Revelations from Patch 4.5

[Fenral]

And now that I've done Ivalice:

WHERE TO EVEN FRIGGING START!?!?

I see where all the real plot went this patch. Not only was it significantly longer (or was that just Thunder God prog?), we seem to have a lot of things that will almost certainly come up later, and much less ambiguously so than the last time a 24-man ended with a sequel hook. (That, y'know, still hasn't gone anywhere after four years.) The "rules" have officially been screwed.

Ultima is crystal Jenova, has now come full circle as the origin of the spell she was (out of universe) named after, and might even have something to do with the beings of Light we're slated to fight next expac. But it's hard to be sure.

I suppose Ramza (Beoulve) and co. needed to FFIII themselves because they didn't have their FFIII'd selves to block the death laser, but she still felt a little easy for an "unbeatable" enemy that had to be sealed away. All in all, that fight felt like what Cloud of Darkness would have been, if the CT series had the same level of event scripting.

Fran is our Dalmascan Yugiri. While most of her present model is recycled from Zodiac Age (like much of the raid series), her face appears to be new for XIV. They wouldn't do that for a one-off character, so I suspect we'll be meeting up with her again. Probably when it's time to meet up with...

The princess. Who leads the Dalmascan Resistance. Well, once faction, at least. Could it be? And how in the myriad hells did she pull that off after dying in Ba'Gamnan's arms? (Non-FFXII-ers: Princess Ashe was the leader of the Dalmascan Resistance.) As long as she still manages to sport a hot-pink pleather miniskirt in our early-industrial fantasy setting, she'll do just fine, whatever happens.

Noah van Gabranth. Oh just shoot me. With a Tartarus laser, at that. Okay, seriously, there is no friggin' way this isn't coming back, and since Yoshida has already said they won't continue finished quest chains, there's only one real place that can happen, and we all know it.

Lastly, anyone screenshot that map of Ilsabard that Fran unrolls? Pretty good odds that that's going to be one of our new region maps for the next expac. One of those pixels is probably where we will fight Gabranth.

And all that is without going into the plot itself, which managed to have the right bitter/sweet ratio without feeling rushed or cheap. Sudden, massive, and entirely offscreen character growth for bratty short dudes with ponytails is still totally a thing though.

[shao32]

And now that I've done Ivalice:

WHERE TO EVEN FRIGGING START!?!?

I see where all the real plot went this patch. Not only was it significantly longer (or was that just Thunder God prog?), we seem to have a lot of things that will almost certainly come up later, and much less ambiguously so than the last time a 24-man ended with a sequel hook. (That, y'know, still hasn't gone anywhere after four years.) The "rules" have officially been screwed.

Ultima is crystal Jenova, has now come full circle as the origin of the spell she was (out of universe) named after, and might even have something to do with the beings of Light we're slated to fight next expac. But it's hard to be sure.

I suppose Ramza (Beoulve) and co. needed to FFIII themselves because they didn't have their FFIII'd selves to block the death laser, but she still felt a little easy for an "unbeatable" enemy that had to be sealed away. All in all, that fight felt like what Cloud of Darkness would have been, if the CT series had the same level of event scripting.

Fran is our Dalmascan Yugiri. While most of her present model is recycled from Zodiac Age (like much of the raid series), her face appears to be new for XIV. They wouldn't do that for a one-off character, so I suspect we'll be meeting up with her again. Probably when it's time to meet up with...

The princess. Who leads the Dalmascan Resistance. Well, once faction, at least. Could it be? And how in the myriad hells did she pull that off after dying in Ba'Gamnan's arms? (Non-FFXII-ers: Princess Ashe was the leader of the Dalmascan Resistance.) As long as she still manages to sport a hot-pink pleather miniskirt in our early-industrial fantasy setting, she'll do just fine, whatever happens.

Noah van Gabranth. Oh just shoot me. With a Tartarus laser, at that. Okay, seriously, there is no friggin' way this isn't coming back, and since Yoshida has already said they won't continue finished quest chains, there's only one real place that can happen, and we all know it.

Lastly, anyone screenshot that map of Ilsabard that Fran unrolls? Pretty good odds that that's going to be one of our new region maps for the next expac. One of those pixels is probably where we will fight Gabranth.

And all that is without going into the plot itself, which managed to have the right bitter/sweet ratio without feeling rushed or cheap. Sudden, massive, and entirely offscreen character growth for bratty short dudes with ponytails is still totally a thing though.

here you go ^^