Revelations from Keynote II

[Anonymoose]

What's new for our many ongoing debates?

• Urianger and Y'shtola are rocking new jobs (AST and BLM) as the world goes to hell
• Y'shtola refers to "until our friend returns"
• ...Did Urianger just call Y'shtola "Matoya?"
• So is this the "aethersight is an added burden on the spiritual vitality" brick finally dropping? Or is it just a title now? lol
• It seems they're in Rak'tika but something's gonna go to hell there
• I'm somehow even more confused about where we're going. Some possibly Mesoamerican themes, old west themes, and that armadillo thing, have just added the New World to the possibility mix along with The First, Light-rekt areas, and/or Dalmasca.

• The Child of Light is Minfilia

• The gunblade-wielding job is called Gunbreaker, it is a TANK.
• This is not a Garlean gunblade; they will be closer to FF8, uses magicked ammo, and will start in Gridania
• Preview of the TRUST system showed Thancred tanking, Urianger healing, and Y'shtola on DPS in a forest dungeon
• New Area: Il Mheg, a very colorful, high-fantasy plains-like area
• Area is home to the pixies, notorious tricksters (not as bad as the moogles)
• They speak a unique Oda/Koji-formulated language (Fae) and worship the primal Titania, a major 5.0 plot point
• Much can be gleaned by the new 24-man raid title...

• How the sugar-frosted f[kupo!] is this going to work? PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO IT.
• (Some of you don't know Yoko Taro / Yosuke Saito levels of "be careful what you wish for" and it shows. This is going to be amazing.)
• Viera shown off, but there were only ladies. (SO FAR...?)

[Theodric]

Gunblade! That alone makes me very happy!

[Kalise]

#GunbreakerHype

Wonder where it's gonna sit in terms of Tank balance.

[Daralii]

Guest creator Yoko Taro. We're in for a ride.

[Theodric]

Alright, I'm ridiculously excited now. Stormblood gave us Return to Ivalice which was a love letter to three of my favourite games. Nier: Automata is also one of my favourite games and we're set to get a raid series based on that as well? Wonderful!

[Shurrikhan]

The gunblade-wielding job is called Gunbreaker, it is a TANK.[/LIST]

You know what, I actually like that.

Too defended and versatile to be shot down.
Bring your rifle battalion. We'll bring a gunbreaker.

On the whole, my expectations for disappointment have been disappointed so far. Mheg sounds different and far from the barebone, streamlined direct "crush them imperials" route I feared.

[Theodric]

My only disappointment so far is the Viera. I'm only a fan of outright fan service when it involves equality - and the focus on the sex appeal of bunny women makes me uncomfortable. It feels pretty exploitative and a little tone deaf given that a lot of the people asking for Viera in the first place did so because they wanted to play male Viera.

I also dislike how this is the second playable race where the males are effectively non-existent throughout the game world. There's only a handful of male Miqo'te compared to the amount of female Miqo'te and male Viera are described as even more reclusive.

[KageTokage]

I was hoping the keynote might shed some light on just where the expansion would be taking us, but I'm still rather lost.

I'm more strongly leaning towards us having to journey to the First alone with Y'shtola/Matoya (I'm feeling a bit concerned for the fate of both with the latter seemingly having taken control of the former's body) mentioning "Until our friend returns" and the fortune teller also suggesting we'd be in another world on our own.

[RicaRuin]

Calling it before anyone else - that cloaked person in the Key Artwork we don't know yet might be Zodiark. Minfilia gives me a very Hydaelyn-y feeling...

[Theodric]

I was hoping the keynote might shed some light on just where the expansion would be taking us, but I'm still rather lost.

I'm more strongly leaning towards us having to journey to the First alone with Y'shtola/Matoya (I'm feeling a bit concerned for the fate of both with the latter seemingly having taken control of the former's body) mentioning "Until our friend returns" and the fortune teller also suggesting we'd be in another world on our own.

Sharlayan, perhaps? Matoya coming along for the journey and the mention of the Pixies using arcane magic makes me suspect it as a possibility. Plus the overall feel of the zone where the Pixies reside is very high fantasy - something we've come to expect from what we've seen of Sharlayan thus far.

With that said, though, it does still seem like we're going to explore more of Othard since the Viera reside there. So we're seemingly set for another 'split' expansion.