Revelations from Patch 7.4: Into the Mist

[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.