Revelations from Patch 5.3

[EdwinLi]

I am still very interested about the Soul Crystal

There are several ways the Soul Crystal can bring about future events and that is....

1) Later in 6.0 Expansion storyline WoL unlocks the powers of his original self.

2) The Soul Crystal will be the source for one of the 6.0 Expansion's new Jobs.

3) All of the above.

The symbol of the Soul Crystal is the Sun which means the power of the original self is the Power of the Sun. If it turns out to be a new Job then there is only one job I am aware about in FF series that focus on using the Power of the Sun and that is Rain's Grandshelt Knight Job from FF Brave Exvius.

[TheRod]

Frankly, by the start of SHB, I expected our view of Hydaelyn's perspective would be cast into a degree of doubt to an extent.

However, it seems this was not meant to be as she is still pretty much presented as that benevolent force, no matter what. It's interesting that even though we were presented with a different pov from the antagonist side, in essence the more traditional idealism of the hero vs. all remains pretty rooted in the narrative.

[Starkbeaumont]

Here is the probable answer.

there were only 13 stones because Elidibus would theoreticallystill have his. You only find the 12 and then Hythladaeus gives us our own

but he isn't the real Elidibus. And we know at this point.

the more I think about it the less I like the way they took

[EdwinLi]

but he isn't the real Elidibus. And we know at this point.

the more I think about it the less I like the way they took

There is still one possible reason being...

It is possible when Elidibus became part of the Heart so did his soulstone thus the possible source of Zodiark's heart is Elidibus Soul Crystal itself.

As for the Trial...

anyone else started sheding tears when Emet appeared to save us? In the end he still watch over us even after death but this time as our friend.

[Hikari_Kishimoto]

MSQ finished

I have to say, the end of ShB felt rushed and very shallow to me (in comparison to ShB itself).

They build up the whole lore with Amaurot, the origins of the Ascians, hinting us to be the 14th member of the convocation so slow and steady throughout ShB - just to end it so very quickly again? Elidibus suddenly gone, all of the Ascian Overlords suddenly gone - it just feels extremely rushed to me.

I feel like the whole plot with Amaurot etc. could have lasted for another expansion. I found it very interesting and fell in love with it during ShB. There would have been so many opportunities to flesh the story out further. Tbh, I had liked it, if we had been to rejoin the shards together with Elidibus, but through a way without bloodshed. I had liked to bring the Ascians back. And now, suddenly everything is just gone. The emotional depth and deepness of the story - gone. Us being the 14th member of the convocation - meaningless? Makes me doubt why they put so much effort into ShB in the first place.

And now we are to deal with Zenos? While great characters like Emet-Selch and his marvelous story are just not relevant anymore?

To me FF14 feels robbed of all it's content atm.
They could as well end the game as it is at this point.
Doesn't feel good right now.

[Rocl]

Wow, this is a lot. I've been up for nigh on twelve hours now doing content because I'm an animal who took the day off. It's a holiday, okay?

MSQ

This is a lot. This is a whole lot. Also, not a lot.
I'm glad, after 7 years we've named the Sun. Well, likely anyways. Azim:Azeyma:Azem—nice, neat, cool, fun. The final office being the Wanderer, the Star who traverses the constellations which represent the other offices... us... it's beautiful.

Elidibus as a Primal... it makes some kind of sense, I guess? The Elidibus who summoned Zodiark became his Heart, and so now when the Heart is walking free of its Body, it's still a Primal.

First quest of 5.3: OOOH WARRIOR OF LIGHT FROM FF1 AS THE ORIGINAL WARRIOR OF LIGHT, NEAT.
OOOH ELIDIBUS HELPED THAT WARRIOR OF LIGHT ON HIS PATH.
wait now Elidibus is the Warrior of Light? oh jeez.

The resolution of the Scion's plight, and Elidibus' Warrior of Light scheme was very satisfying. Getting rid of Elidibus feels so weird though... and his diminutive Ancient form makes me think he could've been a child when the summoning happened—that we seem to be moving on from Amaurotine and Ancient (pardon the pun) History is a little disheartening now that I'm fully invested.

The Emet-Selch cameo was unexpected, and about the only good way to fanservice him back in. Let's leave that there.

The biggest problem for me, regrettably, is still what was the biggest problem for me in 5.0: damnable time travel. That the Exarch lives is fantastic, I'm happy. G'raha Tia deserves some happiness. That's also another problem for me, but one of the more important parts is that Shadowbringers seems to violate the rules of time travel set up in Alexander. Alexander painstakingly creates a stable time loop; the Exarch actively changes the past to such a point that he should have never existed in the first place. The only reasonable explanation I can invent for myself is that Alexander is bound by the limitations of what its creators and summoners believed were possible, and the Exarch is not. My ideas are not well thought out, and something of a gut feeling, but for me we've actively killed off the younger G'raha Tia.

I don't know how I would've written it different, or what I would've wanted done differently. In the end, I feel like we've denied the current timeline Source's G'raha Tia a future—whatever that may have been, similar to the Exarch's (sans Calamity) or something else—and put another him, a century older, in his place. Gah, it's very confusing. Minfilia and Ryne struggled to coexist in a body, and Minfilia is lost to us forever now; that choice was made. This process seems similar to what's happened with G'raha and the Exarch (with a caveat that they're mostly the exact same person) but if Minfilia is, for all intents and purposes, dead then G'raha Tia must be as well? There's only Exarch now.

"If History must be undone, let it be undone."

Fandaniel is okay, I guess? And Zenos went from BORED OF GARLEMALD -> okay I'll make myself Emperor I guess? I'm confused. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times: his arc was perfect in 4.0—extending it makes it ring hollower. Nonetheless, as far as dead people coming back, he had one of the better excuses. Even if I feel it devalues him.

The Heroes' Gauntlet Spectral Thief being dressed like Locke and the Spectral White Mage and Black Mage in Seat of Sacrifice looking like Palom and Porom (to my eyes anyway) was very cute. The Dark Knight, obviously, styled after Cecil too. Nice nods that didn't feel obstrusive.

Also thank you, whichever writer, scenario or otherwise, who let Isildaure and Homei meet up in Doma this patch. I've had such fondness for the elderly friends, and it legitimately brings me a lot of joy.

SORROW OF WERLYT

I guess they were mad everyone figured out the hair colour = weapon pilot and played a switcheroo.

The magitek sensors in Legatus armor is neat, and the idea that Garleans are always trying to imitate aetherial malarkey they can't actually do fascinates me. It also gives me hope an entirely Garlean job is possible, one that comes with a Magitek Sensor for the Warrior of Lighkness to use instead of a Soul Crystal.

Terncliff is fantastic; as is the BGM using Imperial Will and Penitus. With Valdeaulin explained, I hope we get some information on Severa next. I'm curious what they'll do with the dead Legatus they've pulled from their hat after this is all said and done. A heroic sacrifice mayhaps?

Valens is ... incredibly creepy, full stop. If there's a person I'm most looking forward to getting to murder as the Weapon of Light, it might be him.

I suspect soon we'll encounter a Weapon with Gaius' battle data. Surely once Oversouled we can ask him about his adopted kids to take advantage of an opening.

Hurray for using Hydrus' combat data and ... giving us nothing more about him...

i fell asleep writing this

[Rosenstrauch]

MSQ stuff, round two. Just something that's been bugging me since I remembered I took this screenshot.

I went back and checked, and Ryne was present for the illusory starshower in 5.2. Everyone who awakened to the Echo in that scene heard Hydaelyn's voice, and characters who already had the Echo (namely, the WoL) also heard Her.

Ryne has, as of 5.3, never heard Her voice. Either she doesn't recognize Hydaelyn's voice as belonging to Her, or she doesn't have the Echo. But she possesses Minfilia's soul, and Minfilia did have the Echo. I'm thoroughly confused on this—what is actually going on with this girl's soul?

[Theodric]

Main Scenario Quests:

I have very mixed feelings. I could not help but feel as though the story once again cast aside potential for a more interesting scenario in favour of playing things very safe. It also felt rather rushed in places. I'm disappointed that Elidibus was eliminated so soon after Emet-Selch. I feel as though that is a mistake, since with the Unsundered vanquished we now only have characters without a personal stake involved in a story arc that has not yet concluded. I also felt, at many points, as if the story was written not to make sense but to produce as much 'feels' as possible - without ever allowing meaningful danger to exist.

All of the Scions made it back safely to the Source. The Crystal Exarch didn't actually die and he conveniently transfers himself into his original body without any actual consequences or bittersweet results. I don't enjoy death for the sake of death in the story, though I do think there were a lot of ways in which things could have played out that would have been more engaging. A lot of the theories shared on this very board, for instance, just seemed so much more interesting than what we ended up getting.

Like another poster wrote above, I was looking forward to more of Amaurot. We might still get that, though Zenos' new companion is thoroughly unlikable as is Zenos himself. He seeks to bring the world to ruin, though that isn't going to have the same impact for me as Emet-Selch or Elidibus. I feel as though one of them should have served as a long term adversary instead for the current expansion and the next.

I don't know how to feel about Zenos now sitting on Garlemald's throne after previously showing no interest in it. I guess that means that Ilsabard is likely to be the next expansion, or at least part of it. Unless we somehow deal with things during the next two content patches.

I did appreciate that the game explicitly acknowledged Elidibus' struggle as being justified from his perspective just as the struggle of those opposed to him was also justified from their perspective. Yet I thought it was a bit of a waste not to just have some way for the pair to put aside their differences and find a 'third way' to accomplish the goal of restoring Amaurot and its people.

The game's habit of making sympathetic antagonists and then immediately killing them off is wearing thin, though. The single player games wouldn't be nearly as memorable if they took the same approach, so it makes me raise an eyebrow that it keeps happening in FFXIV. One sided fan service can quite easily grow tiresome.

It remains to be seen where the story goes next, though I really expected something bolder for the finale of Shadowbringers. What we ended up getting wasn't completely without redeeming qualities, yet Zenos and his psychotic companion don't do much for me and I just find myself wanting them to be gone as quickly as possible so the story can move on to something else.

[Gojin]

Hero's gauntlet

So are Thief, Necromancer, Berserker confirmed now?

[Lauront]

Main Scenario Quests:

I have very mixed feelings. I could not help but feel as though the story once again cast aside potential for a more interesting scenario in favour of playing things very safe. It also felt rather rushed in places. I'm disappointed that Elidibus was eliminated so soon after Emet-Selch. I feel as though that is a mistake, since with the Unsundered vanquished we now only have characters without a personal stake involved in a story arc that has not yet concluded. I also felt, at many points, as if the story was written not to make sense but to produce as much 'feels' as possible - without ever allowing meaningful danger to exist.

All of the Scions made it back safely to the Source. The Crystal Exarch didn't actually die and he conveniently transfers himself into his original body without any actual consequences or bittersweet results. I don't enjoy death for the sake of death in the story, though I do think there were a lot of ways in which things could have played out that would have been more engaging. A lot of the theories shared on this very board, for instance, just seemed so much more interesting than what we ended up getting.

Like another poster wrote above, I was looking forward to more of Amaurot. We might still get that, though Zenos' new companion is thoroughly unlikable as is Zenos himself. He seeks to bring the world to ruin, though that isn't going to have the same impact for me as Emet-Selch or Elidibus. I feel as though one of them should have served as a long term adversary instead for the current expansion and the next.

I don't know how to feel about Zenos now sitting on Garlemald's throne after previously showing no interest in it. I guess that means that Ilsabard is likely to be the next expansion, or at least part of it. Unless we somehow deal with things during the next two content patches.

I did appreciate that the game explicitly acknowledged Elidibus' struggle as being justified from his perspective just as the struggle of those opposed to him was also justified from their perspective. Yet I thought it was a bit of a waste not to just have some way for the pair to put aside their differences and find a 'third way' to accomplish the goal of restoring Amaurot and its people.

The game's habit of making sympathetic antagonists and then immediately killing them off is wearing thin, though. The single player games wouldn't be nearly as memorable if they took the same approach, so it makes me raise an eyebrow that it keeps happening in FFXIV. One sided fan service can quite easily grow tiresome.

It remains to be seen where the story goes next, though I really expected something bolder for the finale of Shadowbringers. What we ended up getting wasn't completely without redeeming qualities, yet Zenos and his psychotic companion don't do much for me and I just find myself wanting them to be gone as quickly as possible so the story can move on to something else.

MSQ finished

I have to say, the end of ShB felt rushed and very shallow to me (in comparison to ShB itself).

They build up the whole lore with Amaurot, the origins of the Ascians, hinting us to be the 14th member of the convocation so slow and steady throughout ShB - just to end it so very quickly again? Elidibus suddenly gone, all of the Ascian Overlords suddenly gone - it just feels extremely rushed to me.

I feel like the whole plot with Amaurot etc. could have lasted for another expansion. I found it very interesting and fell in love with it during ShB. There would have been so many opportunities to flesh the story out further. Tbh, I had liked it, if we had been to rejoin the shards together with Elidibus, but through a way without bloodshed. I had liked to bring the Ascians back. And now, suddenly everything is just gone. The emotional depth and deepness of the story - gone. Us being the 14th member of the convocation - meaningless? Makes me doubt why they put so much effort into ShB in the first place.

And now we are to deal with Zenos? While great characters like Emet-Selch and his marvelous story are just not relevant anymore?

To me FF14 feels robbed of all it's content atm.
They could as well end the game as it is at this point.
Doesn't feel good right now.

Seconded to both these. Can't say I care much for Zenos looking forward, and the identity behind "Asahi" really doesn't do much to change that as I had hoped. Elidibus was an utter disappointment, but at least the Ascian saga ended on a high note for me with Emet.