35.5 hours
Write Time: 1.5 hours

Final Fantasy XIII-2, Chapter 6: Yeul Tidings

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.

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.

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.

"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?"

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!

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.

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.

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.

Noel and Serah must cut off the source of its power...

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 

Final Fantasy XIII-2, Chapter 5: It's Academia, Really

Noel and Serah step through the gate in front of them, to emerge in a place familiar, yet unfamiliar. They are on the Yaschas Massif, however, the light of Cocoon can be seen clearly in the sky, as opposed to the darkness they had seen before. Noel surmised that having resolved the paradox, they had created an alternate timeline, one in which the eclipse did not exist. Hope had been present in the other Yaschas Massif, would he be here?

Approaching the Academy headquarters at the excavation site, Serah heard Hope's voice as she approached. "I don't know why," he said, "but I just know someone is about to arrive here, someone important." 

Serah once again reunited with Hope. Although only Serah and Noel remembered the existence of the eclipse, the change in time left a faint impression in Hope, thus, he knew Serah would come.

Meeting Hope here in the alternate Yaschas Massif is a somewhat pivotal moment in the game. He has been studying an Oracle Drive. An Oracle Drive records visions, or prophecies, recorded by a people called the Farseers, who lived in these very ruins in the ancient past. The seeresses of these people, who were always named Yeul, could see the future. Yeul is also the name of the girl who appeared with Caius.

They activate the Oracle Drive, showing a vision, similar to Serah's, of Caius and Lightning fighting. With a wave of his arm, Caius manages to destroy the crystal pillar, and bring down Cocoon.

Activating the Oracle Drive. Source.

The group decides here that they will do what they can to save Cocoon. Hope and his assistant Alyssa will work in the past, while Noel and Serah will work in the future. Serah surmises that this very thing is what Lightning had given her her powers to do (time traveling and controlling monsters).

Here in the Yaschas Massif I had my first really trying battle. Until this point, the battles in 13-2 had been much improved over it's predecessor, however, against very strong foes it still shows warts. I've mentioned before that the strong Cieth were the worst monsters to fight in the last game, it's the same here. I heard about a Cieth wandering the Massif, and decided to give it a go. It was incredibly frustrating, after an hour of 15 minute battles I decided to give up. I ran when it appeared, and it caught me! Thus I couldn't skip out with the retry option, and... I won. The reward for my troubles? A fragment and 500CP. So... pride, essentially. It doesn't pay to fight prolonged battles in 13 and 13-2.

This B*...

The battle screen both helpfully tells me I wasted 6 minutes of my life (the duration versus target time), and that I did a very poor job (no stars and 0 points awarded). Thanks! That really makes me want to keep playing this game!

I don't have a problem with games having enemies that are very difficult, or impossible to beat when you first encounter them. My problem with 13 and 13-2 is it's hard to tell if you're overpowered, or you need a new strategy... You try a few things, and then an hour later, realize you probably aren't ready to fight said monster. Unlike previous Final Fantasy games, if you pull a David on a Goliath, you don't stand to get much in reward. Bummer. I wrote in my notes "lesson learned I hope." Guess what, I didn't, but we'll get to that later.

From a gate in the alternate Yaschas Massif, Noel and Serah emerge in a massive city, Academia, in the year 400AF. For the moment, they have succeeded! Humanity has created this metropolis, which has been built on the principles of Hope Estheim and the Academy. The city is powered by a man made Fal'Cie (The god-like bio-machines that previously governed and manipulated humanity). This seems like a terrible idea... and it is! The rainy night quickly turns into a nightmare, as the Proto Fal'Cie begins turning the people of Academia into Cieth to protect against the perceived "paradox" threat Noel and Serah represent with their appearance.

Noel, Serah, and their companion Blue the Buccaboo fight off a legion of Cieth. I'm quite proud of this pic, it was hard to get the Academy headquarters centered in the background!

As if hundreds of Cieth wasn't enough, Caius also makes an appearance! He believes their presence here is a paradox, and they must be stopped. He says also that they have "witnessed the true history." He had imprisoned them in a tower 200 years ago, but that is somewhere they have yet to go. He is somewhat in disbelief that the pair stands before him. 

It's worth mentioning that Academia 400AF has an abominable encounter rate. It wasn't AS bad since I knew it was coming (this is my second time playing the game). However, it was still bad. I remember thinking in my first play-though whether anyone had actually play tested this level. It's bad, trust me. Luckily the battles are relatively quick, but you'll be fighting them one after another, after another, after another.

This place would be pretty cool, if it weren't for all the damn Cieth.

This dude is waiting at the end of an alley to make a pancake out of you with his hammer fist. I didn't fight him, so I guess I learned my lesson, if only for a short time.

The pair battles Caius, but something seems fishy! Will Yeul make an appearance? Find out in the next chapter...

Play Time: 21.75 hours
Write Time: 1.25 hours