Revelations from Patch 3.56

[Anonymoose]

WARNING

BECAUSE THIS PATCH IS ONLY MAIN SCENARIO,
WE CAN FOREGO THE USUAL "HIDE IN SPOILER BOXES BY STORY ARC" THING.

PLEASE COMPLETE THE MAIN SCENARIO BEFORE READING THE THREAD AT LARGE.

Something something traditions. Happy patch day, errybodeh!

I'll put mine in spoiler tags just in case anyone's eyes are skimming the OP against their own wishes.

Overall, SE doesn't seem to have tried to replicate the gut-punch that was 2.55. Much of 3.5 has has felt a little rushed, but I'm actually glad in retrospect that they invested what resources they had into the climax of the Dragonsong War and the Warriors of Darkness rather than handicap those and try to force something here. I had plenty of feelz for those patches. Knee-jerk, does this one feel anticlimactic? A bit. But it's a good set-up to Stormblood - which feels dark and violent and has a solid budget (like three times Heavensward). I'll take it.

Shinryu
Well, that came out of freakin' nowhere, lmao. I suppose all of that history repeating talk was a literal foreshadow. Don't get me wrong, it's appropriate given Omega, historically speaking. I do have some reservations about Shinryu being "just" a primal, though. I'd hoped he would be above Midgardsormr somehow (perhaps from his homeworld and/or the Dragon Star).

Still, this'll do, for now. Fits thematically, good designs, good animations, I give it a golfclap. (Still came outta nowhere, tho.)

Yda
I don't think anyone called that specific timeline, did they? lol

We've seen both sisters; Yda died between the 1.0 Echoes and the 1.0 Present. It's like the "It's Yda!" and the "It's Yda's sister!" crowds are both going to shout, "CALLED IT, I TOLD YOU!" at the same time.

For the Lady in Red, I'd been about 49% Yda / 51% Yda's Sister since October strictly because of the tats. If it was her, that'd have meant either SE has had magickal tattoo removal this entire time (Sure. Fine. Whatever.), SE used alternative facts in a trailer to mislead people (HISSSSS), or SE pulled the Sage tattoos of "the dumb one". That last one felt like a disservice because Thancred wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed at 17 and his were legit back then, so I gave Yda the benefit of the doubt.

Having Yda be an Archon, Yda be dead, Yda's sister be Yda as some of the time we've known her, and the secondary tats be tied to Papalymo I think cleans up all of the loose ends to reinvent the character without snubbing anyone (including us, the players). Yda was hanging uncomfortably in the balance between years of plot threads and this was a messy, but easy-to-grasp way of getting out of it and reinventing her that didn't manage to trip over any of the things that would have made me eyeroll to the point that I expected.

I suppose the days of having an equivalent Archon for each city is over in mission and in theme...
(unless we've just put Thancred and Y'shtola on the clock, as well...)

Nero
They really didn't address at all how he went from seemingly giving up his reckless pursuit of ultimate, unknowable power to Hahahahahahahaha! Yes! Fly free, my pretty! Show us what you can do! I suppose we'll have to wait for the Bend of Time. Unintended consequences via the machine's autopilot - who saw that coming? (Everyone raises their hands but Nero, even Aymeric, who is still rightfully mad at himself for telling us to throw the Eyes over a bridge.)

Did anyone catch that flavor-text from Cid?

We must be careful, old friend. The walking weapons of Allag were expressly designed to subdue primals, but men like Gaius will always seek to use them against mankind. It falls to us to ensure that Omega is never employed as a weapon of war. In the wrong hands, it would be...
It would be bad.

fist-shakes the name-drop