World of Final Fantasy: Maxima Edition Part #2 - Update -II- What if God was one of us?

Part 2: Update -II- What if God was one of us?

Welcome back to the first actual update of the play through. The prologue was pretty short, but now we'll be getting into the game proper and doing a little exploring.

In the last update we got to meet our heroes, Lann and Reynn. A brother and sister combination that lived in some kind of lost-to-time ghost city. A strange woman named Enna Kros struck up a conversation, introduced a little fox companion named 'Tama', then were told that they used to be something called Mirage Keepers.

Enna Kros showed the twins a portal which they have jumped into, all so that they can try to regain their memories of whatever the hell happened in their lives.

Which brings us here to Wellspring Woods in the Land of the Lilikin. What's a Lilikin? Let's have a look.

They're chibi, basically. I'm fine with that. Way better to look at than the KH look in my personal opinion.

*laughing* I know, we look ridiculous!

Huh?

Tama still looks the same though.

Enna Kros just wanted to make sure you had a nice and the-handy way of blending in.

Wow, she can do stuff like that?

That is awesomely weird.

Uhh, people can still see your arm Reynn. It didn't just disappear.

Way to find the silver lining.

We can switch between forms as we wish. Sometimes there are places or items that only a particular person size can get to.

Changing size has an impact on our combat style as well. We'll see why that is in a little while.

There's also a Tip sheet in case you need a reminder on how certain mechanics work.

Anyway, we get control for a few seconds before our next Tutorial. We're not quite out of Tutorial Town yet, unfortunately. We haven't even learned how to catch ~~Pokemon~~ Mirages yet!

It's the only direction we can go. Think you can manage to not get lost? You know, just this once?

What? I'm not gonna get lost! ...Yet.

Now that we have some control, we can take a look at our main menu. Not a whole lot to see right now though. The game will explain everything over time, but for now I just want to draw attention to Config.

Config is where you can set up everything to your personal preference. You can do it from the title menu as well. I recommend setting your Battle Menu preference right away, so that you aren't constantly swapping over to the one you want. Battle Mode is something you can experiment with to see what style you prefer most. Voice Language is available, but I will be sticking with English in case I need to compare voiced things with the transcription/subtitles.

There's also an option to set the Battle Theme as well, which is nice. Final Fantasy has a lot of good music, so being able to swap the battle theme to a classic tune is great. I'll leave it as Default during the LP. At the moment, there are only five options: Default, Random, Normal Battle 1 (the standard WoFF battle theme), Champion Theme: Sephiroth (from FFVII), and Champion Theme: Balthier (from FFXII). Sephiroth and Balthier are DLC Champions (Sephiroth was DLC for the original game, Balthier was added with Maxima). I won't link to their music until we actually acquire them, because the videos kind of spoil the magic.

Finally, there are some cheat options in here for anyone that doesn't want to be assed to actually play the game parts of this game. ~~I believe this is a Maxima add-on, since I don't recall this existing in the base game~~ (I was informed that these cheats were part of a patch at some point). Square did something similar to this when they brought the retouched PC Final Fantasy VII version to the PS4, adding in button combos for stuff like Full HP/MP Recover and constant Limit Breaks.

Before we move on, I want to note that Lann and Reynn can be in different forms from each other, and you can change who the lead character is using the right shoulder button. This just changes who you run around as. I'll swap randomly between the two whenever I remember, just to switch things up.

Enough of that though. There's a strange little blob off in the background there, so let's go check it out.

That is the-called a chocochick.

It's goddamn adorable and I want it.

What are you the-waiting for? Go on and imprism the-it!

Okay!

Tama takes up residence on Lann's head this time. We'll be getting an explanation shortly on how that all works.

So what now?

First, you're the-going to need this!

It looks sort of like a prismarium. What is it?

That's the-called a "prism." Use it to the-make the chocochick's prismarium! Every time you find a new the-Mirage you haven't seen before, it'll be recorded in Enna Kros's special Mirage Manual.

Whoa! Does it even have pictures?!

You the-betcha! And the-whenever you add a new Mirage to the manual, you receive one of its prisms! But only the first time, the-mind you.

Prisms are Pokeballs. You get a freebe when you first run into a monster, but any others you'll have to collect on your own.

Okay, first, try the-weakening the chocochick. Then the-use your prism!

The next card has a blurb that goes "Huh? Why doesn't Enna Kros just fork over the whole lot of them right now? Come on, where's the fun in that?" Yeah, god forbid the game try and save us some meaningless busy work. Where's the fun in that?

The game also makes sure to point out that these little jail cells we're imprisoning the creatures in are totally fun and nice and comfortable inside. So there's no need to feel bad at all.

The nice thing about the Prisms thing is that failing to capture a Mirage won't use up the Prism. A Prism is only used up on a successful capture.

And here's everything you need to know about element and status ailment (icons). A lot of these should be straightforward even if you aren't familiar with Final Fantasy. We'll talk about each one as they become relevant.

Struggling to escape from the grasp of the tutorials, let's have a quick look at our soon-to-be little buddy using Libra. The bottom window is giving us a hint as to how we can create an opportunity to catch him. In this case, we just need to use physical attacks.

Go on! The-select the "Imprism" command! You might have to try different things before certain Mirages will let down their guard and the-give you a chance to imprism them. Think the-outside of the box!

Unlike Pokemon, we can't just go lobbing Pokeballs at things and snatching them up. Sometimes creating a prismtunity just requires a good smack or two, other times you'll need to get fancy with elements or statuses.

Hey the-look, you did it! Now that the chocochick is inside the prismarium, it's yours to the-keep!

The battle bumps everyone up a level, but doesn't give us any Gil.

We also get a little stat sheet on our new party member. Chocochick is the little hatchling form of the staple giant chicken creatures from Final Fantasy known as Chocobos. User Kheldarn informs me that Chocochicks first appeared at the end of FFV as Koko's babies. World of Final Fantasy says that Chocochick originates from FFXIII, but I think this might be referring to the Chocochick as a character. One of the main characters of FFXIII, Sazh Katzroy, has a baby Chocobo that hides out in his big afro. So I think this one is meant to reference the XIII one. That Chocochick didn't have a little eggshell helmet though, making it vastly inferior to our new friend.

Cycling through the pages, you can also get a look at the available skills that the Mirage can learn. The question-marked entries are for later, once little Chocochick grows up a little.

Mirages can be named upon capture, but you'll need a particular item in order to rename them after that. The item isn't too far into the game from what I recall, so once we acquire it then I will start taking name suggestions from the thread. For now, Chocochick will remain Chocochick.

Pretty the-neat, huh? Next, why the-don't you have a go at "stacking" that chocochick on your head? Here, watch, I'll the-show you!

Oh, now I get it! So when I saw you perched on Lann's head back in Nine Wood Hills, that's what you call "stacking."

Yup, that's the-right! While I'm up the-here, I get to take it nice and the-easy.

Uh, is that stacking or slacking?

Despite how stupid Lann can be, he does have a few good snappy remarks.

When you create a stack, the HP of everyone in the stack gets the-added together. Like they say, strength in the-numbers!

Oh! So it's like combining into a super-robot!

Better the-yet, your magic and other abilities have the potential to change, too. It all depends on how your stack is the-configured!

Huh? Oh, I don't need any action figures when I get to blast out super-attacks like a super-robot!

Well, just be the-careful. Stacking doesn't the-make you invincible. Some the-enemy attacks have the power to unstack you.

In other words: bye-bye, super-robot, so to speak.

Yowzers. That does sound like bad news.

It's true that we are individually the-weaker when we're unstacked, but look on the bright the-side. Since we each get our own the-turn in battle, we can use the extra moves to have one member attack and another the-heal. It can be very the-helpful.

Think the-carefully, and choose the best setup for the job.

This is the main battle mechanic for this game: stacking. Lann and Reynn act as the two main units, and you construct a team of three using two Mirages. A stack will be stronger, but might also result in a heavy weakness to an element or ailment if you aren't careful. Breaking up the stack will let every unit in said stack get their own turn, but they are weaker and easier to pick off one by one. This goes for enemy stacks as well.

You want to be sure to set up stacks for both Jiant and Lilikin forms though. You don't want to swap Reynn to Jiant form and end up in battle with her having no Mirages, just as an example.

Jiant Lann and Reynn are Large units, so you can only stack things on top of them. Lilikin Lann and Reynn are Medium units, so you can stack them on top of something and then stack something else on top of the twins.

It's a simple concept, but it makes for a surprising amount of fun with the experimentation you can do.

You aren't the-allowed to put big things on top of the-small things when creating a stack, so, to get on top of a Mirage, you need to the-be in Lilikin form. The best way to the-learn is to try it once you've rounded up a few more Mirages. You'll pick it the-up in no time!

I'd love to! If the tutorials would just shut the hell up long enough for me to mess around with it. I hate it when a game tells you to "learn by trying it out for yourself", then proceeds to railroad you into another half hour of tutorials.

We only have one option here, for instance. Stack Chocochick on Lann or Reynn's head.

Trudging ahead a few steps, the group runs into a bit of a roadblock.

But there's nowhere else to go. What are we gonna do?

Never the-fear!

Is this a Mirage, too?

Not in the traditional the-sense of the word. But you'll see these pests all over Grymoire, and unless you the-give them what they want, they'll give you a hard the-time and block the way.

So what is it they want?

It really the-depends on the Gimme Golem, so the first thing you'll have to the-do is examine it.

Let's have a look-see then.

So where do we find that?

That chocochick you just imprismed ought to be able to track the-down what we need. But first things the-first. You're going to have to unlock the right ability on the chocochick's the-Mirage Board.

This is a lot like the Sphere Grid from Final Fantasy X. You get SP for the monsters when they level up, you use that SP to unlock skills/abilities/attributes, and unlocking one point will allow you to purchase the ones linked to it.

I purchase the story mandated "Stroll" for Chocochick and then save the other 2 SP. I could have gotten an attack called "Ram" for 2 SP, but Cure is 4 SP and I would prefer to have access to that. I know Chocochick likes to headbutt things, but that will have to wait a little while longer.

I also use 3 of Tama's SP to get Strength+, which bumps Tama's strength up by 5 to 20.

With "Stroll", Chocochick gets to follow along with us!

If you wander over to the nearby bush, Chocochick will discover the item that we're looking for.

Yay! You the-found it! Now, try examining the Gimme Golem one more the-time.

Giving him the item he wants causes him to start glowing, then he sinks into the ground.

Whoa! It vanished!

That's so cool! I guess the chocochick found us just the item we needed.

Yup-the-yup! With the help of a Mirage or the-two, there's nothing that you can't accomplish. And Mirage Boards are for much the-more than unlocking abilities. You can also use them to change your Mirages into new and the-powerful forms. So be sure to keep on the-leveling up and working on your Mirage Boards! Pretty soon you'll be bouncing and the-trouncing across Grymoire like a pair of the-pros!

We'll get to that in due time, Tama. Chill out. Proceeding forward, there's a treasure chest in plain view just up from where the Gimme Golem was positioned.

It gives out 3 potions. Good basic healing item to have at the start.

So... Tama, I noticed Mirages disappear when we defeat them. Why is that?

Most of the Mirages you see in Grymoire don't actually the-technically belong in this world. And so, when one of you guys the-gives 'em the old KO, they can't maintain their presence here anymore. They fizzle the-out and go back to their own worlds.

Huh...

*thinking* (Wait. Now, that's weird... Who was it that told me all this before? Ugh, it's like... right there, on the tip of my tongue...)

As we move forward, the camera swings around to point us at another treasure chest way off in the distance. This one pops out a Phoenix Down. This item is used throughout the Final Fantasy series to bring back knocked-out party members with a small amount of HP. You can also use them on undead enemies to either hurt or instantly kill them.

Continuing along the only path available to us, we run into this spooky looking prism just chilling out.

This is the-called a murkrift. Inside, you're the-likely to find Mirages that are, shall we say--

Mirages? Oh man, let's go catch 'em!

And with that, Lann darts off straight into the thing. Reynn quickly follows behind him.

That was a mistake. Hey Behemoth! What's happening?

Uh... this one's not very cute.

Lann! Why did you-- Now what do we do?

I tried to the-tell you. Inside murkrifts, you're likely to find Mirages that are the-strong and dangerous.

You "tried to the-tell" us? Try a little harder, please!

This is Lann's screwup, but at the same time, here's a Pro-tip for everyone out there: if something you're standing next to is dangerous, make sure you open with that part before explaining it.

The Behemoth takes a swing and starts a battle. We get an empty prism for it, but this is a must-fail battle, so we won't be putting it to use this time.

No point in even trying to fight back. Just sit back and take it.

Oh no! Did you two die already?

What?! I died? But that's... No way.

Maybe it's true... That Mirage in the murkrift did kinda...

Well, I'm still alive.

Yes. That's because someone intervened right at the moment of your demise, and made it so the battle never happened.

Wow, you can really do that?

Of course! Although Tama's the one who does it.

Although, it the-costs me a life to do it, so I hope you don't mind if I rest for a little the-while afterwards.

A "life"?

You might not the-believe it, but I've actually got multiple lives. Back there, I had to sacrifice one of those lives to turn back time and the-save you. You see, this girl with a ribbon the-showed up in my dreams. She's the one who taught me how to the-do it.

That makes zero sense and kind of freaks me out, but Tama, I'm impressed!

The-thanks! Oh! But just so you know, I can only the-use my powers to protect the two of you specifically. And only the-if you lose a fight, like what happened to you in the murkrift. Oh the-yeah! And I can always the-recover my lives if you stay here and let me the-rest a spell. So don't forget to give me a breather before I run out of second the-chances.

Dude! You got it. Say no more! Rest yourself silly.

Yes the-sir!

Thanks, Tama. We really owe you one. Especially Lann, who didn't have the good sense to listen before diving in.

So losing regular battles is no big thing, which is nice if you haven't saved in a while or snagged a cool Mirage and then get blindsided by something. Getting wiped in a story significant place or against a boss won't afford you the same luxury though, that's just a Game Over.

This game does not autosave. Make sure you are saving whenever you get the chance.

Oh! If you mean our new guest, she claims to have gotten herself lost. Go say hello! She's quite the character.

Uh, okay!

The real question is how she got here from the outside world when it's no easy trick. She must have experience crossing between planes.

New objective: Track down the weird Lilikin lady that's dressed like she's headed to Carnaval.

-Plaza 99-

So... she's over at North Promenade.

North Promenade is just a short jog away. Leaving that last screen takes us right to Plaza 99. This ghost world doesn't exactly have a ton of locations to it.

-North Promenade-

Approaching her causes Lann and Reynn to automatically switch back to Jiant form.

Hello and how are you? Hmm?

Uh, good. More or less.

You know, what a nice, quiet place.

Oh, uh...

So who are the-you?

Oh! You can call me Chocolatte.

"Chocolatte", as she's known in this game, is voiced by Julie Nathanson in English and Seiko Ueda in Japanese.

"Chocolatte" is actually "Chocolina", who first appeared in Final Fantasy XIII-2. She's a traveling merchant in XIII-2 and a walking quest board in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. She also technically appears in the first Final Fantasy XIII. Remember when I talked about Chocochick appearing in XIII as Sazh's pet? That Chocobo Chick that lives in Sazh's afro in XIII is turned into a time-travelling/dimension hopping sexy Chocobo lady in XIII-2 by a goddess that was lost in time who also gave this sexy Chocobo lady the ability to transcend time and exist in every-when so that she could help the protagonists of XIII-2 in their own time-travel bullshit.

Don't look at me like that. I played the damn trilogy and I still can't make any sense of the XIII series. That's a freaking side-character. Just wait until I have to start talking about Lightning.

I seem to have washed up here like a soggy yellow feather in a storm.

Huh?

I do have this funny knack for winding up in strange places.

Uh, cool...

Oh, right! Care to shop? I've got the goods! Choco-boco-ching!

Chocolatte is acting as a merchant in this game as well. Her stock will update over the course of the game with new and better items. At the moment she just has an assortment of basic healing/revival items, status curatives, and status inflicting items.

Whoa, slow down! What kind of operation is this?

It's called a shop, dear. You're in luck! I find all kinds of stuff as I bounce from point A to point Q. I'm your choco-connection!

That's enough of that for now. I don't need to buy anything from her at the moment (I can't exactly afford it anyway, given the lack of battles).

Heading back to Plaza 99 will trigger another cutscene where something yanks Tama off of Lann's head by the tail.

Ow!

You know when you awakened, you should've woke me up too. I don't remember raising you to be such a selfish selfer-poop.

Well, I don't remember you the-raising me at all!

Who's this?

Oh, hi. I'm just your adorable local wind pixie, aka Serafie. My hobbies include gossipmongering and, uh, let's see... Oh, I'm good at hoarding things. Yup.

Serafie is voiced by Nancy Sullivan in English, Eri Kitamura in Japanese. Serafie also has a very lazy/dreary tone of voice, kind of like Daria. If that reference is lost on you then look it up. Google is right there.

Hoarding?

Hoarding. Why do you think I'm here? You must have tons of prismariums. More than you can handle, right?

Well... we're still working on it.

Yeah, they are kind of bulky.

Well, who's got you covered? This pixie right here. Enna Kros made me a special Prism Case that lets me keep all your prismariums safe. Just plonk the ones you don't need in and yoink the ones you do need out.

Oh... kay.

I'm not sure I caught every single word, but I guess... "I Agree"?

Oh yeah. This prismarium belongs to one of my tribe. Treat it with the same boundless love and affection you feel for me.

Oh... kay.

Serafie's kind of "special" the-case.

There's a whole lot of "special cases" present in this scene, Tama.

This is where you store your excess Mirages, and also transform them (which we won't be seeing for a while yet). Originally you could only carry 10 Mirages around with you, but the Maxima add-on upgraded this to 12.

We also get a "Seraphone" item.

There are enough save points and gates laying around that you shouldn't have to use these things very often. Handy to have just in case, but not exactly something you should sweat not having.

Then we get the sylph prismarium, which gives us a Sylph.

Just a heads up, you can see the stat growth ratings for the Mirages as well. This will give you an idea of how they are going to shape up.

Alright, time to resume our journey across the plaza so we can get back to Grymoire.

-Sylver Park-

You mean you're the-leaving us?

Yes. You handle things now.

Oh! Okay, I the-will!

It's cool. I'll lock this place down tighter than a malboro's bottle of mouthwash. That's a Serafie guarantee.

Huh? B-but where are you going now?

Oh, well... Somewhere else, of course.

Yeah, that's not exactly very helpful. Look, we really need to ask you so many things!

*Tama and Serafie are bickering and fighting in the background during this scene*

Everything? But you've barely done anything.

Besides, every world has its own rules. Like water dousing fire, and light banishing darkness.

Uhh, I think that's just called "science"?

Well, I design mine to be so completely unbreakable that even I can't undo them.

Undo what?

The rules.

Ugh... You're bad at explaining.

You're saying you can't help because that violates the rules of the world or something?

Exactly.

But why is that? I mean, come on. Just who do you think you are?

Me? Oh, well...

And with that incredibly lofty claim, Enna Kros disappears into sparkles and a flash of light.

She's... gone.

Dude.

I guess we can't necessarily rule it out. But for somebody calling the cosmic shots... she seems kind of sub-benevolent.

Well, that's Enna Kros for you, so get used to it.

So... she really is god?

Beats me. Enna Kros is Enna Kros, wouldn't you say?

Pretty the-much.

Uh, thanks for clearing it up.

The game gives us a notice that we can fast-forward or skip scenes/conversations. If you get a little overzealous and end up missing something important, you can check out the Adventure Log in the menu. The Adventure Log will give you a recap of the story scenes that have played out in case you're lost or have been away from the game for a while.

We're also given the option to save. After that, we can approach the gate to go back to Grymoire or access the Prism Case. The blue gem with a ring around it to the left is a save point, which you could probably guess just from looking at it.

Selecting Travel at the Gate will bring up the map of Grymoire. You can travel to Dungeons/Fields, Regions, and Towns. Wellspring Woods is our only option at the moment, so let's go back there and I can wrap this tutorial-filled update.

After retreading old ground for a few steps, we get a random battle with this little guy. The game gives us a brief tutorial card telling us about speeding up battles (which I mentioned before), and that you can select targets with the Left and Right D-Pad.

One basic physical attack is enough to get a Prismtunity on the Mu. Mu's are reoccurring monsters that first started appearing in Final Fantasy VI. They don't make an appearance in VIII, X, XI, XIII (although they do appear in XIII-2), XIV or XV.

Oh, uh... yeah! I want names!

Those little mini-conversations that happen while running around will pick back up after a battle or treasure pick-up or menu screen, so you don't miss out on them.

When we get back to the Murkrift from before, Reynn stops Lann from making the same mistake twice.

Now that you've fought that thing the-once, you can see all its information. And if you the-happen to know some Libra magic, you can peep at its data before you even jump in! Very good to keep in the-mind.

Got it.

Yup! Very good thing to keep in the-mind, Lann.

Uh, why are you repeating it? And just for my sake?

So yeah, we won't be back for this guy for quite some time. I will definitely be back for him though, since he rules (assuming I remember).

Time to end this update with something a little flashy. It's time for a late title-card/intro cutscene!

Don't read this part! Just watch the opening for yourself! It's cool!