[SPOILERS] Stormblood Ending

[EdwinLi]

I thought Amanomarakumo was that sword that defeated Orochi and was one of 3 of Japan's sacred treasures.

Ame-no-Habakiri is the one Susaoo used to kill Yamata no Orochi

There are multiple swords of the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi with each having their own legend.

Ame-no-Habakiri is the one that is known to slay Orochi and became enshrined as the Shintai of Isonokiami Shrine

The new beast tribe called Kojin are the Shinto religion beast tribe just like how Ame-no-Habakiri is enshrined in a Shinto Shrine which is Isonokiami Shrine.

Ama-no-marakumo-Tsurugi was the sword found inside Yamata no orochi after Susaoo killed it.

[Cilia]

Seeing as this seems to be the place to weigh in on the villains, and that I just got there yesterday, I can finally do so. I'll go in order of their final defeat, minus Grynewaht since he's clearly just comic relief. Even his dungeon endboss Hypertuned form isn't overly threatening (as long as the DPS get away from me when he sets up them the bomb).

Yotsuyu
-Tragic, not sympathetic. She was abused and mistreated until becoming a Garelan spy enabled her to escape that pain, but ultimately what she does isn't for revenge or "justice." She admits, quite openly, that she finds sadistic joy in the torment of Domans. Everything she did was just to feel that rush. That sadistic joy may be the product of her abusive past, but that doesn't excuse or justify her actions in the slightest. I would not have killed Yotsuyu, but neither am I particularly happy she survived either.

Fordola rem Lupis
-Easily the most tragic and sympathetic villain in 4.0. She really wants only one thing - acceptance - but as someone between Garlemald and Ala Mhigo nobody gives it to her, fueling her rage and extreme actions. Her atrocities are no more excusable or justifiable than Yotsuyu or Zenos', but it's much easier to understand the why of what she does. Fordola is a victim of circumstance, and for that she earns my sympathy - even if those circumstances drive her to do horrible things, such as killing her comrades with artillery fire. Easily the villain I most look forward to seeing what she will do, much as before 4.0. (The game even hints she may have more a role to play, "So falls the hunter, but what of the hound?" Unless you interpret Yotsuyu as Zenos' hound, but... I don't get that feeling from her at all.)

Zenos yae Galvus
-Neither really tragic nor sympathetic, Zenos ended up being little more than the dog of war I had him pegged as. He is considerably more clever than other villains of his ilk, but ultimately lives for war and war alone. Everything he does is to stir up anger and dissent, trying to start uprisings so he can have something to fight, even though he finds even most battles boring anymore due to his overwhelming power. I strongly disagree with his assessment that we are no different from him - he starts fights so he can fight, while we wade into battles so we can end them and go home. While Lyse is correct in stating he wasn't always the dog of war we meet him as, whether or not he would have been much different if brought up in a better environment is up for debate - anyone who has studied psychology knows that psychological states are a mixture of nature and nurture, and being a dog of war may well just be what he is. According to Lucia he has never cared about politics, so...

Those out of the way - for anyone questioning the Warrior of Light's psychological state, please go play the DRK 70 quest. I won't spoil anything but I will say that it addresses some questions, such as the righteousness of our actions and how we feel about them (and includes quite possibly the most epic single-player battle currently in-game). I swear, between that and the ham-fisted mentioning of other adventurers for almost all the new dungeons and trials, it's like they read this board and get ideas from it.

[NyxNox]

I'm actually fine Yotsuyu is alive I find villains like her more interesting than the big bad prince who just let Doma and Al Mingo fall into enemy hands just because he wanted it to happen.

[ErikMynhier]

I'm just happy Lyse is leaving. Her and Alphy irritate me. She didn't use to, but the "I'm not Yda who acted this way the whole game.... I'm actually her sister who acts totally different. I am the world's greatest and most flawless actress, Lyse".

It was just sloppy storytelling I felt. Would have been better if for example if Lyse had died and Yda while hiding in the Resistance found a diary from Lyse or something and was spurned on into character development to stop being the ditz she was forced to get her act together. I know that's basically what happened, but the "its all a act/lie" was just dumb to me.

[Fenral]

I'm just happy Lyse is leaving. Her and Alphy irritate me. She didn't use to, but the "I'm not Yda who acted this way the whole game.... I'm actually her sister who acts totally different. I am the world's greatest and most flawless actress, Lyse".

The flowery nature of the writing masks it somewhat, but, in case you missed it, Lyse is still really, really dumb. Considering most of the main Scions in 2.0 were pretty much static characters until Heavensward, I'd say 4.0's Lyse is easily the natural extension of the "Yda" we didn't start seeing until 2.5. And like Samus Aran in Other M, she's been through a lot of rough stuff recently, so acting "normal" would be weirder.

[Alleo]

Overall the story was fine, nothing perfect for me but it was okay. Just some points that are negative for me:

I did not like Lyse. She was not part of the rebellion for her whole life, and she only decided to join them because Papalymo died..yet she lashes out to the people in her home village and even those in Doma without not really trying to understand why they feel like that. I feel that those villagers are behaving completely realistic and we can see that there are barely any young people left in her village. We know that we will probably free Ala Mhigo since we are outside of the plot but none of these people know this. They only know that they all might be killed if the Garlearn see or think that they helped the rebellion. So she truly annoyed me from the start. Meffrid was way more likable than her, simply because he knew what was on stake and stopped her from doing something stupid again..yet he had to die..

I also never got the feeling that she changed much after Doma and was even chosen as the new leader even though people like the Miquote did work with the rebellion quite longer and were more calm in situations. Also all the talk about having a big burden do wear really annoyed me too since she only recently even joined the rebellion and is traveling in another country while the rebellion still fights for their life in Eorzea..(And the WoL shoulders a much bigger burden than them..since they risk quite a lot in helping in wars since their death would mean a loss for Hydaelyn thus the loss of all lives on this and all the other remaining worlds..yet barely any NPCs cares about our burden)

At the end we are the a big reason for freeing Doma and the single reason why Eorzea even won in Ala Mhigo. Even if they defeated all the soldiers they would have died against Zenos. So we make it possible both times and yet we do not get a real recognition for it. It kinda felt rushed. Why could we not have some more cutscenes in Doma where we celebrate the victory? I mean the Au Ra even went back to their country before we could speak with them and Hien gave his little speech but after that its like "welp one goal down, lets not party or be happy, lets get back to free Ala Mhigo too." And after even freeing Ala Mhigo we get that strange walking scene where we are walking behind Lyse (they could have let us walk beside her) and have even all the others like Raubahn (who did most of the planning not her..) walk behind her. And then we have that strange singing too. No real celebration only some small talk with the city leaders and other people after that. It did not feel like we had just taken back a whole city state..

And I still dont understand how we are able to beat Zenos (and he only talks about us so I cant believe that we defeated him with others..since they were gone after the fight..) after we lose against him in Doma..this is why I would have liked him to be the final boss of the whole expansion. That way one could at least get the sense that we are somehow getting better.

The whole taking back of Doma and Ala Mhigo did not really feel big to me. With four city states against one empire one would belief that there are way more people involved in the battles. Doma seems to be small so its kinda fine if there are not a big bunch of people fighting, even though I was kinda like "ö_ö" when I saw the really small numbers of Au Ra that fought along our side. But there should have been way more Garleans in Ala Mhigo and more soldiers from the city states..we do have some fighting scenes inside the last dungeon but mostly they are like 3 people on that side and three on the other..So it never truly felt like going to war. Also its strange that the villagers in Doma survived against the Garlean soldiers. I mean they did not even own true weapons and somehow all the NPCs that we knew from cutscenes are still alive?

I also felt that we should have some more scenes to explain some stuff. The WoL being able to shield NPCs from tempering was coming out of nowhere. A simple scene at the start of the expansion where we are all together could have helped. Maybe Urianger talked to us alone where he told us about the possibility and we tried it but could not make it happen. Thus if we later use it, it would be more like "oh thats why he talked about this at the beginning". The same about this plot weapon to stop Fordola. You could have had a simply sentence where he is like "time to get back to work, Moenbryda had lots of ideas and I want to look at some of them, maybe they will help you later." Just some notice that stuff like that happens so that it would not feel like it comes out of nowhere.

And at last the way some died and some did not: We have Zenos that kills his soldiers with one or two strikes of his sword (they are fully armored) and that die from that. The same man strikes Y`sthola really hard, where she even bleeds from her mouth and it takes some time for us to arrive, yet she survives this. (And even though other people that are hit with the sword are often standing on their feet shortly after that she is out for the whole expansion...)The same with Conrad. Yet Meffrid instantly dies from the hit. The WoL is also slashed by Zenos (more than one time even) and there is no blood and after a really short heal from the NPCs we are back on the feet and are even told to help with the others..(welp sorry for taking so long..I was kinda busy with fighting and being nearly killed..) We also have a body of steel since his sword breaks. Alisaie also takes a hit and survives this and is already sitting some time later. Yet we have other NPCs in cutscenes that are dieing after one hit..Gosetsu survives even though he was hit by five bullets (and was bleeding from the mouth) and even if he fell into the water before everything collapses (how convienient) he was still wounded badly and they are on a single isle in the middle of nowhere..so how exactly did he heal?

So enough rant for now.

[DarthSanguine]

Shinryu and omega went in opposition directions right? But Shynru was in Ala Mhigo and omega in what I call, Estinien's Hole which is also in Ala Mhigo.

So if that were true, do you think Shynru was moved from Doma or is this anormal oversight?

It's called The Yawn, and no, Shinryu did not get launched two continents over.

[Cilia]

Since nobody's mentioned it yet, "Hypertuned" seems to be Garlean shorthand for "magitek cybernetically enhanced," if the Mock-up Grynewaht minion's description is to be believed.

This anatomically correct simulacrum of the imperial soldier Grynewaht appears to have been built by magitek engineers to determine the most efficient means by which to incorporate magitek implants into the Roegadyn's body.

So he either got turned into a cyborg so heavily he went insane for his repeated failures, or willingly did that to his body in order to try and defeat you. Yeeeeahhh...

[ErikMynhier]

The flowery nature of the writing masks it somewhat, but, in case you missed it, Lyse is still really, really dumb. Considering most of the main Scions in 2.0 were pretty much static characters until Heavensward, I'd say 4.0's Lyse is easily the natural extension of the "Yda" we didn't start seeing until 2.5. And like Samus Aran in Other M, she's been through a lot of rough stuff recently, so acting "normal" would be weirder.

Oh believe me, her stupidity wasn't lost on me. Another thing that bugged me was (at least with a male character) the constant flirting and "quiet touching moments". I mean seriously, 5 minutes ago you were the masked bubble head with the Lala. I barely knew your name. How are we close again?

[Daralii]

Oh believe me, her stupidity wasn't lost on me. Another thing that bugged me was (at least with a male character) the constant flirting and "quiet touching moments". I mean seriously, 5 minutes ago you were the masked bubble head with the Lala. I barely knew your name. How are we close again?

I imagine it depends on which city-state you started with. A Gridanian WoL's been working closely with her since 1.0.