Patch 7.4 MSQ was Good. Bravo.

I stopped right before the trial and im gonna finish the msq and arcadion this weekend. Gotta say the dungeon was fire, the citizens of treno are lovable and im very happy as an ffix fan rn

I guess I will be the contrarian here in that I was not a fan of Krile, and was not all that excited to watch what is essentially the super special Krile patch. I am really hoping she isn't going to become the focus of a whole expansion, I might have to skip that. The Trial though was top notch. Really enjoyed it, enough that I might want to try the EX version, would be my first time for such a thing.

I was surprised to see them bring back "play as an NPC mode", but I'm glad they did the thing I thought they should do and made Krile super OP with an instakill AoE and powerful spells. It was never fun to have like four skills and have to fight a bunch of HP sponges, this was a huge improvement that didn't overstay its welcome and also made Krile look strong.




I'm not thrilled about more Calyx, especially with him talking like he's the good guy trying to save people.

https://i.imgur.com/oL6A0XN.gif

why? what else would the president be? Another random good looking person for the umpteenth time?

His age is irrelevant.

m9-12 are the best raids we've had since ShB

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Originally Posted by Fawkes

I was surprised to see them bring back "play as an NPC mode", but I'm glad they did the thing I thought they should do and made Krile super OP with an instakill AoE and powerful spells. It was never fun to have like four skills and have to fight a bunch of HP sponges, this was a huge improvement that didn't overstay its welcome and also made Krile look strong.

I'm not thrilled about more Calyx, especially with him talking like he's the good guy trying to save people.

https://i.imgur.com/oL6A0XN.gif

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Agreed! This was the first 'play as an NPC' instance I actually enjoyed.

As for Calyx - mixed feelings. They seem to be going for the 'obviously evil' trope with him. The 'Obviously Evil' trope:
They actively know people see them as the villain, but they believe they are doing everything to save their people. Despite doing horrific things to do so such as enslaving or destroying entire groups/cities/planets, or plundering unnecessarily massive numbers of resources for a "heroic" purpose the villain won't stop their plans. Often the villain will justify their actions with The Needs of the Many and will assuage their guilt with mental gymnastics. When confronted, the villain will often accept blame and won't try to defend themselves morally, instead focusing on their goals. May try to convince the hero that they can help and "We Can Rule Together".

Again - mixed feelings and will reserve judgement until we see where they're going with this story.

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Originally Posted by MoonNoire

I enjoyed 7.4's MSQ a lot. Not just the story, but the detail and care put into the characters' movements. There's a lot of bespoke animations for many scenes and I hope this will carry over into 7.5 and 8.0. The camera work was great, with almost every angle feeling dynamic and super cinematic. The dungeon was a little on the easy side but the trial was SO FUN. Really happy with this patch and I hope this keeps up

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Totally agree with this. It's been a breath of fresh air.

I'm so thrilled that it feels like Final Fantasy XIV is back!

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

Agreed! This was the first 'play as an NPC' instance I actually enjoyed.

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7.0 to 7.3 basically annihilated every interest I had in the MSQ, so I haven't touched 7.4 in any way... and probably won't, as my sub runs out in 4 days.
But this really got me interested :D I hate this NPC solo scenarios with a burning passion, so I really wonder if they finally got one right.

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Originally Posted by Gwenkatsu

7.0 to 7.3 basically annihilated every interest I had in the MSQ, so I haven't touched 7.4 in any way... and probably won't, as my sub runs out in 4 days.
But this really got me interested :D I hate this NPC solo scenarios with a burning passion, so I really wonder if they finally got one right.

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As someone who usually also dislikes those moments, I thought it was good.
It didn't overstay its welcome and actually made sense in the story as a "gameplay instead of only cutscene" thing.
The skills also weren't annoyingly underpowered and it even had outside combat moments.

Solo instances themselves imo aren't the problem but in the past they were completely overdone for the sake of it.
I personally would rate this one on the level of Metal gear Thancred in fun and interesting behaviour and as a good use for such instances.

I loved the solo duty too, and count me in as another who can't stand the "Play as this NPC" duties the rest of the time. When I saw we were playing as Krile, I was dreading the experience ahead.
Then I hit the butterfly attack and had a great time.
Finally, it's actually fun, as well as letting Krile be OP in 'her patch'. Gameplay-story integration that is actually a good experience, not a miserable one. I'm all here for this.

Too much Wuk still

I also had a great time with 7.4. Every character and interaction was dripping with charm. I'm someone who liked wuk lamat and dawntrail, and I genuinely think people will be kinder to it in retrospect. But I understand why the writing was putting people off. In my opinion, stong character concepts were emptied by repetitive dialogue that didn't have life, specificity, and charisma. But in 7.4, dialogue was well-crafted and used efficiently to give us new information about whoever was speaking.

I believe that if 7-7.2 was written like 7.4, everyone from players to staff would have had a better experience. I hope this proves how a good story is an important foundation to the rest of the game.

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Originally Posted by Evermomo

I'm someone who liked wuk lamat and dawntrail, and I genuinely think people will be kinder to it in retrospect

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I despised Wuk, but still couldn't help but to like her as we said our goodbyes and it hit her that we were all leaving. I wish the writers just did a better job with her in 7.0 as the over-exposure did not help her.

Krile being insanely OP in the part we play her and then when we're back into our own character during the boss got me wishing our allies could flex their individual spells more in Duty Support and Trusts. I genuinely think the system would be more entertaining if they did since most of our allies DO have really unique skills that we don't get, and right now, it's much slower to do content with the NPCs despite genuinely enjoying them, myself. I would never take Krile or G'raha out of my party if Butterfly Motif, Break, and Vanish were skills they would use in dungeons and not just solo instances and cutscenes!

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Originally Posted by Evermomo

I also had a great time with 7.4. Every character and interaction was dripping with charm. I'm someone who liked wuk lamat and dawntrail, and I genuinely think people will be kinder to it in retrospect. But I understand why the writing was putting people off. In my opinion, stong character concepts were emptied by repetitive dialogue that didn't have life, specificity, and charisma. But in 7.4, dialogue was well-crafted and used efficiently to give us new information about whoever was speaking.

I believe that if 7-7.2 was written like 7.4, everyone from players to staff would have had a better experience. I hope this proves how a good story is an important foundation to the rest of the game.

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7.4 was a massive step up and I feel what fans were hoping for from DT from the start. I feel a little vindicated giving 7.2-7.3 the benefit of the doubt for trending in the right direction (not 7.1, that was awful. Even worse than 7.0), if this is what the end result winds up being.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

I enjoyed the 7.4 MSQ. I feel like Krile finally got her due, including Krile power-trip moments that I enjoyed even though Krile ends up being a far more powerful Pictomancer than the player character.

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I totally agree. Krile was FUN to play. There's this history of playing other characters where they're so underpowered and you pray that the WoL will come on in and finish the battle.

This time around, Krile was intensely powerful and I loved it. Even on Normal mode it was a breath of fresh air.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

I totally agree. Krile was FUN to play. There's this history of playing other characters where they're so underpowered and you pray that the WoL will come on in and finish the battle.

This time around, Krile was intensely powerful and I loved it. Even on Normal mode it was a breath of fresh air.

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Krile's was definitely done right. Her being OP and with a very simple skill set made it easy to access for people who don't play casters. Anyone could just blow everything up.

In the past we had some very weak guest characters that were just awful to play as. I don't mind temporarily controlling another cast member if it's like Krile was.

I was bored out of my gourd. Where is the conflict? Where is the drama? Where is the action? Also where did all the men go??? The MSQ has been nothing but women, children and femboys since the lizard died. We desperately need some testosterone injected back into this game.

It was OK...

This is the quality we should've gotten from the initial patch, and we should not have needed to wait until 7.3 for something of this quality.

I feel like they poured all their effort into the first few cutscenes not gonna lie... It would also be nice if they actually started to deviate away from this whole Ascian business.

It was... okay.

I don't like Lalafells so maybe that's why it didn't do it for me.
Especially it was too little regarding Krile imo after they completely shafted her for the entirety of DT so far.

So no. 7.4 was not good, it was just okay.
I'd try to compare it to 6.4 but I have absolutely no recollection of that patch, but it definitely falls short of 5.4, 4.4 etc etc, you catch my drift.

The last two DT Patches so far feel like something that's okay-ish or mid gets praise just cause it was so bad for so long.

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Originally Posted by DarkOmegaGod

I was bored out of my gourd. Where is the conflict? Where is the drama? Where is the action? Also where did all the men go??? The MSQ has been nothing but women, children and femboys since the lizard died. We desperately need some testosterone injected back into this game.

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Finally someone hit the nail on the head
Hire fans

I thought the story was incredibly mid. They only actually got my attention at the very end with the whole Withering thing they are setting up. Everything prior to that would have put me to sleep entirely if not for all the FF9 Easter eggs keeping me somewhat engaged.

So i was doing a personal discord review as i went along so i can recall my first impressions of the MSQ. - i enjoyed it. more below. massive spoilers ofc

One thing i was surprised at was it was like an MSQ movie. i didnt mind it but whilst cutscenes are playing the player is doing nothing.
i found it both hilarious and surprising at the twins almost immediate yeet out of the story. though. sadly. and pathetically.. this made sense rather later on.
i was irritated at wuk lamat being even in this patch and how she spoke about erenville. it was a good send off even - if it included her. (no the sad cat eyes didnt make me feel bad)

Graha EN voice took me out of the msq immersion slightly. considering hes in it alot.

Shale. what can i say about this VA. her voice is perfection. such tones ♥
i thought so in 7.3. still think it. i could listen to this person speak all day and not be bored. shes like the noise of raindrops. soothing and relaxing.

the .. sudden oh wait we can go to the 9th and these people might exist was .. a little jarring. sudden reflection jump. the fact yshtola and graha were not more excited over this is confusing.

but as i said .. i was still puzzled about grahas voice so was distracted.

unexpected dungeon cave was surprising. but it was a good dungeon.
so joyful to see folks fighting and surviving in the background. not seen that since SB i think. even during the SHB -> EW dungeons folks were dying to mobs around us.

Every single scene Lumull was in was wonderful. Hope he is in furture msq as he is most assuredly a favourite NPC now. (an fc person said it reminded him of stewie and i totally agree)

but this is where i see why Alisae and Alphi got kicked off the MSQ. cant have two brother and sister. its like Koana and Graha all over again. every time Koana came with us, graha stayed behind and vice versa

I did not get Kriles stress. like .. it was out of the blue. i got it and i understood why she might feel like that but she did a 180 on personality here. she was fine one quest then had angst the next? should have been some mild build up.

The doom train history was unhinged! like... shades of Mhach? (spelling prolly)
didnt they use a demon in their ship. very similar. arcane entity .. would like to have known more about this. this was an awesome lore drop.

to do go into a duty calls directly afterwards was ... well.. thats good.. but wtf did we sit thru an entire msqmovie with doing zero then have a trial and duty back to back.
pacing again.

krile is apparently the new WOL and is utterly OP. srsly i doubt there was an easy mode for that duty. i would have concerns for folk who needed it.

ngl i seem to have gotten destracted as i literally only have a screenie of callyx after.

i do recall the ascian amused me. and i was annoyed at being jebaited at going into the town hall.

im gonna be looking at any stuffed toy in any msq location sus now XD

Main story patch 7.4

If Sphene is going to be queen of Alexandria then she really, really should be accompanied by at least one or two loyal Alexandrians to bodyguard her or act as her retainers. Hire some of those outskirts hunters or Arcadion fighters, I am sure some of them would be okay with being royal bodyguards. It is unreasonable for her to expect that the Scions would be at her beck and call to escort her everywhere, and she definitely can't go out into the world alone.

Sphene's diplomatic mission to the surviving towns on the Ninth means nothing for Alexandria because the stargate is located within Tural's territory in South America, not where Alexandria is now located in North America. Any trade from Treno through the stargate to Alexandria would have to first go through the stargate and emerge in Tural, and pass through hundreds or thousands of miles within Tural's domain before reaching Alexandria. Aside from specialized Electrope support, there is no way for Alexandria to beat Tural as a trade partner for the towns of the Ninth as the costs of overland travel and border tariffs would cause the prices of Alexandria goods to increase. So Sphene just enriched her neighboring country that she was just at war with rather than her own.

Despite us visiting a town inhabited by Lalafells, we haven't gotten any actual Lalafell lore or culture like when we went to the Azim Steppe and learned about Xaela, or Viera, or the Dwarves on the First. Disappointing.

The Doomtrain was a fun boss. Cool mode, and the first boss fight we have had in - how many years? - that has terrain on the field, with there being two floors and crates you can hide behind. It feels somewhat WoW-esque with how the fight moves from train platform to platform.

More repetitive longwinded goodbyes for people we had JUST met.

Calyx is back. I am starting to sense a pattern. Ever since Ishikawa started touching the main story during Stormblood, she has been trapped in this pattern where she writes a villain, the villain is not well received, so then she brings the villain back from the dead and tries to play him off more sympathetically to "redeem" him. She did this with Yostuyu, then Zenos, then Asahi/Fandaniel, then Sphene, and now Calyx. Calyx is a turbo mass murderer who dissolves people's souls into liquid aether so they can't even reincarnate via the Lifestream so he can achieve a parody of eternal life. Look forward to his sad goodbye scene in the next expansion and the historical revisionism about how he was such a misunderstood, tragic soul.

We get a new character introduced named Halmarut, who is a surviving sundered Ascian. In spite of Yoshida's promise that the Ascian story ended in 6.0. And now Halmarut is insinuating that because Hydaelyn is gone, the Reflections are going to collapse. What happened to the brand new storyline that was promised? Instead this is just a continuation/rehash of the first storyline.

Halmarut's faux ditzy bookworm girl mannerisms do not make her very intriguing as a villain. At least, not at the moment. I didn't find Emet interesting in the ShB patches either, but given what happened to the FF14 story after ShB I am not confident they will pull another rabbit out of their hat like him.

The main story continues to be bad and is why I keep dragging my feet to do it whenever a new patch comes out. The pacing continues to be abysmally slow. There is no tension as no one or places we care about are truly at risk, villains are not threatening.


Arcadion tier 3 story

The story overall ended as anticipated (ie the President was not evil, everything turns out alright) and was okay. There was nothing really wrong with it, but I am little jaded of the "actually, the villain did it all for you! He was the true hero all along sacrificing himself against the true threat!" I have seen over and over and over again. It presents a world in which there is all of this fighting and kidnappings and other foul things happening, but there are no perpetrators. Everybody was a good boy, and evil does not exist.

Arcadion story likewise wound up having a lackluster ending since the villainy and tension/consequences evaporated.

Doomtrain fight was a novel fight, though.

my only issue with the msq is that i am so damn sick of ascians

7.4 was a breath of fresh air, I really enjoyed it
The pacing was great (apart from the slow start), the people of Treno are charming and I loved all the hype moments for Krile
The only thing I'm concerned is how cute they made Halmarut, I really hope she does not become the writer's pet or draw too much attention to her
I hope that we can have another Shadowbringers after we had a repeat of Stormblood

It was ok. Halmarut seemed entertaining enough and it wasn't very bloated, but there could have been more set up for Krile's bench scene, since it kinda comes out of nowhere due to prior lack of screentime. It'll probably be looked on favourably next patch when they destroy Treno and fire off the Chekov's gun about the sister's broken leg to hype up 8.0.

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

my only issue with the msq is that i am so damn sick of ascians

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Same... same...
But if deviating from "akshually it was dem darn ascians again!" means the end result is something like Dawntrail then.... I begrudingly accept the absolute non-threat, they play up, that are non-unsundered Ascians.

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Originally Posted by Jeeqbit

I feel like its story will successfully help people appreciate what wrestling is supposed to be, because not many people do.

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"Everything is fake, but sometimes real life writes the plot."
Some people might be annoyed that there's no real villain here, but it's honestly one of the few places where it makes sense. Just a couple tragic accidents, but the show must go on. I liked it.

I'm just hoping, since the new plot seems to concern the shards, that we can finally break Ryne out of cold storage and interact with her again. She got done so dirty in Endwalker

7.0 to 7.4: "with the key you can travel anywhere", maybe in 7.5 or 7.55 the key might actually be used by the WoL.

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Originally Posted by Avenheit

my only issue with the msq is that i am so damn sick of ascians

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I'm the polar opposite.

I'm very glad to see the Ascians back. We tried a new story with Dawntrail. It sucked. It failed.

Let's go back to what WORKS. Ascians are virtually unlimited in power and influence, and the sundered Ascians is a very interesting plotline now that the Unsundered are all gone.

I would rather play a story that continues 10+ years of my life than deal one more second with Wuk Lamat or any other derpy character that we have to help.

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Originally Posted by Veritas-Ancora

Now let's hear what you think.

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MSQ Story was good. I'm really excited that Halmarut is voiced by Saori Hayami.
I'm not sure why you didn't like the Arcadion Story. If you think the story made zero sense maybe you didn't pay attention to the story?
I did not find the first boss challenging. Everything is telegraphed and you just need people to hit the additional targets during that part of the encounter.

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Originally Posted by ViinaS

Same... same...
But if deviating from "akshually it was dem darn ascians again!" means the end result is something like Dawntrail then.... I begrudingly accept the absolute non-threat, they play up, that are non-unsundered Ascians.

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The problem of the Ascians is that they didn't solve every accountable seat member before "finishing" their story in Endwalker.

Not dealing with the remaining Ascians is a big plot hole because of who they are and the kind of power they wield, so either they repurpose their use into a new story (which is what it seems to be happening with this one) or just resolve them offscreen and just relay the information somehow. For example, confirming that Gaius actually found a way to deal with the two that he had masks of.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

The problem of the Ascians is that they didn't solve every accountable seat member before "finishing" their story in Endwalker.

Not dealing with the remaining Ascians is a big plot hole because of who they are and the kind of power they wield, so either they repurpose their use into a new story (which is what it seems to be happening with this one) or just resolve them offscreen and just relay the information somehow. For example, confirming that Gaius actually found a way to deal with the two that he had masks of.

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To be honest, beyond a point, I think they should be resolved off screen... As there are a few unaccounted for Ascians, which could quite as easily last an entire new arc... As much as I love that side of the story, I'm not sure I'm mentally equipped for another several expansions of... "It was Ascians all along"

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

To be honest, beyond a point, I think they should be resolved off screen... As there are a few unaccounted for Ascians, which could quite as easily last an entire new arc... As much as I love that side of the story, I'm not sure I'm mentally equipped for another several expansions of... "It was Ascians all along"

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Yeah, I suppose resolved off screen is better than leaving a loose thread all the way.

I'd even say it's a good candidate for those short stories they publish once in a while.

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Originally Posted by BokoToloko

7.4 MSQ was a nice parenthesis.

Now, I should commend whoever wrote the Arcadion's finale. It's the second time in my life a finale has made me want to forget the whole storyline existed to begin with (the first was The Great Deceiver). Congratulations.

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I know im in minority but the finale was kinda meh.....like im not gonna spoil it ofcourse but yeah i miss when actions had consequences seriously.....tho i am happy to see a certain fighter but yeah i did not enjoy it. The music was banging but m12 was also lacking jesus wtf was that fight. SE budget cut again that fight was boring af hell Howling blade and wicked thunder fight was way fucking better....M12 saved its funding for the Savage version no doubt the normal to that fight was legit snore fest.

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Originally Posted by Zakuyia

Snip

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If they wanted to do an actual 180, they could have invested more time into the character, so that there would be more weight to everything. Instead, that juxtaposition was placed at the near end with few dialogues. There was no buildup to it whatsoever.

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Originally Posted by TeresaFortell

If they want to do an actual 180, they could have invested more time into the character. Instead, that juxtaposition was placed at the near end with few dialogues. No buildup to it whatsoever.

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that right there is what should have happened instead they just literally.....built up a moment just to play the SAFE route with the story....like this is me not being exposed to forum i loved the arcadian up until the whole YOU THOUGHT IT WAS I Moment of the fight....yeah i was not a fan of the ending persay with a certain someone but overall Im happy i stood with a certain lalafel and im happy to see that lalafel either way that cliche point really tells me the writers were not sure how to set up the BBEG....another Hermes and Meteon moment honestly....

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

To be honest, beyond a point, I think they should be resolved off screen... As there are a few unaccounted for Ascians, which could quite as easily last an entire new arc... As much as I love that side of the story, I'm not sure I'm mentally equipped for another several expansions of... "It was Ascians all along"

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At this point Dawntrail shows me they were so scared to introduce new villians that they either played safe or grab something the community would latch onto and im calling it now. They are planning to redeem the ascians and make them out to not be villians but to be broken people who are just depressed about the final days.

I liked 7.4 MSQ a lot.

I also liked the conclusion to The Arcadion, but I can understand why some people were disappointed with it (especially those who don't understand wrestling kayfabe to begin with.)

Brute Bomber's "miraculous recovery" was the part that stuck in my craw the most, though. Stop being afraid to kill off your characters, SE!