Even what few comments there are point out that not everything has to be about faggotry, pandering sure has fallen on hard times, it wasn't even half a decade ago that everyone would be shouting STUNNING AND BRAVE in unison at this kind of drivel.
His point about duh community is quite funny considering faggotry (from the side of squeenix itself) isn't encouraged but tolerated, these weird hyperniggers don't seem to be able to tell the difference.
Also stop being a nigger and directly linking to these rags to give them positive metrics : https://archive.vn/oKO3d
@Rich Evans Ayypologist: You know, you do write pretty well; you ever consider a writing career? Would certainly be better than most of the woketards writing these days.
@John Titor: That's actually what I was thinking as well; Pandaemonium as a whole really does fit with being the original source of the Final Days - Emet did state in SHB that it was "a sound from below the earth" that caused the Ancients' magic to go out of control, and Pandaemonium would certainly be a fitting location for the source of the sound. Hell, it even goes a bit deeper:
In the Amaurot dungeon, it got noticed by a few members of the community that the dungeon seemed to have been inspired by the Book of Revelation, from the Bible; fitting with the other Biblical references in SHB, like the final boss being a multi-headed beast and such. Meanwhile, the Pandaemonium prison in Endwalker was, as stated, to be a reference to the Palace of Hell Pandaemonium from FF2, which in turn was inspired by the palace of the same name from Paradise Lost; it was the main base of operations for demons after they were cast out of Heaven. Basically, what I'm saying is; it would be pretty fitting for a location based on literal Hell to be the source for an apocalypse similar to the Book of Revelation, wouldn't it? I mean, the Terminus Beasts - which were later known as Blasphemies, mind - definitely look like something would be found in the location, after all.
Furthermore, from the Pandaemonium raid, Athena is a rather notable Lucifer-like figure; an amoral loon looking to obtain godhood, and who was noted to have a divine appearance despite being rather demonic overall? She even has connections to a fallen angel-esqe character (Ultima the High Seraph), who helped push her into said path, with said fallen angel being based on/possibly supposed to actually be the Biblically inspired cult leader from FF Tactics.
Hell, the Meteia could have fit with the whole story as well; have them be a creation that was captured and supposed to be placed in Pandaemonium for further study, only to cause a breakout and general chaos. I mean, the Seraphim-esqe appearance of the Endsinger and her creation of the Blasphemies makes me think that there was supposed to originally be some sort of connection to Pandaemonium, and the similarities to Kefka (a nihilistic manchild who believes all life is meaningless and has a number of Biblical motifs himself), makes me think that the devs really did have some form of deeper plotline that ultimately got cut.
Also, fun fact: in some circles of Christianity, there were originally 8 deadly sins; the sin of despair was originally considered to be the most severe sin, convincing people that there was no hope and no form of Heaven/salvation, thus being too nihilistic to be able to go on, and therefore succumb to the other sins. Sound familiar?
Now, granted, this is all just a theory; I'm just some fuck on the internet, so... feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt.
I have a feeling that the Firmament clone for DT is going to touch on some of those 20 worlds. Either resettling things or finding out that, ackshully, Twitter was wrong and some things did survive on a world or two.
It has to be that something survived. Otherwise it's going to be very hard for them to find new people for us to interact with now that we've totally jumped the shark and gone to the end of existence. I think it's easy enough to say, if they wanted to introduce a new world, that it's one Meteion and her sisters missed. I'm sure they broke before visiting every possible civilization in the universe.
What I wish they would revisit is the ghosts in Ultima Thule. We are spending all this time and effort to make these fake memories happy but do they live forever? Will they have dreams of wanting to grow beyond their little plot of land? Can they use Dynamis to create children or do they need to come to terms with being the last of their species until they too fade and disappear? Can they even survive beyond the absolute limit of the universe where Dynamis isn't so strong? Either they answer these questions or they will have to find an excuse to introduce new aliens.
I think finding a world that did survive the apocalypse would be a rather interesting plotline; would serve as a nice rebuttal of the Meteia's whole breakdown and show that life is still going on despite everything. Unfortunately, I do think that the devs are probably going to just drop the whole story, at least for a while; Dawntrail is supposed to be the start of a brand-new journey, and I can't help but feel that the devs were basically just wanting a clean break from everything prior. Hence, I do think it'll be a few expansions before they come back to fix the multitude of plot holes.
Which is a shame; I would love to see more of Ultima Thule myself. I mean; it's basically a graveyard for countless dead worlds at the far edge of the universe, with each world having ended due to various factors. Except, there's one world (the cafe where the Last Dregs is set up) that we never got a clear confirmation of what happened there, there's 13 - possibly more - worlds that we still don't know anything about, including the world of the Mandervillians, and numerous creatures on Ultima Thule are noted to be either eldritch things from unknown worlds, or are otherwise complete unknowns like Poe. Hell, there's even an Elite Hunt Mark (Ker) that's basically a time-travelling undead, that can show up in both Elpis and Ultima Thule, and who's apparently gathering the souls of the fallen for an unknown purpose.
On top of this, the Dynamis recreations of the various races on Ultima Thule, like @Spilled Spaghett mentioned, raise a ton of new questions; concerns of whether or not they're even really alive, or whether or not they can even travel across the stars themselves. Basically, there's tons of story potential here.
And yet... all of this basically gets ditched in favor of Dawntrail, in which we get involved with a uber-peaceful society that doesn't know anything but peace and is uber-accepting of outsiders, with us essentially overthrowing the government of said peaceful nation. Bonus points if what @Well Intentioned theorized is true, and we have to deal with a Shinra copy; hell, might as well take it a step further, and have said Shinra group be backed by the Monetarists, just to get extra woke points and cater to the retards screeching about the "evils of Capitalism and Colonialism".
Seriously, Yoshi; how did we get to this, again? I mean, I still have to see people screeching about Heavensward and Shadowbringers being about "fighting the evils of Christianity/organized religion" on the Discord and forums; to say nothing of the shit I've heard with Endwalker about how Athena/the Meteia were right and how nothing deserves to live. Seriously, you're catering to the wrong crowd, man; especially with the troon lion.
If I instead use a fantasy scenario to explore that Ishgard has spent 100 years throwing its youth into a meat grinder, and as such has eroded its youth population; lacks anyone to maintain its infrastructure; is suffering the long-term consequences of graft and corruption on behalf of the church; is suffering from calls for protectionism because the influx of foreign goods is harming local merchants, who had to deal with the war economy's restriction to goods and market influence - I can have Aymeric and the WoL talk it out over a dinner and have the Scions - and acquaintances - chime in with different solutions, after which the WoL can spindle off on his merry way to explore these different avenues. While it is the case that the team doesn't seem to like the idea of branching narratives, and thus each 'problem' would likely have one 'solution,' you could at least expose different theories and show the broader interplay of how they work in a semi-realistic system.
Perhaps this new, largely uncharted land has a demographic pyramid that is a perfect opposite of Ishgard's - or other war-torn nations, like Garlemald - and it has a lot of young people idling about. The rush to develop the islands, but also to attract labor from the islands, to other corners of the world introduces plenty of opportunities for culture shocks, heads to butt, and sleuthy competition between competitive colonial interests - which can create rifts in the Eorzean alliance, owing to the fact that each nation-state is scrambling in some way for the various natural and human resources of the country. Throw in a precacious political system governing the islands, and an inept ruler, and you have a frankly stellar premise.
Look at the players we have involved already - Nanamo is an ardent believer in democracy, and may try to export the system to a land that has never known anything but a feudal system of governance; meanwhile the Syndicate might operate behind her back and attempt to exploit local connections and tribes, ensuring that any democratic budding quickly becomes a kleptocracy, with Hancock rationalizing the mixed advantages of democratic flourishing with autocratic stability, provided the right hands have the reins. Merlwyb, on about abandoning piracy and advancing into a mercantile state of globetrotting artisans, might feel a certain kinship with the local populations and encourage them to integrate themselves as irreplaceable components of a global supply chain - with Limsa as their chief liaison. Kan-E-Senna would have less than zero interest in any exchange of labor, and might stridently argue for an exchange of goods and cultural items - while attempting to stymie the influx of foreign competition... but she might also recognize the sanctity of the locals' customs, not unlike Gridania's, and encourage them to preserve their history in the face of foreign consumer imports. Aymeric's idealistic attitude might clash with the continuing realities of Ishgard's precarious situation, and so he might have to compromise his own personal code of morals in order to seek trade agreements that ensure landlocked Ishgard can benefit from trade with an overseas nation. Lyse and Raubahn, wary of any colonial powers' encroachment, might become aggressive with their erstwhile allies and impress that the locals above all else reserve suspicion towards the outsiders, and resist outside influence in the political sphere. Hien might take a similar position, but at the same time might be sympathetic to the plight of the island's people suffering under an inept monarch, and might make use of his considerable spy network to see if there weren't some better leader for the country waiting in the wings - while having to contend with the fact that this kind of political intrigue was necessarily self-serving, and not unlike Garlemaldian infiltration.
this is an unironically solid idea and I'd be a lot more gung-ho for the story if it included more spergery like this. FFXIV's lore used to focus on more granular political and metaphysical shit, like the discussion of how primals and tempering work in ARR, or Ishgard's changing internal politics during Heavensward. IMO the quality of the writing fell noticeably during Stormblood, when these deeper elements were sidelined in favor of having a Big Gay Villain, while failing to give him any compelling personality or presence whatsoever. there was a vague gesture at revolutionary politics and the experience of living in an actively oppressed vassal state, but it was barely followed up on. the carefully-built image of Garlemald being a Roman Empire analogue that normally abhors narcissists and egomaniacs went completely out the window so the writers could do bargain bin Sephiroth. ever since then, everything has been cheap macguffins and contrived threats of apocalypse. even with the new "ADVENTURE!" theme they started in the Endwalker post-launch patch story, they couldn't help themselves from descending into yet another contrived apocalypse featuring yet another lame supervillain whose master plan is to summon yet another totally scary primal who instantly gets shut down by the PC as soon as the plot allows you to fight it. they had some potential with Zero re-learning the experience of being human, but threw it right in the garbage for yet another corny friendship-always-wins story arc. I was really hoping the next expansion would take place in the Void, and that maybe the story would start aiming towards the main cast enacting the Reunion like the Ascians were trying to do, with the completion of the merge heralding an opportunity to re-release the game ARR style, completely updating the world and engine and fundamental game mechanics and all that. but I suppose that's too exciting of an idea in a world where the oldest MMOs continue puttering along just so the oldfags have something to play, because nothing new ever happens in this fucking genre.
It has to be that something survived. Otherwise it's going to be very hard for them to find new people for us to interact with now that we've totally jumped the shark and gone to the end of existence. I think it's easy enough to say, if they wanted to introduce a new world, that it's one Meteion and her sisters missed. I'm sure they broke before visiting every possible civilization in the universe.
What I wish they would revisit is the ghosts in Ultima Thule. We are spending all this time and effort to make these fake memories happy but do they live forever? Will they have dreams of wanting to grow beyond their little plot of land? Can they use Dynamis to create children or do they need to come to terms with being the last of their species until they too fade and disappear? Can they even survive beyond the absolute limit of the universe where Dynamis isn't so strong? Either they answer these questions or they will have to find an excuse to introduce new aliens.
The reason I was hedging my bets is that I think the Omnicron quests were talking about how new life was being created in Ultima Thule, so it might be an instance of settling/repopulating some of this emerging life. I'm only partways through and might have misunderstood what was going on (ie, it's all recreations vs net new life emerging from "hope" or whatever) cos I've been slow with beast tribe quests.
E: @Scream Aim Fire , and the reason I'm thinking we're going to be seeing a Shinra expy is that it seems to line up.
I think I mentioned it earlier in the thread, but generally:
- We know that there are issues with corporation(s) mining/extracting cereulem. It's covered in the BLU quests, and what's of concern is that apparently they're doing it on the happy hunting grounds (or whatever, some special sacred place) where Martyn came from. That conflict is already there.
- The aesthetics of the 'Cyberpunk' place remind me of Midgard from FF7 (although really you could argue any of the modern FFs, I think I've seen some people mention 13 as well), but specifically some of the screenshots remind me of mako reactors.
- The setting is looking to be Southern America/Meso America inspired. There's a lot of that aesthetic in the Western continent in FF7.
- Solution 9 or whatever specifically seems to scream mako reactor to me. I know other people have mentioned it might have something to do with Zidane from FF9.
- Some of the 'Old West' screenshots remind me of Corel and this could be FFXIV's attempt at 'shades of greying' things by not just having noble savages be the stars, but also have regular blue collar types also be affected by this corp.
- With the FF7 Remaster and XBox support on the horizon, this would be a good way to cross-promote and draw people into XIV, and what better way than with a wack of shit dealing with Square's biggest cash cow?
It's speculative but it was just first impressions when I saw it.
Also, re: Paradise Lost. The interesting thing about Paradise Lost is that Lucifer is portrayed almost as an anti-hero and his big sin that gets him cast out of heaven is basically advocating for free will. Also, a lot of the monsters in Amaurot/associated with the Final Days seem to be inspired by old medieval texts on demonology, outside of what's been mentioned. There's definitely interesting stuff going on there.
Well, even if I really had, now wouldn't be the time to try to get in - we're currently ridiculously saturated on entertainment because of a massive, historical glut owing to "free" capital for close to 14 years. 'Breaking out' into a market stuffed to the gills like that is a matter of who-you-know and not talent, as evidenced by the voice actor that's gotten the most attention here lately.
That said, small-time narrative stuff, like writing a webcomic or a short-form series, is interesting. It'd get lost awash in the sea of piss that is the modern landscape, but I'll probably wind up doing it sooner or later, because modern media certainly can't scratch my itch for "basic competency" most of the time.
but I suppose that's too exciting of an idea in a world where the oldest MMOs continue puttering along just so the oldfags have something to play, because nothing new ever happens in this fucking genre.
Perhaps more than any other genre, MMOs are their playerbases. And the playerbase from that age of innovation has drifted on to other things, and their replacements have been... pretty risible. If FF14 and WoW attract very different kinds of players, they have very similar trajectories of rot - one being crotchrot from an axewound; another being crotchrot from defecating onto one's chair so as to parse 0.000001% better in Blackfathom Depths.
FFXIV's lore used to focus on more granular political and metaphysical shit, like the discussion of how primals and tempering work in ARR, or Ishgard's changing internal politics during Heavensward. IMO the quality of the writing fell noticeably during Stormblood, when these deeper elements were sidelined in favor of having a Big Gay Villain, while failing to give him any compelling personality or presence whatsoever
Which, if they played off of the "foil" angle, it makes sense that the opposite of a boring, flat, uninteresting JRPG protagonist would be a boring, flat, uninteresting JRPG antagonist. But whoever creeped that idea in for Xenos didn't really stick the landing, and the fact that we go from "the empire is marching on Ala Mhigo" to "the empire just collapsed, but entirely offscreen" has always struck me as a little odd, and perhaps reflective of internal confusion about what to do with the story. It feels less like design-by-committee, and more like "people with diametrically opposed views on what the story should be take turns trying to turn a lumbering behemoth on a dime."
The amount of LOOK! A CRYSTAL! in the Endwalker postgame is extremely curious to me, because it feels like a call-back to... an earlier era of writing, to say the least.
The reason I was hedging my bets is that I think the Omnicron quests were talking about how new life was being created in Ultima Thule, so it might be an instance of settling/repopulating some of this emerging life. I'm only partways through and might have misunderstood what was going on (ie, it's all recreations vs net new life emerging from "hope" or whatever) cos I've been slow with beast tribe quests.
I have completed all the beast tribe quests and I don't even know what the answer is. It's never really clear because the writers seem to contradict themselves more and more lately. Either that or they're really bad at explaining what they're trying to get across. With Dynamis I guess you can make new life as long as you believe in it. But again that life would have to be made entirely of dynamis wouldn't it? Does a living being need aether to be? How does this whole dynamis/aether thing really work? I feel like they're about to write themselves into a corner with this. Either they leave all these questions unanswered and never address it, or they keep having to come up with new rules that they'll never keep up with.
Just finished MSQ and I have the most atomic, blazing hot take:
The troon's voice wasn't that godawful. The blatant troonery leaks out in spots, but it's okay at best. At best. I think it helps that the director gives so much emphasis on forcing a foreign accent that helps make it barely passable. That being said, I do not agree with or endorse how everyone on social media is just gushing over Woke Troonmat.
Additional thoughts: For this being the sendoff to Endwalker and the ushering in of Dawntrail, it feels like the weakest "second" ending as of yet and I almost feel like there was more they could've done to spruce it up instead of this whole "Nothing really happens. Here's your second set of credits" thing going on here.
Or maybe I'm still just stuck on how the handoff from Shadowbringers to Endwalker was really good by contrast.
The problem with Dawntrail is that it's still a massive tonal shift even coming off the back of Endwalker being so optimistic. I also think Dawntrail's premise is so god damn boring. Wow more gay politics. We're not even overthrowing control of a massive empire, we're overthrowing the government of a peaceful hippie nation. Zzzzzzzzz. It needed to end on a cliffhanger. Some big mystery, some big treasure that leaves you thinking what could it be? What are we going to find? We know exactly what we're going to find and what we're going to do. I'm ok with it being a low stakes adventure, because WoW learned you can't keep cranking it beyond 11. But a good adventure does involve a lot of mystery and intrigue. Dawntrail has the golden city but that's an afterthought when really it should be the big motivation.
I'm going to call it right now, the Cyberpunk city we're being shown is the Golden City. The Golden City will not have any actual gold, it will run on the blockchain.
I don't think anyone is really saying holy shit this is worse than fandubs, because even SE isn't dumb enough to do that. It's the fact that it is still bad, especially compared to the rest of the main cast that is so good. And even though every voice actor has been criticized for their performance, especially in ARR, because this one is a tranny they are immune to criticism. You're not just wrong but you need to die for disliking Sena.
FFXIV's lore used to focus on more granular political and metaphysical shit, like the discussion of how primals and tempering work in ARR, or Ishgard's changing internal politics during Heavensward. IMO the quality of the writing fell noticeably during Stormblood,
This is mostly due to the Main Senario writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro moving over to work on FFXVI at the end of Heavensward, handing over the duties to Natsuko Ishikawa, hence the shifting focus from political machinations to, as you put it having a "Big Gay Villain"
I'm guessing the 'Scions are split' bullshit is just going to be the typical early branching MSQ chain shit that happens in every expansion and, ultimately, will be meaningless in the long run.
I'm guessing the 'Scions are split' bullshit is just going to be the typical early branching MSQ chain shit that happens in every expansion and, ultimately, will be meaningless in the long run.
I also think the Scions being split is absolutely zero stakes in the actual MSQ. Like someone called in a favor for Thancred, we're just along for the ride, and however else it's divvied up. The Scions have no actual investment in what's going on in Tural at this point. Given that this is the start of a new overarching storyline, I have doubts we'll have any dog in this race for at least half of the MSQ. This Solution Nine business is probably where things start happening for us.
Mostly I'm hoping troon cat doesn't pull an Estinien and somehow join the band.
I think after fake dismissing the scions then bringing them back they don't seem too interested in having more people join. G'Raha I think was added because they needed someone other than Y'Sthola who can help move the plot. I think they want to develop the Scions as a network of people instead, loosely associated like a high school call of duty clan so there's no commitment. It's a shame though because I actually like the character, but now I can't see her as anything other than a troon.
I think after fake dismissing the scions then bringing them back they don't seem too interested in having more people join. G'Raha I think was added because they needed someone other than Y'Sthola who can help move the plot. I think they want to develop the Scions as a network of people instead, loosely associated like a high school call of duty clan so there's no commitment. It's a shame though because I actually like the character, but now I can't see her as anything other than a troon.
I believe they have no intention *at this time* to expand the party, but if a certain vocal minority makes a character appear more popular than she is then that might not be the case.
I don't think troon cat is going to factor in long term. They're going to be the Lyse/Ardbert/Aymeric/etc of the expansion. I imagine that they're going to have to handle 'rebuilding their land' or whatever.
Besides, it looks like the Viera gleaner is next in line given his prominence in the trailer on the boat.
This is mostly due to the Main Senario writer, Kazutoyo Maehiro moving over to work on FFXVI at the end of Heavensward, handing over the duties to Natsuko Ishikawa, hence the shifting focus from political machinations to, as you put it having a "Big Gay Villain"
Characters will explain a plan, and then someone will - immediately - chime in with a paraphrased version of the plan. Five minutes later, we'll get a flashback to the plan and its paraphrasing. Who is this for? Genuinely, who is this for?
This is legitimately just a Japanese conversational + storytelling thing. You play enough semi-modern JRPGs you will see it constantly.
The paraphrasing is a way of showing that the person is listening. Usually, the flashback is for those people who walked off and did something else inbetween.
