#7.1 finally gave us some Ala Mhigan portrait elements

[osterby]

Ilberd is hands down my favourite villain in the game. He's exactly the kind of desperate nothing-to-lose do-bad-things-for-good-ends character I always go for (fun fact: he's the villain Ardbert tried to be), but I have to squint and peek around the corners and fill in the obvious glaring blanks.

And, yeah, the background that would really sell his motivation and overall story to the average player who isn't playing an Ala Mhigan WoL and doesn't laser in on any minor character with desperation as a key plot point isn't even in the game!

That's a complaint I have about SE's writing overall, especially in the early game. They think up all this good lore and then just... don't bother including it. But they really dropped the ball on Ala Mhigo in general and on Iilberd specifically.

Ilberd was so badly communicated in story I'm not even mad anymore. Just disappointed.

Like I hated this man with passion. Mere hearing his voice or seeing his face made my blood boil. At least the Japanese dub makes him more sympathetic, because he speaks calmly, albeit painfully, not just complaining like his English dub sounds like.

But I bought the book and did some digging and wow? He was paid with McChickenNuggets and a sword when he worked as an adventurer to support his family. Man was treated worse than a dog, and he had a family - possibly partner, possibly kid too, I mean, he was 40 years old. Or idk, very nice of him to take care of his elderly parents, I guess - and he lost them to the calamity. Mfs were barbecued by bahamut.

And yeah, Ilberd lost 100% everything, and had nothing to lose anymore. He wanted to take their ashes back home, and when enough people told him "no", he said "fuck it", and backflipped straight to god.

Also. He likes tea. Like he drinks tea. A LOT.

Like excuse me. How about telling this in-game? Sounds like the writing was a little... what's the word... slo---