XIII days of Final Fantasy XIII: Day 2

I’m happy to say that I am at that point in Final Fantasy XIII where I can fully understand everything that’s going on. Yup, I know the difference between a l’Cie and the fal’Cie, Pulse and Cocoon, PSICOM and NORA. Need a little help following what’s going on? Then I think I can help.

Final Fantasy XIII is full of fal’Cie and l’Cie talk, the thing is you are sort of thrown into the middle of things and slowly learn who, what, and why you’re fighting. The first thing you are going to want to get a handle on is the difference between the fal’Cie and l’Cie.

The fal’Cie are gigantic god-like mechanical beings who created the world of Cocoon where the story takes places thus far. Cocoon is a homemade planet that hovers above the natural world of Pulse. Citizens of Cocoon have never seen or visited Pulse, in fact if anything from Pulse ever surfaces on Cocoon it is confiscated and the handler imprisoned by The Sanctum, Cocoon’s government.

This is where the Purge comes in to play. The Purge is a form of genocide employed by The Sanctum to wipe out anyone who has come into contact with Pulse. Purgees are identified by their white robes. The epic battle at the start of the game is because the fal’Cie that was in the area was from Pulse, thus “contaminating” every citizen from that city. NORA is the resistance group lead by Snow that are fighting against The Purge.

Alright, got that? The l’Cie are citizens that have been chosen by the fal’Cie to complete specific tasks. If you are chosen by the fal’Cie you are branded with a mark and must complete whatever they ask. If you do not complete your task you will turn into a hideous monster, but if you do you will turn into a crystal and live for eternity, or so the legend goes.

Hopefully that little rundown was enough to understand the basics of Final Fantasy XIII.

Most Awe Inspiring Moment
The crystallization of Lake Bresha was breathtaking. Watching the fal’Cie crash into the lake and causing waves of epic proportions to instantly crystalizes was pretty amazing. It was even neater when I got to navigate through the pretty blue crystalized waves.

Biggest Accomplishment
Defeating the Manasiv Warmech again was hands down the hardest battle fought up until this point. Until this battle I haven’t been doing much more than slamming X obscene amounts of time. But you won’t be able to get away with that during this battle. I died 3 times while battling the Warmech, not necessarily because he is a tough boss, but because it’s the first time that Paradigm Shifting is a necessity. Finding the right balance between full out attacking and holding back to heal can be tedious, especially when you are getting blasted away by laser cannon fire and only have a few precious seconds to make the switch.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing my Final Fantasy XIII experiences with you in hope that you’ll do the same back. So leave a comment and let us know how you’ve been enjoying Final Fantasy XIII.