Final Fantasy XIII: Difference between revisions

[[File:589px-FFXIII_Characters-1.jpg|frame|From left to right: [[The Big Guy]], [[The Chick]], [[The Sixth Ranger]], [[The Hero]], the [[Only Sane Man]], the [[Tagalong Kid]]... [[My Friends and Zoidberg|and Serah.]]]]

 

''The moment that fal'Cie from Pulse--the feared and detested lowerworld -- awoke from its slumber, peace on Cocoon came to an end.'' }}

 

 

The fal'Cie are a race existing beyond humanity. Those marked by the fal'Cie for a greater purpose are named the l'Cie (pronounced "luh-see"), each one given a special mission known as a Focus; failure to accomplish the Focus leads to the l'Cie transforming into a hideous monster. Success, on the other hand, leads to "eternal life" -- [[Morton's Fork|as a crystal statue.]]

A young woman known only by the codename of "Lightning" and a [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]] are chosen by a Pulse Fal'Cie to become [[The Chosen One|l'Cie]] and given an unclear Focus. They must overcome their rage, sorrow, regret, and guilt to decide if they will bow to the Destiny handed them by the fal'Cie, or carve their own path.

 

* [[Action Girl]]: Lightning, Fang, Lebreau the NPC, and even Vanille. Lightning, in particular, is arguably the most [[Badass]] RPG heroine to come out in a long time.

* [[Adrenaline Time]]: One of the [[Super Speed|many]] [[Lightning Bruiser|reasons]] [[Good Bad Bugs|why]] [[Limit Break|Army of One]] is a [[Game Breaker]].

* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: Fang's Highwind Full ATB Skill. The area and damage of the attack actually makes up for the cost of an entire ATB gauge.

** Sazh's [[More Dakka|Cold Blood]] limit break is also of note. Using it on an already staggered target raises the stagger gauge by ~10-12% per shot. He fires 14 shots. You do the math.

** Lightning's [[Spam Attack|Army of One]] quickly staggers enemies, racks up damage, stacks with her speed-boosting abilities, and boosts the chain gauge even more against staggered enemies. Because you can still input commands while it's running, its [[Adrenaline Time]] gives you a massive advantage in terms of speed and timing, and you can [[Good Bad Bugs|completely refresh your entire party's ATB gauge by changing paradigms during its animation]]. [[Game Breaker|Properly abusing this ability can effectively double the rest of the party's speed and triple Lightning's.]]

* [[Badass Abnormal]]: The entire party, post l'Cie-ification.

* [[Badass Crew]]: Obviously. But incredibly evident when the group {{spoiler|assaults Eden}} in Chapter 12.

* [[Call a Hit Point a Smeerp]]: [[Experience Points]] are renamed "Crystal Points" (JAP) or "Crystogen Points" (NA), but otherwise function identically to similar systems in ''[[God of War (series)|God of War]]'' and ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' -- specifically, you trade in EXP for direct rewards.

* [[The Call Knows Where You Live]]: Boy howdy is there a lot of collateral damage when {{spoiler|Vanille remembers her focus, but feigns ignorance to keep both Fang and Cocoon safe.}}

* [[Cap]]: For those who have been playing for a while, you will notice that many enemies after a certain point, especially bosses, have something on the order of ''millions'' of Hit Points. Thankfully, these large numbers are irrelevant, because the game has no defense stat, and careful manipulation of the [[Break Meter]] means your characters can deal damage in excesses of ''50,000 damage per hit'' (and you can chain up to six attacks, more with Sazh and Fang.) As an example, the final boss has ''six million hit points'', but can be beaten in less than five minutes. The normal damage cap is 99,999, which can be reached in normal playthrough through Stagger-ending abilities (Smite and Scourge), Fang and Snow's character-specific attacks with a Staggered enemy and a full break meter, or liberal use of positive and negative status effects. A hidden item allows you to break this cap, allowing damage up to 999,999. With Fang's Highwind, 1.5 million damage is far from unheard of. Summons can also occasionally break this cap.

* [[Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough]]: Literally in Lightning's case. Her superior officer, Lt. Amodar, tells her to stay away from fal'Cie business, but Lightning almost immediately sets out to kick ass and ask questions later.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: A drinking game for how often Sazh says "We're L'Cie! Enemies of Cocoon!" could result in alcohol poisoning. If you focus on Snow talking about Serah or being a hero, you ''will'' get it.

* [[Character Development]]: The plot of the game really isn't that much worth mentioning, but the [[Character Development]] is what's really driving the narrative. It shares a similar narrative structure with ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]''.

** Reaches its natural climax in Chapter 12. Compare the arguing, [[Heroic BSOD|Heroic BSODing]], murder plotting, and bitch-slapping at the beginning to the [[Badass Crew|confident, cohesive]] [[Nakama|team]] that [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|invades Eden]].

* [[Colony Drop]]: {{spoiler|The fal'Cie's plan to destroy Cocoon is to have it fall and crash into Pulse. They believe that this mass killing will summon The Maker.}}

** {{spoiler|Ironically, this does happen, but the killing is on the fal'Cie side: the game ends with Cocoon perched atop a crystal structure, at the cost of Fang and Vanille becoming Ragnarok and then turning to crystal.}}

* [[Combination Attack]]: Part of the entire basis of the gameplay is coordinating attacks, since combos boost attack strength and enemies after Chapter 5 or so start packing ''millions'' of hit points.

* [[Cosmic Plaything]]: L'Cie are this to the fal'Cie.

* [[Despair Speech]]: Most of the l'Cie just before their Eidolon battles, notably Hope at the beginning of Chapter 11.

* [[The Determinator]]: The Undying Cie'th. They were so angry at the fal'Cie that forced them into servitude that instead of eventually turning to stone like other Cie'th, they have managed to continue existing through nothing but ''pure hatred''.

** {{spoiler|Fang's initial Ragnarok rampage being stopped and her and Vanille being put in crystal stasis 500 years before}} is implied to ''literally'' be the result of divine interference.

** {{spoiler|Confirmed in XIII-2 that stopping Ragnarok was divine doing. As well as Etro behind XIII's ''entire ending'': being able to turn into Ragnarok, stopping Coccon's fall, turning back from crystal, etc.}}

** Related, but neither sexual in context, nor fun at all: Undesireable people getting herded at train stations, put on trains to an unspecified far away destination, and told they get their personal stuff back once they get there? Thankfully, Lightning and Snow got the hint.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: Lighting does this during Odin's Gestalt mode. Sazh does this normally, and also hits twice for every attack he makes. Fang gets in on the action with the [[Bifurcated Weapon|fifth attack]] in her attack combo.

* [[Dungeon Town]]: [[Port Town|Palumpolum]], the [[Amusement Park|mall area of The Nautilus]], and [[Ominous Floating Castle|Eden]], [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|in a notable case]]. Justified, as you're fugitives who are feared by practically everybody in the world. {{spoiler|Later, there are the ruined cities on Pulse.}}

* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The fal'Cie, and many of the Undying.

* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: Once you get to {{spoiler|Pulse, like you knew you were going to eventually}}, you can come across the somewhat large turtles known as Adamantoise. If you engage it in battle, it will ''[[For Massive Damage|step]]'' [[One-Hit Kill|on you]].

** Lampshaded in a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7dOOy8kBJY skit] done by Snow and Lightning's voice actors.

* [[Evil Old Folks]]: {{spoiler|Dysley is considerably older than most other main antagonists in the series. Of course, considering that he is the leader of the fal'Cie, he is likely even older than he appears.}}

* [[Evil Tower of Ominousness]]: Taejin's Tower. It's made even more creepy by the fact that most of it has fallen over.

* [[Fake Difficulty]]: Certain enemies will never give you a preemptive strike opportunity unless you are shrouded, even if you're practically rubbing their butts in your face. This is particularly noticeable with large enemies.

** Some enemies also have the Death spell, which when cast on your party leader has a chance of instant game over. Note that the accessory to prevent that spell from landing, even when you spend a good amount of cash fully upgrading it, only gives a 60% prevention by itself. The whole "instant loss from party leader death" rule in general may also qualify, since enemies often decide their [[One-Hit Kill]] targets randomly -- on a member you can recover in about 3 seconds, but on the leader it's game over.

* [[Fire-Forged Friends]]: At the start, half the playable cast is at each other's throats. Originally Hope {{spoiler|wants to kill Snow because Snow caused his mother's death}}, Sazh {{spoiler|almost shoots Vanille (albeit at her request) because she was responsible for Dajh becoming a L'Cie}}, and Lightning's antipathy for Snow is obvious from the beginning. By the end, however, all of these things are forgotten as the group unites.

** [[The Hero]] (Lightning)

** [[The Lancer]] (Sahz)

* [[The Ghost]]: Eden. You do see an avatar in {{spoiler|Orphan's Cradle}} (three of them, in fact), but the fal'Cie itself remains unseen.

* [[Ghost City]]: Hanging Edge and the city seen near Lake Bresha in the cutscene where Sazh escapes PSICOM jets are both devoid of citizens. {{spoiler|There are four cities that are visitable on Gran Pulse, one for each corner of the Archylte Steppe, and all of them have been reduced to ruins in various states of decay, thanks to the War of Transgression. The city in the southwest area is so far gone, it doesn't even have a ''name'', and all that's left to remind people that civilization used to be there is a couple of archways and spires.}}

* [[Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!]]: Eidolons will come to snap their masters back into sense when they fall into desperation and doubt, [[Die or Fly|give them helping hands if they can get back on their toes, kill them if they fail.]]

* [[Glass Cannon]]: At maximum stats, Hope has the best Magic and worst HP. Lightning has the second worst HP but the second best strength, and ties for second best Magic with Vanille.

* [[Gotterdammerung]]: {{spoiler|The intended outcome of Barthandelus's [[Batman Gambit]]. And it actually works -- just not in the way he intended it to. Eden, Barthandelus, and (possibly) all the other Cocoon fal'Cie die right along with Orphan, but humanity survives Cocoon's (literal) fall}}.

* [[Gratuitous Latin]]

* [[Gun Fu]]: Used by Lightning in some of her fight animations.

* [[Hammerspace]]: Most of the characters' weapons are kept on their in-game models. The exception is Hope. It's especially obvious on his battle-ending animation, when he shoves a collapsible boomerang as long as his arm into his back pocket. Somehow.

** {{spoiler|Yaag Rosch, after you defeat his Proudclad for a second time, [[Taking You with Me|blows himself and two Humbabas up with a grenade]] [[You Shall Not Pass|so the party can enter Edenhall without being compromised]].}}

** {{spoiler|Fang and Vanille, who crystallize Cocoon and themselves to prevent it from falling after Orphan's destruction.}}

* [[HP to One]]: The final boss has an extremely annoying attack that reduces everyone's HP to 100. When coupled with the poison status ailment he loves casting, this spells nearly instant death for any party member so afflicted.

** The attack with the blade? {{spoiler|Put a Sentinel in your team before the light orb reaches Orphan}}. To add insult to injury, this attack also resets its stagger meter.

** [[Demonic Spiders|An enemy]] in the final dungeon has one too.

* [[I Cannot Self-Terminate]]: {{spoiler|To become free of the fal'Cie's strings, Cid Raines asked to be shot by his right hand man, Rygdea.}}

* [[Ink Suit Actor]]: Not invoked for the English dub, as the actors were chosen well after character design was done, but a few coincidences. Georgia Von Cuylenburg is short, cute, cheerful, and skinny. Ali Hillis is slim and classically beautiful. And Troy Baker is a tall blonde guy with plenty of enthusiasm.

* [[Innocent Innuendo]]: Very nearly -- the packaging for the 360 version winds up having the ESRB rating box in-between Lightning's thighs. [[Hilarity Ensues|If only the game had gotten an M rating...]]

** Reaches levels of ridiculousness with insurmountable waist-high sheep in Nautilus's chocobo farm area.

* [[Interface Spoiler]]: A first time player might wonder why cute little Vanille would have three ATB gauges, as opposed to battle hardened Lightning and Snow, who only have two. The answer? {{spoiler|She's already a l'Cie.}} Another hint comes with the fact that Vanille has 350 HP, whereas Lightning only has 200. {{spoiler|When the l'Cie transformation happens, Lightning gets a boost of 100 HP, but Vanille's HP stays the same.}}

* [[Land Down Under]]: Gran Pulse. It's a world of unending wilderness, and powerful beasts and dangerous creators roam around it. It lies underneath Cocoon, analogous to Australia's geographic location being southwards, literally being the "Land down under" from the above world of Cocoon. Throughout the storyline, Gran Pulse is also depicted as being an inhospitable [[Death World]] full of danger and horrible monsters. {{spoiler|Fang and Vanille also have Australian accents. As they are both the last remaining survivors of Gran Pulse, it can be assumed the people who once lived there also had similar accents. Notably, the ruins of Gran Pulse's cities depict modern technology and buildings, with concrete, steel, and oil rigs.}}

* [[La Résistance]]: The heroes. Team NORA, too, and The Cavalry.

* [[Leaked Experience]]: All characters gain the same amount of CP, regardless of whether they are in the battle or even in the party at the time.

* [[Leap of Faith]]: Many. Sazh and Vanille do not like these.

** There is a short scene where Fang wants to take a look at Lightning's brand. She turns her back to the camera and unzips her jacket, leading to Fang leaning over to take a close look, telling Lightning not to be shy about it.

* [[Level Five Onix]]: Every other mook in each chapter alternates between this or being a [[Demonic Spiders|Demonic Spider.]]

* [[Level Grinding]]: Actually [[Lampshade Hanging|referenced to some extent]] in the game. The entirety of chapter 10 is an actual training center designed to help Pulse l'Cie become stronger. A bit odd, since Chapter 10 is actually one of the [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|worst CP grinding spots]] in the game.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Well, compared to ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]-2'', ''[[Final Fantasy Versus XIII]]'', and ''[[Final Fantasy Type-0]]''.

* [[Limit Break]]: Changed in this game, instead you get "Gestalt Mode," where you pilot a vehicle/summon around to do heavy damage.

** Characters also have true limit breaks, which use an entire ATB bar. These either sharply raise the chain meter (Sazh and Lightning), nuke a wide area and moderately raise the chain meter (Hope), deal ''heavy'' damage while clearing the chain gauge (Fang and Snow), or have a chance to cause instant death while dealing damage that increases the more you spam them (Vanille).

* [[Literal Genie]]: {{spoiler|The party saves the world on a technicality: Anima, Bart, and Orphan simply tell the l'Cie to "destroy Cocoon." They never made mention of what they should do ''after'' they accomplish this...}}

** [[Didn't Think This Through]]: {{spoiler|Anima's plot may still be partly uncertain, but Bart and Orphan planned on summoning the Maker with the apocalyptic fall of Cocoon. Ragnarok's suspending Cocoon via a massive crystal pillar could be seen as a hundred middle fingers aimed at the two of them, courtesy of Vanille and Fang.}}

* [[Low Fantasy]]: Believe it or not, the story fits most of the criteria listed on that trope page. Humans take center stage in the plot, no [[Five Races]] other than the [[Physical God|Fal'Cie]], natural magic is treated as the ultimate evil and artificial magic is largely used as a military weapon, war is largely depicted as pointless, all-out destructive, and waged for an unclear goal, etc.

* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: Getting five stars on the Gigantuar fight. Either you get a lucky instant stagger (with ''very'' low odds) or the battle takes too long, regardless of your stats.

** Lightning does all manner of acrobatic things, and the camera doesn't care. This is because she wears black modesty shorts.

** Serah's miniskirt always protects her modesty, regardless of what she does. Interestingly, in FFXIII-2, we learn that Serah also wears black modesty shorts.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: The l'Cie's plain English names and their meanings may be obvious, but there are other examples. The Undying, for instance, are all named for people who commanded armies against ancient Rome.

** Hope spends a lot of the game battling between holding on to hope or giving into despair. Lightning even lampshades this at one point.

'''Hope''': It's my name, not who I am. }}

* [[Melee a Trois]]: This game allows you to join in three-way battles. Depending on whether you're spotted doing so or not, both sets of enemies may join forces to wipe you out, or not notice you're even there and continue to fight each other while you annihilate all parties. Regardless, you need to be the victor.

** According to some dialogue from the sequel, turning into crystal isn't as bad as it seems. Serah sometimes mentions the happy dreams she had while she was crystallized, which isn't as much of a punishment as turning into a Cie'th.

** And even if you do complete your focus and turn to crystal, that doesn't necessarilly mean you can rest for eternity either. If the fal'Cie decide they have further use for you, they can de-crystalize you, essentially drafting you into another round of service for them, as was the case with {{spoiler|Vanille and Fang}}.

* [[More Dakka]]: Sazh's method of using [[Guns Akimbo]] seems to be "spray enough bullets in your target's general direction and maybe some will hit". Particularly, see his version of Blitz and his [[Limit Break]], [[Spam Attack|Cold Blood]].

** His Blitz's unique mechanics (he sprays bullets forward instead of doing a [[Spin Attack]] like everyone else) make it pretty powerful against larger enemies. Each bullet does half to three-quarters what it would in a normal attack, but he fires each gun a half-dozen times at least; if you're facing an enemy large enough to get hit by most or all of them, or if a moderately sized enemy is right in his face, it'll do considerably more damage than just having him Attack.

* [[Morph Weapon]]: When Sazh gets his fourth ATB level, make him a commando and have him attack. On the fourth hit, his handguns leap into the air, transform, then merge into a rifle before he takes a shot -- for no reason, apparently, but [[Rule of Cool|style]]. Also, Lightning's gun-sword-whateverthehellitis.

* [[Multi Platform]]: The news of this being the first game in the series to do this (and the first for the Xbox 360) was a big announcement.

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Fang gets quite incensed at Lightning referring to Gran Pulse simply as Pulse. The game's on-board database (which had also been referring to it as Pulse) [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|updates itself after that]].

* [[Mythology Gag]]: See [[Final Fantasy XIII/Trivia|the trivia page]] for a full list.

* [[Naked on Arrival]]: When a l'Cie {{spoiler|awakens from crystal stasis}}, he or she is naked for the first few seconds.

** Averted {{spoiler|during the ending, when the camera stays on Lightning as she awakens from crystal stasis already clothed}}, as you might imagine.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Deconstructed. l'Cie are [[Incredibly Lame Pun|labeled]] somewhere equivalent to a terrorist in-game, so the heroes have to avoid going into towns due to the potential of causing a riot. The reason for this labeling is because the fal'Cie are the ones giving the orders, and the l'Cie ''[[But Thou Must!|must follow their orders]]'' or [[Morton's Fork|be paid the consequences]], making them literal walking time bombs. These orders can be drastic, ranging from killing a wild monster to [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|leading someone straight into the thick of the plot]], regardless of the relation to the l'Cie. On the plus side, l'Cie gain power not normally obtained by regular humans, so enjoy it while it lasts.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Numerous examples and one subversion:

* [[Nominal Importance]]: Even if you haven't been spoiled going into the game, you know damn well Hope's mother is doomed when the game's subtitles only refer to her as "Mother." {{spoiler|Semi-aversion; she has a name, Nora, but it's not revealed until long after she's dead. Also, revealing it too early would have ruined some of the symbolism (Snow's gang is also called NORA.)}}

* [[Not So Harmless]]: {{spoiler|Prior to the game's release, many people suspected that the aged Galenth would be nothing more than a powerless figurehead. Then he started frying masses of people with [[Shock and Awe|lightning blasts]]...}}

* [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]]: Entirely true until very late in the game, when the sandbox opens up a little for sidequests. There is no backtracking except to one specific area, and there are no towns to visit. This is a big change from earlier installments, even purely linear games like X. [[Tropes Are Tools|Not that that's necessarily a bad thing.]]

** The last chapter of the game is this (though with warps to the free areas) and is reminiscent of Final Destination from [[Super Smash Brothers]].

** The linearity was explained to be influenced from first person shooters. Make that of what you will.

* [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]: MIHI NOMEN ORPHANUS! '''OR'''! '''PHA'''! '''NUUUUUUS'''!!! Par for the course for final bosses in this series, really. Overlaps awesomely with [[Orchestral Bombing]].

* [[Ominous Pipe Organ]]: Ragnarok combines this with [[Ominous Latin Chanting]]. Also, there's an organ right at the beginning of Born Anew, but it's a bit drowned out by the choir. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6CiTAUwLWU&feature=related You can hear it much more easily in the instrumental version, though.]

** Once you know the Death trick, Mission 63 becomes one for both CP ''and'' gil. (Adamantoises give 40000 CP and have a 25% chance of dropping [[Vendor Trash]] that sells for 150000 gil, and you get a guaranteed Gold Nugget (60000 gil) every time you complete the mission)

* [[Phlebotinum Rebel]]: Two types: Your party, who use their powers to defy their Foci and battle the fal'Cie, and The Undying, people who resented their fate as l'Cie, ignored their foci, and became immortal superbeings kept going on nothing but pure ''spite''.

* [[Post End Game Content]]

** [[Endgame Plus]]: The final level of the Cristarium.

* [[Randomly Drops]]: Thanks to the game's aversion of [[Money Spider]], the only ways to accumulate large amounts of Gil involve fighting enemies that drop valuable components designed to be sold, but which often drop at rates of 25% or worse. You will need millions of Gil to upgrade weapons, and millions more if you want to go for the trophy for having all of the equipment. Enjoy doing the same 5-10 minute fight three or four times without getting anything.

* [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]]: {{spoiler|Vanille and Fang}} and {{spoiler|Dysley}}.

** Surprisingly for a [[Final Fantasy]] game, only one of the classic FF tunes appears in its entirety, the [[Ear Worm|insanely catchy]] vocal J-pop rendition of the Chocobo theme. The series Prelude can be heard briefly in the game's original prelude, and the Final Fantasy theme (the one that usually plays during the credits) can be heard in the track "Miracles". Then again, this is somewhat typical of Masashi Hamauzu, who very rarely if ever pays tribute to Nobuo Uematsu's old musical cues. See: ''[[Dirge of Cerberus]]'' (scored by Hamauzu), which is bereft of any of the original ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' leitmotifs, compared to ''[[Crisis Core]]'' (scored by Takeharu Ishimoto) which borders on [[Continuity Porn]] in its reuses of ''FFVII'' melodies.

** On a more minor note, Blinded By Light can be heared in Lightning's theme, and it gets a [[Dark Reprise]] later.

* [[Second-Hour Superpower]]: After the prologue chapters, [[Blessed with Suck|Anima says hello]].

* [[Shapeshifter Guilt Trip]]: {{spoiler|Dysley}} tries pulling one of these on Snow and Lightning by taking {{spoiler|Serah}}'s form, even using Lightning's real name ({{spoiler|Claire}}) on her. He gives up after about a minute and puts his trollface back on because he knows he's got the party wrapped so tightly around his finger [[Idiot Hero|they're going to do what he wants anyway]], so why waste the energy screwing with them?

* [[Shut UP, Hannibal]]: {{spoiler|Lightning pulls one of these on Orphan before the final fight.}}

* [[Slave Brand]]: The l'Cies' brands.

* [[Slave Mooks]]: L'Cie are only motivated to do their boss' job by the threat of being turned into one of the zombie-like Cie'th.

* [[Sole Entertainment Option]]: Nautilus, a huge entertainment city on Cocoon that is full of little spherical transports, the Pompa Sancta parade, lots of lights (of course), an amusement park, and a chocobo and sheep petting zoo, among other things.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Getting pummeled by monsters to the sound of vocal trance or bossa nova has never been so much fun!

** Lebreau, easily the worst offender of the three, actually [[Lampshade Hanging|receives commentary]] from Lightning in the novella.

* [[Spam Attack]]: Lightning's [[Unstoppable Rage|Army of One]] and Sazh's [[More Dakka|Cold Blood]] [[Limit Break|full-ATB moves]]. Also, what happens naturally when you're queuing up five or six Attacks or Ruins in a row during the late game.

** {{spoiler|Galenth Dysley's true name is another matter of contention.}} Most agreed that he was named Baldanders after the mythological creature, but they Latinized it to Barthandelus in the English release.

** Some of the names in the Spanish translation are slightly different, like Baldanders instead of Barthandelus (as referenced above), Paals instead of Pulse, and luCie instead of l'Cie. Whether they're truer or not to the original Japanese is arguable.

* [[Taken for Granite]]: L'Cie who fulfill their focus skip the zombie part and go straight to being a paperweight.

* [[Take Your Time]]: Although the plot largely tries to avert this -- the entire story takes place in the time frame of about two weeks (one month if you include the Thirteen Days), and makes an explicit point that ignoring their Focus runs risk of the party turning Cie'th -- once you get to [[Wide Open Sandbox|Gran Pulse]], you can spend as much time as you want killing [[King Mook|King Mooks]] and riding chocobos around.

* [[Tech Points]]: Two Types: Crystal Points (CP), which are similar to ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'''s AP, and are given out at the end of combat. CP are how you move along the crystarium level up system. Technique Points (TP), which are a form of [[Mana]], are rewarded at the end of combat if you finish combat quickly, or during combat if you wait until your action bar is full -- essentially, wait to do a full [[Beam Spam]] type attack.

* [[Tech Tree]]: A variant. The game uses a system called the crystarium, which is most similar to the AP system seen in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''. However, each character has 1-3 out of 6 different crystarium boards open initially, and each one has a different progress bar and different unlockables -- they are basically this game's version of a character class. Skills and spells are only usable when you are in that tech tree, but passive bonuses to HP, Strength, et cetera are permanent. All the areas of the boards are locked out until [[Anti-Grinding|you progress far enough into the plot]].

* [[Terminally Dependent Society]]: "We'll be safe in Edenhall!"

* [[That Makes Me Feel Angry]]: Characters have a habit of lapsing into this, where they'll ''talk'' about their emotions and epiphanies rather than just, ya know....emote.

** Hope's weapons count as well; they're all named after some kind of winged mythological beast or deity. (Or is capable of flight in general)

* [[Theme Park Version]]: Parodied in-game. {{spoiler|With The War of Transgressions re-enactment during the Eidolon parade. Which happens at Nautilus, which is one big theme park.}}

** The title of the last Analect in the Datalog is Fabula Nova Crystallis. Fittingly, said entry makes mention of the goddess [[Final Fantasy Versus XIII|Etro.]]

* [[Token Non-Human]]: Averted for the first time since [[Final Fantasy VIII]]. Or subverted if you look at it in another way: the game could be the first in the series to have no human playable characters, as everyone in the party becomes a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|L'Cie]]. Which means in the first two chapters of the game {{spoiler|Vanille is the [[Token Non-Human]] in the group}}.

* [[Touched by Vorlons]]: L'Cie are created when humans come into contact with a fal'Cie. The l'Cie then gain abilities that transcend that of normal humans, such as the use of "natural" magic instead of "artificial" magic produced by a Manadrive and the ability to summon Eidolons. Basically, they become [[Player Character|Player Characters]], or in the case of {{spoiler|Cid}}, [[That One Boss|Bosses]].

** Or if you're a really lousy l'Cie, you become a Cie'th, read: [[Mooks|Random Battle Fodder]].

* [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]: Most, if not all, of the Eidolon battles will need to be retried at least once unless you're using a walkthrough or guide. Fortunately, the game included a convenient retry feature for every battle.

** The {{spoiler|first time you fight Barthandelus at the end of Chapter 9}} also comes down to this. There's no hints or mentions of what you should do {{spoiler|when he's preparing to pull off Destrudo, an instant-kill attack that can be subverted if he's lost enough HP while charging up}}, making this a [[Guide Dang It]] moment for the ill-informed after they've had their asses handed to them on a silver platter a few times or so.

** An interesting note is that the Doom Timers are relativly short, (around 3 minutes max) yet the target time for Eidolon fights ranges anywhere from 20 minutes to half an hour.

** {{spoiler|Orphan's final form}}.

* [[Trauma Conga Line]]: Everyone, to some extent. {{spoiler|Vanille might just have the worst of it, though, especially during the last few boss fights.}}

* [[The Unfought]]: {{spoiler|The players never get the opportunity to give Jihl Nabaat a thrashing. She was more than happy to oblige, but the [[Big Bad]] had other plans.}}

** {{spoiler|Orphan is susceptible to ''Poison''. The easiest way to beat him is to let Poison tick away at his health while the party keeps itself alive.}}

* [[Use Your Head]]: The chocobo chick's favorite method of attack. Powerful enough to knock down adults mooks (and [[Butt Monkey|Sazh]])! Beware: this bird is a freakin' monster !

* [[Video Game Geography]]: Square Enix attempted to make its world map of Cocoon conform to the shape of a true sphere, resulting in [http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cocoon_Map_Translation.png a kind of exploded map when laid flat.] It's interesting to note that almost every pocket of human civilization is on an island, thousands of miles away from the crater in the map's center; an indication that they are ''that'' scared of Gran Pulse.

* [[We Cannot Go on Without You]]: When the party leader dies, the game ends, regardless of the state of your other party members.

* [[Welcome to Corneria]]: Deconstructed in Gran Pulse; what would have been NPCs who stand in one spot and repeat a single line of dialogue over and over are literal [[Taken for Granite|stone statues]] that are doomed to repeat the same sentiments for all eternity. Played straight with the human NPCs, however.

** On a lighter note, an NPC in Nautilus references the original line as a [[Mythology Gag]].

** Also:

** Before that:

* [[What Happened to the Mouse?]]: {{spoiler|After Rygdea mercy-kills Raines on his request, he promptly vanishes from the game. Unfortunately, since the rest of the Cavalry became Cie'th before they could reach Orphan, things probably [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|didn't end too well for him]].}}

** {{spoiler|Lightning's real name, Claire, is never mentioned in the game after Serah (read: Dysley) says it. None of the party members call her, deciding to call her 'Light' instead. Not even her own sister Serah calls her that in the ending.}}

* [[White-Haired Pretty Boy]]: Hope and Rosch.

* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: You may wonder why Vanille and Fang are voiced in English with an Australian accent, while everyone else speaks in your bogstandard American dialect. {{spoiler|It's because they're from Pulse, the world that is literally 'down under' Cocoon.}}

* [[Yin-Yang Bomb]]: [[Enforced Trope|Enforced]] as a gameplay mechanic. There are two types of damage-dealing roles: Commando (fighter) and Ravager (black mage). The only way to deal damage effectively (in most cases) is to use Commandos and Ravagers together. Likewise, upgrading weapons and equipment has a similar "use two opposites together for maximum effectiveness" system.

* [[You Have Researched Breathing]]: Hope, Vanille, and Sazh begin the game with the attack command, then lose it pretty early on when they become l'Cie. Sazh gets it back automatically, the other two have to train to regain it when they unlock the Commando role late-game. Particularly jarring {{spoiler|in Vanille's case, since she was a l'Cie to begin with.}}

* [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle]]: {{spoiler|Most of the party is quick to rejoice after Dysley has been defeated, but Lightning isn't so convinced. Cue shocked expressions and ominous chanting when his owl flies in...}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game]]

[[Category:Final Fantasy]]