I have finally beaten this!

[Chaos]

I have beaten the game last night and I'm not really sure what to make of it. The story seemed like a mess and I've literally know idea what happened in the end.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Rem and Machina killed each other, turned to crystal and in the end got to live. Everyone else was injured, but alive. They had enough strength to make jokes, but in the end they all died. What was Mother's role in all this?

That final dungeon also seemed a bit out of place. A bit like FFIX's Necron except it's a whole dungeon and not just a single boss.

The gameplay was fine for the most part. I found the side-missions pretty boring and I also dislike being time-restricted. The soundtrack is amazing (listening to it as I write this). Some of the cutscenes were also amazing. Everything taken into account, it's a fine game, but you don't really miss out if you don't play it.

[Da_Cloud]

There are some additional cutscenes hidden somewhere in the crystarium that you can access from the homepage. Those contain a bit more inside on the game. It also contains a huge amount of lore (as text) which also points some inside on stuff.
Also its really really worth it to play the game a second time (New Game+ mode) as most of the main story missions have a alternative mission which is only accessible during the second+ time you play it.

Really huge spoilers below

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Remember that this game is based on the same "Fabula Nova Crystallis Myth" myth as FFXIII. Bassically in this game we also have the same 3 gods, but then in a more human like apperance.

In this universe Arecia (Mother) is the servent of Pulse. In order to open Etro's Gate she creates the 4 crystals which basically act as the Fal'cie of FFXIII, in other words brands people as I'Cie to do her bidding.

We also have Gala who basically acts as Lindzei. He's more of an unseen guy only appearing right at the end of the game when he takes control of Cid.

 In the opening of the game you also see Diva. According to the myth of Fabula Nova Crystallis she would be te creator of the world, but in this game she mainly acts as the narrrator.

Now story wise the world of Orience is stuck in a spiral to open Etro's gate. Every time when Tempus Finis arrives and the gate to Etro hasn't opened the world will reset itself and start all over again. You can do this yourself in the game when you choice to become a I'Cie after which you get dropped in a battle you literly can't win.
Only a selected few know of this endless cycle which basically comes down to the 3 gods and there direct servents. When we play the game the cycle has already been repeated over 6 hunderd million times.

Arecia's way to open Etro's gate is to collect pure souls who can surive tempus finis. There are 16 of these souls though over time she droped 4 from the experiment. From these 4 Tiz and Joker somewhat became her servents, the other 2 are actually Machina and Rem).

Diva on the other hand simply tries to create a flood of souls to brute force Etro's gate open. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing he's the one who made Cid start the war to begin with.


That's the setup. However when we get to Temple Finis we can only finish the game by recjecting to become a I'Cie. Instead we choice to give up our own lives to defeat Gala. This means we've diverted from the normal spiral. Wanting to know why this happens Arecia actually goes towards the crystals of Machina en Rem (you can watch this in that extra cutscene). Having heard the story she then decides to not reset the spiral, but instead she awaken Machina and Rem and remove the crystals from the world.


Now why the rest of Class Zero manages to talk that long and still die at the end is also a mystery for me.

Believe this was the extra ending video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hYmgIjkW3w

[Chaos]

Thanks for the explanation. That answers some of my questions. They really should have put that lore into the cutscenes (or at the very least the written dialogue) instead of hiding it in the Crystarium. I can rarely be bothered to read such stuff. Reading about all the lore available in the Crystarium would probably take as much time as I needed to beat the game.

[Da_Cloud]

Not all of that is is written text though. Just as the extra ending movie there are a few additional cutscenes hidden in the Crystarium, though these aren't really that massively important.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

One of them shows how Machima exactly became a I'Cie, but withouth that cutscene you can guess most of it yourself.

The extra ending one I posted above is probably the most important one and that is the one I particularly would have loved to be part of the normal ending. On your second play through you also get a bit more inside on the game as you get some different alternative missions that gives some additional inside.

But for the deep lore itself you would definitely have to reed the big book called the Crystarium. I love the lore of this game, so I've already gone through a lot of it


BTW there is also an alternative ending hidden in the Crystarium somewhere. Its an alternative version of Orience in which class Zero never existed, I believe its the setting they used for the Japanese only game Agito+.