#vanadiel

[cherrypikkins]

hmmmm selh'teus is that you

[muttfangs]

finished my DNC af set!!! look like a fruity lil matador :3c

[undibujomanco]

Gekal performs a passionate samba:

[electroslag]

Konschtat Highlands (non watermarked vers available for free on my kofi)

[vannesgreave]

So I just finish watching Madoka Magica for the first time, and then lo and behold the level 90 limit break quest in Final Fantasy XI is just a giant Madoka Magica reference, right down to receiving a soul gem. I have concerns. Does Vana'diel have an Icubator problem? Is Mumor a magical girl? Will she become a witch? Will I become a witch? The world may never know.

[oograths-pizza-and-chill]

Where my FF11 enjoyers at?

[theevanescentwhisper]

Local reptilian conjoined twins get bodied by an immortal teenage elf girl, more at 11.

[wandringaesthetic]

Quite a part from any opinions about Wuk Lamat, I think having the WoL take up a mentor role is pretty much the only sane storytelling choice they could make for Dawntrail thank goodness they did.

[astralartefact]

Lofi Beats to battle the sins of your heritage to

Yoshi-P said they're not rearranging the FF11 tracks which means that if they aren't cowards and replace Fighters of the Crystal with something else we're going to fight these guys to one of the "FF11's pace is build different from 14" tracks in the OST and I'm so excited to see what that feels like

also a little bit disappointed just imagine what this sound team could do with this

[koko-online]

The only way in which she 'stole' the expansion comes from how horribly long the MSQ is considering its quality and how little it has to say. "Speak to Wuk Lamat" is a meme because the nothinburger story shines a light on FFXIV's horrible quest design. But you're right, people who talk about how she's the main character are misdiagnosing the problem.

However, if you don't think she's incompetent, I'm not sure you were paying attention? She was intentionally written as a faildaughter since 6.5 when she was introduced. She's a sheltered teenager. She apparently literally never left her city. She can't ride a llama. She gets comically (at least that was the writer's intention...) seasick every time she so much as glances at water. She gets kidnapped by generic bandits. Her literal only positive quality, according to the story, is her heart and desire for peace (which I guess is a unique trait somehow).

I like Lyse well enough, I love Ysayle, but FFXIV has always had a real dirthe of strong female characters, and Lamatyi is just another to throw on the pile unfortunately.

Contrast with any of the female leads from XIV's older sister who ALSO were the main character heads above our own.

I'm not even cherry picking, these are just random screenshots I found on Google, mostly Youtube thumbnails I think. Even in these, sometimes very small bits of dialogue, these characters have a personhood to them, a soul. They have motivations, they have means, they have opinions, they have meaningful flaws that get in the way of their goals. They're fundamentally unique individuals.

"Oh. Okay. Is that like, a tragic backstory or something? A defining character trait? Comic relief? Why are you telling me this? Padding runtime?"

Wuk Lamat's just drones on (extremely vaguely) about peace for roughly 40 hours, her literal only challenges being self-confidence (comparing herself to others) and the fact that she likes Sphene despite being her enemy. She gets over both immediately after speaking about them out loud at us.

She's a poorly written character, and that sucks.

I really need to stop following this tag and responding to stuff, you have to be a teenager or child, and I don't mean to make you feel bad or anything. Enjoy your Blorbo, she's not that bad in small doses, but just irredeemable in a 40 hour MSQ-sized dose, and I think you'll see that as the infatuation fades.

And before you blame people not liking a character on just widespread misogyny that's not present for other characters, maybe take a second and analyse that character a little more.

Wuk Lamat likers 🤝Lyse Hext likers

[invisiblebounds-ffxiv]

FFXIV - DAWNTRAIL

Cosmic Exploration

The Arcadion

Echoes of Vanadiel

Futures Rewritten

[eorzeanflowers]

now that its been nearly a full day since the last fanfest, i'm just gonna put my thoughts on Dawntrail as a whole out.

Jobs

Viper is cool. I like the idea of another scouting class. I'm a ranged phys main so sharing jewelry with another job is a plus.

The aesthetic of Viper is really really cool. I love the swashbuckler look that the AF gear has. I cannot wait to put Marisol in something similar. The twin blades into a double blade is also very appealing. I used to play Sith Assassin and Jedi Sentinel in SWTOR and its like a marriage of the two.

So in conclusion, Viper is just cool and its gonna be a lot of fun to play. Just like how Reaper is pretty fun to play still.

BUT Pictomancer is just more exciting to me. I LOVE RELM so much. Its been forever since I played VI so I might go do that sometime.

AND THE SPELLS ARE SO CUTE. They look so fake and painterly that I just can't help but fall in love with them. The AF gear is also so cute and I cannot wait to put it on Lily.

Archie is also going to main this class (I had decided that before the reveal, when it was still in the air between green mage and pictomancer.) Its so cheesy and cute and goofy and feels like it would fit my Doctor Who-like character a lot better than the raw powerful Black Mage.

Pictomancer is just gonna be good healthy goofy fun and its the job I'm more looking forward to!

Fem Hrothgar

I'm so so so so happy that they went big and buff over cutesifying Hrothgar. Cause we know they could've and it would've not looked good at all. I'm still not the biggest fan of the dimorphism of Au Ra. (even tho I main one. ^.^;)

My biggest complaint with Fem Hrothgar is that their starter gear looks so much better than all the others. Like the wrist guards! They look sooooo good. (I also really dislike Au Ra starter gear, that doesn't help.) But you can see the new graphic update with them and just their general design feels better than the OG 5. I felt this way a little about male Viera, but I was not super likely to make a male Viera so it didn't matter to me that much.

I don't know if i'm gonna make a Fem Hrothgar... They aren't my style per say, but I'm not gonna keep that door closed. I'm not the biggest fan of more animalistic faces, but that's a personal problem.

All in all, they look fucking fantastic and I'm glad they went the route they did.

Graphic Update

It looks great and its gonna be good when we get it. I'm very glad they actually showed us dark skintones this time too. They all got such a glow up! Can't wait for the gear to follow.

Now give us more character creator options for everyone, and hats for Viera and Hrothgar!!

Tural

The areas look really pleasant, I do like the whole brand new adventure feel. Its a lot better than the feel of the start of the void quests, that kinda had the same feel but got a little dreary once in the void proper. I dunno. Even as a fan of IV the Void Arc was kinda, meh. I like Zero and Golbez as characters, but the rest was kinda whatever. The world lore was also good but eh.

The new zone designs are just breathtaking. I'm the biggest fan of the Western town and South American highland zones. They are just so different from what we have currently it will be great. Solution 9 and the cave zone (that appears to be under it) are.... really fucking cool. Its so far away from what we were expecting I just can't help but be estatic. (And I can take pics of the Linnaeas twins' home shard there. Since I headcannon it as a cyberpunky shard.)

The dungeons all look pretty neat, I like the thunder crystal mountainside the most so far.

Its gonna be a fun story I think, a nice palette cleanser from the heaviness of Endwalker.

The Arcadian

I have no idea what to expect from a raid that is taking place inside a graphics card. By name alone and the fact its in the cyberpunk area does give me good hope. :D

Vanadiel

As I haven't played XI I'm indifferent. It'll be a fun raid and I'm likely going to enjoy the fights, but its just another FF in XIV. Pretty standard tbh. It'll be fun and I'll enjoy the story but there is no anticipation for me.

Ultimate Eden

Its gonna be bonkers and I'm gonna enjoy watching the full fight once its figured out. (I'm not a savage raider lol)

Other Content

The field zone has potential. Since we know nothing else, that's all I've got. I did miss having a field zone in Endwalker tho. It was the perfect place to while away hours working on relics. (let's hope the next relic grind is as tedious as just gather tomes.)

Cosmic Exploration is going to look flashy and great, but I don't do a lot of crafting/gathering so I dunno how much I will enjoy it past its story. Its gonna just be relegated to going there once in a while like Island Sanctuary for me likely.

Deep dungeons are only fun the first time solo and ok with friends later. I've completed both PotD and HoH but my friends still haven't finished EO so....

Hildebrand is Hildebrand. Perfection in humor form.

I will likely enjoy the Variant dungeons, I've enjoyed the first 2 (haven't done the newest cause I was taking a break from the game) and I like the lore that comes with them.

I can't think of anything else really rn but those are my immediate thoughts! Its going to be fun and refreshing and I cannot wait till summer to play it. (tho we must)

[muttfangs]

"I met my past self today-- they're looking forward to what the future holds" self-indulgent love letter to myself playing the same MMO I did when I was a little kid, and being trans masc I have more to say about it but I'm gonna save that for when I have more time to type it out lol

[blog-retrogradewear]

Final Fantasy XI Treasures of Vanadiel 21st Anniversary Exhibition Announced https://t.co/X1u6F7JUHS

Final Fantasy XI Treasures of Vana’diel 21st Anniversary Exhibition Announced https://t.co/X1u6F7JUHS

— Retrograde Wear Gaming (@RetroGradeWear) Jun 26, 2023

from Twitter https://twitter.com/RetroGradeWear

[robmchops]

Me in the return to Vanadiel hunting down Warchief Vatgit.

[akirakirxaa]

personal really cool HC of anon: every shard has a WOL. OG Golbez or Zero (depends) for the 13th, Ardbert for the First....

OG Sphene for the 9th? Would make endgame DT fascinating.

and, ofc, 11th shard has XI player character as the WOL there.

I really love Zero as Akira's shard specifically. I know that the MSQ really leans hard into implying it's Golbez, but with the 13th and the source being so close, and Zero being so similar in several ways to Akira, and then they're both reapers to boot, I can't help but believe it.

I'm not super wild about Sphene in general, but based on what little we know about the real Sphene I could see her being an Azem shard, what with the caring little for her own safety and putting the needs of her people first which are both things that are extremely AzemShard canon features. But since she did die the question does become what happened to the Azem soul for that shard. And while I don't need to have every shard confirmed to me, I do hope we meet some new NPCs in the patches from there that might make me wonder...

I never played XI, but I think that's a really cool idea! I thiiiiink Vanadiel has been confirmed as connected to Eorzea in some way, but I'm not super familiar with XI's lore so I can't say for sure. Could be something interesting in the 24 man when it drops!

My personal hc for a very long time (and there's really nothing saying this could be wrong) is that the 13th is the ruined future of XV's world. It gets a little complicated but basically, the way that XV ends, there is nothing stopping the starscourge from coming back and enshrouding the star in darkness, since there's no ring and no oracle to cleanse it anymore. And so, eventually, it falls to darkness again (if you haven't played XV, the last part of the game is literally permanight so I'm not being dramatic lol). And so, of course, that means that Noctis was an Azem shard, and thus a shard of Akira, that she got to meet because of time shenanigans through the XV crossover quest. It's also part of my headcanon that he's one of the heroes summoned to help her fight Hades in ShB. Now that we've been to the 13th it's hard to maintain but I like it enough to do it anyways lol.