#stormblood berserker

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Stormblood Berserker

Blood is holy to those whose god is War.

Artist: Min Yum TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[souridealist]

FFXIVwrite #12: 'quarry'

[Immediately after Endwalker base game. I... don't know if the line between the prompt and the result is traceable for anyone but me.]

Alphinaud finds Elilona on the hill across from the Rising Stones, tossing the Ragnarok’s teleportation device meditatively in her hand.

“Are you all right?” he asks her, dropping onto the warm spring ground. She tilts her head and weighs the question, eyes on the horizon.

“I think so,” she says at last. “I think I am.” The disc falls into her waiting palm. “Urianger said something that I’d… been thinking myself.”

“About — Ultima Thule?” Alphinaud’s voice doesn’t usually crack on the name, but he usually finds a way to think of it as a place or a phenomenon, not what it was.

“Yes. Well, no, not — yes.” Her smile twists in rueful half-apology. “Yes. About Ultima Thule, and about Zenos.” The disc spins in the sunlight. “I don’t really know how much you saw, how clear it was. But he came, and he carried me. He saved us. He had a message from Hydaelyn for me, too, in a way.”

“A message? Did she —” He hits the end of the sentence like an unexpected downward stair. Did she what? What can you ask of a goddess you served and met and killed?

“The Echo,” Elilona says, filling in her own question on his behalf. “She… knew, I think, or had enough left to touch the aether, something. But she knew I’d see what he saw, and she told him what she wanted to tell me.” Alphinaud must make some sound, because she looks to him. “It wasn’t about the world,” she says. “Only me and her, and my… progenitor. Something she hadn’t wanted to make me carry, and then thought might be better to know after all.”

“Will you tell me?”

“I will,” she answers, serious as ceremony. “But another time. I don’t think I know how to tell it, and for what I was thinking about today, it only matters that he knew it was a message. He knew he brought it.”

“And then you fought him.” He keeps his voice even and calm. Elilona has fought a great many people, and not all of them the ones she would have chosen. The only things about her that he doesn’t understand are made up of all those mid-battle moments where he hasn’t been able to go.

“We talked, first.” She snatches the disc from the air, this time, and rubs her thumb over the surface. “About who we are, and why we do what we do. He — asked, demanded, pleaded? I don’t really know. But he wanted me to tell him that I do this for the challenge of it.”

“What did you tell him?”

“That it wasn’t exactly true, but that he wasn’t wrong to see himself in me. Maybe not quite as much as either of us thought, but something.”

You are very unlike him, Alphinaud wants to say. But he’s learned something, at some point, along the way, and so he doesn’t.

“I fought him because he asked me to,” Elilona adds instead. “He offered to let me walk away. But he’d saved us all, and it’s not the end I would have chosen but I had to give him something. So.” She shrugs one shoulder. “I fought him. The way he wanted.”

“To the death?” Alphinaud ventures, mostly to give her something to answer.

“Nothing held back.” She flexes her fingers. “The way… the way I don’t do. When I came back to myself after, I’d torn chunks out of his ribcage with my hands.”

Alphinaud swallows the stone in his throat and reaches over to very deliberately take her hand. His fingers barely span the back, but he holds on.

“Thanks, Alphinaud.” She wraps her arm around him and pulls close; he presses his face against her shoulder. “But — I did come back to myself, after. And it was what he wanted. I wanted… I wanted to let him see it. And I could put it away.”

“I see.” He sits up, gives her hand another squeeze before he lets it go. “And you’re all right?”

“I really think I am.” She looks down at the disc in her other hand. “And then, after it was over — this was there. And I have a better sense for aether than dynamis, but I don’t think I could have called it alone.”

It takes Alphinaud a moment. “You think he sent you back to us.”

“I do.” She curls her fingers around the device. “A last gift.”

Alphinaud could forgive Doma and Ala Mhigo, or at least move on from them; he could have worked with Zenos, if the man had tried. He hadn’t thought anything could make him forgive Elilona’s sobbing, ragged face after the fight at the Royal Menagerie. And this doesn’t, either, but it does soften that reckoning.

“Well,” he says. “I suppose I can be grateful to him for that.”

“And I.” She tosses the device one last time and slips it into her pocket, pushing herself up to her feet. “I hope he found what he was looking for.”

[voidsentprinces]

My full experience of anime is thus: My brother has a friend who use to come by with anime on VHS. The first exposure I got to anime proper was when he brought over a couple episodes of SLAYERS, next, obviously, Channel 10 ran Pokemon from Episode 1 to Episode 46 before inexplicably just restarting from the beginning all over again. Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon fought on Channel 5 during the afternoons. But Dragonball Z like...jumped around a lot. It did the Saiyan Saga, the Fake Namrk Saga, skipped the Freiza Saga and the Cell Saga and did reruns of parts of the Buu Saga. Then they stopped airing both and aired Cardcapture Sakura for a while there. Then they stopped airing all three. Then they eventually brought Pokemon to the WB on Channel 5 and Yu-Gi-Oh! Hit along with it. But, like Pokemon before it. Yu-Gi-Oh! Only ran from Episode 1 until JUST before Seto and Yugi fought to duel Pegasus. Then my family got DirecTV which opened up Cartoon Network to me and thus granted me access to .hack//SIGN which sometimes ran either before or after Samurai Jack and Courage the Cowardly Dog. From there I gained access to the Buu Saga of Dragonball Z which always just reset back to the beginning of the Saga when it got done airing. Then eventually Adult Swim hit and introduced me to Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Big O, Inuyasha, and SUPER MILK-CHAN. Then at random intervals Toonami stopped airing Adult Swim and starting airing the English dub of Naruto. And I got tired of waiting for them to dub new episodes, so I began the search online for Naruto episodes English subbed online on YOUTUBE at the time. Back when they split an episode in 3 - 6 videos and movies into 10 - 12 parters.

Toonami also eventually introduced me to Blood+, Bleach, and my all time love of my teenage life...Eureka SeveN. It also introduced me to Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL. You can blame FLCL and Super Milk-chan for rewiring my fucking brain. And unfortunately, anime youtube also introduced me to Elfen Lied which rewired my brain in a different way. Paranoia Agent on Adult Swim also made me fall in love with the late Satoshi Kon's work. Spirited Away hit America around the same time and caught on like fire causes me to go knee deep into that. But also there was 4kids Food Fighters and One Piece. Which...turned me off to One Piece cause that censored, puritan, chaste run of One Piece was...it was something.

And the rest is history...especially after Eureka SeveN that got me to want to absorb more long form narrative that was both SUPER bittersweet but super cathartic to see through to the end. Some people get super into Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. Some people get into Shakespeare. Eureka SeveN is what got me into long form narrative epics. Which hundreds of moving parts and a large cast of characters.

And then, as if the universe sensed that. A kid who use to live near me sold his Playstation to me for $20 along with--Final Fantasy VII. My first and only Final Fantasy really. I tried FFVIII years later but it never clicked, never picked up IX or X or X-2. Then Playstation 2 happened...and with it? Kingdom motherfucking Hearts and then the best game ever made, Kingdom Hearts 2.

Bounced between xXxHoLiC, D.Gray Man, The World God Only Knows, Deadman Wonderland, and eventually Berserk. And then from joined Final Fantasy XIV circa 2018. Susanoo subsequently killed my GPU but I eventually got a new one and joined proper during the dying days of Stormblood when Shadowbringers hype was going FUCKING STRONG.

Good times.

[meatball-headache]

I got a feeling tomorrow's gonna be an exciting day. (98 MSQ)

So, the MSQ has given me all the left-side gear, and I did all the sidequests for right-side. I think I'm missing a couple pieces, though, but there's no more sidequests. There's definitely no more sidequests, because I got all four aethercurrents from them. What's weird is... every zone has two "chain" sidequests, and when you do them both there's a capstone at the end that ties them together. I remember Azim Steppe had Mausi in Sadu's camp, and the soup guy in Magnai's, and in the end they became friends or whatever. But every zone has done this since at least Stormblood. Except Heritage Found—imagine my surprise when I went to the last quest, I always save it for last, and it didn't have a banner on the accept window, and it didn't chain. And, what's extra weird, you don't go back to the original questgiver to explain "Yeah, everything's all set, pay me now." It's one of those " . . . but perhaps they'll talk to you, since you're a stranger . . . " ones. So the narrative is squarely in the realm of, you have to go report back to finish. But... nothing. And since I have all the aethercurrents, I'm not expecting any more sidequests—that would be additionally weird.

So, we're nearly done with Heritage Found. Up next is... a Trial? We're not gonna showdown with Zoraal Ja already, are we? Or... something else? There's been a lot of voice-acted cutscenes today, and a lot of mind-blowing revelations in the past... hour. There's a lot of options for who the trial could be. Or there's the possibility that I was bamboozled, or misunderstood, and it is the dungeon next, then a 99 trial, then the final 100 dungeon and trial after the last, mysteriousest zone.

I'm no closer to knowing what the final zone is. Now that we've been inside Everkeep, and it turns out that that's just... the container for Solution Nine, that's why the map says "To Everkeep." Through the portal into the lightning-void-world is the best guess... and there's room for the story to go "Okay, let's get to the source of the problem." But there's also room for them not to do that, the last zone is, I don't know, uploaded into Endless soulville as free-floating data, and then in 8.0 we give Lightning World the Norvrandt treatment.

Dawntrail has been consistently astonishing. At first we were slammed with gorgeous visuals and exciting characters, and once that story was resolved, everything went berserk instantly and we got thrown into a whirlwind adventure in a high-fantasy sci-fi mindfuck wonderland. I'm already bad at speculating. I can't even hope to guess what's going to happen next now.

But it's late, and I'm tired.

[before-calamity]

Marauder & Warrior Skills Overview: Part 1

Same thing as last time, we'll look over the marauder skills this part and then the Warrior skills and traits in the next part.

As we've seen with Fast Blade in the Gladiator overview, Heavy Swing is also in 1.0 as well as XI and ARR, as a *Staff* weapon skill.

Gladiators block and Warriors parry. Foresight was an ARR skill removed in Stormblood. By the time it was removed, it was a 20% damage reduction skill, and was removed to make room for the new role skill system & Rampart.

An off tank attack, since it's a flank positional.. Like Foresight, it's another ARR skill, and removed in Stormblood - it was a weak skill, only dealing 100 potency and could stun the target, like Shield Bash for Gladiator.

Instead of being a buff that lasts for a few seconds, Bloodbath in 1.0 did the same but only affected your next attack....and you can recast it every 60 seconds. Even back then, life steal was a mechanic for Marauder and Warriors.

Another WAR skill that was in ARR, but was removed in Shadowbringers. This was your second weaponskill combo for your off tank rotation. Here, it increases your enmity.

One of those skills we take for granted and has been a thing since XI, with the exact same name and ability.

Another removed WAR skill that was in ARR and removed in Stormblood. At the time it gave a damage over time on the target, instead of maiming the opponent to not use weaponskills. Probably because I don't think technically enemies in ARR use weaponskills (might be wrong about that.)

The cornerstone of MRD in ARR, Berserk relatively is the same, besides the whole resetting when you take damage. I think previous in ARR, you even had the defense reduction. The fact it stacks on each successful attack sounds pretty powerful, especially with a party with lots of crowd control. Also, this is very similar to XI's Berserk. FFXI also had a skill that did the opposite called Defender, not in XIV.

Was part of the WAR's off-tank rotation in ARR.

Overpower basically does the same, like it did in ARR until one of the 6.X patches. Only difference is that you can only use it after parrying an attack.

In 1.0, Rampage was a counterpart to Berserk, and one of the few WAR skills that didn't make its way to ARR. Instead of stacking attack buffs for every attack, you get an attack speed, parry and lifesteal boosts. This is a unique skill, and I can't really think of anything similar in ARR. This is the name of an attack in FFXI, where it's a fivefold attack.

This was just simplified to Storm's Path and traded the chance for Heavy for an attack boost.

Very similar to original, original Shake it Off. I think the real use here is to prevent Rampage for fading. Removing movement speed shouldn't be too bad, since combat in 1.0 was a lot slower and din't require a lot of dodging of AoEs and what not.

What if you had a skill that was an AoE and reset your Berserk. Here you go! Except what is there to reset for Berserk? It's not an over time thing. It's a "get hit" deal.

Finally a capstone skill. Once again resets Berserk and I'm confused on what it actually resets. Perhaps I'll do some testing when I get a chance to that.

Stay tuned next time where we look at some familiar and unfamiliar Warrior skills and their traits!

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

thank you so much for the tag @shiawasekai !

Currently Watching: battle tendency. Extracted a promise to give jjba a shot from a friend and am now rewatching for fun and to warn him of various things [it will be his first anime...] oh and I'm watching dungeon meshi!

Currently Reading: Berserk! Again... rip jojolion one day i will finish you. I'd say berserk is a weird comfort read but I class the authority 1999 and ca 2004 as comfort reads soo

Sweet/Savory/Spicy: sweet! Or salty of that's an option

Current Obsession: FFXIV! Woo Stormblood! And The Authority have taken over my brain again, other than that all my ocs!

Ah shit I forgor. Free tag for anyone who wants one!

[karthedense]

📺👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🏷

Unryu

📺: Is your OC inspired at all by characters from other media? Which one(s) and what traits do they have in common?

-the Spark that made me start developing his lore was without question first ignited when i first read Vagabond and his design is influenced by Guts from berserk, Him later losing an eye to Zenos in Stormblood was inspired by such. But much of his character arc i believe was on it's own with any influences being subconscious at best

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦: What is their family like? Are there any family members that are particularly influential and/or important to them (whether in a positive or negative sense)?

-I'm not gonna give a full answers as your still progressing thru the game and wanna see you go thru some stuff before i give certain details

Unryu's relantionship with his family was overall very positive Albeit abit stressful from living under garlemald as non-citizens

Unryu spent the most time with his Mother who taught him to work the forge when he was young and was often a protective figure in his youth, pulling him away from things that could put him in danger when he was under her watch Granted with how large he grew up to be he didn't need that watch for much longer

His dad he treasures alot. If you asked Unryu who he thought the wisest person on the planet was he'd answer his dad rather than any famed Sharlayan scholar. His morals of avoiding violence unless it becomes unavoidable were something that stuck particularly close with Unryu and was part of the reason he wanted to dodge conscription. So he wouldn't be forced to fight when he didn't wanted to

His grandfather, old and bitter as he is initially scared Unryu when he was a small child but nearing his teens he began talking to him alot more he began telling him how Doma was before Garlemald and the horror stories of the war between the two nations which the old man fought in himself

leaving them behind was a hard choice for him to make but he felt it was either be forced to rob some other poor bastard of his home or run away from his.

🏷️: What is their full name? Do any of their names have any special meaning? How did you come up with them?

-Unryu Gesi! Unryu meaning cloud dragon, Initially named after a japanese war ship because i wanted a nautical theming to his name. But if you look at my answer to Mac's questions you'd see that Unryu retroactively took up a weather motif as well, funny how that is. The Gesi is one of the many Xeala tribes of the Azem steppe that his Grandma, Bayaarma Gesi came from While he's yet in the context of where your at in the game to step foot in the steppe themselves he still holds pride in his partial Xeala ancestry.

[hamlet-au-fromage]

FFXIV potential new jobs ?

I was wondering what could be the new jobs for the next expansion : I look into already existing jobs in others FF games and try to see which ones could be adapted into FFXIV :

Tank 🛡️

Mystic Knight//Rune Knight : I put these two together because they look a lot alike (but they could be two different jobs). It could be a magic-based tank job, with bigger resistance to spells but slightly weaker against physical damages. Depending for which name they are going, the starting zone could be Sharlayan or Thavnair.

Berserker : Well, I guess we could tell that Warrior is already more or less that job so... Perhaps a tank job with no weapons or claws ?

Healer 🧪

Geomancer : Already exist in the game (mentionned in the astrologian stormblood storyline, so it would probably share a lot of similarities with it). Normally, the weapon should be a bell. It would be nice to have a job which start in Hingashi for once.

Mystic//Oracle : The clothes from FF Tactics can be obtain in Orbonne Monastery so the chances of this job showing are rather low. But it could be a job where a spirit helps you to add debuff on your enemies. For the weapon, a talisman or something similar. Hingashi or a region nearby to start.

Salve Maker : I think at one point in Shadowbringers, a miqo’te child mention she would be intersted with healing people with differents potions in the battlefield. This job could be combined with an other version of the alchemist job : you would heal your comrades or add various debuff to the enemies by throwing potions at them. I don’t know which weapon to give. Thavanair seems to be a logical starting point.

Magical DPS 🪄

Necromancer : Already in the game (Palace of the Dead + Mhach) but I would more see it as new spells for the black mage than a job of its own.

Gambler : We already have the cards with astrologian, so we could have dices as weapons, and/or darts. While slot wheels could be funny, the only way to add them in the game would be as a job gauge. But I don’t think having random damage will please a lot of people. It could start in the Gold Saucer.

Pictomancer : Only here because I think it’s funny : adapting its system to FFXIV would be rather complicated. The weapon would be a brush of course !

Green Mage : A job with buff and debuff spells ; it could be interesting. The teacher would probably be a Viera.

Physical DPS 🗡️

Beastmaster : Also already exist in the game (Bozjan quests) ; not sure which animal(s) would fit the WoL. Whips for the weapon and a teacher from Bozja.

Puppetmaster : Like the necromancer, it would be more new actions for the monk than a new job. But if it’s not, maybe Ala Mhigo as a starting point ?

Juggler : Also here because I think it would be funny to have circus-based job with juggling balls and throwing knives. Oh, and add the Bad Mouth ability from the gremlins in the lot.

???

Time Mage : We’ve seen it in the game with the Hildibrand quest ; while I see it more as a healer job, I guess it could be a magical DPS ? Not quite sure which spells it could have.

Mime : The only way it would ended up in the game would be as a new solo job. I highly doubt it will ever happen.

Onion Knight : Existed during the reign of the Allagan Empire but I don’t know how they could adapt the weird way this job level up (also : tank or DPS ?).

Orator : Well maybe it could exist as a gun mage or as a healer with a lot of buff actions ? Ishagrd as the starting zone (perhaps Sharlayan ?).

Arithmetician : It more or less exists in an Ivalice raid no ? Probably more a magical DPS than a healer job.

Warmage : Very close to a Dark Knight so I highly doubt it will be in the game (magical or physical DPS ?)

Feel free to add others jobs ^^

[the-unending-journey]

I love these two so much, thank you for sharing these interesting little facts about them!

God, I feel Haellen with the whole thalassophobia thing. I have such a love-hate relationship with things dealing with the ocean because of it and I can't even imagine how horrible most of Stormblood was for her. Also her and Kiyo could definitely bond over "man being the WoL kinda sucks, I hate this" thing

Wraith sounds like a really cool class! I love when people do interesting twists on the base classes like that, that's really cool! Also, characters with a berserk-mode button when their loved ones get hurt is such a good trope. If she caused another calamity over this, I wouldn't blame her in the slightest

Hey your local cryptid here again, how are y'all doing? My spark for XIV still hasn't returned from war, but hopefully it'll come back once I get to doing tomestone grinding. I apologize to anyone that followed me for content or positive words because I've been slacking big time on that

Anyway, I wanna hear some random facts about your characters that no one would ever guess about them

[embersign]

♥Character Sheet Commission for @keloch ♥ ♥Thank you for being my test dummy♥

[magic-the-beefening]

It’s a little worrying how excited he is about blood.

[bloodrawknuckle]

“Roar writhe RAAAAGE!!!”

Ain’t posted shit on FFXIV since patch 4.2, may as well share some of Singto’s latest weapons, starting with Byakko’s Greataxe. In Singto’s case, the fight wasn’t quelling Byakko’s negative-whatever-you-call-it so much as just Singto out-Berserker-ing him.

[xenodile]

I need to write more of Bylgrael losing her grip during Stormblood. By the time of Shadowbringers I want Garleans deserting in droves out of fear of the undead berserker that haunts the killing fields of the Ghimlyt Dark, a giant figure with skin the sickly green hue of a rotting corpse and hair stained with blood, howling in anger and grief as it butchers entire platoons and tears magitek armor apart to get at the pilots, the survivors only being so because they hid under the bodies of their slaughtered allies.

The Alliance leadership looking to each other uncomfortably as this frightful revenant walks into camp, still spattered with gore and saying nothing, blue eyes completely empty.

[katewalker]

I officially finished Stormblood. I want to launch Shadowbringer right now... BUT I HAVE TO GO TO SLEEP BECAUSE WORK TOMOR IM GOING TO GO BERSERK

[jonasis-like]

You’ll never catch me saying this about Griffith from Berserk but...Yotsuyu did nothing wrong lol. That aside, Yotsuyu definitely was a highlight for me in Stormblood. Her backstory and motivations were fantastically executed within the story and she’s easily one of my favorite antagonist in ff14. 

[usagi-mitsu]

Werlyt & Gaius - a bunch of thoughts.

I am a little late to the party. I know. But I just finished the Emerald weapon and before I go to try out the „not Zenos“ weapon as in „Diamond“, I need to get my thoughts on the story straight.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by 5.0s brilliant MSQ and cannot appreciate the inherent beauty of at least decent writing any longer. But this felt so wrong and out of tune with the rest of the game. I started writing this 2 hours ago! I wanted to one in bed by now! XD But I had to get it out of my system… so….

Spoilers for the MSQ and Werlyt incoming??? And no I did not re-read this so not just spoilers but also writing errors incoming. -.-

The good

These fights are epic! I have only ever cleared the normal versions, but I loved those. They are amazing. The callbacks to Eula (her being a woman here! When did they discover that???), Regula (may he rest in peace) and Gaius himself in his prime were delightful. But I could do with a little less rotating, ok? A dragoon has positional, you know? And being allowed to pilot my very own mecha was like *chefs kiss*. On that front? Well done Square Enix!

I am also glad they were able to get another use out of Porta Praetora! That place looks amazing with the wide open field and the lake – and Ala Mhigo across it. It was one of my favourite Stormblood areas and I am always glad to return there. And of course… being able to visit the allied camp again… And Werlyt itself. It’s simply a beautiful place. It reminds me very much of southern Greece. If you’ve watched the movie Mamma Mia you know what I mean.

The music too was really nice. But I don’t think I’ll… you know… listen to it on repeat as I am doing with other parts of the soundtrack.

I’ve also loved how much amazing lore we got about Garlemald and especially the garlean military. And the military abroad. The way soldiers not from the mainland get treated. I love learning about these things.

Gaius

The man. The legend. The guy yelling in Prae.

He’s so very boring here. He has so much potential as a character and maybe I’m missing something, but all throughout this story he has been nothing but passive. He’s a reactive character in this storyline. You know. The guy who made deals with Lahabread (the d is intended), tried to take over Eorzea, lead a whole army, stood idly by as the moon dropped, almost died but then decided just not to die and then though „hm… I’ve got so much freetime now. How about I go and hunt some ascians?“ That guy is NOT a reactive character. He is active. He goes out of his way to make shit he wants happen. And in here? He seems too starstruck and devastated by his adopted kids actions to actually have one clear thought.

The only explanation I have is that he might have gotten hit in the head by something on his way to the ruby weapon. I get why he would rely on Cid for help, but the WoL??? The alliance? If you wish to be an ally and help or something, fucking act like it. You were a former legatus and I expect you to live up to your name – even after retiring.

And yeah.. I guess it’s hard having to watch your kids willingly, knowingly dying. But you fucking raised them. You are a big part of the reason to why they are in that predicament. So like… Aside from that I don’t even get why you are in this story at all.

And for the record: I’m not sorry for him. I’m just flabbergasted by all the bullshit we’ve been learning about him.

To be quite honest, I think this story could have worked just as well or maybe even better, if we got another man as the „hero“ of the story. I am talking about none other than our engineering, hammer-swinging, ex-enemy - of course talking about Nero!

The MSQ has long established that his research into the Ultimate Weapon had been taken, twisted and turned – Estinien had to experience this first-hand. I’m not saying that Nero was in need of a redemption arc and I cannot remember if these weapons were of his creation or even stem from anything he did, but it would make so much more sense for me, to have him confront his past in the garlean military like this and be responsible for the death of his former colleagues. Soldiers that he served with, whom he faught with. Give me Nero and them working together to get the weapons going and him bonding with them as his pilots to a degree. Comrades. Not that strange familiar bond that Gaius appareantly has with them. … Scratch that: Let Gaius be the father figure. Him being that wouldn’t change Nero’s relationship with them, but maybe his with Gaius as his superior.

The story wouldn’t even need to try and redeem Nero: He has already gone through major character development with the MSQ and the Omega raid tier. It would simply be Nero, confronted with the things he created, hopefully instilling more morals and a sense of responsibility for his creations. Heck: Let Cid yell at the guy! Seriously! Cid sticking around to help out would make so much more sense if it was Nero instead of freaking Gaius! Cid hated the guy! He might be a professional, but he is not one to torture himself by staying around a guy he (as far as I know) detests.

Make Nero the central figure and give Cid and Gaius the roles of „angel and demon“: One desperately trying to reach out to his old friend, reminding him why they became engineers and trying to make him realise that he can’t just run around designing weapons and leaving the scematics for everyone to read; while the other has trouble letting go of his imperial past and is struggling to see the errors of his ways – if Nero was wrong, than he (Gaius) was wrong too -and of course they did all of this for their home, to further their cause, and to bring peace to the savage lands of Eorzea, who had been fighting amongst themselves for so long… You get the point.

And you could still have these gundam themed fights. But I think everything would make so much more sense in general.

But speaking of which-

The children

I do not truly care for any of them. And that is a shame: I do think there are great characters and dynamics hidden behind these very few cutscenes. When they were first introduced I was wondering why I was suddenly watching „heartwarming“ cutscenes of my foes as children – until I realised that I was supposed to care and that they were supposed to make me feel pity for Gaius. I was supposed to feel bad for him, because they died and he blames himself. But while their fates so far have been gruesome, I cannot say that I am sad they died. They chose to die as they did. There were a myriad more options. And they chose that.

Actually. Their whole story makes me feel like they were huge masochist from the very beginning. They could have just run away and gotten help from someone more competent than them, but they stayed in an abusive military arrangement just so nobody else got hurt?? Please. Use your brains next time. And for the Berserk-like torture scene? I mean. I get what was implied here. But was it necessary? As a writer myself I follow the rule that torture and sexual violence should never be used in a story, unless it must be in there for the story to work or to bring across a vital point important to the story or it’s moral (or if you are writing porn and you are into it – but we are talking official in-game content here). But the violence towards these „children“ seems unnecessary for the plot and the violence of their deaths by piloting the weapons is already gruesome enough. Sometimes it’s better to leave things like this out – the emotional torture of feeling stuck and having a martyrs complex would have been enough here, I think. If the rest of the story had been well written at least.

(I believe my utter lack of sympathy shows how little character developement they had. I love tragic characters, who choose to suffer for the good of other people – even better if those people don’t even like them. It’s just my thing. And those kids are just… well.)

Their reasons and especially why they were making Allie out as the one who would need to survive was also just… weird. Like. I feel like 75% of what happened would not have happened, if they actually talked to each other, used their brains and had done something about their problems. But no…

These characters are also so exchangeable with basic anime/j-RPG character tropes… I only remember Alfonse, Rex and Allie – because I just did the Emerald weapon. And right afterwards I thought, „huh. So… Fullmetal Alchemist?“ Which brings me to my third point …

…the story at large.

„Pacing is a virtue“ or was it patience..? Anyhow: The author of this story should have had more patience with his story and characters and taken a bloody break! And I am not talking about the obvious blunder of „How is Allie feeling?“, „she is in shock and you cannot talk to her“ turning to „oh yeah if you are careful you can talk to her now“. I mean. WTF. That was MAYBE 10-20 in-game minutes of dialogue.

But everything was moving so very fast – and not even in a good way. There are few things better than a fast paced, action rich story about a group of young people trying to safe (their) world. But if you try to cram in two expansions worth of character development and story telling into about two hours of content each patch.. Well, then you get whatever the hell this is.

Gaius is a very interesting character and while I did not understand why they needed to bring him back in 4.4 (?), I do see how he could be a good asset for endwalker. And his involvement in 5.0 with Estinien was just a dear delight. So I am not opposed to learning more about him, to watching his character grow and changed with time. But I am not ready for badly written content of which 50% get told by suddenly induced echo-sequences. I mean – weren’t there rules for the echo at some point???

I’m not sure which one of the devs said it, but the feature that let’s you play an NPC is super convenient for them to tell the story, because before they could only show what happened where the WoL was.

And that’s just it. Rule number 1 in writing anything is „Show don’t tell“. It feels like they literally turned this one around for these cutscenes. While Valens torture and diet-Fandaniel-routine were very much „show“, the rest of the story was one long cutscene of exposition: We get exposition by Cid, by Gaius, by echo, by Gaius and his crew again, then by Allie. Before having to watch scenes we are not there for.

BTW. Dear square Enix: Your writers are capable of writing amazing villains, antagonist and despicable assholes. You don’t have to write „asshole, must die“ on Valens name card. And I also think the „WoL, strike here“ sign above his head was a tad bit too much. Nuance, dear writers. Nuance. Or perhaps I just got spoiled by these last few foes in the MSQ.

When I said I wanted to just be able to punch a bad guy for once and not feel bad about it, I did not mean this! I meant that I just wanted to play training dummy with Danny-Boy.

(Oh! And as far as I’m concerned you can just… sideline Gaius … „would be killer“ and the lady? Make them targetable NPCs with Dialoge to read. Let them stand somewhere accessible and comment on the latest developement. But ffs don’t give me hour long speeches about how you are going to kill Gaius if he does something you don’t like. The guy could and would wipe the floor with you if he felt like it. -.- So. Please. Shut up.)

Conclusion

Basically. I have to finish the Diamond weapon. But I doubt it will change my perception of this story line even in the slightest.

To be perfectly honest though … bringing Gaius back, having this story with and about him, forcing a sort of redemption ark here. It feels like they are really „grooming“ him to be a morally grey ally in Endwalker, with perhaps a big part to play in the endgame. At this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if they pulled a GoT and made him „King in the North“. Or if they had him die a heroic death to save the world, but especially his country. And to do so they need us to think his sacrifice means something. Or that he is the right person to lead Garlemald into a new future (I don’t think he is). But: For one, neither we (the players) nor the characters need to find him worthy of throne or death by heroism for his sacrifice/ascension to work. To be a useful tool for the story, only the other garleans who might oppose the alliance and scions need to deem him or his sacrifice „worthy“. And only they. And Ishikawa-san has all of 6.0 to accomplish whatever the hell she needs him for. He did not need to be the center of his own botched redemption ark. If that’s what they wanted to do. Or maybe I’m looking at this all wrong and all they wanted was to give the writes in training some literal training grounds to test their abilities.

But! On a positive note: I have yet to be told that raids and other side content are canon to any degree. So when playing the next story quests I’ll blissfully ignore all that happened in Werlyt and if it get’s mentioned (because they do that sometimes when you’ve done certain content) I’ll just ignore it.

Happy ignoring! Also: GIVE ME MORE NERO CONTENT!