#meteion looks awesome

[aotopmha]

The final bits of the lvl 88 MSQ I have thoughts on are the dungeon and the trial.

Ktisis Hyperboreia was a little less impactful for me compared to all of the other dungeons in Endwalker.

Zot had the really cool interior design and final boss, Babil had the really cool train set piece that lead into the tower and Anima, which narratively led perfectly into what came next, Vanaspati had the scale, tension and awesome monster designs.

Eventhough Ktisis gave you the chance to run a dungeon with the ancients and explore an ancient facility, only the final leg of the dungeon had a setting and a boss I found to be pretty cool: while the rest wasn't bad, it also wasn't as cool and interesting as some other encounters before it.

It was a cool idea that really deserved more interesting execution in my eyes.

So how does The Atiascope compare to them all?

Well, The Atiascope is equally a feast on the eyes as well as lore brain.

I think it is probably the best-looking dungeon of the game so far and I can't wait to see it with the graphical update.

We actually see what the Aetherial Sea approximately looks like, and the echoes of the souls of our friends accompany us on our way to Hydaelyn.

I think how souls work here also explains the apoearances of Haurchefant and Y'sayle when Estinien is freed from Niddhog's eyes. It's trace of their (memory) aether still not having moved on to the sea proper.

Sometimes the big lore dungeons can be less interesting mechanically than narratively (I love Amaurot, but feel like the cool monster designs deserved more interesting mechanics), but I think I enjoyed all of the bosses in the Atiascope because they gave new twists to old foes.

Livia, Rhitahtyn and Amon all had really neat twists to their fighting style and attacks.

I like the positioning with Livia.

I like opening up the safe spot for the walls Rhitahtyn creates. Shields as weapons is always such a neat concept to me.

And Shiva creating the ice block for Amon's attack is one of coolest story-gameplay integration moments in the game for me.

What a fantastic idea.

Between the bosses, the souls we see are:

- Papalymo, with Ilberd as a strong mob to take down.

- Haurchefant, who gives us a buff.

- Minfilia, who we see creating the way forward at some point.

- And of course, as mentioned Shiva/Y'sayle, who creates the ice block to protect you from Amon's attack.

The cutscene after the dungeon gives us closure on Amon, which I already went into in another post here, but it also gives closure on Asahi.

I love how the hatred between Asahi and Alphinaud is mutual.

"Likewise I hope we do not meet again."

In the cutscene before the trial, Hydaelyn sums up the character arcs and struggles everyone has gone through and also restates that she ultimately sundered reality for humanity to have a chance against Meteion, for which they need the ability to manipulate Dynamis.

And most crucially she restates that what she did caused much suffering; it was simply her solution to the problem of humanity's survival, not the morally optimal option out of any of the solutions the ancients could find. And I think that's my favourite part of her story.

She implemented the best solution she could think of that would preserve humanity's future, and it was still imperfect and caused much pain.

And then we get to the trial itself.

Which was a little bit of a let down in my eyes because Zodiark was so good.

It's, again, great on the lore level because we see all of these iconic elements associated with her character used in the fight.

We see her as an all-rounder fighter, then must defeat the crystals styled after the ones we initially get from her and finally, we see her create mini Floods of Light.

However, I don't find it particularly unique mechanically.

I still like it, I just don't find it mindblowing.

What I like about her farewell afterwards (this also applies to the cutscene before the fight), is that we get to address her as Venat because I think the real intention with her characterisation in Endwalker was to humanise her.

Not necessarily to make her good or bad morally, but to give her beliefs she acts upon with conviction.

I see the intention behind her character as that of an incredibly strong, but still imperfect woman put into a difficult situation, who fought for the future of humanity with all of her might.

And I think she deserves to be sent off as that "human" woman, not the "goddess" she became.

And finally, here is where I mention the details that the Labyrinthos/Atiascope section uses to bring the story full circle: the Dalamud shards, which were a symbol of the Seventh Umbral Calamity are now used to save humanity along with the Mothercrystal, which has been a stand-in/symbol for Hydaelyn for so long, is used as a fuel to travel to Meteion.

Once again, I think it's all just really well done.

And with the next quest I'm at being the first lvl 89 quest, I'm officially in the final stretch of 6.0.

I was planning to get to it today, but I think I also have other plans today and the next few days, so I'll see how it works out time-wise.

Aiming for it in the upcoming days/week for sure, though.