#i love drk so much though godDAMN

[noxtivagus]

"in your darkest hour, in the blackest night…think of me…and I will be with you. always. for where else could I go? who else could I love but you? " FFXIV DRK

[yloiseconeillants]

What is Yloise's preferred outfit for time spent out in the field as a healer? Does she wear "traditional" Scholar gear, complete with graduation cap and spectacles? Or simple robes? Or something intensely practical? Or does she go the other way with an ostentatious confection of frills, ribbons and jewels?

What is her idea of dressing "formally" - such as when attending a function with the Scions in Ul'dah or dining at the Captain's Table with Merlwyb?

Thank you for the ask, @mimble-sparklepudding !!

To answer this generally, while she was an Assessor and during her time in Limsa Lominsa, she wore the typical robes associated with the Arcanist's Guild (there isn't a uniform exactly, but they do have a bunch of robes left over from previous students and I think there were more robes for taller Assessors than like, bliauds, for example). She wore those robes to any meetings with Merlwyb since she didn't really have any other clothes. The moment she leaves Mealvaan's Gate to work for the Adventurer's Guild/Scions, she started dressing like an eccentric wizard. Bright colors, lots of pockets to stuff items, utility belts for poisons potions, etc. Yloise is a little sensitive to the sun, so she tends to wear sunglasses outside and clothing that covers her limbs (but, notably, not her fingertips if she can help it, since she works with her pens better without them covered/likes to touch things for sheer texture-based euphoria).

And uh, WOL fashion plates under the cut!

for both meeting w/ the Admiral and all your general Assessor/Arcanist needs

WIZARD FASHION not pictured: all the black and white stripes on the bottom of those pants/this robe and her goddamn incredibly impractical boat shoes; also i love these gloves SO MUCH with their little bows

I do think with all the time she's spent in Ishgard, she's grown really comfy with the clothes associated with that area (also she's somehow switched to monocles full time though that's probably not practical AT ALL) - less need for sunglasses here since it's snowing all the goddamn time, though they're definitely back for sunny days

i absolutely think she just wears the choral robes around her shitty apt and on off days (DOES THE TWINS' MOM ALSO WEAR SOMETHING LIKE THIS BECAUSE I'M GONNA DIE IF SO)

also before Tataru actually gave her Scion Gear that came indirectly from Kingdom Hearts, she was running around dressed like this since I thought it (relatively) matched Y'sthola's new clothes - I think this also reflects that she's wearing sturdier gear since picking up DRK, even as a SCH.

[djgamek1ng]

PLD LEVEL 80 STORY RAGE [FFXIV] RANT

So it has been a while since ShB came out. I’ve gotten all my tanks to level 80, did all of the job quests and oh boy I have some stuff to talk about. Since this is a rant post as you can see by the title, I’m just gonna put this out there: I’m gonna be swearing in this post. I’m probably gonna be swearing a lot. If you don’t like that or don’t like anger/negativity in general, you should probably skip this post (aka, don’t click “Read more”) even though I will be raising some more legitimate criticisms and how to improve one of the tank’s stories... no shuddup, the title totally doesn’t give it away.

Also, on another note, I will be posting my impressions of each of the tanks later. Hopefully somewhere this weekend, but no promises. I have a lot to talk about and I wanna cover it well.

Also also, spoiler warning. I will probably spoil some stuff though I will try to be vague about it.

Okay, let’s start with some positivity first. Some happiness if you will and so we shall start with what in my opinion is undoubtably the best level 80 story of the tanks: Dark Knight. All of the 80 job quests are really short, but still give a decent story. I hope next expac we do get a bit more, even if they decide to just go with the one job quest route again.

Anyway, DRK’s level 80 story quest... holy fuck. I was not prepared. This only re-affirms it for me: the DRK story has no right to be only just a job quest story. It honestly feels like it should be part of the MSQ. So TL;DR for this quest: you go to Sidurgu to check in on him and Rielle. Sidurgu hands you a letter from an unknown sender. You go to find out who the letter is from through a slightly long fetch quest, though you do get to re-meet people from the DRK quest of the previous expacs. Eventually you come by the person who send it, the person that ridiculed you for ruining the wares he asked you to return to him. He feels sorry about it and wanted to thank you (which is what the letter was about btw) and tells you the story of how life went for him after that (not well until recently). He hands you a flower to give to someone, though it is more suiting for a funeral or a farewell. You go off to be brooding and there appears your darkside. You exchange some words with them and then return back to Sidurgu. This honestly felt really powerful and in fact, was the second time I had to wipe away a tear or two from my face this expansion. I have done it no justice and I implore you to at least look it up on YouTube, but preferably you do it yourself. Even though it was just 1 pretty short quest, this was hands down the best tank job story this expac. Even the entirety of the GNB story doesn’t come close.

Onwards to second place: WAR. The WAR story this time around was pretty nice. Not as deep or feeling provoking, but just... nice.

TL;DR: Curious Gorge can’t take it anymore and wants to know if Dorgono (the female Auri WAR from the SB story) loves him the same way he does with her. He wants to travel to the Far East. Coincidentally, Dorgono and her dad come to Eorzea. Drogono’s dad, Luvsan, wants to repay us for helping Dorgono control her inner beast. He repays us by making a medicine (which is a placebo) which allows Broken Mountain to train as a WAR once more. Afterwards, Luvsan returns to the Azim Steppe but leaves Dorgono behind to train more (and fall in love, which was his first intent in Eorzea to begin with). Oh and Curious Gorge freaks out and thinks that the WoL and Dorgono are in love with each other because they smiled at each other. Dorgono knocks some sense into him, since she isn’t in love with us but someone else (no points if you guess right).

And that was WAR’s story. Simple, funny, effective and heartwarming. I actually really liked it and it was my favorite tank job story before I leveled DRK. Overal, pretty good! GNB. Well, probably the 2nd weakest tank job story but even then, this is honestly pretty good. I will only summarize the 80 story to the others. TL;DR: after having trained under the last Gunbreaker out there, Radovan, and having saved the First, you return to him. You tell him your story, especially about another Gunbreaker being out there named Thancred. He’s confused since he doesn’t know Thancred and he didn’t train him. You go on a fetch quest on a trail for someone that looks a lot like Radovan and uses the same kind of weapon. It turns out, Radovan isn’t the last Gunbreaker out there as others of his home place have survived and the trail we picked up was of Rostik, another Gunbreaker. After it, you return back to Mor Dhona and are happy to know that the art of Gunbreaking isn’t about to be lost. Again, like the DRK story, I didn’t do it much justice and with the context of the 60-70 GNB quests it becomes a lot more interesting. Still very nice. I would personally say it is a bit weaker than WAR, but that is because I have grown to care about the people in the WAR quest for longer. PLD... UGH. TL;D-FUCKING-R; You go to Jenlyns. Jenlyns is worried about Mylla, the head of the gladiator guild. You got to Mylla. She is worried about Aldis, the wandering bum. Speaking of him, he walks inside the gladiators guild to show of his samurai skills. He challenges you to a duel. You get ready to fight and he sees how much strong you have become. You say it is because of you have things to protect. The duel ends with Aldis giving up before it began. You and Mylla go back to the gladiator guild. Aldis steps in and asks if he can stay. Mylla goes all tsundere (ugh) and allows him to stay. You fuck off and do literally anything else.

UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. WHY. THERE WAS ONE REALLY COOL THING. ALDIS SEEING HOW STRONG YOU GOT BY SEEING AN AURA AROUND YOU. THIS HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO. FUCK THAT, WE NEED TO HAVE THIS ROMANCE PLOT BETWEEN TWO CHARACTERS OF THE FUCKING GLADIATOR STORYLINE. YEAH, THAT IS SO MUCH BETTER. NO NEED TO EXPLAIN HOW THE PLD POWERS ARE EVEN A THING OUTSIDE OF TRAINING (WHICH LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING JOB HAS TO DO BTW), NO NEED TO SHOW US THAT WE SAVE PEOPLE AND DO ALL THIS KNIGHTLY/PALADINY SHIT OUTSIDE OF THE GODDAMN MSQ. NOOOOOOOO, THAT WOULD MAKE FOR AN ACTUAL GOOD FUCKING STORY LINE INSTEAD OF THIS BULLSHIT. GOD FUCKING DAMMIIIIIIT! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA- *insert static screen here* sigh As you can no doubt tell by everything that I just typed, I am slightly upset at the PLD story. It had one really neat thing going for it, something that could make it feel more like a Paladin/Knight story (need I remind you, in JP PLD is called Knight). Instead however, anything interesting gets brushed aside because “well, the MSQ covers it already. Nevermind that the fucking WAR, DRK and GNB stories do show us protecting stuff in their respective quests”. Hell, wanna know the biggest slap in the face? We got a really good PLD story. It just wasn’t part of the PLD story. Instead it was inside of the tank role quests where we got to see more of Branden (the PLD inside the Warriors of Darkness group) and his past. It was amazing and honestly heartbreaking, since it didn’t have a great ending for Branden but he still did what he had to do. The biggest problem for me since SB is that the PLD story has just become a continuation of the Gladiator storyline and I’m happy for the people that really like Aldis and Mylla, but I’m so fucking bored of those two. At least with Curious Gorge and Dorgono you know that the two are actually in love with each other and that they will finally be able to be together, even if for now it is only to train together. With Mylla and Aldis... Aldis just does not give off that he has any interest in Mylla while Mylla is obviously in love with him but doesn’t want to admit it since “oooh, let’s have a tsundere character”. SERIOUSLY. DO ANYTHING WITH THEM. Aldis comes to the conclusion to ask if he can stay with the gladiator’s guild because of us admitting that we have something to protect now (WHICH BTW, IT ISN’T STATED EXPLICITLY WHAT WE HAVE TO PROTECT NOW AND HAS TO BE GAINED OUT OF THE FUCKING MSQ) and that is why we became that strong. Okay, so how would I rank them? DRK >>> WAR => GNB (WAR overal was better, but GNB is pretty close to it) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> PLD. 

Now, since I don’t want to be only negative, how about some ways to improve the PLD story? Honestly, it is very simple: make it similar to the DRK one, only with a brighter, more optimistic tone compared to the DRK’s more somber and pessimistic tone. Think of Superman and Batman: one is about needing to save the world while being a beacon of hope for the world, the other is about dragging the world back from the brink and being pessimistic/realistic about everything. An example: let’s say someone important to the job story dies in a battle. The PLD would mourn them, but still continue to fight the good fight and rally their (potentially) allies. The DRK would mourn them and instead go fucking nuts on whoever killed their ally. Either would be able to go for vengeance, but it wouldn’t be on the PLD’s to-do list while it becomes the only thing on the DRK’s to-do list.

That’s just my idea on it though. Could obviously be better written than I could ever do, but it would work honestly. Anyway, I think I’ll wrap it up here. I’m glad that 3 out of the 4 tank stories was good, but I’m really pissed of at that 1 out of the 4 that isn’t good. Thank you for reading. Sorry for the swearing, but I had to get it off my chest.

[grecianfilipina]

2 / 11 / 23 / 30

» Final Fantasy XIV ask meme //( Accepting )

2. Favorite class/job?

I really like tanking, though I’m a super nervous one. I love everything about DRK. I like WAR’s playstyle (hit harder, heal faster?), and -squints at palm- palabored? is okay too

(I kid I love the white knight aesthetic of paladin as well, i just can’t get into it)

11. The trial/dungeon that you will never do again unless forced to do so?

Copperhell will follow me to my grave, and everyone hates AV/DD, so I’m gonna say for the love of god please stop putting me in Snowcloak.

It’s really pretty, but it’s so goddamn slow. And the music just puts me to sleep.

For Trials… I guess Nabriales? Or Tsukuyomi.

23. How do you feel about Triple Triad being timed?

I don’t play TT that much honestly. But I’ve also never had issues with the time limit before so I don’t mind it.

30. What do you hope for in the next expansion?

I’m still holding out for them to separate level 50/60 dungeons into their own level roulettes, but that’s probably not gonna happen.

I’m also super hype for the Ishgardian restoration, and I’m spam leveling a crafter solely for that reason and that reason alone. I hope it means we get to see more Ishgard NPC stuff I really hope Estinien is in there somewhere be it MSQ, DRG story, restoration or what have you

[jinjojess]

Jess’s V3 Ending Thoughts I

Okay, going to talk a bit about my raw feelings on the ending so far. After I go back and play more and digested it a little more, I may have more to say.

Things I Liked

It contextualized the really frustrating writing calls made earlier in the game, like why HaruMaki’s entire character revolves around this random crush she developed with no satisfactory build up or why Akamatsu basically exists just to build Saihara’s confidence or why there was a goddamn double murder in the third chapter etc. I still would have preferred a game that was solidly written start to finish that didn’t rely on tropes for large chunks of the narrative, but at the very least I can laugh it off now and go “Oh, Shirogane, you’re such a terrible fic writer.”

It did something different, which is always appreciated. The game was taking this idea of choosing a different option than hope or despair that SDR2 introduced and the idea of landing on an unsatisfactory ending on purpose from DR:AE and tried to go further with it.

I really liked that the game itself identified that the audience’s dogged demanding of a hopeful ending is one of the things that drags the series down.

I like that all of Shirogane’s sprites post mastermind reveal show that she’s got bags under her eyes. It’s a small detail, but it really shows how tiresome the DR formula is making everyone, even people who purport to love it.

I like that having the characters sign up willingly to participate eases one of the major issues this game had, namely that there were too many goddamn cinnamon rolls in the cast. Like literally everyone but Shinguuji pretty much was Too Good and holy god is that unrealistic and boring. Showing that they too were super fans who made a dumb, short-sighted decision redeemed them a bit for me.

So I know a lot of people probably have issues with the “we know nothing really about these characters” thing, but honestly I’m totally cool with it. It’s like Kodaka dumped a box of colorful Legos at my feet and I can now build anything my imagination desires. 

I like Shirogane as the one pulling the strings. I think it works pretty well and thank god she got something significant to do in the end.

Nate disagrees, but I kind of find the idea of a society obsessed with an element of pop culture to the point where they want to bring it to life in an unhealthy way to be kind of funny and appropriate for a DR game.

I respected the decision to have all the characters die at the end to stop the series, and the way the formula got entirely deconstructed. (See below for the caveat to this.)

Things I Didn’t Like

What the FUCK was that epilogue?! Not only does it undercut the narrative significance of what happened right before the credits (Saihara: “No, we have to die because our deaths will make a statement.” *two minutes later* Saihara: “No, it’s totally cool we survived.” YOU CAN’T HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO, SAIHARA!), it’s basically the hopeful ending the audience wanted. If the audience chose to spare you at the end so you can continue living, then that’s functionally the same as a hope ending, guys. You haven’t changed shit in that case.

Speaking of, I don’t know that they can say they “changed the world” really. I mean, you made the ending boring so people stopped watching. How do you know they didn’t jump ship on DR but latched onto a completely different series to get their fix? What, is DR the ONLY killing game media in town?

Saihara’s bit in the epilogue about how they TOTALLY deserve to live now and about how the fact that they signed up willingly could have been a lie was so fucking bad oh my god. If you take away the fact that the characters signed up willingly, you now fall into the trap DR3 did, i.e., shirking consequences. “Sure, there’s video evidence of me applying to participate in this killing game of my own volition, but I’m a Good Person who’d never do such a thing, and so I am choosing to doubt that ever happened if not just outright deny it!” It boils down to the same issue I had with Mirai-hen: everyone always thinks they’re Naegi, never that they’re Munakata.

Nate and I discussed this on stream, but this ending is super fucking unfair to Shirogane. Her crime was giving these ungrateful kids what they wanted, and then they turned on her and we’re supposed to rah rah that they let her die because...?

The ending message is so confused here. Like at first I thought they were going with a “be careful to keep reality and fiction separate in your mind, lest you go too far” which is a good, necessary message. I mean, look at how Tumblr will harass living, breathing people over fictional shit. That makes perfect sense with the set up: fictional killing games are all well and good, but when you cross the line and start using actual flesh-and-blood people, you’ve gone too far. However, by the end we start getting hokey lines like “You don’t believe in the power of fiction?” and “Fiction can change the world!” Uh, yes, Kodaka. No one is arguing that it can’t. You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think fiction can inspire or have an emotional impact on people. We have already proved that via the fact that people like Makoto in that one quick real world segment were finding strength and courage because of the DR series. So why beat this dead horse?

On that topic, if your endgame moral is literally “fiction has an impact on reality despite being fictional” then having the characters be flesh-and-blood people detracts from your message. If a character who never existed outside the confines of the game and was nothing but binary and pixels was struggling to escape their own narrative, then it would have had more weight. As is, the message is still coming across as “the problem with this is that you are involving real people” (if not straight up going Tumblr Purity Brigade, though I doubt that was Kodaka’s intention).

Dear everyone who told me Saihara HAD to be the protag: please show your work. Because he didn’t. “But he came up with the idea to not choose either side! It was because he was weak and relying on his friends!” People. Please. Do you really not see how that could easily have been reframed to work with Akamatsu? “I’ve been dragging everyone around so much this entire time that I never stopped to listen to the anyone else, and all that I got for the trouble was that the killing game continued. So this time I decided to stay quiet and listen instead, and when I heard Kiibo-kun and Maki-chan say they would sacrifice themselves, I got an idea.” And then she has to let the other remaining survivors choose for themselves instead of choosing for them. It’s really not hard to make a justification for any other character. When people said that it HAD to be Saihara as the protag, I thought it was because he was the true mastermind and had set this up as an elaborate punishment for people he knew were guilty of crimes who had gotten away with them (which given all of the DRK-ness in his backstory, would have made a lot of sense). Or something. You know, a scenario where it really would have had to have been him. As it stands, it only has to be him because the story says so, which if you pay attention to my arguments about Naegi-Stu, you should know is not a justification to me.

Someone with a sense of artistic integrity would end the series here, having deconstructed it to this point.

Unanswered Questions I Still Have

I still find it really strange how some people were able to actually make use of their talents--I think it would have been more cohesive if no one ever did anything all that impressive. Like it works with, say, Akamatsu (who never actually plays piano) or Yumeno (whose entire schtick is kind of being a fraud) or Momota (again, fraud) or Saihara (who is doing things in the game that were literally done by Joe Schmoes in previous games), but for Iruma or HaruMaki or Hoshi, placebo effect only goes so far. I don’t think it can suddenly make you able to upgrade a robot repeatedly or do 100 push-ups in a few minutes or flashstep.

On that note, what is the deal with Kiibo? Is he actually a robot that the DR Team made to be the audience stand in? If that’s the case, why does he look human in the prologue? What would they have done if he got murdered earlier on?

Who is controlling Monokuma? Just another staff member? Does he have an independent AI?

What would they have done if Shirogane had died earlier? I mean I assume this is why she avoided latching onto any particular group and was such a non-entity during the game but still...she was a girl and therefore at risk of Shinguuji.

Still unsure if the outside world of V3 is intended to be our world or not. If it is, then we hardly are a world without strife or despair. If it isn’t...what the hell is the point? Who cares about some fictional other outside world that has nothing in common with the one we inhabit? “Here’s how fiction affects reality! ...oh but not OUR reality, this reality I made up for the purposes of this story.”

What was the deal with the tech helmet things we saw on Akamatsu and Saihara? Was that supposed to be them “entering” the “world of DR”? Or was that the true first memory light thing? If Saihara said in that section that he wanted to die with everyone, was the significance that he signed up because he was suicidal? (I assume that’s why Yumeno signed up...she’s been dropping not-so-subtle hints all game that she suffers from depression.) Why didn’t that get explored more?

So these are my knee-jerk immediate feelings on the ending so far. On one hand there were things I really, really liked about it and things I appreciated that it tried to do, and on the other there are things that I think just plain didn’t work.

More later after I play through myself some.

P.S. Bonus mode is pretty great. Can’t wait to play on my own.

[noxtivagus]

yh the sorrow of werlyt's one of my favs fr :^)