#I like the ivalice raids mechanically

[kaijubluedreams]

happy for all the ff11 fans who are getting stuff they love in ff14's new raid but I'm over here preparing to suffer through an ivalice tier story line again

[impossible-rat-babies]

ngl I do think my biggest gripe with myths of the realm in a narrative sense is having it be so late in 14’s life means you end up with a lot of unanswered questions that are just a result of how the content wasn’t created until later

[aotopmha]

All of the takes from the higher end FFXIV players I've seen recently feel so out of touch/narrow-minded to me.

I see people complaining about healers when I ran the most recent dungeon as one just the other day and we wiped several times.

I already saw someone complain that the FFXI raid is "easier than Aglaia" when every single run I've had has taken a significant amount of timer and at least a one or two wipes on a boss or two (or more).

Compared to all of the other Alliance Raids, I actually feel like the challenge here is to learn faster play, rather than to avoid wiping. It's the first time I've seen an Alliance Raid reach the end tail of the timer.

Granted, this is the first time I've done anything "on content" (and I've only seen footage of older day one runs, so maybe previous first day runs of Alliance Raids were similarly difficult), but to me, all of this stuff at the very least feels so much more unique and substantial than a lot of the encounters in a bunch of the previous expansions; this feels really cool and unique in its own right.

Prishe's proximity attacks, the group fight with the Archangels (which has a pretty cool use of interrupts), and Shadowlord's twists on various AoE attacks themselves are really cool.

And to me difficulty isn't the only value of an encounter.

They just don't seem to understand that not everyone consumes the game the same way they do, don't seem to have the ability to put themselves in others' shoes nor have the ability to understand that only a small portion of players play at their level.

I don't play healer often and I felt challenged by the recent dungeon.

I felt this whenever I saw some complain about Endwalker encounters, as well, but there I got it better because I could understand the complaint about how formulaic some of the encounters felt.

All Dawntrail encounters have felt unique and, most of all, substantial, to me.

And that was my personal gripe with particularly Endwalker's patch content. Many of the bosses did not have mechanics which evolved and/or had quite slow-paced useage/distribution of mechanics.

I suppose a game has the responsibility to entertain players on all levels of play, but this time around I understand the complaints much less as I see a lot of truly inventive encounter design that brings in ideas the game hasn't used much before.

And even after I stepped into harder content (extremes), the normal content never automatically became a bore to me; just different type of content.

In the end, I suppose I just disagree with people's consumption philosophy, then.

I think the game doesn't need to be "hard", just "substantial", so I suppose it's a very specific difference of opinion, which simply clashes with this different perspective and doesn't gel with the reality within the game I've seen.

I hope those who are unhappy will get something that makes them happy, but I also struggle a bit to see what the encounter designers could do to please this perspective.

Just copy Ivalice step by step? Just complete bullshit with bad telegraphing? Because that's where I felt like a bunch of Ivalice's challenge came from. It was challenging because some of the telegraphing could take a bit to parse and at points only made sense if you paid attention to every little tiny detail. It was challenging because it was pretty unintuitive and while I enjoyed it a lot and the bullshit is "funny", it's not "fun".

Math isn't bad because of the math, it's bad because you have to figure out how it works first. It can tell you "vitals", but the first time you do this, you don't necessarily automatically make all of the connections in the short time the fight gives you. And I personally think this is an issue of conveyance/bad design.

How are you supposed to figure out you need to let the sniper shoot you rather than use to shield to shield yourself in the moment? Where is the logic in that?

Even the magnet stuff is actually good.

Good conveyance is vague, but still solvable in the moment, like Prishe's wind-up punches.

But as said, I suppose I consume video games differently than most FFXIV/MMO players because in my mostly single-player gaming experience bad conveyence/design isn't "part of the fun", it's just bad design.

I can love a game despite it having these issues in its encounters, but to me it is an aspect to criticize when it happens and despite the repetitious nature of MMO design, I think this issue shouldn't just be glossed over because I think you can do challenge without these clunky elements.

[meatball-headache]

I have done the alliance!

I have no idea what happened. Yes, mostly because I had all battle effects turned on :D Can't overstate how much fun/what a bad idea that is. Also, whenever I take a screenshot, my computer drops to like 3 fps for thirty seconds, so that's something.

But that's on me, so, I'll find some way to deal with it. Just have to practice more, I guess. It didn't help that I was playing on monk, which honestly I don't know well enough to do new content on. It's got a surprising amount of OGCDs for a job where its thing is supposed to be "Greased Lightning makes you super fast, no time for OGCDs!" But maybe there's a bob-and-weave thing...

Right, right, so, the alliance. Like I said, I have no idea what happened. Okay, untrue. I was dead for most of the time, so I did have a chance to suss out most of the mechanics. Some I didn't quite grok, due to the overwhelming amount of battle effects, so, gonna take a few more runs.

Is this what folks who didn't play FFT or Neir felt when we had the Ivalice and Yorha raids? I liked those a lot, but then, I played the games they were from. I played FFXI, yes, but not much. In FFXIV terms, you could say I played, but I never got to Ifrit. All I did was hang out and grind levels... by myself... slowly. So slowly...

I liked Prishe, lot of personality in her voice lines, and I liked the Five Guys fight. They were all good, but I liked those the most. Five Guys was the only one that wiped us—remember when doing content on patch day meant you'd see the duty timer run out for sure?—and it's also the only one I stayed sort of alive on. I was dead for most of all the rest of the fights. Our whole party was, A and B really carried us.

First impressions: it's very good, I like it more than Aglaia, or at least more than I liked Aglaia at first. But, the story for the Aglaia series bugged me—you go to Olympus Coliseum and then it's "oh hey the Twelve are actually real btw, also they want to fight you because Reasons." We'll see where the story goes here, and, like I implode, I'm not very familiar with FFXI, so I can't say much about the story. All I know is Shantotto, Absolute Virtue, eat hot chip and lie.

The mechanics are exciting, lots of movement and watching stuff, figuring stuff out. Read the move and respond, it's not just by-the-numbers. The music is... it has this weird quality to it where it sounds like there's just less? There's less instruments, or less notes? I don't know, it just doesn't sound as... dense, as the rest of FFXIV's music. Are they using the original tracks from the game? Is this a new remix performed by the Soken Quartet? I'll have to play it a few more times to get it to stick.

Tell you what, though���I'm AFK in Jeuno right now, listening to the music, and I finally realize that this is what I've been humming when I did the dishes for the past twenty years...

[wildstar25]

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

[pinkskunksleepy]

now that it's all out, I feel more confident in saying pandaemonium is really weird because it feels like it's trying to be a bunch of things all at once but is only like one of them in a satisfying way. it's trying to be the story about how lahabrea became like that(tm), background on elidibus, ericthonios's whole family trauma situation, the soul mechanics stuff with lahabrea/athena, a criticism of the ancients' view on lifeforms aside from themselves, and... a reason for the writers to stop being asked about the heart of sabik. that's too many things for a story where the stakes mandate that there's hardly any downtime. to be clear, I think the only point it's particularly satisfying on is how the ancients view life. the rest are mostly just fine in a way that's neither remarkably good or bad, but that's disappointing after eden.

I've seen many people who feel like the ancients weren't given a fair shot against the final days because of the sundering, but pandaemonium reaffirms that they 1) were, and 2) would not have survived. pretty much every ancient we see(including hermes) except ericthonios is perfectly fine meddling like gods because of "the good of the star." hermes and athena, lahabrea and venat, all of them decide they know "the good of the star" best based on... not very much. mostly their own power and knowledge, and a disregard for life. at least venat's actions lead to that no longer being something people could do for the most part. but still... ericthonios is an exception thay proves the rule; he existed as another one of his parents test subjects and that's all he was seen as. even with his parents being decidedly messed up people, their worldview was in line with what we see as common for the ancients.

elidibus could be another exception, however we see so little that's new about him that it's hard to say. he seems like he could have been, whether as themis or zodiark, but we don't get to know beyond what seems to be. it's funny that even after pandaemonoum the writers decided to just have him say "nope, I still forgor," and then have him remember the moment he fades away. to me this either signals that they may have more planned for him, but more likely, that we are simply not meant to know. shadowbringers made the ascians too sympathetic, this is the closest we'll be allowed to come to being able to sympathize with one of the convocation.

and on the convocation, the explanation for lahabrea being like that(tm) is that he just... is. and that's about it. which is fine. there doesn't really need to be more to it than that, but... did it need to be so much of a focus? like it helps demonstrate athena's experiments with cutting up souls, genuinely provides a case where some could see what she did as worthwhile, but also, it isn't. because you don't have to slice and splice someone's soul to make them not like that(tm). and while athena is like that(tm) herself, that only makes it more confusing to focus on lahabrea. it's... fine. there's nothing really wrong with it other than that it's boring after an expansion with much more interesting ascian stories. heck, lahabrea is the easiest one to make a bad guy! and they basically just made his wife him but a scientist! ah well. at least the heart of sabik is probably tied to ultima the high seraph which maybe means more ivalice

... I'm coping...

hmm... just a really weird series, in the sense that on paper these things should all be weighty and have room for a lot of depth but in reality they were kind of rushed through because monsters were breaking out of the monster containment zoo.

at least the raids were fun to play, for the most part.

[nosafeharbour]

Pandæmonium: Anabaseios thoughts/reactions

Hoo, boy... I have so many thoughts and emotions that I need to untangle here. I wrote up some initial reactions as I played, but I'm glad I slept on it and went back through my screenshots to mull them over.

I liked it. I think it's one of the strongest raid tiers in story and set pieces both. Do I like it over Abyssos? I can't say, I'll have to see how I feel in the future. Last night I felt a lot more conflicted over it, than I do today! Letting it sit in my mind was a good thing.

My Abyssos thoughts are here, if curious!

The first fight was so cool! Loved the voice acting, and the memories/souls... especially the mage, who was giving me Mhachi mage vibes. I want to make them into an OC... the martialist and just, a Behemoth, were also very neat

[blows up myself up with my mind]

He did the italicised you... my favourite...

Lahabrea and Erichthonios hanging out with us so casually in the Aitiascope is very charming... especially the researchers cowering away. I can’t believe these are some of the only two people alive outside of the Scions to have ever seen an Ancient

You’re scaring the hoes

When I tell you that I started quaking and did not stop until I finished the tier. The incredibly stormy maelstrom of feelings over “I’m getting the thing I wanted, but I don’t know how it’s gonna go or make me feel yet”

Oh, the places we shall see! The sad faces we shall make! God, she’s really going through it

This area was gorgeous... I love it when they put my monochrome WoL in monochrome spaces. The hand and eye motifs here were stunning

The Pandæmonium fight itself was SO cool... the voice acting and mechanics were really fun. This is probably the fight (asides from P12S P2) that I’m the most curious to see in Savage

[nervous shrieking laughter]

ABSOLUTELY adore this. I was really hoping it was going to be what the Heart of Sabik looked like, or representative of it, in a way.

[shoving my entire fist in my mouth]

Gaius mention... while Lahacred is on screen... nodding, smiling

The slow zoom as they silently stared at each other... pretty sure Lahabrea knows that Albi could confirm his suspicions, but neither of them want to say anything.

I quite like the framing of this memory of Lahabrea - we’re picking up where we left off after knowing him in Abyssos, a “version” of him from closer to the Final Days, but with the context of nothing he learns or experiences here having any impact on the “real” Lahabrea that we meet later on. We get the character set piece, without any longlasting character growth. He gets to learn about his future self, but not in a way that impacts that future. For the WoL, it’s such an interesting mix. A man discovering his future horrors. But WoL is reluctant to say anything, so it’s a very stubborn game of chess.

It’s from here on, with the real and grounded Heart of Sabik lore, that my thoughts get much more complicated! Not in a bad way, I’m just overwhelmed.

It is interesting that it does, ultimately, all stem back to the High Seraph. I have/had a complicated view of the Ivalice raids... even as somebody who loves FF Tactics, I felt at the time that they felt too much like transplanting FFT/XII lore into FFXIV in a way that didn’t feel as smooth and natural as other homages. I didn’t enjoy Ivalice until The Orbonne Monastery, and Bozja, the latter of which did the most for soothing those feelings... The implication that the Heart of Sabik was auracite that stemmed from the High Seraph, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I’m still not sure how I feel about it! At the very least, I can really respect them holding fast to their own internal lore. Ivalice isn’t any less important or major, for being a piece of side content.

Equally interesting that the reason Azys Lla was involved, specifically the Aetherochemical Research Facility, was because Lahabrea was still carrying the Heart of Sabik with him until the day he died. The memories of Athena still within it, called out to the shard of Erichthonios... I had hoped that there was going to be some further connection to “our” Lahabrea and where he seemingly died there, but I guess he truly did die. Again, respect holding fast to their lore!

So Ultima, as a spell and a concept in all of it’s forms from Ivalice, to  Pandæmonium, and finally to the Ultima Weapon and Werlyt, does truly originate from Ultima, the High Seraph. But the Heart of Sabik itself, has the most major ties to Athena. I’ll put my more specific thoughts on Ultima at the end.

bbbbbbbbbb

Oh my god... they did it... I really love Elidibus a lot (in a “sleeper agent” way where I don’t think about him much until he’s on screen in front of me, but he is the other Ascian other than Lahabrea that really had me invested and hanging onto the Ancients plot) but I’m so, so glad for the Elidibus fans. To get to see his true form, and for it to really lean into the blind justice themes, it’s so good. I’m emotional

And the arena... this truly is the original meeting hall/chambers for the Convocation, is it not? The way it directly mirrors the meeting space the Ascians use in the Rift is amazing. The light pouring in through the windows, the views of Amaurot outside of them... amazing. The sigil on the banners surrounding the hall is Lahabrea’s, so I wonder if this is the Speaker’s hall, in some manner?

P11 itself made me tear up randomly during the fight, lmao, I don’t remember the last time that happened... maybe the Werlyt trials, or Endsinger... the music hitting crescendos, seeing attack names that so closely catered to Elidibus lovers, and the feelings of this being the truly last chapter to the Ascians/Ancients... it got to me.

Ahh... so I have complex feelings about Albi ever using/giving her aether out like this, even when the WoL does it fairly often. After her incident at The Ghimlyt Dark in 4.5, she hasn’t been able to control her aether in a manner she could offer it to others, and even since recovering enough to return to the mantle of Black Mage, it’s still something that she’d pause before doing.

But this moment felt right. It reminded me of this moment, the last time Albi did something of the sort;

And considering who that was done to defeat, it feels poetic!

Additionally, I’ve had a lot of thoughts since Abyssos about Albi’s aether... I’ve been bouncing back and forth on this idea of Lahabrea doing something with her aether, half motivated by him actually imbuing you with some in order to summon allies just before P8, but also because an Ancient who is so heavily aspected to fire, who already does comment on the WoL’s strange composition, wouldn’t be able to not notice Albi’s still inbalanced fire-aspected aether. I’ve had some scenes I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write or draw, but now I’m just certain that he did take note of it... I think the context is that he gives her some aether after she’s so worn out and woozy from P8, and while it’s not something she consents or agrees to, his feeble poke does help mend the last bits of damage to her aether. This is a story for another time, but, it all goes into this moment with Albi’s aether.

Tangent over!

These lines of dialogue just really hit.

I really adore this design, as much as I am like. Oh my god noooo the lunar moth with eyes thing was my Light Warden/Titania design for Albi! First she took Ultima from me, and now this badass design. I’m happy but like NO, WAIT lmao

Considering Athena has the same hair colour/style as me irl and I’ve always found that amusing, I’m... she’s taken everything from me...

(I really, really like Athena, so I’m allowing it)

I like that she’s simply Theos, to go with the Hemitheos title that the others got. She’s a full god.

The High Seraph’s angels... I know I already talked about my thoughts on the High Seraph, but it was only implied until post-raid. This is the moment I was like ohhhhh yeah, this is 100%

OH, THIS IS... THIS... [shoves my entire fist in my mouth, again]

Glad that we wiped 2 or 3 times, so I could get a few different angles on this. She’s doing the same gesture with the arms, and it’s the same effect, as when the Ultima Weapon casts Ultima.

And it’s called Theos’s Ultima... I only noticed this going over these screenshots again. The Weapons in Werlyt used Optimised Ultima, there’s this, and then I think only Ultima Weapon and Pandæmonium use “just” Ultima. Unsure about the High Seraph, perhaps she does too? I’ll have thoughts about this later!

It was very cool to see what a person using Ultima looks like! Again, I’ll have thoughts about this at the end. The elephant in the room on my personal WoL lore, lmao

I do like Athena, as a character... I’ve always wanted more women villains, especially one who is so unapologetic, and covers the facet of the Ancients that I didn’t initially vibe with; Hermes touched upon it, but the power to create and destroy, and act as a steward of life, is something that cannot only breed good.

And I love Erichthonios... I liked his send-off. He got the emotional farewell/”death” for the sake of the player and their journey. We know the true Erichthonios is sundered later on, but we get this moment

Ah... I am just... ahhhh

Here it is, here’s The Scene. This ended up being so close to a lot of what I wanted for their moment of closure, including the setting, but different enough in ways that were surprising and refreshing

You are him. The option and delivery here was just so perfect, I am going to think about this line forever.

Lahabrea calmly putting the pieces together, asking this, and having the calm response back from WoL... understanding the journey his future self went through, and not even faulting it, because he is so sure in his sense of self that he can see how he would go down that path. This isn’t like Emet balking at the idea of the things he did and calling it fiction, this was Lahabrea understanding, cursing his future blindness, but not even refuting what he does.

While we did not get the moment I really wanted, where we speak to the culmination of “our” Lahabrea who recognises us from ARR and HW, as well as Pandæmonium’s Lahabrea, this might fit his character more. It’s a nice moment in the writing. It’s a moment of dignity for ARR/HW Lahabrea, almost, recognising his acts but not dragging them to the spotlight.

And again, the way he simply and calmly accepts these acts. I love the moment of Claudien thanking him, and recognising him as the Speaker and not as the Ascian, because it’s another full-stop on the note of Lahabrea being someone who was so respected and adored. But Lahabrea, with his calm (”a calm heart stays the course”...) and collected mind, can simply brush that aside. I become your enemy, and your enemy deserves no sympathy.

Everyone (including Albi simply smiling at him) heckling him to accept the thanks is sweet, though. “If you insist on deceiving yourselves, then so be it. My stance remains unchanged.”... I like this writing a lot...

I also really liked Lahabrea’s “I will hear no more, you are not him” in response to Claudien wanting to bring up Erichthonios’s memory. It was a nice touchpoint back to the theme of “you are you, and nobody else” from Shadowbringers... we are neither Ardbert, nor Azem, Gaia is not Loghrif, and Claudien is not Erichthonios. Albi has a lot of complicated thoughts in regards to Azem in her interactions with Lahabrea, particularly in this scene, feeling as if she “should” be doing or saying certain things in order to honour their memory. So this was a good moment in which to hear Lahabrea say this.

I know this is not the “real” Lahabrea, but having this, in the eyes of the player and in context, essentially be his last words... ah... it’s good. It’s sad, and lacks the amount of emotional closure I really did want, but in a way that is simply so succint and fitting of Lahabrea’s character. He’s not as sentimental towards us as someone like Themis, or even Emet-Selch. This is fitting, for him, even if my heart wanted more.

There isn’t always a happy ending. You can’t always have things turn out how you want.

One last trip to wrap things up... Hegemone!! I dressed up as you for Halloween raid night last year. Good to see you

Hehe... I just wanted to say hello... :’)

This is one of the coolest shots and lines of dialogue in the whole raid series. I adore him.

Ah... he did it! It happened! While I suppose he did live without Hephaistos for a fairly long period of time before we encounter him in Abyssos, I was surprised that he’d rejoin with that piece of him so relatively quickly, afterwards. I was anticipating it to be right near the Final Days, if not afterwards? But this was a good scene. I liked the subtle change in him, after - he is still himself, but with that slightly sharper edge.

And then oh my god, we got The Scene... 2

Ah... I guess this is a nice counterpart to the more emotional, wistful farewell scene. Reading these lines again made me misty eyed though, lmao... This is underlining his stance; I am committed to my course, regardless of where it takes you. We are not alike.

I like it! It’s such a clear paralell to Emet’s final final words to us in Ultima Thule... my convictions are invincible. Considering I had issues with them softening up Emet a bit too much in his sentimentality for us, I like that they went out of their way to do the opposite with Lahabrea.

It’s curious - going by Erichthonios’s epilogue, and their mention of the event at the start, the memory versions we journeyed with were created right before the Final Days, they knew about their impending doom. The Lahabrea who gave us his softer farewells also has these memories of this more divisive parting. We got both the respected, wise man of days gone, but also this more haughty man who lines up more with the image we have of him as a villain... hm... I’m going to dwell upon this a lot and come back to it.

In both scenes, I do like his final words. At the same time, I’m glad they’re not his final words from the viewpoint of the Ascian, just in that I don’t have to redo my Final Words sticker set... LOL... but maybe a second set, with these Ancient versions of their final words

Erichthonios’s memory epilogue was good. I like how it all came back to the start.

This screenshot just feels so fake. To be holding the Heart of Sabik so casually... I wish it looked a little bit cooler. I was ready to make an enamel pin, or something.

Speaking of epilogues... damn.

I was SO shocked that this scene was voiced, as I’m sure many were. I’m so, so glad though. He deserved this; we got a bit of this in Endwalker, but getting this semi-final version of him created from pieces of him in the lifestream, meaning he is as complete enough as needed for this closure, with all his memories... it was good. It was very poignant.

This is a “where you go my dearest friend, fate shall surely follow” level of good line. God. This one is going to stick with me.

Goodbye.

Some final optional dialogue with Claudien to confirm the Heart of Sabik’s direct relation to the High Seraph... and there we have it! All done.

I’ll be honest, when I finished this last night, I knew I liked it but... felt depressed, nonetheless. I suppose it was a feeling not unlike grief, that in one day, I’d just seen the end of Gaius and Lahabrea’s stories, as well as the wider Ancients story. And while the latter has not engaged me so much in Endwalker as it did in the past, it’s still been such an ongoing thread, and Pandæmonium has felt like the only part of Endwalker I’ve really connected to... and now it’s over.

Today, especially after going through these screenshots again, and realising I was running on 3 hours of sleep yesterday, I am feeling much better.

I am still slightly sad that Lahabrea did not get as much focus in this raid series as I’d hoped! I wanted this to be his moment of closure equivalent to the Dying Gasp and the Seat of Sacrifice. Not only was the Hephaistos fight not his “true” self in the same manner as Hades, in the end... Emet and Themis just got ANOTHER set of nice moments of closure, in Ultima Thule and then in P11. Having seen Themis’s true form now, it only stands out more how we never saw Lahabrea’s. Themis got that voiced cutscene, but nothing from Lahabrea. I think I’m always going to be slightly hung up on that.

The other thing I felt weirdly conflicted about was that Ultima means so much to me - there’s this nervous energy that comes from having the Heart of Sabik now cleared up and attributed to other characters. Ultima coming in during the music in the Final Day made me cry when I first heard it, and I decided that Albi uses Ultima during that fight, with the help of some post-Werlyt research into the relics left behind from that, and dynamis. Last night, after finishing Anabaseios, I was left feeling like I couldn’t even use that any more. I never liked the High Seraph much, I was sad that none of the music in this raid tier even used the Ultima leitmotif, and now it was Athena’s “thing”...

But the whole point of Albi using Ultima was that she was reclaiming it in the name of hope, as she has done with Allagan relics before it, as she did with all of the final boss motifs in the Final Day’s theme. I’m still keeping it. :) Seeing that Athena’s was call Theos’s Ultima, I’m thinking Albi’s might just have a different name, too. Magi’s Ultima, or something. I’ll work on it.

My god, this post became so long. But I had a lot riding on Anabaseios! I’m happy with it. I’m glad that of all the tiers this expansion, the one I raided most fully was Abyssos, though, and that is possibly still one that means the most to me. But I’m looking forward to casually progging Anabaseios, and seeing what P12S might be like!

Lahalbi... real? Not really, not in the ways I’d hoped. But they mean a lot to me, as does Ultima.

[glass-cannon-kitty]

LFG: Eden Raid series (plus Eden Savage)

I REALLY want the Edenmorn Chausses of Casting. Cute frilly skirt with stockings that can be dyed to match the rest of my outfit.

But…I’ve never even done the regular Eden raids, LET ALONE any kind of Savage content ever. I don’t actually know how 8 man raid series work, I never did them before. I’ve only ever done Alliance raids, my first being Return to Ivalice when it first came out, and recently the Shadow of Mhach on this character. (And the mandatory Crystal Tower series)

Sooooo…would anyone be willing to help out? 🥺 I’m honestly not very good at tricky mechanics so I’ll probably end up dying a lot but I can be entertaining to watch. Anyone want a pocket Black Mage? I guess I’m asking if there’s a group out there who’s patient enough to help?

I do have a little bit of social anxiety so it might take some time for me to warm up in Discord voice. I also have ADHD and dyscalculia, meaning mathematical concepts are extremely difficult, and numbers get jumbled in my head. I cannot do most basic math in my head. Seriously, I can’t even do the mechanic in Ridorana at all without a cheat sheet.

I have SEEN the fights but I do not know any of the mechanics as my exposure to them was via comedy YouTubers and I was too busy laughing to actually learn anything. I ONLY know that Light Rampant is apparently a bitch. And that one of the bosses looks like the paper birds from Spirited Away.

I’m available just about whenever, except from roughly 10-11 AM and 3:30-4:30 PM. Got a huge number of cats to feed at those times.

[wanderin-rook]

The Ivalice raids were really the best raid series (pending how secrets of the realm ends).

I actually liked the NPCs of the heavensward raid series but the plot and actual mechanics for it just never engaged me.

There were problems with Ivalice don't get me wrong, the unlock quest involving getting the wine is just bad design and the in story motivation for finishing it feels lacking, but the story was great and every tier had at least one memorable boss.

Argaths with truth/lies mechanic killing so many people even now 2 expacs later (assuming you can ever get into it). The construct in Ridorana just crushing everyone with basic maths. Yiazmat with the stomps and magnet mechanics. Every single boss in the final one just slaps, getting sniped by Mustadio, and TG Cids everything. Best of all it stands alone and doesn't require playing another game for motivations and plot.

It makes me excited for whatever comes out next from Matsuno's studio because with Bozja still being good plot wise as well he clearly still has the touch.

appreciation post for two of my favorite ivalice bosses

[aotopmha]

There has been a bunch of talk about FF14's 'normal' difficulty content these past few days and on my part, I think I could take or leave any potential difficulty/friction increases.

As a new player of about 3ish months, I'm having a blast of just trying to perfect the dungeons despite them having a very rigid structure.

This conversation is super interesting to think about from the perspective of players with varying playtime, too, I think.

To me as someone who has been playing for just a few months (nearing the Shadowbringers base game ending MSQ-wise) and been doing roulettes almost daily because I enjoy running the dungeons, obviously they still feel fresh and fun.

I'm still also getting used to the rotations of any of the jobs I've picked up and still building muscle memory, so to me the game feels just the right kind of "easy" at this difficulty. None of the normal difficulty content has been super hard, but I feel I still have to use my brain, so I'm not feeling any of the criticisms about the gameplay becoming mindless.

But on another side to this are those who have played for a much longer time and have become really familiar with their jobs, seen the dungeon/job structure stay the same through several of the latest expansions or even just stepped into harder content like extremes, savages and ultimates, and gained a different perspective on the game as a result.

No matter how good something is, if it is the same for a long time, people will get tired of it and if the fail states of a game are at some point too easily bypassed, a game can become a mindless hallway.

As I said, I'm not at this point with this game, but I can see how people would get there.

But I'm also not struggling to the point where I would find a little tougher dungeons off-putting or too much.

Same for having tougher rotations with stronger fail states.

As long as it feels good, I'll play it.

What I am worried about is the game going too far in the other direction, where the difficulty would be too much, specifically a possible situation where something feels unfair and frustrating to complete, rather than satisfying to complete because I think a bunch of the difficulty of the older dungeons comes from poor telegraphing, rather than fair and satisfying challenge.

An example here to me would also be the Ivalice alliance raids: they have really cool encounters for sure, but also a bunch of mechanics that have really unintuitive telegraphing.

I didn't fail the math boss because it is basic math, I failed it because I had no idea where to even look to solve the mechanic.

Why should I face the sniper with the hole in the shield and not the shield itself?

Stuff like that isn't a challenge you can figure out, it's an artificial obstacle you have to push yourself through until you find the solution.

I think Dzamael Darkhold is a really neat idea for boss management/positioning for tanks, but the "challenge" of sitting in the magitek circles is more annoying than any kind of challenge.

Copperbell Mines (Hard) also has some maybe neat ideas of using stuff within the environment, but also end up just being annoying, like the golem boss.

But if they mean stuff like the second boss of Bardam's Mettle, which is a neat pure mechanic fight or the beginning section of Hell's Kier and how that uses the fodder enemies, I'm all for it!

I welcome keeping things unique and fresh: mixing up the structure of dungeons, doing something more unique with regular mobs, punishing failing mechanics harder and making failing your rotation cost more.

In fact, if there is one element of criticism in terms of the game's difficulty I absolutely agree with, it's the idea that there is no ladder between the easy and hard content. If you want to try the hard content you either consult sources outside of the game or jump in without zero preparation by the game. That's why I've been hesitant to try: I like easing in to harder content via a possible ladder and work through that step by step.

My current plan, for example, is to reach endgame (lvl 90) and from there start with the easier extremes and work up to the tougher content if I enjoy the process.

But the game doesn't really prepare you for the tougher content in any form on its own as far as I've looked up. It just exists.

A version of the Hall of the Novice, like Hall of the Expert for extreme and savage content would be really cool I think and I think the current Hall of the Novice should not only be made mandatory, but be updated with a couple more concepts as you run through the MSQ, too, to just give you just a sense of how the more difficult content feels, which then would eventually lead to the harder 'expert' version to be unlocked.

(This also doesn't mean they should give everything away, only create a sort of mini extreme/savage level difficulty test before you let people do the content.)

I feel the easier mandatory tutorial would help a bunch with learning the game, especially help with reducing the amount of players who don't understand the basics of their jobs, while the presence of an expert hall would serve as at least some indication of what you're in for in harder content.

But to loop back to the start, my tl; dr is that I'm having fun with what we have now, but it's easy enough where I feel I wouldn't struggle too much if they raised the base difficulty, but more importantly, increased the friction or made the struggle itself more substantial, provided they did this is in a satisfying, rather than frustrating manner.

It's a balance that strikes me as fairly difficult to achieve, but if they do, I think they'll make something truly amazing out of it for players who enjoy easy and hard content alike.

In general, they are promising a lot of content with Dawntrail, but to me the most important element here is that all of that content would be actually good.

Quantity =/= quality, so, from the MSQ to the new exploratory zone to the new deep dungeon and even the graphics update, I'm just hoping everything they give us in the new expansion is good.

[eligos-venator]

♗: What has their character arc been like? ♜: How would they fair if they had to rebuild their life from scratch? ≠: What is something they abhor the most?≭: What is something they adore the most? ☿: Tell us a random fact (How’s it going Eli? ^.^)

♜: How would they fair if they had to rebuild their life from scratch? - also asked by @phoebe-of-ivalice!

Eligos has had a few mini arcs that don't necessarily tie together in a series of singular events focused around himself. Rather, he's grown and learned and then grown further though his interactions with others, with accidents and projects often helping push him along. Currently, the character is both coming to terms with he doesn't need to run any longer, as Garlemald is gone, and being what he is now means he no longer needs to fear all he comes across, and can relax and be happy for the first time in his life. So of course he is completely at a loss, unsure of the path forward beyond the goal for power that always drove him from the start, and where that may yet lead. I've a few options but I'm letting roleplay and who he meets and how that might alter his views decide rather than having a hard path laid out that he must take.

As for rebuilding his life from scratch, he'd manage pretty well now. In the past, Eligos would have struggled greatly, but he has learned enough about business and deal making that he can use to get himself back up off the ground. He's effectively doing so currently, roleplay wise. He lost the armor he spent the past year working on refining and most of his equipment and weapons, and had to start over.

As for abhorrence, Eligos despises few things so long as they don't present a personal problem for him. Particularly now that he can afford to relax without fear of a knife in his back. But the one thing he retains a deep disdain for are those who attribute the works of man to the benevolence of the gods or beings they follow. To Eligos, that's spitting in the face of the efforts of individuals, and reduces their decisions and efforts to a mere afterthought in favor of a being that may not even exist taking precedence. Which in his mind is an insult to their ability to make their own choices and be responsible for their own actions.

For adoration, Eligos really doesn't have much he adores. The few important pieces of gear he had were always viewed as tools, not something to get attached to, so losing them didn't affect him beyond frustration felt at all the time he spent on them all being a complete waste. Though if his enjoyment of getting attention counts, then that would be the closest I could give for an answer.

As for a random fact, since I'm answering as the writer, and you asked how it's going, I'll be truthful and say life's not exactly gone entirely well. But it is what it is, and we all carry on to the best of our abilities in spite of it all. But with that aside, the random fact is I've a cat whose singular goal in life is to sit on my lap. If I'm sitting, it's almost assured she's in my lap, sleeping or curled up and watching me play. Sometimes she'll help out, batting at the keyboard as I play in order to try to help me. And her timing tends to be impeccable, right as mechanics go out. She's helped relieve Eligos of his life in many raids and dungeons as a result!

Thank you for the asks @eorzeanflowers and @phoebe-of-ivalice !

[manta-is-yelling]

What a terrible question.

Because mechanics wise? It's YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse. However, it does nothing for ffxivs lore. Instead it somehow gave an ending foe a 20+ year franchise in an unrelated IP. The music slapped and the mechanics as well as glam though? They hit almost as hard as the SE building.

Lore wise? I feel like CT/Binding Coils are the most relevant, and the implementation method of the coils is a crying shame. Noone knows how important they are unless they go out of their way to dedicate a couple hours to them with a friend or 2. People have no clue why we can turn into a Phoenix for the 10th anniversary. And Ruby Weapon is only half as traumatizing for them.

CT: I- I don't need to explain why it's the most lore relevant raid.

I love me some lore. Their music...exists. It's not bad. However, it's not

Alexander. Sonic Boom. Alexander- I feel like, lore wise, you probably can skip these. However, music wise? You'd be missing out. And you can't fully appreciate The Twinning. I think we all deserve to fuck up the Alexander Mechanics and vibe to the Brute Justice theme.

Ivalice/Omega- Omega is irrelevant til it isn't. Then, suddenly important characters got development in silence and that development became a plot point for MSQ and I thought we were just having fun with cameos.

Neither raid is my favorite set, but one gave us Alpha and the other unlocks The Bozjan Southern Front. Those are some important developments.

My actual favorite raids that I'm always excited to do is 100% Aglaia, and The Tower and Paradigms Breach. And Pandaemonium isn't ever *not* fun. But like, Alexander is such a funky time. Pandae's music does miss the mark here in there but Hic Svnt Leones and Scream are such good motifs.

[girlbob-boypants]

Since everyone else is doing it. Thoughts about the new alliance raid:

-Firstly. The voice acting was...meh. Especially in comparison to the Ivalice raids I was very just “this sounds like someone rehearsing lines.”

-Everyone hyped up the final song but it wasn’t that great for me. Like it was fine. Not worth 1-3mil on the marketboard tho. I’ll stick to Return to Oblivion.

-Mechanics were fun. Hard to see. I feel like visual clutter has been real bad in both the raid and dungeon of 6.1. May just be I’m out of practice but still.

-I don’t fucking trust Deryk. He’s either made by the gods or is one of the gods and was sent to lure us in.

-The surprise twist that they don’t want to kill us and were just *pretending* so they could *test* us didn’t excite me. Especially cause they’re like “oh we’re so good we promise we just needed to do that for *secret reasons*” like that’s worse. You realize that’s worse right.

-I don’t care for the revelation that they’re *real* gods unlike those *awful false primals* the beast tribes summon. For obvious reasons.

-Azeyma give me your top

[osakasshitpit]

I love Final Fantasy XIV

So I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV, and after playing for around 180 hours, I haven’t even finished A Realm Reborn. Normally, 180 hours is an insane time frame for a game to manage and hold my attention. Persona 5 Royal was 180 hours of game time, and that was slowly outstaying its welcome. FFXIV must be doing something right, because just recently I went to a convention and bought a Y’shtola Keychain in a heartbeat. I haven’t had time to play XIV a lot prior to this, since I was stupidly grinding Praetorium for days and got burned out. I haven’t played much in 2 months, and Y’shtola only really has a minor role during A Realm Reborn’s Storyline. Despite that, I started in Limsa and Y’shtola stuck with me since then. I just had to buy that keychain. My girlfriend asked me about it and despite me staying away from the game after being burned out, I explained to her in great enthusiasm why I loved Y’shtola and why I loved the game so much. I think that’s the first time I really realized how attached I was to this world, these characters, this game.

I came to FFXIV after having played WoW from Vanilla through WotLK, after having barely ever touched a MMO since quitting WoW. Honestly, I was very skeptical of XIV but holy fucking shit did it ever win me over. They are completely different games, mind you, but that is a good thing in my opinion.

So here is the longest tumblr rant post I have written so far, I think.

To be fair, the first 20 levels or so were kinda slow. You get thrown into the deep end and get bombarded with lore and characters, terms and phrases that you don't understand. For fucks sake, the opening cutscene shows Louisoix fighting Bahamut front and center. Its this big, epic moment of sacrifice, but to someone who has not played 1.0 and who doesn't know anything about the lore, this just zips right past you. During the main story of ARR, they keep talking about Louisoix and how important he is, but you haven't even seen the guy because he died before the game even started. I only really realized this today, it took me 180 hours and a look at the wiki to connect the dots. It really is a slow burn, but that slow burn was okay because everything else was so fantastic.

While the world can arguably be more subdued than Azeroth in parts, there is still this distinctive style that I quickly fell in love with. It’s fantastical, but it still feels grounded. Part of that has to do with how the game introduces you to the world, and how the main story quests explain to you the lore bit by bit. I feel like much of the world design of WoW was down to “the rule of cool”. Now, I’m not saying XIV doesn’t have that, but I feel like XIV always goes the extra mile to explain why this cool shit is here. Everything you see out there in the world feels like it has a purpose, a reason to be there and an explanation on how it works. The factions make sense, the political conflicts you get entangled in are believable. I feel like I am kind of biased to be honest. What got me to play FFXIV in the first place was seeing that Viera are a playable race. I’m a sucker for Final Fantasy, not in short part to my memories of Playing Final Fantasy Tactics and XII. XII is still my favorite game in the series, and much of that has to do with the world, Ivalice. Viera were always my favorite race of the ones seen in Ivalice. Seeing as you can play a Viera in XIV, I just had to try. Thinking about it, XII and XIV have a lot in common when it comes to world building.

One of the weirdest things to acclimate for me was how FFXIV handles story. I was used to WoW, where story was basically non-existent and you did what you did to see numbers rise and to unlock now content you could do. You are basically never involved in the story of WoW, you are just kind of there for the ride. In FFXIV, you are the main character. You are involved in what happens at all times, and that is kinda strange coming from WoW. At first I thought I wouldn’t like it, but the game made it work in my opinion. I also didn’t expect there to be so much of story to begin with. Kind of ironically the moment I realized just how much there was to experience was when I went through Ul’dah and saw a blue quest. Now, blue quest markers mean there is some content you can unlock by doing this quest. A lot of these are kinda short, with a bit of dialogue and some bits of lore for you to enjoy and I thought this one would be no difference. After all, the hook is basically just to help this lady mourn for the death of a friend. What I got was a fabulous detective adventure that spanned over the entire continent, where in I had to help the worlds most manly detective uncover the secret behind a mysterious phantom thief. To say the least, this 21 quest long quest line brought be hours upon hours of joy and had me in stitches throughout. And it was completely optional. I don’t think I even remember a single moment from any quest in WoW that made me this excited for it, optional or otherwise.

Ultimately these are very different games that try very different things.

Dungeons and Raids were a different thing. I remember when I rolled a new character for WotLK and wanted to do karazhan because I used to like doing that raid with my guild back in TBC. I could not for the live of me find a group willing to do it, because everyone was way more focused on the new content, so they could get better gear. Regardless, it just wouldn’t have been the same experience anyways I fear, because the new gear from the new Dungeons outclassed the raid gear from TBC, so karazhan would be way easier and a much different experience. In FFXIV, every dungeon is level synced by default, meaning if a higher level character joins, they get basically downgraded to the level the dungeon was designed for. Couple that with the Duty Roulette feature and suddenly, there was always someone to do any given dungeon with. I remember when I had to do the crystal tower raids and thought “why would they tie main story progression to a raid, I will never find a group to do that properly” but low and behold, I found a group within 30 minutes or less and raided through the entire set of raids within a day. Dungeons and Raids are generally a very pick up and play thing in FFXIV. To be fair, dungeons got easier and more pick up and play in WoW too, but Raids were always the endgame thing where you had to gear up and learn to play. In FFXIV, much more lenient. No corpse walking required. I say this, but I have yet to do the Coils of Bahamut or any Savage Raids. I have only heard that there is plenty of hardcore raid content for those who want that.

That’s nothing to say about the actual gameplay. FFXIV is a tab-target MMO, like so many others, but it manages to keep this kind of gameplay fresh by introducing a lot of mechanics that make the game more active than the typical “I stand here and hit my rotation a lot”. For starters, most enemies have special abilities that you can actually dodge by moving out of the way. There will a area marker on the floor and everyone within that area will be hit. It starts out easy, but later dungeons really start kicking your ass with this mechanic. You really need to say on your toes. In addition, every class is extremely different. They all have special mechanics unique to them, special meters and resources they will have to manage during combat and so on. For example, a Red Mage (the class I’m playing currently), has two meters that fill up as you cast spells. They generally have two types of spells, white and black magic. Each type fills its respective bar. Once they are both full enough, you can go in and do a more powerful melee rotation. However, if one bar is fuller than the other, the other bar will fill up slower. Since you need to fill both, you want to balance that out. You get instant casts for spells after performing a damaging spell, and you have some spells with a short cast time and good damage output that you want to cast and then use the instant cast of to cast a more damaging spell that has a long cast time. But these short cast, good damage spells require a you get from casting a spell of the respective type. So, in essence, you want to balance your use of black and white magic, but you also want to use the proc you get from casting your white and black magic, which means you cast more of the type which inherently unbalances your gauges. It becomes this micromanagement game you play with your procs and instant casts, so you can go in and do the big, flashy sword combo. And that’s just the red mage at around 50. Every class has something like this, and it’s all unique to them. Learning a class is not just learning the rotation and spells you have anymore, it’s really learning how to effectively play your class. Also, positioning. Some abilities do more damage from certain positions, so you will have to dance around an enemy to hit all the sweet spots with classes like monks. These complexities get introduced slowly as you level up, so you have plenty of time to learn the mechanics. My favorite feature might be the class system itself, though. In FFXIV, you aren’t limited to one class for the entire duration of your characters career. You can, from a certain point forwards, choose any class you wish and level that up instead. You can freely switch between classes outside of combat, too. If you are dedicated enough, you can level them all up to max, even. This means if you don’t like a class or the direction a class is going in, you can switch. I for my part started as an arcanist, so I unlocked Summoner at 30. I played Summoner up to 50 but I was just not meshing as well with the direction the summorer went in. So, I switched to Red Mage and after some getting used to, Its now my new favorite. Arcanists are special, because you actually unlock two classes at 30, so I also unlocked Scholars. Scholars are healers and that became my main dungeon class, since queue times are way shorter for healers. This would be unthinkable in WoW, and love the fact this is a thing here.

If I had to describe it, WoW is an MMO with RPG Elements, while FFXIV is a JRPG with MMO elements. I didn’t know I needed that, but in retrospect, it makes sense. The thing that really killed my progress in WoW was that I didn’t have anyone to play with anymore. My friends all dropped from the game and while I generally like doing solo content from time to time, I’m pretty introverted, after all... MMORPGs are usually most fun with friends. Final Fantasy XIV is a JRPG first, an MMO second. There is so much to keep your attention as a solo player, its nuts. All my friends who play this game, play on a different data center, so I can’t even visit them. Despite that, I had a lot of fun in my time with the game.

My experience with the game was incredibly positive, and I don’t think it will get worse from here. Everyone keeps telling me how great Heavensward is. I just have to finish 16 more quests and I’ll be able to see for myself what the fuss is about.

Honestly, if I had to say anything negative, it would be how longwinded ARR is. I mean, its not bad by any means, but I can see how someone could be turned off by this huge storyblock. Worst of all is, after you hit 50 and reach the end of ARR’s story line, there are 80 quests before you can even start with Heavensward. Since everyone keeps going on about how great it is, it’s kind of annoying how long you have to work to even get to it. In retrospect, it kinda makes sense though. These quests are meant to be played over months and months throughout a update cycle and bridge the narrative gap between one storyblock and the next, but holy fucking shit why did it have to be THAT long. They even cut like 20 of the quests from this already insanely long quest line. What the fuck. This is supposed to be an epilogue to ARR and it feels like I played a whole fucking JRPG in between ARR and Heavensward. Oh well. Thankfully, they learned from this and made the post-story blocks shorter.

I will just say that I can recommend this game. You should give it a try. Just... try not to drop the game before it gets really, really good.

[canmom]

Tokusatsu Tuesday Six: Zeiram

Hello friends! Tokusatsu Tuesday has recovered itself, and tonight I’ve got something pretty damn cool: the movie Zeiram, showing off the brilliantly baroque buglike creature designs of Keita Amemiya.

Unlike someone like Anno, I haven’t been able to find a ton of information about Amemiya beyond his long filmography on a variety of tokusatsu productions since the 80s, as well as the odd videogame like the Ivalice raid series in FFXIV. The highlights include for example the post-apocalyptic reboot Mechanical Violator Hakaider (1995), numerous contributions to Kamen Rider, and his own sprawling Garo series which I confess I have not the foggiest clue what it’s about.

Zeiram (1991) is one of his earlier works. Weird coincidence actually, I was like, ‘hey I was born in that year, I wonder what day it came out’ and, turns out, I am the precise age of this tokusatsu movie about bug aliens. This can’t be a coincidence.

Outside of that, all I know about it is that @lyravelocity​ thought I would love its sense of design, and I have a broad strokes understanding that the plot concerns a cruel, immortal alien called Zeiram, who’s closely pursued by a bounty hunter Iria. Zeiram flees to - where else? - good ol’ planet Earth, setting up a series of cool setpiece battles as Iria and her comrade Bob (no seriously!) try to capture him and then keep him captured. Fun premise, weakened somewhat by the presence of a couple of comic relief electric company employees who everyone seems to agree are the worst part of the movie.

Zeiram inspired a prequel OVA in 1994 by Ashi Productions, which features both some incredibly stylish setting design and at least a dollop of outstanding animation... I would love to know the story behind this animation getting made. It also saw a prequel, titled Zeiram 2, in the same year... but of the two, the animation seems much better remembered.

So my plan tonight to do something a little outside of the strict ‘tokusatsu on Tuesday, animation on Thursday’ formula, and show both Iria Zeiram: The Animation and then Zeiram itself. Maybe even Zeiram 2 if people aren’t worn out by that point. I honestly don’t fully know what to expect here, but the designs I’ve seen from the movie and series alike are dead cool so i’m pretty sure there’s going to be stuff to enjoy!

Tokusatsu Tuesday 6 will commence in an hour and a half, at 7pm UK time, on twitch.tv/canmom as usual. hope to see you there!

[terramythos]

like in retrospect I suppose it makes sense they would use the raid whose story has the absolute least amount of relevance to anything else thus far. Even ivalice got a nod in the pandaemonium raids for. Reasons

All I'm saying is at least one of the patch trials needs to have a time freeze mechanic or I'll riot

ok the funniest thing about my dt live blog was me big brain speculating that Shadows of Mhach was suddenly MSQ relevant then the story was like um well actually. Wrong heavensward-specific raid 👍