#at least troia's a fun dungeon

[mog-moment]

final fantasy maps: a ranking

alright - i've only played the first six final fantasy games. and the first one a handful of times. to be fair, its the simplest one! but they've all got good overworld maps. frankly, it's one of the more interesting parts of some of them. changing maps, looping around the world, over worlds, under worlds, other worlds. it's a fun way to experience the games. so i'm gonna rank 'em. let's see what i think!

spoilers beyond the wall! read with caution!

#6 - final fantasy 3

it's a bit unfortunate, as the floating continent is such a good map, probably the best individual map in the original games, but the lower world is... pretty bad. several locations only accessible via the invincible, several locations NOT available via the invincible, long winding paths you have to go in and out of multiple times, not to mention my several other issues with this game. floating continent is a wonderful map, but it's dragged down all the way to the bottom unfortunately due to the lower world. in a shorter game with only the first half, it would easily be the best map in the series.

#5 - final fantasy 1

it's a good map! good for the first game, a bit clunky and not explained too well, a tad vague, you gotta figure it out yourself, the walk back from the first dungeon is brutal if you're unprepared, mt. gulg and the ice cavern are in rough spots, and the dragon caves could be better, but overall, a good first go at an overworld! i like it. it's fun, despite my complaints. it's an NES game, it's meant to be archaic and weird!

#4 - final fantasy 4

the first of the SNES games, with the least best map in my opinion. it's not bad, by any means, some of it just feels a bit empty. the main overworld is great, you've seen maybe half of it by the time you get to mt. ordeals, and by that point the story's picked you up and you're into it until the credits roll. i guess if i had to pick something besides the bit of emptiness from earlier, some of the enemies around troia are way too strong. otherwise, great game, good map.

except bahamut's lair. why's he have like, 6 behemoths guarding him? that's overkill, man. you're bahamut. you can do better than that.

#3 - final fantasy 6

yeah! this one's pretty good, i love the world of balance, you can go through so much and meet so many people through it, the fact you can explore all of the top continent and everything comes back to narshe is fun. everyone goes there, sooner or later, or has already been there. and the world of ruin is fun too! navigating it is a bit trickier though, but it's still a great map! i don't have much else to say, but take my word for it. it's a good map

#2 - final fantasy 2

yeah, i thought the same thing when thinking about it. ff2 isn't the best game, let's be real, but if it did anything right, it's a tossup between paving the way for future games to pull mechanics from and replicate far better, and having a cool world map. this is the only game to require you to cross up and over the border of the world to progress the story, every other one is either island continents that don't wrap around the screen, or have walls that stop you. but the first time i saw it i thought it was kind of cool! and it still is! almost too cool of a map for what the rest of the game is, unfortunately, but we're not here to talk about the game itself. great map, in my opinion!

#1 - final fantasy 5

this is it! the best one! final fantasy 5 is chock full of stuff to do, in bartz's world alone. they could have contained it into just this and it would have been good. you get so much stuff to do and see in this world alone, and if you dont get to do it now, it's there for you in the merged world. villages, castles, mountains, caves, it's the same song and dance as all the rest of 'em, but its a ton in just this first world.

galuf's world is a tiny bit smaller, but there's still plenty to do, iirc the desert in the top right you have to navigate through precisely or else you'll get attacked by super tough enemies, so that on its own is a fun trick to do. big bridge, however, is probably the most iconic part of the whole game, some dude's antics in there make him keep coming back every so often, and he's just as fun as he was the first time.

and the merged world combines the best of the first two. most places you've seen and have been to are shifted around, gone entirely, or are completely new! crescent island is now a full connecting path around the world, north mountain now sits at the edge of the perilous desert from galuf's world, big bridge is there, everything is so much more scattered and frantic. it really plays well with the game itself.

and that's it! with only one bad map, and even more fun overworlds, the final fantasy games are pretty darn good at having interesting worlds to explore, places to see, things to do. they're good games! you should play em. maybe you'll think something differently

[tarounoden]

6.3 MSQ Post-Trailer Theorizing

Now that’s what I’d call a live-letter! Next patch’s MSQ is looking like a pretty big escalation, judging from the trailer; so I’m excited to dive into the nitty gritty and see just what’s in store!

=The “Terrible Magick” and Our Trip to Garlemald=

To begin, let’s quickly go over that “deluge of aether” we see in the trailer; a pillar of orange seen in the Radz-at-Hahn skyline. Y’shtola seems to assume that this surge of aether was deliberate; a magick no doubt invoked by someone or something. Given it’s location, I would perhaps guess this aether is spewing forth from the gate we’ve been using in Alzadaal’s Legacy. One would assume that this pillar we see is a pillar of light; due to its resemblance to the light we saw that blanketed the skyline of the first. And yet, I’m disinclined to believe that this light is related to Golbez’s endgame; at least, not directly. Remember back to Patch 6.1; where the “Throne of Fire” remarks that the gate that had opened in Troia was “beneath our notice”.

Instead, it would seem that Golbez’s goals (and hence this “gate” that’s been brought up multiple times) lie elsewhere. But if Golbez’s plans have nothing to do with the gate in Alzadaal’s Legacy, then what exactly is the nature of this pillar of light? Remember back to my first 6.3 theory post; where I noted Cagnazzo’s ability to take a human form, and how that may tie into Rubicante’s plan. Whilst I initially assumed that Cagnazzo may sneak through the gate and then open it from the other side, I now guess that he may instead do the opposite; sneak through the gate, and destroy it with a powerful burst of light. It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a voidsent wield light, after all. Scathach in Dun Scaith uses light in her ultimate attack “Blinding Shadow”; and it even has a similar orange hue to pillar of light we saw in the trailer.

Hence, perhaps the reason we’re traveling to Garlemald. But Tying into another moment in the trailer, let’s look at when Vrtra “calls” out at 1:40.* Would Vrtra be calling out to Azdaja at this moment? Whilst I’m not completely sure, I have a theory that he might. Jumping forward to 1:54, we here Varshahn accosting someone over what they have done to Azdaja. Assuming he’s talking to Golbez, that would mean that we’re finally meeting him face-to-face in this patch. But I don’t think it’s going to be near the end of the patch story; rather, I think we’ll meet him early on.

To propose a timeline of events, what I think will be the case is that we’ll venture forth through our gate, only to be confront by Golbez face-to-face in Troia. Golbez may perhaps explain the nature of his plans here (more on that in a bit) or reveal to us Azdaja; who may have been corrupted by him (it’s not Golbez without a Shadow Dragon, after all). Either way, we’ll be forced into a retreat, but upon returning, we learn that someone else (no doubt disguised as one of us) already came through earlier. Cagnazzo, having sneaked around us, would hence be hiding around on the source. We return to Meghaduta, only to see the light in the distance; Cagnazzo having now destroyed our voidgate.

But Vrtra, knowing Azdaja is alive, calls out to her, and perhaps hears a reply through another gate elsewhere in the world. And hence we travel to Garlemald in search of this new gate.

Some counter-evidence to this theory can be found on the website; where it’s noted that we go to the dungeon “in pursuit of voidsent”, rather than mentioning a need to find a new portal. Of course, we could go to Garlemald in search of a voidgate, learn of a nearby voidsent presence, and then follow said voidsent in search of the gate; so this doesn’t completely rule out this possible theory.

*As a fun little detail, if you pause here, you can see Vrtra is missing his right-eye. I’d wager with 99% confidence that this is simply because his eye is inside Varshahn at that moment, rather than anything bad happening to him.

=The Nature of Golbez’s Plan=

“Join me, and together we shall seek the promised land! A glorious kingdom of light, where we all may know death’s sweet embrace!” - Golbez, circa the Seventh Astral Era. Thank you, trailer editors, for spelling things out in simple terms for me. That being said, whilst the EN version of the trailer certainly wins the award for dramatics, the FR trailer’s take on this line is a little more clear as to Golbez’ exact goal; “returning to the natural cycle of life”. Based on this line alone, one would think Golbez simply wishes to drag everyone in the void to the source, so that the people of the 13th could finally return to the lifestream after countless years of unending rebirth. But based on other elements in the trailer, I’m not sure if things are that simple.

Circa 1:18 in the trailer, we hear Zero ask “How big must the gate be for the light to come through?” Judging from her tone of voice, she seems to be pretty frightened by this prospect; so whatever this gate and light is, it doesn’t seem to be a good thing.

Whilst the nature of this gate isn’t entirely clear at this stage, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in some way related to the gate that was “lying open” that Golbez mentioned at the end of Patch 6.2. It almost certainly wouldn’t be the gate that is in Troia at any rate, given the evidence raised in the previous section.

One thought could be that this gate may be the same gate that we’re potentially looking for in Garlemald; supposedly located in Lapis Manalis. Or, again, looking at my past theories, it could be the “Gate of the Gods” in the Tower of Babil. Either way, said gate, if it does lie in Garlemald, it may be larger than the small one we had to augment with an Atomos. We see at 1:28 in the trailer that we’re fighting quite a few large and powerful voidsent out in Garlemald; including one with a Dvergr model. It’s not clear if these are true voidsent or your typical vessels; but given the close proximity of a supposed gate, then there’s a chance it’s the former.

However, even if such is the case... how does this gate tie into Golbez’s plan? And why would Golbez, who claims to want to lead the 13th to a Kingdom of Light, instead try to bring the light to the 13th? I’m not sure if I have enough information to come to a conclusion there, myself.

One other possibility, of course, is that Golbez’s gate doesn’t lead to The Source at all, but to another place with a stronger association with light; The First. For one, even if we did a good job at cleaning up the excess light and getting the healing process well underway, the Empty still makes up large swathes of the First. Sin Eaters are also still present, if less common; the world overall is still tilted somewhat towards light, even if it’s not enough to put it at risk of a rejoining.

I’ve seen a lot of people online propose the above theory, and I do think it’s plausible. After all, with this arc being driven partially by Y’shtola’s ambitions to find a way to freely travel to the source, having the antagonist’s goals tie into that would be thematically fitting. With some small references to the First in patch 6.2, the writers may well be hinting at the story heading in that direction.

Though, I should note that from the perspective of a voidsent, the source is a world that is still veritably filled with light; so I’m not going to jump to conclusions here. With this group of voidsent we see in Garlemald, it’s either way possible that Golbez has a means by which to send his forces to the Source; and we currently don’t have much concrete evidence of him being able to do the same for The First (beyond the fact that voidgates can be opened between the Source and The First).

Oh, and whilst I’m sure that last slide of Golbez striking down that Watcher-looking Ancient is very important around what’s to come, this trailer seemingly barely elaborated on it at all; other than what Golbez wants to be free from (the deathless world that is the 13th).

-

That, for the most part, sums up the main theories I had when I was reviewing the patch trailer. I do have one more theory, pertaining to Golbez’s true identity; but this recent trailer didn’t give much more information to confirm that, and the evidence I do have from Patch 6.2 is still a little thin (though correlated together in a way that I think does give a strong hint as to who’s behind that helmet).

Other than that, I don’t have much more to talk about at this stage. As always, I’ll be keeping a close eye out for pre-patch interviews with story details and the like; and if I need to amend some of my theories I’ll be sure to make a post here.

Otherwise, I guess I’ll be seeing you in two and a half weeks for Patch 6.3!

[wtf-amiru]

i'm emptying the queue today and probably not going much further in 6.2 for a while. My life has been....stressful this summer to say the least and i am not about to go into a video game to push myself to grind for gear that never drops so I can keep incrementally taking in story when my brain just wants a break and an easier work/reward balance. It'll probably get done in spurts, chunks at a time as I come around in my stress cycle. Sometimes the brain just wants to run off and do silly little things like forcing Esmond to level up dark knight while I learn sage in potd with me lmao (I cleared a save slot for you, you're finishing this with me now) and i'll get back to msq when I want to. `