Thread: 3.5/4.0 Speculation & Discussion (Spoilers)

Eh, I like Regula. That he survived a fight against the Warrior of Light on three separate occasions is a pretty huge deal when you consider just how tiresome the Hydaelyn's Blessing, The Echo and 'Cid's airship' have become as a means of evading any and all meaningful danger and consequences. I, too, want more compelling antagonists (not to be mistaken with 'irredeemable villains') but we're only going to get them if the 'get out of jail for free' plot devices for the Scions/Warrior of Light aren't just recycled over and over.

We also need less 'dead but not really, just kidding' moments (such as with the Sultana and the majority of major Scions) and we need shades of grey where both the antagonists and protagonists are concerned. Having a few outright villains with no redeeming qualities is fine in moderation, of course.

3.0 was already an improvement over 2.0 but if 4.0 moves to be bolder and doesn't resort to 'fake outs' or 'I betrayed you but not really' moments then it'll be even more impressive than 3.0.

WoL blessing = boring af.

Sorry, it just is.

Originally Posted by Balipu

I'm just tired of him after he pulled [...]

Maybe they could stop downplaying Ascians then, by virtue of the moronic WOL plot armour, and put them in a serious instance, rather than boring easy af story mode content.

Just an idea.

They're still fleshing out Regula. Not sure what the rush is or why he is lacking in his current form. Not everything is going to be as eventful as fighting Nidhogg was... and Nidhogg himself had a lot of build-up surrounding him, e.g. when you fought him in the Aery, again plot armour shielded you from his power. Much like it shielded you from Thordan... and a bunch of others. Even in its diminished form.

The one man army narrative is just one way of carrying out the story and tbh it's cliched and overdone. But when you are on the level of flummoxing virtual gods, like Thordan and various primals, it does strain belief...

You don't need to tell me what to do with the Ascians. I'm not on the dev team.

Hence the word "they".

Originally Posted by Lauront

The one man army narrative is just one way of carrying out the story and tbh it's cliched and overdone. But when you are on the level of flummoxing virtual gods, like Thordan and various primals, it does strain belief...

It is an MMO. No way around it. Every MMO has you turning into a god slaying person of mass destruction. FFXIV is one of the tamer ones actually. In WoW you lead your class order even though there really isn't any good reason why you should. In SWTOR you become the ruler of the galaxy after using some weird Force technique to kill off the spirit of the Evil Emperor. Even if you are a smuggler who doesn't give a damn about Jedi or Sith.

Originally Posted by Theodric

'Extreme' modes are usually a lot more difficult, but they're a 'retelling' of sorts.

And as in real life, the retellings are often far fancier than the real deal.

We owe a lot of myths, legends and folklore to that. A big lizard suddenly turns into a fire-spitting dragon, a squid into a sea monster, one armed men into ten armed men etc. I find it quite fitting this way around actually.

Personally, I do believe Zenos will be an unsympathetic antagonist - Yoshi-P said so, so there's little room for doubt. I'm just not ruling out the possibility, because it's always possible he could be sympathetic or have sympathetic motives. (Again, this is why I hate dealing in possibilities.) That said we've been told he'll be unsympathetic, so I'm expecting an iron-heeled tyrant or a spoiled manchild ("I'm the Emperor's son, I can do whatever I want!"). Despite that he could still be entertaining - a villain need not have sympathetic qualities or motives to be extremely engaging. Here's hoping he's half as entertaining as the likes of Junko Enoshima, Yuuki Terumi, and Handsome Jack...

The "grey morality" likely comes in with the Resistance, esp. factions like the Masks, not the Garleans themselves. Every Garlean antagonist we've met has been somewhere between "conquerer" and "utter bastard;" Gaius is what's probably considered progressive among Garleans, and he still said he was justified in taking Eorzea for his own simply because we could not stop him doing so. Rhitahtyn had a point in stating that Garlean meritocracy is... meritocratic, but he is undoubtedly the exception that makes the rule - non-Garlean soldiers have a very hard time rising in the imperial ranks, and can and will be executed at their legate's (or even a tribunus') whim. They have to serve 20 years to earn basic citizenship, exceptions notwithstanding. To say nothing of what the Garleans do to people who aren't conscripted.

The Scions are the white. The Resistance (i.e. Masks) are grey. The Garleans are, by and large, the black. While they do have some good points, they are not and will not be the Archadian Empire some want - not without major reforms, at any rate.

As for Regula, while I did hope to see more of him I think he'll be offed in 3.5 one way or another. Even if not, he said that Varis doesn't tolerate failure, so if he goes home empty-handed... yeah. He could survive and have a presence in Stormblood, but what would cause that to happen and what his role might be I haven't the foggiest.

Maybe Zenos will be an agreeable guy, but for one reason or another will kill off someone we like.
Thordan was and awesome villain and he undoubtedly had good intentions (not to mention he permanently killed Lahabrea) but he tortured Aymeric and was indirectly responsible for the death of Haurchefaunt so KUPO him.