Due to how my computer, monitors, and PlayStation 3 are set up, I can actually type this while looking at the television screen showing the PS3 interface. I’ve decided to try liveblogging the first few hours of FFXIII-2 to see if I like playing the game in this manner, and to gauge my personal interest in dividing my attention in this particular fashion in an attempt to try something new and blog more.
How it’ll work: most liveblogs use some kind of software that I have no idea where to get in order to liveblog quickly and efficiently. While I won’t be using that software, I can use their format of updating in tweet-like fashion, with the entries going chronologically upwards from the beginning (the bottom-most entry) to the most recent entry (directly below this paragraph) using military time to denote hours in the GMT+8 timezone.
I’ll begin in approximately 30 minutes from this post, at 19:30, after I grab dinner.
See you folks in a bit. 
————– LIVEBLOG BELOW ————–
22:15 Standing in front of the First Time Gate. Will continue some other time.
22:13 It seems there’s also a map percentage aspect to the game. Can’t seem to trigger 100% on the first map though. Strange.
21:57 There appear to be sidequests for Artefacts and other items. Hmm… not sure what to think about fetch quests.
21:38 Got an artefact… Why not spell it Artifact? Is there a big difference?
21:27 So Snow actually left Serah to find Lightning for his fiance. That’s nice.
21:18 So the moogle is some kind of a treasure hunting device and a weapon. How multifunctional!
21:04 Oh man. I can save anywhere and it saves to the same file I made at the start of the game. That’s cool. 😀
20:57 Crystarium has been altered somewhat. Not sure how to explain it, but basically, each crystal allows you to choose your path of development.
20:48 Staring at a meteorite. Amazed it crashed without making a bigger crater.
20:43 LOL. First non-tutorial boss is called Gogmagog. 😀
20:35 The game uses random encounters that require you to encounter the enemy in a time limit. That’s a nice implementation of two existing battle type tropes.
20:26 Hmm… early enemies dropping Accessories. 😀
20:19 So… they give a brief overview of the ending of FFXIII through dialogue in the first hour. Not bad.
20:17 And the kupos of the moogle are weird. Some kind of dialogue weirdness.
20:07 LOL. Jumping mechanics included in the game now. 😀
20:05 Live Trigger… Branching Dialog options, it seems.
20:01 Magical Changing Clothes. Go Squeenix go!
19:59 Noel Kreiss…. jumps into a time gate.
19:54 First Tutorial battle of the game completed, Multi-stage, very forgiving, extremely epic.
19:50 I guess they use gameplay footage to allow for cinematic actions. I got to choose how to engage my enemy in the cinema.
19:44 Apparently, the enemy is a fricking Bahamut of Chaos.
19:42 Cutscenes become actual gameplay footage now. Tutorial stage played as Lightning Riding Odin.
19:40 Caius and Lightning fight. Beasties galore in battle. 😀
19:38 Opening Cinematic of the game. Lightning looks over the sea.
19:36 Game gives a bonus reward if you have FFXIII save data, and asks you to create a data file upon starting game. Autosave and manual save is available.
19:34 Game loaded, Opening Sequence playing. Pretty Cool. 😀
19:30 Turning on PS3. 😀
I read this backward, so was really surprised/freaked out when your liveblog ended with “Turning PS3 on”.
What time madness is this???!
I enjoyed the first game; having originally come from a non-gaming household, XIII was really my “first” FF game, in that it was all mine. That said, it had its flaws — but I’ve heard good things about this most recent iteration.
LOL. Well, that leaves us with a time paradox, now doesn’t it. 😀