Also appreciating the way they're not handwaving everything in your visit to the First. Gil still work because the local culture is based off of things found in the Crystal Tower; aetherytes are still accessible because all aether connects; they incorporate nods to things like market boards and storage (though how my retainers are being summoned here I can only guess. I'm assuming they hear my call and it's actually a pixie).
I remember during ARR when I was like "who are these tiny elves, and why should I care, and why are they telling me flag facts." Look how far we've come.
This is so pleasingly morbid. I love the idea of Urianger at the end of the world, witnessing the deaths of everyone he's ever known. (Sorry, Urianger.)
"Pixies are born of the souls of children who died young" is all well and good, but "Fuath are born of the souls of the drowned" set against this backdrop is so... tasty and macabre
I'd like to thank Square Enix for keeping me well-stocked with a healthy supply of bastard villains. I'm going to be friends (enemies) with this one too
I'm sure that one being absorbing literally enough Light aether to destroy an entire world and cause an interdimensional Eighth Umbral Calamity is fine and won't cause any problems
Which is to say, either it's not fine and that's going to have a very cool fallout, or it actually is totally fine and that's almost even funnier
Is there a plugin/mod that expands gpose functionality, e.g. freecam, custom lighting, that kind of thing? Because that would turn me into a menace and I want it very badly.
Completed my first ShB role quest, for magical DPS. I really like the idea of role quests that are both tailored to specific jobs' playstyles and anchored to the overall plot. It makes me want overworld-based plot, the more I think about it, though. The idea of these special, ancient sin eaters roaming the countryside is so good.
And now I'm doing the healer questline, because my poor WHM is too rusty to queue with and I need practice. I rearranged all of my hotbars. Wish me luck.
I'm really enjoying that I don't know where they're going with a lot of this. my guess is 1) dark future timeline, 2) the Crystal Exarch is G'raha Tia, and 3) Emet-Selch is waiting for me to be full of Light aether so I inadvertently trigger the rejoining. but I would be happy with however it turns out
This is one of my favorite aetheryte designs in Shadowbringers. It has the same fundamental structure and appearance as all of the others in the First, but they've put all this overwrought Eulomorian ornamentation on it and surrounded it with rose petals. It's just another nice in-character world design touch.
Another thing I'm enjoying about ShB: They developed a system to make worlds appear differently to different people depending on where they are in the plot, and it's executed really nicely. Not a lot of games do that and I love it every time I see it.
I love a villain in fantasy whose behavior isn't outright villainous--who is reasonable and persuasive. Like, we are definitely going to be able to cause the rejoining and he wants me to want it. and I love this
The thing about Alisaie. The thing is. The thing. That I am so invested in is that she cares very deeply and unapologetically about people, and she is constantly faced with problems that she bears up under the weight of better than anyone could ask, and is always brutally pragmatic even in the face of a hopeless situation even when it hurts to face, and also I love her. Anyway
The background plot of Zenos has shown that those with an Echo are functionally immortal, and this guy in Amaurot is speaking a universal language, so I think it's more or less clear that the Echo is an Ascian thing?
also the Amaurot lift greeting you by name. if that is foreshadowing then chefs kiss
So I'm through with Eden's Verse/E8N and the Copied Factory, which I somewhat tripped and fell into on accident. Spent some time leveling Astrologian almost to 50, because that's the only job I need left for the lower-level Mastering Magic titles. And I'm now done with 5.1. :blobcatsurprised:
I forgot what dungeon queue healing is like, which is to say, often a nightmare of using sprint to catch up with the tank who's run ahead and done a wall-to-wall pull but is so undergeared you immediately start sweating. But the queues are instant!
additional revelation: found out that there’s a UI clue I never noticed for which attacks are interruptible (other than simply “knowing already”) and feeling some kind of way about it
I love that you immediately know for certain that that's not Ardbert--there's no room at all for doubt. It also makes it more uncanny that Elidibus is impersonating him because he's effectively impersonating a part of you.
the idea that all of the sundered souls of the Ascians have imprinted on them a trauma so deep that they remember it literally forever in every incarnation... extremely good and cool
I could be wrong but I think this is the first scene where you get a choice of who to talk to, between the characters whose role quests you've finished?? Absolutely more of this please
Wow, I think the artwork here depicting the in-setting "first Warrior of Light" is referencing the original FF1 Warrior of Light concept artwork from Yoshitaka Amano.
Imagine you're just some regular hume warrior man and you're summoned to another world and the powers that be are like "Behold! Your soul in the Source!" and it's an eight-foot-tall bunnygirl
I really like taking apart stories I enjoy (obviously), and I think I've put my finger on one of the aspects of this that I find so compelling. The WoL's interactions with the Ascians is almost star-crossed; they know or knew her in another life and once were of a kind, and now are divided both in purpose and fundamental nature.
There's some interesting interplay here, too: When the people of the Crystarium call you a Warrior of Darkness, they mean the person who brought back the darkness (you're only called a villain playfully or by obvious baddies). When Elidibus calls you a Warrior of Darkness, he is calling you a villain--a destroyer and massive obstacle between him and the restoration of a true peaceful world.
While I'm here, Shadowbringers also brings something valuable into its pacing: Moments of protagonist reflection, primarily through revisiting your suite in the Crystarium (and other scenes). It lets your character be vulnerable and truthful. Ardbert is there so that you have a mechanism to reflect upon (someone to say dialogue to organically, but who can't affect the world or talk to others). It's a nice narrative beat that gives the story some seriousness and room to breathe.
> things that you say when you're about to present something easy and without any tricks
the way that you absolutely bulldoze through his summons of your past encounters does feel very cool, though; it's like the darkest possible "look how far you've come" scene
Lyna's goodbye also completely messed me up. She puts on such a brave face and even through the Exarch's implication that this is not the end, she knows it's the end. She doesn't say anything anyway.
also my extreme excitement at getting to fight basically the FF1 Warrior of Light gave me full-on palpatations. there he is. thank you Shadowbringers
and this is all compounded by Elidibus' whole tragic thing going on. tasty. delicious. a fragrant plot brew. the last gasp of a dying world. chef's kiss
At the Seat of Sacrifice, you can only tell Elidibus either "You've no fight left to fight" or "I will put an end to this." It's not even fully about stopping him anymore--it's about freeing him. The memory of Emet-Selch helps you do it.
It's very cool to me how Ascians have gone from being a Big Bad to the victims of a profound cosmic tragedy. Elidibus isn't a Big Bad anymore by the time you fight him, not like Lahabrea or Emet-Selch. He's the last one, and he's broken.
Elidibus is stuck in the same kind of tragedy as the recreation of Amaurot that Emet-Selch built: Unchanging, trapped in time, made of hope to save something that it's too late to save. All there is left of Amaurot is Emet-Selch's flawed memory; all that's left of Elidibus' people are stones and memories.
and then after all of that, they're making me do the goodbye tour!! and I'm feeling emotions!! and of all things this is the thing that finally made me cry
but also side note I'd like to take a moment to give a really heartfelt thank-you to everyone I've ever talked to in the FFXIV community because I haven't been spoiled for ANY of it despite basically infinite opportunities to do so
I’ve been spending a lot of my time before I desprout learning to tank and I now have PLD to 60+ and DRK to 50. I’m really enjoying DRK! I’ve been excited to do the job quests forever. It feels right for Hledis’ character. I haven’t totally conquered my tanxiety but I think I’m really enjoying it!
Finally got around to the Tower at Paradigm's Breach. It's probably now one of my favorite raids? The mechanics are really interesting. That last boss especially has a really great pace.
This is tasty to me because it's more in line with what I had in mind when I chose Halone as a patron deity than all of the church statuary, and now I get to canonically play that out.
These quests are so good and this is such a cool point of closure for this side character, who once poisoned you and sabotaged the peace effort. In this quest she (and her story) gets closure, but in a way you never do, which is sort of a part of what the Dark Knight quests are about.
the other thing about Dark Knights is that so many of the glams are just unreasonably phenomenal because the artists can do whatever they want on, basically, a giant flat slab of a blade
...this one has a unique silhouette, glows, changes colors and spawns butterflies
Listen, don't ask me why I'm working on two relic weapons at once. The fact of the matter is that my FC is collectively working through an Anemos weapon, which is frankly quite enough work, but Cronus Lux, oh, she calls to me. The hysterical addendum is that I've also been working on the Bozja relic (mostly because I was leveling in Bozja)
Trying to figure out what I want to get done before I finally turn in my sprout and start Endwalker.
I was most concerned with learning to tank before my sprout was gone, but I’ve learned DRK since and I like it. But I’d really like to be able to do current content, and I’ve got several classes to 80+ for EW quests.
I think my new goals are:
Finish the Eden raids
Do all the Eden raids as a tank
Finish out the weapon trials
Finish my hotbar rearrangement and reacclimatize ✌️
Also since my DRK is almost to 90 I finished the role questlines and did the capstone. Cyella's presence in the flashbacks is a fun little background detail that I noticed but dismissed as a mechanical necessity early on, so it's cool to see it pay off.
The path to being at peace with yourself is so nicely written. I love this gesture of saying goodbye to part of yourself that you no longer have need for. Look at her little smile when the other Hledis appears. :blobcatmeltcry:
And then when she leaves it's just you alone with yourself acknowledging what you've been through and how it's changed you as you stand over where it began :blobcatmeltcry:
I also got my Botanist up to 60+ and finally met Zhloe while trying desperately to grind for White Gatherers' Scrips to handle the Anima weapon crystal sand grind, which is probably the most tedious relic grind I've had to do so far between the three I'm doing. More than halfway there!
I remember having that anomaly happen a couple of times (not specifically this one), but it ended up curing itself. I wonder if it's just a hiccup with the timeline itself. :blobcatthinkingglare:
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