#knowing Stuff it’s so cool they dropped that in stormblood

[impossible-rat-babies]

really did cry over temulun saying: “you are a traveler, are you not?” to the warrior of light ;—;

[thesecondbatgirl]

Why you should play the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, part whatever

Previously, two impassioned “BUT IT'S SO GOOD” posts with very little details. (Part 1, Part 2)

Okay, so, I have previously talked about the themes and the tropes and just that the game is super fun (and did you know you can play the base game + first expansion for free? Because you can) but this time I’m going to try to give a little bit more detail. I’m *mostly* only going to cover characters from A Realm Reborn (shortened to ARR or 2.0) but probably spoilers for later expansions will show up.

(A quick note: Each expansion has the base (x.0) and then 5 patches of content, and they get shortened to those. So ARR runs through 2.0 and 2.55 since the .5 patch is always divided into two. Also, 1.0 no longer exists because it was so awful they literally dropped a moon on it.)

Summary: It is five years after the invading Garlean Empire dropped a moon on us. Except the moon was actually a technological prison created by an ancient civilization that contained a fucking dragon. It was defeated at a great cost, which will be recapped after you start the game. You can watch the super awesome cinematic here!

You arrive in the city of your choice (forest city, pirate city, desert capitalist city, your choice of which does not actually matter other than you get different introductory quest lines so basically pick whatever class you want to start with and/or whichever city you think sounds cool as you can be all the classes eventually) in which you, the adventurer, turn out to be super competent and do a great service to your starting city. Oh, and you are having visions of a giant crystal.

Shockingly, it turns out that you have a power called The Echo which basically means you can get visions of past stuff which is very useful for exposition, and also you are completely immune to tempering (brainwashing) by the primals (gods) of the various beast tribes. Which is good, because the fact that the primals will basically turn anyone who tries to fight them into their worshippers, and their very existence harms the land, so really only people with the Echo can fight them.

Due to your awesomeness, you get recruited to a super secret organization, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, whose goal is to fight Primals and stop the Garlean Empire. And fight the Ascians, quasi-immortal beings who are secretly manipulating everything so that they can free their God.

And then shit gets real.

For the record, that only explains the first like, 20 levels. There is just SO MUCH to the game, and trying to explain it would be like attempting to sum up some epic fantasy novel series with 15 books and multiple tie-ins.

Short version of where the story goes:

ARR (2.0-2.55, levels 1-50): You become the Warrior of Light and fight Garleans and Primals

Heavensward (3.0-3.55): Time to stop a thousand year war between man and dragons and deal with a corrupt church Stormblood (4.0-4.55): Imperialism is bad, the game. Let’s go free some colonies.

Shadowbringers (5.0-5.55): We’re going to an alternate world to try and stop a disaster and find out the true history of the Ascians

Endwalker (6.0-currently 6.3 as of 1/10/2023): It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I think that hope can triumph over despair

So now that you know the story, let’s talk about the characters! There are loads and loads of characters, and covering all of them would be pretty much impossible, so have the major characters from ARR. I’m not going to give major spoilers for ARR itself, but I am definitely going to reference ends of character arcs because talking about them otherwise is difficult when they get so much character growth. Also I am stealing all these images from (mostly) the ffxiv wiki

You: The Warrior of Light. (usually abbreviated to WoL) Choose between 8 races, and play as many classes as you want Currently there are 19 fighting classes (20 if you count blue mage, which is a limited job that can’t be used in regular content), 3 gathering classes, and 8 crafting classes. The WoL doesn’t get a lot of options for dialogue until 3.0, but the ability to customize is great, and there’s a very strong RP community. Also I absolutely joke that this game is basically my WoL’s harem and I stand by it. (Pictured, all of your character options, female and male.)

The Scions: Super secret team of nerds who left their homeland because they wanted to try and make the world better. (it’s complicated.)

Minfilia: Leader of the Scions. Has shitty voice acting, but is basically team mom. She gives you your assignments and has a very strong connection to the mothercrystal you keep seeing.

Thancred: This is Thancred. You hang out with him if you start in Ul’dah, the desert city. He’s a flirt, former thief, but eventually ends up trying to raise a teenage girl with his boyfriend. He also has a compulsive saving people thing.

Y’shtola: If you start in Limsa Lominsa, the pirate city, you get to hang out with her. Her hobbies include attempting complicated spells, being smarter than you, calling people out on their bullshit and delivering the best insult in the game. Also she does a Sailor Moon thing. (Okay, I was going to only put in the ARR outfits but frankly her Shadowbringers outfit is great so I’m showing it off.)

Yda and Papalymo: She’s a ditz who punches things, he’s sarcastic and sets shit on fire. Together, they hang out in Gridania, the forest city.

Urianger: Speaks in thees and thous and poetry. Was totally in a kinky relationship with a woman who could break him. Gets a massive glowup in Shadowbringers.

Tataru Taru: The Scion’s secretary, who is possibly going to take over the world eventually, and makes excellent outfits.

Alphinaud Leveilleur: Ok, so listen, every time I play ARR I spend half of it yelling at Alphinaud to shut the fuck up. Because he has such a great character arc! He starts off as this super entitled 16 year old who thinks that he’s smarter than everyone and that politics is just a game he’s playing. He truly wants to make the world better, he’s just very very full of himself.

He gets *so much better* He gets his break the haughty moment and learns and grows, and gathers a lot of firewood, and learns and grows and also is absolutely dating a super surly dragoon, and I love him.

Alisaie Leveilleur: Alphinaud’s twin sister who mostly doesn’t show up until post 2.0. Her hobbies include dunking on her brother, threatening people with a sword, and generally being awesome. She also has a super strong moral compass and cares a lot for individuals over ideals.

(These are their Endwalker outfits, Alisaie is in red, Alphinaud in blue.)

Allies:

Kan-E-Senna: Gridania’s leader. Older than she looks, has a connection to the Elementals (forest spirits)

Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn: Limsa’s leader and former Pirate Queen. Very pragmatic. Will absolutely shoot you.

Raubahn Aldynn: Refugee turned gladiator turned leader of Ul’Dah’s army. One of the richest people in Ul’Dah. Incredibly loyal to the Sultana. 

Nanamo Ul Namo: The Sultana. Thinks capitalism is stupid. Wants to serve her people. Occasionally hides in pots, according to Raubahn.

Haurchefant Greystone: THE BEST BOY. Will make you hot chocolate. Absolutely wants to fuck you.

Cid: Engineer and last minute rescuer. Is supposed to be 30, so I guess he just went silver fox early or something. Has his own airship.

The villains: (Gaius in black, Nero in Red. Livia is in white, and the dude with the shields doesn’t actually matter.)

Gaius van Baelsar: The Big Bad (of ARR.) Wants to know if you believe in Eorzea. Actually gets a redemption arc eventually to rival Zuko from ATLA.

Nero tol Scaeva: Cid’s ex-boyfriend who will literally give an entire speech about their rivalry and how one day he will best him. It’s *great*

Livia: Deserved a better story arc. Luckily, her sister is awesome.

That is… just a sampling of characters. Each class gets its own storyline, so there are characters there! And so many sidequests! I didn’t even talk about Detective Hildibrand!

But hopefully, this has convinced you to try, or at least made you slightly more interested. You can find the free trial here: https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/na/

[solacerider]

FFXIV shenanigans: the 3quel

damn a good while of no posting and this is the first thing I come back to 😅

I've done a lot of stuff in the game so far. Been procrastinating the MSQ (because I apparently can't help but get all classes to ARR LV50) but I'm close to fighting the Father of Dragons!

I've met one of Ishgard's hot elf men Haurchefant. Still a big softie who cares about your safety and is rightly horrified when you went to fight another god.

Cause I knew he was worried in-game when you went fighting Ysayle but I didn't think he was that distraught. Poor Sage feels so bad for worrying him.

And Ishgard's other hot elf man Aymeric! And Lucia!

FINALLY completed one of the base relic weapon quests and got Curtana. I've made the Zenith version, which was so easy I was almost upset, and made the Atma version which meant a bit of FATE grinding and inventory loading. On the bright side it didn't take as long as I thought it would and had some help from another WOL doing the same thing as me!

Unfortunately this meant I've started Anima questline...and oh my god there's SO so much to find and kill. 10 specific monsters, 3 dungeons, 3 FATEs, and 3 levequests which you'll need a total of 900 Allagan tomestones of poetics to complete. Which in short means I've gotta go back to either the Castrum or Praetorium and sit in for either Nero or Livia's griping 😔.

Oh and say hi to the chunky kitty.

On a lighter note, there was a concert in Limsa, which was cool! Didn't really expect one in Zurvan of all servers :D.

And 6.5's patch dropped so you know what that means :D

New story content! Getting Stormblood so I can FINALLY kick Zenos' ass myself! And FTs getting Red Mage and Samurai! I'm gonna backflip myself of the stage, watch me :)

[turtersblade]

Final Fantasy XIV

Caught up June 23

Spoilers! Oh man, its been a journey. As some background info, I started playing this in 2020. For years, I was super interested in this game for some reason despite never playing a Final Fantasy game before. So I started playing. And while I thought it was fun enough, man I hated the MSQ. The quests were boring, the story was boring, I just really liked the music and the MMO aspect.

Eventually, I pushed through and started Heavensward. Immediately I became way more interested in everything about the game. The story grabbed me, the characters grabbed me, everything. I hated Alphinaud in ARR. Just couldn't stand his stupid voice and his stupid face, smug know it all. Then Heavensward starts and I'm like "huh?? this dude is cool??". I really had a good time with the base game. The patch quests were pretty cool, but I dropped the game in the middle of the Warriors of Darkness plotline. It was 2022, and some cool games were finally coming out after the pandemic slowed down the industry. I hop in every now and then, but I hold off on the MSQ because I know I don't have the time to commit to it just yet. Then April 2024, Clive comes to the game, and Dawntrail is coming this summer. It's go time. Get through the Warriors of Darkness plotline at last, and I'm wondering what the point was? Was this just filler? I wasn't offended, just thought it was a weird filler plotline. Anyway, now Heavensward is over.

Stormblood

I always heard stuff about Heavensward, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker, but never Stormblood. The least good expansion I assume. I'm really vibing with this Ala Mhigo plotline though. However, now its time to travel to the East and meet up with Gosetsu, who I quickly fell in love with. Dude is awesome. So first dungeon and oh my god the music! Every final boss of a dungeon, every duty felt so grand and epic with this song! This is when everything about XIV truly sinks in for me and I truly become a fan. The combat is more advanced, bosses are more involved, the story is really truly hitting, I love all the characters alot, the areas are so interesting, everything. Zenos was an incredible villain, and easily became one of my favorites in gaming. I finish Stormblood, and I'm just in shock. This expansion was amazing. One of the ultimate highlights of the entirety of XIV to me is the Nadaam. Truly incredible. Sometime between Stormblood and Shadowbringers, I also grind for the Rathalos mount. That fight was honestly really really cool. I have played a little bit of Monster Hunter Rise and World in the past, so I really appreciated the little touches in the fight. Being able to cut his tail off, and having to use Monster Hunter potions was a nice detail. I also grind for I believe about 20 hours for all the Yokai Watch items.

Shadowbringers

Wait. Wait. Wait. A world engulfed in light...? They're following up the Warriors of Darkness storyline?!?!?!?! It took me a little bit to realize it but as it started clicking I got even more excited. I genuinely did not expect this at all. What could I even say about Shadowbringers that hasn't been said before? This isn't even peak Final Fantasy XIV, this is just flat out peak Final Fantasy. The world building, the lore, everything. The bosses became way more difficult and I found that really exhilarating. Story had me in tears at parts, it really nailed its emotion. I won't say much more about the core expansion itself, because I truly cannot do it justice. I just want to say that at this point, I have played multiple Final Fantasy games, including FF1 and Stranger of Paradise, so I was very hyped about things they did here. After beating Shadowbringers, I wanted to do something that I wanted to see for myself when it was released, the Nier raids. I love both Nier Replicant and Nier Automata, so I had to see this.

The raid was everything I could've imagined and more. It's such an insanely good love letter to fans of both Nier games. The remixed music, the bosses, the areas, all of it blew my mind. I would absolutely love to see more crossover raids, as someone who has not really touched raids at all in this game. So finally, there was...

Endwalker

I want to preface this with: I was satisfied with Endwalker. It ended the entire ongoing story in a very good manner. It was really hype! I just think its rather flawed, and I also just have personal things that did not click with me here. The pacing just felt sloooow. I checked, and while dungeons and trials were given out at the same pace as Shadowbringers, it just felt off here. It felt like an eternity between these. I feel like the questing also nose dived here. I found myself utterly bored for extended periods of time here. So many quests were "Search big ass red circle for sparkling point" and then you would eventually find it, just for it to be "uh actually thing you're looking for isn't here, search a new big ass red circle again!". There was even a point towards the end where it was "Talk to 8 NPC's in big ass red circle" but you would find an NPC, and they'd pretty much say "Not me, sorry" and it wouldn't count for the quest. I'm fairly sure some of them wouldn't spawn unless you found other NPC's too, so this took an eternity. This was so frustrating to go through, and it's what most of the MSQ feels like. I also wasn't even too terribly interested in the patch quests, but I'm still looking forward to what becomes of that after Dawntrail.

I also did fall guys during Endwalker lol

Culminating Thoughts

Now I'm left here wondering, "How is Stormblood considered the worst expansion??". While I recognize Shadowbringers is clearly better than it, I personally still have Stormblood and Shadowbringers tied as my favorites. There are so many things about those two that I did not get into that I loved so much. I liked the lore of Endwalker, and I like how it all culminated and ended, but for the most part I just felt generally meh about the whole thing? I really hope Dawntrail fixes the pacing and questing issues of Endwalker. Either way, I still truly love Final Fantasy XIV. This is definitely one of my favorite games I've played and I've barely scratched the surface of the content it has. I'm going to have brain rot over Shadowbringers for a very, very long time.

[astralartefact]

I did the thing the people do but on here nobody can stop me from also talking about it (link here if you want to do it yourself)

I put my current favorites at the top and my all time favorites (=the games I played in my childhood and still have strong memories about) closer to the bottom which created a nice gradient that happens to really fit my overall taste! There's serious stuff in one corner, there's straightforward brain empty fun stuff in the other and I get to like it all and everything in-between because favorites don't follow rules :)

Also: I put FF14's 5.1 in first place to symbolize YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse not Shadowbringers (because custom didn't work for me and that was the closest entry to it), FF14 as a whole is represented by the Stormblood entry (which I chose because it would make Heavensward people mad)

Also Also: I think my feelings about the first 5 are relatively well documented (Reincarnation here) so I will skip explaining those

Also Also Also: Spoilers

Xenoblade X best Wii U game (Yes, I proudly own a Wii U, that thing was great and I won't hear anybody say different q_q) I want a sequel so bad.

The way it was a fake MMO with pseudo guilds was so cool to me, it really made exploring Mira feel part of this big thing everyone was working on together and it worked really well with the character creator too. Also experiencing Sylvalum for the first time will always be one of my favorite video game moments ever. (also i have not played any other xenoblade so far)

Bravely Second In my teens I had this weird obsession with playing the second game of a series without playing the first?? I did it with FF13-2 (which I dropped because I couldn't get past a certain boss early on lol) and also with Bravely Second, but with the difference that I actually knew what BD1 was about lol (and also I had played 4 Warriors of Light before too)

I just have a lot of love for Second? I really like Ryo Supercell's soundtrack for how well it still fits with the half of Second's soundtrack that's just Revo's soundtrack again despite being so fundamentally different. Like you knew what was old content and what was new by the obviously different music, but it still fit, at least to me. Altair and Vega's Theme is still one of my favorite pieces ever. Also Magnolia.

NieR Replicant Yeah. ... ... ... Maybe I should put Drakengard 1 here-

Final Bar Line Shoutout to the DLC for making me check out SaGa!!! (also I needed some Rhythm Game in here, I love Rhythm Games but I never stick to one enough to say "Yes, That One.")

Pikmin 4 This would have been Pikmin 2 if Pikmin 4 wasn't the best game ever. The only note I have is that some of the (later) dungeons could have had more interesting bosses, but aside from that it's absolutely great.

Fire Emblem Fates [Bracing for impact] I get it. Yes. We all know the story sucks. You can stop prefacing any vaguely positive statement made about this game as if to make sure you aren't thought of as one of those weebs. No, you are a smart weeb who likes FE4 and knows that Thracia exists. You think Incest is bad (wait what is FE4 about again) and the dating sim shit is really really cringey. Also something something bad localisation, something something bottom half of Camilla's design. Kaga would be proud.

I just think it's neat. I do like dating sims (there i said it), I like a lot of the characters and their designs and I think the child units - as dumb as their explanation might be - add a tangible pay-off to developing supports between party members and it adds so much replay value too. I have played Fates more than any other FE game I own and it's mostly because I can develop the children into classes they certainly shouldn't be, like making Shiro a viable mage just because I can, who cares, and all the while I discover a new line of supports. And the fact that it's not brick hard really helps with that, I don't have to sit down and plan out every step I take only to reset once I inevitably stop thinking for a second just to do a silly little run of the game.

It might not be for you, but it certainly is for me :P

AI Somnium Files This is on here for gay reasons: In one of the earlier scenes in the game (I think before going into the mind thing for one of the first times or something? It's in that room overlooking the mind link machine) I examine a shelf in the background - as you do in games like this - and there I found Pewter's gay manga collection.

And of course I thought this is just your average japanese visual novel, this is all I get, a funny little hint - not even a straightforward confirmation - that this character is maybe gay or something. But no, him being gay is an actual plot point that's relevant to the story. And I felt so happy that this thing - which at that point was my own little inside joke every time he was on screen (haha gay pewter, don't worry i won't tell on you... also you're cute) - was actually real??

People always point to that Mizuki scene (which dont get me wrong is great in its own way!) but for me finding Pewter's gay mangas will always be the thing I will remember most about this game.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 I was so in love with DQB1 and with what they have shown of 2 in livestreams I ended up importing the japanese version because there was no telling when it was getting an overseas release. And then when it finally released here I of course also bought the translated version. What can I say, It's great! I hope they're doing a DQB3 in the future, but I kind of doubt it (sadly)

Inazuma Eleven Go 2 Chrono Stone Listen. I only played Inazuma Eleven as a joke. My little brother was really into soccer and online it was constantly advertised as "Pokémon but soccer" so I just tried it out to see if he would like it.

I ended up playing through all of the first trilogy (aside from the first game) on japanese - without understanding a single word - because I was just simply so hooked. (For anyone wondering: I definitely did this legally. There were definitely no NDS flashcards involved. The reason I didn't play Go until it finally came out in Europe was definitely not because 3DS emulation wasn't really an easily viable thing back then.)

And I loved when it went crazier with Go and the Keshins! I even would have liked Go Galaxy if it didn't force me keep the most unlikeable characters in the entire franchise around (also the Souls are a full on downgrade to Keshins and MixiMax in terms of flashiness), which is why I'm putting Chrono Stone here instead.

I'm so excited for Victory Road, even though it's bittersweet that it's going to end there... but honestly I'm just glad Level 5 gets to release another Inazuma Eleven after the past few years of hell they've been through.

Spirit Tracks Best Zelda. Moving on (choo choo)

Fur Fighters Okay, my parents bought this together with our PS2, I highly doubt they knew what this game even was about and I highly doubt you know what this game even is. It's not even necessarily good and I don't think I should have played it at the age I have played it at, but... I sincerely think it has shaped a lot of my interests in an indirect way??

Basically, the setting is just cute animals saving their children with the power of guns, that's all you need to know about it. (They're also plush toys, but I somehow didn't even really realize that as a child lol) It was dreamt up in a fever dream, but it's just really good too? I need to replay this game so bad.

There's just so much stuff from this game that randomly pops into my head that I remember fondly. There's a (secret) world that's just a house but big (chibi robo style) that I always think of when any other game does it...

And in hindsight this game is so fascinatingly big? The levels are enormous and there are so many of them? And nobody seems to ever have heard about it? It's wild.

Harvest Moon Animal Parade It was between this one or Tale of Two Towns, those two are the Harvest Moons I have spend the longest time with. I'm still sad the Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons name fiasco happened and now all people know is Stardew Valley, which In My Opinion(!!!!) has the only benefit of being a PC game, most Harvest Moon games from the before times are better than it and yet nobody even acknowledges them anymore because of a good-ish indie game that's for the most part just a retro style PC version of Harvest Moon + Rune Factory.

But well, that's how the cookie crumbles. Good for him.

Pokémon Heartgold I was only allowing myself one Pokémon game and I already have Fates on this, I can't take one of the switch ones even if I would be fine with those too. I was also debating BW2 or Platinum, but then again I like all of them, I just don't like talking about it anymore because the internet has made Pokémon one of those topics that you just do not discuss in public if you want to keep your sanity.

Shoutout to Pokémon XD and Coliseum for being cool too.

Mario & Luigi RPG (entire series, but especially Partners in Time) Talk about gone to soon Q_Q My heroes. Legends. Icons. DId you know Yoko Shimomura wrote the music for this series??? It is simply iconic. I really hope with the Super Mario RPG & Paper Mario TTYD remakes on the horizon that they maybe revive/reboot this series too and give a new gameanother shot despite the flop of the remakes because this type of skill based JRPG is not only really unique but also really fucking fun and there's not really much else like it. For some reason I always thought I'm an JRPG gamer, but I have since discovered that I'm really not, I'm just a Mario & Luigi RPG gamer.

(And yes, I know AlphaDream is dead but that doesn't mean Nintendo can't just continue the franchise even just with a spiritual successor)

Paper Mario TTYD I mean, I think you know. Everybody likes TTYD. I also like all the other ones, I even thought Sticker Stars was fine even if it wasn't as good. I think this would actually be Origami King, but I haven't actually played that one myself (yet)

Speaking of which the music of Origami King is in my top3 favorite OSTs of all time and i'm not kidding about that, listen to the Autumn Mountain Battle Theme and tell me that's not some of the best shit you've ever heard - and almost every single track is like that. and don't get me started about the "joke" tracks (royal hotel pool or swan lake.) and the boss themes. and tranquil pipes teahouse. and then there's moments like the secret trans birdo affirming coffee club. it's so good, I'm so looking forward to what's coming next for Paper Mario and seeing that Nintendo seems to have revised their stance of Generics only with Wonder, the next one is probably going to be amazing.

Skyward Sword I LIKED THE MOTION CONTROLS

Rollercoaster Tycoon (I do like 3 too, I actually played that one much more, but I chose Loopy Landscapes because for some reason that expansion never worked on my pc as a child q_q I'm still yearning) Yeah. Not really much to say, I think. Except maybe that the art style of 1 and 2 is so... peculiar? Like it's so timeless it doesn't age the slightest, but it was also somehow already dated when it released? It's really beautiful in a way, but also kind of ugly. I don't know. I don't make sense. I love these games so much.

Super Mario Sunshine So many good memories, it would be wrong for me to not include it.

Yoshi's Island See above.

Mario Sports Mix I played this game (and Hoops 3 on 3) so much as a child/teen? And the music of this game is so good too. Makes me wonder what Masayoshi Soken, niche composer of Mario Sports Spin-Off Games, is doing these days.

[goodmorningawfulbye]

Listen as one of my FF mutuals I gotta know…. can you rank your top five villains (bonus points if you say why you like em)?

now, I've played fewer FF games than maybe the average FF fan but I love the ones I have played so yes I am up to the challenge.

However. In a way, I'm counting XIV expansions as individual games, and due to how they're structured, "antagonist" may fit certain characters more than "villain" but like they have boss fights at an end point of their expac so I say that counts

Mild to moderate spoilers for every game I mention wheeee (7, 8, 14, 15)

So!

Zenos yae Galvus (FFXIV). As written, Zenos is somewhere between "it could be that deep" and "it is that deep," because of Choices(TM) the writers have made along the way, including locking valuable information in a side book that people will now disregard/downplay the importance of due to their not having read it. ANYWAY. But. Zenos is very much a reflection of the hero, the Warrior of Light. People had been discussing this since Stormblood, and then fighting about this since Endwalker came out and said it pretty explicitly, but he is. It's another version of the path the Warrior walks. If he hadn't been subjected to all he was in his life (and hoo boy is that a whole rant-worthy thing), he could have been different, more like the Warrior. If the Warrior hadn't had all the support they got, they could have behaved more like Zenos. This is just scratching the surface, because going deeper gets into excessive spoilers and personal headcanon but yeah. Zenos is a really cool character and I wish more people recognized it.

Nidhogg (FFXIV). Nidhogg was justified in doing what he did, for the most part. And the wherefore makes total sense, when the dragons say "we live forever so a thousand years ago is like last week to us, of course he's still mad." Totally valid. As an antagonist, he perfectly fits the themes of Heavensward. I wish we hadn't had to resolve his story the way we did. We had the perfect "see, people and dragons can work together with no exploitation or murder" solution. Maybe a couple, actually. But I guess he was fairly set in his position, and one can't say his grief and anger aren't valid. I just think it could have been great. I wish we'd gotten to see a flashback to when he wasn't so mired in his grief. I dunno I just really like Nidhogg and I would have wanted to see if peace could have been restored another way (my friend Dae and I say, correctly, he just needs a catgirl wife)

Sephiroth (FFVII). What's most interesting about him is how he gets where he is. He's engineered to be perfect, and then dropped into a situation, and it goes off the rails so fast from there. I was rewatching the cutscenes from Crisis Core recently and I realized Shinra is doing like five extremely messed-up things at once, and they all kind of converge on Sephiroth. Poor guy has two moms and one god-awful dad and they're all in the web of Shinra's machinations (Hojo willingly). But he didn't have to burn down Nibelheim about it. That created like. Even more problems. But his question of identity is a good one. That's interesting! I wish SE didn't use FFVII as its milkiest cash cow such that it dilutes his story but what can ya do

Ultimecia (FFVIII). What's funny to me is that Ultimecia is both really interesting and really boring. I read this really neat theory years ago that Ultimecia's final form was the Great Hyne, the first sorceress. That's what's made me like her, is that theory. And/but a lot of the cool stuff Ultimecia does is spread throughout the game when we haven't met her yet and don't know the full extent of what she's up to. Like, Edea, the stuff in space, Adel and Rinoa (as a unit), that's all before everyone starts really working on the whole Time Compression thing. I remember groaning to myself, "every disc, it's another sorceress" Though, the fact that she creates a time loop at the end of the game is pretty neat, too. (I have only seen that scene once despite playing FFVIII three times. The Ultimecia fight--the four fights one after another, in fact--suuuuuuuuucks, it took me months, and you need Rinoa in the party for Angelo but iirc that carries its own risks so I usually just go "yeah okay I bet the game I've beaten Ulti before, I'm done" instead of going through it again)

Ardyn (FFXV). I have extremely mixed feelings about Ardyn, partially due to SE's handling of the second bunch of Episodes. And because the Ardyn fans I knew in 2017 really turned me off being interested/exploring him as a character in fandom space. In canon, though, I do think "Christ, but Supremely Problematic" is deeply intriguing. SE has done the "bad guy is your family" thing before, and I think it's to pretty good effect each time. Ultimately, I have questions, but I don't feel like looking for answers. Which is sad, because there's depths there I just can't plumb.

[piejumper]

Ff14 update: vauge spoilers; I've decided to forgo all but the MSQ (main story quest) so as to avoid more spoilers because my YouTube recommended page is getting fuckin tricky with me and showing spoiler vids for bosses and stuff, and because I burn myself out if I do anything else. Stormblood has been pretty fun. The new locations are cool and im hopeful that they manage to stick the landing on the stuff they're setting up in the main scenario of this expansion (also I finally met....HIM. wow he looks like he was dropped out of a emo metal works shop, he's great) also I know this is kinda overstated but wow garlemald is gunning for the all time world record of most human rights violations a single nation has committed in hydalen's history, they're gaining quick ground on allag and those guys were around for literal millenia.

[whitherliliesbloom]

CAN WE TALK MORE ABOUT PLATONIC STUFF??? Illya and Yotsuyu / Illya and Hien / Illya and Hilda uwu!!!!

This some good fucking food thank you. No gposes because I’m still in the middle of writing reports and like I have little to no time for self indulgence lately as it is sowwie

Illya + Yotsuyu

LOVE Yotsuyu to death, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t know how much ‘friend’ they can put into friendship if it even is possible for them. I’d like to think there’s possibilities for that, though.. since it was shown when she got her memories back after living as Tsuyu, she showed genuine regret and sadness over her actions. I will never get over that ‘i will not suffer his kindness, not after what i’ve done to him’ scene okay just slay me on the spot. Same could possibly be said for Illya since we all know she’s such an incredibly gentle and forgiving person... provided Yotsuyu proves that she’s not a threat anymore, at least. 

It’s difficult to really convince myself of a timeline where Yotsuyu just.. magically gets over years of abuse and trauma and quits her plans for revenge.. but in an ideal world where Yotsuyu survives and is willing to change and continues to live with maybe Gosetsu, then yeah definitely Illya would try to befriend her. There’d probably be something of resistance on Yotsuyu’s part, but like with Gosetsu, seeing someone she once saw an enemy treat her so kindly would probably sting her conscious a little. I’ve got a lot of ideas on how that may turn out and how Yotsuyu’s life with Gosetsu would be like if she did survive but I’ll probably save that for another post to ramble in... if anyone even cares that is.

Illya + Hien 

GSKGJSIOGJI God okay.. So during Stormblood I definitely got the feeling that Hien was constantly trying to flex and show off to Illya.. Though I didn’t get any sense it was from romantic intent of flirting. I think Hien just really wants to look cool in front of a known hero ajdfnsujfnsf, even more so if he knows it’s one of Kirishimi’s most trusted friends. Gotta make a good impression somehow.

Hien being as friendly and as much of a bro he is got Illya to open up a little more quickly to him than she did with most other people, and she definitely looks up to him being a prince who must have so many responsibilities and he clearly has a strong sense of justice and charisma. 

There’s also the fact that Hien likes to..compete with Illya somehow. Racing to see who can kill the most rampaging mobs? Competing to see who collects the most beans within a certain time? There’s no sense or reason to make everything a contest but he just does, and maybe he does it to get Illya out of her shell a little more. 

And most importantly Illya is just... genuine. She’s pure and incredibly good-natured, which is rare these days. He confides in her a lot when it comes to his past, his worries about the responsibilities he has to shoulder and of course later on, one of the few people he asks advice from when it comes to Kiri.

Illya + Hilda

MY GIRL HILDA AAAAAAAA What a wonderful character we really need more of her please. I don’t think they’d be SUPER close as friends, but definitely close enough to be able to hang out once in a while while Illya drops by Ishgard.

Their relationship started out somewhat tense at first though it’s been a while since i played hw so i can’t remember the exact details of their first meeting. And Hilda’s more forward and domineering personality definitely caused Illya to b wary and scared of her at first... ESPECIALLY since this is Heavensward Illya, who is arguably at her most emotionally vulnerable and meek in life. 

But as Hilda proved to be a reliable ally later on, I think Illya would open up a little more enough to not shrink away when they meet. It probably wouldn’t be until after the Stormblood though that Illya would probably consider Hilda a friend. 

Hilda’s also one of those who was acutely aware of Alphinaud’s growing feelings for Illya and constantly bugs them about it. 

[tae-ffxiv]

Okay so... some thoughts on healer changes I had. I guess there’s been a lot of salt going around, luckily I’ve stayed out of most of it. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thrown my own every now and again. I’ve mained Scholar since Stormblood dropped so of course I had my own thoughts. And... they aren’t exactly what I’d expected.

From the time of the announcement in the liveletter that healers would see a fair chunk of changes, and that more emphasis would be put on the healing part of the role, I’d heard some people were unhappy. I was a little too, but I decided rather than lament it, I’d just be... cautiously optimistic. I thought if anything, it might end up like a Summoner situation, people around for the Stormblood launch might know what I mean. The changes might be pretty bad at first, but would probably get improved upon over a few different patches. 

In truth, I was considerably salty about the Summoner changes. And I’ve been rather surprised, I’ve been notably less salty about the SCH changes... BUT...

I was a little unhappy with them wanting to emphasize the healing part of the role, but really decided to roll with it, “ehhh, not sure how I feel about that, but I guess it makes sense”. At this point I still feel about the same. I don’t mind having to heal more.

What I do mind is that part of the reason I stuck with SCH, even after capping the other two healers, is because I enjoyed the way it felt to play. I still prefer its healing ‘style’ to the other two (although I’ve yet to hit 80 on WHM or AST, so that could change), when it comes to how DPS works as SCH... It felt unique, and the changes kind of removed that feeling. I still like healing as a SCH, but I’m not a fan of DPSing any more. And frankly? If it’s not recent content, I find I’m not healing very much at this point. Which leaves me to DPS. 

So, that’s where my disappointment with the SCH changes lies. I feel it took some of the flavour out of the job, and now it feels a touch more generic.

And honestly? I’ve similar feelings when it comes to AST. 

I 100% get why the made the changes that they made to the cards. Aside from when there was a BRD in the party, the main card people wanted to see was Balance. So? Just make everything give a direct damage buff. Makes sense. BUT... I really liked the little bit of extra thought that came with the old system. Who should the card go to? (Yes, I’m aware that I still have to pay attentions to ranged/melee cards, but still...) Should I eat the card and turn it into a buff? It really made it fun for me. Not to mention I will really miss the way that Lord/Lady of Crowns used to work. I loved the instant, flat damage that you got from one, or the (albeit small) insta-heal you got from the other. I’m a little sad to see them also turned into damage buffs. 

At the end of the day, though, I get why they made the changes they did and I’m willing to accept them - perhaps reluctantly in some cases. 

But it also won’t keep me from missing the old playstyles for each of those jobs. Because that’s really the source of disappointment for me. They were a lot of fun, and now they feel kind of ‘meh’. Again, I haven’t finished leveling AST, so maybe I’ll find it more fun once I hit the cap. I don’t know, but I guess I’ll find out.

Still, I don’t want to focus on the negatives, so let’s look at some stuff that I enjoyed right from the start:

First: The effects for Biolysis look super cool. So does the icon. Also I love the little spin they added to the animation when you use it. I just like Biolysis. There’s a part of me that wishes it had a shorter duration just because I want to use it more often. 

Second: Also loving that extra shield from Critlo (I’m not able to recall what it’s called right this moment). Love how it doesn’t conflict with Galvanize, so things don’t get too messed up even if you have another SCH in the party. 

Third: Malefic IVs effects are really pretty. It just really like casting Malefic IV. (I hope that’s the right number...)

Aaaaand Fourth: CONGRATULATIONS AST, on finally, FINALLY being able to cast an AoE before level 50. I will not miss AST being the only healer without an AoE below 50.

Okay, I think that’s all I’ve got to say on the subject, at least for now. Not much point to this except I’ve had some Thoughts, and felt like screaming them out into the void. 

(Oh, also, as much as I don’t like the way SCH DPS style has changed, Art of War is a cool name for a skill, the icon looks cool, and I think(?) I like the animation. I’m usually too surrounded by mobs to really actually see the animation and I keep forgetting to use the skill outside of combat and actually pay attention.)

[captainkittyandstarnoble]

I already did art of this LMAO xD

Here y'all go!

Title: The Courelfist

Name: Ryco Archenveil!

Battle music: something that sounds sorrowful and kind, that at the climax of the battle the music suddenly drops into a epic an pretty cool jam. Kinda what we hear with Shiva you know? But like, more guitar and drums. Yess so much drums. Enough to let the players know that they are in for it now.

Start of the battle quote: The balance between light and dark will be restored!

Dps check: Enough! There is work to be done, and you are keeping me from it!

After she says this, she leaps to the center of the arena, where her claws glow like they do in the picture, and she leaps up to cast a ray of light and dark energy down onto the ground like the monk move that does that.

Party loosing to her: It was better this way.

Upon loosing to the party: No! I must not die! Not now! Not yet! Not while I... I have...to protect...

Other stuff: I feel like she became known primarily in stormblood, and so people remember that image of her most, but that twisted and molded with other versions of her story like heavensward and shadowbringers.

Actually, you know what, this would be a fun game! Make your own post (or reblog too if you want) and tag it as Primal WoL Challenge!

Name/Title:

Battle Music: (this could be a description, or link to a song on youtube)

Appearance: (this could be a description, art, or screenshot in game)

Start of Battle Quote:

DPS Check, moveset name or quote said when casting:

Party losing to Primal WoL quote:

Primal WoL losing Quote:

Feel free to add whatever else you can think of!

[haillenarte]

ruby sea place names;

I am proceeding through Stormblood very, very slowly, so I only just wrapped up everything there is to do in the Ruby Sea! However, I had a few friends ask me about certain terms, so I thought it would be fun to do a full list of vocabulary used in the Kugane and Ruby Sea regions.

It’s rather long, but it was fun to do, so please enjoy!

This post is for the Ruby Sea. The Kugane list is here.

By the way, I don’t intend this as an attack on the localization or anything; I think it’s fine that many of these little places were simply romanized as opposed to translated, since the names contain a lot of cultural flavor, and it’s supposed to be a foreign experience for the Eorzeans. This is just to help people who might want to know what all this stuff means. Also, there may be some inaccuracies, because I’m not especially well-versed in Japanese culture myself.

THE RUBY SEA

サカズキ島 Sakazuki This is read sakazuki-shima, I think, so more specifically, it means Sakazuki Island. Sakazuki means “sake cup,” as a nice Hyuran Confederate explains:

Ihaki: This is where the founding members of our organization first joined hands and toasted to the future. That is why we call this island “Sakazuki” or, quite literally, “the goblet.” Even now the tradition carries on. We bring all of our newest recruits here that they might share a drink and thus be truly united. If you’re looking to join us, I would be more than happy to recommend you to one of the higher-ups.

By the way, this might be unintentional, but if you fly out and look at the place from afar, it kind of looks like an upside-down sake cup floating in the ocean! 

…Maybe it’s unintentional. Actually, it’s probably unintentional. I’m dumb, forgive me.

螺旋海峡 Rasen Kaikyo This means Spiral Strait. I didn’t even have to alliterate that on purpose, that’s just straight up what the dictionary gave me. Beautiful.

カガミの仙窟 Exile This is read kagami no senkutsu — “enchanted cave of mirrors.”

サイバイ洞 Saibai Cavern Given in katakana, and… I really don’t know. The only thing that seems to make sense is 栽培, or “cultivation,” perhaps in reference to the mushrooms that are growing on the walls there. Cultivation Cavern…?

小林丸 The Kobayashi Maru Many Japanese ship names are given the suffix maru — you can read more about that here. Kobayashi is a fairly common place name and surname, but the characters for it read “small forest.” I am told it is a reference to a training exercise in the Star Trek series.

碧のタマミズ Tamamizu The full Japanese name is ao no tamamizu, and Hancock already told you about the problems of translating ao, so let’s just call it “Tamamizu of the Blue.” Tamamizu is given in katakana, but it’s probably 玉水, or “raindrops” — literally, it evokes “a beautiful and pure drop of water, perfectly round, in the shape of a ball.”

ベッコウ島 The Isle of Bekko Given in katakana, but probably 鼈甲, or “tortoiseshell.” Since The Isle of Tortoiseshell doesn’t sound that great, maybe I should go with Tortoiseshell Isle?

ゼッキ島 The Isle of Zekki Given in katakana, and… again, I really don’t know. The only thing that seems to fit is 絶奇, or “extremely rare,” so perhaps it’s The Isle of Rarities.

スイの里 Sui-no-Sato Literally, “Village of Sui,” where sui is given in katakana, but it’s most likely “water” — so, Village of Water. It probably wasn’t written 水の里 for fear that it might be misread as mizu no sato by dumbasses who can’t read, like me. 

海底宮殿紫水宮 Shisui of the Violet Tides This is one of the weirdest parts of the localization, at least in my opinion. The Japanese dungeon title, kaitei kyuuden shisuimiya, is something like “The Deep-Sea Palace: Temple of the Violet Tides.”  Shisui of the Violet Tides sounds pretty cool, honestly, but the thing is, shisui (紫水) means “violet tides,” so it becomes… Violet Tides of the Violet Tides. Amazing.

Incidentally, the “box that turns you into an old crone” mechanic is most likely a reference to the legend of Urashima Taro. Since the Wikipedia summary of the story is rather clinical, if you’ve never read it, I invite you to read a version of it here.

クレナイ Kurenai Given in katakana, but most likely 紅, “crimson.”

ヒスイ Hisui Given in katakana. I feel less confident on this than I am on Kurenai, but this is probably 翡翠, or “jade.” It can also mean “kingfisher,” for the color of a kingfisher’s feathers, but “crimson” and “jade” seem intended to be complementary concepts.

シオサイ Shiosai Given in katakana, but most likely 潮騒, “the roar of the ocean waves.” As long as I’m here, I want to say that I am madly in love with Shiosai on a level I usually only reserve for Elezen men. Please let me marry Shiosai. Please let me feed Isobe dango. Please.

イソベ Isobe Given in katakana, but most likely 磯辺, “seashore.” Also, isobe mochi is a type of mochi that is grilled with soy sauce and wrapped in seaweed. Soft, squishy Isobe…

オノコロ島 Onokoro Given in katakana, but probably a reference to Onogoroshima (淤能碁呂島), the island in Japanese mythology where the divine couple Izanagi and Izanami lived and conceived their children. Apparently, “Onogoro-shima” is generally interpreted to mean “island that took form on its own.”

ラショウ Rasho Given in katakana, but possibly 羅城, “city walls.”

タンスイ  Tansui Given in katakana, but probably 淡水, “fresh water.”

イサリ村 Isari Given in katakana, but probably… 漁り村, or “fishing village.” I know. I know. Look… don’t look at me.

Once again, the Kugane list of names is here.

[safestsephiroth]

Stormblood checklist: are you sure you’re ready?

Ultimately, you’re the only arbiter of if you’re ready for stormblood. But here’s what I’d consider, and what I think some people might miss the ball on:

(note: these are all tied to Red Mage and Samurai)

Got a full i130 Augmented Ironworks set for Striking and/or Casting yet? Get those poetics in now!

Ready to get your weapons from the Ifrit/Garuda/Titan HM weekly? you KNOW there’s a good chance they’ll be sick!

If you like the allagan #aesthetic, better believe they’ll add allagan/High Allagan katanas and rapiers. Get those parts to make replicas!

Get you some Allied Seals for those GC Elite weapons - I saw the Maelstrom katana and almost cried at how beautiful it is.

Got a full striking/casting set to get you to 60? Don’t end up in Gubal with shitty gear. Don’t be that DPS. 

Work towards an i270 set for casters/strikers!

Get your GC seals up - lot of squadron stuff coming in 4.1, so be ready!

Speaking of - level up your squadron as high as it goes. Training’s free!

Spam the gold saucer minicactpot cards whenever you can because there is no way they WON’T add cool shit to the gold saucer. Don’t wanna have to chomp at the bit, right?

Clear every level 50 dungeon. Level 50 roulettes are a great way to level a character XP-wise and are easy content - great places to learn new jobs’ mechanics. But trying to queue for individual dungeons as a DPS in 3.0′s start is going to be a nightmare. Beat the rush! Queues are still okay!

Is there a caster/MNK set you want that drops from the Crystal Tower series? Sometimes those queues aren’t the worst things in the world. I got 3/5 of the Fuma set already!

Unlock the Vath and the Vanu Vanu tribe quests if you haven’t already - decent XP per minute, especially since you’ll have to do something during queue times anyway.

[castellankurze]

FFXIV: A Job for the Noble

I haven’t done an au ra thing in awhile and with Stormblood coming up with a certain new class I figured this was a good time to set things up.

------- The glint of gold light was what caught his eye.  The sun reflected from the sigil worked in metal like a beacon placed there by fate - any higher, any lower, and it might have passed his attention entirely.  But as it was, it was just enough for the au ra to turn his head, and what he saw made his heart leap into his throat.

Someone grunted at him from behind and he quickly stepped to the side to permit the flow of foot traffic to continue past him.  One man's revelation was no reason for Hawker's Alley to slow in its pace of buisness.  Once he'd removed himself from the street, Jiro was permitted a moment's respite to study the object that had so captured his attention.

He had to have it.  A part of him wanted to dart forward, to go running across the shoppers and grab the thing, and from there go tearing off into the crowd before anyone could stop him.  He had to take a breath.  That would be foolish - the Yellowjackets that policed Lominsa's streets would stop him before he made it fifty steps, to say nothing of what would happen should he elude the lawmen and instead run afoul of the Upright Thieves.

So he turned away, and closed his eyes, and lifted one hand to stroke at his chin, appearing contemplative.  After a moment he subtly lifted one finger and bit at the first joint.  He knew what he had to do.  He did not relish the task.  Another moment's passing, however, and he lowered his hand, pressing his palms together as he took a breath to fortify himself with the cool sea air.  Then he turned on his heel and made his way across the street, careful not to march too purposefully.

Exotik Goodes! the cheap wooden sign read.  Claim for Yorself the Wonders of the Far Easte!

A curtain was raised around half to booth to protect the proprietor, who turned out to be a lalafell smoking a pipe nearly as long as his forearm.  He was surrounded by all manner of goods, mostly such things as Jiro recognized to hail from Kugane, and a few from Doma.  Most were cheap wooden or clay or paper things, and Jiro did not look at the prices, knowing full well that they would be marked up to an absurd degree.

The shopkeeper looked up as the tall au ra brushed past the curtain.  "Welcome friend," he said with a heartwarming smile.  "Did something catch your eye from the street?  A piece of home, no doubt?"

"You have a sword, there," Jiro said, waving an arm in the vague direction of the object.  "What is it you want for it?"

"Ah, you have a fine eye, my tall friend," the lalafell said.  "It is quite a specimen, is it not?  It was by great luck and chance that it fell into my possession."  Jiro longed to reach out and clamp a hand around the small man's neck, but he restrained himself with a titanic effort of will, and instead glanced towards the stones beyond the curtain, as if already boring of the the man's pitch.  "...but I can see you are weary of the day," the lalafell quickly caught on.  "Still, it is a most prized thing.  I could not part with it for less than ten thousand, and that-" he emphasised with a stab of his pipe stem, "is already a great generosity to you, noble traveler."

"It is, how your Eorzean saying goes, a piece of shit," Jiro pronounced, feeling his stomach turn about and roil the deck of a ship amidst a hurricane.  "Fit for no more purpose than as a toy for the smallest and most clumsy child.  Still," he said with a decisive wave of one hand, "I am perhaps of too foolish a heart, and I would give you two thousand of my coin that it no longer make such mockery of your other wares."  

The lalafell's eyes narrowed sharply and he exhaled a small cloud of smoke, the stuff curling from his nostrils like the breath of dragons.  Then he smiled.  "Sir, you are perhaps touched by too much of Lominsa's sun and the salt of her waves.  "The sword there is no less than a Kanemitsu original, a name that has reached even these poor and distant shores.  It would be folly, true folly, to part with it for any less than nine and five hundred gil."

"Even a blind man could see that it is but a fake," Jiro riposted, using some of the anger rising in himself to add scorn to his voice.  "A Kanemitsu.  All swords would be Kanemitsu or perhaps Masamune if they would, when they are but shadows beneath the mountains of such greatness.  But even a thing like this is a very funny joke, claiming such ancestry so brazenly with such poorly imitated sigils and clumsy sign.  Yet it is not a joke worth more than three."

"Good sir, good sir, if you would but look upon it more closely, the artistry of the blade is plain to see," the lalafell replied without missing a beat.  Turn your head to and fro and you will not see a single imperfection upon the steel, not a single flaw in the curve of the blade.  It is a thing of singular beauty, not worth a penny less than eight and three-quarters."

"I turn my head and I see the dirty feet of Lominsions on the road outside through this so-called steel," Jiro snorted.  "Paper may be a tool of artistry but only for such works as may be hung from from the wall for the rich and the idle and the stupid to comment upon.  I am not rich, but I am neither idle nor stupid, and you will not see more coin from me than four."

"My dear far-flung friend," the proprietor growled, "far be it from me to insult my most gracious guest, but you have traveled far from home, and whilst you and your most noble brethren work most righteously to reclaim what is yours, we in Eorzea must yet safeguard our own.  Four?  Perhaps you would take the sandals from my feet alongside it.  I will not sell for less than seven, and I am hanging myself out to the sharks in so doing."

"Five and five," Jiro replied immediately.

"Six."

The au ra narrowed his eyes, the crimson limbals menacing as he thinned his lips.  "Not six," he finally said.  "Five and nine."

The Lominsan stared him down for a long moment.  "Five and nine," he finally said with a nod.  "A most excellent purchase, my good friend.  Perhaps I might also interest you in one of my fine scarves?"

-------------------------------

The sun was a deep orange as it hovered, half-hidden by the ridge of the mountains that surrounded the community of Mist.

The beach was empty this evening, the sounds of the marketplace distant as the daytime businesses cleared out, while the night traders had not yet moved in.  This far from the walkways, Jiro could not hear even the most distant voices, and the only sound was that of the waves.

He had stripped to the waist, baring the musculature of his long torso and arms, as well as the scars over his heart and across his back where he had once narrowly escaped death by the bullet of a Garlean soldier.  He sat, legs crossed his sandals resting nearby, the naked sword held in his upraised hands.  The long blade shimmered nearly blue in the fading light, smooth metal seeming to hum with the vibration of each succeeding wave.  The blade itself was without ornament, with only the golden dragon coiled at the handle to mark the weapon as the work of a master of his craft.  The length of it easily surpassed Jiro's shoulders, the curved blade long enough to pass itself off as an odachi, rather than the more famed katana.

Jiro bowed his head for a long moment, and closed his eyes.

--------------------------------

"Here, Ichiro," the boy said, holding out the blade.  "I got you yours."

"Longtail, you shouldn't," said the son of Lord Kuroda as he took the proffered blade.

Jiro shrugged his shoulders.  "It wasn't a problem.  I was getting the practice swords anyway."

"That is not the problem to which Ichiro refers," an older voice broke in, and both boys turned and bowed before the bearded form of Master Ji.  "Young Longtail," he said, his voice grave but not unkind, "a lord's blade is not for a peasant man to touch, even if he should mean well.  It is a symbol of his house and his responsibility.  A master who does not show diligence in the care of his own blade is one who does not care for aught else under his banner, do you understand?"

"Yes, Master," Longtail said, bowing.

Ji gently mussed his hair.  "Remember that.  Now, take your place."

"Yes, Master," Longtail said again, recognizing the double meaning of the order, and hurried to take up his wooden practice blade, ignoring the slight curl to the lip of Lord Kuroda's other son as he watched the commoner side-eye from Ichiro's other side.

"Now," said the master, gently drawing his dragon-hilted sword from its long sheath.  "Where were we yesterday?  Perhaps you could remind me, Jiro?" he asked the younger of the two lordlings.

--------------------------------

Jiro Kuroda rose slowly, his long tail acting as a balance that made the movement almost supernaturally graceful.  As he stood he panned his fingertips along the flat of the long blade to take the handle in both hands as he held it out at an angle.  Then he slid a foot through the sand and cut, biting back a curse as he overbalanced.  Hew had grown too used to the barbaric axe, too used to the savagery of plunging its heavy blade into an opponents flesh and using the weight of the thing to do the cutting.  

He redressed and repeated the cut.  This time it was faster, more sure of itself.  Then he stepped forward and swung the sword about to cut the other way.  This blow was precise, stopping exactly where he wanted it to.  He dropped back, pulling the sword upright in a defensive posture before striking out again.

Sand flew as the au ra turned about and spun on first one foot and then the other.  Master Ji's sword all but sang, flashing in the dying light as the sun retreated behind the mountains.  A hundred lessons he'd stood, with Ichiro and...and...and the other boys, when they would come.  The wooden blade had been a crude, cheap thing, but it had mimicked the weight and reach of a sword enough that the great odachi felt familiar in his hands.

He turned and slid his foot out, sneaking his toes underneath the silken scarf he'd laid out across the sand and kicking upwards, sending it fluttering through the air, and reversing his direction in a heartbeat he cut horizontally, using both hands to whirl the long sword around in a tight arc.  The blade caught the scarf halfway down its length and there was a whisper of cloth.

Two frayed pieces of silk drifted down to the sand.

The dragon sword was no work of art.  It was a treasure beyond compare.  Whole empires could rise and fall and not see fit to create such beauty.

Jiro came to a halt as quickly as he had begun.  His breath came with difficulty, and he fought to keep it regular, his chest rising and falling as sweat gleamed upon his chest and shoulders.  There was the hint of wetness at his brow, as well, and at his eyes, though perhaps not all of it was sweat.  With slow deliberation, he lowered his sword arm, using his other hand to brush hair from his eyes.

A motion in his peripheral vision caught his attention and he turned his head to see several figures, mostly female, watching him from the distant railing where the paved street of Mist met the beach.  One of them lifted a hand to curl her fingers in a wave.  Another had her fingers curled into a fist, her thumb extended.  A third had the rich, golden eyes of the shogun’s daughter...

Jiro felt the heat that he'd been so careful to breathe out flood back into his face and chest and quickly turned away, hurrying to clean up the discarded clothing.

[mettic]

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, a personal retrospective.

jesus i put a lot of hours in this game. something finally managed to beat dota on my steam hours, maybe because people wont play dota with me anymore but thats a different issue.

You dont really realize how much you get into an mmo until you find one you really like. this is probably gonna be pretty long so im gonna put it under Read More.

How much experience did I have with MMOs pre FFXIV?

Basically nothing. I had done a trial of WoW during WOTLK but WOTLK was like 9 years ago man, I was like 12 at best

Part of my inspiration to start playing FFXIV was because Wildstar was drumming up some hype an I was on board because I could play as a cool robot. I was onboard with wildstar up until the open beta and then i played it and you dont have to be an MMO veteran to know what Wildstar was ass. I was actually SUPER salty about how bad Wildstar was and I think that dissapointment  made me say fuck  it and do the FFXIV trial.

While I like to say that i started playing FFXIV during 3.0 thats a lie. According to these oldest screenshot i started to play around 2.3. I actually did hit 50  and get to the end of the 2.0 MSQ but i didnt do much later and I think life started to catch up to me so I unsubbed. I wasnt even on Hyperion originally, I was Adamontoise! 

3.0, Heavensward

Cant exactly remind myself as to why I started playing again. Old screenshots state that I started playing again around october 2015, a few months into 3.0. I had time available to me again, I think Carlego had decided to try the trial and Vitamin had offered to do stuff iwth me if I went on hyperion so I said fuck it and dropped the bucks for HW and a server transfer and started playing catchup.

its not really worth talking about the leveling experience but I’d like to say taht i actualyl really enjoy questing and leveling in MMOs. Some people hate it but I love this shit, even if at heart its just a huge time sink. Probably the thing I’m most excitied about in Stormblood is to do questing again. maybe I’m a loser?

3.0 was also my first experience in doing  content that you actually have to try to clear, in Bismark EX and Ravana EX.  I dont have much memory of Bismark, we were already pretty overgeared for him by the time I got there, and I swear it only took me atleast one look out to learn and kil lit. maybe. It was like two years ago.

Ravana I had put much more time into, started setting up nights and shit for it. I sorta wish I had footage of me doing ravana because im sure i’d be furious at myself for how bad I was probably playing, but hey I cleared it so whatever. It was an accomplisment, I felt good!

next primal, not so much.

3.1, As Goes Light, So Goes Darkness

I have a theory, and it’s that if you are a person who does end game bosses in the more modern MMO settting, there’s gonna be a fight  early in your “career” that humbles you and forces you to actually really fucking try in future fights. For me that was Thordan EX. Thordan was humbling. 

For reference I did not clear Thordan during 3.1, and its still frustrating to me. There were a lot of reasons for that, we had some frustrating people in the group I did it with, I was pretty bad, Thordan Divebombs were racist agaisnt roes

man i get salty watching this video cuz i was standing on the exact same spot as some other people and get hit but the NIN who gets clipped by the particle  effects didnt. racist.

Thordan forced me to start actually really consider my cooldown usage  in the context of the fight, and all that SHIT.  I still consider Thordan easily the hardest of 3.X primals but I’m not sure if thats just me being bias enough. I got my clear after the fact but it was never the same.

If it wasn’t obvious, I did NOT do Gordias prog at all during 3.0-3.1. Gordias was a meme and I didnt beat Thordan during tis patch, gordias was NOT happening.

3.2, The Gears of Change

Sephriot was also an infuriating fight but for different reasons from Thordan. I was probably the last of the people in my static to get my Seph EX clear because we didnt do seph as much as a group and did a lot of PFing. I play WAR btw and this fight was an absolute nightmare as an OT because OT is easiest role in the fight but the fight had a kinda infamous DPS check so even though I have had this dumb fight down on the back of my hand and can probably still explain it piece by piece off memory to people, I had to pray to god that my PF dpses didn’t die and lose us the fight because lol sephirot.

my sephirot clear was PEAK Mettic Yelling

what a nightmare.

However, as you noticed if you kept watchign the video, I also started doing Midas Progression! Midas prog would be my first e xperience in doing raid progression and what a dream. But I’ll discuss hat more in the 3.3

3.3, Revenge of the Horde

Before I start talking about Midas, I’ll talk about Nidhogg EX. Nid is probably my favorite of the 3.x primals, I think that fight is super fun, especially as a OT as its a very OT involved fight. Fuck the Geirskyol tethers tho that shit was BS sometimes.

Anyways, Midas.  My midas progession at heart was awful. Over the course of two patches worth of our best attempts at consistent two days 3 hours each a week of raiding,  we only cleared A5S and A6S, the later we only cleared two or three times. A couple reasons, one of the biggest was probably that we lost close to one-two months worth of progression due to various reasons of people not being able to make it, and we lost tons of time inside the actual fight due to every reason I could possibly think of, from random 5 minute long DCs to someone thinking that someone’s trying to break into their house. IMO if we didnt miss that huge amount of time, we probably could’ve cleared atleast A7s, because our A7S prog when we got to actually do it was pretty good (I wanna say that we managed to atleast hit second set of cages over the course of our fight dedicated a7s night.) But then someone left and we had to start teaching someone A5S and A6S and we were clowns and didnt get far.

Midas was a nightmare. And also probably the most fun i’ve ever had in this game. The memes were out of this fuckign world.

and so many more were lost to time. Still sad that  we didnt record the time that we fugged a blaster tankswap that we used to vitamin would open on  brawler without 10 trillion magic vuln stacks that ended up with me yelling “NO WAIT” 0.1 second before he gets one shotted by the brawl autoattack. good times. Prog was ass but the memories will never be forgotten.

3.4, Soul Surrender

Won’t talk too much about Sophia. I really do not have much of a memory of the fight. It was a fight that gave me very little trouble in getting clear, probably second only to Bismark in clear difficulty. It’s a pretty good fight, but I got my clear and farmed it painlessly so whatever. 

Creator had a change in my static’s mindset because while Im sure everyone had a lot of fun in Midas, the lack of actual good prog was pretty fucking disappointing, and we had a lot of high hopes for our creator prog because A12S got killed on the second day of the patch, so everyone knew that Creator was easier than Midas.

AC still holds the title of Free Company That Does Everything  Everyone Else Does But Slower And Worst. We got A9S down on our second raid nigth, which  was kinda dooming cuz most groups had that fight down on day 1 but WHATEVER we got it at like 10%.

My screenshots and tumblr posts say that we took down A10s like a week later but it sure as hell didn’t feel like that. I think it was one of those things where we got the clear but didn’t stop clowning it afterwords, and we’d spend like an hour on raid night on getting a10 down before we could get back to progging A11S. 

My screencaps show that we got A11 during early December, so about two months after a10s clear.  These numbers are kinda depressing to write out, but shit hey we got it before 3.5. I remember that those winter months became a pretty big issue for people having to miss weeks, and we had a lot of weeks where we only got out a9/a10 weekly clears cuz people couldn’t stay for a11 and that kinda stuff. This would actually still be an issue into 3.5, if not get worst.

3.5, the far edge of fate

For EXs, I absolutely hate Zurvan. Probably my least favorite fight of 3.5, and I’m sure a lot of people sahre that sentiment.  The fight itself in of itself would already be one of my least favorites in a vacuum because I think think its annoying and the fire and ice tethers is a bad mechanic for a EX, which is designed to be done by PF groups with no voice communcation, but more importantly the community lost its mind on this fight because of that fucking tweet of good players beating zurvan a few hours after 3.5′s launch saying that it was easier than dun scaith. I gotta say really good palyers gotta stop saying shit is easy because it fucks up the PF scene with people having absurd expectations. Skipping Soar becoming common knowledge also helping fuck up the PF scene because peopel would do fucking anything to skip soar. 1-2-5 parties are the expectation for zurvans still, and lots of people even run 1-1-6 because GOTTA SKIP SOAR. not that I can blame them, soar was realyl dumb. Also people using Tank LB2 for second late phase soar is so silly. I do like that it was a fight that didnt require the standard 2-2-4 set up tho. 

It was easier than seph/thor and I think Ravana to get a clear but harder than Soph/Bis to get a clear. Annoying fight, Annoying scene, and Infinity is a wack song dont lie to yourself.

Anyways Creator. To make it quick we did NOT clear A12S before echo, but imo give me like 1-2 more weeks I think we coulda got it. But at the same time it felt like I was saying “we get it next week” for like two-three weeks. A12S was the fight that made me feel like I should’ve been more proactive in helping raid members learn mechanics outside of raid night, something I’ll think about going into Stormblood.  We did however end up clearing it, but we cleared it at the start of april. That’s like a 4 month time inbetween A11S down and A12S down, which is pretty depressing. But in oru defence it was our most awkward season for missing days, and like midas we’ve probably lost like 1-2 monthsf worth of raid nights, and who knows how many “no a12s prog only a9-a11″ nights, and more importantly two of our regulars couldn’t run anymore and we had to find replacements from outside our group of friends. But thats just excuses, and TBH this fight gave a lot of people awkward issues, i’d say taht I know how to do this fight as OT off the top of my hand but apparently I fucked up first time stop positioning last night so idk.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t amped on actually clearing a raid tier, but getting it on echo it pretty disappointing. Creator to me was also never really as fun as midas even though our prog was much better, the memes weren’t there. But shit I as a player learned a lot from this, especially on optimization DPS in the context of individual fights

still too lazy to use pots tho.

FOR STORMBLOOD

My biggest personal goal for stormblood is to clear an omega tier before echo. I’ll be happy iwth myself if I can get that, and I want to be more proactive in helping raid members learn mechanics because mechanics is and what has always held my group back.

What I’m playing in stormblood is kinda up in the air tbh.  I really want to play Samurai because MY WEBBRAND but I also wonder if its worth it,  because I played almost exclusively WAR for EX and Raids in HW, so all my raiding experiene is on tank. Even on EXs I probably went as my sub class, BRD, less than 10 times over the course of HW. I’m gonna try to level all the melees going into stormblood to get melee practice and start taking my melee 60s to casual 60 content for more practice.  Tho I tell my raid members that I’m going SAM to Omega I’m not 100% against going WAR for the sake of getting a pre-echo clear. Plus none of these fuckign kids play war they just wanna play DRK/PLD. casuals.

get hyped for Omega!

anyways the important shit:  HW glamour.

3.0 glamour

Absolutely ador this set actually? It’s straight up vendor gear but it rules, and there isn’t a lot of good heavy armor set in this game.

The blue color is because its based on my favorite leveling set, the heavy iron set, and for reasosn I do not remember I dyed them all this color of blue. I think it’s a good blue!

3.1, The Behemoth King

A set inspired by old METTIC.TUMBLR.COM followers would recongize, it s bsaed on my favorite dark souls character I made, the Boar King, Which was the giants set with the iron boar helm. it ruled. I attempted to recreate it for FFXIV, and was the most effort I put into glamour because I sat for like 5 hours waiting for Behemoth for the helm. The gold was gaudy btu I love the gaudy. I also switche chest pieces during the patch cuz I was never really sastified.  I think I like the first one more if I ahd found better leg pieces instead of ones that show my fucking underwear. Might bring this back, I love the behemoth helm.

3.3

Probably my least favorite? I  designed it aroudn the chest that I saw the cape chest piece and really wanted to use it. The black and blue undyeable colors of the chest always put me off tho and I never found something that  really made it what I want. Good chest piece tho

3.4-most of 3.5

honestly my favorite leveling set in the game. I think this set fucking rules. SOmething about it just clicks with me. Also makes cutscenes really funny because you cant move your head with it on. 

I actualyl kept this unti llike last week, even through most of 3.5. I only changed it when i got the A12S axe cuz that one is cool

and I just painted it fucking red lmao. Kinda miss the blue but I’ll use this for a while. I’ll honestly probably be using this into 4.0 in some way unless some real dope shit comes out.

BARD 3-1 +

i leveld my bard and got this glamour in 3.1 and I dont think I’ve change it since. I like this set a lot, plus BRDs dont get a lot of full face helmets. Ive changed the weapon a lot tho, used the pruple ironworks for a while cuz i like it but i never really fit the aesthetic. Used the Lore bow  for a long time, and im currently using a purple a12s bow. Dont be surpried if im still using this in 4.0

see yall in stormblood!

[ebonguard]

Excitement! As of the time of posting this, the benchmark is also out and I ran myself through it. Unfortunately for Ebonguard it gave my craptop the A-OK, so I live to die another day! What does the live letter have to do with Ebonguard otherwise? That’s a good question. 🤔 May as well give some quick notices while I’m here!

1) The start of a long-term LS plot is still on May 12 and is still at 8:30PM CST, but if members interested in getting a leg up on it want it to start earlier then I can absolutely do that! (I’m just used to starting events hella late because in the past, later has usually been better. But any time before the 12th barring unforeseen circumstances, I can shift stuff around so it’s more convenient for people!)

2) Ebonguard still wants connections -- and who knows where the long-term plot will take us as we delve into 4.0? I have a boner for Thavnair and apparently there will be some places with the general feel of Thavnair in 4.0 even if we can’t go there so boy howdy you know that’s on the list. No fewer than 3 events I’ve had a hand in planning in the last 3 months have involved shady Thavnairian peoples. If people can throw Duskwights under the bus then I can throw Thavnairians under the bus, fuck it! 

Ever wanna try your group’s hand at cracking a criminal network wide open? Executive decisions at Ebonguard HQ suggest that this could be your chance! Get it now, while supplies last. I can set up a Discord group for all of us to chat it out (briefly) and if all is well then you’ll actually get full, unadulterated access to the Discord! Well, maybe not full to type, but full to view. You have access to the channels that matter. Allies and adversaries will even have unique name colors, aren’t I benevolent! I haven’t decided what they will be yet but if you wanna be either of those things hey, I’ll let you pick why not. Just not red. That’s my color!

(It’s always my color.)

3) I guess this would probably be the place to note that I am saving up for a Medium house for 4.0 that will serve as a venue/hideout/DM space for Ebonguard. I almost have enough gil just for the plot, and I have an idea of how it will work -- it would be a personal house since my FC already has one and Ebonguard isn’t an FC, but the top and ground floors would be pre-decorated venues for Ebonguard events and the basement would be available for members to use at their discretion, free of charge, for any events that they would need a stage set for. (Need a vault-type room or a museum for the purposes of pulling off a heist, for example? I know everyone is probably wondering what my thing is with heists by now. They’re just so cool, okay? Beta testing some stuff with my FC too before I shunt it onto Ebonguard, I’m so considerate!) 

This is, of course, more than likely at the mercy of The Market regardless of how early I get up when housing drops in 4.0 because Balmung, but that’s something members can look forward to, and when I set my mind on something... It’s not an if; it’s a when! Please look forward to it!

4) I may or may not be planning a mini-OOC contest for the LS centered around letting people peacock around for a little bit. Please look forward to it.

On a side note: We have a few people who we have yet to get to with regards to their application and OOC interview. The officers have been a little occupied with RL stuff lately, so we’re sorry for being quiet! (I know I’ve been fixing my sleep schedule, writing for contests to make money so I can actually buy Stormblood, and preparing for college -- I cross the country in the name of education in August but have several things to watch out for and do before then... Fuck all these deadlines, I shouldn’t have taken a gap year.) If you’re waiting for something then feel free to poke us via Discord, Tumblr, or RPC -- we’ll try to get to things as soon as humanly possible!

On a second side note: My RPC emails are suddenly in German. Alright.

This has been your local Crow come to hijack a liveletter for their “important” announcements. Caw caw!