Revelations from Patch 5.4

[myahele]

MSQ stuff

So Fandaniel wants to die or so he claims. At 1st I thought they made him like Kefka, but now I'm starting to think he's inspired by Kuja. He even has his own dragon. Both are theatrical, want to destroyed the world when he dies. Maybe finding out he was just a pawn by the Unsundered Ascians and not thier equal despite the memories changed his mentality? Its clear that he's manipulating Zenos and I can't help but feel that Fandaniel probably wants to be killed by WoL, since he's proven to permanently kill Ascians whereas Zenos will just stab him. Sure, he'll die, but that means his soul could still be reincarnated and he doesn't want that.

Fandaniel also talks about how the 1st of the beasts has roared, could this be Lunar Bahamut? We know he wants to recreate the Final Days, could that mean he wants to create those terminus beasts. In this case using people's fear to create them.

Sorrow of Werlyt

Not much to add other than the revelation that Severa was Garlean half-breed. Might explain why she has a black Garlean 3rd eye? This reminds when Arenvald said said his mother used a knife to gouge a mole that was growing on his forehead because she feared it was a sign of a growing 3rd eye. Maybe it was after all?

Eden

Nice to know the true names of 2 other Ascians. I guess the theory that they're names after Greek gods turned out to be true

[Fenral]

Main Scenario Quests:

The biggest disappointment of this patch is that nobody of note died - the fake deaths are getting very tiresome and any story that only ever kills off sympathetic antagonists, who a significant amount of players play to see, becomes increasingly one note.

Really, though...

I still kind of wonder where you're coming from, sticking around with a game like this because you want to watch your allies die. No, you're not even close to being the only one who does, and it's not an uncommon mentality for consumers of fiction, but it's completely alien to me.

Do you fantasize about being the lone hero who carries on when everyone else is dead? Do you want a bunch of people to die but are blindly assured that your favorite is safe? Do you prefer characters dead because it gives you a better sense of who they were in their entirety? Do you not like not knowing what happens once the story is done?

Bolding this so it sticks: I'm sorry if any of this sounds hostile. This is purely for my personal research. I'm just trying to understand.

It feels like it wasn't so long ago that people like me were getting chastised for being sick of losing allies every other patch. Yeah, we don't lose so much any more, but we've lost so many people getting here. But forget Louisoix, Monbryda, Minfilia, Haurchefant, Ysayle. We lost freaking Papalymo, for crying out loud. You started in Gridiania in 1.0? Congrats, they're both dead.

Not every series has to be Devilman. Hell, Game of Thrones went all-in on its anyone-can-die motto and was rejected by the internet itself for it, so be careful what you wish for.

[ICountFrom0]

Okay MSQ time

Is Cid's voice new or am I still not used to his London VA?

Not a spoiler, so I won't hide it.

The person mentioned sounds different to me too. There's times that it's almost the same, almost familiar, but it's like somebody doing a bad imitation....

[Wyssahtyn]

The VAs are likely recording from home due to the pandemic. A lot of the voices in this patch were of lower quality than is typical along with strange deliveries and the like.

[Rosenoire]

The VAs are likely recording from home due to the pandemic. A lot of the voices in this patch were of lower quality than is typical along with strange deliveries and the like.

Yes. They were probably recording from home, without a director there with them, so everything feels and sounds a little off.

[Theodric]

MSQ Related:

-snip-

It's a matter of personal taste. I like a story to have consequences for both the antagonists and the protagonists. I don't care much for the Game of Thrones argument because it's not mass death that is being requested so much as the occasional major character being at risk of actually dying and staying dead. It helps cement an antagonist as a memorable threat and it's a lot more engaging to me than the one sided and very predictable trend of waiting multiple patches or expansions for some payoff for a particular plot point only for it to amount to very little in the end.

Killing off every other character for shock value would be silly, though in my view so too is avoiding killing any major allied characters at critical junctures in the plot. Sadly we've reached a point where even very minor characters are encased in a thick layer of plot armour.

Plus, at the end of the day, they're just pixels on a screen. There's some characters I care about more than others, naturally, but I'm more interested in a nuanced, engaging story than 'feels' and near constant fake outs.

Furthermore, a fair few Final Fantasy games - and other JRPG's - weren't afraid to embrace consequences on a reasonably frequent basis. I particularly enjoyed FF9, FFT and FF12 for that reason. ARR and HW even embraced the same approach, before switching to the majority of deaths being either throwaway characters who we knew for all of five minutes or sympathetic antagonists redeemed at the last moment to fulfil the quota of someone dying.

[JeanneOrnitier]

The VAs are likely recording from home due to the pandemic. A lot of the voices in this patch were of lower quality than is typical along with strange deliveries and the like.

While that's true, I think my issue with that character is still just being used to their Los Angeles voice from all the Prae runs.

[Jirah]

MSQ Critique

So I had high hopes for the MSQ after 5.3 and the 0.4 generally stir up some fantastic set pieces, 2.4 Ishgard confrontation with Iceheart, 3.4 has some rousing forshadowing for both Ala Mihgo and The First, 4.4 although cryptic at times had some really stellar moments so wtf happened here?

5.4 feels like filler besides the very last moments which dont add nearly as much to the narrative as one is required due to the fact 5.5 is the end of the expansion. Emet, Iceheart, The Griffon felt like great additions to the narrative not a bland Kefkfa knockoff and a even blander Psychopath which we have battled like 4 or 5 times to the point i can name his attacks and would inevitably be a unfulfilling to battle yet again

Essentially all the cool Garleon crap is sidelined alot for Porxie stuff, ya its cool they found a way to cure tempered souls and Ga Bu but that dragged on longer than it should, Nero has like 2 lines and no comment on Giaus (but thats abit too petty) the whole "oh no Limsan pirates dont want peace" comes and goes so quickly i doubt the plot would loose any girth if they removed it or minimized it to not take up such a bizarre chunk of the MSQ. We should be introduced to the bare minimum of what 6.0 will have not bum around in minimal affairs when larger threats are among us.

Fandaniel was introduced in the very last quest, says hell end the world with towers and leaves. We know his motives its just its no where near as interesting as literally any other villain we had and contrast Zeno's bland personality and motives incredibly poorly to the point of boredom. Still we know the towers enthrall people somehow but i still have no real grasp on how the plot will go and not in a "so many paths" type of way but a "oh...theyre doing that" sorta way but somehow more vague

5.4 feels like a massive step down in the SHB saga but perhaps its my fault for having expectations 5.5 will either be a huge dud or redeem this MSQ patch

[RyuDragnier]

MSQ Critique

So I had high hopes for the MSQ after 5.3 and the 0.4 generally stir up some fantastic set pieces, 2.4 Ishgard confrontation with Iceheart, 3.4 has some rousing forshadowing for both Ala Mihgo and The First, 4.4 although cryptic at times had some really stellar moments so wtf happened here?

5.4 feels like filler besides the very last moments which dont add nearly as much to the narrative as one is required due to the fact 5.5 is the end of the expansion. Emet, Iceheart, The Griffon felt like great additions to the narrative not a bland Kefkfa knockoff and a even blander Psychopath which we have battled like 4 or 5 times to the point i can name his attacks and would inevitably be a unfulfilling to battle yet again

Essentially all the cool Garleon crap is sidelined alot for Porxie stuff, ya its cool they found a way to cure tempered souls and Ga Bu but that dragged on longer than it should, Nero has like 2 lines and no comment on Giaus (but thats abit too petty) the whole "oh no Limsan pirates dont want peace" comes and goes so quickly i doubt the plot would loose any girth if they removed it or minimized it to not take up such a bizarre chunk of the MSQ. We should be introduced to the bare minimum of what 6.0 will have not bum around in minimal affairs when larger threats are among us.

Fandaniel was introduced in the very last quest, says hell end the world with towers and leaves. We know his motives its just its no where near as interesting as literally any other villain we had and contrast Zeno's bland personality and motives incredibly poorly to the point of boredom. Still we know the towers enthrall people somehow but i still have no real grasp on how the plot will go and not in a "so many paths" type of way but a "oh...theyre doing that" sorta way but somehow more vague

5.4 feels like a massive step down in the SHB saga but perhaps its my fault for having expectations 5.5 will either be a huge dud or redeem this MSQ patch

It feels like

they're trying to deal with loose ends. With the "final battle for the fate of this star" quickly approaching, they have to deal with every world ending threat now. That means dealing with tempering and the dislike of beast tribes which is CAUSING the summoning that leads to tempering. Fandaniel's appearance feels more like they're telling us that like in real life, not everybody can be talked to, not everybody has a valid reason for doing evil. Some do it for the sake of it. Fandaniel is in that category. Personally I found him rather entertaining, he felt like a court jester in a way. Zenos being bored makes absolute sense here too, the man lives for battle. No other opponent can match the WoL, and as much as Zenos wants to fight again, he wants to do it in a way that it could never be topped by any other fight in history.

One thing that caught my attention, was that Fandaniel called himself a Telophoroi. The word (latin in nature) sounds like an Amaurotine name, and seems to loosely translate to "agent of the end". Perhaps what they called the ones who created the Sound?

[Cilia]

Got done with MSQ and Werlyt today.

MSQ

Supes disappointing. While character interactions are nice I'm very much an inquisitive person, and next to nothing of importance was learned this patch.

We're back on the Source, with the hypothetical cure for tempering! Let's make it work, even though that's gonna take jumping around half the continent! Yay, it worked on Ga Bu! Now let's go force it on the 2nd Order patriarch to get peace between the Limsans and kobolds going, but wait, first pirate drama with Merlwyb! (Who really thought the kobold was gonna shoot her dead?) Yay we did it, now after all that the story is finally moving as Fandaniel's towers (apparently Garlean make, w/e) start showing up everywhere. He shows up, announces his omnicidal intentions via recreating the Final Days, blasts us with his "Lunar Bahamut," and takes his leave. Woo.

"The first beast has roared." - Probably a reference to the Beasts as they were depicted in Amaurot. Lunar Bahamut?
"Lunar Bahamut" - the moon is Zodiark's prison, so this thing is drawing on his power? Plausibly.

So, assuming the towers do temper they temper to Garlemald / the Emperor? Huh.

DAMN YOU ZENOS, STEPPING ON AME-NO-HABAKIRI! I wanted that thing!

Estinien back to the stage soon! Please look forward to it!

Werlyt

Yeppers, just more "Gaius was the one decent Legatus in a corrupt system" I've come to expect from this plotline.

Gaius' data in Emerald? Did not guess that. They're putting Zenos' in Diamond. Fun times.

Fight was pretty easy. Main Tanked it, one run clear, only one Vuln Up debuff and didn't get knocked off the platform, so that's cool. Nice phase 2 music, I'll need to listen to it on YouTube.

Aaaaaaaaaand van Varro is just as much a disturbing creep I pegged him for, with a side order of torture and a disappointing motive besides!

At least the post-fight quest explicitly states Gaius was off-put by Livia's obsession with him, so that whole "My quarters, one hour." bit back in ARR probably was him reprimanding her in private for being so messy back in the Waking Sands.

Well, whatever. Two rematches with our self-proclaimed "bestie" incoming? Good times.

I'll get to Eden tomorrow when my sciatic pains are not so bad. No time tonight.

Side notes:
-Still no cool crafted weapons for GNB / DNC, even though everyone else got bitchin' Zurvan weapons.
-Voice work is pretty rough in places, which I similarly attribute to the Rona.