Thread: Revelations from Patch 4.5

The Balance

I feel this the fault of the storytelling not yet explaining the nature of "Light" and "Dark" and how they work, or how it is distinguished from astral and umbral polarities. Since the start of 2.0, neither Hydaelyn nor the Ascians have clearly explained what is going on. And now we have alien existences like Midgardsormr, Omega, and Ultima to make things more confusing.

Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

The Balance

I feel this the fault of the storytelling not yet explaining the nature of "Light" and "Dark" and how they work, or how it is distinguished from astral and umbral polarities. Since the start of 2.0, neither Hydaelyn nor the Ascians have clearly explained what is going on. And now we have alien existences like Midgardsormr, Omega, and Ultima to make things more confusing.

Yeah. It's very unclear how that all works.

Presumably when it comes to Hydaelyn vs Zodiark and the power of Light and Dark it isn't a simple case of light or dark aspected aether. Problem is, we have no idea what it actually is. Ascians have been talking about it for years but nothing has ever really been explained.

Originally Posted by Brightamethyst

That's been bugging the hell out of me since SB launch.

The writers' refusal to use certain side story pieces in MSQ is incredibly frustrating. Unukalhai is an official member of the Scions, and one of the few with the Echo. that seems like it should be pretty damn important but since WT is technically sidequest he's not in the MSQ at all. I know they don't want to leave out people who didn't do the WT quests, but come on.

And this is why everything should be Mainstory, like it was on ARR... chopping off story only hurts the game, it sucks not being able to use such things just cause some ppl are too lazy to do ONE fight and a handfull of quests or an optional dungeon >_>

Ivalice Raid

Mainly on Ultima, her design and the fact that she's an alien. On a youtube video, I commented on how similar Ultima was to Jenova, but then someone responded to me by saying she's more similar to The Creator from FFIV, The After Years (both of them also create crystals). After looking at his design... is it possible they're of the same alien race? or just a big coincidence?

Originally Posted by Nestama

Ivalice Raid

Mainly on Ultima, her design and the fact that she's an alien. On a youtube video, I commented on how similar Ultima was to Jenova, but then someone responded to me by saying she's more similar to The Creator from FFIV, The After Years (both of them also create crystals). After looking at his design... is it possible they're of the same alien race? or just a big coincidence?

Not being directly familiar with many of the past FF games....

I associate Ultima's design with the final boss of the first Kingdom Hearts game, where the human villain melded with a similar multi-faced monster thing. Drawing on all the same "FF game reference" sources, I suppose...

About Ultima's design as a whole, visual and encounter:

What an amazing fight, visually it represents Ultima from every Ivalice incarnation by borrowing its visual from XII and FFTA series while having one of their mechanics to borrow her visual from FFT itself. A feast for the eyes as mechanics and enviorment form a full cinematic for players without breaking the gameplay like many bosses do.

A throwback to the mechanic introduced into Dun Scaith, having the lass boss a 2-part with checkpoint, that came full force during the whole expansion as a constant on final Savage bosses while keeping the transition engaging rather than purely cinematic.

The cherry on top were the "trios". During Stormblood the game brought its new difficulty the Ultimate raids, UCOB set the bar by having the bosses of the gauntlet to combine their abilities together to punish players during intermissions. UWU brought that back in its own way and the Devs did the same for Ultima in Orbonne. Seeing my friends excited for being able to experience trio-like mechanics, while the difficulty is nowhere near Ultimate raids, was a great moment to me. It is good to see Devs introducing this in the Alliance raid, giving players who went throught this story a sense of progression and fulfillment. My only issue is, coming later expansions if they ever pick any of these fights to do an Ultimate they'll have to break the "trio" formula they've set for them so far. Which is a good thing but makes me wonder if they'll actually do it welll.

Well keep in mind half the stuff we see in 4.5 Trailer involving the Main Scenario has not been released yet.

We still yet to see that part where the real Zeno swoops in to fight fake Zeno and the part where WoL starts getting the headache to be taken while seeing Hien on his knees.

Originally Posted by Nestama

Ivalice Raid

Mainly on Ultima, her design and the fact that she's an alien. On a youtube video, I commented on how similar Ultima was to Jenova, but then someone responded to me by saying she's more similar to The Creator from FFIV, The After Years (both of them also create crystals). After looking at his design... is it possible they're of the same alien race? or just a big coincidence?

Regarding origins,

Jenomis and the triple triad card posit that Ultima is a primal that was summoned by Ajora to assault Mullonde back in the days of something known as the Ydoran Empire.
I think maybe they should have thrown out one or two more theories because the impression I'm getting out of it is "don't worry about it" since Matsuno isn't the type of writer who cares to have established concrete historic details and prefers what works for making the best scene in the moment.

Originally Posted by Cybylt

Regarding origins,

Jenomis and the triple triad card posit that Ultima is a primal that was summoned by Ajora to assault Mullonde back in the days of something known as the Ydoran Empire.
I think maybe they should have thrown out one or two more theories because the impression I'm getting out of it is "don't worry about it" since Matsuno isn't the type of writer who cares to have established concrete historic details and prefers what works for making the best scene in the moment.

On Ultima:

There's always the possibility Ultima makes a comeback, like Diablos. She's connected to the Allagans, which is connection enough, especially with van Gabranth continuing the Ivalice plot thread into the future. At the very least we might get a glimpse of what the Allagans exchanged and learned from her, and learn more about her nature then.