Random Chaos

Truth be told, there are a lot of these.  Most of these were combat related, some were not.  Some weren’t even part of gameplay at all—cutscenes, even!  So I’ll take a bit of creative liberty here, and list them in category-list form.

1—Most Satisfying Victory.  I could spotlight one particular kill, but this is more of a category for me than one individual kill.  You know that moment: the one where your hit points are more of a suggestion than anything else, and you’re hearing that subtle HP Critical chime while you fight.  Possibly, you’re breathing just as hard as the fighter under your control.  Dodging is all you can think about—landing attacks is completely secondary, when suddenly…

The tide turns.  You can see it: something just opened up the way to victory for you.  Maybe your Summonstone paid off.  Maybe you just filled your EX Gauge.  Maybe you inflicted a critcal EX Break/Assist Break/Bravery Break at just the right time.

And maybe you were just damn lucky.

The point is, you now hold the chance for victory as well.

And when you land that strike, it is glorious.

2—Most Satisfying Cutscene.  SPOILER ALERT!  (Highlight to read) When you finally clear 000, someone—you do not see them, but their identity should be obvious to anyone who hasn’t cheat-coded their way to that point—casually mentions that what your party has managed to do did finally right the cycle—and that she will be returned to the world.

Everyone knows I’m a fan of Her.

The goddess, Cosmos.

Something about seeing her come back, in that flash of brilliant light, made me feel incredibly warm and fuzzy.  It is as I’ve said before, a world without the healing touch of the goddess is as a sandpaper blanket—it may shelter, but it rubs one raw and does naught to offer succor to the souls of the…

What?  Oh, sorry.  I shouldn’t write and wear this red trench at the same time.  Sweet Heavens.

At the end of 000, she is returned to life, “…the result of the world opting for another choice.”  In a scene that will seem familiar if you’ve cleared Inward Chaos in the first game, she reappears, in person, speaking with Cid of the Lufaine.  In a scene NOT in that scenario, she recalls her memories of her warriors, something she truly treasures, and we see the survivors of that cycle, those who have their crystals, standing before Cosmos.  Everyone appears to be at peace, as if at this point, they have finished the unfinished business of their own worlds. You see something here that you have NEVER seen before.  You might not have thought it was even possible.

Even the Warrior of Light is smiling.

YOU READ THAT RIGHT.  Even Mr. Stiffhorns.  His posture is even different, as if he no longer has the weight of this responsibilty on his shoulders.

3—Most Satisfying Shop Moment.  Yes, you did read that right.  It’ll make sense in a second.

It was the moment I bought the last piece of equipment I needed to complete my first Gamebreaker build.  The last piece of the puzzle, the Chaos Blade had an EX Mode Duration effect attached to it that was quite impressive—a 40% increase, if memory serves.  I’d developed a build for Gabranth in the first game that, when everything procced properly, resulted in a multiplier of 17.1, and an EX Mode that crept up on 45 seconds in duration.  And that was without taking the fact that you would absorb more EX Force in combat.  Needless to say finding someone willing to fight him was…damn near impossible, really.

The kicker?  Everything in the build was perfectly legal.

So yeah, those are my picks.  If I think of anything, I’ll add it.