Revelations from Patch 5.3

[Anonymoose]

And away ... we ... go.

If this is your first time joining us for patch day, we have fallen into a strange tradition where instead of carpet-bombing other threads with spoilers of stuff that just happened, we discuss each patch's contributions in a vacuum here. What usually happens is that the first wave of people each make their own "OP" with the name of the arc and a spoiler box...

Like

This

...which has all of the things they noticed, the story as they understood it, and comments / feedback for the development team.

Then people usually start quoting each other with the header visible and the content they're replying to in a spoiler box, and a spoiler box below it.

Like

This

And that

This allows people to partake in conversation right from the get go without worrying they'll, say, spoil themselves on NieR by trying to talk about the MSQ.

─────────────────────────────────With That Outta the Way...─────────────────────────────────

Main Scenario
Complete

DID THAT LITERAL CHILD JUST TELL US THE NEW HEALER JOB?

Elidibus
Come now, my plans are no mystery. That which I do is no different from that which you have done so many times, Warrior of Darkness. I arm myself. I hone my skills. I make ready to vanquish my enemy─you. You who have murdered my brothers─who have taken their selfless labors in service to the one true world and turned them to ash. I see you for what you are. You are death, and only in death shall you serve any purpose. The Convocation charged me to steer mankind and the very star upon their true course. As Elidibus, it is my duty. And I shall see it done. I will strike you down... Destroy you body and soul. All else must wait. Ere long I will come for you, Warrior of Darkness. And I will save the world.

Now that's the speech I've waited for since 2.1. Hells yes.

Sharlayan cooking confirmed terrible. Sharlayan as Britain theory continues to get stronger by the day.

I see how how I could never make headway on Y'shtola's hints about Elidibus's nature. "He's a primal." wasn't really an option I'd have considered. And yet one of my earliest theories was that he was an extension of Zodiark Himself, so am I right or wrong...? Both...? Neither...?

I appreciate the team going out of their way to highlight how the sundered Ascians were raised to their former offices, and why the early black-masks were so easily dispatched. Though I'm still curious how the three escaped sundering in the first place.

Seeing the Defector never had a shard raised in the first place, the Ascian Overlord math in cutscenes has to be in TATTERS. You've got 14 in black robes in 2.0, which should already be impossible because (A) the defector was never risen to their office and (B) Elidibus was one of the 14 seats and he's not there, some extra black robe is. Then in 2.3 you have all 14 black robes again (including both the Defector and the non-Elidibus), PLUS Elidibus as a 15th body in the room ... PLUS Emmerololth who was supposed to have been killed by Galuf by then. So was another shard of Emmerololth re-risen? Does SE have to kill her again, now? Does SE think she's dead now? Can we get an old cutscene clean-up and then a check-in on who's left? lol

Great job navigating Elidibus as simultaneously the big bad, a true villain with some good points, and, in his own way, sympathetic. A+

Great job using ancient Warrior of Light themes for Elidibus's intentions. A++

Our status as the office of Azem - represented by the sun - is ... WHEW lad ... I have a lot of questions about the Twelve right now.
I can't wait to lord this over Magnai, though. Who's the sun now, b[kupo]ch!

Crystal Tower as the weapon of choice, oh my GOD. A fitting weapon for the final unsundered, and also seemingly prevents a "Why wouldn't we have had the eagles fly the ring to Mordor?" situation if we'd killed him any other way.

...So in terms of making sense of the time shenanigans we're really just throwing ALL that in the "don't think too hard about it" bin huh? I thought we'd give Sleepy G'raha the memories of Exarch G'raha and thus close the time-loop, creating a situation where the Eighth "never happened" because we've "always" lived in the edited timeline (from our 3D perspective) but ... now we also go back and wake up Sleepy G'raha so he can join the Scions and thus he never wakes up for the Eighth but then is his statue still on the first or ... we're really just not thinkin' too hard about it, huh?

(Feel free to skip this entire futile rant about time.)

Here's my headcanon: the G'raha we just passed the Exarch's memories to will one day himself retrofit Crystal Tower and go back in time to the First to start again as the Crystal Exarch, because it's the only way to make sense of everyone still having memories of the event if Alexander style "linear time is an illusion" time travel was ever valid. If the original 4D block of time where M & D weren't their own ancestors and there was no magic cat "never existed" once the block was edited, we shouldn't have memories of the world before we changed time, right? So this must be "the way it always was" from our 3D perspective even if we're forced to live the illusion that it's a linear series of moments, right? So then I'm just going to assume the memories of the Eighth Umbral are a creation paradox and it "never happened" now that time has been edited, lol. But since we remember it, it's "how it happened and how it always happened and the only way it could have happened" because we succeeded in editing a 4D block, right? Ergo our G'raha must one day re-become the Crystal Exarch. That must be why his soul is so dense it surprises Elidibus, trololol

In reality, we're probably using the chaotic Rift as a way to use fantasy to artificially limit the timelines and ignore that pretty much the only other way around it is the branching multiverse, where the WOL would essentially have bailed on their timeline for a preferable one and pretend they changed the subjective experience of anyone else in "their" timeline who still died awful, and then there are a billion timelines where Elidibus and the Tycoon still exist and thus the battle is never truly won and no one is ever really safe.

"Ah, yes, you see, the Rift is ... a swirling black confluence of chaotic proto-aether where all possible configurations space and time are indeed happening at once but don't actually exist..."

After all the jokes I've made about how I hope Fandanny is the derpy, extra one ... he sure has the right vessel for it.

A little worried about Zenos as the big bad of the so-called "final chapter". He's been an ok wildcard shaking up expectations, but center stage again? After undoing his perfect performance and death as what Stormblood needed to get FFXIV where it wanted to go in the first place? Unless he gets more interesting real fast I hope something wildcards HIM off the field, tbh, lol.

Though, looking back, for as dark as Shadowbringers got at times - we took out two of the three biggest, baddest Ascians and saved an entire world in one expansion and in terms of losses for the Warrior of Light it really didn't cost us very much. Hell, we got G'raha back ... twice.

YoRHa
Dammy

Save the Queen / Bozja
Dammy

Werlyt
Dammy

Tribes
Dammy

[Veloran]

You forgot that most esoteric source of lore: Housing. (Seriously don't click if you don't want to be spoiled.)

[Wyssahtyn]

Grapes.

/ten

[Rosenstrauch]

MSQ - Post-Trial

Seeing all those past Warriors of Light get named—they're gonna be the bosses in the dungeon, aren't they? (Not at all.).

Cute Miqo'te child. Gods, the children in this game are always so wonderful. It's a real breath of fresh air.

I wonder what Alisaie says if you Tie her score, or intentionally lose.

"He was stabbed by Elidibus. False alarm!" Godsdamn it, I actually laughed.

Tataru made new clothes for the Scions, eh? I wonder if these will be like Y'shtola's new look, or if it'll just be the outfits they wore on the First. Considering that only Y'shtola got a brand new outfit, I hope it's the former. (It's the latter. Still nice. Alisaie and Alphinaud keep their Heavensward/Stormblood attire, which I suppose is fine since their new outfits on the First were recycled gear.)

I wonder if the weakening link with the Scions is due to the sudden influx of Warriors of Light on the First. (Nope.)

Tataru helped out with the Ishgardian Restoration, confirming once again that she is the best Lalafell ever.

ONE LAST EDIT: I just realized: I got to feed the Scions! Granted, Tataru was the one to make the food, but still.

The Exarch's soul can't fuse with G'raha Tia's if the Exarch doesn't recognize his past self as himself. Ryne's entire character development is centered around the fact that, regardless of possessing the Oracle of Light's powers, she's her own person, not Minfilia. Please, writers, stop trying to give me hope. You're breaking my heart all over again.

Found the whole bit with the stars to be... very touching, for a weird personal reason. One of the ideas I'd come up with when writing a fic in the past few months was that the Warrior of Light had a penchant for stargazing, and a desire to travel among them. It's an easy pick for a hobby, given the whole "adventurer" thing, but still.

Heroes' Gauntlet! I recall mentioning that the mystery boss girl reminded me of Scathach—her death quote is only solidifying those feelings. I wonder if that's who she's actually supposed to be, though. Either way, poor girl.

I caught one of those Spectral White Mages casting Protect! The nerve of them!

The Exarch is a good dad. That is all.

AZEM is a neat name. I wonder if it's the same for everyone, or if it's related to your chosen deity. Mine is Azeyma the Warden. (A chat with Urianger post-ending suggests otherwise. Azem for everyone, it seems.)

Elidibus, you are the BEST BOSS FIGHT EVER. Also, nice to see Emet-Selch back for just a moment there.

Poor Elidibus. Poor Exarch. And yeah, no big surprise that his death didn't send us back yet. Ryne didn't get her farewell headpat, after all.

Digging this Tales from the Dragonsong War-esque final lap through Norvrandt so far.

Fandaniel being so godsdamned happy all the Unsundered are dead is... well, wow. I guess if he's to be a threat when all the big league boys are gone, he's gonna have to be kind of insane. Zenos being reseated as the upcoming villain is not surprising, and a little disappointing, but eh. Once they committed to bringing him back, this was pretty much guaranteed. Hopefully he remains as deliciously hammy going forward as he's been in his later 4.0 appearances.

G'raha Tia joining the Scions is sweet. Gonna hazard a guess and say he's Ryne's replacement for the 5.4 dungeon when it comes out, since she can't possibly join us in it. And since he's an All-Rounder, maybe we'll be down a few Scions again for that one. Time will tell.

MSQ - Translation Mishap?

https://i.imgur.com/Bc0xsso.png - During the unique weather for the story, talking to the weather NPC gives this message.

[EdwinLi]

Heroes Gauntlet

Darn SE for making us fight Necromancer and Berserker Job users! We want to play as the job not fight characters that use that job and their Job skills!

[Apoptomon]

MSQ (up to unlocking the trial):

As soon as the constellation stones were introduced I thought "Are these like Ivalice stones? Are these Convocation Job Stones?!" Not quite, but sort of. Neat to get an insight into how the Ascian-elevating process might work.
On that note, when I saw that the 14th Symbol was a circle with a dot inside, I thought "that's looks like an astrology / astronomy symbol, but which one?" Looking it up, it's the symbol for the Sun, the star that wanders between each zodiac. So when the revelation came that the 14th's name was Azem I was like "OOOH just like the sun gods Azeyma and Azim, neat!"

[KageTokage]

Thoughts on the MSQ:

Was not expecting the Warrior of Light to be our final boss, nor the revelation that Elidibus was just a primal replacement for the real deal who became Zodiark.

I'm really glad Gra'ha is sticking around in the long term...though I'm questioning where exactly the 14th member's crystal came from.

I called the mystery Ascian being Asahi in body at least.

Garlemald does seem basically confirmed as our endgame now that Zenos has reluctantly taken his rightful position on the throne for the sake of setting his grand stage. Was a little disappointed that we didn't really get any insight on why he's been having dreams of the last days, though.

[Enla]

MSQ - All the way up to the Trial thus far

I wonder what Alisaie says if you Tie her score, or intentionally lose.

ten characters

She gets mad at you for throwing the match actually, it's actually legitimately hilarious because she's SO offended by the idea that you let her win. xD.

[EdwinLi]

MSQ (up to unlocking the trial):

As soon as the constellation stones were introduced I thought "Are these like Ivalice stones? Are these Convocation Job Stones?!" Not quite, but sort of. Neat to get an insight into how the Ascian-elevating process might work.
On that note, when I saw that the 14th Symbol was a circle with a dot inside, I thought "that's looks like an astrology / astronomy symbol, but which one?" Looking it up, it's the symbol for the Sun, the star that wanders between each zodiac. So when the revelation came that the 14th's name was Azem I was like "OOOH just like the sun gods Azeyma and Azim, neat!"

This actually makes me what Rain's Grandshelt Knight job more for our character in FF14 because Rain's Grandshelt Knight is to be the embodiment of the Sun that light the way for others. Rain's entire job, character, and story in FF Brave Exvius to be a bright as the Sun itself when there is no others to guide people out of the darkness created by those who blindly follow the light and darkness.

Prefer it being DPS job so it can represent the burning intensity of the Sun.

[Starkbeaumont]

MSQ stuff and thoughts:

not sure what happen with Elidibus. he was all emotional all of a sudden. he never seemed to care much about the other ascians and now this. Also the revelation that he is kinda just a primal was weird. after so many years. i didn't like this. and his size at the end + the primal thing points me right to Unukalhai though.
regarding the stones: maybe i miscounted but there were only 12 + the last one. now Azem got the sun stone. just like Azeyma, 1 of the Twelve (who are actually 13 as Nald and Thal are twins). maybe they are related.
and what's with the white robe guy? Fandaniel is an Ascian name. edit: wasn't that elezen dude drom 1.0 named Fandaniel? when they hinted later he was an ascians when they revealed they have no shadow?