It was specifically at 13:37, but anyway…
There are a lot of unfinished games on my backlog, but for the past two weeks I have been spending my time getting emotional over games that I’ve never even played. Allow me to elaborate:
One night I made the fatal mistake of going on a Wikipedia Adventure™ for Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 because I heard that they were making yet another game in the series. It’s like, what went wrong in this game that they couldn’t resolve in the sequel, right? The story itself is very convoluted and irritating, and the most I got out of it was that Etro deserves one of those “you tried but please stop” gold star stickers. Still, XIII-2 was a complete mystery to me. I didn’t know how to pronounce l’Cie (apparently it’s [lə’siː] and not [ɛl’si]), and I was tired of reading about these games online, so I thought it would be best if quit this late-night madness and watch the ending on YouTube. Did I expect to get taken to a dreamworld of tragic? NOPE
First we have Caius Ballad; he’s one half of the XIII-2 logo, so you know he’s a big deal. This dark and feathery fellow is hellbent on having Noel kill him, but he’s not interested in killing his mentor/old travel companion. Whereas Lightning serves as the Etro’s guardian and champion, Caius was “blessed” with Etro’s heart. You know who else was blessed with another one of Etro’s gifts? Yeul! The Eyes of Etro dramatically shorten her lifespan, and the immortal Caius is forced to relive her death for lifetimes upon lifetimes. Can you regift blessings, because…
“Noel, born at the end of days. You understand the true value of life.”
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG.
He ends up impaling himself on Noel’s sword (poof goes Etro’s heart!), which was actually very intense the first time I watched this sequence. The shots, rendering, and song choice were all ace. I’m already a fan of Caius’ theme, but it was especially solemn and beautiful here. And the segue to Noel’s theme? Perfect. It couldn’t have been timed better.
“The gates are closed.”
“It’s the end of our journey.”
Hope & co. successfully manage to float new!Cocoon up into the atmosphere, Noel and Serah return from Valhalla, the music is uplifting, everything is gorgeous, they’re both alright, and the best part? All is well. Oh wait—
NO!!!! NO!!!!!!???????
Even now I don’t even know what to say about all this. It took me a week to stop being like this whenever “New World” played at random on iTunes. The ending was unexpected and I don’t know or believe it made the already weak story better. I seriously sympathize with all the people who went through the trouble of playing through XIII to save Serah, only for her to end up dying in the sequel. And you still have to play Lightning Returns? You all have my DEEPEST condolences.
Comments
4 responses to “You can actually pinpoint the second when my heart rips in half.”
Oh……………… I Did buy this with the intention of playing it but the battle system was pretty much lifted out of 13 and NOPE I DIDN’T WANT TO GO BACK TO AUTO ^ N AGAIN LIKE I DID WITH 13 D:
I don’t understand why they’re putting so much (wasted) effort on 13. It’s had it’s run. No one wants to remember. MOVE ON.
Will not be getting that other upcoming(?) 13 game cause lightning’s panty-pants TOO UGLY.
It’s a series that I feel that no one has any particular attachment to? I don’t know anybody that really liked the characters or the story. I feel like SE was coasting on the magic that made their games great and it flopped. I think it was really undeserving of one, let alone TWO sequels. :T And I think Lightning looks absolutely ridiculous. I loved her design in 13-2 (SHE LOOKS LIKE A GODDESS and I live for it), but this was just gratuitous. I don’t care about Versus or the Fabula Nova Chryslalalablah series anymore! I’m done with everything in this mythology. DONE
Rather than focusing on visuals they just needed to make their story good… like Nier ; _ ;
I mean look at wii/3ds games? Visuals not as good as w/e on PS3 but good system (I guess 13’s was forgivable) and GOOD STORY would have easily made 13 an ok FF.
But no, SE is famed for graphics and they must meet this expectation they’ve set… maybe they’ve dug their own grave?
Yep! Everybody looooooved Skyward Sword (well, for the most part, I don’t know how I feel about it yet haha), and the Wii is definitely not as graphically sophisticated as the PS3. But people can forgive that if it has a great story and fun controls. Unfortunately, FF13 was all style and no substance.
And I think so, too. It’s a bummer :(