Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Well Intentioned]

Finally finished the last bit of MSQ.

The troon VA is pretty terrible. Like in an amateur VA sort of way. Very flat and lifeless.

E: I also enjoyed that the first thing you fight is a parrot, like that meme of the troon who gets mocked by the family bird, lol.

I'm really curious how much localization 'flavor' happened with Wuk Lumat. Character is already insufferable.

 

[Spilled Spaghett]

I think the character is fine, I think it's all in the troon's delivery. I can't see her as anything other than a tranny because that was my first impression of the character. In reality, Wuk Lamat is a pretty typical anime trope of a head strong woman with a loud mouth. Her personality is a dime a dozen but it's pretty inoffensive. It's the impression the English VA gives that her personality is fake and insincere. It's a total mismatch of a really excitable character with a flat emotionless voice. It makes me want to hate her.

The whole premise of Dawntrail makes me hate all the characters. We just spent an entire story arch beating home the lesson that foreign powers should not be meddling with the sovereignty of nations. And right off the bat she wants the aid of a foreign super power to gain an advantage and take control over the government. But I guess it's totally different because they're begging us to be subjugated. I wonder if the people of Tural are all fine with their ruler being decided by who can suck the most dick for foreign aid.

 

[Well Intentioned]

I think the character is fine, I think it's all in the troon's delivery. I can't see her as anything other than a tranny because that was my first impression of the character. In reality, Wuk Lamat is a pretty typical anime trope of a head strong woman with a loud mouth. Her personality is a dime a dozen but it's pretty inoffensive. It's the impression the English VA gives that her personality is fake and insincere. It's a total mismatch of a really excitable character with a flat emotionless voice. It makes me want to hate her.

Yeah, there's a real dissonance between the script and the actual delivery. I got the sense that this character is supposed to be loud and bombastic, and we get this mildly excited character instead.

I get the general sense of the kind of archetype they're going for, but it really feels like they're trying to, for lack of a better term, Poochie-fy WL.

We're introduced to how cool, strong, amazing, etc. the character is and is really being showcased. Which makes sense, I guess, given they're going to be a big deal in the expansion. But it just comes off as really forced and contrived.

You look at how Erenville was introduced and incorporated into the story compared to WL. It feels a lot more organic and natural.

I think the bit that did it for me was when we got the reveal that Krile is going to be a Pictomancer and WL was "WOW THAT WAS SO AMAZING YOU TOTALLY DESTROYED HIM." in such an insincere delivery and is why I'm curious if there was some localization shenanigans.

The whole premise of Dawntrail makes me hate all the characters. We just spent an entire story arch beating home the lesson that foreign powers should not be meddling with the sovereignty of nations. And right off the bat she wants the aid of a foreign super power to gain an advantage and take control over the government. But I guess it's totally different because they're begging us to be subjugated. I wonder if the people of Tural are all fine with their ruler being decided by who can suck the most dick for foreign aid.

Honestly, I think we're going to be getting WL coming off as a pretender who isn't actually super strong or suited for the role and the whole point of whatever endeavour that is going on is they need to 'look within themselves' and believe in themself or whatever and the whole 'Scions being split up' is going to, in the end, be utterly meaningless.

 

[std::string]

Yeah, there's a real dissonance between the script and the actual delivery. I got the sense that this character is supposed to be loud and bombastic, and we get this mildly excited character instead.

Her Japanese VA and dialogue just sounds kinda like an overly excited JRPG protagonist. There's nothing really too unusual about it.

IMHO the problem boils down to 1. the troon doesn't have good audio recording gear and is new to this and 2. the voice director dropped the fucking ball and let the troon overact and do weird shit

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

And speaking of punishment for death - I feel like the current burst meta has made a lot of jobs feel like old summoner in that regard.

In terms of damage numbers, probably, but there was nothing quite like being so, so close to hitting phoenix and then getting slapped with a tankbuster because your alliance's tank was retarded and stood in a void zone. And then having to start the sequence allll over again.

As an AST main I usually get ones that facetank every mechanic because they don't want to lose it.

See, a good BLM just weaves in the mana shield thing and doesn't even take hit-point bar damage. It's something you just kindof learn with time, but a lot of people playing the game (and the job) don't do that terribly well.

'Scions being split up' is going to, in the end, be utterly meaningless.

No! You can't mean that! A creative team that killed the Scions just to resurrect them a half hour later would never do something so stupid!

 

[Ravana]

It's jarring to have a voice cast of mostly people who are actually in other things like Game of Thrones or radio dramas and then you get this troon who has been in basically nothing as far as I'm aware.

 

[PS2 Nishiki]

Should I transfer out of Mateus? At the time when I first started playing back in 2021 my friend told me to join Mateus and over time I've started to realize how shitty Mateus is.

 

[King Of Braves]

It's jarring to have a voice cast of mostly people who are actually in other things like Game of Thrones or radio dramas and then you get this troon who has been in basically nothing as far as I'm aware.

That's what happens when you hire tokens instead of talents.

 

[Well Intentioned]

It's jarring to have a voice cast of mostly people who are actually in other things like Game of Thrones or radio dramas and then you get this troon who has been in basically nothing as far as I'm aware.

Yeah, them being troon is less the problem and the fact that they just sound amateur compared to the rest of the cast. VA is one of those fields where you can have dudes voicing girls or girls voicing dudes (context-dependent, mind, like Ash from Pokemon) so it's not the end of the world (though validating a troon's delusions as a heckin' real woman is a problem, though.)

Someone earlier up thread theorized that the VA troon has to be juggling so many balls (lol) in their head: they need to affect their totally true and honest woman voice, they need to affect a Hispanic accent (cos apparently this troon is nearly as white as Casper), and then they need to affect the tone and personality of the character they're voicing.

The end result is that the VA (who is inexperienced and potentially not that good) is very limited in the range that they can perform in and it sounds noticeably off from the rest of the cast.

Sorry, I know this was discussed ad nauseum when it first dropped. I'll take my puzzle pieces and alarm clocks now.

EDIT: One other funny observation is that they seem to be doing a version of the ignoble savage with WL (and presumably the rest of Tural?) in that they seem to be baffled by the every day conventions of Eorzea.

 

[Ravana]

I was looking at the art for Dawntrail.

I look forward to the seething if this white woman somehow becomes Tural king or president or hokage or whatever the fuck they're trying to do.

 

[Fcret]

Dawntrail is going to become "Mystery Niggas: The Next Generation" no later than level 95, so I don't think it's worth getting too worked up one way or another over Wuk Lamat and the Tural succession storyline.

 

[King Of Braves]

Dawntrail is going to become "Mystery Niggas: The Next Generation" no later than level 95, so I don't think it's worth getting too worked up one way or another over Wuk Lamat and the Tural succession storyline.

Yeah I suspect the Tural storyline will be wrapped up inside 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the MSQ and the rest will be the lead in to the New Big Fucking Storyline.

 

[ChromaQuack]

Yeah I suspect the Tural storyline will be wrapped up inside 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the MSQ and the rest will be the lead in to the New Big Fucking Storyline.

I think it's going to be earlier tbh, we might get one map into tural before ascians 2.0: tron edition murder every single throne candidate (except troon cat, unfortunately) and we get our next big bad.

I give it up to level 92-93, tural might be to be the opening act and nothing more, or at least that's what I hope but I'm also aware that SE's potential to disappoint is enormous.

 

[Troon Whisperer]

I think it's going to be earlier tbh, we might get one map into tural before ascians 2.0: tron edition murder every single throne candidate (except troon cat, unfortunately) and we get our next big bad.

Nah, more like one of the candidates dig up some forgotten ascian/allagan shit and try to use it to win, creating some sort of disaster which stops the WoL from getting a sun tan while on vacation and so they murderhobo their way through the new world like a conquistador before putting troon cat on the throne because they are the last one standing.

 

[Well Intentioned]

I think it's going to be earlier tbh, we might get one map into tural before ascians 2.0: tron edition murder every single throne candidate (except troon cat, unfortunately) and we get our next big bad.

I give it up to level 92-93, tural might be to be the opening act and nothing more, or at least that's what I hope but I'm also aware that SE's potential to disappoint is enormous.

Since we're spitballing.

Spoiler: Speculation

My guess is that the current king (or whatever) has foreseen some strange portent of something to come. He knows that WL has some qualities to be a leader but needs to grow the fuck up. Going with the anime stereotypes, we're going to have her as a big, brash confident person who is secretly terrified and insecure about themselves (we've already had a few glimmers of this.)

The city of gold is interesting. It's clear that this expansion has some significant Meso-American influences, although Yoshi P and the narrative team seem to have a raging hard-on for things relating to Greek mythology. A fun twist would be to have the golden city be cursed (a la Midas), although I'm guessing that the more obvious candidate of it being related to El Dorado is more likely.

There's some pretty interesting parallels that SE can take from real world mythology that could apply to both the golden city and the boss encounter we know about (Valigarmanda, or Tritoch since it's easier to type.)

Gold or golden energy, as it relates to the Muisca peoples (present day Colombia), is seen as the creative energy that surrounds everything. Much like aether. Also, their main god was technically a trinity (Sun, Moon, and the Rainbow) and Tritoch is also seen as dealing with a trinity, as the Esper in FF6 taught the primary elemental magics and had an attack called Tri-Disaster. I could see some worldbuilding revolving around this. Maybe with them doing a cop-out ending and having a triumvirate rule things instead of a singular ruler (which would honestly be on par with the general theme of FFXIV's 'can't we all just get along?????' and avoiding conflict at every turn.)

The golden city could also play with some myth making, as it's taken on different meanings (was it a person/ruler? A ritual? A city? A kingdom? Etc.) Maybe it's a symbolic city of gold, either relating to the energy I was talking about or something dumber ('the city of gold was inside you all along!')

There's also the obvious sun parallels and I imagine we'll be seeing some of that. Maybe also the Inca folk-hero Inkarri.

Also curious about the Mamool Ja with the hood over his face. Not sure if the eyes have some sort of 'third eye/fourth eye' symbolism rooted in mysticism.

I can't recall -- have we visited the 'frozen wastes' that Emet-Selch alludes to yet? I'm guessing that DT is going to springboard us into that as either post 7.0 content or next expansion.

And do we know who the male miqote is in the artwork?

 

[Ravana]

The cat boy is likely a new character like the white woman at the top

 

[std::string]

I think it's going to be earlier tbh, we might get one map into tural before ascians 2.0: tron edition murder every single throne candidate (except troon cat, unfortunately) and we get our next big bad.

Nah, I fully expect troon cat to die a cutscene death. As half of the players cheer and the others post about how they were literally crying and shaking for days afterwards.

 

[Spilled Spaghett]

I'm pretty sure the city of gold is the cyberpunk city showed off. Why it's called the City of Gold I don't know, but there is an almost 0% chance it actually refers to any kind of gold.

I know that SE always pulls the rug out and ends their stories in the middle of it, but I don't see Wuk Lamat going away once they get bored of telling the actual story of Dawntrail. I agree that they will definitely cut her story off before it's over to switch over to the next big bad, but I'm sure they'll find some excuse to have her tag along or at least keep poking her snout in our business. Worst case scenario she decides to pull a Nanamo and say fuck you, dissolve the monarchy because democracy is just so heckin based, and join the Scions. Even if she doesn't join the Scions there is no way their current system of government is going to survive. By all reason it should already be little more than a puppet state, controlled by whatever foreign power gave the most support to win their stupid competition. But if the runner up really is this evil warmonger they'll get rid of it because it's too dangerous to let one person hold that much power. As you know democratic governments are immune to that kind of violent retoric and would prevent their people from being forced into a war to steal oil or some shit. Also that's exactly what we have been doing to literally every single nation we have ever visited except for Doma, and Thavnair. Ul'Dah, Ishgard, Ala Mhigo, Eulmore, and Garlemald all got completely restructured. I'm not sure what you would consider the Crystal Tower

Spoiler: Shadowbringers spoiler

now that the Exarch is gone. Did they ever explain who runs the city without him?

 

[Smug Chuckler]

Spoiler

now that the Exarch is gone. Did they ever explain who runs the city without him?

Lyna I guess

 

[RIPRhongoBongo]

Spoiler

Lyna I guess

Spoiler: Tin Foil Hat

I thought it was Ryne