Revelations from Patch 4.1

[Dualblade]

I'll try to make a lore post later but found this poking around:

Don't remember it being there before (and I know some things here have changed a bit post-patch)

I'm not sure if its anything but:

During the Hildy (well, Nashu) quest, about halfway through a Thief/Ninja was being chased by two Samurai and was cornered, with the Samurai calling for the alarm to be raised...and they stayed there until after I finished the quest at which point all three characters were gone. Its possible it had nothing to do with Hildy, and even been around since 4.0 came out. But the Thief/Ninjas outfit was similar to the female's outfit in the pic. Sadly I don't have my own pic to show it off.

Ivalice

Meh.

In all seriousness, I'm still apathetic about it. Working with non-Imperial Garleans was nice (even if Ramza was kind of a douche when first we met him), and humanizing Solus by having him be a patron of the arts was another nice touch. That Varis is cracking down on and censoring such entertainment just shows he's... well, basically Solus v2.0, and my "likelihood to ally with" value is going down.

That said, from what I skimmed it's... basically trying to do the framework of Tactics. Translate the Durai Report(s) so that the world knows Delita was helped by Ramza (and that Ivalice was a really real thing).

A lot of the references went over my head, since I only played about half of XII and never touched Tactics (I got Fire Emblem for my SRPG fix - hoping I can get Olivia Alter before her banner expires in Heroes. I mean, I got Azura Alter, who is probably objectively better, but I like getting all the limited time waifu units). The only ones I really got were Mateus and Ba'Gamnan.

Not sure why they're making such a big deal out of the auracite. Isn't it already known to be extant on Hydaelyn - a white variety Moenbryda supplied us with to kill Ascians, at least?

/10char

The second boss, Hashmal, is one of the Esper from the Ivalice games like Mateus. Third boss Rofocale from what I've read was originally going to be one of the Espers in Tactics but was cut/dummied out and replaced. In XII Shemhazai ends up taking its spot. The final boss is Argath, a sometimes ally but eventual enemy that causes part of the plot to my understanding.

[KageTokage]

I'm not sure if its anything but:

During the Hildy (well, Nashu) quest, about halfway through a Thief/Ninja was being chased by two Samurai and was cornered, with the Samurai calling for the alarm to be raised...and they stayed there until after I finished the quest at which point all three characters were gone. Its possible it had nothing to do with Hildy, and even been around since 4.0 came out. But the Thief/Ninjas outfit was similar to the female's outfit in the pic. Sadly I don't have my own pic to show it off.[/hb]

That's a male Xaela; more specifically, one from the Buduga tribe (The one that consists entirely of men, whom Magnai also had Hien help with their daily chores during the MSQ).

Wonder if the guy is a messenger, or maybe he just has a crush on him.

I also kind of wonder if maybe Hien will try to improve Doma's relations with the people of the steppe in the future, because it seems like they've had little interaction when it could likely be mutually beneficial.

[FJerome]

During the Hildy (well, Nashu) quest, about halfway through a Thief/Ninja was being chased by two Samurai and was cornered, with the Samurai calling for the alarm to be raised...and they stayed there until after I finished the quest at which point all three characters were gone. Its possible it had nothing to do with Hildy, and even been around since 4.0 came out. But the Thief/Ninjas outfit was similar to the female's outfit in the pic. Sadly I don't have my own pic to show it off.

If you're talking about the NPCs that run through the Rakuza District towards the stairs that lead to Bokairo Inn, I can confirm that's been around since 4.0. Unless the thief didn't manage to get away in which case . . . new evolving background story?

[Chewy2nd]

Ivalice spoilers

I liked learning more about Garlemald from actual citizens, rather than from their military, there seem to be a lot of level headed people in the Empire, it's a shame for them, that they are ruled by a rather bloodthirsty Emperor. I liked that there were a few Garlean apologists, saying that they wish we hadn't killed so many of their conscripted troops