mmorpg-escapism

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i respect those people who have sideblogs for all their different interests, if you follow me, you’ll just have to accept you’ll be submitted to whatever nonsense i’m into at the moment

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so i’m curious,

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GOD I just want to be CREATIVE but all my energy is being used to survive

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You've found yourself in Eorzea and learning a combat job from one of the in-game job trainers. Spin this wheel to find out what you're learning from whom.

(I tried to limit the spinner contents to people who actually teach you how to do stuff, with a couple of exceptions that I knew y'all would come after me for not including)

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Rotating the differences between Laurentius and Wilred's self-redemption efforts in my brain while I take a break from actual gameplay...

I glossed over him during the sylph chase stuff because the arc hadn't really percolated in my brain enough, but Laurentius intentionally betrayed his Gridanian countrymen for Garlean money and only gave himself up after we knocked some sense into him alongside the "ruffians" he looked down on - the ones loyal to Buscarron because he treated them well. It wasn't a truly sincere surrender, more a result of feeling cornered. He's implied to be older, meaning set in his ways, and that shows really hard when it comes to the Crystal Braves later. I think if he wasn't recruited for them, he might have actually learned his lesson in time.

Compare that to Wilred, a kid in poverty who was misguided by (we think) Lahabrea on the way to good intentions. All he wanted was to reclaim his homeland for his family and friends, he just didn't have the critical thinking skills to spot the ulterior motive and/or danger inherent in what he was told would grant him the power to achieve his dream. It took seeing the actual effects of summoning first-hand during the rescue to wake him up to the dangers. At that point, you can kinda see "hey maybe the adults actually know what they're talking about" start to actually sink in, and iirc when it comes around to recruitment time he's eager to make it up to us, and competent about it to boot.

It just sucks that the wrong one of them survived the Banquet.

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Fate is not kind to young Wilred.

Not even a little. And he doesn't even get to see what we do for Ala Mhigo...

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being abused or neglected really makes it clear how many things are skills that nobody really treats as. skills. exercising autonomy is a skill. listening to your body is a skill. resting is a skill. being liked and being loved are skills. nobody tells you how to do this shit because nobody even told me I was supposed to have learnt these things when I was a kid. I kind of just have to manually figure out what makes me freak out and work from there. unfair as shit

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Okay, to earn the Ala Mhigan refugees' trust, we gotta... help the Resistance out. Okay. Hi Meffrid!

Sir you're in a forest, put a shirt on please? There are SO MANY things that can fuck you up if you touch them. And maybe a few that will do that without touching them!

...right, he does do that eventually. Just. Not yet.

I wanna point out that the elementals come up again in a way that makes my blood boil. They're used as an excuse not to help someone who's actively in danger because of serious illness because "they said no". I know it's a narrative tool and also the elementals are actually beings that can be interacted with, but the whole "only certain people can communicate with them & interpret their will" thing drives me up a wall.

Meffrid isn't taking it very well either.

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Hm. The Ala Mhigan refugees scraping by in a hollowed out mountain sure seems... pointed.

So far, we've seen a lot of the non-human... dangers? conflicts? conflicts around the city states. This refugee camp is the first human one. The human cost of a war we don't see or enter until Stormblood, these people tried to turn things around but found themselves entering a nation that was unprepared and/or unwilling to welcome them. They're barely willing to support them with a handful of guards for their space in the desert.

After all that, it's little wonder they want nothing to do with me when I come around asking after Lahabread. Too bad for them: I'm *really* good at worming my way into peoples' good graces. I'm helpful like that :)

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Okay, Sylph shenanigans are over, I missed another crystal acquisition screenshot opportunity dammit, we're reporting in, and... behold: Alphinaud is a Scion, or at least adjacent enough to be let in the door...

This, however... implies something else. Something mysterious, if you're a first timer. I, however, am not. Minfilia is showing respect to Alphinaud because his grandfather is Louisoix, the guy who founded one of the two groups that eventually became the Scions. So yeah, he's involved. That can't possibly go wrong.

(Also, so is Alisaie but she disagrees on the How so she's not around right now)

LOL I forgot Tataru gets spooked by a Sylph who'd come to help. I think Noraxia got voluntold to, though.

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...we never go back for that drink at Buscarron's place, do we?

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Okay, okay. ARR isn't *all* "stab the beast tribes". In a departure from what would be considered the norm right now, we get to learn about the Sylphs! Basically the game's first attempt at Fae, and not too badly done either (though they do learn from this and do Much Better in Shadowbringers).

It's a peaceful conversation that also serves to de-mystify the beast tribes a bit. The first step on the road to just calling them allied tribes like we do later in the game is understanding them deeper than just appearance-level, and this is the first chance we get to really do that.

and the music in Little Solace is pretty good, too.

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I got stuck thinking about the differences and parallels between early ARR and the start of Dawntrail while on my weekend errands this morning...

Learning about the people around this new place and how to help them Make Everyone The Same vs learning about the Differences That Make Us Worth Loving and how to embrace them respectfully.

Both have us entering a new place and having to find our footing with the guidance of an experienced local.

Handling the inevitable trouble it with people we barely know vs handling it with people we've taken with us to the end of the universe and back.

Solving conflict with violence first vs trying to talk it out before we smack each other with sharp/magic/etc weapons.

Both embracing this new place that needs our help, just the help is "you have the raw power to safeguard us" vs "you have the wisdom and experience to guide us to save ourselves" and that's such a cool transition to make.

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I love how interconnected everything is. We've gone to the Maelstrom to get inducted into their ranks but of course something last minute goes wrong and we're needed for a rescue... oh look!

It's Biggs and Wedge! ...the latter of whom seems to be in Extra Peril. Good ol' airship engineers. Time to rescue the Lalafell...

...hang on I'm still staring at the grass in the foreground of the Biggs shot. Have I mentioned that FFXIV is a REALLY pretty game yet?

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Does your OC have a sweet tooth? Or do they prefer to avoid sweets and sugary treats?

Besany is typically boring around sweets, generally. Not against em, so she'll eat em if they're offered but there's nothing she's particularly feral about consuming.

"Ahem."

Well... almost nothing. You'd better keep your dark/bittersweet chocolate under lock and key when she's around. That stuff gets eaten before you realize she's moved near it. It's a taste we share, but she goes through it faster.

"That's because you never let me have anything nice. I gotta take it where I can get it."

...that's fair.

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On the remembrance ceremonies:

All three events (cutscenes) focus pretty heavily on the topic at hand: remembering those who gave their lives alongside the Warriors of Light at Carteneau, with added commentary from Alphinaud. Alisaie is there too, just quietly. There's a good amount of backstory fill-in stuff too.

Limsa, naturally, has a good amount of focus on the seafaring origins. Alphi is very judgemental of their focus on "freedom" specifically in the capacity of "oh yeah the beast tribes also want that". It's the flavor of "freedom for me not for thee" that he's griping about while the Admiral paints sahagin, kobolds, and Garleans as the same flavor of enemy in an attempt to reunite her very pirate-leaning people against a common foe. Dangerous thinking, and thankfully she reverses course eventually... several expansions later. Right now all Alphinaud can predict is a LOT of bloodshed.

Gridania is more focused on the tug-of-war with the elementals they still have to deal with and fight to maintain... and also I seem to remember a post about the lost history of said elementals, and if I can find it again I'll link to it. The Elder Seedseer boasts about being key to the reformation of the Eorzean Alliance... and then repeats the same "us vs them" tactic that the Admiral used, targeting the Ixal. Seems like there's a pattern here... anyway Alphi mentions what the Seedseer didn't: only one beast tribe is in active conflict with Gridania - the other, the sylphs, aren't for the moment.

Last but not least, Ul'dah is very focused on the "we can make money out of anything" type of stuff. Again, they have the right idea with poor execution by prompting unity by pointing at common enemies. At least Raubahn has the sense to give them another option (get glory from outside the city instead of stabbing your neighbor in the back for it) which is the best I've heard so far. Showing Nanamo shoulder-surfing on Raubahn is something they need to do more of. Alphi's commentary after the fact sheds more light on the refugee deluge they have going on which is more pressing, arguably, than the repeated summoning of Ifrit.

We've got a Choice on our hands alright. Or that's what they want us to think, anyway. I know where I'm headed.

Oh yeah, screenshot uhhh... Twins! Look at them!

Once again, I'm begging YoshiP to give us a cutscene where we just. hug them. PLEASE.