Revelations from SHADOWBRINGERS

[EdwinLi]

I really don't want to have a fetch quest where we have to rifle around two 16 year olds sleeping bodies to find two halves of a grimoire. >.<

Probably be just a short cutscene of Tataru saying "be right back" and then return to give us the Grimoires.


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Now back on topic...

I am curious how the Source side events may be developed in 5.1 to 5.3.

It appears that we may have to look on both First and Source for possible answers to the solution but considering what happened in Gaius' side of events, we may find things to become more chaotic with the possible Garlean Civil War once again since Zenos has not itnerests in the thrown and went off to his hunt for WoL by first tyring to find a way to consume Zodiark and Hydealyn beofre having that dream battle.

As for potential Story Roleplay instances, i hope we get one where we get to play as Gaius to try out his personal Unique Job only he can use. Playing Estinien would be a bit too expect at this point if we get a Story RP instance for Gaius side of events.

[Alleluia]

That is just a callback.

The real things are with their bodies back in the source and we still don't know what kind of knowledge have been sealed in the Grimoire once it is in its complete form.

All we know it is very powerful when in the complete form back from Bahamut raid storyline.

Yeah... I know. That's why I called it a callback. lol I did mean a thematic/narrative callback to that moment. Which means the writers remember that moment. I don't think the Levelliuer Codex is gonna really come into play, but they clearly haven't forgotten that scene happened so who knows?

And moving on in topics, I second the hope for a Gaius "role play" session. Probably as he is debriefing us on what happened after that cut-to-black. Hopefully it starts with Estinien grumbling as he drags Gais' sorry butt down some hallways after saving him from his bout of noble-but-stupid rashness. B/c I love Estinien and irritating him amuses me.

[LineageRazor]

If they let us play as Gaius, and don't allow us to do that attack where he draws an X in the air and flings it, I gonna pitch a fit.

[EdwinLi]

If they let us play as Gaius, and don't allow us to do that attack where he draws an X in the air and flings it, I gonna pitch a fit.

Watch Gaius get a more powerful version as his LB instead.

On that note....

Gaius's Garlean Gunblade job is actually the Gunblade Job I wanted to see in this game because it is actually based on real life Gunblades and not the Fantasy version created by FF8 as Squall's Gunblade that is a fantasy reimagination of the real life Gunblades.

The irony of this knowledge when in FF14 the Garlean Gunblades are called Garlean copies of FF8/Gunbreaker Gunblades while in real life the FF8/Gunbreaker Gunblades are just fantasy copies of real life gunblades. That or either a Modern Assassin Job or some how make a Melee Sword Mage Job.

[KageTokage]

I feel like 5.1-3 are going to tie up loose ends on the First while 5.4-5 is going to have things start heating up on the Source as a result of whatever Zenos is scheming.

I'm still curious as to what kind of impact his actions are going to end up having on Garlemald because if Varis is really gone, it would likely defuse any immediate threat the Garleans pose to neighboring nations while they try to sort out their leadership. I'm not so sure that when he says he has no interest in throne that it removes the possibility of him taking it just for the sake of fulfilling his selfish desires (He was using his prior position of legatus for that very purpose), though that raises the question of whether the Garleans would actually accept a heir who blatantly assassinated their prior ruler. I suppose it is possible that if he exposes the fact that Varis was working with the Ascians that he could potentially use it as justification for his actions, and he might also try to rally them under the false pretense of liberating the world from a greater primal threat AKA Zodiark and Hydaelyn.

[Alleluia]

I'd think his assassination of his father, and that he'll prolly not hide that he did it, would give the people like the Populares a chance to move in and try to get support to dethrone him. I'm thinking, assuming Gaius lives, he might very well be backed by Maximus' people to overthrow Zenos for the good of the nation. They seem to be the Garlean faction that cares about their people, but also don't want to necessarily dominate others (at least not anymore, and Gaius' feelings there always seemed complicated anyway). I'd imagine a Garlean civil war/infiltration would be more of the next xpac's plotline instead of a patch, though.

I'm surprised we're going back to the First so early, but I am in total agreement that the Grand Cosmos, among other things, is probably there. I just thought, with the send off in the post-credits scene, we'd actually be a little while before we got anything new there. I'm not gonna say I'm unhappy, though.

[EdwinLi]

I'd think his assassination of his father, and that he'll prolly not hide that he did it, would give the people like the Populares a chance to move in and try to get support to dethrone him. I'm thinking, assuming Gaius lives, he might very well be backed by Maximus' people to overthrow Zenos for the good of the nation. They seem to be the Garlean faction that cares about their people, but also don't want to necessarily dominate others (at least not anymore, and Gaius' feelings there always seemed complicated anyway). I'd imagine a Garlean civil war/infiltration would be more of the next xpac's plotline instead of a patch, though.

I'm surprised we're going back to the First so early, but I am in total agreement that the Grand Cosmos, among other things, is probably there. I just thought, with the send off in the post-credits scene, we'd actually be a little while before we got anything new there. I'm not gonna say I'm unhappy, though.

I expect the Garlean Civil War to be the theme for 6.0 expansion with 5.4 to 5.55 setting the stage for it as a Ally Garlean Faction reach out to the Alliance to advance the side that want to end the Garlean Conquest ways and go into peaceful methods instead.

Not to mention it would provide a good reason why garleans have pulled back enough for the Alliance to finally set foot into Garlemald due to lack of leadership they need to pull back because the Garlean Empire is now split into two factions being the Peace Faction and the Conquest Faction.

I also expect that both sides have their law and chaos, good and evil characters that will become allies and maybe friends while some become twisted enemies and maybe unexpected threats.

Politics is after all a very twisted game where everyone wear masks to hide their true agendas no matter if they are good, bad, lawful, or chaotic.

[Iscah]

I really don't want another "civil war-themed" (after Stormblood) expansion. It's so jarring to alternate between high(ish) fantasy of Heavensward and Shadowbringers and the modern-feeling war zone of Stormblood, especially the Gyr Abanian settings.

Let the war happen around the edges of the story, and give us more of a fantasy quest.

[Jandor]

Let the war happen around the edges of the story, and give us more of a fantasy quest.

Letting the war happen at all when we're not there would be a start. Seriously, the Ala Mhigan front literally just stopped in its tracks when the WoL decided to take his friends on a fishing trip to Doma.

You were gone for long enough to sail around the world, track people down, make new allies, overthrow the Garleans, and absolutely nothing happened in Gyr Abania in that time. No one even moved IIRC, Raubahn was still stood in the same spot he was when you left.

[Mansion]

I feel like 5.1-3 are going to tie up loose ends on the First while 5.4-5 is going to have things start heating up on the Source as a result of whatever Zenos is scheming.

I actually dread that scenario. It feels so uninspired and repetitive to me. While it worked in 4.X because Stormblood felt more like a collection of smaller stories loosely tying to a bigger theme of revolution, Shadowbringer was perfectly focused and self contained to the First. As 5.0 ends, I don't feel anything needs us on the First outside of working toward getting our Scions back on the Source (and I hope this won't take several patches).

If we could also avoid that gap of "making sure things are ok after that big event" that usually works for X.1 patches (and which are usually the weakest ones in MSQ for me), it would be good.

Same thing with "the latent story that peaks in X.3", even with the amazing stories that Nidhogg and Doma were, it would be nice if we could see MSQ change a bit outside of those comfortable patch plannings. It did not work in 4.4 and 4.5 because the mystery around 5.0 made these MSQ patch feel quite stretched over nothing and frankly lackluster.

There are two things that need solving right now for me : Zenos (and the bigger Garlemald plot) and Elidibus. And it does not make that much sense to bring these onto the First actually. Who would trust some Warriors of Light on the First after what happenend there? Why would Zenos try to look for us there when we actually came back on the Source now?