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.

[Quor]

Fordola's future

That's exactly what I'm thinking will happen.

It'll set up some nice "kouhai/senpai" moments with Fordola I think, as we, the elder Echo user, teach her how to deal with the powers and side effects of the Echo. She could easily become a Scion (eventually) and still satisfy her desire to protect Ala Mhigo. She'll just be protecting it in a way few others can. A possible Arenvald/Fordola relationship would also be great, and was heavily hinted at.

As for Ivalice:

So we're in agreement that FF14 is, at least given our current info, an actual direct sequel to FFT? That's what all this implies anyway. If Arazlam Durai is actually *the* Arazlam from Tactics, then that means Eorzea is Ivalice, and it's quite possible that the Tactics story may have happened as one of the potential Calamities that was avoided. Or maybe it wasn't avoided, and just delayed. We can't know at this moment, but taking things at face value, it seems like Eorzea and Ivalice are one in the same, just different names for the same world at different points in time. Based on what Argath said at the end, it hints to Ramza or Lina being of Beoulve descent. Maybe Alma and Orran got busy? It would make sense, but I'm not ruling Lina out yet. It wouldn't be the first time a reporter ended up much more central to the story than just as a person who was there for "the story." It also wouldn't be the first time a Mi'qote was the possessor of an ancient bloodline that ended up being the key to a 24-man raid.

MSQ in general:

Well done. Fordola's unintentional punishment was actually kind of brutal. Her experience diving into the WoL's memories was a nice touch, and well done, albeit too brief for my liking. I'll give it a pass, as there's plenty more time for her and the WoL to interact, but I'd like to see more from Fordola asking us about what we've done, what we've been through and how we keep on doing what we do. The lead-in to Ala Mhigo developing it's own government was a good one, and I'm glad both Nanamo and Rauhban have their place. In the future, I'd like to see some kind of Garlean counter attack that we fight off, followed by hints of resistance coming from within the Empire itself as the people opposed to Varis' rule begin to agitate against him more openly. That plus the Ivalice line would be an excellent lead in to "the other side" of Garlemald, and provide a foundation for working with Garleans that doesn't hand-wave the atrocities the Empire has caused.

[Mysterysword]

As for Ivalice:

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. FF XIV is in no way a sequel to FF T. Just as how Kingdom Hearts is not a sequel of FF/Disney. Can people just stop trying to link completely different games and canons together? Just accept that they are different worlds.

On Fordola

If she gets a redemption arc, it absolutely needs to be excruciating for her. I won't accept anything less, because to do so would be to gloss over everything she's done, which includes murder, torture, and, you know, killing her own people, as well as her friends and comrades. Sure, she regrets it, but so far, her redemption hasn't convinced me. I much preferred Ysayle's arc.

[Dualblade]

While there could be ways to have made Ivalice and XIV compatible with XIV joing the Ivalice Alliance prior to this patch, no XIV is not a sequel to Tactics/part of the Ivalice Alliance. At most its an alternate universe like Tactics Advance, except with Ivalice being a much smaller part instead of being the whole world.

[Tarrinus]

Regarding the scene with the two Garlean officers talking.

If the implication is that Elidibus has Zenos's body would that mean that he'd also have the an artificial Echo?

[Quor]

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No. FF XIV is in no way a sequel to FF T. Just as how Kingdom Hearts is not a sequel of FF/Disney. Can people just stop trying to link completely different games and canons together? Just accept that they are different worlds.

You should uh, probably talk to Yoshi about that. Because based on what I saw and heard, it doesn't really sound like they're all that separate anymore lol. But more seriously, it seems like the Ivalice raid was a directed effort to do exactly that; link two games and canons together. This feels like more than mere nostalgic reference. Even prior to all of this, back in 3.x, we had warnings as to the dangers of auracite, and I can only speak for myself, but I initially brushed off the auracite name as nothing more than another reference done in the FF14 context. Now we have seen firsthand what those auracite-related dangers can be. Furthermore, we have delved headfirst into a heretofore unknown (or nearly) part of world history, something so huge that it will literally re-write the past. As I said before, this feels like more than just a reference to a past series of games. This feels deliberate, and I highly doubt that they brought in the original writer of FFT to work on a nostalgia trip.



Now I'm not saying 100% that they are one-in-the-same. But I am saying it would behoove us to keep an open mind about it, and my open mind sees the evidence and thinks that there is more to this than a trip down memory lane.

On Fordola

If she gets a redemption arc, it absolutely needs to be excruciating for her. I won't accept anything less, because to do so would be to gloss over everything she's done, which includes murder, torture, and, you know, killing her own people, as well as her friends and comrades. Sure, she regrets it, but so far, her redemption hasn't convinced me. I much preferred Ysayle's arc.

Oh certainly she needs more time. There will likely be more suffering, which will eventually force her to realize that, much like Arenvald, she doesn't have a place in Ala Mhigo. But she can find a way to serve and protect it's people, and spend the rest of her life making up for the mistakes of her past. That would be suitable to me.

While there could be ways to have made Ivalice and XIV compatible with XIV joing the Ivalice Alliance prior to this patch, no XIV is not a sequel to Tactics/part of the Ivalice Alliance. At most its an alternate universe like Tactics Advance, except with Ivalice being a much smaller part instead of being the whole world.

Less "sequel" and more "set in the same world." Perhaps the word sequel wasn't the best choice, but you get the gist. "There is more interconnectedness between FF14 and FFT than previously anticipated" is the safe way of saying it.

[Mysterysword]

The 2.0 24-man raids involved us fighting the Cloud of Darkness, does that mean FF XIV is FF III now? Kain and Bartz both have their own respective fairytales in-lore, as evidenced by their minions, does that mean that we're playing FF IV and V now? Hildibrand's 3.0 questline introduces us to Vivi and his grandfather Quan, so is this FF IX now?

Coming from someone who believes that FF XII has the single best setting in the main series: stop it. Just let FF XIV be its own story and setting, like every other FF has been.

[Quor]

snip

You seem to be going out of the way to misconstrue what I say. My reference to CT wasn't to say "we FF3 nao" and more to say "here's a tangentially related character who becomes much more important than they originally appeared to be and Yoshi may take the same approach here." There was also 2.0 Hildi quests where the reporter turned out to be the bad guy (well, one of them anyway). In other words, this game has a history of reporters and Mi'qote being more than what they seem. And Ivalice has a Mi'qote reporter. That doesn't mean anything in and of itself, but as the saying goes, once is chance, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action.

[Remedi]

Rabanastre is precedent in the timeline of Ivalice to what happens in FFT, while it is the opposite here that is why while beign a recollection of the same tale they are in the end different