Revelations from Patch 7.4: Into the Mist

[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!

[Cilia]

Remembered Hildibrand released with the patch, so I picked it up while hunting the Arcadion fighters around S9.

Another goose chase, this time through Shaaloani. Tracked down a... giant wolf man soul transplant, who was trying to blow up the train with ceruleum bombs after causing a ruckus around the region by destroying buildings and stealing food. Unfortunately, he was a real rube who got played by Carnelian (the slime guy's true identity, an Eldite criminal mastermind who killed Hardiboiled's incarnation of Nashu when they lowered their guard after apprehending him) and the still-unnamed scientist behind the plot. After some runaround the wolf guy was apprehended and Nashu freed from jail (long story).

So apparently oglops are a thing on the Ninth, and Hardiboiled is deathly afraid of them like pretty much every character in IX not named Garnet or Vivi. No points for guessing what the ultimate reward for the Hildibrand quests this time will be. (Please?)

<snip>

MSQ

Honestly, I wasn't 100% sure what the cave was supposed to be. On the one hand the intro shot is a 1:1 to Quan's Dwelling, but it seemed to be more of an Ice Cavern reference to me... still, one part of it is called "Quan Caverns," and the route you take into Treno is a compressed adaptation of a direct route there from the overlook in Quan's Dwelling so it's definitely the former.

It's not 1:1, but Treno has even more references. The slums and canals are prominent areas of Treno, and another architectural mark carried over is Queen Stella's gazebo. The railway is likely a reference to Gargan Roo or the nearby South Station cable car. It didn't feel like a step up to me because the back half of Dawntrail is drowning in IX references. (The front half is lots of XI.) We fought IX's final boss as the "true" final boss of Dawntrail, for cryin' out loud!

I'm not all that disappointed by Halmarut since we knew the Ascians were back in play after 7.3. I'm just... irritated she's doing the "If you knew what I know, we'd be on the same page" shtick Elidibus did back in 2.1, and this time entirely offscreen except in front of Calyx. She's understandably wary of us given our resumé, but you can't expect us to change onto the "right" course without even knowing what we're doing "wrong," let alone how to fix it. It's the usual "don't tell us anything and then blame us for not knowing" bit that's just... worn by this point.

[Cleretic]

Remembered Hildibrand released with the patch, so I picked it up while hunting the Arcadion fighters around S9.

Another goose chase, this time through Shaaloani. Tracked down a... giant wolf man soul transplant, who was trying to blow up the train with ceruleum bombs after causing a ruckus around the region by destroying buildings and stealing food. Unfortunately, he was a real rube who got played by Carnelian (the slime guy's true identity, an Eldite criminal mastermind who killed Hardiboiled's incarnation of Nashu when they lowered their guard after apprehending him) and the still-unnamed scientist behind the plot. After some runaround the wolf guy was apprehended and Nashu freed from jail (long story).

So apparently oglops are a thing on the Ninth, and Hardiboiled is deathly afraid of them like pretty much every character in IX not named Garnet or Vivi. No points for guessing what the ultimate reward for the Hildibrand quests this time will be. (Please?)

FYI, that one didn't come with this patch; Hildibrand's stuff is coming in the 7.x5 patches, and you just played the 7.35 one!

For what it's worth, while I was surprisingly on board with the 7.25 Hildibrand questline, the 7.35 one mainly got a reaction of 'wow, y'all found One New Joke'. Sometimes Hildibrand has a habit of going all-in on different variations on one gag, and this time they really hoped the Oglop joke was a massive hit.

[Austratus]

Honestly, I wasn't 100% sure what the cave was supposed to be. On the one hand the intro shot is a 1:1 to Quan's Dwelling, but it seemed to be more of an Ice Cavern reference to me... still, one part of it is called "Quan Caverns," and the route you take into Treno is a compressed adaptation of a direct route there from the overlook in Quan's Dwelling so it's definitely the former.

It's not 1:1, but Treno has even more references. The slums and canals are prominent areas of Treno, and another architectural mark carried over is Queen Stella's gazebo. The railway is likely a reference to Gargan Roo or the nearby South Station cable car. It didn't feel like a step up to me because the back half of Dawntrail is drowning in IX references. (The front half is lots of XI.) We fought IX's final boss as the "true" final boss of Dawntrail, for cryin' out loud!

Mistwake is my new favorite dungeon. /10char

You can see the card stadium on the east side of Treno as well: it's inaccessable but you get some passerby dialogue referencing a tournament if you stand at the waters edge.
Also, the quick camera pan around the first mobs during the dungeon intro is itself a bit of a reference to the startup of IX's battles, it's a fun nod alongside the very nice arrange of the battle theme.

You can go back to Treno after MSQ but sadly you can't interact with the NPCs for dialogue anymore.

[diamondedge83]

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!

Really? Looks way more like the President's Lindwurm form to me. What you're calling shoulder pads are its claws, the Mohawk is its crest, and the two side horns are actually is wing arms fading into the background. It'd be nice if they'd just tell us now that it's over and done with.

[Cleretic]

Really? Looks way more like the President's Lindwurm form to me. What you're calling shoulder pads are its claws, the Mohawk is its crest, and the two side horns are actually is wing arms fading into the background. It'd be nice if they'd just tell us now that it's over and done with.

Both of them can make a plausible case (and there's a viable way to say it's both), but I'm leaning towards my guess because all the 'parts' are correctly proportioned on a straight shot. For it to be the Lindwurm it'd need to be a very specific, stylized angle, while if it's the Tyrant then it's just a pretty straight shot of his head and shoulders.

Also, only one of those two was a public figure and image before the boss fight itself! It makes complete sense that the Arcadion logo is a stylized image of the champ.

The Storm Surge happened four centuries ago, but Preservation and all the interdimensional research stuff (at least the parts that Krile's parents were involved with) started much later.

I think it roughly went like this:

• Over 400 years ago, things start to shift towards lightning. Times gets hard.
• Roughly 400 years ago, electrope is figured out. Wars start to secure it. War intensifies the lightning aspect shift, the world is basically ruined as a result. Alexandria, Treno, and a few other settlements hunker down.
• Some point between then and now, Preservation starts researching interdimensional travel.
• Roughly 20 odd years ago, Krile's parents chuck her through a portal they helped make.
• The present day.

Also, minor nerd point on this one: it was slightly over twenty years ago on the Source's side, it's plausibly longer on the Ninth's side. (Further explanation of 7.4 stuff in spoilers!)

Miayli looks like she's probalby in her fifties or sixties, so I would probably estimate that on her side, Alayla made the trip maybe thirty or forty years ago.

The interesting extra factor here is what this means for Calyx. I'd always figured that Robor and Alayla made their trip roughly concurrently with the early Endless experiments with Otis and Sphene, early in the Storm Surge; this actually confirms that Calyx was active long before this, and had been an Endless for centuries at that point.

[Fenral]

Bit late to this one. I blame the three-hit combo of end-of-year work nonsense, Octopath 0, and most importantly Inazuma Eleven. (Seriously, Yoshi-P, if Hino Nohi is asking for another collab give it to him. Please. My team could easily make room for a few of the Scions, and there's a whole crossover gag you could do by making Alphinaud use Mugen the Hand. Please.)

MSQ!

The first quest felt like it was intended as the last quest of 7.3 and got pushed back a patch for some reason. It feels like that's not the first time this has happened either, but it really stuck out this time.

This is supposed to be the FF9 expansion, but this entire episode had big FF3 energy. Go to new town in dire straits, help out a bit, go out and punch something really, really big to solve two or three problems at once, pick up a mostly useless pointer to your next destination, and set out again as the whole town sees you off with a smile.

On that note, though, it's kind of a shame how self-contained it all is. Lumull is the most fun NPC we've had in a while, but he and the rest of Krile's surprise relatives are just going to be sort of there now. We might go back for a bit on a Porxie delivery if we need an excuse to run into Halmarut again, but other than that I don't see them doing much with Treno long-term.

And on that note, did I just hear Saori Hayami? She's definitely going to be around a while if they're bringing out the big guns. And Calyx is now a plushie. Chance of future minionization has increased by 300%. If they wanted to sell us on the Winterers not being our next batch of antagonists, it worked.

Overall, a good patch MSQ. Running with an FF-party-sized group (with Sphene in the NPC slot) always works better than trying to constantly find something for everyone to do. I'm kind of wondering where Thancred and Urianger got off to now, though.

[Cassar]

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!

I don't think so... Are you implying that they change the logo every time a new champ is crowned? The president's transformation into the Lindwurm happened relatively recently (3 years I believe they said), and there have been multiple champions that attempted to defeat him in those years, so the logo would've changed for each champion.

Maybe the logo is just the Lindwurm, since it's a legendary creature and has been for centuries, but this would mean that it's just a coincidence that the Lindwurm happened to play a very important role in the history of the Arcadion.

[Carin-Eri]

I don't think so... Are you implying that they change the logo every time a new champ is crowned? The president's transformation into the Lindwurm happened relatively recently (3 years I believe they said), and there have been multiple champions that attempted to defeat him in those years, so the logo would've changed for each champion.

Maybe the logo is just the Lindwurm, since it's a legendary creature and has been for centuries, but this would mean that it's just a coincidence that the Lindwurm happened to play a very important role in the history of the Arcadion.

Another wrestling trope: changing the (side) plates on the championship belt to reflect who the current belt-holder is. This could be seen as being a 'digital' version of that.

[Cleretic]

Another wrestling trope: changing the (side) plates on the championship belt to reflect who the current belt-holder is. This could be seen as being a 'digital' version of that.

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking. Either this is just how it goes, or the Tyrant's been the champion long enough that he's become the branding.

Either that or he's the 80s Hulk Hogan of the Arcadion, and he's just the mascot regardless of championship status.