#also I know this isn’t in the Ivalice raid at all but I was just banging out a silly expression I’ve had in mind fo So Long

[candycryptids]

POV you’ve asked her to subtract from her current maximum health to create a Prime Number

[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.

[autumnslance]

would you be willing to make a masterpost of all your sharlayan research and headcanons? please please please and THANK YOU if you do

I can certainly try! A lot of my info is from what little we have so far, and my own fics are where a lot of my headcanons go to live, with little snippets about various characters here and there in my scattered lore posts, as well as stuff I’ve collected from other players.

Other Resources In Louisoix’s Wake - The twins’ official Calamity short story on the Lodestone. One Name, One Promise - Thancred’s backstory, from Limsa to Sharlayan training to his early assignment in Ul’dah and then early Shadowbringers. Mirke’s Menagerie - A compilation of lore info from in game, lorebooks, panels, interviews, short stories, etc. There are about 4 or 5 Sharlayan-specific posts @mirkemenagerie has made.

Encyclopaedia Eorzea - If you can get your hands on copies (physical officially; digitally is Unofficial so far as I know), I recommend it! They’re both good reads, though EE 1 is the one with a blurb on Sharlayan as a nation.

Posts by Other People - that I have collected Leveva Comment About Archon Loaf - Keeping in mind Sharlayan’s bad cuisine has been canonical for years per lorebook 1. They care more about ease of eating while studying, also seeing culinary arts as an academic field, not a practical daily exercise. Lorebook 1 Astrologian Lore - screencaps from the lorebook. Phaedra’s Teen Scion Sharlayan Antics fic - I am happy to take responsibility for inspiring @phaedra-mero to write this delightful scene.

My Own Posts Red Mage Research - Includes books from Gubal Library. Scion Ages - Pointing out the ages of the Scions, particularly the Archons.

My Fics - Sometimes there’s more HC musings in the Notes and Comments. I try to stay close to canon, at least as it is when the fic was written. Rogue’s Prelude - Multichapter, teen Thancred meets Louisoix, Yda, and Papalymo. Written a year prior to Thancred’s official ShB story above. Aetherology & Skulking Boots-Beginnings - Y’shtola agrees to tutor Thancred in how to speak properly as teenagers in the colony. Chin Up - Yda gives Thancred advice as youths in the colony. Dreams of Home-Lucubration - Yda, Lyse, and Thancred in the colony. Younger Sister - Thancred’s relationships with the Hext sisters over time. In Violet’s Wake-Louisoix’s Children - A Master Matoya PoV from StB patches. There’s a brief chapter with her and Y’mhitra in Dreams of Home, too. Excerpts from other posts - things that ended up as commentary on other threads, with some editing since.

From a thread that started off as about Thancred’s Gear from ARR to HW:

Sharlayan is a nation on an island NW of Eorzea proper; the Sharlayan everyone we know hails from was a colony that became a city-state a few hundred years back and part of the Eorzean Alliance, in the Dravanian Hinterlands, where Idyllshire is now. After the fall of Ala Mhigo and then the Battle of Silvertear Skies, the Forum (their ruling body) decided to abandon the city and return to the motherland, a process that took 5 years before they all just teleported out in a day. Except Matoya, and those archons that worked for Louisoix and that he asked to stay and go to the remaining 3 Alliance cities. This would have been 15 years before ARR/Heavensward.

The Students of Baldesion are also Sharlayan; the Isle of Val, their headquarters, being under that nation’s banner. Sons of St Coinach are another offshoot; Rammbroes (Crystal Tower raid story) was originally part of Louisoix’s Circle of Knowing (who eventually became the Scions), and Y’shtola’s sister Y’mhitra is one of the Sons and part of the Summoner storyline.

Thancred got involved as a youth–by trying to pick Louisoix’s pocket, and impressing the old man with his skills, and so Louisoix brought Thancred back with him to give the kid an opportunity for study. Yda and Lyse escaped Ala Mhigo, and with help from Papalymo, who was part of an effort to help refugees seeking shelter in Sharlayan, they ended up there, and Yda is the one who actually became an archon.

Most of the other senior Scions, so far as I know, are native to Sharlayan, either the motherland or the colony. The Leveilleur twins were born in the Hinterlands Sharlayan, but raised in the motherland, as they were less than a year old when the exodus happened. The university they and Krile attended is the Studium. Becoming an Archon seems to be a separate process not everyone goes through, and is a demonstration of mastery in chosen field(s) of study. That’s the significance of the tattoos some of the Scions have on their necks or faces.

Sharlayan is basically a nation particularly focused on academia; the trouble is, for the last couple decades, it’s been controlled by a faction of isolationists who would rather hoard knowledge and sit in the proverbial ivory tower looking down on non-Sharlayans, claiming others would abuse their knowledge, and that they should simply observe history and not try to affect it. Louisoix, Matoya, and the organizations they associate with (the Circle of Knowing/Scions; Sons of St Coinach, the Students of Baldesion, etc), think that viewpoint is stupid and go against it. A big part of the Astrologian storyline is dealing with Sharlayans who dislike Leveva’s family sharing Sharlayan astrology with outsiders, for example.

What sort of relationship Sharlayan and Ishgard had before the exodus isn’t really detailed much; both were pretty insular and focused on their own issues (like many of Eorzea’s city-states outside of crises), and the Dravanian threat at the time might have kept them pretty separated by land. Sharlayan was responsible for Eorzea’s aetherytes and keeping the aethernets working, though, and it’s suggested they still handle that post-Calamity to some degree. We pay fees for teleports because reconstruction and upkeep is pricey for all of the city-states.

Next post:

The Isle of Val was the headquarters of the Students of Baldesion, Krile’s family and order, and was a Sharlayan institution. It’s destruction/missing status happened during the ARR patches, and Krile was saved by Hydaelyn as she has the Echo (as an aside: you can hear Minfilia talking to Krile via linkpearl in the background on the Enterprise after rescuing the Scions from Castrum Centri before Ultima, and she constantly refers to and worries about Krile after the Isle of Val goes missing, but then plot happened to Minfilia so we never see them together as friends). The Ascians seemed to have a hand in the Isle’s disappearance…but there’s story about the fate of the Isle of Val and the Students of Baldesion in Stormblood’s Eureka plotline.

As for the Archon Marks, if they do confer social benefits, aside from being an easily seen status symbol for some highly skilled & educated folks, it hasn’t been mentioned yet in concrete terms, though we know the rank has benefits (like access to forbidden lore). Mostly they are a way to tell at a glance who has obtained the rank. It’s like if people with doctorates had a tattoo of their degree symbol on them so you knew just by looking.

As of Shadowbringers 5.4, we know that to become an Archon a thesis is required, and it’s a great deal more work than a Studium graduate’s final thesis. It strikes me that Studium (which some of the Scion Archons also attended) is like undergrad or Masters studies, while Archon is a Doctorate level.

I personally headcanon that the arcane marks confer some minor, slowed visible aging and other vague magical benefits befitting their rank in Sharlayan society. Really, that’s a way for the devs to avoid new models and add to the confusion in 1.0′s intros and the running joke about Y’shtola’s age, BUT let’s come up with an in-world thing, too. There has to be some explanation for Thancred’s perpetual baby face when he’s not RPing a Mountain Hobo ;) Also we really don’t know for sure how old Matoya is. Just old.

Lorebook 2 Notes:

Mikoto Jinba (Return to Ivalice, Save the Queen storylines) worked on aetheric siphon research with Moenbryda, and at 29 is the youngest Raen with the rank of Archon in recent history. It was Jessie’s connections that brought her to Cid’s attention and got her involved in the Return to Ivalice story.

Ejika Tsunjika (Eureka storyline) went to school at the same time as Krile and Leveilleur twins, endorsed by Galuf Baldesion, who Ejika later chose to work under. He’s resentful of Krile and the twins as Ejika himself is of humble origins and had to struggle to get to where he is, yet hides his Archon brands with high collars as he refuses to believe himself unique or exceptional.

[entheirys]

from the ffxiv ask meme : 2 , 5 , 9 , 10 , 15 , 19 , and 27 !!

final fantasy xiv get-to-know ( accepting. )

2. Favorite class/job?

dark knight my beloved <3  i might be ... a little bit biased since i started maining tank classes, but DRK is absolutely my favorite at present ; and for what damage it does, i did start as a BRD main up through SHB content, so i have a fondness for it at its core ( i think !!! personally !!! it should get buffed more !!! ) but i seem to have this curse that whenever i finally learn/start to enjoy a class, something gets taken away from it or its damage is reduced next patch, this has been a continued track record with every class i’ve picked up, and now that i’m starting to learn RPR (and enjoying it quite a bit!) i fear that they’ll nerf it next  🤡  

5. Favorite character(s)?

this is where the judgement comes in i’m crying but ... my all time favorite is undoubtedly zenos. i love his entire villain vibe, i love how he just ... exists, doing whatever he feels like, i love how he’s a very good counter to the warrior of light, and also he’s just. really pretty.  🤡 i get teased a lot (respectfully) for my ever-predictable taste, but i love most villains at the core because i love trying to understand why they act or are the way they are, but in all honesty a lot of xiv characters have that level of complexity i enjoy, so i have a really good time with it !

other honorable mentions are, as given: g’raha tia, emet-selch, hythlodaeus, y’shtola, ryne & gaia, haurchefant, emmanellain, sicard, hildibrand, and the chais.

9. Favorite trial?

answered here !

10. Favorite dungeon?

answered here !

15. Favorite mount?

i bled for that stupid glowing cactus AND fenrir the first year i played xiv while i was sick and i take every opportunity to use either one whenever the opportunity arises, which is often.

19. Is there a character/boss/etc that hasn’t appeared yet (or been referenced) that you’d like to see?

[SLAMS MY HANDS ON THE TABLE] WHERE IS MY MERACYDIA CONTENT !! I AM DEMANDING MORE LORE IN THE UPCOMING PATCHES/EXPANSION BECAUSE MY WHOLE WOL IS SUPPOSED TO ORIGINATE FROM THERE AND AAAAAAAAAAaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA   😭 😭 😭 i just ... i want to know everything and i’m given crumbs ... it hurts just a little bit. maybe.

( as an aside, i’d love to meet the azem that looked similar to us in elpis, as well as learn more about the menphina and halone. i know the current raid series is about the twelve, but i’m impatient and i want to see all of them as soon as possible, respectfully. )

27. You now have the ability to add in one character and one dungeon from any Final Fantasy title prior to XIV, who/what do you pick and why?

i’ll admit i haven’t really played/seen much of other final fantasy games, but !!! fran is in this one too, but where is balthier?? we get his clothes but my man’s just isn’t here??? i miss him?? so much?? i’ll do anything to see him in the game even though the ivalice/rabanastre raid series just completely ignores the man. i’m pleading. please.

[avauntus]

I was recently lured back to Final Fantasy XIV by their “returner” campaign (if you are away a while, log in and play for free for two weeks). I’ve been having a great deal of fun, got over my “healing yips” and jumped into group content, and finished the Shadowbringers main “5.0″ storyline.

(Yes, it made me cry. Yes, like everyone else-- I concede it is excellent as everyone says.)

Final Fantasy games always kind of...”wink and nod” at their series traditions. And thus I’ve been happily playing along (when I’m not sobbing, natch), running across the occasional call-back to threads I know from earlier in the series, going “Oh, that’s cute. That’s clever,” and not thinking too hard...until the most recent breadcrumb dialogue line for the continuation of the story (patch 5.1) made me put down my controller, put my head in my hands, and go “Aaaaaargh!”

Urianger in brief: “I think I’ll be a problem ON PURPOSE.” lol.

Theory overthinking hours! I can come back later and see if I was right. 

SPOILERS, after the cut, for Shadowbringers through 5.0 and, uh...Final Fantasies 3/6, 7, 10, and 12. (lol)

One of the very, very clever things Shadowbringers did is finish up much of the story of the Umbral Calamities by retconing the existence of the FFXIV storyline as taking place and/or belonging to the same universe of every single other Final Fantasy game all at once, many worlds existing side-by-side ignorant of each other, each just sliightly different from the next.

Which means all those “clever callbacks” aren’t just fun Easter eggs for fans-- they’re also fair game for the plot. If the game isn’t just being goofy, it’s leaning really hard into the Final Fantasy tradition of the “Oh NO Statues.” 😆

The what now?

The “Oh NO Statues” are my mental nickname for the recurring powerful, often sentient monuments that show up in Final Fantasy and invariably break the world:

 Kefka did a number on home values with these three in FFVI, for example.

Later Final Fantasy games would refine and riff on this, of course. “Oh no, the statue is a space alien (?)” (Jenova, FFVII); “Oh no, the statue came to life and destroyed our civilization!” (Sin, FFX).

This isn’t Zanarkand, but it totally could be, right?

And my personal favorite of the “Oh NO Statues” incarnations, The Occuria, FFXII. Statues who aim “guide the History of Man,” ancient beings who manifest as aetheric masked forms, often visible only to a few, whose origins are (in FFXII) unknown:

Balthier: This creature... So this is your Venat?

Cid: Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca! Just how far will you go for power? Does your lust for nethicite consume you? Am I right? I am, aren't I. A worthy daughter of the Dynast-King! You would do well to go to Giruvegan. Who knows? You may receive a new Stone for your trouble.

Ashe: Your words mean nothing to me!

Cid: The reins of History back in the hands of Man.

And later:

Cid: To hell with the Occuria and their stones! What good a power that cannot be harnessed? Baubles best-suited for study, no more.

Vayne: We conquered two kingdoms, that you might study these "baubles."

Cid: Oh, I am grateful for the sacrifice. Without it, manufacted nethicite would have eluded us - an unrivaled weapon. Tell me, Venat. Have I not been an apt pupil?

Venat: My counsel did but guide your able hand. Through power of Man, the Stones did you perfect. Yes. So much accomplished in six fleeting years. Man's fervor o'er all obstacles prevailing.

Cid: Our lives are much too short. You undying might waste long centuries away, but we, I fear, cannot.

Vayne: Just so. Had we more time, we might have used more "prudent" measures.

Cid: Your greatest work still lies before you. Not lightly will the Occuria allow you to wrest the reins of History from their grasp.

Venat: Indeed. What claim does Gerun have on history's reins... seated on throne immortal, rent from time? For your ascendance, Vayne, I offer prayer. May you attain all that which is your due.

Vayne: Attain it I shall.

This is... fascinating, because it is heavily implied by a different storyline in FFXIV that Ivalice and the events of FFXII, exist somewhere in the worlds that were shattered from the Source that was FFXIV’s ‘main world.’ There is even an Ivalice in FFXIV, but it is NOT the one we know from FFXII-- Fran exists in FFXIV as a general of Dalmasca, and to all appearances (that I’ve seen, so far), a key difference is Balthier never existed, or never left his position in the Empire.

(On realizing this, I took a good minute to be amused that Balthier really WAS the “leading man” as he so often trumpeted, that apparently so much depended on his existing in his bravura sky piratery, all unknowing-- bless.)    

As Ivalice exists -- well, the ‘Occuria’ are much like Emet-Selch and the other Ascians, aren’t they? “...seated on throne immortal, rent from time...” indeed.

Of course, in FFXIV, we’ve struck down most of the “relevant” Ascians by the end of Shadowbringers so what then? Almost certainly, the last “sane” one is gone. 

But what’s interesting to me is this: Emet-Selch asked us to remember his people, and he mentions the three Ascians we know as antagonists-- but every single time he talked about his “purpose” it wasn’t to save the named Ascians. It was to save some unnamed other or others, his “lost friends and loves”-- one of which is heavily implied to be connected to the player character. 

(There’s a whole “fragments of a shredded soul thing,” but-- ‘we don’t have time to get into that’ meme-- here.)

The other-other Ascian that is eluded to --heavily-- in the run-up to the end of Shadowbringers 5.0 is the Unnamed Fourteenth-- the Paragon who turned away from the other Ascian councilmembers when the details of their plan to save their civilization and the toll that would be paid were revealed. I think we’re meant to think this conscientious objector is the one who summoned the Light, to grant autonomy to mortals rather than guide them towards a destiny that would serve the Ascians’ return, even if the mortals were “shadows” of what had come before the worlds were split.

Beyond a lot of breadcrumbs, we don’t get much more than that in the ending bit of 5.0, but that sure sounds like Venat to me.

Venat was always portrayed by a woman voice actor, despite the Occuria being “genderless,” and...

OK, so...what does this have to do with nethicite?

In FFXIV, “manufactured nethicite” exists -- it’s called White Nethicite Auricite (oops!) and the Scions (the faction our character belongs to) use it to trap Ascians’ will and shatter their energies.

It’s also heavily implied that if natural auracite is allowed to feed on mortal souls and imbued with aether (energy), it will cause mortals to go insane. The Ivalice raid sequence spells all this out, but in short-- your fears and desires are made manifest in exchange for your life energy. Over time, auracite exposed to mortals gains a low-level chaotic will of its own, like the One Ring in Tolkien’s works.

It is, in short, a staggeringly insane idea to propose putting your soul into a soul-eating crystal as Urianger is doing. And Urianger has no way of knowing this, of course, but this will of the nethicite in FFXII came from the Occuria -- their tools to “guide the History of Man.”

There are no more unsundered Ascians left worth mentioning (Elidibius, lol), but the energy of that Unnamed Fourteenth is out there scattered in the Light-- and this is “White [light] Auracite.” Despite everything, I don’t know that the Light are all sunshine and rainbows for mortals. For one, they like stability. 

If the Scions start unknowingly imbuing themselves with the powers of Ascians by merging themselves with insane immortal chaos crystals (!!), they may manage to bring about the Eight Umbral Calamity and the end of civilization anyway by unbalancing the world(s) themselves.

...Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants for Emet-Selch? I mean, if the main character hadn’t had to put him out of his misery already. (*sob*) 

[porta-decumana]

Zadnor & Bozja’s Ending

I know it’s been the bandwagon to hate on Werlyt and I’ve been critical of that plotline in the past as well.  But Bozja may have just taken the cake for unsatisfactory storytelling, in my opinion, while also skirting into the same realm of “we’re gonna give imperialism a pass because maybe the Empire isn’t that bad uwu”.  Obvious spoilers for rank 25 quests, the Dalriada raid, and Bozja’s story ending under the cut along with screenshots.

This is a pretty critical look at Zadnor specifically so if you don’t wanna read that then feel free to bypass this post.

Bajsaljen’s Constitution was probably the first part that really made me scratch my head and question the entire plot.  I was convinced at first I was too sleepy to process what Bajsaljen was saying but then I went back and... yeah, he really did say that.

To which, Marsak calls him out on, a fact that I appreciate because my response was pretty much the same level of “wtf” as him and the nameless/dialogue-less NPCs in the room.

If you haven’t played Bozja in its entirety yet, you may not understand why I felt like this dialogue was incredibly appalling.  The instances are filled with horrific encounters, some of which are:

Dabog, a former Resistance soldier who was experimented on in order to become an expert warmachina pilot and later shows back up in Zadnor as a model swap for the final boss of Gyr Abania.  In other words, mutated beyond recognition.

Lorvo, another former member of the Resistance, who was tempered by the Queen.  You fight alongside his student, who is trying to save him.

Shemhazai, a death spirit summoned with auracite and the sacrifices of Garlean soldiers.

Delubrum Reginae’s 2nd boss (I believe?) are a group of former Blades who have been tempered and their bodies have mutated.  These are former comrades you, as the WoL, personally fought alongside in the early parts of the Southern Front.  Named characters with backstories.

Fabineau quo Soranus - a brutal commander that is known to torment his subordinates and use men and animals both as test subjects.  

And this is just a fraction of what I can think of off the top of my head.  So understand that when I saw Bajsaljen say the above parts, I was questioning what parts of the Empire he was talking about.  And I know he tries to use Misija as his reason for this but it still just doesn’t quite sit right with the literal everything else that happened fighting for Bozja.  Because you can make the argument that Misija saw the Imperial way of life better but also you can make the argument that she was enacting a revenge plan that transcended multiple generations.  Misija’s issue with Bozjan society was the mistreatment of her and her family as well as the murder of her ancestor-- classism.  And while her hatred of Bozja and its high society (the Blades) might be understandable, I think it does little to excuse the rampant death and cruelty the IVth legion goes on to do.

I think what Bajsaljen is trying to say is that he does not want to create another society that would create more Misijas. But in doing so, it feels like he’s giving the IVth legion a pass after all the atrocities they’ve done (even calling the occupation “peace” and that... hnghhh is it peace when people are being used as experiments, Bajsaljen?  And they’re being oppressed?) and it just feels really, really tone-deaf.  Especially given that Bajsaljen’s top soldiers were all, for the most part, tempered and then put to death.  That just adds an extra ouch factor.

I don’t wanna spend too long talking about this bit so I’m gonna move onto the next offender, which is Gabranth, or more specifically, what happens to Gabranth (or... how it happens, rather).  Honestly, I was uncomfortable with the Bajsaljen stuff but the Gabranth field notes absolutely floored me.  It feels as though there was either scrapped content here or... the team decided they could not continue the plotline with Gabranth any longer and decided to write him out in a note that only a handful of the playerbase will probably read because otherwise, there’s no indicator that Gabranth’s tale is over.  Here are the bits of the field note in question:

And you might go, “Wow, that’s a wild way to end the Bozja tale” to which I would agree and remind you that none of this is shown in-game, it’s all just in a field note that could be easily skipped over.  Yes.  That’s right.  Dalmasca’s freedom, Gabranth’s fate, Lyon going full mutiny... it’s all in a field note.  The ending Bozja cutscenes actually have dialogue like this:

In another scene, with Lyon and Gabranth in Valnain, Dalmasca.

Note: this is an allusion to Noah having the same terminal illness as his father.

The scene ends with Lyon looking surprised at the weapons and Sicinius and Gabranth go to discuss the findings.  The scene then cuts to this photo and the questline ends.

So to put it mildly... I’m mad.  Why are we supposed to find out the fate of Dalmasca-- something that’s been in and out of the story since Stormblood-- through a field note?  Why is Lyon’s betrayal also found out this way?  And Gabranth’s alleged demise?  I’m incredibly iffy on the choice to do this in the plot but I would be considerably less mad if any of this was indicated in the cutscenes.  I happen to really like Gabranth’s XII’s iteration and the fact that we got a field note on him made me excited.  I only found out about Dalmasca being freed, Lyon’s treachery, Gabranth’s death because of that.  And that was incredibly jarring to read given the cutscenes I had just watched.  There’s no indication that any of that would happen and I can’t help but feel as though that is a bit of lore that is often going to be overlooked by players who simply don’t think to check the field notes for important lore bombs.

I want to reiterate: I'm not specifically mad at the story decision to kill Gabranth (even if it’s a fake death), I’m mad at how this was all revealed to the players.  Particularly the bit about Dalmasca.  It discards the age-old rule of storytelling-- “show, don’t tell”.  I could forgive them for having to cut certain bits of Bozja’s story because of the pandemic severely hampering development but... there had to have been a better way than this.  Maybe redo some of the cutscene dialogue?  Maybe add in a little bit more to the final scene?  I was excited to face off against Gabranth.  I was excited to go help liberate Dalmasca, especially after the Return to Ivalice plot really set us up for that in the future.  This... just feels incredibly unfulfilling.  And I hope that this is not how they decide to end things with this section of the story.  The build from Return to Ivalice and the continuation of those plot threads in Bozja were great!  Having it unceremoniously ended in a field note?  Not so great.  

Two honorable mention things that I don’t have the energy to talk about at large

Mikoto’s visions don’t feel significant enough to the story.  This is particularly egregious in Zadnor’s arc, where she has a vision where she falls off an airship and then tells the WoL to not say anything because she “doesn’t want people to worry” instead of, idk, trying to find a way to save herself.  She only sees herself fall, she doesn’t see herself land.  But she insists there’s “nothing we can do about it anyways”.  It... felt like they didn’t really matter in the end?  Fran ends up deus ex machina-ing a rescue anyways so like... what was the point?

Misija's “redemption through death”, a tired trope that is even more tired in FFXIV.  I know there’s two different endings to this quest but Misija being executed after being mortally wounded by the Diablos Armament is the ending I received.

Going to harken back to the criticisms of Werlyt.  I’ll maintain my stance that I still think Werlyt had some glaring issues with it... but I will give it this.  It didn’t kill off characters from a side plot that had been going on since Stormblood in a field note.  And it didn’t involve the Werlytians being like “Hey let’s base our new constitution off of the VIIth legion... that is a great idea.”

Anyways, I still recommend doing Bozja if only because the Dalriada is a good instance with a very good final boss theme.  I did enjoy aspects of the questline but the ending really soured my opinion of it.  

[dragons-bones]

early morning 5.5 thoughts:

thoughts on Werlyt, MSQ, and YoRHa below the cut:

So I did Werlyt first to get it out of the way and it is still Bad Fanfic: The Quest Line. like. this was definitely better than last patch, but goddamn it just really highlights how unsatisfying the rest of the story was.

Cloud Deck was amazingly fun fight, though. EX is going to be a bitch but gimme.

where the fuck was Nero seriously goddamn this was the perfect place for him

NGE vibes were great but ultimately: still don’t give a single solitary fuck about the au ra kids. heavy-handed plot devices, every one of them.

that pop was very satisfying

(as discussed in the FC discord) ...that, uh. that ending cutscene is a lot less heartwarming when you realize all the Terncliff townspeople probably had trauma reactions to seeing images of their conquerors walking around all of a sudden.

hindsight: BAD FANFIC. REALLY BAD FANFIC.

anyway

MSQ was next and I have SO MANY First Brood feelings and am now seriously jonesing for a Meracydia-focused expac at some point in the future, hnnnnnnnng.

there was great worldbuilding and buildup, I think; the tempering stuff I found fascinating since it implies another layer to primal summoning and that the perception of the summoned by the summoner can have a huge effect on things.

I’ve seen some discussion before about untempering the Unsundered and honestly, after the Tiamat stuff, I genuinely wonder if it would have been possible at all. like, the implication with Tiamat’s is that it worked despite five thousand years because of her sheer force of will and that she saw Bahamut as an unequal. while the Unsundered I feel probably would have had the force of will...their perception of Zodiark wasn’t just as a god but as necessary to the continued functionality of the star and reality.

like...jesus.

(for the record, my interest in the Unsundered remains firmly in the, “fascinating antagnoists” category and the Ascians as a whole with the, “god I’m really tired of these fucks” category.)

also! something I noticed: despite the excitement of everything, this was a pretty chill patch! both 3.5 and 4.5 were the big “holy shit” patches with 3.55 and 4.55 being the denouement into Stormblood and Shadowbringers.

but 2.55 was A Realm Reborn’s HOLY SHIT moment and I’m willing to bet good money that 5.55 is going to be the HOLY SHIT lead in for Endwalker.

did you notice HOW MUCH MSQ STUFF FROM THE TRAILER WASN’T IN THIS MSQ THAT MEANS IT’S IN PART TWO.

Estinien versus Alisaie is hilarious btw and it’s a miracle that man isn’t dead. though god, I have to feel for Alisaie: I joke a lot you can’t tell my twin brother and I are even siblings, but before puberty hit us, we looked muuuuuuch more alike, and I knew another brother-sister twin set as a kid who looked so similar the only way you could tell them apart was their hair style (the brother’s was traditional-boy-short and the sister traditional-girl-long). I lost contact with them after we went to a different school, but I’m curious now if puberty did the same for them as for me and Twin-Boy or not. and as much as Yoshi-P and the devs talk about and semi-enforce a time bubble, I do wonder if we’re actually going to see Alisaie and Alphinaud age a bit in Endwalker

after the Alliance briefing, while the other leaders have gone off and the rest of the Squad and Scions go to talk with Arenvald and Fordola:

Aymeric: Darling, it’s not like we haven’t seen each other in a week, we had breakfast together this morning--

Synnove: Don’t care, I’m horny, find a private corner or I ride you on the meeting table.

Aymeric: I’m not complaining, merely pointing out a fact! And my vote is for the table.

Synnove: >:3

during Paglth’an: drive by shippy smooches after defeating the latest enemy group

WHAT A FUN DUNGEON but I’m gonna have to go in here as GNB to learn how to do the pulls

DID I MENTION RECENTLY MY FIRST BROOD FEELS god I love Tiamat

*paps Arenvald’s cheeks* you’re a good boy and I love you very much

I know Ishikawa-san isn’t likely to do anything permanently harmful to my boy, but if she does, I will fly to Japan and fight her (after a detour to fight Koji for all his goddamn puns)

and then Nier

my issues with some of the visual elements aside, the fights were hella fun...but the story had me all ???????????????????????

like, the stuff with the dig site chief and Komra I’m enjoying, but everything else...no. I was definitely a little confused for the CF and PB portions of the story, but the Tower at Paradigm’s Breach just...explains absolutely nothing in a meaningful way? and I really feel that this portion they went hard on the Nier/Drakengard references so I was left feeling, “I don’t know why this is important or what the implication of this very obvious reference is.”

like, Return to Ivalice from the get-go was an obvious homage so I just tuned most of it out until we got some sweet sweet Dalmasca/FFXII stuff, but even with this raid series being another crossover,  I felt like there was a mystery and buildup that was being well-handled for the first couple of parts, so this part falling flat is a letdown for me

I’m hoping we’ll get some meaningful explanations in addition to the Komra stuff in the weeklies going forward. cause like. damn. I’m sad about Anogg and heartbroken for Konogg but I don’t know what the context of everything is and I’m really frustrated.

really super glad that we’re going back to original stories for the 24-mans in 6.0.

So, yes! Having a fun time with 5.5, ready for 5.55 to fucking take me out at the knees. today, we do Hatching-tide, custom deliveries, fishing, and Fishing (Unreal)! a girl still needs an Incitatus whistle and also the anteater minion.

[aion-rsa]

Final Fantasy’s Multiverse Fan Theory Will Change How You Look at the Franchise

https://ift.tt/3C7lXDN

Many beloved video game franchises try to maintain a semblance of continuity and worldbuilding. Usually, those attempts consist of linear a-to-b narratives across sequels, but there are times when the connections between games in a franchise can be a bit perplexing. For instance, each Legend of Zelda game seems insular at first, but they actually take place in a shared world and timelines. The timeline barely makes sense, but it’s there. Final Fantasy, meanwhile, seemingly reinvents its wheel with each entry. Every title takes place in its own world with its own history and lore that is, on paper, completely separate from the rest of the series.

If you scour Reddit and other internet forums, though, you may eventually find theories that claim the Final Fantasy franchise utilizes one big, interconnected multiverse. A popular variation of that belief purports that Final Fantasy XIV sits in the center of that universe or that other titles sprung from that game’s world.

In fact, many players who have extensively explored Hydaelyn and the other worlds of Final Fantasy (not to be confused with World of Final Fantasy) eventually reach the same conclusion: Final Fantasy exists in some kind of multiverse. Do those claims and theories have any merit, though, or are audiences letting their apophenia take them for a joyride? Let’s try to find out together.

Final Fantasy’s Familiar Faces

We might as well get the most obvious evidence for a shared multiverse out of the way first. If you’ve played more than one Final Fantasy game, you probably know the series has a lot of recurring elements (such as Chocobos, Behemoths, and engineers named Cid). However, some common elements go deeper than shared names. Sure, every now and then unrelated characters will sport the same moniker for the sake of references and callbacks (such as Zeromus from Final Fantasy IV and Zeromus from Final Fantasy XII) but some recurring faces who only seem like they exist for the sake of tradition actually help tie the games together.

The first recurring character we have to talk about is everyone’s favorite pillar of buffoonery, Gilgamesh. In virtually every entry, he is portrayed as a bumbling wanderer who seeks power through collecting weapons. Moreover, most Gilgamesh incarnations sport the same red hood, kabuki face paint (sometimes a mask), and awesome battle theme that transcends music genres, but that isn’t because Square Enix is lazy. The majority of Gilgameshes tend to appear and/or disappear into an Interdimensional Rift (more on that later). That implies they’re the same character in an unending, world-hopping obsession for new weapons.

Indeed, after Gilgamesh is beaten in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, he cries out the name of Final Fantasy V’s protagonist, Bartz. In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Gilgamesh claims to have dueled “strange opponents” countless times. If that’s not enough for you, consider that in later entries, Gilgamesh wields replicas of weapons from past Final Fantasy games. Gilgamesh doesn’t just talk about the Final Fantasy multiverse; he almost literally beats players over the head with it. However, Gilgamesh isn’t the franchise’s only cross-dimensional tourist.

Whenever you finish a Final Fantasy story and beat the final boss, each game offers additional challenges in the form of “superbosses.” One of the franchise’s most consistent superbosses is the quadrupedal robot known simply as Omega. Throughout its various Final Fantasy appearances, Omega’s physical appearance is portrayed with a startling amount of consistency. However, the robot’s true nature is a bit more up in the air. As some fans have discovered Omega has two possible incarnations: shards left behind to collect data and demi-knockoffs created by local geniuses who drew inspiration from the original Omega. Either way, Omega is a dimension-hopping robot whose sole purpose is to defeat its arch-nemesis, Shinryu. According to lore provided by games such as Final Fantasy XIV and Dissidia Final Fantasy, every Shinryu that players face is also actually a minor fragment deposited to help the original grow stronger.

It’s certainly harder to argue against a multiverse when you have three recurring characters that practically rely on it for their motivations and design.

Dissidia Final Fantasy Wouldn’t Exist Without a Multiverse

When Nintendo set the world on fire with the Super Smash Bros. franchise, other companies started making their own mascot fighter game that they hoped would print money. Square Enix’s Dissidia Final Fantasy set itself apart with a vastly different combat system. However, Dissidia’s bigger claim to fame is its story, which breaks from mascot fighter tradition by leaning on and expanding its source material’s canon (especially the parts that concern the multiverse).

Since Dissidia is a spin-off, you’d probably assume it exists outside of the Final Fantasy canon with character facsimiles standing in for the original protagonists. After all, that tends to be the industry standard (Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto once confirmed that Super Smash Bros.‘s characters are actually toys). However, Dissidia’s fighters are surprisingly the real deal. That’s because, according to the narrative, the real Final Fantasy characters have been summoned from their own worlds to fight on behalf of the gods in Dissidia’s World B. Every Dissidia game starts off with this statement, and, in fantasy properties, disparate worlds usually imply a multiverse. Since there are three Dissidia games (four if you count the mobile entry), the entire franchise is arguably one big multiverse confirmation. 

Moreover, Dissidia goes several steps further since World B is a near-geographic replica of the first Final Fantasy’s setting, World A (albeit dotted with arenas ripped from the fragmented memories of its characters without rhyme or reason). For instance, one of the battlegrounds in World B is a blasted moonscape. Why is a location like that on a planet with an atmosphere? Well, it’s because it was pulled from the memories of Cecil Harvey: a character who traveled to the moon in Final Fantasy IV. Without a multiverse, there would have been no memories to pull from.

Now, since characters die left, right, and center in Dissidia, you might wonder how the series canonically fits into the Final Fantasy franchise without shattering the space-time continuum. Well, time works differently in World B, and that plot point is used to insert new canon into older titles. Everyone is caught in an endless cycle of battles, death, resurrection, and amnesia. They barely remember where they came from or why they are fighting and just know that they need to fight. But, after what is implied to be countless cycles worth of combat, the first game’s ending explicitly states that the various heroes and villains return to their respective worlds. Everyone except for the Warrior of Light, that is. He was created on World B by Cid of the Lufaine (a character retroactively added to rereleases of the first Final Fantasy) and retconned into one of the World A’s heroes from the original Final Fantasy. From there, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT pulls them all back for one more round.

Without a Final Fantasy multiverse, Dissidia wouldn’t make a lot of sense and would certainly be a very different spin-off series from a narrative standpoint.

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Final Fantasy XIV and the Collaboration Connection

Now that we’ve established the general existence of a Final Fantasy multiverse (or the strong possibility of its existence), it’s time to address a particularly popular fan theory question: Is Final Fantasy XIV the root of the Final Fantasy multiverse?

It’s no secret Square Enix loves to stuff Final Fantasy XIV full of collaborative content. Players have gone on quests and collected equipment ripped out of properties such as Yo-Kai Watch and Garo. Square Enix also tends to collaborate with…well…itself and place the results in Final Fantasy XIV. For instance, Lightning and Noctis showed up for limited-time events in the game, but those instances hardly prove that the game sits in the middle of some kind of Final Fantasy nexus. After all, Lightning can don the iconic getups of characters such as Cloud, Yuna, and Lara Croft in Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Does that mean her tailor lives in the center of a Final Fantasy or Square Enix multiverse? Probably not since those crossover costumes are all optional DLC (and ultimately probably meant to advertise different Square-owned games). All Lightning and Noctis demonstrate in their Hydaelyn vacations is how the different Final Fantasy worlds are connected.

Lightning and Noctis visited Hydaelyn thanks to the Interdimensional Rift (the same one Gilgamesh, Omega, and Shinryu use to get around), and they aren’t the only characters who have taken an interdimensional tour. The Stormblood expansion introduced the Aetherial Rift: a raid dungeon hosted by a surprisingly friendly Omega (friendly in that he tests players before trying to stomp them out of existence). Thanks to Omega’s control over the Rift, gamers can square off against recreations of past Final Fantasy game bosses, including Chaos, Kekfa, Exdeath, and the Phantom Train. Again, you might assume these crossovers imply that Hydaelyn rests at the center of the multiverse. Instead, they most likely suggest that Omega either visited or used networked knowledge of different worlds to create these arenas, which lends credence to the theory that most Omegas seen throughout the franchise are either the same killbot or are linked in some way. Square Enix also apparently just loves to reference/advertise its older titles.

Now, some of you might ask, “What about Ivalice? Doesn’t Ivalice’s presence in Final Fantasy XIV prove the game is smack dab in the middle of the Final Fantasy multiverse?” Again, no. The Ivalice you’re thinking of is the world from Final Fantasy XII, while Ivalice in Final Fantasy XIV is just a kingdom. Confusingly, both Ivalices share certain elements, such as the Viera and Yiazmat, but those shared elements don’t necessarily demonstrate worlds colliding. Instead, they are likely indicative of design singularities you usually see in multiverses from other franchises (multiple Marvel universes have a Spider-Man/Woman, and multiple Final Fantasy universes have an Ivalice).

Final Thoughts on Final Fantasy‘s Multiverse

Considering the Interdimensional Rift and characters such as Gilgamesh and Omega, you really can’t argue against the likelihood of some kind of Final Fantasy multiverse. However, is Final Fantasy XIV really at the center of it all? Elements from different entries (as well as unrelated games, such as NieR:Automata and Monster Hunter: World) are certainly more likely to bleed into Hydaelyn, but does that make it the center of the multiverse? Signs point to no. Odds are Final Fantasy XIV’s above-average interdimensional crossover rate is merely a result of its MMORPG nature and good old-fashioned marketing.

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At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter which Final Fantasy world, if any, spawned the others. They all are clearly interconnected through countless narratives and world-building elements, so unless Square Enix reveals the identity of this fabled origin world, all we can do is speculate. Then again, if we knew which Final Fantasy universe spawned the others and exactly how the game’s multiverse elements work, that might suck some of the magic out of the series.

The post Final Fantasy’s Multiverse Fan Theory Will Change How You Look at the Franchise appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3nvYjNk

[livvyplaysfinalfantasy]

Please remind me to never again go solo into a recorded alliance run on the last week before a new expansion, because this run was rough. Fortunately, we didn’t wipe! But that nearly total party KO at the very very very end pretty much summarized my feelings.

The Orbonne Monastery might be one of my favorite dungeons in this entire game so far. I say this with every hint of bias: not only does so much of Orbonne speak to everything I love, it also has so many great memories from running it with friends. My first time going through Orbonne in particular was great, because I did it with @barbariccia​ and I was screaming at the turn of every corner. Tears were shed. It was incredible.

So here’s a run-down:

0:50 - Harpies in the jungle! This enemy design was lifted straight from Vagrant Story, and I let every team I ran with know this for the next five weeks. Please play Vagrant Story.

2:20 - Ivalice confirmed for the gays.

2:55 - Inside the monastery, the first boss battle is Mustadio Bunansa. Mustadio, one of the first machinists of the Final Fantasy series, has been transformed into an automaton not unlike those he researches. His fight has a lot of tricky AOEs and quick-loading mechanics, not unlike the moveset of machinists in Tactics! He has a really cool ultimate at 5:00. (After weeks of trying to figure out how to explain this mechanic to newcomers while shot-calling, I eventually resorted to just saying “expose your hole.” 1. It works. 2. No one ever forgets it.)

When defeated at 12:18, Mustadio fades back into his Hyuran form - and even his voice goes from mechanical back to normal. It’s a subtle detail but really, really touching. There’s no indication for who the massive portrait on the wall leading into the monastery might depict... but with absolutely nothing to base this speculation on, my guess is that it’s Ajora Glabados.

At 12:40, you head into the wine cellars - another holdover from Vagrant Story. I didn’t catch it in this video, but the first people to follow Fran and Montblanc into the cellar will see three rats running across stagnant water in a way that can only be a throwback to Vaan’s intro in the Garamsythe Waterway. It was around this part during my first run of Orbonne that I told Molly, and the other Riskbreakers over voice chat, that I was going to lose it if the next boss was Agrias. Sure enough, the next boss was Agrias; sure enough, I lost it.

Agrias’ fight starts at 13:12. Her voice acting is so good; the lesbian paladin aesthetic in her boss design is to die for. (I mean, the Enhancing Sword and the Ritter Shield play a key role throughout this fight, and they’re the most WLW weapons in the game.) Some other great references find plugs in this fight, too: one of Agrias’ many moves, at 15:58, is Northswain’s Strike - Ashelia B’nargin Dalmasca’s ultimate Quickening! But what really hits me, every time, is her dialogue when you defeat her (see 22:30): “My Ovelia awaits...” Agrias was the princess Ovelia’s protector and best friend in Tactics; in the PSP remaster, she was also the one who gave Ovelia the dagger that later killed her.

The next area at 22:58 looks like it was taken out of the Palace of the Dead - which is funny, because when the Palace of the Dead’s final room was first revealed back at Fan Fest 2016, everyone I knew who was into Ivalice was like “VAGRANT STORY?!” And Palace of the Dead was based on Matsuno’s Ivalice predecessor Tactics Ogre. That said, a recurring concept in Ivalice games is that of the “necrohol” - a city lost to the dead. This necrohol is Mullonde, which got its origins in Tactics as a city which was destroyed when Ajora Glabados was hung for heresy. Like in XIV, Tactics’ Mullonde lay hidden deep beneath the Orbonne Monastery.

At 23:25, you fight four automatons. The last of them is Dark Crusader, a Vagrant Story boss. In Vagrant Story, the Dark Crusader was summoned by the knight Grissom, despite losing his life and his soul being trapped inside his decaying body. (Please play Vagrant Story.)

There’s only one remaining option for the third boss of Orbonne at 26:26, confirmed as soon as Montblanc makes a quip mistaking the man ahead for Cid: Count Cidolfus Orlandeau, the Thunder God. “T.G. Cid” is a game-breaker in Tactics; he’s so overpowered as to be capable of soloing certain late-game maps. Similarly, Orlandeau was (is) the raid-killer. A lot of the mechanics in his fight require consistent coordination throughout the entire alliance.

Somewhat strangely, the music that plays during Cid’s fight isn’t from Tactics at all: it’s the final boss music from Vagrant Story! It’s a bit of a strange choice thematically: although the circumstances of Cid’s (and Mustadio’s and Agrias’) transformation aren’t ever fully brought to light, it’s hard to think that he would have stooped to the same lengths of greed and power-hunger and detached cruelty as Vagrant Story’s final boss.

Though I did just realize that this fight, like Vagrant Story’s final boss fight, involves lots of running around the edges of a circular platform. And, you know, lots of praying.

Anyway, please play Vagrant Story.

At 38:00, you finally enter the High Seraph’s prison. She’s creating auracite stones one by one, casting them to the floor. She suggests that you have come seeking her power but says to take the auracite and leave - that “mortal agency in matters divine shall not be suffered.” That concept is the direct opposite of XII’s plot, in which the villains are seeking to overthrow a godlike power on the course of history!

Throughout this fight, Ultima summons three of the Espers you’ve fought before: Famfrit, Hashmal and Belias. Before she can obliterate you and your party, however, the three guardians of Orbonne - Mustadio, Agrias and Cid - appear to shield you. Ultima reveals her final form and readies to smash the barrier, only for Ramza Beoulve to emerge from the aether to lend his own soul to your defense. I yelled the first three times I saw that, I’m not even going to lie. The next phase of the fight gets even harder - though I should say that the brutal tankbusters make it one of my favorite fights to tank. Minions bearing Ultima’s Tactics appearance show up in this fight, too, usually to deliver powerful AOEs.

Ultima’s dying words: “I am your mother. I am your maker! I. Am. Ivalice!” Shivers.

[onwesterlywinds]

Okay! 4.5 thoughts under the cut, with spoilers for MSQ and Return to Ivalice.

MSQ:

I was telling people before the patch that I was convinced Zalera was going to show up. Well, he did show up, albeit in the exact opposite place I was expecting.

Molly had to stop as soon as Emet-Selch was namedropped because I couldn’t remember which of XII’s Espers it corresponded to*. I pulled up my XII chart, saw that Emet-Selch was created to oppose the Angel of Death, and just went “Oh no. We’re all gonna die.”

*Obligatory disclaimer that XII’S SCIONS AND THE ASCIANS AREN’T LINKED BY ANYTHING OTHER THAN NAMES, THERE ARE ONLY SUPERFICIAL INSIGHTS TO BE HAD FROM XII LORE, et cetera.

An oft-repeated line: “LET ALISAIE SAY FUCK.” God, she had so many good moments in this patch.

I’m surprised at some of how the “Shadowhunter” reveal was handled, but not necessarily displeased! Even if Hien’s awkward “Welp!” after the guy gets back on his ship is the biggest mood.

It happened so fast, or so it seems... then again, I would have hated for it to be treated as some exceptionally dramatic moment when we already knew who he was, like the Griffin.

I just love that we meet him, and then he fucks off, and THEN Varis lays out his entire Ascian-fueled rant. Like, it would have been nice to have Gaius at least nearby.

The negotiation scene was awesome.

Re: the absolutely fascist language from Varis - I know a lot of people said they felt sick when he started going off about his “one perfect race” and that’s totally fair and valid. Yet from a narrative standpoint, laying out that goal and everything it represents (and all the real-world baggage that comes with it) means that there’s no longer any room for the Warrior of Light and XIV’s main cast to sympathize with the Empire. I’ve always wondered how XIV’s story team would balance presenting a multifaceted antagonistic force without handwaving away the atrocities that come with any imperial presence, and... this. This is it.

That’s not to say there aren’t still past cruelties that NEED to be addressed for any real moral clarity, especially where Gaius’s reintroduction is concerned. But it’s a great start to show that we as the Warrior of Light cannot and should not show any hesitation about tearing down everything Varis represents and stands for.

Also, as a bit of a tangent, because I’m sort of stream-of-consciousness shouting (scream-of-consciousness, if you will) - I’ve done some introspection as to how I examine “moral” themes in this game and other media, after a couple conversations over the past few months. Ultimately, I dig deep into what XIV has to say about themes like imperialism and justice and equality because I know that this game has positive and meaningful messages about those themes. I’ve seen when they get it right, and I’ve seen how much it matters to myself and others when they do - and when they don’t. I don’t expect all of the media I consume to be ideologically pure, nor do I expect this game to tell every story flawlessly, and I accept that people will have different tastes as to how stories are told. But for my part, I’m going to keep laying out why the storytelling in this game matters, because I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love XIV.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT, SQUARE. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

RETURN TO IVALICE:

HAIL ULTIMA.

H A I L   U L T I M A.

It’s hard to pin down a single favorite thing about that arc, but Ultima might have been among the most memorable parts for me.

“I am Ivalice!” Like. Yooo.

She isn’t totally wrong, though.

VIERA ARE CANONICALLY QUEER ICONS AND I COULDN’T BE HAPPIER.

I didn’t get many screens of this unrevisitable lore, but the Matsuno-dramaturge himself says that viera gender isn’t distinct until age thirteen or so, and that viera choose romantic partners based on “closeness of the soul.”

Yasumi Matsuno, the absolute madman.

So like... Fran was interesting. To paraphrase the Matsuno-dramaturge later on, “I have no idea what to say, and I use words for a living.”

She’s absolutely a departure from her XII counterpart. In fact, I’d say that this Fran was more of a change from the original even than Ramza Lexentale and Ramza Beoulve. XII Fran is passive-aggressive almost to a fault; she doesn’t speak in riddles, per se, but she definitely doesn’t share her thoughts freely.

XIV Fran is almost the exact opposite.

And she’s everything I’ve wanted from Stormblood since the end of 4.0.

Seriously. Calling out the Warrior of Light for living comfortably alongside Garlean nobility, calling out THE EAST ALDENARD TRADING COMPANY for actively profiting off of people’s misery, being fiercely protective of her people and her traditions and her way of life... I love.

I cried when I saw Mustadio. And I cried harder for Agrias. I was just resigned to my fate by the time I got to Orlandeau.

I loved the ending of the raid because it carried on that trend of “the forgotten man” being given a voice - and now, those who hear the story are just as important as Ramza, if not more so! It felt like such a great nod not just to Ivalice, but to its fans. So of course I cried.

I also cried when they played “Staff Credits” because that one gets to me every time.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT SCENE AFTER THE ENDING, THOUGH.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

(WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUCK.)

Molly can attest to me screaming at the top of my lungs IRL.

WHY IS HE ALIVE. WHAT IS HE DOING.

HE’S IN THE PHAROS, WHERE THERE ARE STAIRS.

WHEN WILL WE SEE HIM AGAIN, BECAUSE WE HAVE TO SEE HIM AGAIN.

“PRINCESS” TOO. FOR REAL.

HOW DARE YOU DROP THAT BOMBSHELL ON ME AND THEN JUST... CALL IT A WRAP? END THE ENTIRE ARC?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH.

Five months left to write a roleplay for this. I’m fucking ready.

[entergamingxp]

Final Fantasy 14’s big 5.3 patch opens up the path to new players • Eurogamer.net

It’s been almost seven years since the release of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, a game whose story has been recounted countless times, after putting Naoki Yoshida in the director’s chair, who since pulled the game from the brink of disaster with the release of A Realm Reborn. Fast forward seven years, with a few critically-acclaimed expansions under their belts, the Final Fantasy 14 team looks back at older content, and introducing the game to new players with patch 5.3.

“There isn’t any time to relax, or chill out at the moment,” producer and director Naoki Yoshida tells me over Zoom. Final Fantasy 14 has just hit 20 million registered players, but according to Yoshida it’s still not enough for Square-Enix’s President and CEO, Yosuke Matsuda. “We have to continue driving this forward, so there’s really no time to relax, or lower our guard.”

The latest patch for Final Fantasy 14 was delayed by a few months, due to disruption no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, as announced via a live stream from Yoshida in May. “The situation has affected us heavily these past months. It’s really hard for us to get back on track.” With schedules out of the window, just what is it like to run an active MMO with millions of players during a pandemic?

“Even through this situation, the FF14 team is in a good workflow, there’s a great team with a high sense of responsibility… At the moment, 90 per cent of developers are working from home currently, and they’re starting to get familiar with the change in environment. As for the mentality and psychological perspective. I’m confident that we’re all quite stable, and we can focus on the work. We’re getting back to normality.”

The patch, which releases on August 11th on all platforms, is going under the name Reflections in Crystal.

5.3 is due to be released on the 11th of August, and Square-Enix has since released a mini site for all the new additions to the game. However, just underneath the surface more significant changes are being made to the game in order to accommodate new players, starting with a complete overhaul of the content released in the original game, which was created in just two and a half years, according to Yoshida.

“We needed to create really tight guidelines for creating quests. For example, they have to make each quest 9 minutes long, including all the text and all that. Because we had the concept that we want the players to spend a lot of time on those quests, that’s why we made that kind of guideline for each quest. With that, as a result, it kind of revealed so many quests that may be unnecessary, or lots of excess steps which you don’t really need, so we wanted to revisit and remove all the excess quests and unnecessary bits, because we thought that the focus has to be for players to enjoy the storyline.”

Yoshida’s words ring true. The first hours of A Realm Reborn are rough, and can be a significant turn-off for many newer players of Final Fantasy 14, but this streamlining does not come without its own challenges. “If we just take out some bits from the existing storyline, then we have to take out the NPCs that may be playing the key role, or really important role, and it could also affect the lore of the world and everything. We listed all the quests that are included in ARR, and then we figured out the priority, and the necessity of the quests existing in the game or not. This removal of the unnecessary quests, took up a third of the entire workload.”

But if new players still want to experience all of the content that was in the vanilla release of FF14, Yoshida has words of reassurance. “Those quests that are decommissioned, we didn’t really remove them completely,” he says. “We moved them to side quests. For anyone who has the time and wants to dig more for lore and stuff like that, then they can spend time on it.”

The Heroes’ Gauntlet Dungeon in action.

Exactly how many quests have been removed or altered? “We didn’t really count, because if you do that then it will be so disheartening, discouraging,” says Yoshida with a laugh. “So many quests are there, so we didn’t track how many quests we needed to work on.”

Regardless of just how many quests have been removed from the game, it’ll make the game significantly easier for new players to get into. But as a seasoned Final Fantasy 14 player, I had some bones to pick. In the base game, there is a location that you need to repeatedly return to, with no fast-travel links nearby named The Waking Sands. What’s the deal?

“It’s a hideout, so it feels so cheap, so easy. (to put a fast-travel location there) We don’t have any intentions to implement an Aetheryte (fast travel point) near that location. That said, we totally get that this is a really time-consuming journey, where you have to come up any time Minfilia calls you to come over. That’s why… This is kind of new information that we’ve not really revealed to anyone yet. We actually have a new item, a kind of teleport ticket you can use to teleport to Camp Horizon straight away. You might be wondering, even though there isn’t an Aetheryte ‘How come Teleportation is possible here?’ Anyway, it’s a special item for easing the travel burden. Please don’t be angry at Minfilia.”

But, I wasn’t quite done yet with the list of sorely-needed quality of life changes to the base content of the game. There are two infamous dungeons in A Realm Reborn, Castrum Meridianum and The Praetorium. Both are pretty lengthy, with unskippable cutscenes every time they might come up during a daily dungeon roulette where you can get extra bonus XP. It’s not uncommon in these dungeons for some players to be AFK, and just wait for others to complete it for them. What’s going to be done with these now-archaic dungeons?

“We came to the conclusion that it would be easier just to create those two eight-man dungeons from scratch, rather than tweaking the existing content,” says Yoshida. “We totally understand that those two dungeons are very time-consuming, so we have discussed it, but we let go of the idea. We were looking into it, and we thought that it would be best to create new dungeons, but kind of separate out the battle against Ultima Weapon as kind of standalone content outside of those two dungeons. When we do that we will make sure that it will be trust system compatible.”

The Yo-Kai Watch collaboration also returns from August 19th.

The trust system has been introduced in the latest expansion, Shadowbringers. This allows you to go through dungeons with a party of capable NPCs, instead of other players, for those looking for a more single-player experience.”We cannot say when it’s going to be happening, but it’s something in our mind, and we want to do it at some point in future.”

From Yoshida’s responses, it’s clear the team is dedicated to a significant rehaul of content to make the game more friendly to new players. This is assisted by a hugely expanded free trial, which now includes the base game in addition to its first expansion, Heavensward. However, this free trial does exclude some key community features such as being unable to trade using Final Fantasy 14’s market boards in addition to restricting chat and the ability to party up with friends. “We’re not considering changing the current business model of subscriptions, it helps us maintain the quality of the game,” says Yoshida. “There’s a risk of RMT, real money trading, and stuff like that, so once they can use those tools, they’ll just use it and it’ll rise to uncontrollable levels.”

Yoshida also gave a lengthy explanation as to how subscriptions essentially protect Final Fantasy 14 against a higher influx of RMT in the game, which is an incredibly costly endeavour, but it remains to be seen how many players of the new expanded free-trial will be turned off by the lack of community functionality.

However, there is still new content to look forward to in 5.3 for existing players in the form of a new raid, in addition to other side content. But, there’s still one key beloved Final Fantasy 14 character seemingly missing in action. Fan-favourite Hildebrand is a rubbish detective, with an incredibly fun quest line that players experienced five years ago. But, since then he’s been missing in action.

“I don’t currently know the whereabouts of Hildebrand. I don’t know where he is. I can’t go into more details here, but in 5.3 you may or may not find him, not as himself, but more like a tip or a clue as to where he might be. I would like you and all players to join together and search for clues that’ll be dotted around in-game.”

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With a slew of crossover content in Final Fantasy 14, such as the Nier raid series that’s due to be expanded, or the Ivalice raid series, which contains winks and nods to Final Fantasy 12 and Final Fantasy Tactics, or even the FF15 content released several years ago, we wondered about the absence of some high-profile games that the team could have collaborated on.

“We’ve had lots of feedback and lots of hopes that with the FF7 Remake that we’ll do some crossover with them. It’s just part one of the journey, so we need to kind of nail down all the details and flesh it out, so it may take a while, it will take time to actually make something great. That said, we are positively looking into it, and we have hope that we want to do something with this at some point in the future. As for a Kingdom Hearts crossover, for this idea, one of the troubles is that we have to coordinate with Disney, and so I feel that there would be so many hurdles and challenges around working with them, so I try not to think about a crossover with Kingdom Hearts.”

Patch 5.3 of Final Fantasy 14 signifies the end of the current bigger patch cycle for their latest expansion, Shadowbringers. Since it’s been almost ten years since the original release of Final Fantasy 14, just how long does the game have left.

“We haven’t set any goal for how long the game will continue. As long as players enjoy playing the game, then I think we will continue delivering the great content. We don’t really have any sense of time set yet. FF14 is the game that we’ve created, with not only the people on the development team, but with the players around the world. Even though my life may end at some point, I hope that the game will continue after that, that someone will succeed me and continue. That’s my hope.”

Before our time with Yoshida was up, we asked Yoshida if there was any event where he would personally stop working on Final Fantasy 14. With swirling rumours around another project in the works at Square-Enix’s Creative Business Unit 3 and Yoshida himself having to actively deny that he’ll be the director of Final Fantasy 16, could he potentially be taken out of the directors chair anytime soon.

“The possibility would be that either I fell ill, died, or if the CEO fires me. It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about it.”

With Final Fantasy 14’s player base continuing to grow, allowances for new players, and a charismatic director at the helm there seems to be no end in sight for Final Fantasy 14. Patch 5.3 drops on August 11th – and it should contribute to what continues to be one of the strongest MMORPGs in recent memory.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/final-fantasy-14s-big-5-3-patch-opens-up-the-path-to-new-players-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=final-fantasy-14s-big-5-3-patch-opens-up-the-path-to-new-players-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[vhellius]

Long post.

My entire issues with Summoner, the complaints/demands and the direction they're taking the class in. A sleepless night and desperation to cap your tomes can set you to thinking.

So, let's start at the beginning. Summoners, a “class” I've adored since I first saw Summons. Which was in Final Fantasy VII, yes. I am one of those, VII was my first Final Fantasy. Cut me some slack, I'm from a European country, specifically the Netherlands. The previous games were not that easily accessible and SNES games were region-locked, compared to the system I “actually” started with, the Playstation 1. It goes without saying, yes. Ours was modified so you didn't need official game disks, and thanks to my older brother, I got exposed to the game. He later bought Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy IX and the love for the series started, so this part is kind of a thank you to my brother.

In almost all Final Fantasies, both Summoners and Summons were side things. Extra options you tacked onto your character, sometimes forced by the game as they gave vital skills or stats. The class never really had anything that set it apart as it usually got combined with either White of Black Magic. There are some cases where it didn't happen, for example, III. But that is where Summoner got introduced. This is a main game example, but the Tactics series had it as it's own job. While it is understandable people are disagreeing over the choice of spells in regards of Final Fantasy XIV's Summoner, I personally find this a breath of fresh air. Yes, it is more themed for Scholar, but! Carbuncle has always been a Summon itself. So the intent of Summoner was already there the moment Carbuncle had shown it's face. Summoners always have been a bit mixed, just a bit. If it isn't in the magical kit they have been assigned, it has been their Summons. However, Final Fantasy XIV's Summoner, has been assigned what we can essentially call the “Greem Mage”'s magical kit. Green magic? What is that? It's something that got introduced in The Ivalice Alliance. Bio, Shell and ectra have finally been given a proper classification while Faith and Brave were introduced as well. Green magic had the trait of mostly aiding the party in either strengthening it or weakening the enemy. Sounds a bit like Arcanist and Summoner/Scholar's relationship in XIV, right? Let us also not forget Carbuncle providing Shell/Protect in IX with the right gem-stone equipped to it's Summoner, and Final Fantasy III's Summon mechanics. Which could be beneficial as well, though through RNG.

And before anyone comes in stating; “But Resurrection doesn't make sense for Summoner!”, actually... It does. While XIV isn't a traditional Final Fantasy, Phoenix has been a part of their arsenal in the traditional sense. What does Phoenix do? Well, since we're explaining Summoner in general, Phoenix does fire damage and ressurects fallen/death party Members. Though in some games, Phoenix does show up at random and resurrecting the party. However, it's appearance is limited to the Summoner's/Owner's presence in the party. Meaning that no Summoner/Owner, no Phoenix.

While we're on the object of Summons in general now, let me adress my main issue with the direction of Summoner. Bahamut may be the strongest Primal in XIV, he is not the strongest Summon a Summoner can actually obtain in the majority of the games. Bahamut is a High tier Summon, yes. But for example Alexander triumphs him. However, that is a given as it belongs to the “Holy” Element. Though, that's Alexander. He's an entirely different game so to say. We can't keep riding on the Bahamut train forever, eventually we will come to a point where we just can't get more skills out of him. The well's dried up. But, there's another issue with Bahamut with how we Summon him in XIV. Or rather, Demi-Bahamut. You got NO command over him except ONE single button. The King of Dragons, only having ONE single attack command that you have to have on your hotbar? And then we're not getting started on the issue that he has to move while we move. Yes, he does an auto-attack when we finish a Global Cooldown cast. But if we moved, he has to re-position himself. Even though our tooltip states he has a 100y freaking range. What is this, Square Enix? I get that you are forcing us to cast more Ruin and stuff, but we need to move eventually. Mechanics happen, whenether we like it or not. But it is very disappointing to control Demi-Bahamut with a single button press. We can't place him, he doesn't have anything else than Wyrmwave and Akh Morn. Which doesn't feel that good to use the majority of the time. To me, it feels like we have almost no interaction with what should be one of the high-tier Summons in Final Fantasy in general. Which is a complete letdown.

And then we're not getting started on the Ruin III and Ruin IV problems. I get it, it's obvious you want to punish us for using Ruin III outside of Dreadwyrm trance, but. The potencies make absolutely no sense. We're at the bottom of the caster tier, and many of us have sounded cries of desperation hoping that we'd be listened to. Ruin III being 150 potency makes no sense, at all. Especially when the RNG has 200 potency, which sometimes won't even proc for 2 minutes. Who thought it'd be a good idea to do that? You removed our crit proc, which was understandable, but replaced it with something that is just plain random chance. “After a Pet uses an action” and 15% chance, what is this even?

But what gives, right? We have Bahamut. Well, about that. We're supposed to be a Summoner right?

Then we shouldn't be able to Summon just a grand total of “Four” (Demi-Bahamut if you were better and had actual controllable actions and didn't have to follow me to cast. Learn from Garuda, please.), but more. The A Realm Reborn primals are all very iconic Summons in general. And while it pains me to bring up the TEASE that had been put out in the first Heavensward quest for our job, we never received our dear Ramuh. Ramuh in general has been quite important for the Job in terms of the people who were Summoners or could interract with Summons (NOT YOU YUNA, YOU'RE A SPECIAL CASE.), as he provided guidance and help. Ramuh is one of the more important Summons and we were basically refused any chance on being allowed to use him. Our pet choice should matter, but we shouldn't be switching out 24/7, the cast time and the mana costs are not sustainable. No Demi-Bahamut, you don't count. You have your special stacks. Yes, Summons (NOT YOU YUNA, NOR YOU FINAL FANTASY XIII.) do require a lot of mana in the Final Fantasy games, they would do a lot of damage. But, you could not interract with them. You would be a sitting duck while you wait for the animation to finish as you would be stuck in the Summoning process. Did you ever think about that? No, Dissidia doesn't count, that's a fighting game. Quick animations are important there. But in XIV, there's a big issue regarding animation locks. Hello, Dragoon. While MMO's are action packed as well, there's still quite the difference in how the both of them work.

The only way how it would have worked, if for us to gain the Bard mechanic, but we'd lose control over our pets. Which would lead to more cases of Bahamut and screen-blocking. Big Summons are a hazard and the majority of the Summoners that I've seen speaking about it, keyword: I've and Seen, were already aware of the potential complications. Also, that would mean taking bard's entire unique sthick away, which isn't what the developer team wants if that is what we're supposed to believe, as we are denied a form of Iron Jaws, while we share the same amount of DoTs and are both DoT based classes, but there's this turd in the room called Tri-Bind that somehow managed to avoid the culling of abilities.

The current state of the class is not so good, a relatively easy class can achieve higher numbers, but Summoner has to push out extra work and go on the border on it's mana bar and it still wouldn't come up to the class's numbers.  We're extremely selfish when it comes to our mana, something we weren't in Heavensward. To which I state it now, to get it out, I regret asking for Mana Shift to be implemented. As our Aetherflow got cut in half while it's re-use is still a minute. I would suggest fixes, but I am not someone who goes over balance, but what my main concern is also regarding the class is that it doesn't feel remotely fluid. What was fluid about it was pulled away. It is no longer a constant stream of having to pay attention, it's just spam ruin once you blew your load. (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

I truly love Summoner and Summons in general, and I make this no secret. And I want to tell people how I feel about the class and it's direction. For me, it's toolkit is good. As mentioned prior, for once it isn't Black or White magic that gets coupled to it. With the current issues the class is facing, it's becoming really discouraging again to play the class. Especially considering that during my time of 2.4 (I joined in 2.4) till 2.55, I got berrated for being a Summoner, I got kicked out in favor for Black Mages the moment I managed to finally gain access to the coveted Final Coil at that time. I will never forget the moment my Free Company leader asked; “Vell, are you certain you want to go Summoner?”, and when I got booted from nearly every Final Coil learning party on the basis of being a Summoner (Duty finder isn't reliable, you know that), I understood why my Free Company lead had asked me this question. The class was absolutely broken, in a bad way. It needed extra accuracy, pets were not responsive, generally the damage wasn't as high as a Black Mage's and while we had utility compared to Black Mage, not a single shit was given. Even being a third raiser wasn't enough to some people.

Though there was a group of kind souls that allowed me into Final Coil Turn 2/T11, who motivated me to carry on as they were willing to take me in.

Even though the Raid team I'm part of does provide me some motivation, I cannot help but feel like I will cause them wipes because of Bahamut's size alone. My poor machinist friend who is in the same boat in regards to our classes receiving little to no love at the moment (Though the last patch did have some adjustments for them), is considering switching to Bard. While it pains me to admit, I am in the process of leveling up and eventually learning Black Mage if my fears come true. As in, it taking till 5.0 for Summoner to get another needed fix. (3.0 was the Accuracy and food fix.)

English is absolutely not my native language, as I am Dutch.

Also, in regards to Grimoire's being used, sadly I have no real argument/case against this one. Though I'd rather have a book than use a staff. It's variation, I guess. Beats having another case of rod/staff user. Garments are almost perfectly fine though, just keep doing what you do SE and allow male and female Summoners to dress the same. Although I have one tiny complaint. Give us more back wings, that doesn't mean “GIVE BUTTWINGS”, but “GIVE BACKWINGS”.

To sum it up:

- Summoner has always been a mixture of beneficial/Weakening the enemy, which fits with it's current toolkit, and the raise as well.

- Summoners have no real weapon attributed to them.

- If we actually want to be Summoners, then we shouldn't just be getting demi-Bahamut. (No Phoenix or Alexander though, because lore.)

- Give us them little wings please.

- Thematically we're screwed

- In battle we're screwed

- Demi-Bahamut is basically candy to keep us distracted

- Potencies are whack

- Talking about that the Arcanist kit does actually fit well, compared to either Black or White magic. No, XIV's doesn't really count.

- While it is understandable why people want to play the Summoning aspect of Summoner more, what would happen is animation locks till we dropped dead, long cast times as seen with Summoning our pets.

- Tri-Bind needs to fuck off, Vell R'ius - 2017

- The class has a grim outlook considering the trackrecord of it's treatment in regards to patches

- It seems like Square Enix has no idea what direction they're taking the class in.

Thank you if you read this, honestly. It's something I wanted to get off my chest for a month now.

Really, it means a lot if you made it to the end and while I'm one of many voices shouting there's things wrong with Summoner, I care about the class. Not because it's my main on XIV and I raid on it, but because little Vell here just loves Summons and Summoners in general.

[livvyplaysfinalfantasy]

Showing More Respect for Faerie Tales: What We Know Thus Far of Return to Ivalice

In honor of all of these new reveals for Return to Ivalice, I’ve decided to make a post compiling the basics for those who may have questions about what players can expect to find in Final Fantasy XIV 4.1′s new raid.

Please feel more than free to contact me with any questions concerning the specifics of Ivalice or XIV, or how one might tie into the other! I will, however, try to make this as accessible as possible to people who might be unfamiliar with Ivalice.

What is Ivalice, anyway, and what makes it so special?

The Ivalice Alliance is a subset of games in the Final Fantasy series, all of which take place in the world of Ivalice created by Yasumi Matsuno. Though a handful of Final Fantasy games are considered part of the Ivalice Alliance, the “main” three regarded most highly by fans are those that received some direction from Yasumi Matsuno: Final Fantasy Tactics (1997) / Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (2007), Vagrant Story (2000)*, and Final Fantasy XII (2006). Matsuno left Square Enix during XII’s development, citing stress and health concerns, leading many to believe he was pushed out of the project.

*Note that Vagrant Story originally wasn’t meant to take place in Ivalice; its setting, Valendia, was established as a continent in Ivalice through Final Fantasy XII’s lore. It also isn’t, technically speaking, a Final Fantasy game.

Final Fantasy Tactics is thought to take place roughly twelve hundred years after Final Fantasy XII; those who include Vagrant Story in Ivalice’s timeline put it at least four hundred years after Tactics. I’ve previously written out a prospective and highly theoretical timeline of Ivalice from the perspective of its religious organizations, which can be found here.

Apart from their shared setting, Ivalice titles distinguish themselves from other Final Fantasy games predominantly through their phenomenal writing: Matsuno’s works are known for their complex political dramas and hard-hitting dialogue, which are often translated into intricate English scripts by Alexander O. Smith. Ivalice Alliance titles tackle such themes as imperialism, class warfare, and intergenerational violence with a level of skill and subtlety that even few modern video games are capable of. Most Ivalice games also feature scores composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Why is Ivalice relevant to Final Fantasy XIV?

At Fan Fest Japan 2016, Final Fantasy XIV’s developers announced that the next expansion, Stormblood, would contain a twenty-four-man raid called Return to Ivalice, and that Yasumi Matsuno himself would be writing its storyline.

As with many Final Fantasies, elements from the stories of Ivalice games have appeared throughout Final Fantasy XIV purely as references. (This is by no means an exhaustive list.)

Final Fantasy XIV’s overarching story includes a number of villains called the Ascians. Most of the Ascians are named for Final Fantasy XII’s Scions of Light, a group of mythical beings that never appear directly in XII but who were created to oppose XII’s Espers in a Revelations-like battle between the divine and the damned. Each Ascian’s sigil is derived from half of its corresponding Esper’s glyph. (The dev team confirmed at Fan Fest Las Vegas 2014 that the names and glyphs are references only, meaning that the Ascians are not meant to be the same mythical beings as the ones from Ivalice.)

The Corpse Brigade, an Ala Mhigan criminal group in Southern Thanalan, drew heavy inspiration from the Corpse Brigade from Final Fantasy Tactics. Their leader, Milleuda the Slitter, was even designed to look like Milleuda Folles, a captain of Tactics’s Corpse Brigade.

Quite a few infamous lines of dialogue from Ivalice games - including “Blame yourself or God!” from Tactics, and “The reins of History back in the hands of Man!” from XII - have been said almost verbatim by some of XIV’s characters.

There have been a number of hints in recent years that the world of Ivalice may be connected in some way to the world of Hydaelyn. (It is possible that these could be no more than references, but given the ambiguity of the relationships between dimensions introduced through 4.X’s Omega storyline, they are nevertheless important to mention.)

The void is a recurring concept throughout the Final Fantasy series. During the Warring Triad quest The Fate of Stars (3.2), Unukalhai has this to say about Hydaelyn’s void: “...What I am about to divulge concerns the fate of another star entirely. On this other world, a magick was devised that allowed the realm's champions to use a stone known as ‘auracite’ to contain the power of primals. So armed, these heroic souls conquered god after god, oblivious to their weapon's fatal imperfection: its propensity to bleed primal energies. And with each victory, the heroes changed, transforming at last into fiends of endless appetite. Insatiable in their hunger for aether, they ultimately went to war over the star's ever-dwindling life force... ...And fought until there was nothing left.” Encyclopædia Eorzea confirms in its entry for Cuchulainn (p. 300), a being adapted from Tactics, that Cuchulainn was one of twelve auracite-bearers from this doomed world. This concept is highly similar to plot elements that appear in Final Fantasy Tactics: much of Tactics’s story is about its antagonists gathering pieces of auracite to summon the High Seraph Ultima.

Throughout XIV 3.X, much of the discussion between Elidibus and Urianger concerned a work known as The Gerun Oracles. Gerun is a character from XII, a king of his brethren who is obsessed with maintaining absolute control over the fate of mankind. For more analysis on the possible significance of Gerun being namedropped in a work of prophecy, click the above link.

Most importantly, however, we have received confirmation in the past that certain locations in Hydaelyn share the names of locations in Ivalice.

In Japanese only, one soldier claimed to hail from Rabanastre rather than Othard during the Ultima Weapon’s introduction.

In Japanese only, Lucia goe Junius refers to Dalmasca as part of her backstory when she removes her circlet in 3.0.

In an interview with Koji Fox in April 2016, he confirmed that Dalmasca and Rabanastre are places in Othard, close to a land bridge that’s part of Ilsabard. Dalmasca is a nation in Final Fantasy XII, of which Rabanastre is the capital.

What can we expect to see of Ivalice in XIV 4.1?

During the Final Fantasy XIV fourth anniversary livestream, the devs revealed  that XIV 4.1′s official concept art - the concept art for the entire patch, not just the raid - is of Ramza Beoulve and Delita Heiral, the two main characters of Final Fantasy Tactics.

The following has been listed on XIV’s official forums by Anonymoose in a summary of the information revealed during the fourteen-hour broadcast:

In the world of FFXIV, the Final Fantasy Tactics story is a well-known fairy tale known by anyone from Garlemald. Keeping the FFT story as a base, it also has an essence of FFXII. Return to Ivalice has been designed in such a way that those who do not know either of these can also enjoy it as well. Players will enter Rabanastre as the first part of their journey. (The patch art features Ramza and Delita, and was drawn by Akihiko Yoshida.)

Return to Ivalice, then, will delve into the story of Rabanastre as it exists in Othard, rather than what we currently know of Hydaelyn’s void.

Whether XIV’s Rabanastre and Dalmasca simply share the names and aesthetics of the locations from Ivalice or if they are the locations themselves has not yet been determined. Yet. Currently, however, all signs point to the former: that these locations are only representations of XII’s setting, and that Ivalice and Hydaelyn are not the same world.

The primary reasoning for this has to do with what we know of Ivalice’s and Hydaelyn’s maps: unless all of Ilsabard is revealed to be Ivalice, it isn’t likely that the three continents we see in XII - Ordallia, Kerwon, and Valendia - could fit on Hydaelyn’s map, especially since there’s an even bigger continent, Rozarria, immediately to the west of Dalmasca.

There’s also the fact that XIV’s timeline of events is “backwards” from Ivalice’s. In Garlemald, Dalmasca exists in the present day and the story of Final Fantasy Tactics is an old legend. In Ivalice, however, Dalmasca was likely destroyed twelve hundred years before the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics even begins.

It’s now almost guaranteed that we’ll be seeing Ramza and Delita in Final Fantasy XIV. When we do, it’s likely that they will appear in a manner similar to Krile Baldesion from Final Fantasy V and Matoya from the first Final Fantasy: nearly identical to their original counterparts, except for the fact that they and the settings they hail from happen to be located in Hydaelyn.

Anonymoose hints that the Tactics story is “a well-known fairy tale” to the people of Garlemald - but the plot of Final Fantasy Tactics is about uncovering the truth behind the War of the Lions (also known as the Zodiac Brave Story) after over four hundred years. A common thread of all Ivalice Alliance games is that history is never truly what it seems; as such, it seems likely that we’ll be uncovering similar truths during Return to Ivalice in XIV.

Could this mean that viera are going to be a playable race in XIV?

I have no idea.

What would be the best way to introduce myself to the Ivalice Alliance?

Final Fantasy XII was recently remastered to great success for PS4; if you have the means to play it, I would highly recommend that you do so. XII received a lot of flak when it was first released - some of it deserved, most of it not - but the remaster, subtitled The Zodiac Age, has improved on the original’s gameplay and brought the quality of its already masterful cutscenes to stunning high definition.

Tactics is harder to find a copy of, because you’re going to want to play Tactics: The War of the Lions. It’s the same game as the original Final Fantasy Tactics, only with a much better translation. You can play Tactics: The War of the Lions on your PSP if you still have one. There are also mobile ports for iOS and Android, but these tend not to be as enjoyable to play due to the game’s longer battles. If you’re new to Tactics, please keep in mind that the beginning battles are slow and unforgiving, even for experienced players; if you get through the first four or five story fights, though, you’re more than set for the rest of the game!

What’s with the joke about noses in your last post?

Most of the Ivalice games feature Akihiko Yoshida as the leading character designer. (Akihiko Yoshida has also contributed to XIV's concept art, especially for 1.X and 2.0.)

Yoshida's art style includes minimal detail to faces, including the definition of noses.

Here’s some concept art of Delita and Ramza from Final Fantasy Tactics (1997):

Here’s a screenshot from an in-game cutscene in War of the Lions (2007):

...And here’s them now.

(Another joke-but-not-really stemming from Akihiko Yoshida’s art design is gratuitous butts - a trait that Final Fantasy XIV’s developers have commented on in the past.)

What are your hopes for Return to Ivalice, Livvy?

Well, I stopped breathing for so long when Return to Ivalice was first announced that my free company thought I had died, so my bar is admittedly set pretty low. All they’ll have to do is drop that “show a little more respect for faerie tales” line to get me to start sobbing.

But I’d sell my soul to the High Seraph Ultima for a dungeon inspired by Vagrant Story’s Leá Monde in 4.3, so there’s that.