Revelations from Patch 7.4: Into the Mist

[Iscah]

It's that time again! Share your thoughts on the patch, but keep your comments concealed under spoiler tags [ HB ] [ /HB ] while the patch is new, and label by quest group.

For reference: map of where Arcadion characters can be found after completing the story
(Let me know if you spot a similar one for MSQ)

[Zero-ELEC]

Big-ish MSQ spoils:

As expected, the alleged death of the Ninth has been greatly exaggerated. This was, of course, clear when we saw the sun rise at the end of the base MSQ once the dome was deactivated, but I had seen people be insistent that it was all gone except for Alexandria.

Edit:

Ah, so it was Halmarut, our Winterer Ascian. She seems nice.

[Iscah]

Arcadion

As the saying goes, if I had a nickel for every time I got roped into some old guy's decades-in-the-making plan to make the world better by self-sacrificing while casting himself as the villain, while one of our close allies is secretly but not-evilly in cahoots with him, is now have two nickels but it's weird that it happened twice.

The ending didn't really land for me. I know people predicted it could all be fake, but it felt like a weak reveal and having to spin around and recalculate everything around "actually the president was a good man and you should feel sad about him now".

For the actual fights, nothing came near the fun of Dancing Green last time. First fight with all the dodging obstacles was decent; second fight with the surfers felt like the rhythm of the music was off from the pace of the fight and detracted from it.

I feel like we're maybe supposed to see the Tyrant as Zenos's shard (or at least I'm sure people will be drawing that connection), but my mind went to Foulques. He's not here (just) for the thrill of battle but because of what he thinks is the right and noble way of going about things.

During the first part of the story after two different groups of people had walked in unannounced, I was thinking how reckless it seemed that they were leaving the door unlocked – and then surprise surprise, our rivals break in and trash the place! Yaana can't say I didn't warn her.

Overworld cameos

Alpha and Omega have picked up a curious new companion: a black cat. It could just coincidentally be a normal cat like the one we had to chase down in an S9 sidequest, but it seems too specific for that, and potentially quite significant if it is meant to be Alexander's cat.

[Grivvaint]

Big-ish MSQ spoils:

As expected, the alleged death of the Ninth has been greatly exaggerated. This was, of course, clear when we saw the sun rise at the end of the base MSQ once the dome was deactivated, but I had seen people be insistent that it was all gone except for Alexandria.

Edit:

Ah, so it was Halmarut, our Winterer Ascian. She seems nice.

Are...Are she and Calyx even going to be villains?

I'm not sure what to make of the end of MSQ. Still isn't giving us much to go off of. Not in the fun, alarming way of 4.4, but it's not necessarily bad either. They're holding the cards for this next arc really, really close to their chests.

We knew more about the ascians at the end of 2.0 (though it wasn't much) than we do about the Winterers at the end of 7.4. They're taking a really long time to build up the next arc.

[Cilia]

Freed from school but also now unemployed, I sat down and chewed through everything just tonight. Overall I'm going to have to give this one a solid B: good, but it didn't particularly wow me. Anyway...

MSQ

A sojourn onto the Ninth, passing through Ice Lightning Cavern Mistwake to find it's (dilapidated) incarnation of Treno inhabited solely by Lalafell. Mildly unnerving, to be honest - a racially homogenous settlement is quite strange in the wake of diverse Tural and Alexandria. Well, whatever. While it was cool to see a small-scale recreation of Treno, and Krile had some good plot beats, but we didn't really learn anything other than that settlements beyond Alexandria survived the Storm Surge... and that Halmarut is one of Calyx's Ascian collaborators, the latter of whom has been put into a monochrome Mica the Magical Mu plush toy. Oddly fitting such a menace should be put into such a harmless form.

And here we go with the cryptic bullshit! Honestly, as much as I may rag on the story for trying to portray Emet-Selch a bit too sympathetically in spite of the many terrible things he did even in recent history, just talking to us could yield a better end than fighting. You don't get to say "I told you so!" or "Looked what you screwed up!" when you run and hide instead of telling us anything, Halmarut!

I guess this was a formal send-off (for now) for Wuk Lamat, Erenville, and the Leveilleur twins. Here's hoping we don't see the latter in 8.0 after all that, but I'd bet dollars to donuts they'll be back sooner than later. >_> Nice to have Sphene around for one more adventure, though the fact she does next to nothing in the narrative tells me she was probably put there to pad out the Trust system with a healer. Don't see why we couldn't have just called on Urianger. (Where are Thancred and he?)

Still curious as to where we go next. Exploring more of the Ninth seems like the most likely direction, especially with the Doomtrain out of commission, but "lightning-ravaged wasteland" is already a little stale after Heritage Found and associated areas plus this short excursion to the surface of the Ninth. I can't see them making a whole expack based on that, and XIV Treno gave me "Zero's Domain" vibes...

And of course, despite having the Key since the end of 7.0 we still don't know anything more about it. Tune in next time, kiddos!

Arcadion: Heavyweight

Well, I was starting to get a sneaking suspicion the President was actually engineering our rise to the top, seeing as everything that transpires does so according to his design and it wouldn't make sense to possess a cure for psychonekrosis and not give it out (even from a business perspective). So he had just unwittingly mutated himself into a Lindwurm and needed us to kill him because of regen to get the cure out, and dressed it all up in kayfabe. Cool.

Wish we could have told the Xtremes they could come at us at the same time and it wouldn't make a difference, rather than saying that was the only way they'd win. You need to up your trash talk, WoL!

Anyway, fun fights, killer tunes. Vamp Fatale is a bit of a wringer because of all the dynamic AoEs, and the Xtremes are a little tough as a dual boss, but the Tyrant wasn't at all challenging and the Lindwurm was almost a pushover. (That directional knockback on the broken stage is a dirty move.) Even being rusty from not having played GNB for a long while and getting used to the tweaks, it was a fun romp.

Mildly annoyed they cheaped out on Hector / Brute Bomber's death, though.

All's well that ends well! ... or something like that.

[Cleretic]

This is a weird patch. Not necessarily bad, but it's got an odd energy, and both stories definitely have bad endings in my book, even though they're different kinds of bad.

MSQ:

That farewell scene at the docks is just fine, but it's really weird that it's the first scene of the patch; not only do I think it lands poorly because it doesn't have the momentum, but it's just weirldy unrelated to everything that happens afterwards.

Speaking of, most of what happens afterwards is extended fanservice to a very specific part of FF9! Not only can you see both Treno's auction house (which is explicitly called out) and the Tetra Master battlehall, but all three of the Mistwake bosses are three of the four enemies you fight in Treno's item shop; the fourth is the Behemoth, who turns up in the solo duty. The first area is also named after Vivi's grandfather. It's all pretty neat, but I'm not the biggest fan of 9, so I just sorta shrug and move on.

Similarly, Doomtrain is of course a summon from 8! Worth saying, though, something I learned recently: it's actually not a take on the Phantom Train! In Japanese it's actually called the Glasya Labolas--which, of course, was way too long to fit into a PS1 UI. Nothing much to say about the fight, it's just neat.

The story itself... I don't think I ever particularly bought Krile's whole crisis, and I don't think we particularly learned anything aside from 'Treno and other towns are still out there'. ...and I guess implicit confirmation that Ninth Au Ra are extinct? Or at least nowhere near Alexandria and Treno. I do think it's neat how heavily this one is tied to a specific Lodestone story, though; Zelenia's story both mentions Treno and introduced Thundran, the person who wound up building Treno's dome.

I also honestly don't think I like what Treno does to the overall story. Something I love about Dawntrail is that while it constantly references IX, it does it at a distance; it's building up IX's world as this abstract, idyllic past that you can't have; it's gone, you have to live with that. ...unless you live in Treno, in which case you can apparently have that no problem!

And then the ending... ugh. Is anybody genuinely happy that it's Halmarut? Or is it just 'hooray, I guessed right'? Everything potentially interesting about her is called into question by the fact that she's an Ascian to me; a green-horned au ra would be interesting... but it could just be a weird Ascian flex, like how Emet looked like Solus Galvus in Shadowbringers because he could. What she said at the end could be interesting... except that because an Ascian said it I don't believe it; there's a big damn asterisk somewhere in her statement, the question is where.



Naturally, Calyx carries the final scene; not because of the plushie design, that's just a pointless gag, but with the fact he has nobody to say goodbye to... because he was never doing this for anyone specific. He's not motivated by some smaller, baser or more selfish thing; he wants to save the entire world, no one person is more special to deserve it.

And the Arcadion:

Individually, all those fights and characters were neat, I liked most of them well enough. The reveal that everything was essentially a show wasn't honeslty a bad one, but I think it was let down by the president just... apparently not being a good writer. C'mon, man, you can't just make EVERYBODY heels! That's not a compelling stable! This is why WCW folded!

The final battle was disappointing, but in a... kinda weird way? The Lindwurm is a perfectly solid boss fight (although I think Hegemone did most of its schtick better), but it's not an Arcadion boss fight. The whole raid series has a strong and unapologetic aesthetic, and the Lindwurm just doesn't fit it at all. It could've worked, I think, if the cutscene afterwards was instead the actual second phase; random giant snake monster isn't a 'pro wrestling' thing, but a Royal Rumble breaking out because a bunch of wrestlers just run into the ring is ABSOLUTELY the vibe.

Part of me is happy that we can finally put the most annoying theory in all of Dawntrail to bed, though. Because we now finally know what the Arcadion's logo is, and we can stop pretending it looks like an Ascian sigil!

It's the Tyrant's combat form. Shoulderpads, horns, mohawk!

[MediocreIndigo]

MSQ:

Krile having a crisis over whether she wants to stay on the Source or the Ninth felt rather abrupt since we hadn't been in Treno for very long at that point. Other than that, I didn't really have that many issues with the MSQ this patch.
I already like Halmarut. Up until now, the only Ascians we've seen who aren't inhabiting a Hyur's body were Emet-Selch and that one guy from 1.0. Not only that, but she's an Au Ra. I like how much sillier she is than the other Ascians we've seen. Her panicking after being spotted by the WoL was funny. I look forward to seeing more of her.

Arcadion:

I have mixed feelings on how the Arcadion questline ended. On the one hand, I'm glad that all of the fighters ended up surviving, even if such an outcome was kind of cheap. The president having secretly been good all along makes sense, seeing as it wouldn't have made sense for him to allow fighters to die if he had access to a cure.
On the other hand, I feel like the twist with the president undercuts the theme that the Arcadion had been building up until this point. This whole questline seemed to be centered around a bunch of teenagers (most of them Indigenous) living under colonial rule being exploited for entertainment at the cost of their lives. This would've been thematically consistent with Alexandria's depiction in the MSQ, but now it's suddenly been revealed that the system that was seemingly exploiting these kids was never actually planning on letting them die. This feels like a symptom of a larger issue Dawntrail's writing has in which it hints at certain themes but doesn't want to commit to them.

[RedLolly]

Things that stuck out to me from MSQ:

The opening scene having the DT crew say fond farewells really hammers that Dawntrail is good and over. It was a pleasant scene, but I just got this underlying vibe that the devs felt like they needed to make it explicitly clear Tural time is good and done for the haters without also putting down the DT fans.

The twins leaving surprised me, but I hope this means we'll finally see that growth spurt next time we see them.

I'm a bit confused on the time frame for the 9th. Krile's aunt seems super young since I was under the impression a few hundred years had passed for the 9th since Krile was given to Galuf. Unless it's Solution 9 that was going at warp speed for a bit there.

Pictomancy is terrifying. Oh my god, the insanity Krile can pull off. She absolutely ran herself ragged and well beyond her limits, and needed help of extra aether from the ladies, but the stuff she pulled was absurd.

G'raha casually talking about Lyna and waxing nostalgic over the Crystarium and his time on the First in a positive way is nice. How disgusting was that syrup Lyna forced on him that he compares it to "sin" when the guy's only dropped a single swear in his entire existence with us (during CT, btw).

Also, G'raha remarking Krile needs to be careful who she talks to about Treno because of their JOB as researchers and needing to reveal the info first for publication and not because of some cosmic necessity is new. Like, oh, yeah, this is what the Students of Baldesion do for income.

Man, I think I really love Krile. She's sweet, no nonsense, figuring things out for herself, and she gleefully takes the piss out of her friends whenever she can. Immaculate vibes. Let's keep her for longer, please. And the idea she and G'raha potentially replacing the Twins for a while as the pair that have really good, sibling banter has my full support.

I really like the fact the devs are just going all in on the fact that Calyx really is/was just a kid. His paradise for his "immortal" people was just a Disney theme park, and now he's content getting around in what is essentially a Mickey Mouse plushie. His immaturity is conveyed in such a unique way. Mica imagery is going to haunt the narrative from now on, I bet.

I'm also intrigued by how incredibly normal feeling and sounding Halmarut is. She's so unthreatening and unassuming but also casually discusses her Ascian status and dresses for the wrong era because time is meaningless to an immortal and that's what she likes. She's already shown to be self-serving, indulgent, and bad at being bad in a way that probably grinded against the other Ascians. Also, finally characters with green color schemes.

Like, both of them have me looking forward to the future regarding the Winterers because both are so unique to what kind of villains we've seen before.

[Grivvaint]

Some gripes.

Yeah I think even though she finally got her spotlight and her arc, Krile being sidelined so much in 7.0 kind of hobbled her story. It was not properly built up at all. I think they need to learn to multitask better in 8.0 and on. Koana and Zoraal Ja also suffered badly from having their motivations not properly built up before they were "paid off," though Koana I think is a fundamentally dull character given how quickly he set aside his "technology at all costs" worldview and how few problems that even caused in the first place.

Some hopium.

Calyx remains the aspect of 7.X that I find most interesting and fun. Halmarut isn't as immediately arresting as Emet-Selch, but she might not even be a villain, and she holds some promise. The Winterers in general are an interesting concept. I just hate that we have to wait until April to learn anything more about wtf is going on. :P

[Cassar]

MSQ:

Unfortunately this was my least favorite patch MSQ in DT, and has made me a little bit worried for the first time. This entire patch was a filler for Krile, yes she needed her arc to be closed, but I just really thought we would get some sort of overall story progression alongside it.

The worst part to me is that they, AGAIN, delayed giving us answers on the key. This is something that has been teased since 7.0, and I was 100% certain this would be the patch we finally get answers, but they managed to find a way to delay it again. At this point it feels massively dragged out

There were good things though. I think overall the story of Treno was nice, I loved that we finally got a duty where we play as someone else (last time was in 7.0 with Wuk iirc) and I missed those. Would've all been a lot better if Treno remained relevant in the future, but I severely doubt that.

Finally, the post-credit scene almost saved this patch for me. It was great, we finally have confirmation of who the Ascian is, and it gave us a lot to think about when it comes to future threats and the role of Calyx + the Winterers. The best part is that Halmarut doesn't even seem like she's evil, we could be looking at our first Ascian ally. These characters will definitely be prominent in 8.0, so that gets me excited at least.

Arcadion:

I think the story was good. Knowing this is all based on Wrestling made it pretty clear everything would be staged to a certain extent, so no surprises there at all. They tried to make us feel a little bad for the president, didn't land very well to me, but no big deal. Also I think the Brute Bomber should've stayed dead to add some weight to his plotline, but it is what it is.

As for the fights themselves... 10/10. I think the final fight is my favorite fight in all of FFXIV.