Still the Warrior of Light in 6.x and beyond? [Spoilers through ShB]

[myahele]

Because of time travel, I would not be surprised if WoL is what inspired Elidibus and Venat to maintain and spread the idea of "Warrior of Light"

I think Hydaeyln's Blessing is still around, but with her gone maybe it will fade in time? In either case, I'm hoping 6.xx patches will be us slowly shifting away from the Ancients and their influences and move on. Maybe we'll lose the power of Azem's crystal

[Lauront]

"Hydaelyn's blessing" was a simple traveller's ward that Venat used to protect people from aetheric corruption. Does she still need to be alive for it to function? Hard to say, but given the warding scales provide basically the same function to any npc that has one, taking that power away from the WoL now seems a little pointless narratively speaking.

As for the crystals if light, didn't we break them during the hydaelyn fight? Whatever that means.

That may have been what it was at its base form but as a primal she is imbuing more power than that into the WoL, which we can tell from the entire narrative behind the crystals of light, Midgadsormr de-activating it because it taxed her so much (something the Ascians confirm too, and which is shown in Praetorium) and also so that your character could cease leaning on her so much, the whole process of re-activating it, as well as the Blessing being seen as pivotal for wielding the lightwarden aether on the First and also when Hades curses it during the fight with him. I would say that if it's of a kind with other primal blessings, yes, she probably does need to be around for it to function. Her remaining power was slurped up by Zenos, so unless there's other shards of her that are hooked in, it's probably gone. The Azem crystal appears to have overtaken it, along with having gained another soul shard in SHB and I also suspect they are intending to dial down the stakes a bit for the foreseeable future if this is anything to go by. As to the traveller's ward? Who can say, but I suspect like Emet's reconstruction of Amaurot, that too would fade in time with her death.

[Necrotica]

I am really hoping we go back to adventurers. Maybe some non heroic dialogue options. Maybe we get some revenge on people who wronged us in the past?

So sick of being a hero.

[Enkidoh]

I am really hoping we go back to adventurers. Maybe some non heroic dialogue options. Maybe we get some revenge on people who wronged us in the past?

So sick of being a hero.

Well, I'm sorry to say but you're playing the wrong game here if that is what truely what you want - in the FF series you are never anything but 'the hero' (of course, there is a certain moral ambuguity within many FF games questioning that where the meaning of 'hero' is stretched a little), but at their core, every FF game you're always a protagonist trying to right the wrongs in their world and fighting the forces that would threaten or destroy it.

And in FFXIV especially, what sets an 'adventurer' apart from a common sellsword or mercenary is exactly that - altruism and a willingness to help those in need, even if you get nothing in return. And yes although there is a few times where the WoL gets frustrated by the world letting them down and people being.. well.. people, and you have a dialogue choice that reflects their frustration (the DRK questline especially), they're still fundamentally a kind, compassionate soul that only wants to help others and make the world a better place, and any such frustrations are usually reflected simply with slight sarcasm or humour.

FFXIV is simply never going to be an edgy/grimdark game despite covering some very dark topics and situations, that's how the series has always been, and FFXIV is no exception.

[Cleretic]

I am really hoping we go back to adventurers. Maybe some non heroic dialogue options. Maybe we get some revenge on people who wronged us in the past?

So sick of being a hero.

Outside of Lolorito, who's even 'wronged us' who we didn't end up royally serving or seeing die anyway?

...is it just Lolorito? Do you just want to cause a diplomatic incident out of vengeance?

[KizuyaKatogami]

FFXIV is simply never going to be an edgy/grimdark game despite covering some very dark topics and situations, that's how the series has always been, and FFXIV is no exception.

Not sure where you’re getting this from. The series has always typically been incredibly edgy and grim dark. FF6,7,8,10,13,type 0 just to name a few examples. Even 14 is pretty edgy and grim dark in the earlier expansions, it’s just that they stopped with it around stormblood sadly.

[Necrotica]

Not sure where you’re getting this from. The series has always typically been incredibly edgy and grim dark. FF6,7,8,10,13,type 0 just to name a few examples. Even 14 is pretty edgy and grim dark in the earlier expansions, it’s just that they stopped with it around stormblood sadly.

I loved FF8. Mercenary for hire, willing to kidnap, assassinate, fight in wars, and getting paid for it. And while the person in charge may have been taking some of the jobs for moral reasons, Squall was just doing what he was paid to do. And his frustration with Rinoa's do-gooder naivete in the early missions was extremely relatable. Later on he does more good, but it is not to save the world. It is to save the person he cares about, even if saving her risks the end of the world.

WoL is just too...Jedi like. They will not let personal feelings prevent them from acting 'FOR THE GREATER GOOD'.

[Kordarion]

Not sure where you’re getting this from. The series has always typically been incredibly edgy and grim dark. FF6,7,8,10,13,type 0 just to name a few examples. Even 14 is pretty edgy and grim dark in the earlier expansions, it’s just that they stopped with it around stormblood sadly.

While the only FF game I've ever played for any substantive amount of time is FF14, so I can't really talk about the others, I wouldn't say FF14 is a particularly grim dark game. If you've ever read a single Warhammer 40K novel you can easily see that FF14's story, no matter how dark it gets, and Endwalker's existentialism did so, barely holds a candle to the edgy grim darkness of the franchise from whom the term grim dark quite literally originated.

Edit: This is not to say that the game can't be dark and/or edgy, simply that it isn't that dark/edgy that it becomes a grim dark story. And as far as I am aware, the term grim dark originates from the tagline of Warhammer 40K "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war"

[KariTheFox]

FF6,7,8,10,13,type 0 just to name a few examples. Even 14 is pretty edgy and grim dark in the earlier expansions, it’s just that they stopped with it around stormblood sadly.

Honestly if your standard for "grimdark" is those ff games then I fail to see how the depiction of the empire's oppression in Stormblood, the body horror in Shadowbringers, the Garlemald zone, and the second half of Thavanair don't all qualify.

[KizuyaKatogami]

Honestly if your standard for "grimdark" is those ff games then I fail to see how the depiction of the empire's oppression in Stormblood, the body horror in Shadowbringers, the Garlemald zone, and the second half of Thavanair don't all qualify.

The body horror in shadowbringers was what, one scene? And of someone we hardly knew. Second half of thavnair was pretty dark but ultimately short lived. Same with Garlemald. Didn’t help that directly after we’re having a lunch date with the scions. Compare it though to earlier 14 where the very first dungeon you do is the abode of a bunch of pirates housing kidnapped children and sex slaves, one of the 50 dungeons being about a woman who couldn’t deal with the death of her beloved so she turned to necromancy,body defilement,zombification etc to try and bring him back, ultimately cherishing his severed head.