Could some one explain Final Fantasy XIII plot to me?

[Bara_no_Hime]

So to understand the movie, you need to watch it backwards. Then take the other movies it references and watch them in the right order. SO you can watch the movie again and understand the plot.

Okay, now you are being unfair.

Plenty of movies and TV shows give you information out of sequence. The first season of Lost did it. The anime Boogiepop Phantom did it. Half a dozen episodes of the X-Files did it. The movie Momento did it.

Are these movies and TV shows easier to understand if you cut them back together in the proper order? Yes. But is it necessary? No.

You said you were having trouble, so I recommended it as a helpful option so you could enjoy the story (and therefore the game) more.

Also, the "crazy god plot" isn't actually necessary to understand fully. In the game, Moon Pope says (repeatedly) that he wants to Kill All Humans to Summon Creator God. That part isn't complex and doesn't require additional info.

The second game adds information, expanding on that idea. FF 13-2 explains WHY killing all humans would have worked, and how Etra was involved. However, you CAN learn all of that info by doing the Undying sidequests and reading all the stone tablets you find. It's just a pain-in-the-ass filled with insanely difficult post-game bossfights.

FF 13-2 spells out Etra's involvement because Etra is central to the plot of the second game, whereas she has only a small relevance to the first game. She is left out (aside from post game sidequest) because telling her part of the story would make it more confusing and the game designers were trying to avoid that.

Anyway, I'm asiding here.

The point is, while the plot is a little thick, it's not that bad. Watch the cut-scenes in order if having them out of order is messing you up. You don't need to watch them in order, but it might help you personally. Or rewatch Space Pope ranting - he explains everything.

Likewise, you don't NEED to play the second game.

Yeesh. If Final Fantasy 13 messed you up, then don't play Silent Hill - that game will leave your head spinning.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Of course we are. All we need to do is to get married and make out and God sends in a hurricane to our location. Apparently they didn't get the memo.

**laughs**

Ah, so the lesbian wedding was the part they were missing. I see.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

**snip**

And now, for shits and giggles, I will explain the plot of FF 13-2.

Ahem.

"Wibbly wobbly Timey wimey."

**bows**

Thank you.

Edit: Oh, one thing I nearly forgot. Hope grows up to be surprisingly HOT.

 

[RaikuFA]

Does it really need explaining? It's Final Fantasy! It floats on androgynous, whiney teenagers taking turns beating monsters on the head, it doesn't need a coherent plot. On top of that, it's part XIII, at this point they need it even less, since blind fanboys will buy regardless.

4 and 6 say hi. They're all 20 somethings excluding Palom, Porom, Rydia and Relm.

 

[Fappy]

I been spending time suffering trough FFAXIII while doing work at home and waiting stuff to render on my work computer (sometimes hours on end) (I do 3D environment rendering)
...

I Managed to Finish it just now a while ago.
Here is a visual representation of my experience of it:

Spoiler

Now would someone with mightier brain than mine explain the fucking plot. It has more time paradoxes on it than drunken let's play of Metal Gear. And so thick that if printed on paper it would [1]create a reality devouring blackhole that would devour create itself to devour itself, in order to create the time paradox that devours itself, so it could devour itself...

So did anyone understand it and explain it in manner that doesn't require a flow chart the size of Russia. That would collapse on itself and... [*1]
Seriously can someone explain it to me so I can at least pretend to have enjoyed it. I think I'll start knitting as hobby while waiting stuff to render.

The big cheese thinks the world sucks, so he wants to hit the reset button. Unfortunately, the only way to hit said reset button is to mark certain individuals with the ability to become said reset button.

The individuals lives go to hell, they end up going to another planet to find refuge, they go back to kill the guy who turned them into reset buttons, albeit that would play into his hands and is exactly what he wanted, but their defense is that they are doing it because they WANT to, not because they have to.

They kill him, kill some stupid looking face wheel thing with the most HP of any Final Fantasy game and the weakest boss of any Final Fantasy game.

Two of them turn into the reset button, but instead of making the reset happen, they give the world two continues instead.



One of the continues is wasted on FFXIII-2, the reason for them being freed from their crystal prisons as L'cie instead of being stuck there forever was because the goddess whom we heard little to nothing about in previous entries decided to let them out. Unfortunately, this also turned Caius Ballad, the main enemy of this game into an immortal as well as a L'cie. It also made the constant reincarnation cycle of this girl he knows a living hell and he is sick of watching her die so he wants to destroy time (He is doing us a favor, because there is no plot-involved issues in this game besides time travel paradox did it, travel in time kill this guy and fix it.)

Turns out every time something changes in the time stream, Yeul gets closer to dying and then reincarnating, and the time stream changes a LOT.(Although, this is Caius's fault, since he is constantly fucking with the damn timeline just to make sure his evil plans of destroying time so Yeul doesn't die anymore he is actually the one killing her, you think he would realize the folley in this considering how smart he seems to be.)

Turns out same thing happens to Serah, the plot device-errr I mean Lightnings sister and the main protagonist of this game.

They travel through time

Kill Caius

Unleash Chaos upon the universe by killing Caius and causing the timestream to be utterly destroyed

and leaves "To Be continued" on the screen.

Also, Lightning is sitting in limbo turned into crystal.

Paving the way for XIII Lightning returns.

Lightning is back (ugh) and she needs to do something or else the world will be destroyed and to make matters worse or better there is no time since Serah and Noel broke it. General change, aging, deaths, babies being born, simply does not happen anymore.

But everybody knows this and they are trying to fix it.....So, if time is standing still, how is everybody still moving you ask?

Final Fantasy XIII logic is bull **** That's why

And Motomu Toriyama is incompetent scum who should be fired.......Out of a canon into the sun and lynched by sun people then given a phoenix down only to be sent to the moon to be brutally sodomized by moon people then killed.

I have no idea what I just read, but... it was entertaining XD

OT: The funny thing is, as much as I and many others love Final Fantasy VII, the plot is a disaster in that game as well. When one of the most highly regarded of the franchise has a retarded plot...

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

**snip**

And now, for shits and giggles, I will explain the plot of FF 13-2.

Ahem.

"Wibbly wobbly Timey wimey."

**bows**

Thank you.

Edit: Oh, one thing I nearly forgot. Hope grows up to be surprisingly HOT.

And less annoying. Don't forget about that.

OT: The plot for XIII and XIII-2 was convoluted as hell, and I will thank whichever God was listening for the little journal for XIII because I would've been completely lost without it. As for XIII-2, well, time is weird and some people died because of it.

I had to write crap down just so that I could get a grasp as to what the game was trying to do for a story. Other people have explained it here in greater detail better than I ever could honestly. :/

 

[Fidchell Attano]

I been spending time suffering trough FFAXIII while doing work at home and waiting stuff to render on my work computer (sometimes hours on end) (I do 3D environment rendering)
...

I Managed to Finish it just now a while ago.
Here is a visual representation of my experience of it:

Spoiler

Now would someone with mightier brain than mine explain the fucking plot. It has more time paradoxes on it than drunken let's play of Metal Gear. And so thick that if printed on paper it would [1]create a reality devouring blackhole that would devour create itself to devour itself, in order to create the time paradox that devours itself, so it could devour itself...

So did anyone understand it and explain it in manner that doesn't require a flow chart the size of Russia. That would collapse on itself and... [*1]
Seriously can someone explain it to me so I can at least pretend to have enjoyed it. I think I'll start knitting as hobby while waiting stuff to render.

The big cheese thinks the world sucks, so he wants to hit the reset button. Unfortunately, the only way to hit said reset button is to mark certain individuals with the ability to become said reset button.

The individuals lives go to hell, they end up going to another planet to find refuge, they go back to kill the guy who turned them into reset buttons, albeit that would play into his hands and is exactly what he wanted, but their defense is that they are doing it because they WANT to, not because they have to.

They kill him, kill some stupid looking face wheel thing with the most HP of any Final Fantasy game and the weakest boss of any Final Fantasy game.

Two of them turn into the reset button, but instead of making the reset happen, they give the world two continues instead.



One of the continues is wasted on FFXIII-2, the reason for them being freed from their crystal prisons as L'cie instead of being stuck there forever was because the goddess whom we heard little to nothing about in previous entries decided to let them out. Unfortunately, this also turned Caius Ballad, the main enemy of this game into an immortal as well as a L'cie. It also made the constant reincarnation cycle of this girl he knows a living hell and he is sick of watching her die so he wants to destroy time (He is doing us a favor, because there is no plot-involved issues in this game besides time travel paradox did it, travel in time kill this guy and fix it.)

Turns out every time something changes in the time stream, Yeul gets closer to dying and then reincarnating, and the time stream changes a LOT.(Although, this is Caius's fault, since he is constantly fucking with the damn timeline just to make sure his evil plans of destroying time so Yeul doesn't die anymore he is actually the one killing her, you think he would realize the folley in this considering how smart he seems to be.)

Turns out same thing happens to Serah, the plot device-errr I mean Lightnings sister and the main protagonist of this game.

They travel through time

Kill Caius

Unleash Chaos upon the universe by killing Caius and causing the timestream to be utterly destroyed

and leaves "To Be continued" on the screen.

Also, Lightning is sitting in limbo turned into crystal.

Paving the way for XIII Lightning returns.

Lightning is back (ugh) and she needs to do something or else the world will be destroyed and to make matters worse or better there is no time since Serah and Noel broke it. General change, aging, deaths, babies being born, simply does not happen anymore.

But everybody knows this and they are trying to fix it.....So, if time is standing still, how is everybody still moving you ask?

Final Fantasy XIII logic is bull **** That's why

And Motomu Toriyama is incompetent scum who should be fired.......Out of a canon into the sun and lynched by sun people then given a phoenix down only to be sent to the moon to be brutally sodomized by moon people then killed.

[bold]I have no idea what I just read, but... it was entertaining XD[/bold]


Pretty much Final Fantasy XIII in a nutshell......

 

[SinisterGehe]

Seriously can someone explain it to me so I can at least pretend to have enjoyed it. I think I'll start knitting as hobby while waiting stuff to render.

Here you go:

500 years ago, Vanielle and Fang were chosen by Pulse to destroy Cocoon. Because apparently lesbian couples are good at blowing up floating moon-cities.

They attempted to do so, but Vanielle chickened out. Fang became a partial Ragnarok and cracked Cocoon's shell, but before she could finish the job, the goddess Etra (reject sister to Pulse and Cocoon) stopped her and turned them both to crystal.

Because they hadn't actually finished the job, Cocoon had the idea of bringing both of them up to Cocoon to finish the job. Why? Because Cocoon and Pulse are allies, not enemies. They're trying to summon their creator god who abandoned them by Killing All Humans. The plan to do so was to drop the Coccon moon onto Pulse and the resulting devastation would kill all humans, smash the Doors of Time open, and summon the Creator God back (he's off looking for those doors).

Anyway, Fang and Vanille were crystals for 500 years. Then they weren't. Vanille and Fang went exploring and bumped into Sara. Sara got branded. Meanwhile, Fang and Vanille tried to continue working on their Focus and went to blow up a reactor, but only managed to get the Kid marked.

Thus, Fang and Vanille accomplished nothing but getting two random innocents involved. They also got separated. Fang got caught by Cid while Vanille got caught up in the Purge (which was caused by their attack on the power plant and Sara's discovery).

The game occurs. Sara gets everyone else involved and turns to crystal. Yada yada. The Moon Pope spends the entire game trying to get them to turn into Ragnarok and finish the job, destroy Cocoon, kill all humans, and summon the Creator God.

He finally gets Fang and Vanille to do so, but AFTER completing their Focus, they then save Cocoon with the molten shell caused by Cocoon's reentry and the crystal dust that smothered their home town, combining them into that Crystal Pillar... which they are stuck inside, in their eternal lesbian lover's embrace.

....

Now, if you need me to explain FF 13-2, I'm gonna need a flow-chart.

On second thought can you do a flow chart. I want to see this visualized.

**snip**

And now, for shits and giggles, I will explain the plot of FF 13-2.

Ahem.

"Wibbly wobbly Timey wimey."

**bows**

Thank you.

Edit: Oh, one thing I nearly forgot. Hope grows up to be surprisingly HOT.

I love you now... That reference made me love you immensely.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

I love you now... That reference made me love you immensely.

#^^#

Thanks. I try. And, actually, since FF 13-2 is basically "Sara fucks with Time" that is pretty much sums it up.

Here is the actual timeline chart, since you asked:

The Gray Dot near the left is where FF 13 took place.

The ones left of that are in the past.

Number 1 (to the right of the gray dot) is where FF 13-2 begins.

And all those branches are places where Sara changes history, altering the future, and causing parallel timelines. And, because Sara is awesome, she can jump between parallel timelines - in fact, she often completes fetch-quests by getting the item from an alternative history.

And thus: wibbly wobbly timey wimey.

 

[FFP2]

A wise man once said: "To understand the past (FF13) you must first understand the future (FF13-2)..."

Really though. I doubt I would understand anything about 13 if I did not play 13-2 months before it.

What I understood: Pope turn people into crystal. Pope bad. Kill Pope. Kill Pope's owl. Win game.

NB: READ THE DATALOG! FF13 has a lot of complicated shit during cutscenes but it gets to maddening levels in the datalog. It does make sense according to it's own lore though.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Well can you give me a place to start? Like where did you get lost and have you read the Datalog yet? Also are you just asking for the plot of FF XIII or the other games as well?

 

[SinisterGehe]

Well can you give me a place to start? Like where did you get lost and have you read the Datalog yet? Also are you just asking for the plot of FF XIII or the other games as well?

Only 13.
I read some of the Datalogs, they didn't help much, only raised my questions really. The answered one thing and gave 50 million other questions and when related to the game world- they make no fucking sense. Like Chocobo chick that's name will bring the end of the world- wtf?

Also I think it is not proper story telling to force the player to do homework to understand the story.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Well can you give me a place to start? Like where did you get lost and have you read the Datalog yet? Also are you just asking for the plot of FF XIII or the other games as well?

Only 13.
I read some of the Datalogs, they didn't help much, only raised my questions really. The answered one thing and gave 50 million other questions and when related to the game world- they make no fucking sense. Like Chocobo chick that's name will bring the end of the world- wtf?

Also I think it is not proper story telling to force the player to do homework to understand the story.

Ok but do you want me to take you through it from the very beginning or from where the player's perspective starts? Also is there any concepts you do/don't understand that you want me to highlight aside from the Vanille/Fang thing(Which is what I assume you mean by chocobo chick).

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'll try with some brevity. *Ahem*

A totalitarian "utopia" decides to perform a mass exodus of their population because there's people who can do magic somewhere. This people are easily identifiable by large tattoos, and are given a quest along with their powers. They don't know their quest, because all they get is a fuzzy picture. During their travels down a 60 hour long hallway, they are offered help by demi-god beings who introduce themselves by beating the shit out of our travelers. They are summarily useless once tamed because they reset the ability to juggle enemies in the air without player input.

The token black one pretends to commit suicide, the consistently angry one bitchslaps a handful of people, and the young one is murderously mad at the Jersey Shore character because he failed to properly rescue the kid's mom. If they don't complete their quest, they'll be turned into undead husks. If they do, they'll be turned into crystal, so they're fucked unless they kill the sentient machines that provide food and water to the utopian society. Despite this, they spend 40 hours arguing over what the quest actually is and where they're supposed to be going.

As they aimlessly wander down the hallway, they commit mass murder of animals and city guards because their quest is more important than the restored order of the utopia. After the 60-hour hallway ends, they end up on a planet from Monster Hunter that isn't all bad (just primitive), despite being told that it's a hellish wasteland that is the enemy. There doesn't appear to be anyone there to make an enemy out of. At this point two of the characters, one of which speaks with 5 different English accents, announce that they're from this planet and that they were frozen for some number of years and they're really sorry. Our group then grinds all the animals on this planet for as long as the player decides, before killing the ultimate sentient machine that wasn't foreshadowed or mentioned before that point. The end.

That's the best I could do off the top of my head.

 

[Tomaius]

I had a similar experience with FF13. I actually vlogged about it some years later when it finally hit how poor the game actually turned out in the end:

 

[saintdane05]

A team of six who get in touch with their feelings and bitchin' tattoos have to figure out how to save the world or become Silent Hill residents. Then, The world gets hit with a Timey Wimey Ball. Mons and Multiple Endings ensue.

 

[Altorin]

Spoiler: spoilerific

According to the Fal'Cie, humans and fal'cie were created by a diety they call the Maker. Eventually the Maker left Pulse. Wanting to bring their god back, the Fal'Cie devised a plan to create a giant floating sphere in the sky, and to raise and cultivate humans within it. Once enough people were alive in "Cocoon", the fal'Cie would use their ability to create human thralls, called l'Cie, to bring the destruction of Cocoon, hoping that by sending so many souls through the portal that the Maker used to leave, it would bring his attention back to the world.

This was attempted once before, 700 years ago, but in the necessary battle between Cocoon and Pulse l'Cie (In order to destroy Cocoon, a Pulse l'Cie would need to assault the Cocoon fal'Cie Eden, and destroy the fal'Cie creature Orphan, which is the being that keeps Cocoon floating in the air - there is a lot of strange symbology in the various machinations of the fal'Cie, but I really don't feel like getting into that right now).

Anyway, the Cocoon l'Cie held off the assault from Pulse, and from that day, Cocoon was fearful of influences from pulse, and in order to keep the populace from completely freaking out, all Pulse agents are dealt with harshly. Everything was going fine until the fal'Cie reactivated two dormant Pulse l'Cie who were mistakenly placed in Cocoon during some ancient renovation. They start a chain of events that lead the main characters either onto a "purge train" or warring against the local police forces trying to get into an ancient pulse temple called a "Vestige" Inside they encounter and destroy a pulse fal'Cie and become l'Cie.

They split up, one of them being captured by a rogue army squadron, another two going on the war path trying to take down the government, and two more just wandering, trying to survive. Eventually they all get captured and find out that their goal is in fact to destroy Cocoon, they relent, eventually heading to the capital city and they end up taking place in the events that should have destroyed cocoon, but using the power inside their pulse hearts or whatever, two of the l'Cie sacrifice themselves to form a giant pillar stopping cocooon from falling to the ground.

The end

 

[Altorin]

when it comes down to dissecting FF13, there are a few things to ALWAYS remember.

1) Humans don't really know shit about anything to do with fal'Cie or l'Cie. they're dealing with things that were basically myth upto 9 or so days before the purge. Anytime a human being says anything about a Focus, and what a Focus is, or what they should do, they're wrong, and talking out of their butts.

2) Fal'Cie are tricky, and know very little about humans. They certainly don't know everything, but know just what to say to humans to get them to do what they want the humans to do. If a fal'Cie ever tells you anything about your Focus. they're probably lying. Or telling half-truths. Or don't know, but know if they tell you something, you'll do something. The Fal'Cie basically have the mindset of computers. Fal'Cie are an allegory for technology I think in a lot of ways.

3) Cie'th and Crystal Stasis is under almost unilateral control of the fal'Cie. Sometimes l'Cie will crystalize themselves, and the myth of eternal crystal slumber being the reward for a successful Focus doesn't really hold much weight - the only crystal transformations seen in the game seem to be brought on by the l'Cie themselves, not some completion of a Focus, in some emotional moment, l'Cie sometimes just crystallize. But they de-crystallize just as often as they crystallize, so eternal is not even slightly accurate. fal'Cie seem to have the ability to pull l'Cie out of crystal stasis, or put them into a Cie'th form at their whim. We never even really learn for positive that there's actually a time component to Cie'th transformation. The game's pretty adamant that there is, but we never see it. Everytime a person turns Cie'th in FF13, it's in an encounter with powerful fal'Cie, who would have the ability to turn them into Cie'th anyway.

 

[SinisterGehe]

when it comes down to dissecting FF13, there are a few things to ALWAYS remember.

1) Humans don't really know shit about anything to do with fal'Cie or l'Cie. they're dealing with things that were basically myth upto 9 or so days before the purge. Anytime a human being says anything about a Focus, and what a Focus is, or what they should do, they're wrong, and talking out of their butts.

2) Fal'Cie are tricky, and know very little about humans. They certainly don't know everything, but know just what to say to humans to get them to do what they want the humans to do. If a fal'Cie ever tells you anything about your Focus. they're probably lying. Or telling half-truths. Or don't know, but know if they tell you something, you'll do something. The Fal'Cie basically have the mindset of computers. Fal'Cie are an allegory for technology I think in a lot of ways.

3) Cie'th and Crystal Stasis is under almost unilateral control of the fal'Cie. Sometimes l'Cie will crystalize themselves, and the myth of eternal crystal slumber being the reward for a successful Focus doesn't really hold much weight - the only crystal transformations seen in the game seem to be brought on by the l'Cie themselves, not some completion of a Focus, in some emotional moment, l'Cie sometimes just crystallize. But they de-crystallize just as often as they crystallize, so eternal is not even slightly accurate. fal'Cie seem to have the ability to pull l'Cie out of crystal stasis, or put them into a Cie'th form at their whim. We never even really learn for positive that there's actually a time component to Cie'th transformation. The game's pretty adamant that there is, but we never see it. Everytime a person turns Cie'th in FF13, it's in an encounter with powerful fal'Cie, who would have the ability to turn them into Cie'th anyway.

I understand what you said. But it makes no fucking sense in the story. Neither is it explained properly in the story - or brought up in a manner that would make sense. It is either that or I got a bad case of tunnel vision form the corridors.