[Spoilers] So... 50 hours 51 minutes and 47 seconds on...

[Tryst]

...and all I get is this lousy The End message?!?

So anyway, I decided to step out of reality for a few days and play this marvel of a game. It took me a good few hours to get used to the new battle system, and even after completing the game I'm still discovering a lot more about it.

At first I didn't like the gameplay; I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy XII style, but this one took a while to grow on me - but it has, and now I really like it!

I didn't understand the final cutscene too well, and didn't get how if Vanille and Fang are now forever crystalised within the heart of Cocoon (or wherever it is they are); why do they rejoin the party after the game has finished? And wait a minute; their tattoos are still there? What is this madness?!

But anyway, I'd give the game a 10/10.

Who else has completed it?

 

[Whoareyou]

Yeah um, you can actually reload the save and go back to Gran Pulse...

You will have unlocked a tenth level to everyone's Crystariums.

I finished after 43 hours, and went straight back to check for a New Game + or something...

The way it works is when you reload, you actually start from before beating Orphan but with the extra things to level up to reach.

No plot holes except the random extra Crystarium level.

Also yes, they are stuck there forever etc. because they sacrificed themselves to save the world, or as Snow said create a new one.

from this point onwards everyone who lived on cocoon now begins a new life on Gran Pulse, which is implied but obviously never shown.

 

[Tryst]

Oh. From first glance it looked more like Cocoon had been recreated; everyone had woken up after a long crystalised sleep; and everyone was in a similar situation to before, just a few years later - as though it was some kind of never ending cycle.

 

[Whoareyou]

Naww, the big pillar of crystal is actually containing Fang and Vanille and the others awoke almost immdiately afterwards.

Those Psi Com troops and civilians stepping out onto Gran Pulse were the ones the Yaag Rosch had asked the troops to evacuate from Eden.