#ARR playthrough

[sifafinalfantasy]

Satira Soulsinger: Sword and Shield? Chapter 2 (FFXIV, A Realm Reborn playthrough)

Brendt promises to keep her informed of his inquiries into her past. In the meantime, Satira meets one of his friends, Momodi Modi of the Adventurers Guild. Momodi’s motherly concern feels strange, but comforting. “If you need anything, anything at all, don’t hesitate to come back here. That’s why I’m here, so that you adventurers have a place when things go crazy.” Satira still feels like it’s an imposition, but she’ll keep Momodi’s words in mind. Meanwhile, she enrolls with the Thamaturges. She has an affinity for Black Magic, but for some reason, it doesn’t feel right. It’s a talent, but it’s not what she wants to do. She finds a sword and shield fit better in her hand. Even Aldis sees that fire in her eyes. “A kindred spirit,” as Aldis describes it. Before she can ask what he means by that, they’re attacked by the Alacran, and the moment is past. She easily fights alongside the Swordsworn and finds another mentor in Master Papashan. Had she been a soldier, a Paladin of some sort? Is that why Brendt had found her on the sands of Thanalan? That could be a possible answer. But if so, why does no one recognize her here? 

[alphascorpiixx]

I know the Warrior of Light doesn't have a whole lot of characterization but after meeting Ramuh I need them to eventually break under the weight of everyone's expectations

[bardic-inspo]

I feel like it doesn't make the most sense but *maybe*, just *maybe* whittling down my obscene number of save files might help cure my sudden lag issue with bg3 😶

[highpriestyt]

This week we'll be finnishing the Hildabrand ARR storyline, doing the yokai watch event, and more 2.x stuff. We're starting DKC this week as well, which I've never played! I play some Donkey Kong Land as a kid but not the main games so this is gonna be neat experience.

[naturesbeat]

*taking all my ffxiv mutual's hands* let's all do NG+ together

[bluebudgie]

People get so worked up whenever anyone says they like gw2s story better than ff14s. Like it's some sort of holy law that ff14 has the best story ever written in mmo history.

First of all why the need for constant comparison?

And second... subjective opinion? Personal taste?

[ghoulliojr]

this opening cutscene where it introduces Ishgard to you is so sick, i love that the narrator is Edmont's memoirs.

[hqmillioncorn]

speak from the Heart

With all the strength she could muster, Cinnamon moved her wings at a quick pace while she carried herself and Butter's diary to where Pancake was directing her. "Almost there!" Pancake moved a pair of glowsticks in all sorts of nonsensical directions that she thought would help. When Cinnamon finally dropped the diary onto the table Pancake threw the glowsticks in the air with a loud "Yipppee!!!" Cinnamon collapsed onto the ground. "This better work..." Pancake opened the diary up to a page that she knew her brother had written recently. "All Babycorn has to do is read this and then she'll know Butter loves her and then they can get married!" It was the perfect plan and made much easier now that Pancake could move in and out of Babycorn's room without a fuss. ...If only Babycorn knew how to read.

Lalapril 4/3: Connect feat: @windupnamazu's Butter, Pancake, and Cinnamon . Babycorn has a secret to tell

Babycorn collapsed onto the floor of her room, she was so tired there was no way that she would have ever made it to her bed, let alone climb up the ladder to even get to it. “So tired…” Her voice was muffled on account of having fallen face first into a pile of soft pillows. 

This entire day had been completely exhausting and there was nothing more she wanted to do than just sleep for the rest of her life.

Babycorn rolled over onto her back, “I guess that’s kinda like dying…” She couldn’t just die now, not when there was still so much left to do. 

Most important of all was figuring out a way of turning her brother back to normal. 

Babycorn heard the sounds of Cherrypit babbling to himself and turned her head over to look at him. He was currently going to town on cutting up a bunch of fake food with a small plastic knife. He’d been a big fan of the toy kitchen set ever since Sirius had bought it for him a few days ago.

Well, it was less of a gift and more forced upon them after he had walked in to see Cherrypit playing pretend with real life kitchen knives.  

“People here really can’t mind their own business can they?” Babycorn complained out loud.

Since Cherrypit couldn’t really understand what his sister was upset about he just decided to keep on playing and making his very real meal for her. “Chibibiroro!” Cherrypit exclaimed, lifting up and waving the plastic knife in the air. He probably meant to say something like ‘Cooking is so fuuuun! Yaaaay!!’ Then he continued to whisk his knife around in a bowl filled with plastic food. 

Babycorn smiled and silently watched her brother play with his toys. It was nice to see him having so much fun, especially after the hectic time they’d been having lately. 

With saving Eorzea, to having their secrets exposed, finding out a long lost friend had been traveling with them for a while, and circling all the way back to opening up to everyone about what had happened to her and Cherrypit so many years ago.

Having to talk with so many people about it made Babycorn more tired than she thought it would. She would have been lying if she said she didn’t feel like crying in the middle of a few of those talks. Though this was something that she wanted to do, for a while now. At this point she had enough of hiding things from people. 

Babycorn sighed. She had absolutely no problem calling her younger self stupid for telling so many people about what had happened to her and Cherrypit.

There was a part of her however, that felt kind of bad that she really wasn’t being entirely truthful about herself… 

She couldn’t deny that there was a sense of relief in being able to not be terrified of people finding out. 

Before Babycorn could send herself down a spiral of thinking about her own existence-there was what could only be described as the sound of someone falling on the ground outside of her room. 

“ACKCk!!!??” Babycorn sat up and on instinct ran to hide behind one of the chairs in her room. She moved her arms up and hid under the safety of the oversized sleeves of her robe, shivering in place. 

Cherrypit paused his cooking and looked towards the door. He couldn’t sense anything dangerous out there so there was no reason to go all out, yet. “Mabwanna?” He asked, hoping to receive an answer. When there was no answer Cherrypit decided to see if he could get any closer. 

He turned off his imaginary stove and waddled closer to the door, placing an ear to the door. He leaned in as close as he could. He had to be careful to not accidentally phase through the door. It happened before and Babycorn worried that it might get them in trouble at some point so she asked him to be really careful with that power. 

There was the sound of whispering on the other side. They might have thought they were being quiet but they wouldn’t have known that Cherrypit was a very good listener. 

‘Just knock on the door and ask her if she’s okay! You can do it!’

‘But what if she’s busy or asleep or she’s not even there and I imagined it or-!’

‘Woah! Woah! Calm down and remember to breathe! What’s gotten into you?’

‘Yeah? Are you reallyyyy okay?’ 

Being a good listener didn’t really mean that Cherrypit could understand what people were saying. Most things still managed to fly over his head on account of his age.

‘N-Nothing it’s just…Babycorn…’

‘Oh yeah…She is pretty mean sometimes. I can get why you’re nervous. Which means you don’t really have to do this Butter.’

Cherrypit jumped up. “Butts!” He knew that name! That was the name of the guy with the funny things on his head!

Lunya had taught him that those funny things were Butter’s ears and he also learned that it wasn’t nice to bite them. “Ba-! Butts!” This was someone Cherrypit really liked! He was always nice and cooked really yummy food! 

Was it him outside the door? He should probably open it then! 

‘Huh? No, I want to! And She’s not that mean I think she’s pretty…nice.’

‘Nice?! If you knock on that door and she’s there I can guarantee you she’s going to yell at you until your ears fall off!’

‘Yeah she’s a meanie face!!'

Cherrypit grabbed a step stool from his sister’s desk and carried it closer to the door. 

‘She’s not going to do that!? I just wanted to ask her if she was okay! She looked so tired when she came back so I…I thought I would…’

The doorknob was closer now that Cherrypit had climbed onto the stool. Then his tiny hand reached towards the doorknob.

‘Huh? Looked tired? I didn’t notice anything like that? Why were you paying so much attention to her…? Unless…’ There was a small fairy sized gasp. ‘Wait! No! You’re…?! Holy sh-’

With his strength, Cherrypit opened the door with such force that it crashed into the wall right next to it. A strong breeze from the door opening sent a small fairy hurtling down the hallway with a high-pitched scream. “Huah?” Cherrypit wasn’t sure what that sound was but from what he could see was Butter and Pancake standing in front of him. 

He smiled from ear to ear. “Butts!! Panka!!” Cherrypit ran up to Pancake and gave her a hug. She was just a little bit taller than her so Cherrypit liked to hug her a lot. It was easier to hug her than it was to hug people taller than him. 

People that weren’t Babycorn at least. 

“Hi Cherry!”  Pancake hugged Cherrypit with an even tighter hug. “Butters here too!” She pointed at her older brother, who was still lying on the floor after being so nervous about knocking on Babycorn’s door he ended up stumbling over his own two feet and crashing into the ground.

“Butts! Butts!” Cherrypit hopped out of Pancake’s hug and jumped right at Butter, wrapping his long sleeves around his arm all while laughing maniacally.

Even when Butter managed to get back onto his own two feet, Cherrypit was stuck onto him like glue. “Hey Cherry!” Butter gave Cherrypit a small pat on his head. 

Butter grabbed Cherrypit by scruff of his collar and held him in the air. It was an unconventional way to hold a baby for sure, but Butter had seen Babycorn holding him the way before and Cherrypit seemed to love it. 

Sure enough once Butter had started dangling Cherrypit in the air he started to laugh and wiggle his sleeves in the air. “Butts! Butts!” The general rule was that if Cherrypit was screaming into your ears, he was having a good time. 

Butter decided that now was as good a time as any to just go ahead and ask his question. “Cherry? Is B-Babycorn inside?” He was still a bundle of nervousness but his worry for his good friend Babycorn was pushing it aside. At least at this very moment.

Cherrypit stared blankly at him for a few seconds. “Oh!” He managed to wriggle his way out of Butter’s hand and waddled over to the door. Weirdly enough it seemed to open on its own without Cherrypit even lifting a finger. “Here!” He pointed his overly large sleeve into the room. 

“Yay!” Pancake let out a cheer and grabbed onto Butter’s hand. “Come on! Let’s go say hi!”

“Y-Y-Yeah..!!” 

“Huh?” 

Though Butter sounded like he was more than ready to go, Pancake found it hard to pull him forward. Every time she tried it felt like he got caught in something. But Pancake wasn’t about to give up! “Come on Butter! Let’s go say hi!!” She swore in Cinnamon’s name that she was going to get Butter in there even if she had to carry him in there herself. 

“I will! I will! Just give me a second…” 

Pancake decided to humor him and give him exactly one second and that one second was all Cinnamon needed to finally fly back to where she started. 

“AhAHAHahA! I knew it! I knew it! My fairy intuition is never wrong” Cinnamon was glowing a bright red. Her emotions were running at an all time high as she zipped all around of both siblings. “My little Butter is all grown up then! It brings a tear to my eye! To hear that his heart has been stolen by such a rude little girl of all people!” 

“Cinnamon!!” Butter tried his best to shush her but despite calling her name out like ten times she just kept on blabbing. “Quiet! What if someone hears youuu!!” As far as Butter knew his crush on Babycorn was knowledge only to him and the diary under his pillow. 

“Oh quit your worrying!” Cinnamon flew over next to Pancake. Ever since they could remember only Butter had ever been able to understand a word of what she was saying. To Pancake and everyone else, Cinnamon’s voice simply sounded like the sounds of little bells ringing.

“I can practically say anything I want! Remember?”

Butter huffed, “Well do you remember how Lunya understood what you said!?” It wasn’t only her that had understood Cinnamon. It was her and a handful of other people that had zoned in on Cinnamon the very second after she had cursed out loud. Very loudly. 

“...No one here but you can understand me.” 

Lunya and her friends had come to the conclusion that only people that had been blessed with what they called ‘the echo’ could actually understand what she was saying. “Babycorn’s out of hearing range anyway. Unless you want me to fly right in there and tell her everyyyything?” 

Before Cinnamon could say anything else, Pancake made a quick grab at her. “Cinnamon you’re so funny!” Though it was true that Pancake couldn’t understand a word that she was saying, it was also true that Pancake had loved her a whole lot. 

Because of that, there was a small measure of understanding that Pancake could grasp.  

This time however, Pancake had no idea what Cinnamon was saying. She just wanted to grab Cinnamon. 

“Butter help meeeeeeheeee!” Cinnamon cried out. 

Both Pancake and Cherrypit were laughing together as Cinnamon continued to cry out for someone to save her from the grasp of a six year old girl. It was enough to make Butter forget just how nervous he was.

Because at least he wasn’t Cinnamon right now.

Babycorn moved the chair she was using to hide behind just a little bit to her left. There was some sort of commotion outside but she couldn’t understand the voices of the people talking outside.

She could hear Cherrypit but there was also the voice of a boy, a girl, and some sort of bell? 

“Cherry…! Cherry!” Babycorn tried to whisper as loud as she could for her brother. After everything that had happened today, the last thing she needed was for Cherrypit to go and pull another one of his hiding stunts. “Cherry are you out thereeeeeee?” Despite her wanting to find Cherrypit, Babycorn had her eyes shut in fear. 

All kinds of worse case scenarios began to float around Babycorn’s seemingly empty head. What if her brother had run afoul of a ghost, or had an Ascian somehow snuck inside the house and was wreaking havoc at this very moment?! What if Coco found out that it was them that ate his pudding?!?!?!

“Uuwaguauuawua….!!” Babycorn cried to herself. 

She was so busy crying to herself that she didn’t even notice when Cherrypit came back into the room with Butter, Pancake and Cinnamon trailing behind him. 

Cherrypit stopped in front of their eating time table, which was in front of the chair Babycorn was hiding behind of. “Bebe?” He chewed curiously on his sleeve and stared at his sister. It looked like she was upset about something. But there was nothing here to be scared of? Right? 

“Bebe!” Cherrypit ran over and grabbed Butter’s hand, just like he remembered Pancake doing a few moments ago. “Help! Help!” Cherrypit was small but Butter was big like Babycorn was so maybe he would know why she was scared! 

“Whoa what’s got his bow in a twist?” Cinnamon wondered out loud. It should be noted that Pancake was still holding her in a tight grip in her hand. Cinnamon was just pretty used to this. 

Butter let Cherrypit take him where he wanted to go until he finally noticed Babycorn trying to hide herself behind a small chair. The first thing he noticed about her were the tears streaming down her face. “Babycorn!!” Butter knelt down next to her in a panic, worried if something had happened. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Butter paused for a moment, “I-It’s okay…!”

Butter wasn’t exactly sure what he was referring to as being okay but he still hoped that it could still comfort Babycorn somehow. All he really wanted to do was help her in whatever way he could. 

Pancake stood on her tippy-toes to try and see what was going on. “Is everything okay? Is she hurt?” She remembered a little incident a few weeks ago where Babycorn had knocked herself out after running headfirst into a counter.

If Pancake recalled correctly Babycorn had been running away from a grasshopper that she had seen outside. “Maybe she saw a scary bug again?” Pancake asked. Some bugs were scary, Pancake knew this. She would understand if Babycorn was scared of one.

“You’d protect her from a scary bug right Butter?” Pancake asked with a glint in her eye. 

“Of course!” Butter yelled back pretty much instantly. 

This was enough to grab Babycorn’s attention. She turned her head and stared at Butter, her eyes were wide and Butter looked back at her, his eyes just as wide.

For a few rose-tinted seconds both kids stayed completely still, just staring at each other. Until Babycorn finally realized what was happening. “AAACK?!!” Babycorn fell back and crawled as far away from Butter as she could. 

It turned out to not be very far as she crashed into a shelf that Andres had gifted her as a symbol of peace. “URK!” The impact had shaken the shelf enough for a small flower vase to fall right on top of her head. The water in the vase left her hair soaked. 

Cherrypit was instantly at her side. “Bebe!” He grabbed the vase off her head and placed it on the ground. “Okay?” he asked. It wasn’t the first time the same vase had bonked her on the head. The last time it did it got stuck on her pom for an entire day. (somehow) 

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Babycorn assured him. She gently stroked the top of his head to calm him down. 

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her act so nice.” Cinnamon interjected. 

“Yeah for sure!” Pancake agreed. 

As soon as Babycorn heard Pancake’s voice and Cinnamon’s chimes her pom sprang up in surprise. Or as Butter would call it, her bonbon.

“W-W-What are you guys doing in here?!” She sprang up to her feet and placed her hands on her hips. “This is my room so why don’t you guys just buzz off!” Babycorn stuck her tongue out for an added effect. 

Cinnamon opened her mouth to start telling Babycorn off, but was stopped just short of dropping another set of curse words by Butter stepping right in front of her (and Pancake.) 

“Sorry we’ll leave right away!” Butter hastily apologized. He started to maneuver himself and Pancake out of Babycorn’s room. “I hope we didn’t upset you too much.” Butter’s voice began to trail off. “I just…I just wanted to make sure you were okay…”

Babycorn felt her heart beat faster, almost reaching a normal pace. “H-Huh…?” There was a tight pain in her chest, “What did you say?” She couldn’t have heard him wrong, could she? 

Butter turned around in a panic. “O-Oh! Sorry! I didn’t mean-! I mean…I was just…worried about…youuuu?” 

Cherrypit and Pancake exchanged a pair of curious looks. Each of them wondered if the other knew what was going on. Hopefully it was nothing really bad.

Meanwhile, Cinnamon just couldn’t believe how painful this all was. 

Babycorn was left stunned into silence. Her eyes were glued onto Butter, who was just hoping that he hadn’t said anything wrong. There had been plenty of people that had been worried about her ever since her first job as an adventurer but it didn’t make it any less surprising to hear each time. 

“You were worried about me?” Babycorn’s voice sounded somehow softer than how it usually sounded. A fact that Butter picked on almost instantly. 

Butter nodded, “Of course! You looked so tired when you got home that I was just hoping you didn’t get hurt or anything!” He had been gardening at the time and had decided to check in on Babycorn the very instance he noticed something was wrong with her. The bloodstains on the bottom of her robe only further convinced him that there was something up. 

“I thought I could maybe help you feel better.” Butter shyly tapped his fingers together, despite hearing Cinnamon snicker behind him, he kept going. “I know you like eating so I could make something for you to eat? Or maybe we could do something you like to do?” Butter wouldn’t mind doing anything, as long as he could spend time with Babycorn. 

Which was a completely normal way of thinking about things.

Babycorn was now just very confused. She always knew this Butter guy was a certified freak. Otherwise why else would he be so nice to her? Since the beginning no less. 

What was wrong with this guy???

“I…” Babycorn knew what she wanted to answer but there wasn’t enough courage in her body to actually say it. 

Now that Babycorn really thought about it Butter was kind of her friend too. At least, in the sense that she didn’t want him to hate her. Babycorn really had no idea how friends worked at all, not anymore. When she was younger she thought it was as easy as just asking someone to be friends, but she wasn’t quite sure anymore. 

If she had decided that she wasn’t going to be mean to her friends anymore then she had to start being nice to Butter and Pancake and Cinnamon too. Right? 

‘That’s why…I hoped that you would…invite me in…’

Babycorn’s eyes widened, before she knew it her arm was outstretched, reaching out towards Butter and the others. “I…have to tell you something!” Those words had spilled from her mouth without her meaning to. 

“What is it?” Butter asked. 

At this point both Pancake and Cherrypit were invested in seeing where this was going, especially Pancake. Cinnamon was just wondering if the oven was free for her to lounge in later. 

Babycorn wrung her hands together nervously. “I just needed to tell you something. If that’s okay?” 

“Of course!” Butter smiled. His heart was racing. 

“I…” Babycorn clutched at her robe. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let her younger self do the talking. “When I was smaller I got...killed by someone and the only reason I’m still alive is cause Cherrypit saved me.” She looked over to Cherrypit, he smiled back to her and Babycorn gave him a small smile in return. “That’s why Cherrys like that. He’s been stuck being two years old since then. And I…don’t know how to help him and I guess that’s the whole story.” 

Babycorn thought there would be more to her story. There was a part of her that was kind of shocked that it had been that easy to tell. Of course there were some certain parts she wasn’t willing to tell him, or to anyone else for that matter. There was still a part of her that was deathly afraid of what would happen if she did.

Butter was speechless, he didn’t know where to start. 

But Pancake did. “So are you and Cherry like DEAD dead!?” She was so excited about possibly knowing a ghost zombie thing personally that she had finally let Cinnamon free from her grasp. 

“Pancake?!” Butter was beyond worried that Babycorn would be absolutely furious at Pancake asking her that. 

To his surprise, Babycorn didn’t even look mad. She was smiling with the warmest and kindest smile that Butter had ever seen from her. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head and wiggled her arm around, “Me and Cherry can still move and talk so we’re not too dead yet.” 

“Cooooool!!” Pancake knelt down and looked straight at Cherrypit. “Can you take your head off?! Like zombies do?!” 

“Pancake!!” 

There was a snort of laughter from Babycorn. Butter thought it was really cute. 

Cinnamon, who had been terrified ever since Pancake had let go of her, hid behind Butter's ears. “Of course she can! If she’s dead then who knows what else she can do?!” The danger of Babycorn taking a bite out of her had just increased ten-fold. 

“Nah.” Babycorn explained, “Cherry can take off his head. I can’t.” 

Cherrypit let out a cheer. “Off!” He knew exactly what Babycorn was talking about but she had already set the rule of not doing anything too scary at the mansion. So there was no taking his head off today.

Pancake’s eyes glimmered with excitement. “That’s so cool!!! Cherry you gotta show me sometime!!” Cherrypit laughed and wiggled around happily. “Show! Show!” He was more than excited to show his friends what he could do. It would be just like when they fought the Ultimate Weapon! Fun!

Cinnamon fainted onto Butter’s head. 

Butter and Babycorn watched as Cherrypit led Pancake over to show her his new kitchen set, complete with the half-finished meal he was still cooking on. It was not burned in the slightest because of how good of a chef he was. 

Butter looked over to Babycorn, he had never really noticed it but she had the cutest buck teeth. Something that you could only notice when she smiled at you. “Um…” Butter still wasn’t sure what to say about Babycorn’s story but he still wanted to say something. “I’m sorry about that happening to you. It sounds like it was…scary.” he had tried to come up with any other word besides scary but that was all he could muster. 

“Yeah. It was.” she frowned.

Butter moved just a little bit closer to her. “But now you’re here! And I’m sure everyone here will help you with whatever you need!” There were a ton of different people that came in and out of the mansion, surely any one of them would be able to help. “I’m just glad you’re here!”

Babycorn blinked. “You’re glad…??”

Butter nodded. The knocked-out Cinnamon on his head was roused awake from this. “I’m sure everyone is always happy to see you and Cherry around!” Butter smiled as wide as he could. 

Babycorn hummed to herself. That sounded like a really nice thing he just said. Maybe this guy wasn’t that much of a freak after all? 

He was a mega-weirdo freak.

[eridaniastra]

Can't wait to spend weeks cashing these in a the Doman Enclave...

[gridanian-red-mage]

Finding the Elder

I'm sure Arielle was very relieved to find the sylph elder alive and well and not eaten by that giant diremite (?). Or anything else. (And Mina is very relieved to see that her rider and the sylph are safe and sound. She certainly didn't like waiting outside for so long.)

[anthenasikes]

anywyays i got zerororoo escaoe for  christgmas and now after my watching of forty thousand playthrousgh i am playing 999 for myself. bc i will push past my utter unreasonable incapability to focus on and play a video game for zerfo escape and zero esdcape alone.

[pyxisfelixhaven]

take that first step

[wildstar25]

That's a very smart question! So, it's less that Arsay has an issue with aether manipulation - in fact, she's more skilled at it than she's even aware of!- and more that she has a very small pool of accessible personal aether to work with! So spells that require the use of only her own aether, like teleportation or red magic, tire her out very quickly. A lot of her skills are pulled off by her channelling the aether around her or from specific sources on her person and adding in a pinch of her own mana here and there.

I do want to say this was a result of her almost dying on the fields of carteneau and having to be slowly restored by Hydaelyn in the lifestream. IIRC those with moon cat heritage are prone to having high amounts of aether or at least are more attuned to magic usage, so its quite possible she had a great deal of aether before 1.0 but was largely unaware of it. She never really used magic to fight you see, it was always blades first. Arsay only knew how to summon Couscous and he was there to be her friend not her weapon!

<3 Thank you the follow up question!!

I would love to see the breakdown of Arsay’s timeline through the expansions!!!

WEEEEELLLL if you insist... My basic timeline break down is as follows: Keep in mind a few things are still kinda in flux, and if I ever contradict myself in the future literally don't worry about it

1.0 -> Calamity 6 months End point in the 4th umbral moon lining up with what is now the rising event (calamity memorial). Now that I’ve switched up arsay’s birthday, she turns 22 during the 1.0 campaign.

Calamity -> ARR 5 Years Arsay is stuck in the lifestream with the mother crystal for that 5 year period. Her memories of 1.0 and everyone's memories of her are largely erased. Arsay wakes up on a boat to Limsa Lominsa believing it is still her first voyage to Eorzea.

ARR->HVW ~6 months The base story including job quests take 3 months in total. The next three months are dedicated to the patches: Primal Trial series -> Coils of Bahamut -> 2.1. ~3 weeks Crystal Tower Raids, LoTA -> Syrcus Tower ~1 month 2.2-2.3 -> Crystal Tower Raid WoD ~2 weeks 2.4->2.55 ~3 weeks

HVW->STB ~4 months Main story starts a day or two after 2.55 and takes ~1 month total Patches take ~3 Months: 3.1->3.2->Void Arc ~1 month ->Arsay gets really into pvp and does nothing but frontlines and CC for a week -> 3.3->Alexander Raids->3.4 ~3 weeks Warring Triad->3.5->3.56 ~1 month

STB->SHB ~6 months Main story picks up a week after 3.56 and takes ~3 months time. (The first trip to Kugane takes 3 weeks off screen, after that travel time is reduced to a few days to a week using the East Aldenard Trading company boats (it would make sense that lolorito has better boat tech imo)) Next 3 month period is all the patches: Ivalice raids->Omega raids->4.1-4.2 ~1 month Eureka exploration->4.3->4 lords ~1.5 months 4.4->4.56 ~2 weeks

I know the ARR to Shadowbringers lead up is a mad dash but if it happened any slower, I don't believe Arsay would have be the character she is by that point. It is incredibly vital that she has almost 0 down time for herself. Her days and nights are PACKED full by choice. Job Quests, Hildebrand stuff,PvP, Hunts all get squeezed in throughout.

SHB->EDW ~8 months Main story picks up a few days after 4.56 and takes only 1.5 months to complete. Its a non stop emotional roller coaster for Arsay to be completely fine and normal about the whole time. Patches take 6.5 months, notably there is more downtime between patches: Chill relaxing after 5.0->Eden I->5.1->Neir raid I ->5.2-> role quest/shadowkeeper->Eden II-> 5.3 ->chill relaxing/recovery time for scions->Eden III->Neir raids II & III->Werlyt->Bozjia->5.4-5.55

EDW->DWT ~1 year (time spent in Elpis is not counted) ->Main story up to credit roll ~1 month ->Recovery time for injuries sustained in Ultima Thul ~4 months ->After credits - Scions Disband, everyone goes their separate ways - 1 day 🙃 ->Rest of the roll quests now that Arsay can mostly fight again(she can't cast mudras😞 ) ~1 month (casting>healing>tanking>aiming>bonus all role cap off) -> 1 month of nothing to do, Arsay still can't cast mudras, character development dictates she can no longer repress every bad emotion she feels, she has no proper coping mechanisms and quickly spirals into a mental breakdown over feeling like she's worthless and that no one will need her anymore now that the world isnt ending constantly and that she's worried without the scions being the scions everyone she cares about will slowly forget her and she'll be all alone again. Y'shtola and G'raha manage to get Arsay talking after a bit of self destructive lashing out. Things are sorta resolved?? Y'shtola and G'raha reassure her of a lot, and do their best to get it in her little kittycat head that she's not a burden on them even when she's sad. Not an automatic fix but Arsay does make the commitment to better her mental health and to work on her self image issues and communication skills! It'll be a process for her. ->5 days round trip to her home island in the southern seas to visit her Aunt and catch up ->6.1 starts when Arsay gets back from that ->Endwalker patch content takes up the final 5 months of that year period. Things are mostly interspersed with how they are released except for pandae which happens all in one go for Arsay between 6.3 and 6.4. Arsay has done all the variant dungeons, Tataru's grand endeavours, completed Island Sanctuary, and Myths of the Realm. ->The gap between 6.55 and 7.0 will probably only be about a week? Maybe 2? It depends how much it seems like the early arrivals to Tural have been there compared to Arsay and her crew.

That's my timeline! Thank you for asking and reading 🙇 hopefully that all made sense haha ^^

Have a picture of them for the road <3

[hersheyfont]

Two-parter random audience question!

On your first playthrough of FFXIV, after That Scene in post-ARR, did you...

1) fully believe you would be arrested if you went into one of the city-states

2) go into one of the city-states before your name was cleared

[aotopmha]

I just finished it and I think the entire sequence of the Endwalker lvl 83 quest In From the Cold is kind of amazing.

I've been wanting to talk about it since I saw it happen in a playthrough.

It brings together the soul research lore, Zenos and Garlemald in general in such a cool way.

Your friends could've been dead here.

You could have been forever stuck in that soldier's body.

It's absolutely fantastic gameplay/story integration. Endlessly frustrating and annoying, but absolutely awesome thematically.

And it's not just about understanding the situation of the regular Garlean soldier, but also how powerful you actually are.

And how much the Warrior of Light cares for their friends and people.

You are crawling forward by the end to get to the camp.

That duty said so much more by having no quest markers and just throwing you into the chaos than any line of dialog ever could, even if it took me like more than an hour to beat.

(Varis' fate is disgusting and meaningful in just the right way, too. What else would be controlling Garlemald?)

Thancred's duty earlier in the story was equally cool because of thematic and gameplay reasons, but served a much different, chiller purpose.

This game has grown to be so ridiculously good at making thematic encounters.

And I hope we will continue to see it in Dawntrail. I still remember so many solo duties in ARR being so generic. But then gradually it just got better and better.

I really, really hope they won't shy away from it even if it is "frustrating". Not all of the solo duties need to be like this, but I hope they continue sneaking in stuff like this.

[autumnslance]

New Game+ Tutorial

"I don't remember this part of the story." "It's been so long since I played X expansion." "What happened during that raid again?" "Who was this character?" "I story skipped the MSQ/job quests so I don't know what happened and who these people are!"

There's answers to this, friends. Not only is the game's own Unending Journey (in inn rooms, or as furnishing in your FC or private rooms/homes) able to replay many cutscenes, and there's the completed quest log, but there are places online, such as Garland Tools and the FFXIV Game Script, that keep most (not all) of the quest text handy.

But if you want to relive those quests, and/or get the side dialogues and replay (or first time play!) the experiences, as of Shadowbringers 5.1 there's a feature called New Game+ to allow that.

New Game+ (or NG+) will let you replay past questlines, at your current level (which makes it go pretty fast in a lot of cases). There is No experience or rewards to gain through this feature--no using it to level alt jobs. It purely exists to allow experiencing, or re-experiencing, completed content.

Once defeating the Ultima Weapon and Lahabrea at level 50 in ARR's finale of 2.0, you can go to Vesper Bay and find the Wistful Whitebeard.

More info and images below the Keep Reading cut...

(image taken from gamesconsolewiki and their article on this feature.)

Once you've unlocked the feature by talking to him, you get a new menu option in your Duty menu (the exclamation point icon), right between Duty Recorder and Hall of the Novice.

Once you select the feature it brings up a menu of options; it usually defaults to Main Story Quests, but I also have a paused replay under "Suspend" in progress. There are also options that match other quest interfaces, like your Journal or the Unending Journey; Chronicles of a New Era for raids and trials, Side Story for quests like Hildibrand, the Scholasticate, Role Master Quests, Void Quests, and Chronicles of Light (story important side quests, like Tales of the Dragonsong War, Tales from the Shadows, Tales of Newfound Adventure). Tank, Healer, DPS, Crafting, and Gathering quests also have their own categories.

Each Expansion MSQ is broken into parts; usually 2 parts for the x.0 main expansion, and then 2 parts for the patches. They're only available after x.0 or the patch stories are complete.

Also notice the "Help" icon in the top right of the NG+ overlay; it opens a pretty comprehensive guide, divided into menu sections, about how the feature works.

ARR is split into 6 parts, and I do think 2.0 could use a rework in how they're split but for now, I'm selecting Part 6 to look for specific side dialogues that only exist in this timeframe.

Selecting Part 6 opens the description; the Crystal Braves have just been formed, to help the Scions with the turmoil still facing the realm--from refugees, to Garlemald's continuing threat, to primals and Ascians.

Once you do, the NG+ quest info shows up, usually around where ever you keep your MSQ quest marker. I hide my MSQ tracker once it's done, so NG+ fits in that same spot in the upper left for me.

It tells me to "Relive Past Adventures!", which expac and part I'm in, and which quest is my starting point in this case, "Traitor in the Midst", the start of the Ivy spy plotline in Patch 2.4.

From here it progresses as if I am back in that patch and on those quests, but without any experience or rewards. Aeryn's in her current level 90 appearance and skills, making it easy to skip past and handle level 45-50 enemies in these zones.

So long as I am in NG+, I cannot do current quests, plots, or other content; I can't complete new current level duties (duties new in NG+ itself are fine), I can't access the MB, my retainers, or the Unending Journey. I can manually Suspend my current playthrough, or performing some of these actions (like duties) will automatically suspend my NG+ playthrough. You also cannot start NG+ while doing certain things (like some quests, such as leves).

This also will not let you play through the start of other city-states, only your original starter town. Solo duties will let you choose their difficulty immediately, without having to fail them first like in normal play.

If I want to drop my NG+ save before I've finished the replay--maybe I found the info and screenshots I wanted--I can delete the save.

This is an extremely helpful feature that can be used to replay events and quests, either for the fun of it, or because you want to find specific dialogue or lore information that only exists in a specific point in game. Maybe you want to visit old friends lost along the way, or take new screenshots of your WoL as they are post-fantasia.

Maybe it's just been a few years, and you've found you've forgotten some things and want to remember how the story actually went, especially knowing what you know now.