Eureka Finale

[Crushnight]

So this will be spoilers of Hydatos's story on Eureka some particulars have been gone over in other threads i won't touch on them here

So I picked the sacrifice Ejika side of the story and it felt actually worthwhile to do so i was getting annoyed with Ejika through both Anemos and Pagos and just sighed when he turned during Pyros but Hydatos actually surprised me with how the story was and left me wondering why couldn't the other 3 installments have been as engaging as this one. It was nice to see someone using their head a lot more to tackle a foe they couldn't hope to stop alone but it left me pondering how did Ejika resist the primal Eureka's influence while wielding a weapon with its essence much like they pointed out it was similar to Zanzetsuken. The conclusion that i got felt heartfelt and made me feel like Krile might grow as a person

Then i went and cleared BA and got to see the true end to Eureka so Krile learns how to bring people back from the lifestream from Kan-E-Senna so i'm glad that is teachable and not a Padjal exclusive ability may mean more shenanigins with lifestream hopping with flow etc in the future who knows, she learns this because she theorized that Ejika might still be brought back when all of the primal Eureka's weapon aether was gone this works ofc and we learn that Ejika thought it was a possibility but resigned himself to Death. And while i can appreciate the character growth of Ejika I feel this was at the cost of Krile's character growth rather than trying to move on and see why people around her did what they did leaving her behind they have her get the complete happy ending here of my friend is back he'll look after Euerka/Isle of Val and she can go back to the Scions. Suffice it to say from the Ejika sacrifice route this feels worse than the base ending of Hydatos.

Also how do people feel that story segments are hidden behind something like BA?

This is all from me seeing the Ejika sacrifice route so if anyone can tell me how the other route is like be very interested to hear it

[zuzu-bq]

I feel like we need more story locked behind some difficulty. Helps giving meaning and weight to the plot outcomes and characters deepening the bond between the player and the lore. Of course not everything, but the game been lacking some of this since mid Heavensward.

That aside, my toughts in the story itself:

I don't like that they give us the branch out option just for the finale to merge it all. That aside, depending what you pick you get a great scene before or after. And it's quite nice.

Also Odin finally gets a closure of its origins and purpose. The mysterious entity regonized as an Elder Primal is a one of many powerful primal-like weapon forged by Eureka itself. Raiden quotations are also quite nice, it talks about defeating the Empire. Guess the Allagans were truly unbeatable to the point that not even a primal with the power to create a new star could stop them.

Another cool lore bit from the Arsenal is Proto-Ozma. From the text of the Mount aquired by defeating the dungeon it reveals that the Sharlayan knew of what Ozma from Mhach was originally, but also had enough of an understanding of how it worked to create a Demi-Ozma. Funny enough Proto-Ozma is more powerful than Ozma by being a creation of Eureka and the Mhachians attempted to recreate it.

[Anonymoose]

Does it feel to anyone else a tad like the writer(s) were given a blank check to raid the asset toybox, though? I like a lot of the flavor/concepts, but the side-effects are rough and I'm not sure how some of it is supposed to line up. I think I could contrive a full interview on just Ivalice and Eureka clarification, lol.

[ObsidianFire]

The timeline of Eureka could certainly use some clarification. It is... rather odd when matched up with the events of 2.x. Ivalice felt much more thought out. As much as I'd like some clarification on some ideas/concepts/etc. it doesn't have the feeling of being shoehorned into the timeline like the events of Eureka do. Eureka feels a lot more like someone forgot when the Isle of Val disappeared in the 2.x series. Or rather, Eureka's story feels like someone decided to tie up as many loose plot threads as they could and fumbled some of them. It's not as "breaking at the seams" as Nael's backstory is, but it's up there. It's certainly the piece of lore that feels the most like Nael's backstory in the post 2.0 material. I almost hate to say it, but if someone were to ask me what story arc feels like the least like FFXIV, it'd be Eureka.

Spoilery stuff

The thing that bugs me is that the "seal the Primal in Eureka" route is even considered an option. Like... we're the WoL. Killing primals is what we've been doing since 2.0. And now they suggest we should change that MO because hey, we can seal the primal away until we can deal with it? *Looks at Dalamud and the Warring Traid* Yeah... that just feels super weird. Like they wanted to experiment with giving us different paths to chose maybe? Except they didn't. There is more story cutscenes after the Baldesion Arsenal the cause both endings to ammount to the same events happening. Eureka, the Primal, ends up dead. Ejika lives. If they had experimented with this kind of alternate paths with something else, it might have worked. But with kind of decision, it really doesn't. This was what we were fighting with Regula over in the Warring Triad raids. And we all know how that turned out. Having the choice to seal a primal instead of killing it just feels really out of touch with the rest of the narrative FFXIV has told up to this point.

If there's one thing Eureka (especially the Baldesion Arsenal) did drive home, it was how much the Sharlayans feel like a bunch of hypocrites by the end of it. Like, they have way more morals then Allag and Garlemald did, but there they are sealing a primal and trying to figure out how Proto-Ozma works by making Demi-Ozma. I don't want to say it comes off like they feel they can experiment with stuff so long as no one else finds out, but... that was my gut feeling by the end of it. The Baldesion Arsenal feels like a different version of Dalamud or the Aetherchemical Research Facility. Secret research base? Check. Really powerful monsters in it? Check. If the wards holding the powerful monsters in fall, will the world be screwed? Check. And oh, no one outside of Val or Sharlayan knows about this because the Sharlayans think (correctly to some degree) that other countries might want to use the stuff in there for their wars. Of course, they might also want to know how to get rid of some of that stuff ASAP. It just really feels like Sharlayan could be the next Allag even more then Garlemald is if they ever stopped wanting to be isolationists or if any non-moral factions got control of Sharlayan. It really doesn't help the feeling I have that the Ascians have been messing with Sharlayan for a long time...

[zuzu-bq]

Organize it all for us in the Third Encyclopedia Moose. Thanks in advance.

[Bright-Flower]

In terms of locking story behind difficult content, I have an all or nothing approach.

I don't like that the casual Eureka story has a true ending hidden behind BA.

My approach basically boils down to no liking when most of a story is open to easy content, but then you need difficult content to see the end.

I don't mind say Coils in ARR. The raids as I understand it were all difficult high end content in the 2. X series. I would hate it though if say the Omega story had a secret ending that required clearing O12S despite being able to see the rest of the story in normal mode.

To use WOW as an example in Ulduar, the hard mode story with Algalon was separate from the main reason we go to Ulduar, to stop Yogg-Saron. It's something of a side objective that you only pursue if you're doing the hard mode fights int he first place. I'm fine with this. I'm fine with Archimonde having a mythic only phase because it all ends the same, there's still one story.

I detest Ragnaros' hard mode only phase in Cataclysm because now you have two endings, one where he flees and one where he dies. I hate the mythic only end to Highmaul because it's the only way to see the resolution to Cho'gall who you see in normal questing.

I'm fine with BA existing as harder content than the rest of Eureka. I'm fine with it having its own rewards like the Ozma mount. And if it had its own side story separate from the Eureka campaign I'd be fine with that. But I don't like the idea of it having a secret ending for events of the main zone stories.

[Moomba33]

Very disappointed that they put story content behind BA. It feels like a huge step backwards after finally getting story mode raids to have to do difficult content to see the full plot again.
I hope I can get through it myself instead of having to watch it on youtube. =/

[Crushnight]

I'm fine with BA existing as harder content than the rest of Eureka. I'm fine with it having its own rewards like the Ozma mount. And if it had its own side story separate from the Eureka campaign I'd be fine with that. But I don't like the idea of it having a secret ending for events of the main zone stories.

This is basically my stance on it as well i'm fine with everything in BA except the main story of the entire Eureka is locked behind it something that newer players have no hope of ever seeing later down the line

[Theodric]

I don't have an issue with story elements being locked behind tougher content. If anything, I wish it happened more often. Aside from being a great incentive to overcome a particular challenge it allows for greater scope in regards to showing off a particular opponents full talent. Many of the EX and Savage fights are a lot more theatrical and mechanically heavy than their story mode counterparts and it'd be great to see that reflected in canon.

[Claymore65]

Personally, I'd prefer they avoid tying Story Elements (at least Major ones) to the Extreme/Savage versions of Trials and Raids. Including key story elements in the harder versions kind of defeats the entire point of the Normal Mode Trials and Raids. The Normal Modes are there, more than anything else, to allow players to experience the questline, story, and the fights at a very approachable difficulty level. If you don't even get the entire story from it, it's not really serving its purpose anymore. Sure, normal mode raids still offer some loot to level alternate classes/catch up if you're behind, but their primary purpose is to allow you to experience the story.

The Extreme/Savage versions are built instead to test your mettle as a player, and offer rewards with the most powerful equipment in the game, as well as some smaller bonuses such as titles, mounts, minons etc. I'd think the loot should be enough incentive. I think it might be fair to tie smaller Lore elements to Savage/Extreme tiers though. For example, maybe defeating the virtual Warring Triad members might offer a few more lore insights into the Allagan empire or the Warring Triad's original civilizations, but as a whole I'd prefer to avoid that.

That said, the Baldesion Arsenal does work as kind of a special exception, since there isn't a "normal" version of it to provide story to players. Still, I'd prefer they don't continue this trend in the future.