The thirteen days after we awoke were the beginning of the end
Vanille
'Splosions and gunfire.
Hello all. Now that we have our consoles fired up and The XIII is playing its wonderful tune, let us go forth and defy some fates! But first we watch some impressive graphics. I'll cut the explanation short. A nature shot with a train zooming by. In that train we see a man pointing his gun at a passenger for no reason. Shortly after a woman decides to jump up and attack people and set the passengers free. Now we enter a war zone filled with 'splosions and gunfire. Welcome to the Hanging Edge everybody.
OMG I love her hair :3
This pink-haired bundle of joy is Lightning. She's deadly, mean, scary and has a glare that could probably kill you if you looked at her straight in the eyes. She's our main character of Final Fantasy XIII. She starts off unlikable cause of her cold jerkyness but she gets better later on. Right now shes just really pissed and has no friends. I am a big Lightning fan. The biggest one you might ever come across. I often can't find the words to describe how awesome I think she is, but it usually ends with "I love her hair," but really, there's so much more than that. My reasons are mostly personal though and it would take me forever to explain. I don't know how you'll feel about her, but my hopes are that you love her, because she really is wonderful.
Couldn't find a better picture of Sazh so this will have to do. (omg her hair...)
The man with her is Sazh Katzroy. You may recognize his famous afro with the Chocobo chick that lives in it. He's a kind soul and takes a bunch of crap from Lightning and surprisingly still sticks with her. He takes a lot of crap from a lot of people. In my honest opinion, I just don't really care about Sazh. He's okay from time to time, but I just don't find the appeal that everyone else finds. His battle style is slow and that really bothers me a lot of the time. But anyway, think what you wish.
| Boss: Manasvin Warmech |
First battle is a boss battle which is also a tutorial. If you're not sure what you're doing or the basics of the battle system I suggest you do the tutorial. This battle system is simple for the first two chapters, but trust me, there are people who will not have a clue what they're doing for most of the game. You fight this guy twice but you kill it within at least 3 minutes including cut scenes. Just repeat Auto-battle. If you get low on life during the 2nd battle just go down to items and use a potion and you're good. For killing this thing you get the Instrument of Fate trophy/achievement |
Battle Results screen.
After a battle the Battle Results will come up stating the Target Time, your time, your battle rating of 1-5 stars and bonuses and points that I never really paid attention to. You should get 5 stars throughout most of the beginning chapters. Your rating doesn't matter for most of the game but it can lower your confidence a bit... ¬_¬ They will only start to matter once you start Missions or getting certain trophies/achievements, as well as rare items. After that you can see if you've received any items an enemy dropped.
Swerve, SWERVE!![]
Epic screenshot.
And we go onward. I'll kinda rush through this since the beginning is a bit slow. You get options on camera control and many guides informing you of the gameplay and the surrounding area. Open up the menu (
/
) and look around. Select everything until the !'s go away. To bring up the map press 
/
. There's a save point just ahead. If this is you're first time playing The XIII I advise you to save at every save point you see. After you saved, just go straight ahead. There are enemies here and there and item spheres you should look out for. If you don't feel like battling anything then skip them. You don't get any stronger by battling these enemies in the Hanging Edge but you do get some items. However, if you're one of those people who feel that they are unsure of the battle system you should battle some of them to get the hang of it. You'll come across a blue circle on the ground. Those indicate where you can jump.
These enemies are stupid and those scuba masks obviously distort their vision. They sort of run around you like they want to attack your back or something, so it's easy to get away from them. Do not run straight, they'll catch up to you. You'll need to swerve to avoid them. Once you get through those scuba divers and over the 2nd jump point you'll find a treasure sphere. Open it and get a Potion. Move on and come across a cutscene. Battle some more, then head up the stairs and get 2 Potions. Then continue forward and save cause you'll never know what happens next unless you spoil stuff for yourself. Beyond the save point theres some PSICOM soldiers. Get past them and get an Iron Bangle. Open up your menu and equip that bangle to whoever to give them +50HP. Move forward and stop by Sazh to witness "Cold-blooded Murder," or just walk and hear an item sphere and get youself 50 Gil.
Going forward again we come across a PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE, which is a lie since they see us. You get an item tutorial but if you used a potion during any of the other fights just skip it and kill them. After that a 'splosion will occur and destroy the bridge. Do we turn back? NO, obviously we snap our fingers and try to float our way there. Sazh won't let that happen though. He hangs onto Lightning for dear life, but that's a bad idea since she's pissed off at the moment. She pretty much beats him off her and then breaks her AMP device. Now she's even more pissed and Sazh sees another way through. Then Lightning gives Sazh the meanest look I've ever seen in my life. I'm glad Sazh didn't witness the glare. He probably would've died.
Follow Sazh and just kill those enemies that block the stairs. Go up the stairs and, oh look, a Save Point. Go ahead and save, then hop on the lift and activate it. Up ahead you'll see a PSICOM Marauder and his lackeys. This battle is also an Attack Chain Tutorial. View it if this is your first time playing. You'll stagger the big guy and kill him off and then you'll kill the PSICOM Enforcers. Use a potion if necessary.
"So, Soldier..." Mr. Afro man says. "What's your angle?" Lightning stays silent, looking around as though she never heard anything. Her angle? She's after the Pulse fal'Cie. "Still happy you tagged along?" She asks. Sazh didn't have a choice.
To be continued...