This topic is for the discussion of my Final Fantasy 13 LP. Since Disc 3 is the entire remainder of the game, I thought it best to break it up into two topics to keep it somewhat organized. I'll eventually create a topic for the final two chapters, which will include post-game discussion. I have a few questions to start.

1) How does Barthandelus know about our Focus? I thought I asked this before. I heard that it was something like all the Pulse AND Cocoon Fal'cie working together to bring back The Maker. Yet, I don't recall anything in the datalog or the Mission 64 Cie'th Stone saying anything about that.

2) What do you think about developing Fang's Crystarium? The big problem that I have with Fang in Chapter 11 is that she's not a natural Ravager. As a result, she's rather inferior to someone else in almost every way. Lightning is faster, Sazh is a better Ravager, Snow is a better Sentinel, Vanille is a better Saboteur, and Hope is a better Ravager. I find it really hard to find a use for her in Chapter 11.

That said, she's amazing in final two chapters. By that point, she can have access to all five basic elements and be an effective Commando, something only Lightning can do both. Not only will she have Deprotect and Deshell, but also Pain and Fog, which are amazing late-game. The problem is that getting the ATB Level and Accessory slot are top priorities and they're not on Saboteur. Plus, I'd say getting all the basic stats are a much higher priority than dabbling in Ravager. What do you think?

Thanks for the discussion.

i would have to say only use her for the parts in chapter 11 that you could find for her and not use her for most of it.

unless anyone else has better ideas, you may only really be able to use her in chapter 12 and 13.

I didn't really bother with Fang until the post-game content. I did a few of the l'cie missions to open up some teleportation and chocobos and then finished the game. Fang is absolutely amazing when you've unlocked all of the jobs and crystarium 10.

...now that I think about it, I have no idea why Bart knows about the protagonists' focus. Maybe he masterminded having the Pulse Fal'cie show up in hopes of triggering a l'cie confrontation?

Well, there is the possibility of him knowing through some fal'Cie connection what their focus is (magic) or maybe he could figure it out due to listening to them/just took the bet 'Pulse l'Cie -> destroy Cocoon' Not really that much else you could expect from them. Or he had not idea and just said it because he wanted them to do so. But... well, I'd rather bet n magic, like, a fal'Cie can see a l'Cie's focus, no matter what l'Cie?!


As for Fang... uhm... as said before, not too familiar with the game. Maybe throw her in if the battles are easy enough? But your right, she's not really that useful. Maybe if you have a battle which requires Sen and Sab and you don't feel like bringing Snow and Vanille along but chances are low this will happen, I guess... She is a bit more versatile but you don't really need that since you can use the more specialiced characters and switch them around. I'm sure others have better ideas for her. And if you won't use her for a while... well, we'll see more of her later.

he was spying on them if im not mistaken and he knew that a pulse falcie wants only one thing and thats to destroy cocoon
+
he probably saw everyone screaming ragnarok when they noticed that they all had the same dream

I don't know for the other but chapter 10 is the most boring one in the game,I hate the Ark.

I agree

#1: Raines did said the Fal'cie's plan was to bring back the maker and Hope mentioned that Fal'cie have a different way of thinking, something they don't understand and what not. Still, that doesn't fully explain why Barthandelus knows everything about our focus since he wasn't the one that made us L'cie. I would have to guess like what other people said here, since the owl spied on them, Bathandelus soon realized their focus had something to do with Ragnorok and piece it together. Mainly because I would presume that using Ragnorok to bring the Maker back was the plan for all (or most) of the Fal'cies before (with Fang and Vanille).

#2: I actually used Fang for most of Chapter 11, but only because I found her a really cool character. Anyways, if I were you, I would at least get the ATB segment for her since that can be very useful when she is enlisted in your party, then work on Ravager. However, if you really find other characters better for you during Chapter 11, then that's find by me, besides, it seems like Fang will be getting plenty of screen time during Chapter 12, 13, and post game.

~~~~~~~~~~

Watching todays episode, when Hope said something is coming, my first thought was: "How does he knows this, is he psychic or something!?" And then ideas started pouring into my head. -.-;

Joking aside, it's probably the game having Kingdom Hearts 2 syndrome. Although after watching a cutscene in Gran Pulse, it actually made me start to question that thought. :blink:

EDIT: For some reason, I thought the last topic was lock. I probably should have put my last comment there. ^^;

Hcbailly, i'm in chapter 11 right now and i'm finding fang pretty useful. If You go into ravenger early on, then you can get all the basic elemental spells. She may not be on par with a lot of the other ravengers, its still pretty good. Plus, I think if you put lightning as a saboteur, she learns some good debuffs, so fang would be able to spend some crystarium in ravenger or medic. I would say no to her being a synergist because she just learns everything I care about too late for me. In anycase, I think instead of focusing on fang I say focus on hope, in my opinion, he is really useful for Gran Pulse, even for lack of HP. He is the best or second best ravenger and I find him pretty ok at being a saboteur. Also, like you said hope gets atb plus 10% with the aurora scarf and, I forgot which weapon, but I think it is in the vidofnir line or somthing. Anyway thats my opinion.

First of all I have to say that Barthandalus entrance into the boss battle was soo epic better than Seymour's I think and I agree that Barthandalus just has the fitting voice actor. I like FF13's better because in FF10 it was a bit over the top and Tidus's voice actor was kinda annoyong.


(spoiler alert)
To answer the question of how Barthandalus knew about the focus. my theory is that he knows about their focus since he wanted to be fused with orphan therefore he has a focus as a Fal'cie to get the guys to fulfil his focus. To Become one with Orphan or something like that

note to self....i suck at FF13 i missed that cape on the palamecia and im fairly sure i've messed up leveling my character cyrstarium :/ the fifth ark is currently handing me my ass

The fifth ark is very hard. I think the difficulty curve is a vertical line...

like the pulsework guys are fairly easy but the oozes and little slug things that poison you have handed it to me :/

Yeah, the difficulty spiked for me during Chapter 10 too (and the reason why it's my least favourite chapter). It didn't occur until after fighting Cid though, which was an annoying boss all on it's own. I didn't die, but I took way too long to 5-star the battle (at least I got that crown accessory either way).

Going on an all out attack strategy (using shrouds, of course) worked wonders for me against Cid, staggered and defeated him before he could use metamorphose, followed by SERAPHIC RAY!!! God, I hate that attack...

Because of this LP I went out and bought FFXIII since I didn't finish when I got it through gamefly last fall.

I have recorded an FF13 episode for tomorrow, but didn't edit it yet. I'll have it ready, but it will be later than usual.

Watching today's episode, I was wanting to say that if you haven't read all the stories written for the prologue/epilogue of FF13, technically Serah can hear him and see as well.

You probably already knew this, but information anyways.

Honestly, I only read the entire datalog once. I didn't find it interesting at all, so I probably forgot a lot of little details like that. Thanks.

It wasn't in the datalog as far as I know. I've never touched the thing really.

I mean like the stories here.

http://dilly-shilly.blogspot.com/search/la...0Fantasy%20XIII

These are the translated versions of them. They explain more things before and after the game takes place.

Does anyone know what secondary role i should go into with hope, I started with saboteur but I dont know if I should go into commando or sentinel. Also, maby there should be a bonus episode for all the upgrading hes going to do. Unless its all split up.

and you can look up on things like that in the ffwiki as well
there are most (if not all) of the official storyline things there and it does explain a lot about the game

i recommend commando, he can be quite good with ruin and it's the first one as well so you could just get that then something else if you want. too bad ruinga is quite deep into it for hope.

Here's my 0.02$ (CAD) concerning early investment in secondary roles:

Get Fire and Lightning for Fang. It's not that expensive and it's all you really need for her to pull her own weight when you want to raise the stagger gauge.

Depending on what you have in store for them, it may also be worth it to get Ruin for Hope and Vanille (definetly for Hope, as it's the very first thing you get).

Its going to be really interesting how you handle the next boss battle, I remember it took me ages to kill him and I think he is the hardest in the game next to the last remaining cieth stone mission enemies.

Also I was wondering this might have been discussed before but will you be doing all of the Cieth stone missions.

Has there ever been an LP where HC didn't do everything possible in the game?

Now I remember what I wanted to say last time! (I feel like an idiot not remembering this -.-; ) I believe this is where I really started to like the music. The music playing in Chapter 10 has to be one of my favourites.

I find funny that everyone was quoting "The Fifth Ark is a caring soul" during the last episode and HCBailly made that today episode's title. :lol:

i like how vanielle gets the atb thing near the start while everyone elses is at the end.
i just realised she takes the longest to get a atb upgrade, seeing as how she has to wait halfway through the game for one.

Usually I don't like to disturb the forum with plot related discussion but...
Maybe I'm stupid but I still don't get why Raines turned into a crystal. I mean, I could WMG, like 'he did it because he tried to protect Cocoon which was his wish so he died with a feeling of resolve' or 'all l'Cie turn to crystal if they die before their time runs out' or 'helping the party wasn't really his focus' or 'by trying to stop the party he actually helped (somehow) them THUS fulfilling his focus' or just 'Barthandelus thought it was funny'. Did I miss something somewhere sometime? (Or did I forget?)

SE never explained why he terned into crystal
i guess they didn't told why because they wanted that to remain a mystery
maybe we will find out in 13-2 but i won't put my money on that

He changed his focus. He completed it and turned to crystal.

the question was what was hes focus,why did he completed it when the party defeated him and how did he changed it ?

His original focus was to guide the l'cie to Cocoon's destruction. However, he regains the will he once had to free cocoon, he attempts to kill the l'cie instead. He chose his OWN fate and that became his focus. He completed THAT and turned to crystal.

My interpretation is that Cid turned to crystal because "he tried to save Cocoon in his own way." Although he said his focus was to help the party, perhaps a broader way of looking at it is that his focus was to help us in order to save Cocoon, because "that purpose lies at the heart of all their (Fal'cie) actions." Perhaps it's not the Fal'cie that turns people to crystal, but the brand which does so, and thus, is actually independent of what the Fal'cie wants us to do anyway.

On the other hand, the Fal'cie can turn people into Cie'th, stripping them of their soul without giving them a Focus at all, as demonstrated with the Cavalry in Chapter 12. Maybe the Fal'cie can turn people into Cie'th or crystal at will, and that even if we do what they want, we could still become Cie'th anyway. I'm not an expert on FF13 mythology, so I could just be talking out of my ass here.

Upon doing more research, Cid turned to crystal by fulfilling his wish as a human, according to the strategy guide.

On a serious note, what would you guys think about a bonus episode fighting Cid to better demonstrate how hard he is? If so, what restrictions do you think I could place on myself to make it more interesting. Obviously, no Shrouds, Eidolons, or Instant Chain. Sentinel really takes the challenge out of the fight. I've heard that debuffs also work on him, but that could really be abused too. Any thoughts?

If you really want a challenge you could ban SEN, SAB and SYN. But it would just be a matter of healing when the timings right...

EDIT: Sorry I forgot to mention that I think it sounds like a great idea!

Well, it says he was susceptible to slow...and they have a low chance of getting on ANYWAY....He could just get rid of them anyway as well.....
Sentinel was the one getting the damage and taking away the hard part....
Synergist was used ONLY for haste in the episode.

I say get rid of sentinel. Saboteur may help a little for the battle.

i will be happy to see any bones episode

and with cid turning to crystal i was looking at a few places but non of them say anything about why he turned into crystal (and they are very reliable)
interestingly though i fond that his battle form is half cieth and half human so the brand is probably just an auto way to turn them into cieth or crystal
(the falcie can turn people when they want but this way they don't have to check on every lcie all the time) and cid probably fond a way to control it a bit so that might explain it

Honestly, I don't think it's really needed. Sentinel is one of the six paradigms in the game. It's not like a shroud where it's a one time use.

You used Sentinel, you buffed with Syn, you destroyed him while using no shrouds, eidolons, etc. A perfectly viable fight.

What more is there to show?

HCBailly shouting "GAAAAMMMMMMMMEEEEE!"

(on my earlier note: If HC cites the strategy guide I guess that source is as reliable as it gets. Though, if all l'CIe knew about that way out the fal'Cie'd be pretty screwed...)

Anyway, Bonus episode is always nice, though Taku's rather right. There's no NEED to do one. But showing Cid's transformation might be a nice thing for the people who do not play along/don't know the game.
If you want to, I'd say banning Sen/Shrouds and maybe Eidolons would be fine, banning Debuffs... IIRC correctly they have a hard time sticking to him so they're not really abusive in the fight.