Revelations from Fan Festival 2016 Tokyo

[Enur]

I always took Hoary Boulder's dialogue to suggest he learned how to be a Blue Mage there. He says something to the effect of learning how to use the souls of his enemies in combat. Sounds like Blue Mage to me.

Further discussions with various groups makes me think its from Sharlayan. Passing over Alisae's very Red-Mage-Like combat in 3.4, there's also the fact that a staple Red Mage spell has been Haste, a spell warping time around the caster or target. Sharlayan is the only nation we know of with access to that kind of magic in any meaningful form. Slow does exist outside of it, but less as a spell and more as a status effect, it feels like.

That is of course a very likely possibility. My knowledge of other FF titles is limited, so i make do with what i can find in game.


So theres this trend currently with one handed magic swordsmen going on. Alisae, Raubahn, Ilberd and Hoary Boulder fit these criteria. Lorebooks states theres Ancient Ala Mhigan Sworddancing techniques, and the hellsguard entry states they are famous for their axe(warrior) and sword (?) useage.
Whether this all lines up to be RDM or BLU i do not know. I have just noticed a pattern.

Edit:
With the case of Raubahn it was unvoluntary disarmament of course that forced him to weild a single sword. Otherwise he would've Dual weilded.

[Nestama]

FFIII can get a raid but FFXII cannot?

Yeah this whole "problem" is just one person's hatred about anything related to FFXII.
End of story.

It wasn't directly FFIII, though. It was a FFIII reference. Ivalice is also more than just FFXII. For all we know, it could be a FFT Ivalice reference.

[Fenral]

Then there's the other argument: if you knew (and deeply cared) about what was being referenced, the Crystal Tower was an absolute train wreck. (Well, even more so than it is anyway as a stand-alone story.) I also deeply care about Ivalice, so I'd hate to see it done badly.

We know for a fact that it's coming, but I'm really hoping for about 3-to-1 on the Eorzea to source ratio this time, because a badly done Ashley Riot or Balthier (or, who are we kidding, Reddas), would just kill me. Even more so than what they did to Doga, Unei, and only-sorta-Desch.

[Hinoto-no-Ryuji]

Then there's the other argument: if you knew (and deeply cared) about what was being referenced, the Crystal Tower was an absolute train wreck. (Well, even more so than it is anyway as a stand-alone story.) I also deeply care about Ivalice, so I'd hate to see it done badly.

Well, one of the major writers for that setting is behind the raid, right? I doubt you have much to worry about.

(And I dunno, I quite liked the Crystal Tower series. One of the highlights of 2.x, even. And although I'm not coming at it from an FFIII fan standpoint, from a standalone onr, it was just fine. Making it a standalone story and deciding to invoke the Noble Sacrifice trope doesn't make it a trainwreck - at least not objectively so).

[Slatersev]

Well, one of the major writers for that setting is behind the raid, right? I doubt you have much to worry about.

(And I dunno, I quite liked the Crystal Tower series. One of the highlights of 2.x, even. And although I'm not coming at it from an FFIII fan standpoint, from a standalone onr, it was just fine. Making it a standalone story and deciding to invoke the Noble Sacrifice trope doesn't make it a trainwreck - at least not objectively so).

Literally the creator of Ivalice as a setting as well as Balthier, Ashley and every other NPC from those games. If it is OG Ivalice and his characters show up it's in the best possible hands. Not to mention how much respect YoshiP has for both Matsuno and the Ivalice games.

Total false equivalency to compare to Crystal Tower, of which I have only ever heard Fenral refer to as a "disaster"

[Cilia]

FFIII can get a raid but FFXII cannot?

Yeah this whole "problem" is just one person's hatred about anything related to FFXII.
End of story.

For my part no, I don't care for Ivalice cuz I never played any of the games set there. If you think that's why I disagree with more references to it, you're sadly mistaken.

I just happen to think there are enough as is, and the resonant thematic overtones in Stormblood were already a lot. Adding in "Return to Ivalice" on top of all that feels like they're laying it on a bit too thick, for my taste anyway.

P.S. Ad hominem attacks prove nothing and add nothing to the discussion.

[Theodric]

...but if you've not played any of the games set in Ivalice how can you put much weight to the themes explored within those selfsame games? As far as I'm concerned the developers should 'lay it on thick' when it comes to the sort of themes explored in the Ivalice games because those same themes are directly responsible for antagonists and protagonists who are genuinely morally complex. I do genuinely wonder if the aversion to Ivalice based themes for some people here is based on a lack of desire for political intrigue and situations not being so black and white.

The sky isn't falling. Efforts have been made to make the story in this game make sense and become much better and more in-depth over time. I feel like it's fair to have faith in the developers in regards to stuff like this - especially when the guy being brought in to handle the storyline has an immense amount of experience under his belt.

[Fenral]

(And I dunno, I quite liked the Crystal Tower series. One of the highlights of 2.x, even. And although I'm not coming at it from an FFIII fan standpoint, from a standalone onr, it was just fine. Making it a standalone story and deciding to invoke the Noble Sacrifice trope doesn't make it a trainwreck - at least not objectively so).

It's all in the how and why, honestly. The entirety of the lore surrounding the Crystal Tower establishes it as causing a turning point in Allagan history, after which the people became dependent on technology and lost the ability to function on their own. The ultimate downfall of Allag was not the earthquakes that sank the capital, but the loss of their "beacon of hope," after which the people simply could not function on their own. From a lore perspective, the moral of the story is that prosperity and hope are a negative if they deprive people of their ability to provide for themselves. It's made pretty clear in quest dialogue leading up to the Syrcus Tower raid.

So, naturally, not only is the Crystal Tower something that must "once more shine the light of hope for all mankind" in the future, it's also absolutely paramount that G'raha realize that he can just trust us to build that future for him while he sleeps it off. He absolutely does not need to decide his own value for himself or believe in his own potential, because destiny will provide. And that's without going into the paradox of the royal blood that totally counteracts the feasibility behind his "noble" sacrifice.

So yes, by a casual analysis, it completely contradicts anything it could have been trying to say and pulls a bittersweet ending out of its anus. If that's not a train wreck, I don't know what is.

And to follow up in the spirit of Theodric's comment: since one of the most important themes of FFIII was that people don't have just one purpose in life (as illustrated by many characters, including Desch), using FFIII imagery and an expy of Desch to say that "people have only one purpose in life, and fulfilling that to the exclusion of all else is the only way to build a bright future," is also absolute hooey. I certainly hope Ivalice in all its complexity gets better representation, because it certainly deserves it.

[Cilia]

I may not have played the games, but I do know the story of Ivalice.

I'm fine with grey morality and political intrigue (I actually enjoyed the much-reviled Star Wars prequels for the selfsame reasons, shitty romance aside).

It really is just because I feel they're cramming too many and too blatant Ivalice references in. It's OK to disagree, but until we get more information I can't help but feel anxious.

[Fenral]

And for the record, I actually liked FFXIV's Alexander story (and you can quote me). The logic and lore behind it all tie up rather neatly, and the more you think about it, the more sense it makes.

I do, however, give it much-deserved grief for being essentially a repeat of the story we already got with CT. Ironically, though, Mide is actually a truer Desch reference than the character deliberately intended to stand-in for Desch, including how her story didn't end the way she thought it would.