FINAL FANTASY XIII [2009]
So I decided to just go back and play the game I actually own. This is sort of an interesting way of doing a 'reviewing monsters' in that, at this point in time, I haven't actually seen the entire bestiary on a Wiki page. I'm actually playing through the game, and I'm reviewing the monsters as I meet them. This review covers the monsters and enemies in the game from Chapters 1 through 4. (At the time of writing, I'm around halfway through chapter 5)
Final Fantasy XIII was released in 2009, and it's easily one of the most divisive entries in the franchise, as far as I can tell. Half of the fandom absolutely loathes it for its battle system and being an extremely linear and cutscene-heavy game (absolutely fair complaints) as well as, allegedly, a setting that moves too far away from most Final Fantasy games (I'm... not sure if this is true or not). Meanwhile, its fandom is apparently large enough and the sales of the game are good enough that XIII joins VII and XI in having a whole ton of spin-offs and sequels. The opinions of the sequels, at least, as far as I can tell, have been far more negative.
A lot of the criticisms are certainly true, although this being my first real Final Fantasy game that I have sat on the steering wheel, I'm pretty sure I'm a lot more ignorant of a lot of the gaming tropes that they did or did not do. I will definitely say that the first two or three hours of playing this game really felt like watching a movie instead of playing a game. The 'battles' for the first couple of hours are extremely simple (you don't get the real battle system until much later), the cutscenes are pretty long, and while it's necessary to set up the characters they definitely could've done it a lot better, or via more interactive methods. My PC version doesn't come with an English dub, but apparently that was one of the things that a lot of people dislike. Granted, the cutscenes are ABSOLUTELY pretty, even a decade after the fact... but the linearity and the more divisive main characters (out of the six main ones, I only really hate Hope, while the others I either like or are ambivalent towards) and the rather bland first act -- said first act can take hours to sit through, by the way -- certainly lends a lot of credence to the complaints, and we don't get a whole lot of explanation about the setting or the people until much later or simply via the datalogs.
That said, I am having fun with this, and visually it is a pretty game to watch if nothing else. There are definitely a fair bit of criticism to be launched here, but I am pretty determined to see this game and its story through. You guys can see how quickly I progress because I'll be periodically jumping in and doing monster reviews of the creatures I've encountered in the game!
I'll briefly talk about the setting. Not the story, because good lord that'll take a fair bit of time. But basically, the setting of FFXIII takes place in the floating continent-sized sphere of Cocoon, a seeming utopia that's separated from the lush, primal surface world of the planet, Pulse. Cocoon itself is governed by the fal'Cie, massive, otherworldly god-like beings resembling giant towers with enigmatic motivations, who promises prosperity for Cocoon's inhabitants... as long as they have nothing to do with Pulse, since anyone who does will get 'Purged', which is exactly what you think it is. For the majority of the part of the game I'm currently in, the various protagonists are attempting to escape Cocoon after, well, finding themselves in the crosshairs of such a purge (and later, becoming superhuman magic-wielders called l'Cie).
Manasvin Warmech
The monsters and enemies, now! I do really like that FFXIII basically has a little 'enemy Pokedex' of sorts, recording every single enemy (and even giving all the enemy absolutely arbitrary and nonsensical 'levels') in neat little categories. What I don't like is that we don't actually get to see any sort of lore, not even a single blurb of telling us what these enemies are. So for the most part, what we can get from these guys are going to be 50% context clues, 50% my own speculation.
The Manasvin Warmech here is literally the very first enemy you fight in this game (as it's about to break a train apart, too), and despite being pretty impressive and gigantic, being a tutorial enemy and everything it ends up being a completely trivial but visually impressive set-piece. I do like it, for what it is. A giant scorpion-esque death-robot, with giant arms that end in a row of spinning buzzsaws, a giant ridged, spiny tail, and I also do love that head. For what it is in the game -- a giant setpiece as the first easy boss fight -- it's pretty cool.
The game bestiary classifies this as an 'Annihilator', within the category 'Militarized Units'. So the backstory here is that the people of Cocoon, namely the military unit called PSICOM, make use of robots and bio-engineered minions as killing machines. The Manasvin Warmech is actually kind of a recurring boss fight, after the initial fight in the train it gets wrecked, but you get to blow it up a couple of times... and then somehow in its half-destroyed state it shows up early on in Chapter 3 as a far, far more dangerous enemy and an actual mini-boss. No idea how this works in-universe, but okay.
As you can probably tell by the opening cutscene, Final Fantasy XIII, at least in its first couple of chapters, is pretty heavy with Star Wars-style technology, like you're in Cybertron or Coruscant or something! I know Final Fantasy (or at least some of the games I've seen, like VII) is a blend of classic sword-and-magic fantasy and some aspects of quasi-sci-fi fantasy, but I guess XIII takes it even further? I guess I'll find out as I continue on through the game and the franchise. Anyway, Manasvin Warmech... a pretty cool boss fight.
PSICOM Warden, PSICOM Enforcer, PSICOM Aerial Recon
So these Stormtrooper-looking fellows are the goons of PSICOM, the evil military unit that is supposed to be Purging anyone who's got any contact with Pulse. Being early enemies in the game they're pretty basic, but I do really like that armour! I absolutely love the jetpack on the Aerial Recon enemy, especially just how chunky it is and how much it covers up the dude's entire torso and head. I know real-life jetpacks are actually kinda small, but I feel like this gives the Aerial Recon a neat sense of chunkiness that makes it so much more memorable than if he had a boring Boba Fett ripoff jetpack. Honestly, I can also totally see this sort of jetpack doubling as armour from a practical standpoint, too.
As usual, I don't have too much to say about humanoid enemies. The PSICOM Warden is part of the 'PSICOM Hunters' sub-group (as a rough guide, the Hunters are fragile but deal large damage), the PSICOM Enforcer is part of the 'PSICOM Shock Troops' sub-group (the most generic enemy goon), and PSICOM Aerial Recon is part of the 'PSICOM Airborne' sub-group. All of these guys get shunted into the 'Soldiers' category.
PSICOM Marauder & PSICOM Executioner
Both members of the "PSICOM Elite" sub-group, the PSICOM Marauder is another early boss -- early in that it's still part of the tutorial explaining to you the battle system, so he goes down like a punk. The PSICOM Executioner is basically literally the same design with a bunch of fancy colours, showing up in Lake Bresha as regular enemies. I don't really have much to say about these human enemies, but I do really like their weird collars and their helmets. Again, it makes sense in-universe that there are a lot of human enemies, so I'm not going to complain too much here.
Pantheron & Thexteron
So very quickly in the game, the PSICOM troops will actually summon these Pantherons through Pokeballs little portals. Like the Manasvin Warmech, the Pantherons are classified as 'Militarized Units' under the category 'Razorclaws' (Gepards in the original Japanese, Russian for cheetah), despite very clearly not looking completely robotic like the Warmech. The game doesn't actually tell us too much (yet), but there's enough in the datalogs and whatnot to tell us that PSICOM apparently does some bio-engineering in order to create this biological weapons.
The Pantheron looks relatively cool, being a panther made out of metallic parts, and I do like that the silhouette and edges of this creature is pretty sleek and smooth. There are a lot of cool details here, like the jagged glowing claws, that random dagger that juts down from the chin, and the network of neon lines that replace any eye, but I think my favourite part of this creature has to be the mouth, which looks just so chunky and weird.
Later on in the story, in Chapter 4, you get to explore the Vile Peaks, basically a huge junkyard area, and you meet the Pantheron's bigger brothers (despite the in-game bestiary nonsensically giving them a lower 'level' rating), the Thexterons. These are green, and they have a cool little spine ridge... and... uh... whatever those are jutting out from the tips of both its upper and lower jaws. Bottle openers? Wire clamps? Kinda cool, but I prefer the sleekness of the Pantherons.
Beta Behemoth & Alpha Behemoth
Another pair of Militarized Units are the 'Behemoths', taking their name from a staple enemy that has shown up in practically every single Final Fantasy game ever -- albeit as a regular giant four-legged horned beast and not as this monstrous Zoids creature. As with the PSICOM Executioner up above, the Beta Behemoth acts as a single boss in the tutorial stage, while the Alpha Behemoths show up a bunch in the Lake Breshan level. Unlike the Manasvin Warmech, this one actually makes sense; the 'beta' is weaker than the 'alpha'. Of course!
The design is pretty cool, too -- they take the general body shape of the classic FF Behemoth and adapted it into a monstrous robot with animal parts. I really do like that face, with the two pairs of eyes and the profile shape of the head that looks like a hatchet, and the two chunks of armour pointing down from the sides of its head. I also really like the little ribbon-like 'wings' or whatever that trail from the Behemoth's shoulders and border the cannon strapped onto its spine. I don't think those ribbons really do anything other than looking cool, but that's what half of PSICOM's war-beasts seemed to be designed for, anyway. Just to be deadly and look cool while doing so.
Myrmidon & Crusader
Speaking of being cool but looking kind of impractical... look at those teeny-tiny flimsy legs that hold up the Myrmidon and Crusader's centaur body! The rest of them look pretty cool. Faceless robot head, spikes from the back, giant shield arm, giant chunky centaur-robot legs, a weaponized right arm (the Crusader has anime finger-spikes, and the Myrmidon has... a weaponized tambourine?)... but look at those teeny-tine water-skater legs. These two are members of the "Tilters" sub-group, and I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean. I'm pretty sure the Crusaders like, have little rocket engines that allow them to hover around when they are patrolling, so... yeah, I dunno. Sorry, I got super fixated on the super-thin lower legs.
Otherwise, a pretty neat-looking centaur death-machine that feels pretty neatly in the style of PSICOM's other robot boys. In the Japanese version, they are called Krieger and Kämpfer, German for 'warrior' and 'fighter' respectively.
Zwerg Scandroid
I love these things, they're cute! They don't even look like they're actually made out of metal, with how wobbly the central body is in animation. Another militarized unit fitting in its own category of 'Zwerg Droids' (Dwarf Droids), these guys just toddle all over the place, and they've got this bizarre hovering little square ring around them. Despite their name being 'scan droid', they actually have abysmally terrible vision and is introduced as part of a tutorial on how to ambush enemies. We don't learn anything about what exactly they are scanning, but I do like that they exist -- it makes PSICOM feel slightly more expanded upon, not everything in a military death-squad has to be badass looking weapons for war.
Ghoul
So here we go where I have to talk a bit about the backstory. These god-like buildings called fal'Cie have the capability to 'brand' humans into their heralds called l'Cie, which are like, sort of a forced servitude where they are given a mission called a 'Focus'. Succeed and you spend eternal life... as a crystal. But fail, and you turn into these shambling monstrosities called Cie'th. Obviously, the entire party ends up being branded/cursed into these l'Cie, although I won't get into the specifics on how. Part of the second chapter has them run around the gigantic body of a fal'Cie, and there's a lot of these Cie'th running around.
The most basic Cie'th is the Ghoul. Ghouls in Final Fantasy have traditionally been zombie-esque undead, just like most other fantasy settings, but here the idea of a ghoul as this techno-organic mutation is pretty neat! The animation for them shambling about as they wave their massive, long clawed hands around their heads is pretty well-realized, and some people think that they are trying to strangle themselves. Very wretched-looking, but what I feel makes them feel extra-special is their faces, which looks like two hands are trying to suffocate and envelop the face. In combat, these ghouls are even pathetic. They're super-fragile, but if you try and observe them for a wihle you'll notice that their attacks keep failing or missing or even damage themselves. A very well-done wretched enemy.
Ghast
The second member of the 'Shambling Cie'th' sub-group is the Ghast, and so I guess there's just a bunch of Cie'th that at least transform into something cooler than Ghouls? All the Cie'th have names that are traditionally associated with fantasy undead (ghasts are from Lovecraft's works, and is popularized as an 'elite ghoul' by D&D), which I feel is appropriate in this setting. The Ghast isn't actually all that much tougher than the Ghoul, but it certainly looks impressive, while still looking pretty wretched with that screaming face and just how those arms seem to have mutated into what's the crystal-growth equivalent of a Resident Evil boss mutating out of control.
Wight
The last of the Cie'th you fight in the Pulse Vestige are these guys, a member of the 'Winged Cie'th', called a Wight -- again, named after a traditional fantasy undead. Its head is still covered with fingers attempting to envelop it, but compared to the Ghoul and the Ghast, I feel like the Wight actually just looks a lot cooler thanks to just how much less mutated those wings look. Honestly, if not for the head and the location where we encounter them, I'd think that the Wight is just one of those PSICOM cyborg minions.
I don't have much to say here, but I must say that I do find the Cie'th to be pretty wretched and cool.
fal'Cie: Anima
So yeah, fal'Cie are big. The first fal'Cie that our party meet is a rogue Pulse fal'Cie that is rampaging in the background, this giant elaborate fancy tower that ends up becoming the setting of the second chapter. You actually do fight the fal'Cie... or at least, its 'core', as the final boss of chapter two. A giant, sentient god-like creature that looks and functions like a building-sized robot is an interesting one, even if the actual boss is... not that impressive after all that buildup? Sure, it's a cool mass of crystals, gears and machinery, and it's got two spinning cylindrical arms. In-game, the three parts of the boss is split into three 'monsters', "Anima", "Right Manipulator" and "Left Manipulator", and you basically have to kill the arms to get to the core. Honestly, it's a bit of a disappointing as a fight. I'm not sure if 'Anima' is the name of the fal'Cie itself, or if it's just the name of the organ.
Visually... it sure is a pretty elaborate boss with lots of wires and glowing parts and whatnot, but Anima is less interesting as an enemy and more of a setting and the plot device that brands the party as l'Cie, crystallizes an important secondary character and then causes a massive explosion that turns an entire lake into crystal. So far, a good chunk of this game's theme is basically fighting against destiny, and having the fal'Cie as these unspeaking, enigmatic deity stand-ins does wonders in giving destiny a face (as a figure of speech).
Breshan Bass & Bloodfin Bass
Chapter 3 takes place in Lake Bresha -- or what remains of it. When the Pulse fal'Cie blew up, it also turns a pretty massive lake into crystal. So in addition to the Cie'th shambling around, as well as PSICOM troops trying to kill you, you get to deal with some wildlife! So here's the fantasy part, then. The game mostly tells you this through datalogs, but apparently the society of Cocoon really hates these wild creatures and have either exterminated most of them or turned them into bioweapons like the Pantherons. As you progress through the game, though, you obviously end up going through these 'feral' areas.
These guys are pretty neat! They hop around like some sort of weirdo frogs, but have webbed fit, and the fins and face of a fish. I'm not sure why, but their 'heads' also kind of look like some sort of helmet grafted on to them, too. Pretty weird! They're part of the 'Terraquatic' category, so I guess they're amphibians. A pretty simple 'fuse two animals together' enemy, I definitely enjoy having the animals in this world be immediately weird instead of having the party fight generic bears and wolves.
PSICOM Tracker, PSICOM Ranger & Targeting Beacon
So the Stormtrooper-helmeted Enforcers and Wardens get swapped out by these guys in Chapter 3, the melee-oriented PSICOM Tracker and the glass cannon sniper PSICOM Ranger. As always, I don't have much to say about humanoid enemies although I definitely appreciate them putting in different-looking human enemies. These guys sort of look like... ninjas? Stealth assassins? They have a cool helmet for sure.
Uniquely in Chapter 4, the Trackers have the capability to toss out those little spherical robots called Targeting Beacons that will cause a different enemy to unleash a missile strike on wherever it is.
Watchdrone
Another robot working for PSICOM is the Watchdrone, which hover around in an 'inactivated' state (on the right of that concept art) before extending its drill-like legs and glowing tentacle arms in combat. A pretty neat-looking killer robot, and those weird drill legs are actually utilized in its powerful 'Electrokick' attack, so there's a reason that they extend! I like this guy's design a fair bit even if it's just a humanoid-looking robot. The crescent-shaped head and the whip-arms are probably my favourite features.
Also, I personally found it really hard to tell which way they are facing since their heads are so inhuman-looking, so good job on that if it's an intended design feature.
Ciconia Velocycle
Ummm okay? So I think I fight this guy like twice in the entire Lake Bresha encounter. Throughout the game we've seen so many characters fly around with hover-bikes, but then you fight this thing, part of the 'Cognispeeder' sub-group. So if it's a Cognispeeder, then it has its own cognition? It's a robot bike? I suppose if this is a world where they can program robots that look like the Watchdrones and Zwerg Scandroids, there's no reason for them to not make them look like a vehicle. It's still kinda weird, though, just to fight an enemy that's literally a floating motorcycle with missile pods. I mean, I've seen like, Star Wars fighter jets and whatnot in the background of these cutscenes, so I guess at some point my characters will be blowing them up? Okay.
'Velocycle' makes sense for this robot bike's name, but the first part of its name, 'Ciconia'... is a genus of storks? I don't even.
Garuda Interceptor
Another member of the 'Annihilator' group, which marks this creature as another modified creature created by the PSICOM, is the Garuda Interceptor. Based on the giant bird-like being from Buddhism and Hinduism, the Garuda, like the Behemoth, is another recurring enemy (and sometimes summon) in the Final Fantasy series. It's one of the final bosses of chapter three, and it's... it sure is a huge bird thing! Again, making it a 'bioweapon' does make it a lot easier to handwave just how this thing works anatomically. Just something something technology engine antimatter, that's how those bizarre wings are able to keep this thing afloat!
It's a bit hard to tell, but the Garuda Interceptor actually has two heads. There's the normal bird-like one that screams at you from the tip of the neck, but the back of the Garuda's body is actually etched into an angry face -- more easily seen in that concept art which depicts it from the side. I kept waiting for that second face to do anything, but it isn't involved in any of its animations even though the boss actually has two phases in its fight. Still, a pretty cool enemy! It's far from being my favourite thing on this page, but the shape of those wings and the weird snake-like stinger are both pretty cool.
Shiva Sisters: Stiria & Nix
So Final Fantasy XIII's take on 'Summons' are these guys called Eidolons, something vaguely similar to Personas or Stands from other franchises. I actually didn't know they were a thing in FFXIII until this very playthrough, and it seems that as the story goes on, you're going to have each character fight them and 'prove' yourself to them to use their power later on in the game. (It took a couple of hours between the first Eidolon-recruitment fight and the first Eidolon-battle fight, though, so there's definitely something to be said about the in-game pacing there). I do like this, I do like the fact that our characters have to fight and prove themselves to these Eidolons in times of great emotional stress in order to channel their power.
Hindu goddess Shiva has lent her name to many summons in the franchise, apparently showing up in every game since the third game, and almost always portrayed as a pretty half-naked lady with ice powers. FFXIII is one of the exceptions, because Shiva now shows up as two ladies, and they are two robot ladies called Stiria and Nix (Latin for 'icicle' and 'snow' respectively). Design-wise they're pretty all right as far as these things go. Nix is the cooler one of the two, with a snowflake headdress and constantly having a little wheel hover around her; but Stiria's face looks cooler with those eye tattoos.
Pretty obviously by looking at Stiria's design with what we in the Transformer fandom call as 'kibble', these ladies transform into a motorcycle. They are Transformer robot ladies! That's a pretty cool idea to make the Eidolons feel unique instead of just another Stand/Persona expy... except that in this specific case, though, the transformation is a bit... weird? Stiria and Nix sort of... uh... scissor each other and Snow rides around on their combined laps? Yeah, I'm not sure if that's intentional or not but it did distract me a lot from "oh shit, Snow gets a Transformer as a spirit partner".
Pulsework Soldier
Chapter Four takes place in the Vile Peaks, the aforementioned junkyard level. And while PSICOM's goons are still hounding our heroes, they also have to contend with these naturally-occurring robots that sort of clank their way around the Vile Peaks. These Pulsework Soldiers do really look pretty ramshackle, with their far more rusted-looking colours, the fact that they only have a single bendy shovel-arm, and the fact that their lower legs sort of just taper off into feet... it's like whoever designed them like, ran out of material or something. I like that contrast, especially since these Pulsework Soldiers show up in the same area with some Cocoon's goons -- and will fight them! Coccoon and Pulse, they hate each other.
These guys are part of the 'Pulse Automata' category, and are a bitch to take down. They take a whole lot of punishment, and you basically need to stop relying on 'damage all the time' at this point and play around with some of the other class roles. The Pulsework Soldiers, when 'staggered', will transform and have their torso pop up like a jack-in-the-box (on the right), exposing their glowing core and making them take so much more damage. Pretty cool!
Incubus & Succubus
Another pair of creatures categorized as 'Feral Creatures' under the category 'Daemons'... but they kinda look somewhat cyborg-like? Particularly those jointed taloned feet? What an interesting design to put the name 'incubus' and 'succubus' on, by the way, these bipedal bird-men whose arms are like these huge chunks of cloth, with bird-face masks and they dance around. It's really a shame that FFXIII has absolutely no information about any of these enemies. Why do they live in junkyards? What are they? What's the meaning of the 'daemon' category? Are they sentient? Are those masks or their faces?
The Succubus is the more elaborate looking one with shoulder-ornaments, and while not physically tougher than the Incubus, is able to buff her allies and debuff your party.
Corps Regular & Corps Gunner
Another chapter, another set of goon soldiers. I don't actually remember these guys showing up a lot, but that might be because all the robot enemies are more memorable. I didn't quite realize it at the time, but the Corps Regular and Corps Gunner are just recolourations of the cooler ninja-themed PSICOM Tracker and Ranger. It's fascinating what a different set of colours can do to bring out the details on the design, huh? These guys get shunted into their own personal categories, "Corps Footman" and "Corps Gunman", because they're actually members of the Guardian Corps, a completely different branch of military that one of our main characters is part of. It's not like you can negotiate with them or anything, though, so it's kind of a bland shrug from me.
Dreadnought
Sort of the boss in chapter four, but you fight him at the middle of the chapter instead of the end. Okay? It's a pretty cool robot, though, and I do like that its head and body is just this huge train or battleship like structure that juts forward, and then someone slapped on those arms and the lower body on it. I think that might be one of my favourite features of this robot, really, the fact that its upper body has so much detail and random chains and spinning gears on it... but its lower body is just a bunch of blocks that ends with two chunky boots. That's cute.
The 'scary steampunk monster' part of Dreadnought really does fit in the junkyard theme, too. Those 'eyes' that aren't arranged well, the two chainsaws that jut downwards, the spinning set of dangling chains on his 'chin', the rotating gear bangles, the pincer claws... and it attacks not just by smashing you with its big gorilla arms, but also by shooting wrecking balls around. Low-key one of my favourite death-robots in this game full of death-robots.
Uhlan
Speaking of death-robots, have the Uhlan! Categorized as a 'Golem' among the militarized units, the Uhlan (borrowing its name from Polish light cavalry soldiers of the same name) shows up alongside other PSICOM murder-monsters in the Vile Peaks and I legitimately thought that this was going to be a boss fight too. I do like that the Uhlan here sort of looks like an animal, but not a real specific one. It's got this weird giant tail that extends from its 'head', four legs that hovers around the ground, and two giant shoulders that open to reveal giant Gundam cannons within. Also, if the Uhlan show up with PSICOM Trackers, the Trackers will, as mentioned above, lob little beacon-drones that will trigger the Uhlan to bombard the position of the drone. That's a neat mechanic.
I actually don't really have much to say about the Uhlan. They look kinda neat, but not particularly remarkable. I do really like that they have the same weird 'upper leg is an engine, lower leg is a little stick' deal that the Myrmidon has, although the Uhlan for sure only ever hovers around.
Odin
Our second Eidolon belongs to the main character, Lightning. And it's based on the Norse god Odin! With lightning powers, something that's more traditionally associated with Odin's son Thor, but we can handwave that. Like Shiva, Odin's another one of those recurring 'summons' in the franchise. This Odin is pretty cool as a robot man, having neat-looking horns, a giant weird curved blade thing and a huge shield that I think turns into his horse-head. Oh yeah, Odin turns into a horse. Disappointingly not an eight-legged horse. Learn your Norse mythology, Square Enix!
A lot of what I said about the Eidolons when talking about the Shiva Sisters apply here too with Odin -- it's a very cool concept that you have to fight these Eidolons to 'tame' them, and in Lightning's case it's actually an interesting bit where you kind of have to protect one of your other party members to succeed in the fight... something that, I think, Odin himself is trying to 'test' Lightning on since in the cutscene he shows up and goes straight to kill another party member called Hope who the brusque Lightning is very much willing to leave behind at that point. Hope's a whiny shit, but I do like what Odin himself symbolizes for Lightning as a character.
Also, his gestalt mode has him turn into a horse and his weapon splits into two for Lightning to dual-wield, which is significantly less hee-hee inducing than Snow's weird Kama Sutra gymnastic position up there.
Bomb
Another recurring enemy in the franchise that normally shows up as balls of fire with a manic grin and two tiny hands, Bombs here are reimagined as Pulse Automata, in their own category of 'Bombs'. I do like them a lot as robotic reimaginations -- I certainyl like the glowing-ball-of-manic-fire a lot better visually, but the idea of these guys as giant dodecahedrons with one eye and a weird zig-zag mouth that slowly glow brighter and brighter and sprout like little hands and spikes before blowing up? That's pretty neat, too, as a reimagination.
In combat, I think they're a pretty neat case of these 'self-destructing' video-game enemies. Bombs start off with half health, and they will keep healing themselves and any nearby Bomb, growing more and more brighter in the process (as shown in the concept art). It's a literal race to kill the Bomb before it gets to full health, which is when it explodes. Pretty cool!
Gremlin
Another 'Feral Creature', and this one is classified under the delightful category of 'Spooks'. Gremlins tend to look like gangly imps in the Final Fantasy franchise, but here they are these... weird-looking things! I'm still not sure what they are. they're like these hooded things with a fat pudgy body and two tiny feet, and two bat-like wings? They feel like they're related somewhat to the Incubus and Succubus. Despite showing up in a junkyard where many of the Pulse and PSICOM creatures are fighting each other, though, the Gremlins don't actually break down machinery as I would expect them to be. They're pretty cute, and when not in battle, they will even dance around in a circle or try to jump on top of each other. They're neat. I like them.
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And that's it for chapters 1 through 4! Lots of robots in this one. I'm currently going through Chapter 5, which actually finally brings our characters into a location with more natural animals... and that's going to be a bit more interesting to talk about especially with the knowledge of the monsters in the first couple of chapters. We'll see how fast I can get through that section of the game!
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