Oops

Hours played: 6.41
Played up to Chapter 4: Eden or Bust

So, remember last time when I thought I'd figured out the combat roles system thinger? Specifically I said something along the lines that Commando stops the stagger bar from decreasing while Ravager is effective at building it up. Now, my false assumption is luckily enough not contained in the way I phrased my understanding, but unluckily enough, I am now going to explain that false assumption.

You see, I was under the impression that Ravagers were good at building the stagger bar. This is correct. I also believed that after staggering an enemy, Commandos were good at stopping that bar from decreasing. This may or not be correct, I'm not sure. But what I damn well know is that Commandos are good at stopping the stagger bar from decreasing BEFORE an enemy is staggered. This I did not know, and so last night I was spamming the ravaging and wondering why the stagger bar drained like water down a drain.

Compounding this problem is the fact that I'm currently in a part of the game that puts me in a position where I don't even have a Commando. This exacerbated the problem. I didn't even have a Commando available to show me why I couldn't stagger enemies. Grr. But whatever, I've caught on now, but I do think the tutorial could have done a much better job explaining this whole thing to me. I dunno, maybe I'm just dense.

I've also learned that a Saboteur's spell (a debuff) will work similarly to stop the stagger bar from depleting almost immediately. Handy, unfortunately, as my Saboteur only has two spells, so she pretty much stands there (or well bobs there) after she has cast each spell on an enemy, meaning that stagger bar quickly begins to evaporate again. Funny stuff FFXIII. Funny stuff. But whatever, that's change soon.

Okay then, my quick notes:

• Snow stayed behind last play because he didn't want to leave crystal Sarah alone or something; he thought he could chip her out before the Fuzz arrived. No such luck. The bad guys show up and are all like it's time to die commie, and he's like it's morphin time. And you know what? I had to play the fight. This isn't fair. He is the guy who made the stupid decision to stay behind, even after I asked him not to, YET I still have to play him when he gets in a bind because of said stupid decision. You're beginning (HA!) to try my patience young man.
  
• K, well I beat those baddies for Snow, but then two motorcycle chicks show up. And by that I don't mean a pair of manish women role up on their hogs, I mean giant, blue, women that are also part motorcycle appear out of the sky. Um, what?
• About those motorcycle women? I know you're telling me its an Ediolon (looked that up), and that I have to prove myself to it, but you have not told me why they are motorcycle women. Or even why I have to prove myself to them to begin with--why do I get the feeling that everyone in this game knows what's going on except for the most important person to the game, ME!
• Also: after you prove yourself to the motorbitches, you have to press a button to win. I'm not sure why you don't just win automatically, I'm left to assume the game designers wanted to punish me for not reading the tutorial carefully enough. Got me guys! Good one. I loved playing that battle twelve times without any clue as to why, despite my prove-yourself-meter being topped up, I still couldn't "win".
• I say "win" because I'm not sure proving myself to a pair of giant blue motorcycle women that like to beat people up is a straight win.

Wow. These quick notes are getting, well, long. It's really because I realized I'm dumb and I was making jokes for people that had just seen what I had, or had a really good memory of the part of the game I'd just completed. This is stupid because I imagine some people reading this blog (lie: I imagine no one reading this blog) may not have that sort of memory, or even worse for these quick notes, may not have even played the game. Big drr on my part and sorries.

Positives: Sazh is still pretty cool, I like how he dances in combat. Other than that it was a bit of a slog. I even have more to bitch about but I'll save it for next time. Yay for you.