Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

[Nalien]

Ugh, was that scene with Papalymo holding Tupsimati a flashback, or is he returning? If the later, can't help but noticed Yda is missing... Please don't let my random speculation that Yda will be captured in some fashion... Take Papalymo instead!
Derplander and his group turning Primals against their tribes? Pretty good plan honestly... Use their own trump card against them and what will they do exactly? Faced against the Garleans, they could just pray harder... Now? Summon Titan and he kills you, dumb plan... End scene had them using Crystals of Light for something... Are they theirs, though? There's a scene with the Warrior of Light chained up by Derplander, time to lose our Blessing of Light again?! "Guide my hand, I pray you", who ya praying to there Derpy?

Who gave the Ixali steroids? Mistook that final boss for an Amalj'aa for a while... Summoning Garuda like Ultima Weapon? Wonder if that's a new form of summoning, one we could perhaps take advantage of as well? After Derplanders group is seemingly turning Primals against their tribe, you really cannot expect me not to bring up Free Company Primal Summoning, can you? As I say every bloody patch, "maybe they're finally justifying it in the lore!"

Living Flame as out referential boss this time? Every patch has had one, kinda lame though, considering we already practically had him in Gordias... Final boss looks like a tiny version of the guys from Bravely Default... I'll now find it unacceptable if he doesn't say "S-splendid!" upon defeat...

Sophia... Thank you SE... I had a long rant about content ready a few days back, but it really had little to do with lore, but I was going to mention how I wish more Trails were like Steps of Faith (pre-nerf) and/or Turn 9, Sophia potentially looks like Turn 9, where the battlefield will change to kind of tell a story? It's the best SE can probably do with "Here is a square/circle, fight in it", so I'm glad to see more going on with Sophia than Sephirot... Most of the narrative in both fights is still probably going to come from the songs though, shame... Really wish we could get more stuff like Steps of Faith... The actual fight alone told me Dravanians were dangerous, Vishap was unique and the tense atmosphere it was originally tuned to was a damn near perfect set up for Heavensward...

Alexander, likewise, looks more involved... Actually starting outside and fighting our way to the top and in? Awesome. A lot of people are shouting "It's Ark!" at that one boss, but it has a passing resemblance to Mobile Type 8 IMO... I mean, it turns into an Airship, so... It's Ark! Although going back to my non-existent rant... Yay, another case of mechanics trumping narrative! He lets us jump on him, presumably to avoid some form of attack... Slotting him in with Xandes and his ilk for now, how am I meant to take bosses seriously when they actively help us like this?

Guy in the mask is Ilberd... Seem to remember that voice from the instance where we recuse Raubahn in 3.0, it's... Distinctive...

Guessing Palace of the Dead is to Tactics Ogre what Crystal Tower is to Final Fantasy III at this point... Wont get my hopes up for it as an event though, already been told its very grindy, and while 1-50 had some interesting things to discover (namely other dead NPCs), it really didn't have a lot going on... Would be nice if you could also find some random bits of lore lying around, kinda like with Dusk Vigil and other dungeons like it... Quite a lot they could fill it with, Amdapori lore, Gelmorra, and this necromancer... Shame the actual event is barren, just the story at the end of it... Sigh, if only we could get more events that actually have a narrative in doing... Besieged was so great at that, it wasn't some lame instance in which you're told the world is at stake... You were actually defending a city, you did it to defend the city... Not once did the game need to tell you that the area was a battlefield, you experienced the fact that it was... XIVs really lacking that kind of mix between gameplay and narrative... Even Sophia, as hyped as I am for her, is mostly getting exposition via song, not the actual sequence of fighting her...

[Cilia]

-ellipsis-filled rant, mostly about wanting Besiged / Hamlet Defense and complaints with the storytelling-

Given the scene with Papalymo has the sepia filter normally used in flashbacks... yeah. Might explain where that damn staff went off to after we used it to blow up Nabriales.

While it does look similar, I'm not yet convinced that's Ark. It would be a damn shame for him to go from "Alexander's dark inversion" to [sub-]boss within Alexander himself. Stranger things have happened, though.

It's probably Ilberd. Masked Man does seem to have the same Cockney-ish accent Ilberd did in the one scene he had spoken dialogue in 3.0. Hardly surprising, though.

Palace of the Dead 51-100 will have story and not be so rough. I think. I remember them saying 101-200 will be the super-grindy part.

[Nalien]

While it does look similar, I'm not yet convinced that's Ark. It would be a damn shame for him to go from "Alexander's dark inversion" to [sub-]boss within Alexander himself. Stranger things have happened, though.

Plot twist, Ark isn't the boss! Would actually make him letting us (presumably) ride him to survive some mechanic interesting... Xandes effectively casting Float on us before casting Ancient Quaga and I find that insufferable from a narrative perspective... Obviously fights need mechanics, but... Ugh... Having Ark effectively be, somehow (Mide or something), our counter to Alexander? Fits as a Final Fantasy IX reference, sorta, and doesn't have me bashing my head against the nearest surface going "WHY IS THE BOSS HELPING ME?!"

Would actually make for an interesting fight... I don't think we have any group fights in which NPCs support us... Cait Sith follows us through Weeping City, but s/he only gets involved in a cutscene, would be quite entertaining to have such an ally actually play a role in the fight... Damn, Ravana would have been so interesting like that...

Wild fantasies though, it's probably just another dumb boss... Hopefully it's just Mobile Type 8 and they're saving Ark for something later... Would make for a pretty fitting boss for the Garlean expansion... Always kinda figured it'd be a raid like Alexander...

Palace of the Dead 51-100 will have story and not be so rough. I think. I remember them saying 101-200 will be the super-grindy part.

That's what I've heard... My issue is more that the story is just at the end... It's not woven in with the event itself, Palace of the Dead is just clear a floor, open chests, move onto the next... Having a story at the end of that is fine, I just wish there was more story going on floor to floor... They kinda did what I'm getting at, with the additional NPCs that occasionally show up, just wish there was more stuff like that going on, to make the grind more entertaining... There's plenty they could explore down there, two civilizations worth of ruins (at least), perhaps even some other adventurers found there way down there treasure hunting... Finding a corpse and it leading you to a secret on that floor? That's interesting, the breaks up the stale grind... Fighting a bomb near a wall and it blows a hole into an Amdapori library for us to discover some lore in? I'd love that...

Here's to Deep Dungeons II, I suppose...

[DarthSanguine]

While it does look similar, I'm not yet convinced that's Ark. It would be a damn shame for him to go from "Alexander's dark inversion" to [sub-]boss within Alexander himself. Stranger things have happened, though.

Ark was the counterpart to Madeen, not Alexander, since Alexander only appeared in a cutscene.

Thing is though, in the only other game Ark has been a summon in (besides the Dissidias): Final Fantasy Legends: Toki no Suishō, he was Light elemental, not dark. His attack's name being changed to divine fate.
Here's what he looked like in that game:

[Cilia]

Ark was the counterpart to Madeen, not Alexander, since Alexander only appeared in a cutscene.

Thing is though, in the only other game Ark has been a summon in (besides the Dissidias): Final Fantasy Legends: Toki no Suishō, he was Light elemental, not dark. His attack's name being changed to divine fate.

I know what they changed him to in another game, but in IX (his only main series appearance) Ark is the dark foil to Alexander.

Both are transforming mechas; Alexander from a castle, Ark from an airship.
Alexander is the most powerful Gaian eidolon. Ark is the only known Terran eidolon.
Alexander deals light damage (presumably). Ark deals dark damage.
Alexander's attack as per series tradition is "Holy Judgment." Ark's attack is "Eternal Darkness," or for a literal translation from the Japanese version, "Dark Fate."
Alexander is earthbound. Ark is skybound.

... etc.

[Theodric]

I wonder if Yda will make the mistake of siding with the Ala Mhigan Resistance. We know Ilberd isn't a particularly pleasant or sane person and will no doubt engage in yet more horrific acts in the name of his misguided cause. It also seems like he's...interested in reclaiming Ala Mhigo so that he can be in a position of power.

I'm assuming that it is indeed Ilberd. It seems likely - there's many signs that point to it and he's a great way for the story to move towards having the Warrior of Light see Garlemald in a more sympathetic light if he starts killing Garleans indiscriminately.