The third day begins...
(It was a pretty big day, and I did lot of things, so I might not mention some stuff)
As usual, I start at the Ark, where we can talk to Hope for some information or buy some special items in exchange of some of our EP. However, Hope didn't have anything that interesting, only X-Potions and the like, and I wasn't willing to spend it because I would probably need it later during battles. Especially now since I have learned Arise. It is a really good spell.
I leave the Ark, since there were no new treasures there for me to pick up, and return to Luxerion. I went to see Chocolina to complete some of my quests that I had done. Did I mention that instead of being a merchant, she gives you sidequests now? Yep.
After that I searched for the Chocobo Emporium store so that I could make a potion that I needed for a sidequest. I finally found it, since it isn't marked on the map, but it was unfortunately closed. What a disappointment.
Decided to go visit the Cathedral again to see if Vanille was there to "save" her soul, if you know what I mean. (I mean kill her fuck that character she is horrible fuck her). She wasn't there.
Went to the Synthesis shops and upgraded some of my skills. In synthesis, you can use your abilities you have gathered to make them stronger. For example, if you have two Blizzard Lv.1 abilities, you can use one of them to make the other stronger. Sometimes when you defeat enemies real good you may get a crystal, which is an ability. It reminds me of XIII-2 thing with Pokemons, I mean monsters.
Laid around throughout the area you can find Bronzed and Silver coins. They are randomly placed and you can sell them. I found some of them while walking around the town. It's a nice feature because it rewards exploration even in places you've been before.
Also, did you know that Hope sometimes keeps "calling" every hour to tell you something that you already know? Yep. Lightning really must have a thing for Hope because sometimes during battle she will say something along the lines of "I fight for hope". I thought you fought for Bhunivelze not Hope.
And then I killed another sentry guard again! They were hostile because I accidentaly hit him twice. Called reinforcement and another soldier came to battle. Defeated them and found out that they actually drop items and Gil. 110 gil and a Bronzed Medal. Eh, it's okay. Should I kill all of the sentries? Maybe not. Sometimes when enemies are staggered Lightning will throw them into the air and wail them away. I'm not sure what triggers the launch move, as enemies have been staggered before and she didn't perform it.
This game is filled with continuity nods. There is a bard singing a song near the Cathedral plaza. He is singing the New Bodhum theme from XIII-2 very badly. It's a nice continuity nod, though.
Also, if you place Lightning in front of a wall and move back, she will actually push the wall away from her. It's a very bizarre detail.
Took the train to The Wildlands. First time I went there. Got there, had a nice opening cutscene showing the area and some Chocobos. Looks like a nice place. I had the option of going to the Dead Dunes too, but I'm not a fan of sand. In the cutscene, there was a voice again which said something about the "Angel of Valhalla" and Hope got cut-off again. Lightning mentions that shit to Hope, and he is like: "Let me check that on Google... Nope didn't find anything. Ask the locals." Great.
Unlocked a new EP abilities. An EP ability is something like the TP that you had in XIII so you could use Eidolons, but this time you have things like Curaga, Overdrive and others. The new ability I got was Teleport, which allows me to travel instanteneously to an area I've already visited with the cost of some EP. It will be useful later, I'm sure.
The Wildlands is visually interesting. It reminds me of when you go to Pulse in XIII and can just walk around exploring the area. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), The Wildlands are not freaking enormous so that you take an hour to get somewhere, so that's nice.
I went around exploring and people were mentioning about the Angel of Valhalla, which I found out is a white chocobo that heralds the end of the world. I also found out that there is a hermit living isolated from the rest of the Wildlands people in a place where you can only reach with the white chocobo. The person who mentioned this said that this person had a "nest hair" and I had a huge fangasm when I realized that the hermit is Sazh Katzroy (THE BEST CHARACTER IN THE XIII GAMES BAR NONE).
I get a little overwhelmed by how expansive the map is, but I have a map, so I get used to the place really quickly. At the center of The Wildlands there is some sort of village, but I didn't go there yet. Instead, I went towards the part of the map that was written that it was a ruin or something. There, I found someone that said he/she saw the white chocobo around here. It was good because I was going that way anyway, so I had even more reason to continue.
There, I found the white chocobo laid down, being attack by a huge monster. I recalled this scene from a trailer video of the game, which showed Lightning talking with the chocobo. But first, I had to fight the creature, and boy was it a good fight. Can't recall the monster's name, but it was the strongest creature I had faced so far. Even more than the other one from that sidequest that I kept dieing. But fortunately, I was well prepared with some potions and Protect potions, and also I was a little stronger because I finished some sidequests.
One thing I didn't mention is that you don't level up by defeating enemies. Instead, you get stat buffs each time you complete a quest. Most of them are fairly minor buffs, like +1 Strength and the like, but they make a huge difference.
I was able to defeat the creature and talked to the chocobo. It was badly injured, and it fainted. Suddenly, people appeared to help the chocobo. One of them was Dr. Gysahl, who was mentioned back at the train station when I first arrived at the Wildlands. He is the most amazing vet there is around these parts, maybe the rest of Nova Chrysalia, too. And he took the chocobo back to the village that I mentioned.
I went to this village, talked to the people there and the doctor, and found out that the chocobo had undergone surgery, but it was refusing to eat anything. Gysahl (gysahl greens, get it? get it?) then said something and then suggested that Lightning give it some food. Somehow it worked, because apparently Lightning has some sort of weird bond with the creature. After we defeated the creature and the doctor took the chocobo away, Lightning mentioned that she felt like she had met the chocobo before. Some feeling of familiarity. I theorized that it was Mog reborn, but that was stupid.
Speaking of Mog, there is also a moogle village in the Wildlands, but I will talk about that later.
I got there and the doctor was impressed that Lightning managed to feed the chocobo. He told that he was researching about the Angel of Valhalla, the white chocobo, for more than a century and that even his daughter had died because of it. But now he feels that Lightning is the chosen one that will ride the Angel of Valhalla to Etro's shrine/palace/sanctuary.
Oh yeah, remember the place that Lightning was at Valhalla in XIII-2? Somehow, that sanctuary got to the Wildlands. Apparently, the Wildlands was ground zero of the apocalypse, so the shrine got transported here. I wonder if motherfucking Caius Ballad is there. I recall seeing him in a trailer. The coolest.
I was then given the sidequest of healing the chocobo back to full health. It was easy because most of the necessary items were given by the villagers, and all was fine. When you talk to the chocobo, you have to option of feeding, talking or naming it. At first I thought about naming it "Dongs" because.... Just because. But in the end I decided to name it "Cloud", because I thought it was fitting, and I imagined there would be an easter egg if I named it with the name of another Final Fantasy character. But that didn't happen, at least not yet.
One of the villagers there, a woman named Sarala gave me a sidequest to find her father who had gone missing. She said that he had gone to the woods nearby and did not return. "Sure, why not?", I thought to myself. I was planning to explore the place anyway, so it was a win-win.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT THE ENEMIES THERE ALMOST FUCKING RAPED ME HOLY SHIT I RAN AWAY FROM MOST BATTLES LIKE A PUSSY
But yeah, I also saw some moogles there. Apparently, they are the stuff of legends, even though I saw around 7 or 8 of them at the forest and they even have a village there. People in the Wildlands must not get outside often, but I wouldn't blame them, really.
I got some of items that I needed for other sidequests around the area, mostly flowers and mushrooms and returned to the village to finish healing my chocobo. I gave him the last item and he was fine once again.
It was time for Lightning to ride Cloud.
The chocobo controls exactly like they did in XIII. It can jump, but not fly, or at least not yet.
However, Lightning ride on Cloud was short-lived, as it was time to return to Luxerion to find Noel and kick his ass.
And sure enough, I returned and did just that. I entered the Warren after 0:00 am, and followed him along the rooftops of the slums. There were some enemies along the way, but they were pussies. When I reached Noel, at last, a cutscene started, or course. At first, I really thought that Square-Enix wasn't going to let them fight at all, with what was going on in the cutscene, but damn I was wrong and they do fight.
I might as well mention that Lightning is a fucking cold hearted bitch. During the cutscene she was like "Meet Yuel in death emo kid". Fuck, Lightning, being an emotionless dick was kind of Squall's deal, you know.
Noel isn't hard to fight. It just takes a little longer to defeat him, as he is quite resilient. He fights just like he did in XIII-2, and even uses the special moves he had in that game. Pretty cool.
After the fight ends, even though the Oracle Drive showed a .avi prophecy that Lightning was going to be killed by him, Noel, when he gets the upper hand attacks the Oracle Drive instead, saying that this isn't what Yuel would have wanted him to do. There is a buzzing sound coming the Oracle Drive and Yuel appears and hugs Noel and says "Bitch you and I are going to fuck soon" and Noel gets happy and his soul gets saved.
Shortly after that, the game tells me that I can now try to find Vanille by doing a sidequest first. I go near the Cathedral to meet the person that will give me the sidequest, but as the day was almost over, I only managed to start it, and returned to The Ark.
MAYBE I WILL GET TO KILL VANILLE LATER
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention: This time, I actually managed to extend the world's time by one day. Hooray!
