Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.4

I'm going to be painfully honest in saying that I have not been terribly impressed by any of the quests Matsuno did the writing for so far.

His stories were the ones I was the least invested in for their respective expansions, and even though Bozja has much less blatant fanservice from FFs he was involved in, it still feels very lacking somehow.

Originally Posted by Hank_Hotspur

I hope we get Balthier and Fran's hoverbike as a mount at some point.

I hope the leading man himself makes an appearance.

Originally Posted by Iscah

The whole thing just sounds horrendously demotivating, and - I haven't done the new patch stuff yet, but it's not a story that's left me fretting for the characters in the meanwhile or anything. I'll still try it out and see how bad it is, and hopefully get some glamour from it, but... ugh.

It's not as bad as they make it seem at least in terms of mettle. You only need mettle that high for doing Savage. Once you've unlocked Delebrum Reginae, your mettle no longer seems to matter at all if you're already at rank 15 and don't plan on doing Savage. I'd personally still keep it high though, just in case.

Originally Posted by KageTokage

I'm still not understanding why Mikoto's foresight even needed to exist as it thus far hasn't actually contributed to much of anything (Both finding Cid and where Misja was going could've been realistically determined through normal means), and it's pretty damned obvious at this point that she's going to be fine in spite of the last vision she had. The whole reason they tend to include such abilities in fiction is specifically so you can change the future, so the concept of an absolute future just seems silly.

If it makes you feel better, the Field Records themselves even note that Mikoto herself finds the ability useless. Quoting it:

"Like the Warrior of Light, Mikoto is blessed with the Echo, her manifestation of the power allowing her to see into the future. While resembling prophetic dreams and divinations, the visions that are revealed are events that cannot be changed, and given that she cannot see them at will, nor clearly, Mikoto does not regard the ability as particularly useful."

Originally Posted by KageTokage

I'm going to be painfully honest in saying that I have not been terribly impressed by any of the quests Matsuno did the writing for so far.

His stories were the ones I was the least invested in for their respective expansions, and even though Bozja has much less blatant fanservice from FFs he was involved in, it still feels very lacking somehow.

Personally speaking... and putting it succinctly instead of rambling...

It feels like the setting is adapting to fit the story Matsuno wants to write instead of the other way around, there doesn't seem to be much of a point to said stories, there's loads of extraneous exposition, and their Doylist point seems to be a vehicle for Ivalice fanservice (by extension stroking his own ego).

Details on request only.

I'm enjoying the Bozja stuff so far, at least. It's touching on quite a bit of interesting lore, and I enjoy Misija as a character. I'm also keen to see more on Gabranth. I certainly like the writing better than what we got in Eden.

Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

I took it as a roundabout way of saying that Gunnhildr's behavior doesn't fit the mold that most primals are known to follow. She makes no independent effort to sustain herself, and has to rely on a very specific source of power. Consequently, she dissipates upon expending her aether. Even her tempered thralls don't seem to sustain her in any capacity, though that doesn't stop her from warping their minds and bodies to her whims. Save the Queen having the same properties as auracite also draws comparisons to the Lucavi from the Return to Ivalice raids, particularly Ramza's companions.

It would be interesting to compare and contrast her with other "exceptional" primals. Ones that break the mold in some fashion.

It also underscores the importance of not relying too much on existing knowledge about primals when it comes to Hydaelyn and Zodiark. The primals we see summoned by the Beast tribes (and not only) may well be the result of more primitive rituals, and so on. Based on the exposition we got from Mikoto on auracite, from the earlier Ivalice raids, it does sound like something the ancients may have conceived of as a battery for Zodiark (and later his usurper.)

It's better to treat their primal aspect as a starting rather than an end point.

Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

If it makes you feel better, the Field Records themselves even note that Mikoto herself finds the ability useless. Quoting it:

"Like the Warrior of Light, Mikoto is blessed with the Echo, her manifestation of the power allowing her to see into the future. While resembling prophetic dreams and divinations, the visions that are revealed are events that cannot be changed, and given that she cannot see them at will, nor clearly, Mikoto does not regard the ability as particularly useful."

I'm aware that it's acknowledged in-game as being useless, but it still doesn't really answer the question of "why" from a writing standpoint.

Getting a glimpse of the future isn't very intriguing when the event in question ends up happening just a few minutes later; even less so when it's an absolute that can't be changed. The latest vision is the only one that invoked any suspense due to someone's life actually seeming to be in danger, but considering how predictable the writing has been so far, I'm expecting it to be about as meaningful as the previous ones.