Thread: Revelations from Patch 4.3

Oh boy, so much to take in, I'm geniunely not sure if I liked the MSQ more or the 24 man more this time around

MSQ

Yotsuyu and Asahi were handled very, very well. Yotsuyu's story is one of the better tragedies in FFXIV and it had a satisfying end. It felt like everyone involved got their due even while it was a tragedy which is more then can be said for most tragedies I've seen. Also, kudos to the dev team for how they handled her amnisa. It could have been a very cliche use of the trope and it wasn't used like that.

Zenos... proof that the scenario team can eat their cake and have it too. We've got Elidibus having more influence on how the Empire is going then ever while Zenos is still majorly obsessed with us. And best of all, no one in the cast knows about it! Which is something we havn't had for a while. The person I'm the most curious about in relationship to Zenos still being around is Fordola. Her Echo is presumably still going into overdrive and I can't help but think she'll pick up that something is wrong with whoever Zenos is possessing because of it. As much as Zenos is a wild card for the Sions, the new Ala Mhigan nation and even the WoL, she's kinda a wild card for Zenos. Outside of the Warrior of Light, she's the one who picked up best on his hunting mentality and has the best chance of recognizing it in someone else.

The Burning Wastes... oooh boy. I think this is the first time the WoL and Alphinaud have been split up for what looks like to be a prolonged period of time. Seeing how the Scions take Alphinaud's disappearance in the coming patches will be very interesting. For starters, it's a good way to get them not thinking rationally about the Garlemald situation...

There's no reason the Mercenary isn't who we all think it is. Giaus is one of the few people outside the Scions/Shaleayn who knows who is really behind the primal summonings. And had some idea of what they were capable of. Which makes me very curious about who is hunting down Ascians with him... I get the feeling they probably aren't background NPCs... All I can say is... man did Lahabrea piss the wrong person off at the end of 2.0...

24-Man

I really like seeing all the little ways FFXIV Dalmasca is different from FFXII/Tactics Dalmasca. We also finally get some confirmation about when and how the Dalmasca Annexation went down and why the Garlean ancestors had to migrate north (what a convenient explosion).

Auracite... wow... no wonder it was used to combat primals on the Shard that would become the Void. Although I'm personally in favor of dropping it down the Ridorana Cataracts after this is all over. Given what's happened with the Isle of Val my faith in Sharlyan sealing techniques isn't at its strongest at the moment.

Four Lords

Sun Wu Kong's mechanics are a great interpretation of him. The ending stinger after "killing" Sun Wu Kong is perfect. Because he'd totally let us have the box if we proved ourselves just to see our reactions to the whole thing. And because him dying goes against pretty much every story told about him ever...

Whoever is in charge of the trailer deserves major kudos. I saw at least two places where the trailer footage was different from the cut-scene footage to keep things ambiguous. Keep doing more of that.

Shadowhunter:

It's pretty much outright confirmed that it's Gaius, given the mask:

MSQ:

Doma being rebuilt, Gosetsu being bedridden and Yotsuyu having amnesia all felt par for the course as this round of MSQ started. I sort of expected there to be some drama involving Yotsuyu and the Doman populace. But the people seem to be able to rein in their anger far more than I imagined. Asahi trying to restore his sister's memories were also expected, but I thought initially that it would just involve the relic in order to instigate Garlean action. Seeing Yotsuyu relapse felt like an okay ending - and though it was tragic, I'm glad that it didn't get neatly wrapped up with a hugs and kisses. To me, it helped keep things grounded. Gosetsu being part of the trial was a nice touch.

The Zenos situation in terms of Ascian possession was nice to get a bit more info on. My suspicion is that Elidibus is going to parade around in that skinsuit to further push the empire towards punishing primal activity and in turn cause more desperation on the other side of the conflict. It feels like the empire has been quiet for a while in general and that a storm is going to come rolling in soon. I don't mind though. The empire doesn't feel like a threat right now. Not that it should be cartoonishly evil - the introduction of the different factions was a good addition, along with the second in command not being a jerk - but the empire got to be able to walk the walk at the end of the day.

The real highlight for me however was without doubt the short segment in the Burn, where we control Alphinaud. In the moment, I was overjoyed to see SqE try something new in terms of how they deliver story. I really hope they continue to explore and utilize new tools like the one we got now. Ideally I would have liked to see a bit more exploration before duking it out with imperial agents. But I'll take it as is. notGaius caught me by surprise though. I'm unsure how to react to it aside from "does anyone stay dead in this game?"

24-man

Overall no big reactions on this one, save enjoying Ramza being a real jerk.

What irks me is the fact that we finally get someone talking about aetheric science in good (faux) scientific terms, but she gets immediately shut down by Cid. No Cid. Let the girl talk. I want to know more. It's most certainly the case that the abbreviations and terminology used (NNR-type, CPRS waves, neuroharmonics) are just going to be one-off mentions with no solid basis. But I want to believe that the lore team sat down and actually build some science around it all. I want to believe.

Four Lords

Tataru is the worst party member. Soroban got swole. Surprise turtle vs turtle fight night.

The dungeon however, was really nice. Seeing magical mantras in two languages was really cool. Seeing an incarnation of the monkey king that actually features his transformations and staff was refreshing. Though having us ride the clouds as a transition in the dungeon itself made my mind consider whether or not that part was in-game advertisement for that mount.

It is far to obvious who Shadowhunter is but you know what they say "No body means he or she is not dead."

We never did find any sign of remains of his body at the end of 2.0 and there should have been one even if it was blasted to pieces since he was still wearing very tough armor so there should have been something if he was dead.

Spoiler answer for above

Well, it's not that we didn't find Gaius' body at the end of 2.0. We never even got the opportunity to look for it as the place was crumbling around us. Actually, the last our character saw of Gaius, he was still alive. It's just that even we wouldn't have survived the Praetorium collapse unless a lot of chance things had happened. Heck, the Alliance was on the verge of thinking we didn't make it out until they actually saw us. Given that the XIVth Legion didn't act like Gaius was in control of it afterwards, it's a pretty safe assumption to make that he was dead even without a body.

That said, given that Gaius was the one who was running the place, I don't think it's too far fetched to suppose he knew of other ways to get out of there. As far as opportunities to fake your death go, it's a really good one to take advantage of. It's not like people are going to look for you if they know you're dead.

What him being alive really puts a spin on is his "Here my conquest ends" line. It comes off pretty well as a "last words" line, but it also can work as Gaius deciding that's not the route he'll be taking from now on...

As far as how much Gaius knows about the Ascians goals, it's pretty hard to beat the exchange he has with Lahabrea about it right before Ultima goes off.

Like Theodric said earlier in this thread:

As for the mysterious 'Shadowhunter'...could it be Gaius? I suspect it is, judging by his evasive tone and goals. That leaves the question as to how, exactly, he survived.

The more I think about it the more sense it makes, his skin did look pretty burnt (and Gaius kinda went up in flames back in the day), combine that with his hunting of Ascians (being, or at least feeling betrayed by them) and mentioning having dealt with the Scions before (us)