LogFAQs > #976323223

As promised, since Vanille won this year! If I like this enough, I'm buying the other two. I've only played the first five or so hours of this, and that was a long time ago, on Xbox 360. Since I no longer own one of those, this time I'm doing it on PS3. I only played 45 minutes so far but thought that was the perfect amount to get an opening post that would get people interested. And the more engaged people are with this topic, the more effort I'll put into these write-ups.

So, starting things off, you're dropped right into it. Lightning and Sazh are on a train, all cloak-and-dagger like it's some kind of Middle Ages convent. The strange hooded guys who chant and shit, you know? But it's not that. Lightning is here to kill. The guard briefly turns his back to her and BAM, dead. Her act of courage against this one thug inspires everyone else on the train to rise up and right some wrong being done to them. At this point, none of the details matter - it's just an epic introductory sequence that shows that Lightning is this strong female protagonist. While I like characters like that, a lot depends on the nuances. She's tough and no-nonsense, but I can't really pick up on the nuances of her character just yet because she seems to want to hide them. After the tutorial against a big machine-like boss thing (I got four stars btw), she tells Sazh that she was a former SOLDIER... hmmm, sounds familiar.

Though in this case, I presume that means she was one of those guards from the train, as opposed to being fused with mako. She got to wear that cool armor and everything. I wonder.... does this game have costumes? Can we pick up her old gear and have the option of having her wear it? Or is that too Tales for this?

Anyway we learn that she and Sazh aren't familiar with one another, and he's tagging along because he has nowhere to be and all night to get there. Sazh has a chocobo chick in his hair, whom he just refers to as "Chocobo" - I presume this cutie is SMFFFC eligible, since he/she/it is one specific Chocobo, like Mog is a specific Moogle. We ...blah blah blah... fight against thugs ...blah blah blah... and we're just being told basics of battle. It's like the cracking of Bozoblin skulls that you expect for a tutorial, but this makes me glad it opened with a bang. Certainly beats a generic opening like that. I do take note that if the party leader is KOed, it's Game Over, so when I find an Iron Bangle that gives +50 HP, I give it to Lightning.

After we take care of a few more here and there, we come across this guy in boss-looking armor, but sadly he's just as weak as the thugs around him, nothing more than tutorial fodder regarding the combo gauge. The more you beat up on one enemy, the more damage gets dealt, and once it's staggered, the damage maximizes. After beating up on them, Sazh wants to familiarize himself with Lightning, and that's when he learns she's looking for the Fallacy... er, Fal'Cie, whatever that is. He doesn't seem to have processed it yet.

We then start Snow's story, showing that he's fighting with rebels against the extermination... we're low on details as to why people would volunteer for exile, or why anyone would "cooperate" toward a peaceful future for others by volunteering for execution. I mean, I'd just kill the person coming to abduct me. Problem solved! I loved how ironic the President or whoever was rambling was talking about this "keeping the peace" while guns were being fired in all kinds of directions. He's certainly failed his job, and I suggest we impeach him. People aren't just going to accept death. I ain't willing to die to "better society" because that means society failed to find a place for me, or ostracized me. No, that would get me to fight the status quo. And that's what Lightning is doing and I presume Troy Baker is too. Just a matter of why, which we'll find out later.

Needless to say, I didn't remember much of anything save for the character designs and part of the setting here. So this pretty much counts as a fresh playthrough. I'll do another hour or two tonight but thought I'd get the topic out there now.