Patch 3.4 - Soul Surrender

[Fenral]

And so I wonder, could the Allagans have referred to progenitors of the Miqo'te as beastmen? In fact, where did the Miqo'te even come from? I'm yet to see a single Allagan that fit's that description...
...except one.

But they're a descendant of Allag, and have royal blood sufficient to operate the Crystal Tower, and not a Hyur.

Oh gosh, I'm heading down the rabbit hole again. Help!!!

There is absolutely no significance whatsoever to the only non-Garlean we've met who can prove direct descent from Allag being a Miqo'te. None. Whatsoever. At all. It's a total coincidence with no bearing on the lore. And it's definitely never coming up again. Ever. These are not the droids you're looking for.

But seriously, until something happens in the MSQ to prove otherwise, the Crystal Tower (as we experienced it) is entirely non-canon, Cid and co. were simply elsewhere between 2.0 and 2.55 working on Manacutter tech, and Krile has taken on any future plot importance that aforementioned nonentity could have had in a universe where aforementioned nonentity actually ever existed.

[Alleo]

I just hope that SE did choose the sequence of the speech on purpose so that we think that Urianger is on the other side. Because if its true than they just would have told us an important part of the patch so I still hope that he tells this to Elidibus, maybe after finding out that they nearly killed Alisae?

But its true the German trailer is quite different. No signs of betrayal and the last part is about the trade of a soul for a world. So maybe they were promised by Elidibus that if they kill us they will get their own world back? So they are kinda fighting for a good cause but the Ascians are just using them to get rid of us? I mean they catch us, tell Alphinaud (in the German trailer) to step aside and after that raise their crystal. Maybe we are the soul they want to use as a trade-in? Or maybe they want to save this world but were told that they need our soul for this? So they would do anything thats necessary to safe a world. Or one of the party members was saved and as a trade they have to end this world.

Hopefully we are not just standing there helpless. X_X Let this end with a instanced fight where nobody truly wins (three vs. five is not a good balance) and its end with departure of them..so our character would not be too strong but also not suddenly weak..

[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...

[Aerish]

For me it looks like they are doing the same kind of summon when shiva came to life

[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...

[ZhaneX]

What would be really cool is if they added Ark (Presuming that's what it is) as a Mount you could get as a reward for Savage.

[VargasVermillion]

But they're a descendant of Allag, and have royal blood sufficient to operate the Crystal Tower, and not a Hyur.

Except he wasn't the only one to have claim of allagan heritage. We all remember the last guy who was apparently of allagan decent to the point his family had access to knowledge about Dalamud that no one else had.

[WhiteArchmage]

About the Xande thing, he's casting Float on 3 people, the fact that we use said float to save the alliance is an unforseen consecuence (why cast it? wanting to see despair on the eyes of those 3 adventurers before ofing them himself? which is exactly what would happen if 3 squishies are left alive after everyone else bites it. Alternatively, he's been driven mad, so he's not thinking all that straight).

Granted, the actual important thing is... how is Ark saving us from Alexander? from how it looks in the trailer we leap into Ark to save us from himself crashing into the arena, essentially hijacking him with little more than our WoL powers (since those arrows seems more mechanics markers than coming from Ark). I'm still most looking forward to Sophia's story, Alexander may be my favorite summon in the series but... there's been very little focus on HIM so far, hopefully with us actually fighting him for A12 that'll change.

[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: