Spoilers up to the end of 'Fire in the Sky' chapter / getting 'Twin F' achievement

[Loony BoB]

This thread can be used to freely discuss the game up to the point where you receive the 'Twin Flames' achievement / end the 'Fire in the Sky' chapter.

You can feel free to post unmarked spoilers about this portion of the game in this thread.

...So.

Glad to see Goetz get a little more screentime, I really do like his character. He's extremely endearing. Also, the missions where we get to pick which person we go with - anyone do a save and replay so they could see all results? I did! I felt Otto and Jill had the best lines, as much as I prefer the personality of Gav and the voice of Tarja. Having said that, Otto has really grown on me as a result of the sidequests. That was genuinely touching.

Okay, okay, the end part: I think it was very epic, very grand, very exposé, very dramatic. I kinda hoped we'd get Dion on our side but I kinda knew it wouldn't happen, that he'd end up dead. I'm mostly surprised that Joshua is still kicking, but I suppose he has to turn up conveniently every time we fight a big baddy so he isn't finished yet, as we still have some other pieces to our puzzle to pick up. Speaking of which, I wonder who the water dominant will be? I'm assuming we'll see them at some point. All the other dominants are established. Rhetorical question, before anyone answers, as I don't want spoilers xD

For battle updates, I'm very far from a fan of how they managed the targeting/aiming system for that big ol' beam of power. I could barely see what I was targeting because it was so massive and bright, and the movement on it was horrible to control, it flicked a mile when I wanted a meter. It'd probably be fine if I had more time to practice, but alas, no. Still, the fight was easy enough overall. Very long, possibly a touch too long, but very cinematic and dramatic, too, with the whole brothers working together thing going on, which I liked. Some of you might recall I wasn't a fan of Joshua when he was a kid, and I still am not, but I've always quite liked his older version.

Olivier was a massive douche and basically Ultima? I'm shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked. I liked that Dion got to stab him, but I didn't like that our mother killed herself. And we didn't even get to see the killing blow. I imagine that's for avoiding complaints about triggering and/or moral laws somewhere, but personally if you're going to have her kill herself like that, I'd at least like to see it happen. I was actually really worried that we were going to get a Cersei 2.0 finish (to match her life) but the rocks didn't fall on her, which I'm grateful for. Regardless, glad she got her just desserts, if not the way I wanted.

I was so excited that Benedikta was actually back through some miracle, I should have known better. Call me Titan, because I'd be a simp for that lady too. So wait, does Barnabas know what's going on with Ultima, then, like... has he gone coocoo or something? I don't get it because he seemed like a very intelligent, calm, collected guy. Seeing him like that was weird. The mother bit was a bit odd, too. I mean, if Ultima can look like anyone, I get it, but still.

I can't stop thinking of Ultima as the Borg.

And Mid's run off! I'm very confident we'll see her again, I hope it's very soon.

Did I forget anything? I probably did. Ah well. Time for bed.

[Jinx]

I AM SO HAPPY THEY ARE FINALLY REUNITED, ALL THOSE NEAR MISSES WERE KILLING ME

[Loony BoB]

Regarding a sidequest in the next chapter, to which we don't yet have a thread:

One of the highlights of the game for me thus far is definitely the beginning of a sidequest where there's a honestly as far as spoilers go this is very weak, but maybe some people are that particularguy who is bleeding, gasping for breath, barely sitting against a wall, and Clive looks at him for a while and then says "You're injured." Easy there, Sherlock, leave some deduction for the rest of us.

[fat_moogle]

Got through this chapter tonight...absolutely loved it! When Ifrit and Phoenix merged together to make Ifrit Risen...unforgettable moment! I enjoyed the battle and all of its spectacle...I died quite a few times, too, when it got to the end before Bahamut cast the Zettaflare or whatever they called it. I was initially doing the targeting move to try and get all the orbs down, but then realised I just needed to quickly individually attack them all. Can't help taking so many screenshots as well. That must have added an extra 15 minutes on to the fight.

Honestly thought the same about Cersei 2.0 for Annabella's death...sure they done that scene with the rocks on purpose! Would loved to have hacked off her head myself with a nice cinematic clash. Square Square Square Square Square /// hack /// splatter /// roll.

Intrigued about Ultima.

Hoping Dion might be saved - looked like Joshua healed him before carrying him away? Saying he owed him a favour?

Thought more might have been in store for Olivear.

The "this is the child you made with the emperor" line got me good. He was no brother of Clive's...he made that clear!

[Psychotic]

This was a real change of pace to start with. Not bleak or oppressive at all, and we got to know all of our friends a lot better. It was a bit of a Mass Effect-y diversion. I really liked it for a change of pace. Maybe it should've come a bit earlier, like pre-Kupka attack on the old hideaway, but I can't complain.

And smurfing hell. Thought they couldn't top mega Titan. Then we only go and smurfing fight Bahamut in space. Utterly ridiculous. How are they going to escalate this for Odin? Have him actually show up in my living room and try to Zantetsuken me?

I was so excited that Benedikta was actually back through some miracle, I should have known better. .

oh god as soon as I saw her I thought of you covering your screen in drool you wrong un

I AM SO HAPPY THEY ARE FINALLY REUNITED, ALL THOSE NEAR MISSES WERE KILLING ME

YES THANK smurf

[Loony BoB]

oh god as soon as I saw her I thought of you covering your screen in drool you wrong un

lady is a baddie in all ways

i can fix her

[Del Murder]

This has been my biggest gap between updates in part because I have been busy with other things but also because the game has gotten pretty routine. Although I like the overall story and character development, there is not a lot to play between the posts of the giant Eikon battles. Most regular battles are trivial; use an AOE skill then pick everything off one by one. The regular enemies do not attack much. The stronger ones with stagger meters are a little more fun to battle but they are also predictable since they are copies of the weaker versions. The boss fights are still pretty fun and I liked all the bosses in Twinside.

Something I appreciate a lot is the attention to character development and relationships in the questline. I don't think I've played a game where I was more interested in the story aspect of quests than the gameplay or rewards. I liked getting to know the hideout inhabitants more and also developing the alliances with people in each nation. I just wish there was less backtracking and more new areas to explore during the quests, or new enemy types, or some minigame, or something to break the monotony of the run through field, hack and slash that is 90% of this game.

As for the storyline, the tragic end to the imperials was well done. Reuniting with Joshua was epic. Annabella's scheming, her horror, and demise were satisfying. Everything with Dion was great. Even Ultima is a compelling villain in that mysterious creeper way. My biggest gripe though is that this game is making it hard to root for our cause. It seems every time we smash a mothercrystal it just leads to more hardship. I wish it showed some upside to what we are doing. Clive is just doing this based on Cid's theory, which has clearly not been proven out yet due to how much everyone suffers when there is no more magic.

Speaking of magic, I hate how generic magic is in this game. Every element is just a different color of the shootie spell. Are there even elemental weaknesses? The boss enemies get cool versions of Firaga, Blizzaga, etc. which I wish I got. Kingdom Hearts is also an action game with magic and Sora at least had different effects for his spells. Disappointing.

I hope Leviathan shows up as some big reveal later on but I am not holding my breath. I notice that my skill wheel has only two Eikon spots left, which I assume are Odin and Shiva. Maybe Leviathan is around and I don't get Shiva since she is my ally, or they saved him for DLC, who knows.

Finally, the fight with Bahamut was epic as anticipated. Even the first part was pretty fun though I was thinking 'is this it?' But then Phoenix showed up and then we merged and fought in space and it was let's goooooo. Like Psy I am wondering how Odin can top this. I am suspecting the Odin battle will be less of a grand scale (because how do you beat space?) and more of an intense confrontation requiring concentration.