Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Yes, I quite like the twins, especially Alphinaud, and I really think updating their models proper will help to drive home how much they have matured over the years, as they each have had the most growth in characterisations of all the scions (imo) but it's hard to take them seriously when they still look so young.

On another note, I personally think it would have been nice for them to enter Sharlayan all grown up, could have added a nice touch to daddy being scared he is losing his kids and they no longer need him/becoming their own persons/just how much he missed of their maturing.

Wow someone that isn't me that likes the brother more then the sister, although I think Alisaie has been stronger in recent years but Alphinaud is better overall.

I just want them to update them because they really stick out awkwardly as being the only children consistently around while talking the most of the group in the majority of scenes. I know it is Japan, but FFXIV's main cast is actually decently old by JRPG standards, everyone is in their late 20s or 30s (Thancred is like 34 or something) instead of teens or early 20s. I think the only exception is the cat boy, but that's he's old at heart and young in body for lore reasons, so whatever I'll take it. Endwalker felt like the perfect time to update them and I would have 100% accepted it at the end of 6.0 as we can time jump past any awkwardness of them going through this growth spurt, but that didn't happen either.

Yoshi please make Alphinaud at least a tall twink before 7.0, please and thank you. Oh, and sure, update Alisaie too so her creepy fanbase can look marginally less disgusting.

 

[CharcoalChkn]

I know it is Japan, but FFXIV's main cast is actually decently old by JRPG standards, everyone is in their late 20s or 30s (Thancred is like 34 or something) instead of teens or early 20s.

This is what made me stick to XIV in the first place, I was so happy to have a more relatable cast age wise as opposed to the normal high school friend group we get in jrpgs.

That and I often find it unbelievable that the political powers that be are entrusting the fate of the world to a bunch of 14 year olds.

I can understand with A&A because of their lineage and that they are surrounded by adults to keep watch over them.

 

[FoolhardStar]

FFXIV's main cast is actually decently old by JRPG standards, everyone is in their late 20s or 30s (Thancred is like 34 or something) instead of teens or early 20s. I think the only exception is the cat boy, but that's he's old at heart and young in body for lore reasons, so whatever I'll take it.

Y'shtola's age is listed "Claims to be 23". Going off of her sister who's younger than her at 26 and the scene when they talk about the Sharlayan colony that eventually became Idyllshire in post-HW (she says she was Alphinaud's age when it was abandoned ~15 years ago), that'd put her in her early thirties, specifically 32; same age as Thancred and Estinien.

Besides the twins and potentially the WoL (if you care to give them years), Tataru is the youngest member of the Scions at 21 years old. Krile is 22, G'raha is 24 but has the mind of an old-old sage, and Yda/Lyse is 25. Minfilia was actually older than I expected (27 years), Moenbryda and Urianger are both 29 years old. Papalymo is easily the oldest member of the Scions at 42 years old, if you disqualify Louisoix who's in his seventies and obviously takes the cake.

The side-Scions are actually pretty close to typical JRPG age ranges (Hoary and Coultenet are in their mid-20s, Hoary's younger brother is 22 and Alianne is 21), but I can't tell if they'll be getting more focus after 6.0 or not. I hope so, them being all over Eorzea post-Endwalker for you to find just like the big important characters gives me a bit of hope.

 

[FatMebius]

I like the twins. Alphinaud was a total bro from HW onward, and Alisaie grew on me over time. She comes off as kinda bitchy at first, but she mellows out. I liked how she missed the boobs she grew on The First too.

Really, the Scions are all pretty interesting. Now, at least. Alphinaud was the only one who got a lot to do until post-HW. I'm always surprised that Urianger is the one I like the most. Since he's just super drab in ARR, but winds up becoming pretty interesting.

Y'shtola's age is listed "Claims to be 23". Going off of her sister who's younger than her at 26 and the scene when they talk about the Sharlayan colony that eventually became Idyllshire in post-HW (she says she was Alphinaud's age when it was abandoned ~15 years ago), that'd put her in her early thirties, specifically 32; same age as Thancred and Estinien.

There's a reason players call her things like "hag cat" or "old hag".

 

[Privilege Power Hour]

Y'shtola's age is listed "Claims to be 23". Going off of her sister who's younger than her at 26 and the scene when they talk about the Sharlayan colony that eventually became Idyllshire in post-HW (she says she was Alphinaud's age when it was abandoned ~15 years ago), that'd put her in her early thirties, specifically 32; same age as Thancred and Estinien.

Besides the twins and potentially the WoL (if you care to give them years), Tataru is the youngest member of the Scions at 21 years old. Krile is 22, G'raha is 24 but has the mind of an old-old sage, and Yda/Lyse is 25. Minfilia was actually older than I expected (27 years), Moenbryda and Urianger are both 29 years old. Papalymo is easily the oldest member of the Scions at 42 years old, if you disqualify Louisoix who's in his seventies and obviously takes the cake.

The side-Scions are actually pretty close to typical JRPG age ranges (Hoary and Coultenet are in their mid-20s, Hoary's younger brother is 22 and Alianne is 21), but I can't tell if they'll be getting more focus after 6.0 or not. I hope so, them being all over Eorzea post-Endwalker for you to find just like the big important characters gives me a bit of hope.

I was floored when I found out Urianger was supposed to be 29, I would have guessed he was in his 40's. Ended up chalking it up to wonky anime ages.

 

[Vapewizard]

IIRC Yoshida said they were hesitant to age up the twins cause it could turn into a situation where the fans would like their old versions better, which I kinda get but it's a shame. Let Alphinaud catch up to his cool older brother figure Estinien.

Papalymo is easily the oldest member of the Scions at 42 years old,

Damn, that legitimately surprised me. Guess that's Lalas for you.

 

[Übertroon]

Twins might get a new model in the future. Having them spend all of the post patch content away from the scions would be the perfect time for some off screen growth.

 

[John Titor]

I was floored when I found out Urianger was supposed to be 29, I would have guessed he was in his 40's. Ended up chalking it up to wonky anime ages.

IIRC Yoshida said they were hesitant to age up the twins cause it could turn into a situation where the fans would like their old versions better, which I kinda get but it's a shame. Let Alphinaud catch up to his cool older brother figure Estinien.

Damn, that legitimately surprised me. Guess that's Lalas for you.

Funniest part to me is that Hildibrand is technically 23 but biologically 18.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

seems like something in the newest patch may fuck with particular drivers, and that every single patch may fuck with drivers, so i get to enjoy that old rodeo of trying reinstalling the game, tweaking config files, and eventually reinstalling drivers and then hoping i ain't just stuck waiting on AMD to shit an update out. I had a similar issue with Elden Ring, but there I could at least point the camera at the ground while doing the one particular enemy type that triggered it about six times

Yes, I quite like the twins, especially Alphinaud, and I really think updating their models proper will help to drive home how much they have matured over the years, as they each have had the most growth in characterisations of all the scions (imo) but it's hard to take them seriously when they still look so young.

What they need to do is make Final Fantasy 14-2 and make the player character not the closest existing thing to God. There aren't really any stakes left in the story, there aren't really ways to top "all of reality is going to end," and it's hard to justify why the characters would continue to have much reason to interact when we've already resolved the issues of the Garleans, the beast tribes, the primals, and the cartoon villain of the week that has some reality-ending macguffin.

Jump ahead a good 10 years, bring back the old cast with all new models, keep things a little lower to the ground in terms of the problems and the players' abilities, and you'll have some wonderful lightning spice. Use the same damn engine if you've really gotta - or maybe fix some of the old spaghetti here and there. People like the characters and the setting, but in the current state, game's got nowhere to go but stagnation. It's just such a prime opportunity to capitalize on the sudden success and avoid the pitfall that Blizzard fell into after their WOTLK moment, but I fear Square having mismanaged everything else into oblivion will just bleed over into mismanaging this property much the same.

 

[Gravemind]

seems like something in the newest patch may fuck with particular drivers, and that every single patch may fuck with drivers, so i get to enjoy that old rodeo of trying reinstalling the game, tweaking config files, and eventually reinstalling drivers and then hoping i ain't just stuck waiting on AMD to shit an update out. I had a similar issue with Elden Ring, but there I could at least point the camera at the ground while doing the one particular enemy type that triggered it about six times

Or your GPU or other components could just be dying. Or it could just be the fact that you're using an AMD card.

That's the only time I've ever had driver issues and crashes with XIV historically speaking.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Or your GPU or other components could just be dying. Or it could just be the fact that you're using an AMD card.

That's the only time I've ever had driver issues and crashes with XIV historically speaking.

None of the tests I've looked at have suggested anything of the sort, and the card's relatively new. Though at least in the case of it being an AMD card, yeah, could well be - the particular issue I ran into ER with seemed to occur specifically with my particular card, everyone getting it had it. Apparently AMD has in the past had to release actual driver updates specifically relating to issues interfacing with FF14 and dx11, so who knows

It's moreso the fact that it started happening very shortly after 6.15 that has me wondering, but there's not much else to do but run more diagnostics

 

[Klokateer636]

None of the tests I've looked at have suggested anything of the sort, and the card's relatively new. Though at least in the case of it being an AMD card, yeah, could well be - the particular issue I ran into ER with seemed to occur specifically with my particular card, everyone getting it had it. Apparently AMD has in the past had to release actual driver updates specifically relating to issues interfacing with FF14 and dx11, so who knows

It's moreso the fact that it started happening very shortly after 6.15 that has me wondering, but there's not much else to do but run more diagnostics

Is your cpu/gpu running hot?

I'm undecided if it's because it's summer time and it's just naturally hotter in the air, or the game is doing something funny as my temps have run up atleast an extra 15*C here the past few days now.

Intel+Nvidia combo.

 

[Lola Pop]

Hi Kiwis,
I highly encorage you all to look at the blog entries on the sidebar of the Lodestone, because sometimes you can come across shit like this.
Meet Goddess Hekate of Ultros. It seems like this Goddess has had some trouble with love.


link, archive
The drama thickens in the comments...


Apparently these are Ms. Hekate's own words being used against her:


It looks like that first comment (from Chlordia) came from a now deleted blog post or comment that Hekate made about her ex's last girlfriend.



Taking a look at her other posts, this one sticks out for its length and hilarious overdramatic writing. (archive) It was posted in 2020, so likely unrelated to this current drama but still quite a fun read.

Spoiler: Long image

"While I am psychic irl, I am not a mind reader and I can not meet someone's expectations if I don't know what they are."

A lot of deleted comments there, possibly from her ex or some other old friends? Who knows.

Now for a parting gift, this post where our Goddess posts pictures of her modded ass and cluttered inventory.


Been lurking for a while, glad I finally found something to contribute!

 

[CharcoalChkn]

Hi Kiwis,
I highly encorage you all to look at the blog entries on the sidebar of the Lodestone, because sometimes you can come across shit like this.
Meet Goddess Hekate of Ultros. It seems like this Goddess has had some trouble with love.

View attachment 3395017
link, archive
The drama thickens in the comments...

View attachment 3395063
Apparently these are Ms. Hekate's own words being used against her:

View attachment 3395075
It looks like that first comment (from Chlordia) came from a now deleted blog post or comment that Hekate made about her ex's last girlfriend.


View attachment 3395092
Taking a look at her other posts, this one sticks out for its length and hilarious overdramatic writing. (archive) It was posted in 2020, so likely unrelated to this current drama but still quite a fun read.

Spoiler: Long image

View attachment 3395232
"While I am psychic irl, I am not a mind reader and I can not meet someone's expectations if I don't know what they are."

A lot of deleted comments there, possibly from her ex or some other old friends? Who knows.

Now for a parting gift, this post where our Goddess posts pictures of her modded ass and cluttered inventory.

View attachment 3395278
Been lurking for a while, glad I finally found something to contribute!

Thank you.

I am equally horrified and entertained.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Is your cpu/gpu running hot?

Anytime I monitor it, it's been in acceptable temps. I haven't really had any reason to OC it so there isn't much of that, either.

lol so after ten-gorillion different attempts I tried a backup version of the game I had on a different drive, and so I guess apparently some part of the ssd I was running it from became corrupted and multiple reinstalls didn't push it to meaningfully different memory addresses, so it kept bricking when trying to access said addresses. it just bizarrely coincided with the patch, but I guess I can live with playing off of an hdd

 

[Sneedlerino]

seems like something in the newest patch may fuck with particular drivers, and that every single patch may fuck with drivers, so i get to enjoy that old rodeo of trying reinstalling the game, tweaking config files, and eventually reinstalling drivers and then hoping i ain't just stuck waiting on AMD to shit an update out. I had a similar issue with Elden Ring, but there I could at least point the camera at the ground while doing the one particular enemy type that triggered it about six times

What they need to do is make Final Fantasy 14-2 and make the player character not the closest existing thing to God. There aren't really any stakes left in the story, there aren't really ways to top "all of reality is going to end," and it's hard to justify why the characters would continue to have much reason to interact when we've already resolved the issues of the Garleans, the beast tribes, the primals, and the cartoon villain of the week that has some reality-ending macguffin.

Jump ahead a good 10 years, bring back the old cast with all new models, keep things a little lower to the ground in terms of the problems and the players' abilities, and you'll have some wonderful lightning spice. Use the same damn engine if you've really gotta - or maybe fix some of the old spaghetti here and there. People like the characters and the setting, but in the current state, game's got nowhere to go but stagnation. It's just such a prime opportunity to capitalize on the sudden success and avoid the pitfall that Blizzard fell into after their WOTLK moment, but I fear Square having mismanaged everything else into oblivion will just bleed over into mismanaging this property much the same.

They're trying to fix that portion of the story. Hence the "Warrior Of Light" arc being over and you being relegated back to being just an "Adventurer". I agree with your statement. You've literally beaten the game world version of God. Where can you really go from there? It seems like they're trying to make it so you're just a person (you technically don't have the Echo anymore since Hydalean is now gone so you don't get her blessing to be stupid powerful).

I'm going to assume they are going to start shifting focus to either the reflections, or to places like The New World, Meracydia, places like that. Would be interesting to see their take on the New World since it's supposed to be North America.

I don't really need a world ending plot arc as long it's well crafted and has heart. It can be something more "personal". That's why I've always thought FFXI had the superior story arc to XIV (until Rhapsodies). In XI, you were just an adventurer. The story wasn't about YOU. You were just part of it. You were the supporting character helping out the real movers and shakers of the world. You're just a normal guy put in extraordinary situations that rose to meet them. That doesn't make you extraordinary, per se. I liked how they handled that. It kept the story contained and clean of any of this powerleveling shit you run into.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

They're trying to fix that portion of the story. Hence the "Warrior Of Light" arc being over and you being relegated back to being just an "Adventurer". I agree with your statement. You've literally beaten the game world version of God. Where can you really go from there? It seems like they're trying to make it so you're just a person (you technically don't have the Echo anymore since Hydalean is now gone so you don't get her blessing to be stupid powerful).

I'm going to assume they are going to start shifting focus to either the reflections, or to places like The New World, Meracydia, places like that. Would be interesting to see their take on the New World since it's supposed to be North America.

I don't really need a world ending plot arc as long it's well crafted and has heart. It can be something more "personal". That's why I've always thought FFXI had the superior story arc to XIV (until Rhapsodies). In XI, you were just an adventurer. The story wasn't about YOU. You were just part of it. You were the supporting character helping out the real movers and shakers of the world. You're just a normal guy put in extraordinary situations that rose to meet them. That doesn't make you extraordinary, per se. I liked how they handled that. It kept the story contained and clean of any of this powerleveling shit you run into.

The Echo isn't really related to Hydaelyn (that was explained back in 5.2 how it isn't, it is something entirely different and we've been mislead up until that point), the Blessing of Light is though, or as it is referred to in EW the 'Traveler's Ward" which is effectively just an anti tempering shield made by Venat. Now it isn't exactly wholly confirmed if we lost the Blessing of Light either, all we know the mother crystal isn't there and all that was is a effectively a font of power we could use to get to the final zone in EW.

Primals are effectively 'just' a complicated monster due to tempering, they aren't actual gods or anything like that and some of the early primals are actually quite tame despite their appearance. Nero specifically said Ifrit was disappointing back in ARR, yet Ifrit can mind wipe people with his breath, so Ifrit isn't a combat threat because of his strength at level 20 he is a threat because he cheats using mind warping magic. Without tempering they aren't extradoinarily special, or at least not so extraordinary that an army or one many army can't beat them, tempering is just a mental form of hax that completely breaks any semblance of a fair fight. Mind warping abilities are generally really hard to beat unless you just have flat out resistance of some sort, a big fuck you planet breaking sword/meteor spell is absolutely useless vs some opponents if you can lose to hypnosis, memory wiping, or mind control in less then 2 seconds.

So the WoL is just naturally powerful due to their innate talents and their job stone granting them esoteric learning of arts that have actually fucked over the planet once before (Black/White Magic are the biggest examples) and other similar ridiculous feats. Dynamis is also cited as a relevant part of their strength as the WoL is someone of indomitable will by their nature and due to their inherited will (sometimes literally in ShB's case) they can harness Dynamis in their time of need because of anime logic of "I don't fight for myself, I fight for the entire world so I can't lose!!!" which while cheesy at least fits FFXIV's story from start to finish for the most part.

So EW doesn't undo shit in terms of WoL's power scaling and Hydaelyn really doesn't matter in terms of WoL's strength at most they saved them from dying a couple of times, but by HW on? They didn't do shit. As for what is next, personally I'd say unfucking the 13th shard is a more monumental task then just beating up a big dumb god baby in space due to the amount of current knowing law bending metaphysics we'd have to discover to achieve that. Also the entire universe is also suppose to supposedly literally freeze for eternity or something so we have to figure out how to not have that happen. So we frankly could keep going up and up if we want to.

If people want that, well that's up to you to decide. I'm willing to hear it out at least.

 

[Power Glove]

Yes, I quite like the twins, especially Alphinaud,

Alphinaud is such a chad. I'm very indifferent when it comes to the characters of FF14, but Alphinaud and to a certain degree Y'sthola keep me watching any cutscene they are in.

 

[Rungle]

Hi Kiwis,
I highly encorage you all to look at the blog entries on the sidebar of the Lodestone, because sometimes you can come across shit like this.
Meet Goddess Hekate of Ultros. It seems like this Goddess has had some trouble with love.

View attachment 3395017
link, archive
The drama thickens in the comments...

View attachment 3395063
Apparently these are Ms. Hekate's own words being used against her:

View attachment 3395075
It looks like that first comment (from Chlordia) came from a now deleted blog post or comment that Hekate made about her ex's last girlfriend.


View attachment 3395092
Taking a look at her other posts, this one sticks out for its length and hilarious overdramatic writing. (archive) It was posted in 2020, so likely unrelated to this current drama but still quite a fun read.

Spoiler: Long image

View attachment 3395232
"While I am psychic irl, I am not a mind reader and I can not meet someone's expectations if I don't know what they are."

A lot of deleted comments there, possibly from her ex or some other old friends? Who knows.

Now for a parting gift, this post where our Goddess posts pictures of her modded ass and cluttered inventory.

View attachment 3395278
Been lurking for a while, glad I finally found something to contribute!

I just serverhopped to ultros because some irl frens played on there and i believe ive seen them before.
I went there to escape the degeneracy in siren however its inevitable i guess
I'll keep an eye out for their escapades now.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

july 1st is the next LL to talk about the animal crossing patch