Crystal Tower theories

[zuzu-bq]

They will not make them a requirement, that is pretty much confirmed. However, the writter asked us to do it so I'd expect some cool extra dialog from having CT quests down. Tataru has a single line that reflects tha status of your CT quests in the 4.56 MSQ while the quests themselves kind of work to direct you into doing them if you haven't before.

[Mansion]

I rewatched the final cut scene with quest progression and the scene where Crystal Tower is closed and it just brought up more questions. First, if you haven't done the Crystal Tower it says it is blocked off instead of the doors closed which makes total sense. The second though is that G'raha Tia mentions only someone with the blood of the Allag Royal Family can control the tower and he needs to go to sleep with it to preserve the chance to control it. That leads to my question, is that Xande or G'raha depending on progress seen in the tower or is it maybe on the 1st and someone else altogether? I can see G'raha helping us, but not Xande and if a player hasn't entered the Crystal Tower his clone is still in control of it.

I think we are touching that time bubble concept.
The easiest way to explain it is that, when 5.0 kicks in, you'll have that beacon found, you'll get in the crystal tower and get to the First because it assumes you have completed the quest. However, if the player IRL has not completed the quest, it won't change MSQ. So if you end up doing the Crystal Tower ARR quest after 5.0, it won't be happening at the same time than 5.0 MSQ, but it's a form of "time travel" where you accomplish those actions in the time frame that makes sense for the MSQ.

That's the idea of the Time Bubble, you can do whatver you want in what order you want, but the game is based on a logical timeline, and you end up merely just filling the blanks.

[Fenral]

I'm going to take that a step further and posit that the roadmap up until now was based on the Binding Coil and Crystal Tower stories not being originally planned as "optional." The Binding Coil has the same overall feel as a X.3 climactic battle story, and at least half of the stuff that happens in CT (like Nero's return and G'raha's introduction) is already well beyond the accepted bounds of "side content." Yoshida was talking in vague terms about having 5.0 plans even before ARR.

[Iscah]

I posted this in the Revelations thread the other day, but should post here as well - since the "Enigmatic Figure" has now physically appeared in-game in 4.56, we can pick up his character data from Garland Tools, and it's undoubtably G'raha, or certainly using his model.

The models do have different settings for the basic face, but they're both custom faces anyway so I'm not entirely sure how the numbers work with those - but I think Enigma would need a different model because of the crystallised mark on his cheek and (I saw suggested elsewhere) possibly deliberately shadowing the eyes.

The only other difference is that G'raha has eyeshadow and Enigma doesn't. I had to recheck screenshots to even know it was there - you can barely see it since his hair covers up the outer edge of his eyes anyway.

I don't quite understand the character designers' logic for putting odd-coloured eyeshadow on characters... for some they'll use black and it seems like it's just meant to be part of their face shape (eg. Estinien) to extend the number of different designs they can make, but then others will have bright pink or green.

[Fenral]

Wow, uh, yeah. I'd know those presets anywhere. Probably still not enough to please the contrarians, but it's certainly enough to convince me.

Generally speaking, the devs use eyeshadow like stage/film makeup. It's not supposed to be noticeable, just a way of slightly adjusting the perceived shape and position of the eyes. My own character, seen at left, has some for the same reason.

Enigma G'raha probably doesn't need any because he has a full custom face texture, which would mean they've likely baked it to onto the base texture.

[Iscah]

Generally speaking, the devs use eyeshadow like stage/film makeup. It's not supposed to be noticeable, just a way of slightly adjusting the perceived shape and position of the eyes. My own character, seen at left, has some for the same reason.

I do get that - which is why it puzzles me when they use noticeable colours that don't actually blend into their skintone!

Browns and blacks make sense. Using Estinien as an example again, he has full eyeshadow in black and just looks like he has really sunken eyes. Stephanivien (MCH guildnaster) has the same in jade green, and he looks like he's wearing eyeshadow. (Although it did take me until Lv70 to notice - lots of dingy indoor shots and Coerthan blizzards, I think. But finally there was a closeup shot of him in sunlight, and it was really noticeable, and unflattering.)

So yeah, using it as a 'face modifier' makes sense, but in standout colors it tends to make characters look worse rather than better.

[Yuyuka3]

Wow, uh, yeah. I'd know those presets anywhere. Probably still not enough to please the contrarians, but it's certainly enough to convince me.

Enigma G'raha probably doesn't need any because he has a full custom face texture, which would mean they've likely baked it to onto the base texture.

You are 100% right with that...
I presented the comparison Enigma to G'raha two days ago in a Discord, and they were like, "yeah, could just be a bait-and-switch". Though I think it was likely far too much work customizing the model for that, and honestly, G'raha would just fit in so darn well with what we know so far... it would make less sense to do a bait-and-switch than not to if you ask me.

[ObsidianFire]

Someone pointed out that the character G'raha Tia is based on, Desch from FFIII, ends up getting amnesia at one point. If that's the case with G'hara, it would go a long to way to explaining why he doesn't recognize us, which is one of the main reasons I don't think Enigma is him.

[Nalien]

I'm thinking it's G'rahas body, but I'm doubtful whether it's his mind... Granted he gained the memories of Allag by the climax of Crystal Towers story (which is probably the Desch amnesia plot already covered IMO), but this all still seems very much outside the scope of their ability, they could barely use Crystal Tower to open a Voidgate, and when they finally did try that fully it basically blew up... My money is still firmly on "The Ascian who was overlooking the First", mirrors the plot of the Thirteenth nicely, explains the mastery of both time travel (see: Nabriales' fight) and interdimensional travel (that's just a given for Ascians at this point, right?), not to mention I can think of no one more capable of mentoring us in becoming a Warrior of Darkness than a friendly neighborhood Ascian...

[Seraphor]

"How many years have I waited." And "If history must be unwritten..." leads me to believe time travel is involved.

Seems to me G'raha has been sesled in the CT for a very long time, and witnessed the coming calamity, then returned to our time to correct it.
That's a long time, for memories to fade and personality to change.