#patch 7.2

[neaththeheavens]

The ring is her studio, and reality her canvas! She's the rebel with a cause who captivates all with her illusions -- Sugar Riot!

[aceflorins]

🎶WHEN I RIIIISE IN THE RIIING🎶

🎶WE LOCK EYES AND THAT'S WHEN I REALIIIIZE🎶

🎶THAT I'M FREEEEEE🎶

🎶THIS IS MEEEE🎶

🎶THIS IS WHO I WAS MEANT TO BEEEEEEE🎶

🤖🎤✊😩

[thefreelanceangel]

"Kona! Kona! Look what I learned to paint!! The pixies are going to love this!"

"What di- WHAT IS THAT?!"

"Summer! What is that?!"

"I learned to paint it from a show in that dome place! Isn't he adorable????"

"Summer! SUMMER, STOP RUNNING IT AT ME!"

[wandererxiv]

Now that I am home and have time, I'm going to type up my joys, responses, and theories about patch 7.2! Spoilers and etc. below the read more!

Most of this is comparisons to FFIX, which is a lot of reaching on my part. This post is image heavy, as well. Please listen to me talk about my favorite Final Fantasy.

So, I think we were all pretty much aware that somehow a real Sphene was going to show up. I thought it would be Ascians taking over her form, but hey "you were essentially dead but good morning" works, I guess.

I put this next to FFIX's Garnet as the real Princess Garnet dies at the age of six and in a twist of fate the playable character Garnet arrives by ship with her deceased mother after a storm. She looks exactly like the recently passed princess and is taken and raised as a replacement.

The fact we didn't get to give her a nickname was a lost chance. At this point in FFIX, when Garnet is escaping Alexandria, she takes an alias to keep her identity hidden. This is how she becomes "Dagger". I got excited for a moment thinking Sphene would take an alias similarly, but she didn't.

As another little nod to IX, the design on Sphene's jacket is reminiscent of Garnet's cloak.

Now more reaching from me: When they talk about the aetherytes being shut down due to the war, I think about how similarly the airship gates were locked in IX because of war and unrest. There's also the "railroad" between Lindblum and Alexandria. In IX, this is Gargant Roo, an underground passage between the two kingdoms where you travel by giant gargant (The first boss of the new dungeon!). Similarly, the gargant's fight in the dungeon is similar to the mechanics in IX.

In FFIX, gargant climbs upside down and along walls on a vine and you have to use levers to control the flow of sand to allow him through.

Now, I squealed at this one. Dali Coffee. Dali is the first village the group encounters in IX. Outside of the village is a tower where an old man named Morrid resides. In IX there is a mechanic called a "Collector's Rating" that relies on you finding "collectables" throughout the game. In Morrid's home, there is a model airship that you want for this rating. To obtain it, Morrid asks you to find various coffee beans around the world and bring them back to him!

In Final Fantasy IX, you explore the planet of Gaia. However, there exists a second planet, Terra, that you find is trying to fuse together with Gaia, taking Gaia's souls to feed itself and empower the people of Terra who have died. I don't think this is the plot point of XIV's Calyx, but it's the same concept as "eating" a shard.

Now for the Dungeon!

I am sure most of you know that it is a recreation of Alexandria's castle in IX, but did you know the song? It's called Two Hearts Not Captured. It's actually from the ending of IX... so if you want to see that, it's here. (The video is the entirety of the ending, but I have linked at the timestamp specifically where this song is played.) This made me tear up.

We didn't get Brahne's giant portrait with a cat... thing? We got a curtain on the wall instead. So upset.

I've already talked about the first boss, so let's talk about the second briefly. The design is a mechanized Alexandrian Soldier and was done incredibly well. I was so happy with how they translated it.

Now, something I noticed around the castle... the candles. Sure, Alexandria was using electrope, which is purple, but the candles? They're purple... hmm.

In IX, you are trapped in the main antagonist's palace and you encounter purple glowing lights (they're purple, fight me about it). Turning these off does two things: it gives you an item reward, but also "locks" boss mechanics! It disables the "security" system in the palace from using various attacks. And what is the security system in place?

It's our friend! Valia Pira!

By the way, one of the songs that plays after this is Fleeting Life, but I call it Bobby Corwen's song.

If you're still here, bless you.

Here, Sphere speaks about learning magic with a tutor. In IX, Garnet had a childhood tutor named Doctor Tot (pictured below) and, though born a summoner, is mainly a White Mage through the game. Sphene wanting to learn healing magic is a neat touch.

She also mentions later that she has a grimoire she can use. I am reaching with this, but there's a hidden boss in IX that can be encountered twice. He's a book. A grimoire. And I just needed that little pinch in there. He's actually really cute.

OKAY LET'S TALK ABOUT the xiv recreation of BEATRIX.

A loyal knight who sought to protect the princess. Now, Beatrix isn't always this figure. In fact, she's an antagonist in the beginning who destroys an entire city and commits war crimes, but a lot of people love her and she's so cool.

Everything to the touches on the sword are done well. Now, Beatrix's theme song is Rose of May, which is why she has rose themes in her attacks, but she also uses actual skills she has in IX when you fight her and the one time you get her as a guest in the party. The theme that plays is perfectly named for a sworn knight, Protecting My Devotion. (In fact, right before we played the patch, I said to @notleriff, "I have two requests, and my first one is they use Protecting My Devotion for the trial. I was so happy.)

Okay, a few reaches I have with what happens and what's said by Sphene in the following quests/story beats.

The fear of death.

Of course, this is a real thing we all deal with, but in IX one of the themes is

The regulators remove the memory of those who died from the wearer. Even Sphene touches on this. There is also the fact that the mist on Gaia is created by a machine called the Iifa Tree to make fiends and cause wars. This feeds souls into the lifestream and they are then directed to Terra. Very similar to how Solution 9 works, yeah? Though, our Iifa Tree doesn't hold a boss that just constantly mustard bombs you when you don't have a cure for it...

Vivi is also all about existentialism. (I mean he's not even a real person...)

The main antagonist of IX struggles with his own immortality, realizing his ambition is meaningless, so he just decides to destroy everything. "If I can't live, no one can." I'm trying to see the comparisons to Kuja in Calyx, but Calyx is more like the Garland of IX, who sees the race of Terrans as superior and is the sole caretaker of their souls. His entire goal is to revive his people and is using the souls of other planets to do so.

I ate good this patch. I am so happy and excited to see more IX stuff. If you made it this far, thank you for wasting your time on my fangirling over silly things.

[ainyan]

FFXIV Patch 7.2 Special Site Live:

Some highlights:

New to Patch 7.2

Main Scenario - Seekers of Eternity

Raid Dungeon - The Arcadion: Cruiserweight Division

Cosmic Exploration and New Tool Enhancement Quests - Cosmic Tools

Crescent Isle

New Dungeon - The Underkeep

New Trial - Recollection

New Unreal Trial - Hells' Kier (Unreal)

New Weapon Enhancement Quests - Phantom Weapons

Allied Society Quests - Mamool Ja

Inconceivably Further Hildibrand Adventures

Allagan Tomestones of Mathematics

New Crafting Recipes

New Mounts, Minions, and Emotes

New Cornservant Quest

Additional Duty Support

PvP Updates

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

THE MAKO RIDES AGAIN (FFXIV)

(credit to @matrixdragon for the screenie!)

[dyscomancer]

Genuinely think Arcadion Tier 2 is the best normal raid tier we've had since Eden Tier 2. This stuff fucks

[fjotla-vithir]

When do I get to hop on that Dancing Green dick?

[eorzean-wayfinder]

Can't leave scene... music and visuals too good. Mostly the music

[light-blooms]

I love Wuk Lamat but goodness does she look off model in the newest patch 7.2 art! I did my best to fix her proportions, I still gave her a little too much of a muzzle but I think it looks better. Maybe I'll turn this into a full redraw!

[sapphire-scarletta-wol]

Oohh what pretty lights-

⚡⚡⚡⚡

[bigpuppyroegadyn]

MY NOSE!!! IT'S BACK!!!!

[birdstime]

Final Fantasy XIV Patch 7.2 - Seekers of Eternity

[anonymouscomrade]

heard a lot of hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing about the black mage changes in the newest patch and uhhhhh... these are good, actually? black mage can actually move around and not have to worry about falling out of astral fire now and casts are WAY quicker for the most part

just a few things i'm immediately noticing:

high fire 2 needs a boost, because unless i'm missing something there's no reason not to go straight to casting flare when flare outdamages it by THAT much. maybe just a straight potency buff, maybe firestarter should affect it too, maybe casting it at least once should boost the power of your next flare like it used to, i dunno, but it needs something

scathe shouldn't cost MP anymore. i mean it's the blm equivalent of melee classes needing to spam their ranged attack because they're on the move and away from the boss, if i'm having to use it i shouldn't be penalized by either not having enough MP to get to cast flare star this astral fire cycle or having to cast blizzard 4 again to get back to full MP

paradox should maybe be aoe?

once again, like every other ability you can't use until you've used some other ability (read: damn near everything they added this expansion), i am asking that fire 4 and flare becomes flare star once your meter is full instead of being its own button

[wandererxiv]

Square... we did NOT put a guy named Brute Bomber in apartment complex 9-11...

[heretic-altias]

That m5s dps check is ROUGH for pf omg.

My group got our kill finally. I am stomping on his corpse to make sure he stays dead. Here's a sample of how much we were losing our mind after a 2% enrage that followed many similar ones: