Revelations from Patch 6.2: Buried Memories

[Rannie]

Of course we're not done with it. There's always a third instalment, and it ended on a cliffhanger.

Still, it feels quite jarring that most of the key players in the story are now unaware of its biggest new development.

On the one hand, revealing the time loop to them is probably not viable, and then the story would have to invoke memory wipes again (or do a really good job of revealing that Ascian Lahabrea – whoever he is, exactly – recognised us all along.

Still, there's at least hypothetically a window of opportunity to influence the past so that the reason for the facility's appearance in the aetherial sea is somehow beneficial or playable to our advantage. Though being a story, it probably has to end up messy one way or another.

Stupid 10 character limit *mumbles grumbles*

I get where you're coming from with saying it seems jarring. I guess the way I'm thinking of it is more along the lines of yeaaaaah, they're probably not having them say anything or have us tell them about it since it is a cliff hanger and are wanting surprise us during that third installment. =) That's just my way of thinking though.

Also what if we did end up telling both Themis and Lahabrea the truth too... we already know what happens with Elidibus but they could explain Lahabrea not remembering still with his constant body swapping. If they go that route that is.

It's also making me curious as to which direction they'll go in with it and if that other memory crystal was the one that Lahabrea used to seal that part of himself into it a the end of the fight was the one that wad found by c boy ( terrible with names) and is what could have caused Pandaemoniumto show up. So many interesting ways they can go with it.

[Iscah]

Technically 6.1X but not worth dragging up an old thread for: I discovered today that Jessie at Rhalgr's Reach has new comments following on from Beyond the Rift.

[KageTokage]

Was nice to get some bookends for Ul'dah in the variant dungeons, though it makes me wonder if they intend to do that for all of the ARR city states or if they'll be pushing into the expansions for the future ones.

Limsa's problems were already fairly well-addressed in the MSQ and role quests proper, while Gridania is a...weird case because the elementals are firmly ingrained in their culture despite being a source of both weal and woe and I can't see that changing easily.

[Shookbeast]

Spoilers for Variant Dungeon Quests:

There’s a nice little wrap up quest once you explore all possible routs within the dungeon and get all the notes. It wraps back to that fateful meal you had with Nanamo waaaay back when. Given the retrospective mood of this dungeon, and also the sort of self contained (and possibly not too tricky to replicate) nature of it - I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do at least two (or four?) more for all the city states/major cities. I get the sense that these are being used to wrap up loose ends for the players - possibly before 7.0 shakes things up.

[Iscah]

Partway through the Omicron quest, and spotted a character that can be chatted to while not an active story character.

One of the two Nibirun is at Reah Tahra, northeast of the aetheryte. I spotted them when we were sent there to talk to one of the dragons, though they might have been hanging around here since they first cameoed in a previous progression quest. I had a look for the second one but couldn't see them in any of the towns.

[KageTokage]

It seems like they're only around while you actually have specific quests active, so I'll have to keep a look out during the later reputation quests.

It kind of bugs me that you're able to miss out on their dialogue entirely since I was the most curious to learn about their circumstances and how similar/different they were from the Ancients they were supposedly meant to parallel.

[Iscah]

Omicrons at rank 7

The story ending was nice, although we haven't resolved the Nibirun yet and surely we must be getting their pretty golden scenery before this ends, so I expect we'll get that in rank 8.

I had wondered if there might be a plot twist and the "Omicron home world" section of Elysion might turn out to be the Nekropolis after all, but I like the direction they went with calling up a whole forest of those trees.

It feels a bit off that the Grebuloffs are cutesy otter-people. Given their backstory of starting out as aquatic and moving onto land, I was expecting that they were fish-people and the "diving suits" were actually the opposite; a water-filled suit so they can breathe on land.

Also, I wish there was a bit more water in their part of Elysion – a really nice wide beach and swimmable water under that starry sky would have been lovely. The zone seems to have been built mainly with gathering in mind, but it could have been a spearfishing spot.

Staring at the glowing ball in the heart of Elysion, I have to wonder – the default science-minded assumption is "it's a star" – an actual star, a sun, not a planet – but then perhaps that isn't right in this setting. A planet's crust is coalescing around it. Could it actually be the planet's aetherial sea?

Also I wonder if there was some intent to imply the Omicrons were originally Earth humans, given the specific nod to Omega/M-017 in-universe deriving its name from M17 in the real-world Messier astronomical catalogue. Then again, it's entirely possible that the "real" catalogue got invented by a fictional race in the same way that anything else recognisable in the story-world has to have a fictional history.

Still, that sent me wondering if N-7000 is also an astronomical reference for naming purposes or just a number the writers pulled out of nowhere, so I consulted Wikipedia and the NGC catalogue does go up that high, but it turns out to be the somewhat boring and definitely not lore-friendly North America nebula. It's in the constellation Cygnus though. We could nickname N-7000 "Cygnus". Sigma? Kind of funny because just yesterday I was thinking that "gawky space robot addressing someone as Sir" put me in mind of Sigmund from Ratchet & Clank. I liked him. I'm wandering a mile off course now but I need to play those games again sometime.

Omicron design is extremely gawky though, and not in an endearing way. Everything about their stance and proportions looks off.

Also, as with Omega, having a character using "it" pronouns just messes with my mind (and more importantly grammar) in a weird way. People aren't meant to be "its", and "it" is used as a placeholder for the non-person thing in a sentence.

[Alleo]

It seems like they're only around while you actually have specific quests active, so I'll have to keep a look out during the later reputation quests.

It kind of bugs me that you're able to miss out on their dialogue entirely since I was the most curious to learn about their circumstances and how similar/different they were from the Ancients they were supposedly meant to parallel.

Yeah when I was doing the last quest for rank 7 I saw one in the Omicron base. I went there again after the quest was done and he was gone too. I flew to every location but could not find any trace of them. So I wonder if they only appeared when you have a active ranked quest...which means that I missed the other ones. (There seems to be one in each location, others have seen them with the Eas too)

[Cleretic]

Yeah when I was doing the last quest for rank 7 I saw one in the Omicron base. I went there again after the quest was done and he was gone too. I flew to every location but could not find any trace of them. So I wonder if they only appeared when you have a active ranked quest...which means that I missed the other ones. (There seems to be one in each location, others have seen them with the Eas too)

I think there's at least one around in the main place where the upgrade quest actually sends you. I know there's one hanging around the dragons when you recruit them. They're hitting the classic balance where they want you to see them, but don't want them to be the FIRST thing you see, so they're nearby but not at center-stage.

I think they're easiest to notice when they're hanging around the Omicron side of things because their robes are about the same tone as both the dragons and the friendly Ea, so they kinda blend in around them, while they don't look like the Omicrons at a glance at all. I wonder if that's intentional, or if it's just coincidence.

EDIT: For the record, while I'm going off memory they actually seem to like the listless malaise of the dragons, their dialog there is basically 'these guys get it, they know life sucks'.

[Alleo]

So the questline is finished and this is a repost from the other thread that I have wrote in:

After we ask around if the customers like the cafe we get a report that Elysium has changed again. We go there and the first thing we see is a new baby dragon. I was like "awww" and then so happy. Finally the dragons have their children again.

Then we see the huge tree of the Nibirun, now part of the Omikron map. Its absolutely beautiful. The Nibirun are there too and are bascially wondering about the reason to life. At the end everyone of the new races come over and invite them to some nice discussions about the universe and the existance.

That finishes the story. I do say that the solution for the Nibirun was a bit fast. I guess the combined happyness of the other races got to them in the end.

I love that in their zone we have them talking with the Omicrons about trees while they just love discussions with the Ea.

And at the cafe you have one that is really fascinated with the joyfulness of the newborn dragon.

Also the Omicron gives new information about the Nibirun. They bascially managed to destroy any illness and violence and achieved eternal lifes. They reached harmony across the whole race which in turn meant that they never had any conflict anymore. But that was their end. Without pain and all the negative emotions, the positive ones also lost their meaning in time and thus they wanted it to end.

All in all a great storyline, with some emotional points and a very stunning Elysium.