Revelations from Patch 3.56

didn't they say we will learn something about the seal middy is guarding under silvertear lake at the end of 3.xx?

Can anyone confirm if the story dialogue differs for Legacy characters and Post-Calamity characters?

Mainly due to the revelations of Yda.

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Originally Posted by Etwo

How did Garleans ever win war before? This isnt the first time we kick their ass with just one magitec armor. We should just walk to Garlemald and take over.

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Well, that's just an unfortunate combination of game-play and story segregation combined with the major characters involved in the story being shrouded in a ridiculous amount of plot armour. Garleans, as a society, are very focused on discipline and efficiency so seeing them reduced to comic relief is getting very tiresome. Especially when the nuanced, complex Garleans such as Gaius and Regula are killed off in favour of keeping the treacherous defectors like Cid, Lucia and Nero around.

I suppose many of you guys have voiced disappointment in the story; rushed, forced, anticlimatic etc. I have no more words to add into that pile, only that I wholeheartedly agree.

Alright, moving on.

While Omega x Shinryu is probably inevitable from the beginning, it surprised me a little bit because what we glimpsed from last part of the story was quite different.

http://i.imgur.com/frFfAiF.jpg

See those feet there, perfectly human looking. Would be normal to assume the primal is Rharlgr, given Ilberd's origin and the resistance's prayers.

Out of the cocoon, it's this

http://i.imgur.com/phyxZYk.jpg

Okay, that's different alright. I guess he just completed metamorphosis

The end story seems to copy a bit from The Fall of Dalamud, where powerful entitiy(s) appear out of a construct, wreak a bit havoc, only to disappear later. Even Merlwyb admits that she was remembered of Cartenau. Seems like a poor choice, in my opinion.

On the bright side, Yda/Lyse revelation was something like a good surprise. It explains many things about her; her adamant choice to keep her mask even when she's offered a replacement from Rowena of all people, her vague age when confronted by leader of little Ala Mhigo, and her somehow questionable intelligence as a supposedly Archon. Her lost mark also put some speculation of Papalymo's fate to rest; he's dead, for good.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

Well, that's just an unfortunate combination of game-play and story segregation combined with the major characters involved in the story being shrouded in a ridiculous amount of plot armour. Garleans, as a society, are very focused on discipline and efficiency so seeing them reduced to comic relief is getting very tiresome. Especially when the nuanced, complex Garleans such as Gaius and Regula are killed off in favour of keeping the treacherous defectors like Cid, Lucia and Nero around.

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And that is the problem. I didnt see any discipline or efficiency in their attacks. Their generals look more like artifact driven fanatics than great tacticians or leaders

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Originally Posted by Etwo

And that is the problem. I didnt see any discipline or efficiency in their attacks. Their generals look more like artifact driven fanatics than great tacticians or leaders

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Mm. Let's hope they do a good job in Stormblood and don't paint the antagonists as predictable, cackling villains who end up coming across as incompetent. They also need to highlight that the Eorzeans are not necessarily good or justified for taking the fight to Garlemald - they're going to get a lot of people killed on every side and realistically stir up a lot of needless instability. My favourite Final Fantasy games are those set in Ivalice - namely Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. Vagrant Story gets a special mention too due to sharing the same setting and style. Those games embraced the moral complexities of war and the nature of man incredibly well. I was hoping for more of that from this game.

I already wiped my hands of WoW due to similar issues plaguing that game's story. I don't want to have to do the same thing here as well. I can't express how bitter I am that we finally got a nuanced Garlean in the form of Regula Van Hydrus only for him to be killed off in a side quest and not even given a mention in the latest batch of MSQ's despite how relevant his willingness to work alongside the Scions despite his loyalties to the Emperor and his homeland. However temporary that may have been it surely must count for something.

Where was Thancred this entire time? I was surprised that he didn't at least make an appearance in the final chapter when everyone else did.

Also, is it just me or after the conclusion or V.1 and ARR, wasn't this whole thing a bit anti-climatic. I was like "here it comes....here it comes... aaaaaand its over." badumbum.

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

Where was Thancred this entire time? I was surprised that he didn't at least make an appearance in the final chapter when everyone else did.

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I wonder the same thing; did they forget him or something? They didn't mention him not even once throughout the finale XDD

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Originally Posted by RobinMalvin

While Omega x Shinryu is probably inevitable from the beginning, it surprised me a little bit because what we glimpsed from last part of the story was quite different.

http://i.imgur.com/frFfAiF.jpg

See those feet there, perfectly human looking. Would be normal to assume the primal is Rharlgr, given Ilberd's origin and the resistance's prayers.

Out of the cocoon, it's this

http://i.imgur.com/phyxZYk.jpg

Okay, that's different alright. I guess he just completed metamorphosis

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That is not at all what was there, go back and watch it again. That thing everyone thought was a foot was actually the spears on the other side of the cocoon shadowed by the spell and the gooey thing it was capturing. You can see more of them sticking out from behind if you take a look. There never was feet in there, just the blob and the spears from the spell.

Ok so I appreciated the big moments in this patch story but I think it lacked some impact in the way it was told. Yes, I agree it felt rushed and forced/contrived to tick a bunch of checkboxes and move the story along with convenient plot devices.

Nero shows up in the right place and time and offers a very dangerous solution which we quickly accept. I wonder had he not interrupted us at Gridania during out meeting with the seedseer, what our heroes would have done about Shinryu. So we gain access and control over Omega really easily and just in time to counter Shinryu's escape. I know Nero is clever but maybe I expected such a powerful and important Allagan device to be protected by some heavy security measures and be more complicated to restore and use. We just kind of waved hands at terminals to gain control and then I guess the interface was very intuitive because we had no problem issuing commands with confidence. The Omega vs Shinryu battle was nice at least.

Would have liked more time with Yda for character development other than a handful of throwaway lines to cover her grief over recent events. Would have been more organic to really see her sorrow and anger burn and heighten emotions. Ideally there'd have been at least one flashback scene with the two sisters to accompany False Yda's reveal as Lyse. Show some of what their relationship with each other was like, the good times and the bad times. Just felt sudden how Lyse drops the mask and the charade, and doesn't really react to the news that Y'Stola and the gang knew her identity all along and never thought to inform her and discuss it with her before now.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

I know Nero is clever but maybe I expected such a powerful and important Allagan device to be protected by some heavy security measures and be more complicated to restore and use. We just kind of waved hands at terminals to gain control and then I guess the interface was very intuitive because we had no problem issuing commands with confidence.

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That would be explained by those defenses getting broken during Secure and Slaughter matches. Nero said he was dodging skirmishers to get access.

Yeah, i'm kinda not ok with them casually mentioning that 1.o Yda, our friend (legacy players), died off screen somewhere and was replaced and everyone knew but decided not to tell us.

I find it odd how the grand companies have jumped to being the aggressors. I mean the only change is that they can take the wall now, and while I get that a lot of ala mhigo was damaged from the fight between omega and shinriyu even if the alliance could take ala mhigo there isn't really anything that could stop them taking it back if we are going by 2 expansions and 1.x of "Eorzea is no match for the empire in a direct fight".

I guess we'll be seeing more deus ex machinas from here on out. It all seems a bit abrupt.

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Originally Posted by Jem

Yeah, i'm kinda not ok with them casually mentioning that 1.o Yda, our friend (legacy players), died off screen somewhere and was replaced and everyone knew but decided not to tell us.

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I'm not sure if players ever met the real Yda. 2.0 took place 5 years after 1.0, and 3.0-3.3 events seemingly played out across a few weeks.

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Originally Posted by Rokke

I'm not sure if players ever met the real Yda. 2.0 took place 5 years after 1.0, and 3.0-3.3 events seemingly played out across a few weeks.

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Given our current knowledge of events, the only time 1.0 players saw the "real" Yda was in the Echo. Which was most of the time pre-Yoshida; this means most of 1.0 is Lyse. Futures Perfect & anything to do with Dalamud-Darnus-Grand Companies? Lyse.
"I do believe we're dead Papalymo!" ? That's Yda. Yda-Yda should feature in like, approximately 3 quests.

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Originally Posted by Etwo

And that is the problem. I didnt see any discipline or efficiency in their attacks. Their generals look more like artifact driven fanatics than great tacticians or leaders

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Lets not kid ourselves. The WoL is one of the greatest warriors in Eorzea and most of the Garleans we have fought are grunts, most often conscripts from conquered territories. Eorzea has almost fallen twice to the Garleans and in both cases fighting no more than 2 legions at the most. Even with all the fighting we did at Azys Lla we lacked the strength to dislodge their presence there and the Garleans have almost certainly come away with resources.

As for Garleans surviving verse getting killed off, even if Regula and Gaius survived they would still be our enemy as long as Garlemald remained an antagonist. Even if they didn't outright start the latest war they have continued to maintain hostile military bases in Eorzea, leading to incursions into Eorzean territory and stirring up trouble. The Sylphs, for example, would probably cause a lot less trouble if it wasn't for Garlean incursions into their territory.

As a general rule none of the villains we have faced in FF14 fall into the clear 'predictable, cackling villains so I am not to worried. However don't expect the player character to lose.

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Originally Posted by VargasVermillion

I find it odd how the grand companies have jumped to being the aggressors. I mean the only change is that they can take the wall now, and while I get that a lot of ala mhigo was damaged from the fight between omega and shinriyu even if the alliance could take ala mhigo there isn't really anything that could stop them taking it back if we are going by 2 expansions and 1.x of "Eorzea is no match for the empire in a direct fight".

I guess we'll be seeing more deus ex machinas from here on out. It all seems a bit abrupt.

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I took it as the leaders coming to the conclusion that war was inevitable at this point. After the events on the wall and the fight between Omega and Shinryu, a response from the empire was inevitable so it made more sense to go on the offensive. After all, in the Alliance's eyes, conflict with Garlemald is inevitable one way or another and frankly having Garlemald lose Ala Mhigo would substantially limit their access to the rest of Eorzea. Without that land access their only means of moving into Eorzea would be via Airship or sea.

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Originally Posted by Rocl

Given our current knowledge of events, the only time 1.0 players saw the "real" Yda was in the Echo. Which was most of the time pre-Yoshida; this means most of 1.0 is Lyse. Futures Perfect & anything to do with Dalamud-Darnus-Grand Companies? Lyse.
"I do believe we're dead Papalymo!" ? That's Yda. Yda-Yda should feature in like, approximately 3 quests.

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Actually no, it was said that 1 year has pasted since the end of the last umbral era (2.o ending) that lasted for 5 years. So saying Yda died 6 years ago means that for the entirety of 1.o that was Yda-Yda.

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Originally Posted by Jem

Actually no, it was said that 1 year has pasted since the end of the last umbral era (2.o ending) that lasted for 5 years. So saying Yda died 6 years ago means that for the entirety of 1.o that was Yda-Yda.

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Actually no, the whole of the game thus far from when 2.0 launched has existed in a sort of time bubble - everything we've done so far, including the events of this patch, took place 5 years after 1.0.

Yda died a year before 1.0 players entered the scene, and the only interaction players have with her is via the Echo.

As for the overall thing - I quite liked it, and taken with the rest of the story beats, it does feel like it's the proper pacing for this part of the story, at least to me.

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Originally Posted by Jem

Actually no, it was said that 1 year has pasted since the end of the last umbral era (2.o ending) that lasted for 5 years. So saying Yda died 6 years ago means that for the entirety of 1.o that was Yda-Yda.

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Citation needed. Given the overall strength of the time-bubble so far I'm very skeptical that Carteneau is now six years ago without any fanfare.

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Originally Posted by Etwo

How did Garleans ever win war before? This isnt the first time we kick their ass with just one magitec armor. We should just walk to Garlemald and take over.

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That was just a scout party, in heavily defended Eorzean territory, the slaughter we saw at Baelsar's Wall in part 1 is what the Garleans are truly capable of

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Originally Posted by Chewy2nd

That was just a scout party, in heavily defended Eorzean territory, the slaughter we saw at Baelsar's Wall in part 1 is what the Garleans are truly capable of

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And it was against 4 highly skilled Warriors. It would be like us sending grunts against Gaius and his inner circle. We would probably just end up with a lot dead grunts.

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Originally Posted by Rocl

Citation needed. Given the overall strength of the time-bubble so far I'm very skeptical that Carteneau is now six years ago without any fanfare.

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It was in the same lore discussion where koji explained the time-bubible you just mentioned. Is it really that hard to believe that all of 2.1 to 3.56, the entire construction of revenants toll and idyllshire took place in at least a year?

Honestly I would prefer less time bubble as it makes moment like this harder to figure out. I assume that the Yda we have physically always met was Lyse, but currently we don't know for certain. If they made the date of Yda's death 7 or 8 years prior it might be a bit easier. But 6 puts it very close to the events of the Calamity.

Its going to take me a while to get used to calling her Lyse. From the WoL perspective though Lyse is the only Yda we have known so its not much more than a name change.

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Originally Posted by Jem

It was in the same lore discussion where koji explained the time-bubible you just mentioned.

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Whereabouts?

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Originally Posted by Jem

Is it really that hard to believe that all of 2.1 to 3.56, the entire construction of revenants toll and idyllshire took place in at least a year?

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In a sense of events happening temporally, no; not at all. But the whole point of the bending of spacetime is to prevent them from having to update thousands of lines of open-world and context-dependent flavor-text about how long it's been since Ala Mhigo fell, how long it's been since the Battle of Silvertear Skies, how long it's been since the Calamity, how long it's been since the failed summoning of Alexander. And none of those things changed this morning.

The comparison to the Simpsons implies that even though it is easy to believe that it took a year for these events to happen, even though it might be harder to believe otherwise, Bart will always be in 4th Grade. Maggie will always be a baby. Even if you could prove 5,000 days passed, it's still not 13 years, but 1.

With the bubble in place, you always know exactly how long ago something was. There's no chance open-world and fixed-date "old content" will confuse players with their inconsistencies. We just keep shoving days under the bubble. (Which isn't to say you can't interpret it as taking however long you want for you. Ten years? Why not. Use Earth time if you want. But there's no indication that the game itself has left the bubble just yet.)

The most difficult thing for me to believe is that they abandoned all of that without saying anything after so concretely establishing it. We've had debates in defense of time bubble over a dozen times; you name it and someone has used it to challenge the bubble: holiday event, relic arc, new years poem, NPC flavor-text. It bubble withstood all of those, so we just need something more solid and definitive, at least as much as what established it, to abandon it. Perhaps the 51st Bubble Battle will be the one that pops it, I can't say, lol.

The name of the year has changed, but if a movie started in December 2016 and ended in January 2017, it still took only a month, right?

Checklist of everything awful in 2.56 story:

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?
- WHY were there opinion options to begin with? Even those felt forced "we have no choice" -- actually...
- WHY was Omega so easily released when Nero could have done it the whole time?
- WHY did we bother convening with the Eorzean alliance? What purposes did they serve?
- WHY Shinryu? I mean it was cool to see, but what does a dragon have to do with Ala Mhigo?
- WHY the convoluted Yda / Lyse story? "Oh hey, surprise, I'm someone else!" Is this an M. Night Shyamalan movie?
- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?
- WHY wasn't Red Mage even slightly brought into the story? The most anticipated job in the game and not even a mention?

I'm not the least bit excited for Stormblood. I honestly couldn't care about it.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

-WHY wasn't Red Mage even slightly brought into the story? The most anticipated job in the game and not even a mention?

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Lol you might want to get used to that now, or did you forget EU fanfest where we were bait and switched with 50% of the expansion based around doma and the least common denominator job, samurai, rdm was clearly an after thought, SAM and MNK are the headliners this time.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

-snip

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besides the nero thing im 100% with you on this.

Just like... the climactic battle was against a Roegadyn (I assume to be a) tribunus whose Achilles' Heel was being so reckless he killed his own soldiers? That's IT?!

Man... Steps of Faith might have been a ball-buster, and "The Parting Glass" was pretty darn long, but it felt like an appropriate send-off for the season game...

A-anyway, everything went semi-predictably. Council meeting at the Lotus Stand, Nero interrupts and suggests Omega. Everyone says they don't trust him but have little choice. Gosetsu, the Hyur with a Roegadyn build, arrives. Meeting at the Rising Stones. Tataru brags about her magitek kettle she got from Wedge and gives us fancy clothes. Gosetsu interrupts and comes along. Thrash the reckless Roegadyn tribunus who fights so wildly he kills his own soldiers, wake up Omega. It goes to fight the primal, which in a slightly unexpected turn ended up being Shinryu. Clash in the skies over the Wall ends with both crash-landing into Gyr Abania. With the seal gone Papalymo is confirmed dead, and Yda's Archon tattoo fades, and she later reveals herself to be Lyse, Yda's younger sister who took on her identity after the real Yda died six years ago. Everyone prepares for war.

Post-credits Raubahn stands atop the Wall and vows to take Ala Mhigo back, then a nameless Imperial soldier craps his pants when Zenos doesn't respond to his query suggesting a change of plans. Zenos then smiles and says this will be interesting.

I mean... I was only half-expecting Shinryu, though given where the aether came from it's not particularly surprising. Yda having been revealed to never actually having been Yda, but her younger sister Lyse, was probably the biggest surprise. At least Nero seems to be moving in the right direction, though I still don't trust him as far as I can throw him.

I guess all that remains is to wait until June and kick some Imperial teeth in, then learn to fight like Vergil.

Honestly? Even the flashy fight didn't interest me all that much. What really got me interested was Zenos. While this does seem to be a slow point, in all fairness Yoshi-P did say Stormblood would start out slowly, so I expected as much.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?

I'm not the least bit excited for Stormblood. I honestly couldn't care about it.

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100% with you. If the level of writing we saw this patch continues into Stormblood, it's going to be bad. I'm excited for new jobs and new zones and the like, but the MSQ has completely lost me at this point. There was a reason to go to Ishgard. Now? Who even knows. 'Welp this darned Ala Mhigan Resistance almost provoked Garlemald into coming to crush Eorzea JUST CUZ, good thing it didn't happen but RIP guess we should carry on their dream and retake Ala Mhigo and Doma too I guess, we have no choice LOL.'

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

Checklist of everything awful in 2.56 story:

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?
- WHY were there opinion options to begin with? Even those felt forced "we have no choice" -- actually...
- WHY was Omega so easily released when Nero could have done it the whole time?
- WHY did we bother convening with the Eorzean alliance? What purposes did they serve?
- WHY Shinryu? I mean it was cool to see, but what does a dragon have to do with Ala Mhigo?
- WHY the convoluted Yda / Lyse story? "Oh hey, surprise, I'm someone else!" Is this an M. Night Shyamalan movie?
- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?
- WHY wasn't Red Mage even slightly brought into the story? The most anticipated job in the game and not even a mention?

I'm not the least bit excited for Stormblood. I honestly couldn't care about it.

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To wit:

-Absolutely nobody accepted Nero. Half the people at the meeting didn't know who he was, and the other half didn't trust him as far as they could throw him.
-There is never a need for opinion options, but they are included from time to time to make it feel like a classic role-playing game where options are actually a thing that change the course of the story.
-Cid and Nero spent the time we were fighting the Roegadyn tribunus (Greinwaht, was his name?) figuring out how to reactivate Omega. The furthest Nero ever got was to Cartenau beforehand.
-We're convening with the Alliance because what we're doing is preparing to go to war with Garlemald, and the actions we take need to be concerted to have any hope of coming out on top. Also, Omega was in Cartenau, politically complex territory.
-Shinryu was summoned because, as Alphinaud explained, Ilberd's wish was for a disaster akin to the Calamity (aka Bahamut, a dragon) and the aether for the summoning came largely from the eyes of Nidhogg (a dragon).
-I don't know why the Yda / Lyse thing was necessary, given we had no mention in-story of Yda having a sister beforehand. I suppose Papalymo's "Farewell again, my dear Yda..." foreshadowed it slightly, but other than that I got nothing. Pretty sure this ain't an M. Night Shyamalan film though.
-We don't even know we're going to Doma yet. All eyes are on the Wall and all thoughts are on what to do after the Alliance definitively holds it.
-Red Mage was foreshadowed with Alisae in 3.4, and what Job is most anticipated is a matter of hot debate. (I honestly couldn't care less about RDM - not a fan of it, style aside.) Also, none of the 3.0 Jobs were brought into the story during 2.5(.5), so I don't see why that's such a big deal.

I'm not overly excited, but Yoshi-P has said that Stormblood will start slowly, so I'm going to give it a chance. Zenos has me intrigued either way.

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

People on reddit have been musing and i have yet to see the theory here.

Real yda was said to have been abducted five years ago.

Zenos was recently inserted as the supposed son of varis.

Zenos got a sorta face reveal, only lower face. no forehead.

Unlike other garleans, zenos has yellowish hair, not white.

Real yda was abducted and set in charge due to plot, and fakeing being the emperors son. Long plan as a member of the Ala Mhigan resistance to topple the garlean empire, posing as the heir, breaking down the system from within?

While far fetched, remember the Eula van Darnus story. In a garlean legatus suit it is possible to hide gender.


(Horrible english and wording, but i hope i got the point across)

Varis Zos Galvus isn't an idiot by any account, though. He's described as a great tactician so I am fairly certain he would recognise his own son and realise if anything was off if someone - especially a woman - tried to impersonate him. They already pulled that trick with Nael and again with Lyse. Pulling it for a third time would just be silly - and Zenos is already confirmed as being the main antagonist of Stormblood. He was also described as someone people wouldn't sympathise with at all. It's likely he's just someone who is rotten and opportunistic, caring little for anyone but his own amusement. That certainly was the impression he gave upon hearing the report of the damage done to Gyr Abania.

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Originally Posted by GenericMagus

Pick up the phone because I called it!
No one believed 2 months ago when I said it would be him!

The new Primal

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I had a feeling it'd be Shinryu not even taking lore into account.
FFXIV is a fanservice game for fans so makes sense they'd have include Shinryu and Omega together.

I suppose youre right. Yoshi did say he didnt wanted people sympathizing with zenos.

As to varis, i was under the assumption that simply killing him would move the throne to zenos no? Wouldnt varis want to be distanced to his son in case the son wanted the throne himself? Having an heir that would kill you could perchance lessen the likelyhood of them ever getting too close?

I get the feeling that Nero is going to be a bit harder to swallow for players who may have not completed the World of Darkness Scenario.

I wonder how many players chose to be open to Nero's idea as opposed to being wary of him, and if they had completed the said raid or not. Personally, I think he's fighting his infeiroirity complex and wants to work alongside you for the sake of showing his worth next to Cid, given the end of the WoD raid that left with Cid being the one to save him, I think he wants to regain that self worth.

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Originally Posted by Theodric

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

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haha, this is so absurd when you stop to think about it. I wish he was at least captured nearby to gridania but when it turned out he has potentially useful information they let him in, escorted by guards, wearing shackles, until our group hears him out and allows him to be unfettered to help us. I'm definitely feeling quality has slipped in the story. I think the 3.0 scenario, the journey with ysayle and estinien, still stands as the best work they've done, with room to breathe for character development instead of the rushed patch series stories.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?

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Good point. I know many people see Nero's role in Crytal Tower was redeeming, that he had begun to be 'good guy'. But honestly, he didn't do anything that's so redeeming in my opinion aside from defending Unei and Doga from voidsents and even that was fueled purely by selfish desire to control CoD. He took a new path, yes, but nothing implicates he's taken a good path, or if his goal ever changed.

No one blindly followed Nero. It was mentioned time and again that no one trusted him. They simply agreed with his idea, an idea that even Cid apparently entertained before Nero pointed it out but too fearful of what would entail. Should there was enough time, I'm sure no one would allow Nero to be involved in the operation but given the circumstances and the fact he'd already done preliminary research on Omega, he was included. To the Alliance, he's simply an ally with benefit.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY was Omega so easily released when Nero could have done it the whole time?

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It's possible he's found way to awaken Omega but what good would that do, if no one knows it is HE who managed to do it?

He wants recognition, acknowledgement for his genius. That's what he's always ever after, and that's why he risked to come to the meeting of the Alliance. He has to be in spotlight, not some unknown hero.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY Shinryu? I mean it was cool to see, but what does a dragon have to do with Ala Mhigo?

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I've been thinking about this too, it certainly doesn't make sense why a myth from Far East would end up summoned by an Ala Mhigan, especially when the prayers were meant for different deity altogether. We can chalk it up to the fact that the catalyst used for the ritual is the Eyes of a great wyrm, but that still doesn't allign with the prayers, especially when we see Shinryu's power to summon Tidal Wave. Doesn't seem in the least Rharlgr-ly.

But in credits, we're shown this image,

http://i.imgur.com/gaETIij.jpg

It most certain depicts Shinryu. Eorzea didn't know of Shinryu until his appearance, so it's likely that the image is Far Eastern in origin. We don't know of Shinryu's legends at this point, but the way he's depicted in the image and the seemingly revered response of the Domans imply that he's a mighty beast of untold destruction in the legends.

The ways I can see it being Shinryu:

1) Ilberd came to the knowledge of Shinryu, and deeming his legends depict him more terrible than Bahamut, and the fact that he's still revered by Domans in Eorzea and home, chose to summon spesifically Shinryu. This is similar with Thordan VII's MO to summon Knights of The Round.

2) Ilberd didn't summon Shinryu, or maybe even any spesific deity. His words was:

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"A god has no need of faith when summoned by so pure a purpose"

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The "purpose" here was the desire for vengeance, cried out by the fallen resistance members and possibly the fallen Garlean soldiers. It's possible what Ilberd wished was simply a being of pure hatred and vengeance, and among the eikons drift in aetherial sea, Shinryu was the closest match, and so the primal took on the form of a dragon foreign to Eorzea.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?

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We don't know why we should go there yet. The only times it's implied of going to Doma is by Gosetsu, and he only meant them for Yugiri alone. No mention of WoL, or anyone else in Eorzea needs to go there. Also to be fair, no one says we would go to Doma first comes next expansion.

The ending implies that we would focus more on Ala Mhigo and that's probably the first focus in story of Stormblood. Would we liberate Ala Mhigo and then Doma, or the other way around is up for debate, but the certain thing is, we don't know yet. Unlike in 2.55 where we were all but certain going to Ishgard, all we know from 3.56 is that we're going to deal with Ala Mhigo first. When to Doma, is for us to look forward to.

I think the story is going to flow more naturally into Stormblood this time, rather than being on a cliffhanger for 3 months, it's gonna pick up all the threads where they left off.

Regarding Garlemald...

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Originally Posted by Theodric

No attempt at diplomacy was made. Nobody brought up Regula's sacrifice even though his storyline really should be considered to be an extension of the MSQ's given how relevant it is to the game's story moving forward. I just don't get it - the lore book took the time to flesh out Garlemald as more than just a generic 'evil empire' and one can even argue that the Garleans were dealt a very poor hand, being unable to wield aether in most cases and being driven out of fertile lands in favour of living in a dangerous wasteland. They sought to survive, eventually becoming defiant and embracing magitek and military might out of necessity.

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All of this is completely irrelevant right now. None of us know any of these things about their lands or their past, in-game; we just know that war with Garlemald is looming, and they haven't been especially open to bilateral negotiation in the past. Does the Eorzean Alliance even have communication channels with Ala Mhigo?

(I do agree that the Garlean Roe was more than a little bit cartoonish, and as much as I love me a good solo instance, I wish that sequence had been used to better effect. Maybe even as a way to introduce Zenos. I dunno. It's definitely my least favorite thing about the patch.

As for that checklist...well, Cilia covered most of what I wanted to say, but a couple other points:

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Originally Posted by Cilia

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY did everyone blindly accept Nero? Did we forget about Crystal Tower and trying to kill us?

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-Absolutely nobody accepted Nero. Half the people at the meeting didn't know who he was, and the other half didn't trust him as far as they could throw him.

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Plus, Crystal Tower was where he showed that he could be relied on in spite of himself, given the right circumstances. It's the only reason we "trust" him at all, to the point where I'm kinda curious how that scene plays out if the player hasn't done CT. Hell, we're even given the chance to Not Trust him ourselves, in those opinion options you disliked so much. Also...

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Originally Posted by Theodric

To be fair, Nero wasn't even wearing a helmet or headband. He literally walked into what should be one of the most secure locations in Gridania with his 'third eye' fully exposed. I was under the impression, as a Garlean role-player, that they would need to disguise themselves whilst roaming Eorzea's cities.

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I mean, he's a pretty sneaky dude. That, and the average Gridanian likely hasn't seen a Garlean outside their fully-armored conscripts and soldiers - the eye may not register at a quick glance, if they even got that. I could see nobody paying him too much mind until he ended up somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

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Originally Posted by Cilia

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

- WHY do we not even care about going to Doma? Why was it so forced for us to leave this area?

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-We don't even know we're going to Doma yet. All eyes are on the Wall and all thoughts are on what to do after the Alliance definitively holds it.

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In addition, we haven't been given the narrative thrust to do so, for the time being. This game has played with storytelling in an MMO environment since the start; this time, it would seem that they decided to provide us with a reason to move East once we could actually do so, rather than end with an explosion of urgency and then expect us to lollygag around our old stomping grounds for three months. Clearly, it's gotten mixed reception, but I can see why they did it. We'll get our reason for going to Othard in 4.0.