#The whole time I was playing MSQ the only time I thought of a character trait for her was

[moment-live]

I finished the set! May I present: her, the okay-est warrior of light 

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 41-46 author notes

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

Get comfy and reread with me the finale of the Il Mheg arc and the intro of a certain loser.

First off, I wanna emphasize how important this arc’s for Vivi. Had he not liked Il Mheg in general and Feo Ul in particular, the rest of the story would play out very differently, and not in favor of the sundered. His initial positive impression of the First is pretty much the only thing that saves it.

We've reached a high, physically and emotionally. You know what that means, as per the shb rollercoaster rule :>

Pan pride pixie blesses Thancred, ca. 2024, colorized. I accidentally gave them the pan colors but hey it works. ALSO! Stars in his eyes.

Re: distant nightmare, I’ll let you in on a secret, or a third party perspective if you will. Vivi's full of shit, he's too focused on the big picture. He’s narrating this whole story, but his perspective is, well, just that.

Initially this was Vivi's inner monologue, then I thought that I should just let them talk, and it wrote itself.

More under the cut~

Drawing a buncha vivi-lookalikes that act soooooorta but not really like him, just slightly off, was a surprisingly fun exercise.

Luckily for Thancred, though, he sniffs out the pixie magic, and knows better than indulging them.

...Still, what a shitty fucked up day. Sorry, Thancred :’>

This here’s an example of a moment where I’m uncertain if I’m being too subtle and if this flies over some readers’ heads. He refers to Alisaie’s “job” of dragging Vivi back to msq, which she recently started lowkey dreading (episodes 32-33)

...Though she goes back to her “duty” in episode 43.

She's pointedly SILENT throughout the episode, doing her best to hold back.

Thancred's a man who can say no to begging dogs.

Gridania mention! Vivi’s gridanian! He never speaks ill of the elementals, he's wary of them even a world apart.

This pixie's life is something Feo Ul's willing to sacrifice. Episodes 42-43 tell this story in reverse order, yes this’s the pixie that was supposed to agree with Thancred and go with the Scions to the Crystarium.

As to why there’s a dozen of vivis popping up as a backup: they needed just one fake Vivi to go with the Scions, but try organizing the pixies. Their plan’s already failed when this first pixie-Vivi refused to play their part.

“Yeah no, our guy’s special, but not as special as to explode in confetti”

I love his first ingame appearance in that Varis cutscene, this moment has similar energy: barely enters the stage, instantly gets impaled on a long object. This’s not foreshadowing, no, why would you think that-

The “camera” is perfectly still, there’s even some symmetry, demonstrating how calm and prepared Emet is. He didn’t expect much and he’s still disappointed.

This’s a super old comic. I spent the first half of 2022 testing and trying to find a style for Fragments, back then I had no plans, none, zero, absolutely no interest to give Emet a role bigger than a mention. The earliest version of the script had very few Emet scenes, which, looking back on it, was gonna be a disservice to his character. Well, that changed rapidly in late 2023 when I fell for him so hard that I broke my neck, and now I look back on a lot of what I did with Vivi with new eyes. THE EYEROLL. After spending two years developing a guy for a fun wolgraha chemistry (at the same time I was perfectly aware that Exarch and Emet are foils. I made a foil for Exarch, what on earth did I expect-), I’m going through a mindblow after mindblow as I realize HOW GOOD VIVI IS FOR EMET (and vice versa ofc) and how many things they have in common. This wasn’t always the case, Vivi just gradually got more cynical, tired, ✨grey✨ and everything else that makes a guy consider hitting it with The Other Old Man.

They’re off to a great start.

From Emet’s pov, this must really hurt, as in how many other shards of Azem might’ve snarled at him like this. Even though he must be numb to it by now, who says that there isn’t the tiniest flicker of hope when he approaches yet another not-Azem. He may deny and hate and try to snuff out that spark, but the fatal Soulmate Magnet keeps doing its thing.

Parallels to episode 2.

Apparently, Vivi’s first reaction to encountering his to-be-most-prominent boyfriends is to attack them somehow.

This’s really, REALLY dumb of him, and he even comments on it shortly after. But yes, his isekai tale in the First was rather pleasant just until now, and it lulled him into the false sense of security. OF COURSE there are ascians everywhere, not just on the Source. Vivi just forgor.

Emet tests Vivi's reactions to insults/being treated as a lesser, silliness, flirt.

I regret to inform you that both Vivi and Alisaie have been disarmed so easily. The tone quickly shifts, the weapon’s lowered.

Alisaie makes bad puns/jokes in canon, I thought it'd fit if she laughed at that kinda jokes too, and in the least fitting situations, to top it off. Alphinaud’s disappointed, even if he can hardly be called an expert in humor.

“It’s up to you”. Emet stops fooling around, assuming a more serious tone. He may not respect Vivi or his agency here, but he provides him with a choice that's guaranteed to give him some trust points, and uses "we" for an illusion of unity/equality, a not really subtle nudge towards cooperation, it's not me vs you anymore, it's "us".

Whether Vivi picks up on the manipulation or not remains to be seen, but Emet gets his way here.

Forgive me this lil tangent, but I’m so giddy and excited to write Emet. If Exarch’s decently emotionally intelligent but still obtuse at times, Vivi’s a tier or two above him, he’s not a stranger to manipulation, he registers it being used on him, and doesn’t hesitate to use it too when it suits his fancy. He's quite good at people-ing. Emet, though, Emet’s THE emotional intelligence personified. He’s had literal thousands of years to practice, he leaves everyone else in the dust in this regard. It’s daunting but so exciting to write him, I hope to do him justice.

Let’s just talk.

𝓛𝓮𝓽’𝓼 𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓽𝓪𝓵𝓴.

Mark this moment, remember this line for meme value. If these last words aren't famous yet, they WILL become that when we see what they talk their way into <w<

Yes I'm going all in on tragic irony of Emet's situation.

Accidental Emet rp, with the hunching over and all. Or maybe Vivi already unwittingly mirrors him. Or maybe he always did- *kicked and dumped in the trash bin*

Man. I'm guilty of enjoying drawing Vivi in genuine distress. He’s so fun when he’s agitated.

Hidden Angst Time! It's all hehe haha until you realize that this might be a product of the hectic wol lifestyle forcing him to speedrun his emotions like this. Either speedrun, or be left with no opportunity to process them at all.

Also, the sandwiches! The framing’s deliberate, they’re on the foreground all the time, and Vivi only notices them in the very last panel.

I! Love! This! Face!!!!!! A rare neutral, relaxed, thoughtful face, he isn't performing for anyone here.

Nevermind Ardbert getting brutally ignored here x’D

The fact that a guy that Vivi had briefly considered as partner material shut himself away in the Crystal Tower for what could be the rest of his life has stuck with Vivi for good. Or should I say for bad. He might not necessarily care about ARRRaha, still it upsets him that he kissed someone who practically killed himself some days later.

I recently talked a lil more about the Bitchless Liar. This’s how Vivi remembers him forever, take it or leave it. But hey, this cool Exarch guy has big balls probably <- in-universe hc \o/

This episode taught me to draw BREAD.

Even though Exarch’s been nothing but sweet so far, one thing’s to acknowledge a fact with your brain, another thing’s to wrestle with your trauma and paranoia that have all rights to exist and fester. Ever since HW Vivi doesn’t accept food and drinks from anyone except the few trusted sources. This isn’t really covered in this episode, but hopefully hinted at just enough.

He takes a leap of faith. Or maybe he’s simply sick and tired of living Like This. Maybe sandwiches kill him, and he doesn’t really mind. And, when they don’t, he goes through a visible shift in attitude towards Exarch, as we’re able to see in the following episodes.

This’s all I’ve got for now, thanks for reading till the end~

[azems-familiar]

my thoughts on dawntrail

alright, now that it's been a couple days since i finished the 7.0 MSQ, and i've had time to get my thoughts in order, i wanted to write up my overall thoughts and impressions on the expansion. beneath the cut there WILL BE MAJOR SPOILERS for plot points, zones, and dungeons/trials through the whole expansion, so be warned.

so i'll start with the positives.

first of all, i obviously can't stress enough how much i love the graphics update and how beautiful everything looks now. i really appreciate several of the QoL things they added in, like dual dye channels and the adjustment to the follow missions that make it easier to see when you might fail. i loved the first 4 zones - the designs, the cultures in them, the way they were developed. i think my favorite group was the Yok Huy. the dungeons and trials are also all REALLY fun, for the most part, although a couple of the fights suck balls on caster - Vanguard's second boss is aoe hell taken to a new extreme. i did have some troubles with seeing mechanics on the final trial, but i managed it, at least.

i overall liked the rite of succession. i liked Wuk Lamat's character arc, and i liked Koana's as well, and i wasn't too bothered by how much of a back seat in the story the WoL took, although i was disappointed we didn't get many chances to bond with the Scions or Erenville and the WoL's relationship with Wuk Lamat was centered over everything else (and sorry, but Lelesu is not going to think of her as family that quickly), especially with Erenville being the expansion's narrator. it did a little bit annoy me that it mostly felt like we were there to be a camera from which to let the player watch the story, but it wasn't too egregious. i wanted more of the rivalry between the Scions that we were teased, but overall it was an enjoyable little vacation with some really beautiful worldbuilding.

that said.

to me the second half of the story felt like someone trying to emulate shb without really understanding what made shb so good, while also trying to shoehorn Wuk Lamat in as the protagonist when by all rights she should no longer have been. the WoL was given no agency despite the fact that we were dealing with another reflection and a star-wide threat; frankly, the idea that Lelesu would have sat back and been perfectly content to wait for Wuk Lamat to challenge Zoraal Ja to single combat and whatnot is kind of ridiculous, considering the harm he could cause to not only the Source but the other reflections as well. i disliked that there were hardly any mentions whatsoever of past worldbuilding - we have no opportunity to talk to Sphene about how her shard's shift towards lightning was definitely intentional and caused by Ascian manipulation, we don't get to interject that we can cure the levin sickness (something that genuinely bothered me, since that was a MASSIVE PLOT POINT in the shb patches). our accomplishments are almost never brought up at all.

moreover, this expansion was supposed to be character development for Krile. i would not have minded the WoL remaining in the background so much if during the second half of the story, Krile took the fore, especially since her parents are from this unknown shard - but as it was, we barely got anything from her at all, except a couple cutscenes in Living Memory. the Scions also weren't particularly centered - they were all present, but all the emotional moments and connections were focused on Wuk Lamat and on Sphene, even Erenville fading into the background most of the time, and the WoL is constantly made to follow Wuk Lamat around to let the players watch what she's doing instead of working with their own team of people to ascertain what's going on and put a stop to it.

(this is very much a personal thing, but i also did not like Sphene; she gave me the utter creeps the moment she showed up onscreen, which would have been great if they'd been trying to play into that, but it felt like we were genuinely meant to Like Her and personally she made me want to claw my skin off every time she opened her mouth or did an animation, lol.)

despite my interest in another reflection, all of those issues above definitely soured me on the second half of the plot quite a bit. i also really did not like Living Memory - it felt somehow directly antithetical to the themes of endwalker, while trying to copy, again, the end of shb. like the opposite of Ultima Thule, which was incredibly cathartic even though it was very heavy. Living Memory just honestly was a bit triggering to me and left me upset in a bad way, and i had to force myself through the end of the msq there. especially considering that no one living remembers these people, since they all had their minds mass-wiped constantly...it did not feel very good. though i did like that we got some focus on Erenville there, finally.

the cutscene prior to the final trial i honestly did really love though - getting to pull out the Azem crystal and do what we do best made me HAPPY, since we'd gotten so little of that this expansion. so you can imagine i felt incredibly frustrated and...cheapened when Wuk Lamat burst through the literal fourth wall to trigger the boss's phase change. also the fact that no one is bringing up dynamis when "the power of emotion" is repeatedly mentioned is ANNOYING, because come on, we just had a whole arc about this, i guarantee you it's still fresh in everyone's minds. we also didn't get called the Warrior of Light at all this expansion, which just made me kinda go :/ because that's our title, even if Hydaelyn is gone. i am very interested in why the Key has Azem's symbol on it though, and looking forward to what kind of arc this might kickstart. i also liked the final scene in which Erenville asked the WoL what drives them - the answers we were given to choose from felt like a really good indicator of the growth our characters have gone through since we were first asked why we became an adventurer to begin with.

another little thing that does irritate me is - why does no one in Tural seem to have any familiarity with the global events in the past? such as the Final Days, primals, the Echo, the concept of a Warrior of Light - Hydaelyn spoke to everyone and since the Echo is a manifestation of an ancient soul, it makes no sense that only people in Eorzea would have it. it also makes no sense that the Ascians would just completely ignore one of the major continents, especially since Emet-Selch has clearly been to Tural before. i definitely didn't expect them to recognize us, but idk, it was kinda weird that there was just no mention of this stuff.

my overall impressions is that i will probably enjoy doing sidequests and things in the new zones, and running the content, but i probably am not going to replay the story at all and i'm holding out hope for better writing in the patch quests. before anyone comes at me with "well of course the wol wasn't the protagonist we can't be saving the star all the time-" i'm perfectly fine with lower stakes, i just wish it felt more like we were relevant, especially in the latter half of the story. there's an easily-achievable happy medium, you know? same with there being a happy medium between "continuing the previous plot arcs" and "ignoring basically all past plot events and worldbuilding".

if you've read all the way down here, have a happy Lelesu for your trouble:

she looks amazing in the rdm artifact gear!

[rabbitr]

dawntrail thoughts (you know the ones)

finished msq so here are thoughts. spoilers under the cut

did i like dawntrail? eh.

dawntrail is perfectly fine as an expac. i didn't go into it expecting dawntrail to be able to top the shadowbringers/endwalker combo. but i also didn't expect them to fumble like that.

overall, dawntrail isn't bad! i like a lot about it. getting to explore tural, the competition during the rite of succession, new cast of characters, uh...... solution nine. i think you can tell which half i like more. solution nine and alexandria were perfectly serviceable, i just liked the slow and lighthearted pace of the first half better.

my major issue with dawntrail is that the first half (rite of succession) and second half (alexandria) don't feel very well integrated.

if you like the rite of succession, then all the interesting bits about tural's history and culture are thrown out the window once you get to alexandria. none of the characters you meet and see grow during the rites will travel with you and offer their insights in alexandria's state of affairs. except for a few, which well. i'll get to them.

if you like alexandria, then the rite of succession feel like a slow and meandering beginning. characters in alexandria don't show up until you slog through the rites, and then aren't given all that much space to grow. i don't particularly like the second half so i'm sorry that i can't say more on it.

in short, dawntrail's theme is "legacy". both halves deal with how people pass down their legacies - who will remember them and what will they be remembered for? the ideological differences between different parties about how they should be remembered drives the conflict.

while alexandria fits the story thematically and is foreshadowed fairly well, the transition falls flat. there's no good bridge between the two sections. i've seen some people arguing that its about wuk lamat's arc, that she needs to learn what happens when she can't make peace. but... not really.

wuk lamat definitely undergoes development during the rite of succession. it's somewhat subtle while also being fucking beat into your head with a sledgehammer, but afterwards she doesn't really... change as a result of going to alexandria. she doesn't really struggle with what she needs to do to keep peace. wuk lamat kind of resolves herself that some people need killing if her people want peace and her gripes are mostly that the people who need killing are her brother and a new friend.

the focus of all of dawntrail is on wuk lamat alone, with erenville and krile getting incredibly minor spotlights during alexandria. so when her development grinds to a crawl, it's noticeable. because erenville and krile don't change at all throughout alexandria.

we get to know erenville a little better. and that's it.

krile, despite being part of the impetus for us to even want to explore alexandria, is regulated to a bit part with a grand total of about one quest and a handful of cutscenes wherein she asks people about her grandfather and earring. i like wuk lamat, don't get me wrong. but why couldn't krile have shared the spotlight? in the endwalker patches, she talks about how she wants to go on this journey and that she can defend herself now. where was any of that?

speaking of scions. oh boy, the scions.

in dawntrail's need to focus on wuk lamat, the scions entirely fall on the wayside. not even in that the WoL's relationships with them don't come to fore, i mean, not even wuk lamat seems to get to know them. while i understand this is a time constraint (only so much expac), i would have rather... not had the scions there?

they don't really contribute much to the story except to play the brains to your and wuk lamat's brawn. towards the second half, it felt just like they needed an excuse to justify alexandria and explain it to wuk lamat, as well as making sure the whole cast is back together. like, did we really need a y'shtola cameo?

my major issue with how the scions were handled are that none of them got any sliver of the spotlight. i don't even mean in a character development way - they've all had their time already - i just mean. why not have wuk lamat expand on her relationship with them? most of the gentler moments are between the WoL and wuk lamat while the scions mostly follow the two of you around, occasionally solving academic problems.

but dawntrail focused so intensely on wuk lamat. which is fine! shadowbringers/endwalker and even the expacs before were pretty much about us, after all. that story's concluded. i don't mind that it's wuk lamat's story.

except the sheer amount of wuk lamat starts to get aggravating after a while. because i kept waiting for krile's story to start. or erenville's. and i kept waiting and waiting and ultimately in the second half was served a story mostly about wuk lamat still and... sphene?

let's talk about sphene.

i hate her. she appears to be a sympathetic villain, yet she is suspicious from the get-go, and her entire purpose is to serve as wuk lamat's antagonist. does she serve the plot well? yeah, no arguments there. do i feel sympathy for her? absolutely not!

furthermore, the confrontation with sphene appears to be mostly a bootleg version of shadowbringers' ending, a decision with utterly baffles me. like the writing team wanted to parallel sphene with emet-selch, except one of those characters was a through-line since before the expac dropped and remained relevant until the end of the story and the other one is sphene.

crucially, emet-selch is a villain that has roots in prior plot. the narrative is constantly pitting us against the ascians between the political intrigue, so when emet-selch shows up and gives us his motivations, it recontextualizes an entire group of antagonists who were previously just a generic evil shadowy organization. it feels powerful to realize that all the prior struggles are because of a sympathetic motivation.

sphene recontextualizes nothing and appears hollow throughout her screentime. she loves her people and wants to protect her people, and that gets driven into our heads over and over. it is possible that sphene is purposefully written that way - to show that as an endless, she's only memories and a vague motive, not a living person. but if so, then the emotional impact of her would have to lay in wuk lamat's relationship to her.

who as i stated, has a character arc that slows way down and does not really struggle with the fact that sometimes you have to kill some people to keep peace.

lastly, the writing itself started to grate. it felt like more than ever, the writers were reaching through the screen attempting to beat the themes of the story into my head. so many times, characters will just... say the meaning of the plot at that point in time aloud. or sphene being the worst offender, repeating that she wants to protect her people over and over like a broken record. (again, which could be the point. but wuk lamat does this too with her understanding others line.)

one of the best parts of the writing for me was during the trial with zoraal ja. he sees mirages of different aspects of legacy - what came before in gulool ja ja, what is now in wuk lamat and koana, and what comes next in gulool ja. and his next action rejects them all. it's a good scene! i just wish more of the writing was like that and didn't give me a feeling of being directly told what i should know about the story.

while i've mostly been critical of dawntrail, it's not awful. it's a fun romp even if i vastly prefer shadowbringers/endwalker (but who doesn't). wuk lamat and koana were fun to get to know, alexandria was interesting, and running around gathering aether currents lets me to look at some very pretty videogame landscapes.

would i play dawntrail again? no. am i going to continue thinking about whatever gulool ja ja and ketenramm's deal was? yes. why were they like that- //shot

anyways this has been a long rabbithole of something i will likely never think about again but wanted to exorcise. if you've made it this far down, feel free to send me an ask or something with your thoughts.

[astralartefact]

FFXIV Dawntrail Review Part 1 - Where I tell you if I liked it and also Bingo(?)

This post contains spoilers for all of Dawntrail's Main Story up until the Ending!

Hmm.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to write this. I genuinely didn't expect this. Should I have? No. I was perfectly right to not see this coming.

I really loved Dawntrail. Like. You don't understand.

I don't really rank the FFXIV Expansions (except that Heavensward is last) but Dawntrail might be up there. It's 2:00 am and I will probably delete this when I reread it when I have slept over it, but I might genuinely call this my favorite X.0 so far. (read over it and at least for now i will stand by it) (keep in mind most enjoyed =/= best and "best art" doesn't exist)

I know it won't be popular in the community, I've already known that 30% through and by the many, many posts proudly announcing that they do not like Wuk Lamat it seems like that Dawntrail truly will be Stormblood 2.0 in the eyes of the public - but what can I say, I loved it. I had a fantastic time.

There is a bunch of criticisms I've read that I disagree with. I thought the WoLs place in the story was great. What do you people mean by 'We're not the main character anymore' it has literally always been like this except that usually we don't only have one dedicated Expansion Character that gets this much of a monopoly on screentime (see Ryne) - by which I mean, are you jealous? - but also that isn't 'bad', they're allowed to do that and I liked it. also how do you go through this expansion and arrive at "we weren't the main character" - bro, everybody told us at every corner how happy they are we're here bc without us none of this would remotely work. also they literally teased the key is an azem thing clearly this is build up for something

I liked the pacing, I enjoyed the slowburn build-up of Wuk going through the nuances of her people's individual problems before turning to the actual crisis. I know people are big mad that the MSQ gameplay is mainly just Fetch Quests and Cutscenes - which is something we'll get back to - but tbh I didn't even think it was that bad? I feel like we had expansions that were far worse about it....

I also loved Wuk Lamat! I liked that she grew relatively quickly and continouosly, aside from the Seasickness Joke they repeated too often, and I was surprised how much genuinely smart and thought through things she added to the conversation. One example I remember is her bringing up that she would rather learn and fix why people are committing crimes in the first place instead of just 'adding police' - without anybody prompting her to learn that. I don't know, I just really appreciated that.

I even liked Bakool Ja Ja, there I said it. I knew people would be really mad about Wuk just forgiving him and his dad especially after the kind of stuff they did - the internet has become really weird about forgiveness the past few years especially if it's "unearned" whatever that means - but like, you guys know this is a story, right, he didn't threaten to murder someone in real life. Immersion is good and all, but you know you're playing FF14, right, a game that's 50% a Saturday Morning Cartoon, 50% Game of Thrones for a Young Adult Audience. also it's kind of necessary for the theme of the whole narrative for him to do something we 'hate' him for more than the others - and i guess i would agree that they could have written the details around it better - but what's there is there for a reason. if you want to know more that's what Part 2 is going to be for.

Which brings me back to the Fetch Quests. Listen, I'm not really defending anything here, I do agree that the MSQ gameplay could probably be a little more engaging - There's just a thing I thought that keeps coming up in other contexts too:

At which point does this become a "Consumer Problem" instead of a "Developer Problem"?

We're five expansions in. If all expansions before have been structurally exactly like this, at which point is it your problem for expecting it to be different. What I mean is, if you played four parts of a Visual Novel and then you play part 5 and complain that the gameplay is getting stale, I hope we can agree that, like, that's a you problem. If you don't want to read then why are you playing a Visual Novel.

Again, I'm not really trying to 'defend' the core issue - even Serialized Mediums, for all the security their regularity brings them, should mix it up a little sometimes and expressing that want as an audience member is completely fine with me - but I feel like this is also at least a little bit a perspective issue. Like. I'm so sorry to tell you that this is just the game you're playing. This probably won't change and it's probably better to not expect it to for your own sake - and yes, I'm so sorry but to some degree navigating your experience of this game is your own responsibility. What I'm saying is Skip Dialogue if you're bored. Farm a Dungeon. Are you guys not doing Fates on your way to a quest marker? I keep seeing people say 'I didn't fight against a single monster as part of the msq' - Well, That wasn't a problem I had, I fought constantly! There are monsters right there for you to fight! Like. Make your own fun!

Anyways, time to look at my bingo card!

(My WoL = Happened, Krile = Depending on who you ask, Sphene = Jury is still out) Certainly better than my Endwalker one!!

One thing I noticed while playing Dawntrail is how bitter exactly Myths of the Realm has made me about this game and i'm so sad!! Like, how did I forget how completely this game is made specifically for me. I will just fail to not like it, because I get it and it gets me. at least until 8.0 when whoever wrote Myths of the Realm gets to write the expansion

Let's go through the noteable ones.

ill-advised azem lore drop - is in hot water, because they did seem to imply that the novelty wine glass of shard travel has to do with azem.

someone sundered knows more than us - krile's parents count and also Gagool Ja Ja's party too to some extent

the forgotten people went to tural - for two seconds!!! technically correct!!!

questionable armor design choices - some of the second dye slots. choices were made.

somebody "important" (but not too important) dies - i didn't expect them to write meaningful side character deaths, but they did so... i guess on a technicality i win?

the twelfth shard is involved // they talk about sundering meta physics

this room. they're so mean. they talk about the silly masks but not about the fact that apparently whatever shard this is either has three moons or two other planets in its solar system. you knew what you were doing q_q

y:da did it better - hahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I AM A FOOL! MEGUMI ONOZUKA! I KNOW THIS WAS YOUR DOING AND YOU CANNOT HIDE ANY LONGER! YOU ARE NOW ON MY LIST OF NAMES TO SHOUT!!!! If my theory in Part 2 turns out incorrect then I'm so sorry about this, buT IF I'M NOT THEN---!!!!

Shaaloani did not win me over - it being the padding zone really didn't help.

Erenville did not Outfit Change - but given the ending he's probably going to at some point. And I hope he stays around :)

who needs eternal life anyways - They tried to be a little bit more understanding about it and make it a "it's just not worth what it costs" sort of thing, but they did still say at least once - verbatim! - that "Eternal Life is Bad, Full Stop, you people suck and are failing the human game by not dying"

Something Actually Unexpected Happens - I was surprised by the Final Zone. Maybe it's not Actually Unexpected because in a way it's just "Amaurot meets What Myths of the Realm should have been" - but if that doesn't count I still didn't expect the devs to fully ugly down that zone when you're done with it lol. Shutting down the first one and realizing they didn't just mean it would be left empty, it's dead and fully without music physically hurt and it made going through the other three hurt so much more. I loved it. Like. Wow.

I guess to that, I was indeed reminded of Myths of the Realm - but not in the way I intended this square to be so I didn't mark it. Like. I wrote this in another post but how were these two in development at the same time???? What??? They come to radically different conclusions on the exact same premise and the only difference is that one is about Religion and the other about Eternal Life????

Was the last zone the original draft for Myths of the Realm and then they were like 'no that's too good, let's do that in the MSQ instead' and then they panicked and produced godly waste?? God, I kind of hope, that would mean that whoever wrote it didn't wholeheartedly mean what they wrote.

I'm not willing to let Wuk Lamat Distaste be Asinine Community Reaction - sadly that was to be expected given how people still fervently hate Lyse. Similarly I haven't looked into what funny theme changing English Localization Moment they decided to add to the plot today. Btw German Localization, you are as always my heroes. Don't let the Haters tell you different, I will always love you!!! I wanted to screenshot your names in the credits for this but i HIT THE WRONG BUTTON SOMEHOW

Anyways, look forward to Part 2 where I will talk some more about why exactly I really like Dawntrail - which is mainly the Themes - about why I think Megumi Onozuka is to blame and about YORHA DARK APOCALYPSE, THAT'S RIGHT, I WILL NEVER BE FREE

[veeves34]

Thoughts on Dawntrail

I have finished the MSQ and done some side quests, and I have finally come to a conclusion on my overall impression of the expansion so far. I will break it down into two sections, spoiler free and then spoilers.

Spoiler Free:

-The graphics update is great, I can't wait until all of the old zones/characters/gear are updated, it will be great to go back and see the changes.

-The art and design is, as always, lovely, and I really enjoyed the overall designs of most of the zones.

-The music was great, as usual, however, there are a few songs that are complete misses for me...especially when you have been in an area for a while and you hear the same tune repeat over and over again...I have muted my music more in this xpac than in previous ones.

-The jobs are good, I always level everything to MAX level and have 2 jobs at 100 so far, but, overall, the changes/additions to the jobs that I prefer are good changes and the additions don't change too much about the rotations that I know and like. I like current Viper and am sad to see that they are planning on making changes, I think it is fine the way it currently is and the positionals and other complaints that I have seen are silly in my opinion. My Pictomancer is only 90 at the time of writing, the job is cute, and I get how it works, but as I don't really like casters in FFXIV anyway, it isn't a job that I am going to play much beyond getting it to 100.

Now for spoilers:

-As to the overall story, it was fine, a nice break from doom and gloom, but I have several major issues:

-Let's let the cat out of the bag first; Wuk Lamat - I like her in general and I am sad to see that people are being such dicks about the VA being trans, I thought the voice acting was fine, it was the character itself that was a little annoying to me. I understand that we are supposed to be guiding her through a journey where she grows into the leader she needs to be, however, even at the end, she is still just very naive in ways that I just find annoying as a personality trait.

My biggest issue, with her as a character, actually happens in the later half of the story, after she has ascended to Dawnservant. Once everything starts hitting the fan and we recognize that the problem is an issue involving a Reflection and we have way more meta knowledge about what is really happening, it seems silly that we would still be holding her hand and trying to explain every bit of lore instead of addressing the issues at hand.

The whole vibe of most of the story felt very after school special with the power of friendship and rainbows solving the problems that happen. I also did not like it during the Interphos trial her busting her way into the fight and "winning it" with the power of positivity, that just didn't work for me.

As the WoL we have seen people like Sphene in multiple expansions, all trying to "save" their people and using that to justify atrocities...Hades, Elidibus, Thordan to name a few. And in each case, we said "Cool motive, still murder" and dealt with the offender as they needed to be, even at great personal cost, especially once we knew exactly who/what the WoL is and means to some of the characters.

So, why are we dealing with Sphene, who we saw at the massacre in Tuliyollal, with friendship is magic powers. It worked with Metion because she was the literal embodiment of despair and needed to be given some perspective on hope, but Sphene, as a character, did not earn that kind of respect/kindness from my WoL.

Overall, I am just glad to be done with the MSQ and look forward to the raid fights and hopefully some cool/interesting side quest stories.

-I think my biggest issue with the story overall, is just a problem that happens with all MMOs and that is the illusion of control in the story. We can't choose not to support Wuk Lamat, even if we feel one of the other candidates is a better fit. We can't choose how we deal with/approach anything that is happening in the last two zones of the game. That is a function of this type of game genre, once you have to create a story in a world that is beyond a single player scenario, you can't really give anyone any personal drive to change how the story plays out.

Compare it to a pure RPG like Baldur's Gate 3 - yes, in the end the story is still driving you on a path to defeat the end boss, but there are so many different approaches to how you get there, that you never really have the exact same experience twice - you can be good, evil, neutral, romance who you want, approach fights in many different ways, characters can die, actions have consequences and are permanent.

However, in an MMO-RPG the story always has to be the same path for every character, every time, for hundreds of thousands of people. The only real choice you have is which of the two zones you are going to go to first when you do the first branching quest after the main city. I love MMOs, I have played them for many, many years, but once you start to see the man behind the curtain, so to speak, it becomes much less interesting to really care about the lore. I kind of understand where some story skippers have a point - if you just want to experience some cool fights, does it really matter what the narrative framework used to justify the existence of those fights is?

[akirakirxaa]

Final Thoughts on Dawntrail

Final thoughts on MSQ. There are some positives that I will open with, but as I do have many criticisms and overall did not have as good of a time as I've had in other expacs, I will put it under a break. This will also be quite long.

I will start off by listing some of the things I enjoyed. I liked the overall themes of found and adoptive family, as well as family in general. Most of the plot threads and cutscenes around these themes tended to be quite good. I will admit, I bawled like a baby when they introduced baby Gulool Ja to Koana. I also very much enjoyed the plot revolving around the milalla and honestly wish there were more; I love Erenville's mom a lot as a character, but I feel like she took up comparatively a lot of narrative space when Krile's parents were much more plot relevant. I also liked Bakool's character arc as I'm just a sucker for the bully becoming a big well meaning lug. This is another plot I wish we'd gotten more about since, once we left the woods, we never see him outside of combat again; I'd have liked to see him struggling to connect with the people in non-life threatening situations and learning to not react to everything with violence.

Unfortunately, that is the end of what I actually enjoyed without a "but" that isn't "I'd have liked more". I am so sorry, but by the time I got to the end I did not like Wuk Lamat anymore. The sheer amount of time we spend with her and the sheer amount of that time spent on the same exact speech again and again grated by the end. There were some moments where she really shone though, and that's why I'm putting this to poor writing and misuse of her character than her character actually being bad. I loved her in the whole bit with Zarool Ja, and during the Rite it was fine because her learning to grow up was the point. Which leads to the second thing I really did not like; that we existed to be a camera for her story. 99% of the story could have happened even were we not there, and the last 1% is honestly iffy. I understand letting her have her time, and despite finding it excruciatingly dull to my tastes, the rite was fine and she should take point during it since it's to test her abilities. But...there was not one moment where we got to be the hero. Not one. Hell, in several cutscenes I could barely even see my character because it's her show the whole time. Even at the end, where it finally matters that we're here, because we have the magic crystal that lets us call backup and stay and fight...it still didn't, because she just broke into the fight anyways. Once again, we might as well not even be there.

"Well what's the problem with that!" I hear you cry, and the problem with that is this is a Final Fantasy. I'm here to play the protagonist. I'm not here to control the camera while the writer's NPC does everything. She can be the main character of the expac, but I should not be able to remove my character entirely and have everything go the exact same way. Literally any scion could've done the same things we did while we drank on the beach and nothing would change. A great example of this was when Gulool Ja Ja was killed. Not only did we just stand there and not even attempt to interfere (this could have been a good moment to push the difference of another culture by having an ally stop the WoL), we barely had any reaction at all to it and were covered up most of the time by NPCs. At that point, just have us not be there, have us out protecting civilians and we arrive too late. We've had cutscenes from other PoVs before where we show up right at the end (for good or ill) so no excuse.

I very much did not like any of the plot around Alexandria and Living Memory. It strikes me as that meme of "can I copy your homework?" "Sure, just change it a little so it doesn't look the same". Tell me if you've heard this one before. Immortal being, unable to bear loss, creates a city full of the memories of their lost loved ones in a recreation of their former home. They want to sacrifice the people of the Source to restore these loved ones. When we try to reason with them, they tell us that they cannot give up on their fallen loved ones and refuse to move on. They show us their memories of their loved ones in their former home. At the end, they turn into a big damn monster that we fight. We're close to losing when an ally falls from the sky to our aid. When we win, they ask us to remember.

It's knock off brand Shadowbringers.

Not to mention it seriously feels like the writer forgot while doing Living Memory that, not only does no one remember these people we're erasing, but their souls were eaten so that people can not worry about, idk, falling pianos and such. These people literally just do not exist anymore and we are now the only people who remember them. What's worse, there are probably millions more people we didn't get to meet that we still erased, so they're just gone forever. That's...literally the opposite of the plot of Ultima Thule from EW. We, in this case, are playing the role of Meteion, and not a single Endless seems to have an opinion on it outside of Erenville's mother and Krile's parents.

Never mentioning Dynamis really bugged me too. I was kinda hoping that Wuk Lamat's "specialty", the thing that set her apart, was maybe she was just very good at subconsciously wielding dynamis, letting her easily befriend others and draw greater strength when she needs it. But, like many many pieces of lore, it's never even suggested. In fact, if a piece of lore was in EW, you can almost guarantee it isn't mentioned. Like the boy with a lightning aether imbalance. We literally have the cure for that, but say nothing at all, not even to our allies when we meet back up. I'm hoping this will be addressed in a later patch since it was specifically pointed out (chekov's gun and all) but still. It felt over and over that things we learned in ShB and EW were glossed over at best or outright ignored at worst. The pacing of everything after the dome appeared was strange; some parts went too fast, then some went on forever.

Unfortunately, this comes in as my least favorite expac. Even below SB, which I famously dislike. I'm hoping moving forward we'll see some more interesting stories that once again require us to be present to be told, and I am curious about why the key bears Azem's symbol, but I will not be rushing to play through this expac again any time soon. And will most likely be tweaking the scenes in anything I write to make more sense, flow better, or actually require Akira's attention.

[rowanul-tyr]

So. Dawntrail.

I finished the 7.0 MSQ roughly a week ago, during the early access period, and overall I had a great time with it! My thoughts on the expansion as a whole have been marinating in the brain pot since then, and I wanted to touch on some of those thoughts and why I think this has been such a great expansion so far, at least story-wise. All under a cut for spoilers, and I’ll honestly be talking mostly vaguely about plot stuff anyway. And I’ll mark anything specific that is spoilers, and dividing things zone by zone.

Anyway.

First and foremost, since I feel like this will help put my overall opinion into perspective, is my ranking of expansions so far.

1: SHB will forever be king to me in a ton of ways; part of it is this was the expansion I started with, but I also just love the story it tells so much and even if I have little gripes, they’re all so minor that it doesn’t really matter

2: a tie between HW and EW, actually--both are excellent, and while I have some issues with parts of them, the positives for the most part outweigh my issues

3: another tie between STB and ARR--I think both of these are good, but have some issues that really can’t be ignored. And they’re only at the bottom because that’s how lists work.

DT is not perfect in my eyes (not by a long shot), but it is giving SHB a true run for its money in terms of how much I liked it. Like I said initially, I don’t think it’s without its problems (no expansion is, even SHB no matter how much I love it), but overall there is just SO much good stuff here that I am 100% willing to forgive it.

Before I get into the details, I want to say: making it clear from the pre-order stuff and Viper and all that this is the FF9 expansion really is important. FF9 begins fairly bright and cheery and its aesthetic lends itself well to hiding what subject matter it tackles, but then it eventually starts dealing with a LOT of heavy topics--and Dawntrail is very much living up to that in my book.

Expansion Start

Going into this expansion I really had no idea what to expect. I admit that the 6.X patch cycle really threw me for a loop once DT was announced, and it felt kind of pointless to be doing so much with the void? I was like, “Why are we spending so much time on this, when we should be looking at things that are relevant to Dawntrail??” because none of it made sense to me.

One of the issues I had with STB for a long time was Lyse. Don’t worry, I’ve come around on her, but it took a while. The biggest issue I had was that the devs tried to take an existing character and turn her into something other than what we knew, and it threw me entirely. I think they learned the lesson from that, which is why the focus is on Wuk Lamat, a new character, and on Krile, an older character we know so that we feel more invested in what is to come.

Another aspect of STB that kind of threw me off was…how little focus it got after the HW story ended? Like we get two patches worth fo story to lead into it, and I 100% think the Ga Bu stuff is important, and obviously the Warriors of Darkness story is important to set up part of SHB, but…everything to set up STB felt…not there? And we meet Lyse properly during 3.55/3.56, just like Wuk Lamat. We don’t have time to get to know her as this new person before we’re dropped into STB proper. And that didn’t help me when it came to bonding with Lyse--it took until the Lakshmi trial before I realized how I was supposed to feel about her my second time playing through Stormblood.

Wuk Lamat won me over really fast, thankfully--she has a certain kind of charm to her that endeared me to her pretty quickly (she’s very Sora from Kingdom Hearts coded in my eyes), and I was quietly interested to see what would happen with her character arc going forward. To be frank, I was more excited about how much better my character looked in game than in the updated benchmark than what little of the story we knew! I also was more invested in Krile than anything else story-wise; she’s always been a low key fave of the Scions for me so it’s nice to see her be much more involved in MSQ this time around.

But then we hit the first city and actually got into the story. Tulliyollal is such a lovely city, and its inn room was the first to make me go “wow” since the Pendants (since the Baldesion Annex was fun but still feels way too cluttered for me). I loved meeting Gulool Ja Ja, and his vibe as a character was excellent. I was surprised by what the rite of succession was shaping up to be, but once you see the Saga monuments and hear the story behind them it pretty quickly clicks as to what the Dawnservant wants the claimants to the throne to learn about during the rite. That was when I rsaw the mentor-type role my character would play, and once I knew what role the WOL plays for Wuk Lamat and in at least the start of Dawntrail’s story, I was in. I was determined to embrace that role in a way I had issues doing when I played through STB initially for Lyse.

One other thing: I was super surprised by Zoraal Ja being the one Wuk Lamat was prioritizing as a threat, and that he was the one who couldn’t be allowed to be Dawnservant. I guess I’d been anticipating the aloof/stern but decent older brother from him based on what I assumed was one of his lines in the launch trailer, so that was a fun surprise.

Zones 1 and 2, first visit

Urqopacha absolutely blows Kozama’uka out of the water for me, but I think both zones do a pretty good job with their first of two feats.

I started with Kozama’uka. The HanuHanu felt straightforward enough, and their feat set Koana up really nicely for what exactly his views are. I was glad to hear that he and Wuk Lamat were on friendly terms right before we left Tulliyollal to start the rite. One of my first thoughts when seeing how he and Wuk Lamat both handled the feat was, “He’s not going to win the rite, but I want him to either be advisor to his sister or for her to invite him to rule together.”

Bakool Ja Ja was fine as the zone’s antagonist, the writers did a good job of setting up his rivalry with Wuk Lamat in the intro so I wasn’t surprised by him trying to cheat his way through things. Wuk Evu was also…um. Not my favorite. I wasn’t super into the “behead me for being rude to the Third Promise” joke being reused over and over and over again…but maybe that’s just me.

As I said, Urqopacha was by far my favorite intro zone for the views, the music, and the overall aetshetic. I really love FF10, so getting to spend so much time with the Pelupelu was excellent. I also loved the zone music and this part really was what got me hooked on this expansion. Working with Mablu to make trades for the saddle was such a great showcase of what exactly the player character is to Wuk Lamat, and really solidified how much I enjoyed her. She is SUCH an orange cat (meaning she is “no thoughts, head empty” in a lot of ways but also just impulsive and can be unpredictable) and I mean that in a very kind way.

This was also where we got to see so much more of what Zoraal Ja’s whole deal was, and once I spent more time hearing him speak I totally understood why Wuk Lamat didn’t want him to be Dawnservant. Also, Mablu is the best and my roommate/best friend who is the biggest FF10/FF10-2 fan I know cried when she saw Tobli (since he’s from 10-2 himself) and the music is so good. So yeah, 10/10 zone.

Zones 1 and 2, second visit, and First Trial

Jumping ahead a teeny bit (since you go back to the capital between these visits). I liked this second set of feats overall! It felt like we were finally making some good progress with Krile’s goals to find out more about the city of gold in addition to moving forward with the rite. I also liked jumping right back into zones we’d already seen instead of waiting for 5+ levels to go back.

I liked how the Moblin feat incorporated the Elezen goldsmith from the boat, and seeing once again just how charismatic and magnetic a personality Wuk Lamat is. Her ability to show so much empathy for people is absolutely her biggest strength, and her desire to understand things--something those helping her with the rite have helped her discover--really start to shine, at least for me. That’s what makes her such a great fit for Dawnservant.

Koana also really was a star in this zone, and I really adore his character archetype and the love he so clearly has for his sister. Working together to rescue Wuk Lamat after Bakool Ja Ja snatches her was a nice change of pace from what we’d had so far from the rite, and that was when my initial impression of what would happen with Koana gained a bit more strength behind it. I was about 90% certain at this point that he wouldn’t win, but would stay at Wuk Lamat’s side to help guide her when she needed it.

I LOVED seeing the Yok Huy and honestly just getting to go back to Urqopacha was a delight. It felt like SO much progress was being made for both the rite and Krile’s goals, and the dungeon was excellent. No notes.

As a quick aside, though, I loved that we got to hear the Yok Huy’s take on death--that those who have died will always live in our memory, and so long as that memory remains, they are not truly gone. I loved this because it fits so well with the lore I have for Rowan regarding the way the Echo manifests for him, and how he cherishes the memories of people he’s lost but has come to move on with his own life. It just…is a very good thing to nail home some of FF14’s broader conversations about remembering and honoring the past, but still turning your focus to the future.

I have gripes with the Valigarmanda trial (I wiped twice on Duty Support :( ) but I appreciated that Wuk Lamat, Koana, and Zoraal Ja ALL came together for the good of their nation. I also liked that Zoraal Ja was cooperating because people dying because Valigarmanda would be bad for his own goals in the end if he won the rite, and also it’s good to see more of him before Things Happen (™).

Zone 3

Basically from here on out I loved every zone.

As a person who loves food and specifically enjoys making food for others, the feat in Iq Braax was a delight. Given that we find out the clan’s leader is Wuk Lamat’s father, it is VERY fitting that the people of the village are much more on the nose about not directly helping the team-up between Wuk Lamat and Koana. In addition, the cooperation between the Second and Third Promises was very clearly there to show 1. how well they work together and 2. what it is that Koana still has to learn, which he very much does by the end of the zone.

I’ve seen in the Disc Horse (™) around DT that Bakool Ja Ja turn in the second half of the zone was weird, but I don’t think it was, not really. By the end of the instanced duty after the X’braal feat, he’s a humiliated mess. Seeing the added context for why the Mamool Ja are the way that they are in the second half of the zone and learning the true cost of the blessed siblings among them, you actually have a reason to offer empathy to a person whose whole life has probably not been great. Wuk Lamat putting aside her anger with Bakool Ja Ja to truly help his people is yet more proof of the things that truly make her a good leader and why she really is the best choice to be Gulool Ja Ja’s heir.

The end of Koana’s arc here is excellent. Wuk Lamat reaching out to him when she needs help finding a way for the Mamool Ja to find ways to thrive outside of the blessed siblings--knowing that he can succeed in an area that is not her forte--is yet MORE proof of her ability to see the best in others and understand their worth. And Koana is genuinely a great brother and partner to work with for her, as his generally calm demeanor evens out her boisterousness very well. The instanced fight against the shade of their father where both groups come together was EXCELLENT.

The end of the Skydeep Cenote and actually finding the city of gold is such a good way to close out the first half of the expansion. We’re left on more intrigue for what is to come in the second half of the expansion, and this was when I got the deep sense of “Okay. But when is the other shoe gonna drop”.

Midpoint, and thoughts on the first half of the expansion

I was so happy with Wuk Lamat’s coronation, and how she outright asked Koana to join her on the throne. Finding a way to truly be their father’s successors by embodying both reason and resolve works out so well in Tural’s favor in the end.

I think the only somewhat negative thing I can say here is that…I was totally thrown by the song that played when the stone monument was revealed, haha. The song is fine on its own, but it was SO weird for me to hear that it did actually kinda take me out of it. But otherwise this turning point for the latter half of the expansion was good. I wasn’t sure how to feel about MSQ going forward, though, because I was like “Wait, where’s the rest of it?”

In terms of my overall thoughts on the first half of this expansion… It’s very good as a way to decompress following the end of the Hydaelyn and Zodiark saga that ended in 6.0, and even a good way to relax after everything that happens with Zero and the void.

I know there’s a ton of Disc Horse (™) around this expansion, particularly about Wuk Lamat and the rite and how “slow” the first part is. I have two things that come to mind about it all: this isn’t the Shadowbringers or Endwalker of this next story arc. This is the Realm Reborn to the next arc. Things are definitely going to be a bit slow.

In addition…the WOL may not be the protagonist of this particular part of the story, but that doesn’t mean the first half and dealing with the rite is worthless? The WOL knows by now that they were Azem, the Traveler. Remember, the Traveler part of that convocation title? My BFF/roommate Sarria put it best:

“DT really feels like it's back to our "roots" and I mean like AZEM roots. Being The Traveler, visiting new places and meeting new people and learning about places outside of our known bubble. Listening to people's stories and desires and then being asked to help specifically *because* we listened to and learned from the locals. And I for one really really am loving it. The story doesn't have to be about us - just being there means we have a role. (Also the first half of DT isn't supposed to be about us anyway.)”

I find it so funny that people have such a problem with it--and I won’t lie, I do agree that some of it had slow pacing. But like…I don’t know, this really feels in line for what Azem would do. We are Azem now, we have the crystal and everything. We’re not known in this continent because it’s only been 70 years since the world we know made contact with it--to the point of the guy credited with discovering this “New World” IS STILL ALIVE. There is ample reason why your character is not the focus of the first half of the expansion, and it’s so disheartening to see people just…not get that?

It could be that my overall excitement to explore the new zones laid out before us led me to be much more forgiving of this section, but getting to know the people of Yok Tural was such a treat. I can’t wait for NG+ to come around for 7.0 so I get to explore all of this again.

Okay, back to going zone by zone.

Zone 4, part 1

So as someone who knows the Southwest US fairly well this zone was excellent, I loved the vibes. The overworld music is great.

I will say outright here that I’ve kind of been an Erenville disliker since his introduction in EW. He’s been overhyped for a character who up to DT basically had no personality in my eyes, so I was apprehensive about how this zone would go with him as our only companion. But, credit where it’s due, the writers actually got me to come around on him a little with the background we finally get for him. Not entirely, I still have issues with him, but he’s now more well-rounded.

Seeing the railyard workers actually made me cry, specifically seeing Not!Magnus’ wife. I’m so glad that 1: they were included and 2: explicitly shown to be the exact same as the people we know from the first. My roommate Sarria and I joked several times that this was SHB/Trolleys 2 and it was such a delight getting to laugh about it.

The end point for this visit to the zone was excellent. The dread had been building for me the whole time, knowing that something was around the corner, but no idea what. So the dome appearing and then the aftermath in Tulliyollal was anticipated, but about as brutal as I was expecting.

Tulliyollal revisit and Zone 4, part 2

The destruction of Tulliyollal and trying to aid those we could was done well, to me anyway. The devs handled that sort of thing pretty well in EW, so was glad to see it done again just as well.

Then comes the “cat”valry as I’d like to call it. Honestly, the moment I heard G’raha’s voice and heard Eternal Wind, it was like I could finally breathe. I think that’s the point of him and Y’shtola showing up to give you help for the rest of the expansion--they give a sense of release to all the tension and anxiety players might feel after the attack on Tulliyollal. A mini version of what the low-stakes rite of succession is to the story overall. You have to have a release for tension before building it up again, because building tension with no release just doesn’t work.

The truth of what the golden door is threw me for a loop, because I was NOT expecting it. I imagine it’s what people felt when the SHB launch trailer dropped and the truth about Hydaelyn and Zodiark was given--you’re so shocked that it’s a bit much to process. But I liked the revelations about the golden city and Krile and everything.

The revisit to Shaaloani was a delight, and deciding to blow up the train was exactly the kind of crazy I’d expect from the Source version of the trolley guys from Twine. The song that played during the coronation came back and it felt just as cheesy as before, but I think I’d accepted it by this point? I just let it happen even though it doesn’t really work for me.

And the Vanguard dungeon is SO good. I loved the music--honestly Soken popped off this expansion for the most part.

Zone 5/Second Trial

So I love the aesthetic of this zone in general--thank you for giving us FF10’s Thunder Plains properly this time!!!--but there was a zone where I ever felt like the story was loosing me, it was this one. I wasn’t sure what to make of the time bubble nor the regulators, so it took some time for Heritage Found to find its footing for me.

Sphene also was slightly unsettling, in a way? It was hard to put my finger on whether she was sympathetic or playing you, which I guess is the point.

Solution Nine kind of just…added to my sense of confusion. I was a bit lost on it all, and trying to wrap my head around it. It is also way to big and spread out for my tastes…but oh well.

With all the talk of souls, though, I finally understood why all the Void stuff with Zero in the 6.X patches was actually good to spend so much time with, since it was basically a primer for ALL of this stuff in the latter half of DT. So once NG+ is here for Dawntrail, I may actually start with 6.1 and see how it all flows together.

What finally got me back on loving the plot again was seeing baby Gulool Ja and Otis in the other half of the map, where the ruins of Alexandria are. I haven’t even played FF9 myself, only watched a very abridged playthrough, but the way I instantly knew who Otis was a stand in for made me feel so warm and comforted. Steiner is just so goofy and endearing, and Otis is exactly like him.

Was not surprised by Zoraal Ja making his move, but the cutscene for the defense of Tulliyollal was very good. I was surprised by Sphene both in and out of Solution Nine for that instanced duty, and I think here is where I really started to see the parallels between what I know of FF9 and DT. Sphene is Wuk Lamat’s mirror, at least in a way--loving and compassionate and charismatic (because I’d come to like her quite a bit by the point she outright says she was playing you). She exemplifies the extreme end of Wuk Lamat’s desire for peace, and the need to protect and preserve her people.

The fight against Zoraal Ja is a satisfying one. I am not the person to ask to talk about fight design or anything so will leave that to others. But I thought it was good.

Also liked the revelations after the trial, where Sphene turns on you for real. It did feel like downing Vauthry just to have Emet steal the Exarch again, though maybe not in the same way. Similar dramatic stakes, I guess I’m trying to say.

Zone 6, and the Finale

This zone will always have an interesting flavor to it for me, since I use the Living Memory title for personal WOL lore reasons. But the zone is, I think, such an excellent one for what the expansion as a whole is trying to say.

As I mentioned at the beginning, despite its cheerful colors and friendly looking character design, FF9 is a darker story. It deals with death and the existential. The perfect word to sum up FF9, from what I know, is bittersweet. And I think this zone--and in a way both zones and the city that comprise Alexandria--PERFECTLY handles that bittersweet feeling.

The weather is Reminiscence, bathing everything in this beautiful golden color. It’s full of areas referencing FF9--I recognized Alexandria and the Iifa Tree, but each zone is a call back to 9. The music is this soft, comforting piece that just triggered my nostalgia for a game I haven’t even played. Seeing Otis in his prime again, the tour of the Gardens with Cachuia, letting Krile meet her parents and learn her real name--it’s all so bittersweet.

Every time you turn off a terminal, you get that message of how nothing will go back to what it was. And the part of Living Memory that you shut down is then forever less colorful and lively, and there’s no music (at least when you’re there during this part of MSQ). You’re left with silence. We can always remember it like it was before (or use NG+ to bring it back if you were a dummy like me and didn't gpose there before it went away), but it won't ever be the same now.

I took my time in Living Memory before moving from area to area, and did all aether currents and quests as I could/they became available which only happened AFTER the zone was gone for the quests. So I was doing all this in silence. Left alone with my thoughts on it all and trying to understand what the point was.

Sphene is clinging so much to that nostalgia for a time gone by because of her programming, and it’s sad to have to end it. But to me, she is eerily similar to Emet-Selch: she was clinging to the memory of the dead, desperate to bring them back and keep them alive. But in the end, it was only an imitation that would lead to untold amounts of suffering to others.

All of Living Memory reminded me so much of Amaurot. Sphene letting the Endless explore as they pleased was I think a much kinder version of Emet's magic working on Amaurot, but I couldn't help but see the similarity there.

I did cry in this zone, during G’raha’s talk with the player in the gondola and all the interactions Krile had with her parents. And it’s just…sad. You might feel awful about destroying the Endless once you understand them and their ways, but in the end…they’re only memories of people who died long ago. Their lives continuing are coming at the cost of the future for everyone on the Source and the reflections. It just can’t be sustained as Sphene’s realm continues to grow and more and more is needed to keep things running.

Sphene wanted the best for her people, going as far as she did for them. And I like that she is clearly kind but does a lot of bad things out of love for her people, and the desire to preserve them. But in the end, she had to accept why death is an important part of life.

I loved the Alexandria dungeon, and the trial was excellent. I will say that the intermission was maybe a bit long, but I still liked it tremendously. I’m excited to see what the relic has in store for us, and where the new arc of the story will take us.

Overall thoughts

DT has two very distinct sections, and there are parts I think could be refined to maybe make things go smoother overall, but honestly? I am totally willing to overlook those things because I enjoyed myself as much as I did.

DT, to me, managed to deliver on the summer vacation aspect that was so heavily advertised while also keeping with FF14’s larger ideas about hope persisting in even the hardest of times, and why the connections between people are so important. It also continues to show why it is not just important but also good to remember the past fondly, but it is just as important to keep moving forward in the best interests of all people.

I said it in the part about Living Memory and the finale for DT, but Sphene is very similar to Emet-Selch, and while some of the Heritage Found stuff lost me for a bit, the story did hit its mark where it needed to. The ending zone was not what the Tempest or Ultima Thule were, and I’m glad that it’s not. I’m sad that I’ll have to replay on an alt or when we get DT NG+ to take the pictures I wanted there, but that’s the point. You’re supposed to feel a longing for something that you can never truly get back, and that’s one of the best parts about it. You’re left with this bittersweet feeling as you let go of the past, and these people who are long gone.

DT drove home Venat’s point from EW even more for me. To use Ardbert’s words from SHB, “Joy and sorrow walk hand in hand.” There is joy and sorrow all over the place in Tural’s story and in its peoples, and I loved how every minute went even if sometimes it did feel a bit slow. But not everything needs to be so fast paced, either.

And even in the slower-paced parts, the WOL is really embodying the adventurer spirit we’ve returned to. We’re embracing our Azem roots, and travelling to new lands and meeting new people and coming to enjoy their cultures and presence. That sort of thing is what Venat, the previous Azem, loved so much about the world. And getting to understand her sentiments a bit more was excellent.

All in all, while DT has its faults, I 100% think this a great expansion. I’m excited again to see what is to come from this story, when I was apprehensive at best after 6.X patch story.

[memoriavivens]

G’raha

This post will be an expression of what seems like a very unpopular opinion, and it’s also long, so I’m putting it below this cut.

I’ve seen people comparing him to Sphene before, as one of an uncountably huge amount of pairs of characters that people like to draw parallels between. Sphene in particular gets compared to just about every single person (But rarely the WoL, who I thought was a more obvious comparison than most). But I’d like to present an argument that Sphene is actually G’raha’s good counterpart and not his evil one. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but the fact is that Sphene’s actions are simply more justifiable than G’raha’s, it’s just that G’raha is more aligned with the interests of his game’s main character. (This is absolutely not a “WoL bad” thing, and I certainly don’t support any arguments that any of this game’s villains were actually right. Not even Sphene, her being G’raha’s good counterpart does not actually make her actions right.) Consider what it is that he’s done. He has, as far as anyone is aware, destroyed an entire world. He’s hardly alone in that, though, so why did he do it? For one person. He erased an entire world, a world with people living in it, just for one single person who he barely knew. That isn’t heroic. It’s not romantic, or anything like that. It’s abominable. It gets excused with “The world’s been through a calamity, there’s no hope”- but the world had been through seven calamities before, including a global flood, and survived just fine. No way black rose was worse than the entire world being underwater. I get sick every time I hear a character or IRL person talk about the Umbral Ironworks’ plan as some sort of great feat of the human spirit- it’s not that. It’s an utter perversion. For two centuries this… cult, is the only thing I can rightly call them by this point, devoted their lives to a project that would not benefit them and would in fact erase them and all other life in their world, at least according to their working theories. Compare that to Sphene- her actions, while involving similar loss of life, at least were intended to save an entire world’s worth of people and not just one single false idol. That’s still bad, but at least there’s some amount of justification behind it. There’s also the fact that Sphene actually solved her city’s problems, a lot of them anyway, herself while G’raha mostly waited around for the WoL to do everything. This is part of a general trend in First-related MSQ sections that I find deplorable, where the WoL, who isn’t even a person of the First, is treated as practically a god, even receiving a title we are told is seen as one. Every single little thing in Shadowbringers is about us somehow and I hate it. I love my WoL as much as all of you do, but this was really the absolute worst story for him to suddenly be the focus of everything. Shadowbringers would be so much better if the people of the first were allowed to actually play a leading roll in saving themselves. And if G’raha was actually held accountable for his actions.

In all honesty I probably wouldn’t feel this strongly if the story called out how messed up the whole eighth umbral timeline thing is even once. Instead they keep acting like it’s all fine and dandy, so I guess I’m just never getting closure on this.

[starrysnowdrop]

Patch 6.4 MSQ Reaction

Here are my first thoughts, opinions, and overall reactions to the 6.4 MSQ. Since I had a lot to say about Pandaemonium Anabaseios, those reactions were written in a separate post, HERE. Note that these are my personal thoughts, and not meant to be a critique on the MSQ story in any objective manner.

I’m in love with the opening scenes of the patch! The bonding with Zero over eating the spiciest ass curry imaginable was fantastic, and it spoke to me so personally, as my favorite food is Indian curry, and it’s something my mom and I have always loved eating together. So that’s probably way different from most people’s experience, but I took a ton of screenshots of this scene because it felt so personal for me.

Then we got the Estinien fan service scene and ohhhhhh boy, I was DYING laughing and giggling at it!! This is because I’m not an Estinien shipper myself, but I have some friends who are, and I knew that they would die of thirst. Then I got to thinking: WHY can’t we get a scene like THAT with Aymeric?? Throw us Aymeric shippers a bone, I beg of you Yoshi-P!!

Maybe the best part of that scene was Zero’s reaction… Ma’am please!! You are killing me over here!!

Then we got to go back to Labyrinthos briefly and I am just personally so excited for Hali to be coming home to Labyrinthos and Sharlayan soon, but alas, I had to play the patch on Yume, so it didn’t have the same feeling as it would be if it was Hali being there. Nonetheless the brief Sharlayan scenes were really good.

Fourchenault’s backside comments are going to spark a thousand smut fics, I just know it…

I’m so happy that Krile seems to be more in the spotlight going forward, as I love her and I’ve always felt that they’ve done her dirty by always having her stay behind. I’m glad that it looks like she’s going to get more love soon!

Also glad that Erenville made a cameo, as I find him to be a very cool character and like an Everyman. He gives a good perspective that kinda gets lost sometimes when the Scions are always talking with the leaders of nations and such.

The Aetherfont is very likely my new all time favorite dungeon in game. It’s absolutely gorgeous, the music was great as usual, and the fights were really fun! Once Hali gets there, I’m going to take a ton of gposes there!

The Thancred cameo was really nice, but my only beef is that he leaves immediately afterwards. WHY?!?! I’m so annoyed at that.

Probably my favorite part of the patch, storywise anyway, was the Garlemald section. I’m SO glad they are finally addressing how Garlemald and the Garlean people are going to rebuild and their future going forward. It was a nice touch, and I appreciate how Vrtra was able to come up with a great compromise and to let the Garleans have some dignity. Very good stuff in my opinion.

Then the Thirteenth Moon section was pretty much how I expected it would be. Meet the lopporrits and have a cute scene again, open portal, find Azdaja, fight Golbez, yadda yadda yadda.

I will say though, I loved the Golbez trial! The mechanics were challenging yet fun, and I actually enjoyed it very much. The gamer in me was pleased, regardless of the writer in me being just meh about it all.

What I wasn’t expecting, however, was that this Void story arc would still continue into 6.5. To be perfectly honest, this has been my least favorite part of the entire MSQ, in the whole game. Yes, it has trumped everything else as the stuff I least care about. Outside of Zero being an awesome character and wanting Azdaja freed and brought home, I really could care less about everything else. It still feels like an anime filler arc, and though it has gotten a bit better, I’m still not sold. I just want to get to 7.0 like immediately. And if it has anything else to do with the Thirteenth, I might scream. I’m so sorry if anyone is liking this arc, but I just can’t get into it myself.

With all of that being said, I very much loved Pandaemonium way more, and that’s where my mind has been since I finished it yesterday. Therefore, that’s all I’ll say about the MSQ, and I have probably much more to say about Pandaemonium in my next post. Thank you all for reading, and feel free to tell me your thoughts about it all as well!!

[messedupessy]

Ok so I finished Dawntrail a couple of days ago, and I got so many thoughts about it, things about it I loved, things I didn't vibe with, thoughts of what I both hope and fear will happen next, so prepare for a ramble as this will prolly get long xD MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DAWNTRAIL DOWN BELOW!!!

Where do I even begin? I got so many throughts about literally everything it's hard to decide where to start, but think I will start with what I loved with this expansion overall and then go from there:

The graphic update is so good, everything looks so nice, the new zones and towns are amazing, all the zone music and music overall this expansion is a fucking banger there is no music I dislike which is amazing, the dungeons and trials, except for the last two for me, was so good, fun mechanics and bosses that is harder but not impossible! Most of the characters were so good and interesting and I loved to get to know them all!

But one issue I had with the expansion as a whole and not just the second half of it, where pretty much all my issues are tbh, is that the voices or rather the voice deliveries this expansion was really weird for the english voices, it felt like the voice direction or the mixing was very off and every character was affected. Like there were several moments Graha or any of the other scions spoke and I got all ??? that's not how you usually sound like what is going on?? And then there is Wuk Lamat, love her voice af, but there were many moments where I felt she just needed to push a bit more especially in emotional moments, her crying is fine but when she needed to get loud and yell it just didn't work, but I feel it's more because of the voice direction and mixing than the actual voice actor. And she isn't the only one though and this has been a issue I feel since the patches for Endwalker, something is really off!

And not to mention that the translation and subtitles are very off, they gotten so very bad since the patches, as my older sister plays in japanese but with english subtitles, and she understands japanese well enough to notice when the characters says more than is subtitled which really sucks. And there was allot of that in the patches, an example when Zero says to thank everyone she says their names in japanese but not in english, and there were moments here in Dawntrail that happened too, don't remember them atm tho since it was a bit since me and my sis talked about it, which sucks, feels like we who play in english are missing out on things all because things just isn't translated properly.

Then there is the msq, I absolutely adored everything until lvl 95 after the first story was done where we crowned Wuk Lamat dawnservant etc, mostly everything between 90-95 was perfect to me, great pacing, great characters, fun bosses and dungeons. The small critiques I got is that we barely spent time at the moblins they didn't even get any voice scenes, and that I wish the like rivalry we were meant to have with Thancred and Urianger thanks to them working for and supporting Koana instead of Wuk Lamat could been stronger. I would had loved a instance of us maybe fighting or just something more there.

And then there is the whole trading part with the Pelopelo, forgot their names the small duck faced ppl, where you are meant to trade things up for more expensive stuff, loved it love the UI they had for it and so on but wish they could gone a bit further with it, like they could have let us fail properly and mess up for example, that if we choose wrong here and there we would been forced to start over at a certain point, just something more there and it would been perfect!

But those are the only things I had issue with when it comes to the first part of the expansion, now to the second where most of my grievances lies and also my fears for what will come next:

First of shiiooni the cowboy place, the story there was truly what you call filler, which I get we can't always have something high stakes thing happening, not always needed either and things was brewing in the background, but I wish there had been more to the story there just it was very bland, something more could have happened there and instead it feels a bit like a waste of a zone even though I like the zone itself very much! Just something more happening in that zone could been really good but no we got like nothing. Connected shitall with the characters there except for our reflection versions of the trolley people they made me so darn happy!

Then the attack at the city happened, wonderfully fucked up but why did they have to kill off Guloo Ja Ja?? Think that's how you spell his name, but Papa simply I love him he was and still is one of my fave characters from this whole expansion, and it feels they went with the way too easy route to just let him get killed for drama, it always happens with fathers who are done and give away their position but i am so tired of it he could just gotten really hurt instead it would done pretty much the same give or take, you don't need to kill off someones dad to give them motivation to kill their own brother for doing so! He had already butchered a bunch of the towns people Wuk lamat did not need more motivation to go for it, and if he just needed to be put out of comission so he wouldn't solve shit too quickly then just hurt him a bit and shit would been fine, it just sucks and while the death scene was good it just frustrates me, let the parents live for once!!

But anyway then there is the dome, 30 years passing etc, loved that whole thing wonderfully messed up but here we meet the sole character that ruined the ending for me personally, Spherne or however her name is spelled. The idea of her and her story is great, but the execution of her character did not work for me at all, and it could been easily fixed if at the end of her instead repeating the same old "sorry for killing your ppl" she could had tried to tell something about herself but maybe failing etc, just said something to give her more character than "I love my people above everything else and I will kill anyone who harms them and I will keep them alive even if it means killing others", that was her whole personality there was nothing else there and it could been fixed so easily by her just admitting to it? If that makes sense? She was just so very bland and could been so much more and I get it she is just the memory of a person long dead but just give me something more, and then there is her design it is so bad if they just pulled back a smidge it would been fine!

After meeting her I feel the rest of the msq ends up so rushed, which like technically makes sense since we in a hurry to stop zorol ja think it was spelled mister first promise boy, but it made it so for me at least, that I didn't get a chance to connect with the new characters properly, didn't get to know the new villain at all, which could been on purpose since wuk lamat and sperne is kind of opposites, but it just didn't work which makes me so frustrated because it could worked so well!

And not to mention, a thing I didn't think of until my big sis mentioned it and how frustrated she was about it, is the whole electric sickness happening there! We have a cure for it we can fix that but there was no mention of it or anything where we could go oh hey we have a cure for this since its the whole thing from the first and tempering we could gotten Aisaie summon Angelo and help the sick boy but no, nothing! This better get mentioned/fixed in the future story patches or I will go insane!

Fuck we could had brought it up to Spherne and made her situtation more complicated but no!

And then there is Otis, I loved that guy but he was instantly taken away and killed we got no time so spend with him except for in the Living Memory later on but that wasn't truly him and it just sucks, wish he had been around longer and things didn't get so fucking rushed here!

Loved the trial for Zorol ja tho it was great, loved how it subtly explained why he was how he was, and while I would had loved having more of it outside the trial before we killed him etc it still worked out and made sense, love his son so much he is so good and I adore that blue baby! But I want to know who his birth mother is, who the fuck is Zorol ja's birth mother?? How was he born even though it is said two headed maamol ja can't have kids? Or is it just so darn rare he just ended up been the first ever? Game please explain gkejngke!!

But then comes Spherne and fucks shit up, which would work if her whole character wasn't as bland as a wet salty cracker! The whole of Living Memory was amazing i cried so much, the zone is amazing the music the progress of it was great, the whole message of everyone dies and life goes on hitting me way too hard.

But then there is the dungeon and Sphernes trial, the fights etc is fine and the visuals great, but thanks to her constant talking in the dungeon and its her we fight it just it's just so meh, she needed something more and now she will be part of Wuk Lamat's story forever and it sucks! Also I am still irritated that she kept calling Wuk lamat by her family nickname like please that was so rude, but I also get why Wuk lamat didn't protest proepr but still! It would been more interesting if like wuk lamat was like no u can't call me that and spherne been apologetic etc, and then later at the end wuk lamat lets her call her by that, just something!

Ok so rant over there but now we get to what my hopes and fears are for the future story, as now we got a fucking mguffin that can open portals to other reflections! Which we luckily know shit about except Kriles people had it but that's all luckily since they didn't know shit about it either, and I hope it stays that way for at least another expansion as it feels we are rushing the whole "find a way to other reflections" bit way too much, it already felt a bit rushed in the endwalker patches, but now we got a mcguffin and I am worried about it!

As while I want to visit other reflections, be able to visit the first with the scions again etc, I don't want to do that just yet! There been too much of reflection stuff in the story, I want a break from that and focus on other parts of the world we haven't been to, like Mercedia, Graha's home land, the Roegadyn homeland etc, I want to wait and let Y'sthola work more on finding a way, as I fear this mcguffin will make things way too easy and solve this whole thing, I want the story to wait, let us do other shit while this storyline can be like in the background a bit, and not the focus! And then it can blow up and be the focus again! I feel we need a break from it and I fear this will be the focus of the patches that is going to come.

After all the best part of the msq for me was when we just enjoyed ourselves in the new world and places we got to explore, where there was no mention except some smaller references and the reflections was not in the focus. I just want a break from it let it brew and stop rushing it!

But I am hopeful that this is something that will take awhile, since we literally have no clue what or where the mcguffin even came from or what it is, so I hope this will mean that it will take awhile, and that we can focus on other things like the electric sickness in solution 9 and their whole messing with souls there! I want clarification on if Alexandria etc is from the reflection from the second umbral calamity or not, as the hints are there as it would make sense, but I do not want to focus on traveling to any reflections for now. I want to explore other things so badly get to do new things and not reflection stuff please.

The only exception to any reflection focus is if something gets fucked up and the WoL gets sent to a reflection alone, with no one there to help us while the scions etc tries to find and contact us, that is the only reflection story I will be ok with getting at the moment as I want things to go wrong more and not feel as easy as it feels currently when it comes to travelling to the reflections!

Ok so think I have gotten out all that I wanted to say, sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes but I can't be bothered to fix shit, thanks for coming to my ted talk and feel free to chime in with your own thoughts and so on would love to chat or clear up any misunderstandings, as I know I am not the best at explaining stuff at times xD

[dualcastimpact]

westward—towards adventure.

Pre-Dawntrail ramblings below the cut:

If you're familiar with Terncliff you'll know that he's technically looking southward here, but let's just pretend he's looking westward, yes?

Terncliff is actually my favourite place in the entire game; I'm fervently hoping for the day they revisit the whole Ala Mhigan-Ilsabardian rebuilding thing and we can do more with Werlyt. The architecture is so fascinating, it's nothing like any other locales available to us — I want to say it's Mediterranean, sort of Italian in a way? I dunno, I never studied architecture all that much but that's the vibe I'm getting and I wish we get more of it. When will Ilsabard get its day in the limelight...

Anywho, Raginmar's in Terncliff because aside from the fact that it's my favourite area, as an instanced area it's also pretty much free from congestion, which makes it perfect for logging out in preparation for a new expac! During Endwalker I had a good time just sitting there and practicing SMN to get used to the rework (while also grinding Paglth'an for the casting top, which is a whole 'nother story), so I'm foreseeing a similarly peaceful time logging in during Dawntrail too.

And well, speaking of Paglth'an — I'd grinded the casting top for Raginmar's SMN glam, which is a glam set I really really like but never used because the allure of RDM muscle memory is too strong for me to bother using other jobs, and I'd been talking elsewhere about how I might be using it for Dawntrail instead.

Ha.

Haha.

Yeah, not gonna happen. The Palaka casting top suits him so stupidly well, that's practically his trademark look now. It has a nice coat-like tail, it shows off his guns, it's got a great silhouette, it looks real good in Dalamud Red — I busted my ass getting the Augmented Lunar Envoy's Justaucorps of Casting because I thought the whole coat thing would make for a trademark Raginmar look but noooo, it's the dungeon gear from level 85 that finally does it. I can't even be mad because it looks so good.

It does, however, mean that I'm depriving the world from his sexy SMN glam:

Win some lose some, I guess.

I still haven't really decided what to do during Dawntrail early access, to be honest. Part of me wants to put off MSQ for a more (in)sane hour and play Marzanna (fem!Hrothgar! FINALLY!!) or Hyllizirn (VPR leveling go brrrr), but the thought of having to deal with congestion while logging in and out with different characters is making me second-guess that. I could just play Raginmar but like I said, I don't particularly want to rush into MSQ and it's not like I'm super excited for PCT, I'm only doing it for Raginmar for lore purposes (read: he's a nerd about anything magic, so he absolutely will want to learn it).

It's kinda sad that fem!Hrothgar and the DoH/DoL aspects are what I'm excited most about this expac, to be honest. A lot about Dawntrail doesn't mesh with Raginmar's character — hell, he doesn't even meet Wuk Lamat in his canon (I'm writing a fic about that during maintenance) — so I guess in my heart of hearts I'm a bit hesitant about the whole rite of succession and hunt for the golden city thing. He lives in the South Sea Isles, for god's sake, he doesn't need to be lured into helping out some princess from a unfamiliar royal family in an unfamiliar land and have it called a summer vacation! He can have a summer vacation adventure all on his own!

...well, we'll see how that goes.

[jazzpostsrandomthings]

Journey Retold: The First Dungeons and Trials

<< Previous Entry

Sorry for cutting the last entry a bit short, I ran out of time and space and then got busy with the next exam. But I have time now so let's pick up from where we left off!

After Pi took flight, the scene transitioned to a different airship flying through the air and landing in a fortress on a... space rock of some kindAt first I was very confused and thought for a second that it was the same ship my character had boarded… But it still was a nice transition.

From the airship came four figures dressed in metal garb, looking quite alien to the rest of the people we've seen so far. They also looked very "Star Wars" in addition to their own theme music, which is probably why I thought we were on a completely different planet now.

And who is that guy, Gaius van Baelsar? He sounds quite fami--

OH YOU--

I didn't check his voice immediately after hearing it for the first time (I did do it near the end of ARR), I had my doubts about it since I am known for confusing voice actors a lot, but man, I did manage to hear the guy's voice right and he still sounds incredible after so many years since Rockman X7 came out. But if someone didn't know, he is also the Japanese voice of Solid Snake and Big Boss. I am just more familiar with his role as Red.

Anyways, we have an evil Empire trying to conquer Eorzea and who are quite ruthless to others. Most definitely they are our antagonists, at least for this expansion. Note taken.

After that scene, Pi finally arrives to one of the city-states Admiral Merlwyb had sent him to, the liveliest and the largest settlement of The Black Shroud -- Gridania. It's the least confusing city to traverse through by far which is a plus, but I wasn't too interested in it because it was looking like a normal fantasy forest village, but I still don't think it's bad, don't get me wrong, I just think Limsa and the next city we'll visit after that were more memorable.

Here we meet up with the Elder Seedseer, the local governor of sorts -- Kan-E-Senna, who I, for a moment, thought was a weird kind of Au Ra lady because of the horns, but it's actually a really rare subrace of hyurs that only lives here which I found interesting. She signed some documents after reminising about the days prior ot Calamity and what happened after (mostly latter) and Pi moved on to the other city-state on the list, the richest city of Thanalan -- Ul'dah.

Now, I really liked the whole look of Ul'dah. Its West Asian aesthetic and the way it's structured like a big palace with rich-looking buildings and bazaars around it was just so memorable and unique to me, and I absolutely loved looking around Ul'dah for the first time… even though it was the worst city for me so far in terms of actually exploring it because of the amount of layers it had. I was getting lost even more than I did in Limsa...... ;w;

We go talk to the guy here who isn't the ruler of the city-state but instead is the leader of the local Grand Company called "Immortal Flames" -- Raubahn Aldynn. He didn't talk to me much because everything has already been explained to Pi by Kan-E, so he quickly signed the papers and let me go.

OK, what did I do next, I genuenly don't remember, let me look at the fold--

Oh. I went to unlock a few dances instead of MSQ. That's hilarious.

But after that, I unlocked the first dungeon! I made sure to tell my friends about it because they wanted to take me through it so I wouldn't be afraid to do the next ones. I had to wait for one of them to come back from a raid they happened to be doing at the time though.

It was... fun! Although the fact that my friend was a level 90 tank who knew how to pull enemies quickly made me sweat because I was falling behind and doing shit damage due to my equipment being very low-level in comparison. But I was told to ask others to slow down in the next dungeons if I happened to have troubles catching up. However, I wasn't afraid anymore. I wasn't playing as Tank or Healer so I didn't need to take note of everything at the same time, I just needed to maximize my damage output and stay alive -- simple enough.

Next day, I did a few sidequests before proceeding to the next dungeon, this time in The Black Shroud... and I actually couldn't find the entrance to it for a while because I somehow missed the fact it was under the ground.

I also asked my friend how to do a character portrait (and by extension the Adventure Plate) and it took me nearly an hour to make, if not more, but this was the result:

The variation of this portrait is still on my Adventure Plate to this day actually. I think it just shows the character of Pi quite nicely (at least when he isn't out exploring the world).

After I came back from university (and I remember that because I actually wrote to my friend about finishing the portrait as I was going outside to catch a bus), I actually went to the second dungeon. And then to the third one. None of them gave me troubles fortunately.

At this point, according to the screenshots at least, I seemed to have drifted off into Arcanist questline for some reason. Either because I wanted to unlock Scholar and Summoner (and hitting a brick wall because of Sylth-management quest) or because its story was just more interesting than MSQ itself to me at the moment, or maybe even both. So yeah, I ended up picking the MSQ back only a few days after, on September 7th.

And also have a funny excerpt from a conversation we had in Discord before that point:

Me: Probably we won't be able to play together until Saturday, my University classes are held until 8PM for four days straight. The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy: Das fine... miss 20 hours in THREE DAYS.

Me: You two are so fun to play with though... but do you have a problem with my progress?

The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy: YOU ARE ALREADY LIKE A SIXTH OF THE WAY THROUGH THE FREE TRIAL. At the pace you are going, you'll outrun me when we hit StormBlood. Me: :D Skill issue.

(You are allowed to give me shit for this, Emo Catboy :) )

But I did have a problem of playing too much Final Fantasy XIV in a span of three days at that time, I won't deny that. I too had (and still have) a bit of a skill issue in this regard if you can say so.

OK, let's continue. So, some thugs attacked a defenseless woman because they thought she was stealing food, my little baby defeated them, and then Y'shtola showed up again and told Pi that it must be fate that they have been bumping into each other so often and that he does actually have a gift that her good friend also has. This gift is called "Echo" and it's the reason why we can look into other people's memories, along with a few other powers we will learn of later. The miqo'te woman also invited us to visit her organisation's headquarters in Waking Sands at the Vesper Bay. But before I actually visited the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (that's what the group was called), I made sure to unlock Glamour, which also allowed me to obtain a beret, which I dyed blue and proudly put on Pi's head. Now he could finally have his most recognizable design feature and stop wearing ugly wizard hats and mismatched robes. After that, his appearance remained largely unchanged until the start of the next expansion.

But let's go back to the story.

This is the receptionist at the Waking Sands. And I think I was more buffled with her unironically singing "Trololo" than her standing on a chair because she was too short to reach the table. But yeah, her name is Tataru. She lets my lalafell boy in after finding his name on the list and here we are finally introduced to the full cast of main protagonists.

(Sorry I actually never made a screenshot with them all in one frame...)

Their leader, a young woman by the name of Minfilia (voiced by Milla Maxwell of all people lmao) who also had Echo, told us that they have been working on protecting the peace on Eorzea after the Seventh Umbral Calamity (hence "Scions of the Seventh Dawn") and how they are searching for people that too have the gift of Echo because it helps with resisting the tempering of the primals, gods summoned by the beast tribes, which can brainwash people without such gift into serving them for the rest of their lives so there could be even more bloodshed. Minfilia politely asks if the lalafell boy of mine even wants to join the team, but of course he wants to save the world and be as cool as them so he answers with a nod. Now Pi too is a scion!

At this point, I had already formed a group of friends to get to the first trial as quickly as possible. And then something absolutely hilarious happened, which I unfortunately did not capture in a screenshot. So I was in a cutscene and all, and when I finished it, I saw a giant fucking level 50 lizard thing that my friends were fighting. I panicked, tried to run away while I heard one of my friends scream, and then this thing killed me in one hit, scoring me my first death in the game. Even though I was swearing and typing in caps in the part chat at that moment (couldn't use the mic), I was actually laughing my ass off. I don't think I could have had a moment like that in any single player game, or even if I was playing FFXIV alone because I think my friends accidentally got the monster too close to me, so it was another moment that made this game worth it for me.

But just a few cutscenes after that, Pi got taken into some cave with other people by the lizard beastfolk tribe, Amalj'aa, that wanted to summon their god -- Ifrit. This was the first trial, the first actual boss fight, and--

The player of the stern-looking Auri man: Jazz? Where are you? The player of the self-proclaimed Emo Catboy: ...Actually, yeah, where ARE you?

I opened the map, saw that the location was called "???" and that there was no way out of it, and then I was told that you can actually start duties through a menu -- no need to approach the entry points to dungeons or trials once you unlock them. That was a relief because I was afraid my party leader won't be able to register for this duty and I would have to do it with a bunch of randoms.

I am sorry, I didn't screenshot Ifrit either. But the cutscene that showed how summons happen, with the whole demon-ass flame monster emerging while this musical theme of approaching disaster played, it all was quite great! As for Ifrit himself, though... he didn't stay alive for long, all because of my friend's equipment again, I am pretty sure.

We stopped the primal, sending the lizard folk running, and, oh! Ifrit left a crystal behind! Great, now its ours and we are 2/6th of the way to... whatever would actually happen once we collect all 6 crystals.

Damn, I do write quite a lot here, don't I? And I didn't even mention all the things that happened along the way, I had to skip a few (such as Golden Saucer and Aesthetician guy) since the post was too big already and I was diverding attention from MSQ a bit too much. But I assure you, once we get over the middle part of ARR, my writing will end up being more focused on MSQ itself, just bear with me here :'D

[sheyshen]

ok finished the 6.55 stuff. so vague thoughts some spoilers ahead:

MSQ: -I love wuk lamat already and i'm for sure curious how things will go for dawntrail, though i am not about raya possibly having to go against thancred oh no. -only complaint that i had was raha's voice acting felt off, like he was distracted while recording and wasn't "in character" all the time (voice was too low in spots and delivery felt wrong for the situation and animation, and a few times it felt like it was the first time he was reading the lines) -did i mention i love wuk? because i do.

Hildi: -UFO UFO UFO -no notes, it felt like a hildi chain and i'd been hoping i'd get the UFO as a mount since it first showed up -Asura trial was interesting, went in blind so sorry to my group i was learning on the fly (tho i mean it's day 2 we all are)

Island sanctuary: -JULLUSSSSSS!!! -he was such a cutie and so bad at taking a break i loved the whole quest so much -especially the bit that it sounded like emm and sicard had been planning on how to smuggle him outta garlemald since they visited -only disappointing this was he was the last! ahhhh i wish we could invite npcs to visit, doesn't have to be anything involved just to let them be there on the island for a bit. -thanks for the HQ cheese -also, i dig whatever vibe jullus and manius had going. and was nice to have a mention of the little quest with alpha and omega

Allied Tribal quest: -I loved it, the race was so much fun and i'm glad we get to keep the trophy as a deco. and the dance is so fun (though rip the WoL's knees) -will need to have a whole lineup of people doing the dance sometime, it'd look great if we can time it right -only one singular complaint -where. was. nhaza'a???? they mention him on the radio after the quest is over but he didn't show up at all and i'm disappointed. -btw the radio has like four or five different 'news' blurbs it cycles through if you click on it.

Tataru's Grand Endeavor wrap up: -oh man made me tear up -and the flashback ahhhhh -I really loved getting to see everyone from the sharlayan deliveries for it, though it does make me curios if those aren't finished will you only get the ones that you have? or different comments? -editting on: I like that there's a comment that the people who helped restore/create the necklace for tataru checked in to see if she liked it but i kinda wished we could've gotten a comment from them if we visited them (hancock still says his "i don't want to see you in an early grave" lines for the post variant dungeon and gaius still has his comments about working with the resistance and getting werlyt on it's feet so i assume leofard's are also the same too) might be too much to request but woulda been nice touch lol

all in all i loved so much of it and makes me look forward to what's planned going forward! next is wow, though i have been digging through cutscenes so i have an idea of what happens but i wanna play through it myself >:3

[berryzawati]

Dawntrail thoughts

I had time to mull over what has been announced so far about the expansion and I’m very much excited for it!

A bit sad that we’re getting a melee dps instead of a physical ranged dps as I don’t play the role often and I suck so hard at it but Viper does look cool. Really digging the aesthetic of this job. Also shares gear with ninja which is even now my favorite melee dps to play.

I’m planning on doing some high end raids in the future for the very first time. I’ll try my hands on UWU as I’ve been invited to a static by my friends and I’m very much looking forward to progging the fight and possibly clearing.

So I immediately noticed that there’s only one ultimate announced in Dawntrail which is a shame but that’s fine. Patiently waiting for that Shadowbringers Ultimates with glorious Ardbert mechanics…

We are getting some relaxing content a lá Island Sanctuary which is fine. I didn’t like IS at all which shocked me, especially since I’m a huge fan of farming sims, especially Bokumono/Story of Seasons. But the fact that it’s multiplayer this time gives me hope.

New pvp content is the main reason why I’m always subbed at all times, so whatever us coming I will look forward to the most.

On to the MSQ. Now much to say as of now but first of all as a woman of color (albeit an East African woman and not Latinx), I do hope they treat Tural with care. I will await the setting with open arms.

As for the characters… I’m most excited about Erenville. Glad he’s stuck around for this expansion, in my opinion we haven’t seen enough of him. The Scions are okay. Alphinaud is currently my favorite character who’s still alive (lol), so I’m looking forward to see even more of him.

The rest? I think in order to not make the Scions as a whole not stale, a conflict is necessary. For the entirety of the first arc, the Scions had very little friction outside of Urianger. In my opinion it’s perfectly fine for the wol to actually argue with some of them, overcoming conflicts will make them closer as friends after all. The only npc I can recall right now who ever fought with the wol was Lue-Reeq and I absolutely adored him for that.

That said as for my wol Layla, I do hope she fights and make up with some of the Scions. I don’t mind who but G’raha seems to be a great candidate.

I do think the EU keynote was a little barebones, so I’m very much looking forward to the JP keynote in January.

[hikaruhoshina]

Finished Dawntrail MSQ! (Tho currently sitting through the credits lol). I had fun playing it and liked the music as always and I like Wuk Lamat and Sphene as characters as well as Wuk Lamats relationship with her family but I feel bits of the story could’ve been better (spoilers under cut)

Idk if it was just me but I feel Zoraal Ja’s ambitions felt messy? Like he feels pressure to rise above his father and siblings but then he also wants to go to war with everyone to bring peace and idk, that part of his motivation felt confusing

Then with Bakool Ja Ja he’s only acting that way he does because of the pressure his father puts on him but he seems like he really believes that Mamool Ja are superior. Even if it’s just an act, there never feels like a moment where the mask slips

Even after, I feel like the Mamool Ja immediately accept everyone that’s an outsider but I feel like if you had such a mindset for so long, it’d take time to break out of the habits of it.

Also with the whole death and memory thing, I wish it had Gone deeper into an exploration of that. I feel like games like Soma and Another Code R did it better.

Also while I was happy Krile got more screen time, I feel like we didn’t get to know much about how she felt about things until towards the end

Aside from story criticisms, I feel like some English voice acting felt off. I felt Gulool Ja Ja’s VA did and other characters felt like they weren’t sounding strong enough during emotional scenes and there were scenes I felt they should sound louder given the environment

I think that’s all my thoughts rn, hope that all made sense.