Topic: Final Fantasy XIII-2 Story (SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!)

First let me restate... there will likely be massive spoilers in this thread. If you haven't beaten the story yet I STRONGLY recommend you push that little back button before someone ruins it for you.

First off, I'll start by saying that the first 4 chapters I didn't care for Noel at all. He just seemed to almost be the "annoying 3rd wheel" to the party of 6. I was in a huff all 4 of those chapters because I missed Lightning, I missed Snow, hell.. I even missed Vanille! At that point the story felt weak and poorly thrown together.

But chapter 5 and 6 socked the hell out of me. Everything finally pieced together and made sense and REALLY had a dark aura to it. Caius was no longer this bad guy for the sake of being bad; he was just a man with a broken heart trying to fulfill a promises. What he was doing was hardly different than what Noel and Serah were trying to do for the most part. All these depressing events open up and you learn how 'broken' Noel's life really is... you just can't help but feel bad for him.

Just when the story picks up and you think everything will be ok, Serah dies, New Cacoon is (as far as I can tell) wiped out, Lightning turns to crystal, and Mog "dies" (cheap shot kupo). In the end it appears Noel is left exactly how he was in the beginning of his story; alone and hopeless.

There is some talk about the "real" ending being released via DLC, but how could it change much? I know they said "... to be continued" but with Lightning crystallized, Serah dead, and Etro is dead (killed within Caius). In order to twist this story back around, it's going to need one HELL of a plot twist. Short of some other entity freeing Lightning, Fang, and Vanille from their crystalline state, I don't see how SE will do it.