Chapter One

Defiers of FateEdit

Purge TrainEdit

Wow, those are some pretty FMVs, we've come a long way from the 8-bit days. Do you think that chick pulling someMatrix shit might end up in our party? Too bad you can’t make her hang upside down from the ceiling while killing enemies. Time for some character intros, and then straight into a boss box. If you’re using Monobook, these intro boxes will look a little bit off since the text is so much smaller than the New Look. Everything else should look decent in either view.

Character Intro- Lightning
	Hey, a main character who isn’t a whining little boy with daddy issues (looking at you Tidus and Vaan). Light is a no-nonsense, battle hardened soldier. Like Lulu from FFX, she has no time coddle your fragile emotions and reassure you about your insecurities- she’s on a mission and won’t allow herself to be distracted. To some people she can come across as a total bitch, but she (along with Lulu) is one of my favorite FF characters. Despite the fact that they are females, I identify more with them than some of the epicene, head-case, emotionally confused male protagonists in the series. Oh yeah, and she punches Snow in the face not once, not twice, but three times! You have no idea how many times I wished someone would pop Rikku, Rinoa, or Selphie right in the mouth, so that scene where Light drops Snow twice within a few seconds was one of my favorite in the entire series. As far as gameplay goes, it’s hard to go wrong with Lightning. She isn’t the best at anything, but she’s good at pretty much everything, making her incredibly flexible and useful in all situations. Her Full ATB Skill, Army of One, does eleven physical attacks and can run up the enemy's stagger gauge in a hurry. Put her along with a physical attacker and a dedicated mage and you can take on anything.
Best Roles-	Ravager (full ATB skill), Commando

Character Intro- Sazh Katzroy

Sazh, in contrast to Lightning, is an easy-going, laid back character. He is also a dedicated father, which is one of his main motivations for continuing on the quest. His skill as a pilot comes in handy several times throughout the game. In battle, he may seem superfluous at first glance, with magic and physical attacks that are each overshadowed by three other party members, but don’t count him out just yet. He has some decent Synergist and Saboteur abilities, but his main asset is his unparalleled Blitz attack. Unlike other characters who just do area damage at a reduced rate compared to their single target attack, Sazh switches his pistols from semi to auto and empties his magazines into the enemy. This unleashes a potentially devastating barrage of bullets if you manage to hit with every shot. He sprays in a wide arc, but a group of enemies (or one big mofo like an oretoise) will take every last one. Sazh's full ATB skill, Cold Blood, hits the enemy 17 times, and just like Lightning's it can put a stagger gauge through the roof. I don’t use him much during the main storyline if I don’t have to, but don’t forget about him in postgame sidequests. By the way, there have been some, shall we say, interesting weapons in the history of the series, but Sazh combining two pistols to form an assault rifle is just mind-boggling. How does that make any sense?

Best Roles-

Commando, Ravager (full ATB skill), Synergist

Boss Battle- Manasvin WarmechEdit

"Run! I meant away!"

—Sazh

Manasvin Warmech
		Status Susceptibility Deprotect Deshell Slow Poison 70% 70% 1% Immune Imperil Curse Pain Fog 70% 70% 70% 1% Daze Death Dispel Provoke Immune Immune - 70%
Statistics HP Stagger Chain Res. 360 / 990 300% 0 Strength Magic 15 15		Vulnerabilities Fire Ice Lightning Water - - Weak Weak Wind Earth Physical Magical - - - -
Strategy As the first battle of the game, this fight is nearly impossible to lose. If you've never played the game before, you may want to go through the tutorials when they're offered, but I'll be telling you everything you need to know. All you have to do here is just keep hitting the Confirm button to Auto Battle and he will go down quickly and painlessly. If you didn't read the intro page, you should notice now that your party is fully healed after battles. That's very nice in situations like this where you're immediately thrown into a second battle. The Warmech has triple the HP this time around, but he still isn't anything to worry about. Just keep attacking and you shouldn't even need to use any Potions.

The Hanging Edge, The Restricted ZoneEdit

Now that you have a basic feel for the battle screen, it's time to check out the field screen. Adjust your camera controls before moving on, you can always use the menu to change them again later if you want to. Follow the arrow on the mini-map to move forward with the game. The first ten chapters are very linear, so as long as you follow that arrow you can't get lost. Your destination is represented by an orange circle. Later on things will open up and you will be overwhelmed with options, so if you don't like the linearity just stick it out for a while and you will be rewarded. Remember, you can turn the mini-map on and off with the Select button, so if you're ever wondering where it went just hit Select to bring it back. Enemies are shown as red dots, and allies are white. Moving on, this can feel more like a movie than a video game at times, at least until you leave Cocoon. Hold the left stick forward for a few seconds and then watch a scene or get into a battle that can be won with a five star rating just by repeatedly hitting the confirm button to auto battle. One thing to note here is that if your ATB gauge is only halfway full you can use the triangle button to execute one attack since the gauge has filled up the first segment. You can do this to a weak enemy who will only survive one more hit to save time and prevent him from getting another attack in while you’re charging an unnecessary hit. This is also very useful to interrupt an enemy’s attack, especially when it is staggered.

"Random" EncountersEdit

I’ll list the enemies encountered in each area for those of you care about getting 100% of the info in the enemy intel section, and I’ll warn you if you need to go out of your way to do it. In this chapter you will get all the info easily just by killing the enemies, so don‘t worry about it. If I don’t give any tips for the fight, just do the standard strategy (for now just Auto Battle). Whenever we come across an enemy for the first time, I’ll put it’s image up so you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Battle- PSICOM Warden x 2
After this fight you will run into a dead end, but at the base of the wall is a little blue circle on the ground. Whenever you see this blue circle you can jump over the obstacle. Do so to move on.

Battle- PSICOM Warden x 2

Battle- PSICOM Enforcer x 2, PSICOM Warden
Following this battle you will find the first treasure sphere of the game right in the middle of the path, containing a Potion.

Battle- Pantheron x 2, PSICOM Warden
These Pantherons will be the first enemies you Stagger, notice how much the damage goes up. After the battle go up the little staircase off to the side for a treasure of 2 Potions.

Battle- PSICOM Enforcer, PSICOM Aerial Recon
After the battle you have to use the stairs to get around the barrier, don’t forget to pick up the Iron Bangle along the way. Put this on Lightning to give her a 50 HP boost. On the other side of the barrier is a treasure sphere with 50 Gil. Every little bit helps, I guess.

Battle- PSICOM Warden x 3

Battle- PSICOM Warden, Pantheron
This battle begins with a tutorial about using Items during battle. I think you can figure this out on your own, and if you do it you are forced to use up one of your potions. You already have quite a few, but why throw one away?

Fields of WarEdit

Battle- Pantheron x 3, PSICOM Warden
You may actually need to use a Potion in this battle. Afterwards go up the stairs and jump across the blue circles to find a red circle. Examining these red circles always causes something to happen, in this case it’s a switch that activates the machine to take you to the next area.

“Hell’s not sounding too bad, this place ain’t exactly paradise”- SazhEdit

Boss Battle- PSICOM MarauderEdit

"Great, the entire Army came out to play!"

—Sazh

PSICOM Marauder
		Status Susceptibility Deprotect Deshell Slow Poison 40% 40% 1% 40% Imperil Curse Pain Fog 40% 40% 40% 1% Daze Death Dispel Provoke 40% Immune - 40%
Statistics HP Stagger Chain Res. 600 104% 0 Strength Magic 20 19		Vulnerabilities Fire Ice Lightning Water - - - - Wind Earth Physical Magical - - Half -
Strategy This battle starts with a tutorial on chaining enemies, which you can skip because I told you everything you need to know. Focus on the Enforcers first, a couple of Blitz attacks should take them out very quickly. After they're down, just pound on the Marauder to get him staggered. If he focuses all of his attacks on one character you will need to use a Potion, but if he switches to the other party member for a while you might not. Nothing too difficult.