soopaval

[soopaval]

✨ Please reblog the polls to make them reach out to as many people as possible, but KEEP IT SPOILER-FREE to make people listen to the music with an open mind 💖 Artists and titles will be revealed after the poll's conclusion, check the original post for an update! ✨

[soopaval]

DAWNTRAIL SPOILERS

My unorganized thoughts and personal beef with the story, ye have been warned. I will continue to update this as more thoughts come to me.

7/3/24: I have let the expansion simmer a bit and I mostly feel the same, maybe with less hatred for the baby Galool Ja lol

However, one thing that really bothered me was more to do with the EN voice directing. The actors were fantastic, no complaints there. However, I feel like they weren't given the best direction when recording. The biggest example is in the final fight against Sphene when Wuk Lamat joins the battle. There's just no strain to her voice, it's as if she's just having a conversation. For comparison, someone posted the EN lines vs the JP lines:

Wuk Lamat's VA did a great job, but was clearly not given the right direction for this scene. And this isn't the first time, either. Each time anyone gave any sort of speech from the palace balcony, they just... talked. They weren't shouting to the crowds down below, so I'm not sure how anyone down below was expected to hear it.

Just little things like that. Again, VAs were fantastic, but the direction was lacking.

7/1/24: Thoughts on the new characters

Wuk Lamat - Great character whom I loved dearly, but got REAL tired of toward the end of the story. I felt suffocated by her. Aside from brief trip with Erenville, there wasn't really any time away from her. She was just always there. Give me time to breathe, to digest the character and her plight. I get that she's the main character of the expansion and I'm just kind of there but for real, the Lamaty'i fatigue is real.

Erenville - Absolute wasted potential. He was a body for the majority of the story. Our brief adventure just the two of us was neat but it was after a very boring and exhausting portion of the story and just didn't add anything. We learned tidbits about him but we didn't get to know him and that pissed me off at the end when we're supposed to care about his feelings. I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND HIM. He is the last person I would invite anywhere, oh my GOD.

Zoraal Ja - More wasted potential. Very obvious bad guy vibes from the get go. Entirely unsympathetic villain, which is WEIRD coming from FFXIV. Every villain we have had so far has been written in a way that makes you understand their intentions even if you don't agree with them. Zoraal Ja was just a tropey bad guy with daddy issues that you just don't care about because, again, you don't get to know him. You don't DO anything with him. He's just THERE. WHY ARE ALL THE CHARACTERS JUST. THERE. His final form was baller, though.

Bakool Ja Ja - Another tropey bad guy but who got a redemption arc kind of? I liked him a lot better when he finally came around. I appreciated the "depth" we did get from him, and he's one of the few characters in this expansion I actually managed to care about.

Galool Ja Ja - A+++ dad, no notes.

Galool Ja - WHY WAS THIS NECESSARY. WHY WAS ANY OF THIS NECESSARY. Adding in a child was entirely unnecessary. There are so many better ways this could have been written, so many other routes to take. Instead, we get some boo hoo baby we're supposed to be endeared toward and feel for but he's just another blatant, poorly written trope of a mannequin we're forced to put up with. A terrible plot device. An annoying plot device. I don't ever want to see him again. Give me the baby mamool ja eating a taco and dancing but get this thing away from me.

Koana - My entire kingdom and all of my worldly possessions for Koana. Of all the new characters introduced (and by GOD there was a lot of them) he was the best written. Whoever was in charge of writing for Koana did wonderfully. He was interesting, he had great lines, and I was even able to sympathize with him. I liked him! I love him! I can't praise any other character in the same way.

Sphene - Hey, did you like Meteion? You want another one, right? Here, have Meteion 2.0, except she's worse in every way. And when I say worse, I don't mean that she was a greater villain. This just felt like the writing team saying hey, this worked in Endwalker, so let's just do it again. It'll work again, right? Wrong. Sphene was very predictable from start to finish. I loved her voice actor, what a very pleasant voice to listen to! But I just did not care for her, for her plight, anything. Again, another character thrown at me who I'm supposed to feel something for. I get it. She loves her people. But that's literally all she is. That's all she was programmed to be. So, you want me to like, feel something for her? I gave her the cold response at the end, that told her she was just a program, because that's what she is and I was so bored of her. I felt nothing. Just another wasted potential.

[soopaval]

am i too early for the ass kicking...

come to the coeurl lavender beds in an hour if you want an ass kicking

[soopaval]

QUICK. RB THIS WITH THE FIRST SONG LYRIC THAT COMES TO YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU SEE THIS POST. THAT IS AN ORDER

[soopaval]

would you like to trade?

how come everyone else gets DMs from horny scambots with cool usernames, but when i get a DM its this

[soopaval]

THANK YOU i love 🥹💕

commish for @soopaval! 💕

[soopaval]

This is literally just Shiadanni

HEARTBREAKING: local food blogger thinks it's funny to put on a rude persona in their recipe videos

[soopaval]

And some more commissions for friends! Listen, the Honkai Star Rail emotes were stupidly fun to draw, and I am still happy that I was able to make garlic bread look cute??

[soopaval]

More art commissions for @quicknock! Very grateful for the opportunity to draw a blushing Zero, 10/10.

[soopaval]

Gonna try to remember to post my art commissions here as well, starting off with some for @xhaira-doodles!

[soopaval]

Last night I was capping tomes when I saw someone in P9 and instantly fell in love and I had to draw her. I hope she's having a good day today and enjoys the fanfest stream. 😌

[soopaval]

Need to settle something.

If you could tag with the area you grew up, I would appreciate it. Having a West Coast vs East Coast discussion with my partner.

[soopaval]

so i've been working on a full FFXIV game script

have YOU ever wondered "hey, when's the first time they mentioned Meracydia in game?" or "hey, how can i check every time they've ever mentioned souls?" or thought "gee i'd love to find the exact wording of this line without having to watch the whole cutscene again"?

now you can!!!!!!!!!! through 2.55, and MSQ/Crystal Tower only so far

Click here to check it out!!!!!!!!!!

i owe my life to people putting game scripts for PS1 JRPGs on gamefaqs, and i couldn't believe a similar script didn't already exist for xiv when i went looking for one, so i took matters into my own hands. also i added a couple of neat features like being able to filter content and add in your own WoL's name :)

obviously this is a very large undertaking for a single person, especially since i'm getting 99% of the text directly in-game playing through on an alt, rather than using a text dump or something, so updates won't be super fast. but i hope that it can help some people in its current state, and that i'll one day catch up to current content! (i'm also 100% open to corrections and suggestions)

[soopaval]

we're back babey

i charge based off instrumentation, length and complexity. im offering cheaper sketch options as well. if you're curious at all send me an email and we can sort somethin out!

[soopaval]

Donald. :D

[soopaval]

i love you funnie bunnie man

[soopaval]

The conversation before The Fell Court of Troia was extremely funny to me.. 

And then there is this MVP

He would just love to adventure with wol.