02E: The Gift of Eternity

02E: The Gift of Eternity

First fal'Cie Battle

Just as they think they have a handle on the situation, Serah is raised by the fal"Cie and turned into a crystal - which as we know is her reward for having completed her task for the fal'Cie!

Wait - so her task (Focus) was to tell us that we needed to save Cocoon?  Snow tells us that Serah now has eternal life, but Lightning goes postal in an emotional way, and she and Snow have it out again - only this time it gets physical!  Just when you think things cannot get any worse, here comes the army!

They are there to destroy the Pulse Vestige (construct) that you happen to be inside of - which is a problem for you...  As the attack hits a lull, Snow decides to have a chat with the fal'Cie - much to Sazh's horror - but before we can really get into that we need to take down the monsters that have arrived to deal with us!

Fight your way up to the top and after you defeat the mobs, grab 5 potions from the treasure sphere and then hit the save point on the other side of the platform.

Enter the tunnel and you get a CS in which you meet a fal'Cie - and Snow tries to argue for Serah's freedom.  When argument fails he tries pleading, and then Lightning goes postal on the fal'Cie, explaining that to fulfill Serah's focus they need to kill this fal'Cie.  That does not go over very well with the fal'Cie, who opens his protective shields and captures Hope!

Lightning is determined to kill the fal'Cie, though Sazh has his doubts, while Snow was game from the start.  This is a boss battle in case you do not know it, and it is not going to be a walk in the park!

Keep a close eye on everyone's health bar and use potions as needed.  You should have a minimum of 20 potions going in but more would be better, I am just saying.

- Boss Battle -

Your best strategy here is to keep your eyes on the health bars.  Whenever they go yellow use a potion - I know that doing that is contrary to the normal RPG mindset because potions are valuable and usually hard to get, but that is not the case in this game!  Potions are valuable, sure, but mostly because of their function rather than rarity.  You can buy them from the shops at any save point, so do not be shy about using them!

As you fight the boss you will notice that he makes a predictable set of moves, and once you get the rhythm down you will know when you need to use a potion before you actually need to use it, which makes fighting him pretty much a snap.  It is a good idea to set up your moves before the timer fills - once you commit to the target the attack is not going to progress until the timer fills anyway, but having already designated the target the attack will commence immediately after the timer fills instead of having to wait for you to initiate it.

Designating the target prior to the timer filling is important if you want to max out the CP you can get for a given fight - the reason being that CP is indirectly related to the battle rating - how many stars you get - and the main cause for not getting the full five stars in a fight is going over the time designated by the game for when you should have completed it by.  Stacking up the commands and having them ready to execute as soon as the timer fills pretty much removes the delays that can cause you to over-run the timer. 

This is the first time that you will have a full team of strong fighters - Lightning, Sazh and Snow - and you will immediately see how that works to your advantage here, but bear in mind that unlike previous fights where your teammates activated potions for you, there is no designated medic here for this one - you need to do that yourself!

- End Boss Battle -

If all went well you should have five-starred this fight and completed it well under the Target Time.  A score of better than 15K for this battle is acceptable, and you should have received the Doctor's Code as your spoils for this fight!