3.2 Sephiroth

[Nalien]

Bismarck I can perhaps understand, of all the Primals he seems the most... Primal... That was actually kind of refreshing. The rest though? OK, Garuda is insane. Titan and Ifrit weren't horrible, but there could definitely be more there. Leviathan was utterly horrible, literally summoned and swims off... Ramuh was much better, though suffers from the same "I clearly know more than I'm letting on, but I wont tell!" thing Middy has going... Shiva and Thordan I'd discredit due to their special nature, and Odin is as bad as Leviathan, although his combat dialog is far more interesting. Ravana really is probably the best we've gotten, better than Ramuh if only because I get no sense that Ravana is really aware of anything...

That said, all the Extreme versions are terrible... You'd think Titan would have something to say about Kobolds resorting to a sacrificial ritual to summon him, given how much he wants to protect them... Nope though, all the Extremes are essentially the same as Leviathan. Summoned, and we have to deal with them... How'd the tribes react to us defeating them the first time? How'd the Primals react to a rematch? There's nothing like that. Granted they basically just exist to give players an extra challenge, but it still strikes me as a huge missed opportunity...

Given the gravitas around the Warring Triad, I really hope they're not just another rehash of "Haha! I'm a Primal and must be stopped!". They've all got history, they've all got motivations, would be nice to see that touched upon more... With Sephirot we've got what? His tribe is seemingly long gone. He'd be waking up angry at an enemy that has been dead for Eras. There's a lot they can do with that, I hope they don't just go for the same "All humans are bad!" that most Primals have already done to death...

[Cilia]

Given the gravitas around the Warring Triad, I really hope they're not just another rehash of "Haha! I'm a Primal and must be stopped!". They've all got history, they've all got motivations, would be nice to see that touched upon more... With Sephirot we've got what? His tribe is seemingly long gone. He'd be waking up angry at an enemy that has been dead for Eras. There's a lot they can do with that, I hope they don't just go for the same "All humans are bad!" that most Primals have already done to death...

There's no history or gravitas surrounding them in Eorzea (XIV). There is as VI's "contribution" to the story, and in their home game, but besides that the Warring Triad is just like Bahamut - primals from a bygone age who will probably go on a rampage and bring about a Calamity if left unchecked. In-universe, all we know is that they're called the Warring Triad. That's it. Out-of-universe we know the first of the three is named Sephirot, and from that we can infer the other two will be Zurvan and Sophia, but that tells us nothing of their character or motivations. Regardless, from what we understand sealing away primals just causes them to build up anger and hate they then take out on the world in its present state no matter who is to blame when they're let out of their can.

Granted, that's just running on Bahamut, and he was a kind of special case (kept conscious within Dalamud for five millennia while being forced to listen to his worshipers' pleas - understandably driven insane), but we don't yet know what the situation with the Triad is like yet. We see some foliage in Sephirot's arena, and there's organic gunk in the Triad Control chamber, but... nothin'. Now it would be really boring (or at least repetitive) to have them just replay Bahamut's wrath or just have them show up, fight us, and then disappear, but we don't know anything about the Triad in-universe yet, beyond that they were captured by the Allagans in 3AE and imprisoned on Azys Lla.

... we'll have to stop them anyway, because it's been drilled into our heads that "Primals are bad, mmkay?", but there is stuff they could do with them...

[Nalien]

snip

I know, I'm simply hoping that there is more to them, seeing as they're pretty much a direct reference along the lines of Crystal Tower. Crystal Tower wasn't just a tower that showed up for a cheap Final Fantasy III reference, there was some substantial lore behind it. I would hope the Warring Triad are handled in a similar fashion, not just because they're a massive reference to Final Fantasy VI, but because I'm honestly sick of how Primals are handled. I would hope our interactions with them boarder on something similar to our interactions with Ramuh, although even Ramuh left something to be desired.

That said, I expect nothing. We'll get the typical "Rawr, I'm a Primal!" and perhaps some exposition from Unukalhai amounting to "trees loved this guy". Alexander was honestly the last straw, perhaps they'll eventually redeem him, but at this point I'm just sick of what little character Primals have being wasted or nonexistent. Perhaps they've just become too standard, perhaps Shiva and Thordan created an unwelcome shift (though given I'm still very much anticipating FC Primal summoning, they were quite welcome), but it's been a long time since I've felt like I'm fighting "Gods". Ravana, for as much as I like him, might as well just be a Gnath on steroids at this point. We never see the damage these creatures cause, we only ever get a hint in the main scenario (Ravana verses Shiva, for example).

I know people are probably sick of me going on about Final Fantasy IX, but that is a game that got "Primals" right. Huge let down when you finally get to summon them, but when you see Odin or Atomos for the first time? F*cking hell XIV needs something like that. Bahamut certainly got that treatment with the End of an Era, I just want to see something like that in game. End of an Era was a very long time ago now... Remind me why these things are a threat, instead of just going "Alexander will drain all the aether! Lets leave him alone for months!". Alexander very much fails the rule of "show, don't tell". We're told he is a thread, while all we see is a pathetic giant that can't even crawl out of a river... If the Warring Triad are handled the same... Like I said, I hope there is more to them. Show me that they're ancient gods, don't just show me another angry Primal that does nothing and expect me to give a sh*t when I'm told they were a serious threat.