Revelations from Patch 4.56

[Remedi]

Regarding the part 2 in general

I think that if they want to have part 2 of x.5 patches of this lenght they need to accompany them with a trial or something and not a solo trial. The story wasn't long enough and honestly the setup from the part 1 warranted a bigger and more meaningful fight, I know that most mechanics in the actual solo fight are repeat of nabriales+zenos but if they can recycle greg mechanics and put a new spin on it (which I believe it's something they are capable off now thanks to ultimate as a training) I think they can find the time to do it for MSQ.
Also we got to play with 3 losers which I believe they'll be sitting for this expansion to recover for their defeat, while the real fight Estinien vs Zenos was done offscreen -.-
As for the content of the story.
When they mentioned the first at fanfest I wasn't sold on it, the story was verging towards Garlemand and the first felt very random, this is reflected in what the MSQ tells us (which moose made a funny joke that I think fits very well)the reason for us to go to the first comes out of nowhere and it's not even nearly a reason, nothing was explained and it's essentially a tease for the story of the expansion. Granted Othard was also just as random but I feel that Gosetsu helped the transition much better since you know it gave a hint, we can argue that the voice have been an hint but a little window to this future, to this ineluttable fate which makes the result of the fight pointless unless we fix the first, it would've at least gave us some kind of stakes to the fight

As for the miscellanea

Not much to say execpt 1 thing the fact that both quest had in common Kugane castle as a story point, it made in my opinion the stories much more grounded in the world giving more hooks to the world, which is a good thing in my opinion.
However Yet again nothing of value for the anantas, which is extremely sad for me, they've been the most undervalued beast tribe in the whole game, their reputation wasn't even theirs and the rapresentative of them was captive for 2/3 of the quest. Oh well

[Rosa_Frandlia]

This ending leaves me with a question, won't Y'shtola's sister find out about her and want to act? She's a member of a certain group after all that is mentioned.

[Nalien]

Regarding the part 2 in general

I don't think the solo instance itself was the problem with this patch. 3.55 didn't have a set Trial either and I feel that worked a lot better, just because there was actually something new and exciting going on... You had a Samurai fighting alongside you as a sneak peak, you were working towards Omega, which was hinted about seemingly forever ago... There was something there...

This time however? We've fought Zenos enough, doesn't matter if you pepper in some old Ascian mechanics as well... It was just a very boring and forgettable fight, with the conclusion effectively being an entirely different plot poorly stitched in... The more I think about it, the more I feel like I'm suffering from some sort of narrative whiplash here... Both parts of what we got were below average when compared to past solo instances, and both parts just didn't merge together well at all... I think this clip perfectly sums up the finale here...

If anything, as the finale this solo instance should perhaps have been the best yet, instead it's perhaps the worst... They really should have made the fight a lot closer, it should have felt like an accomplishment to beat Elidibus here, have you both barely holding your own when the Voice kicks in and gives him the edge. That way I'd be eager for a rematch. Instead, he was a push over at Lv.70, what possible dramatic tension will there be fighting him at Lv.80? Assuming he isn't off'd off screen by Zenos while we're busy of course, but even then; Zenos taking him down in that scenario would hype up Zenos. Instead there is just no hype at all. Despite all his talk, Elidibus didn't turn out to be remotely tough or even interesting, I wish Valus laced into him a bit more for that...

As for the Hien section... I'd have much preferred a series of 1v1s which you simply can't win... That would make a nice scenario I think... We'd be talking about who we got to play as before the Warrior of Light arrived... Heck, even just using one character, there was nothing flashy in this RP like there was in even the more recent ones... You'd think a Hien vs Zenos fight would be absolutely amazing, instead Y'shtola vs Little Sun was far more entertaining and epic, given she had that nice spell at the end... Where was that kind of polish this time?

When it comes to the whiplash First plot though... That really just needed more time... Estinien ex Machina needed an actual cutscene at the very least, ever since he left I've kinda fanfic'd Estinien and Gosetsu into randomly crossing paths and going on their own adventure, so having both of them jump in would have been amazing, given Hien and Yugiri are there as well... They also could have done more to indicate that we were coma'd for a significant amount of time, enough to justify us taking a backseat in the current conflict to let us go elsewhere at least... We wake up and just rush off to the First more or less, remarkable few important characters seemed worried enough about us to come check on us... Perhaps like 2.55 there are some additional pieces of dialog hidden around with various NPCs though? Estinien took us to Ishgard, so the only two important Ishgardians checked on us, then Tataru of course, but that was it...

/10charaters