Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay, so...wow, I beat the game a bit ago. I'm fairly certain this is the fastest I've ever beaten a Final Fantasy, and it's the only time I've beaten it before my brother! I still need to work on hunts and all, but if I actually tried to finish everything... well, that's what I tried with VIII, and look what happened there. So I've given myself a little time to cool off and think about the ending, and... I believe I approve!

I mean, for one, it was pretty epic. Lots of pretty cutscenes, the whole deal we've come to expect. The very end-end, I do really like. I love Fang and Vanille, and I'd have loved for them to be all, y'know... not-crystal, but this seems fitting. Everyone else belongs there. They grew up in this time, they have people there for them. Hope has his dad, Sazh has Dajh, and Snow and Lightning have Serah. Fang and Vanille mostly have each other, and... well, they still do. heart It's bittersweet, but oddly enough, it feels more sweet than bitter. Cocoon's fate seems absolutely perfect, too. It fixes all their problems! Relying on fal'Cie? Nope, no more. Totally prejudiced against Pulse? Um, probably,but they'll work that out themselves, and that's how it should be.

I was actually expecting a lot more fighting than there really was. Orphan killed me once because he kept resetting the Chain Gauge stressed , but it was an absolute cinch next time I tried. I like that, not to win immediately and for it to be challenging enough to, um... be challenging, but for it to be easy enough at the same time that you don't break the flow of the storyline getting frustrated. X, actually, went the same way for me; I died once, won the next time, yay. It seems like there should be more, though. The battle-to-cutscene ratio seems a little small even for this game, eheh. I as expecting something like Kingdom Hearts II's ending, with massive cinematics in between itty-bitty sections of a loooooong fight. Or maybe I didn't expect, just hope. I like how it was, but I think that could have been better.

One thing... I kind of feel guilty for saying this, but I'm really disappointed that Lightning and the others didn't actually turn into Cie'th. sweatdrop It would have been such a cool plot twist (provided, of course, that afterward, they didn't all "AGH CIE'TH OOPS NO CAN'T SAVE THE WORLD NOW *DIE*"). I hope I'm not being prejudiced here, but it seems to me like one of the older games would have made it real. sweatdrop

My thoughts on the game overall? What's there is good. A lot of what's there is very good. I just... don't feel like it's enough. It was paced nicely, and had good length, but somehow despite that, they didn't seem to be enough plot. You don't have all these earth-shattering events going on like in, say, IX. [I mean, you get to Burmecia, BAM, it's in shambles. Then you're off to Cleyra, and what happens there? Massive destruction happens there! And then you're off again!] XIII's story just didn't seem like as much happened in the same amount of time. Along the same lines, what they did didn't really make an much of an impact on the world until the end. I mean, they scared a bunch of innocent Cocoonians to death, but... no saving cities in the meantime or anything.

A lot of the "big events" seem to revolve around people not-really-dying. I mean, it happens to Yaag at least three times. It was actually kind of neat for him, because it felt right for part of his character (though I guess surviving an explosion doesn't technically say anything about character), but then you also have Raines not-really-dying, Serah and Dajh's crystals being not-really-smashed... I mean, Sazh was carried off in a coffin and he still wasn't dead! And then you see Jihl about twice before she actually dies. And she doesn't even get a particularly dramatic death. I was thinking she was going to pull a comeback too, and she didn't. I'm not really complaining about the not-really-dying, actually. I like people not being dead. But I wasn't satisfied with Jihl.

I hope I'm not forgetting anything. xd So, I guess what I said before pretty much summarizes my feelings on the whole game. What's there is good, but there should have been more.

Oh, yeah, the whole fighting Orphan thing... confused me so badly. I thought I had to be missing something important plot-wise, but I think it's just as simple as, "Oh, crap, Orphan's not being very nice." I guess if it attacked them, I don't know much of anything else they could do, but... yeah, I'd think they'd try to do anything rather than kill it.

Cocoon falling was explained, though: Orphan kept it afloat. Ergo, the supposed destruction wrought upon Cocoon by Orphan being destroyed was Cocoon falling out of the sky... which happened. So Fang and Vanille actually do end up turning into Ragnarok together at this point (or rather, "some kinda beast" xp ), only for some reason they're able to save Cocoon instead of blow it to pieces. I always got the impression that Ragnarok couldn't control its actions, but now I'm not so sure. It actually kind of makes sense with exactly how they go Ragnarok, giving in and giving up and all, that they'd actually be wreaking all that destruction by choice. I don't know if that's accurate, but I like it.

Living on Cocoon is perfect, though! No more fal'Cie control, and that was the whole point! Um, yeah, a lot of people are probably going to die at first, maybe a civil war here and there, which sucks for them, but hey, the price of freedom.

I don't find easy bosses. xd I'm a wimp; I'd rather have a fight be too easy than lose. Like I said, though, I think it should have been more elaborate, if not harder.

And yeah, lack of secrets... Well, there are sort of final weapons, you know. I read up on it; the catalysts you need are a b***h, though. They seem to be better saved until after you beat the game, which is nice in a way, but also kind of ehhh... Like the final Crystarium expansion; it's kind of weird that they saved it until after the end. Come to think of it though, have you been to the Faultwarrens?

Okay, as far as Orphan? We may have the rescind our judgement; my brother just beat the game and had a horrible time on him (it?). sweatdrop I personally think it's because his party doesn't have a Synergist (Fang, Vanille, and Snow), but it was the hardest storyline battle of the game for him.

I think he explained the biggest storyline issue perfectly, though: "We're going to go demonstrate our free will by doing exactly what the fal'Cie tell us!" (Yes, we're fighting Orphan, and yes, it's exactly what Barthandalus wanted, but psst, let's just pretend it was our idea, mm'kay?)

Haha, I cheated on looking up the catalysts. I don't know about all of them, but the Trapezhedrons, besides being super expensive, are dropped by some of the Oretoises, and not the Adamanchelids... so I just gave up until after beating the game. Rest assured, though; XIII does have a superboss that's harder than Orphan. At least all the post-beating-the-game stuff is going to be useful for that.

Yeah, the Faultwarrens are... sort of hunts. I won't spoil it for you, but it's a more story-driven thing than just "Hey, let's help out all these random dead l'Cie." The thing if you have to get past certain hunts for it to be available

Hm, really? Maybe it was Combat Clinic, then. Either way, it was the statuses getting to him, I think.

I liked but didn't like the ending mainly because Fang and Vanille were my favorite characters. Vanille's Death ability helped me alot when doing the hunts .Square plans on making an Final Fantasy 13 2 that isn't Versus 13. I think they should let Snow be happy with Serah and Sazh with his son and replace those two characters. A more older Hope would be cool to see I only hope for the next some how Fang and Vanille come back and they let you switch between your characters in battle

One word, It was a FAIL. Honestly, it was.

Alright, here comes my honest opinion.

Fight: The end fight didn't take me long really. I mean, I am a level whore. I pushed my chars and their crystarium almost up to the end on every role and also had advanced weapons (as far as it was possible at that point). I found that a little bit disappointing. The design of the end boss and its evolving form were badass though!

Story: I gotta agree with the people posting above me -about the fact that the story made me go wtf a little. Especially before/during the end fight. The official ending/last cut scene made me sniffle a little because I am such a Vanille fan. I just didn't like the thought of her never returning again.
When Sazh reunited with Dajh though.. finallyyy.. I was a little overwhelmed (as usual for me at FF endings x3). I just loved it. So the ending left me with mixed feelings: A little bit of "THAT was it?" and "Awww uhmagawd I wanna cry and hug everyone nao!".
I am really down for the long-time motivation that all the quests splattered around provide as well.

So all in all: Not the best FF ending ever but definitely one that I enjoyed.

Thats awesome art work there Hope looks badass heart