Thread: [spoilers]3.2 MSQ Discussion/Reaction thread

Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

Yeah, I don't know where they are. Y'shtola isn't in Idyllshire anymore, and Thancred/Krile aren't in the Stones. Maybe they're somewhere strange, like Dragonhead or Fortemps manor?

Did you check Matoya's cave?

Originally Posted by Morningstar1337

Did you check Matoya's cave?

Nope, as said below, they aren't there. This is really odd.

Edit: Also, I just want to say, these Vath quests are pretty cute. Gobbies calling them "Walkybugs" and whatnot.
Also: "Go and pick up the damn rocks." It seems our character is quite snarky when we're not angsting or swearing vengeance on someone.

Serious response to this thread:

I really do believe something I think I said earlier which is that before the mother being split into what is now Hydaelyn and Zodiark it was a more complete and powerful entity. It may be for the good of the cosmos that this being is re-formed and in this the Ascians may not be entirely evil.

I do not get a "lol evil" vibe from, say Unukulhai (AKA Totally-Not-Elidibus) or Elidibus. He's mysterious and his methods are hideous from our perspective but he's also reasonable and just seems to have more far reaching agendas than anyone else. Urianger probably understands him.

Hm.

Much as Minfilia is now the Voice of the Mother might Elidibus be Voice of the Father? Zodiark is the moon so is this why he is in white?

After all in Final Fantasy Tactics Elidibus' most powerful spell is Summon Zodiark.

Originally Posted by Ayuhra

Much as Minfilia is now the Voice of the Mother might Elidibus be Voice of the Father? Zodiark is the moon so is this why he is in white?

This has been one of my theories for Eli for a while, him being an avatar of Zodiark. After all, at the very least, he seems to hold some position above the others - but he does not seem to be one and the same being as Zodiark, as Minfilia does with Hydaelyn, so I don't think we can directly make the comparison.

Unukalhai, I believe, is a Lesser Ascian (I actually didn't know people were hypothesizing he was directly Elidibus until I saw people posting it here, hence why I'm usually typing totally-not-Elidibus-or-his-servant, of course, he very definitely shares Elidibus' goals and we can use him to try to figure out what Elidibus seeks, as the 12th Lessers did for Lahabrea). I'm super excited for Cutest-Ascian's story, though, because it might just segue into a slightly more sympathizable view of Ascians.

Originally Posted by CyrilLucifer

Unukalhai, I believe, is a Lesser Ascian (I actually didn't know people were hypothesizing he was directly Elidibus until I saw people posting it here, hence why I'm usually typing totally-not-Elidibus-or-his-servant, of course, he very definitely shares Elidibus' goals and we can use him to try to figure out what Elidibus seeks, as the 12th Lessers did for Lahabrea). I'm super excited for Cutest-Ascian's story, though, because it might just segue into a slightly more sympathizable view of Ascians.

Some of the theory that Unukalhai is Ellie or an avatar thereof is that, aside from the similarity in appearance and mysterious motives and connection to Urianger, Unukalhai is a name for Alpha Serpentis. In FFT Elidibus' zodiac sign/job class is Serpentarius. It seems to suggest there is at the very least a connection between them. Servant is definitely possible.

Serpentarius is the older name of Ophiuchus the "Serpent-Bearer" so servant actually suits the names better.

Originally Posted by Ayuhra

snipsnip

Oh trust me, I'm the very first person spouting that Unukalhai is related to Elidibus precisely for that reason. His name means he literally cannot be. However, I just didn't think he was directly Elidibus.

(Also, who thought it was a good idea to put Sephirot into Trial Roulette?)

Finally finished (most of) the story-related stuff this patch, so here are my very-late impressions.

On the whole, better than 3.1, largely because so many things actually happened. Something about the Dragonsong stuff in particular leaves me a bit cold (heh), though, maybe because the problems it introduced got resolved so quickly and simply (I was expecting the business with with the disgruntled citizens to be a MUCH bigger problem when it was introduced, see below). We'll have to see where it all goes in the end!

On Minfilia/The Anti-Tower
The AntiTower itself felt lazily implemented. Most new locales have at least some foreshadowing and buildup, but the whole "oh we just remembered this incredibly convenient research center oh it's in Matoya's cavern!" schtick really came out of nowhere. The bosses (Porrogos aside) also felt haphazard in their placement, as fun as they were to play. It makes me really torn about it as a dungeon, to be honest.

But in regards to the plot: I'm not, for whatever reason, as passionately against sacrifice as a storytelling device as many seem to be here, but it really had me wondering a lot about our Mother Goddess' goals. Hydaelyn has now had Minfilia by Her side for Some Time, and yet has never made any move to actually use this avatar to talk to us. About the only thing that makes sense to me is that Hydaelyn grabbed Minfilia when it was most convenient for her to do so, what with Flow having just been cast, and was waiting until some Appointed Time to contact us when we came a-knockin'. I don't think She's so weak that she NEEDS to use Minfilia in the Aetherial Sea, but rather that She did so to show us where our friend had gone; as much as I'm reluctant to take what She says about Her relationship with Zodiark at face value, I don't think She's a malicious goddess. Good luck telling that to our Scion friends, though. It'll certainly be interesting to see where this takes Thancred especially.

On the Dragonsong War
Much of the events in this bit had me mentally referring to it as "The Wounds Weren't Lethal!: The Patch". The Barmaid, Honoroit, Vidofnir...all of them fake-out death scares. At least I now know how Chirurgeon is pronounced (although a French friend of mine insists that the "kai-ruhjin" they used is wrong). Anyways.

I really thought that the Emmanellain stuff was going to play out differently, based on his demeanor at the end of 3.1 and some of the quest descriptors, all of which made him seem reeeeally shifty. Basically, I figured he had gotten it into his head that ending the war wasn't such a good thing and was acting to sabotage negotiations - in fact, I believed that to be the case right up until the stuff with Honoroit. I thought he'd gotten his guard to shoot the girl to incite the people to anger, his general disillusionment with his own place in his family making him care little for being a scapegoat. I guess that would have essentially made him irredeemable, but oh man, can you imagine if Honoroit had died as a result of his actions, were that the case? Instead, it's just his general incompetence, and while it was nice to get some development out of him, it ultimately didn't make all that much of an impact on me.

The Grand Melee was a really cool bit. I've always enjoyed the instanced combat setpieces of HW, but this one was especially neat, and I could see it being implemented as a form of mass PVP in the future (which I'm sure is a totally original observation on my part). The fight against Raubahn was fun, and I find myself both glad and morbidly disappointed that it wasn't a more serious development that brought us into conflict with him. That said, I'd really like to see more from the other City-States in the near future; some of Yoshida's interview comments made me think that they'd get a bit more involved in 3.2 than they did, but I guess we still have several more patches to go before 4.0, so we'll see.

And Niddhog! That whole ending certainly threw a wrench in things. I'm really curious what exactly the physical properties of this creature are. There was obviously a reason why he showed up as Estinien, and while I initially thought it to be a ploy to enrage the dragons looking to negotiate a peace, that was more than a little undermined by him turning into Niddhog at the end there. Since he used Estinien's form to do anything that required physical action of him, it makes me think that the Nidhogg Shade is really just that - a shade, projected over the possessed body of everyone's favourite Rude Dragoon. It will also be interesting to see where exactly Aymeric falls when the time comes to save or sacrifice Estinien, and honestly, I could see it going either way. Is it well-known in the game itself that Estinien and Aymeric were especially close, as was expanded on in Tales from the Dragonsong War? I feel like their history is almost certainly gonna come up at some point.

And as for the teases at the end...the Thancred one is kind of intriguing, given the Minfilia developments, but I was a bit let down by the Yda and Papalymo one. It felt a bit haphazard and tacked on. That said, that mask is interesting; a quick search around tells me that nobody seems to recognize the mask itself, so the tease must be the fact that somebody is Masking Up. I could have sworn the goggled guy among the antagonistic Sky Pirates was Ilberd, though (same scar and everything!).

This has turned into quite the post, so I'll do a separate one about Sephirot and Midas later, I think.