Final Fantasy XIII Log: Part 5
So I’m definitely getting close to the end of Final Fantasy XIII. Still no spoilers, unless you don’t want to see an extremely vague reference to a plot point from Final Fantasy V.
After a little bit of grinding, I finished up the area I’d left off in, which I guess could be considered a dungeon, and I got to a point where I could finally change my party members. Sweet. But the grinding was because that area was full of alternate paths to take, so I kept stopping and going, “Wait, maybe I should explore the other way instead,” and all that backtracking resulted in fighting lots of respawns. It’s why having big areas to explore is so bittersweet for me. But that area and Chapter 9 concluded with a lengthy boss battle and shocking revelations. Though the boss took a long time to beat, I’m not sure if he was really challenging or not. I definitely had to strategize, but I figured out the strategy very early on, and kept up pretty well with tons of Optima changes.
Chapter 10 began with a lot of contemplation over the ending of Chapter 9. It also led to a giant dungeon that was very exploration friendly. At this point, I unlocked more Roles for my characters to use, which seemed great, because I had a surplus of CP after the last place. But I burned through all of that fairly quickly, especially with the Crystarium level up early on. That came after a mid-boss battle against a very unexpected opponent, which was a little tough, because I died to it at least once.
Crazy-long cutscenes led into Chapter 11, which is HUGE. So many places to run and walk, and “missions” to do everywhere. I am truly in heaven here, which is why I haven’t progressed beyond it yet. I’ve gone back and forth through one section multiple times, and in researching trophies, I’ve found a reason to go back and redo it some more. The reason I started researching trophies is because I acquired one named after Kelgar from Final Fantasy V, and that is by far my favorite Final Fantasy game. Apparently there are also trophies named after the other three Dawn Warriors, too, which I totally have to stop writing this and go earn.