Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.4

Not really a spoiler since it has been done before in one of the side stories. The trope of roping someone back in through means of blackmail and extortion is in no way right. If the said person wishes to come back it shouldn't have to be because they are hunted down and forced through means of false manipulations and lies.

The whole blackmail/extortion thing angered me because it's low, illegal, and shows VERY poor morals and on top of it extremely poor writing. The scions are supposed to represent a higher standard and that of role models, that their abuse and, the coercion of a person (pixel or not we're talking legality, morals, and poor writing) was laughed about, to begin with only to be done again is just plain wrong.

Yes, I do like the character they are doing it too, that is here nor there, as it is just plain wrong, to begin with.

Originally Posted by Merrnryn

Not really a spoiler since it has been done before in one of the side stories. The trope of roping someone back in through means of blackmail and extortion is in no way right. If the said person wishes to come back it shouldn't have to be because they are hunted down and forced through means of false manipulations and lies.

The whole blackmail/extortion thing angered me because it's low, illegal, and shows VERY poor morals and on top of it extremely poor writing. The scions are supposed to represent a higher standard and that of role models, that their abuse and, the coercion of a person (pixel or not we're talking legality, morals, and poor writing) was laughed about, to begin with only to be done again is just plain wrong.

Yes, I do like the character they are doing it too, that is here nor there, as it is just plain wrong, to begin with.

Ten characters of response.

Except almost none of the Scion's is supposed to be 'role models'. Most of them have moral codes, but I'd argue only a handful of them actually care about being morally upright at all times. They're still all good people who work for the greater good and care deeply about those around them. But with the exception of Scions like Alphinaud almost all of them are willing to bend the laws of decency in the name of getting a job done. To what extent however depends on the Scion. Though out of all of them Tataru has one of the looser moral compasses when it comes to the greater good. Since acquiring Estinien's aid is for the greater good she'll go out of her way to cajole him into helping.

You might not like it and that's perfectly fine! But it's not bad writing to have characters be morally grey and do questionable things. The Scion's never set out to be any supreme moral authority that doesn't allow for shades of grey in their actions. Just to do good and keep the realm safe.

Originally Posted by Merrnryn

Not really a spoiler since it has been done before in one of the side stories. The trope of roping someone back in through means of blackmail and extortion is in no way right. If the said person wishes to come back it shouldn't have to be because they are hunted down and forced through means of false manipulations and lies.

The whole blackmail/extortion thing angered me because it's low, illegal, and shows VERY poor morals and on top of it extremely poor writing. The scions are supposed to represent a higher standard and that of role models, that their abuse and, the coercion of a person (pixel or not we're talking legality, morals, and poor writing) was laughed about, to begin with only to be done again is just plain wrong.

Yes, I do like the character they are doing it too, that is here nor there, as it is just plain wrong, to begin with.

I didn't quite like how it happened last time it happened with said character. However I think they will be more willing to accept the offer this time as in said side story his whole personal quest is to find other dragons and to deal with any that are being naughty. We just happen to have one even if it's not a normal dragon that is only here to well be a bad dragon. Also it's a great way for him to gain more coin so they can go back and maybe finally find one if not both of the two still missing of Midgardsormr's brood.

MSQ only, cause it's the only one I have enough iLevel for so far

Loved it. I needed a breather after the entirety of ShB, and I'm glad they're taking time to set things up again. I don't think the tempering cure was rushed at all. We've had to deal with the consequences of tempering since 2013, there's been PLENTY of buildup to finally figuring out a solution. And it's not as if said solution was found out instantly, was it? It was gradually, over the course of the expansion.

MSQ

I'm not gonna lie, I was bored for much of this patch. The dungeon was kind of fun and I always like to see Matoya. It's especially fun to see the back and forth between her and Y'shtola. Alphinaud spilling the beans about how she used Matoya's name on the First was hilarious. We rarely see Y'shtola flustered, but Master Matoya is the only one who can do that to her.

The highlight for me was seeing Ga Bu cured. That was a touching moment. Though in the Navel, it was super weird that the kid's parents were still lying there dead. After all this time? Za Da didn't just kick them into the lava or something? I know it was for dramatic impact when Za Da was cured to see what he had done, but I thought that was really odd.

And speaking of tempering. Curing this HUGE THING that's been plaguing the star from the start of the game so quickly seemed rushed and sudden. I understand the name of this update is Futures Rewritten, and all the major players here are rewriting a new future for Eorzea, but curing tempering so quickly - and with magic pigs - seemed out of left field. But that seemed to be a re-occurring theme here.

Back in ARR, the Lominsans were shown as being the main instigators of the troubles with all the beast tribes in the region. Y'shtola and Merlwyb had a few private chats about that. It was nice to see the admiral take ownership of the wrongs her people had committed, but again, this was so sudden. The last time we saw two races trying to reconcile past sins, it took an entire expansion to resolve. (Heavensward). Which again, was yet another theme. Heavensward. It was all over this patch. Yoshida did say we should brush up on our Heavensward content, and he wasn't kidding. More to come on that, no doubt. Then there was the whole reconciliation with the pirates. Again, that seemed so sudden and was just kind of like "Oh, since we're here we may as well go do this thing.".

And speaking of ARR, we're back to fighting primals again. There was a moment I fully expected Urianger to summon me to the Waking Sands to take down Garuda, Titan, and Ifrit. Fortunately that didn't happen. Because I felt like after all we've dealt with, from the Dragonsong War up till now, fighting primals again seemed so anti-climactic. Though to be sure, Elidibus was a primal and that's what we've essentially been dealing with in Eden. And at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if WE are a primal.

And about us, I feel like my character spent this entire patch doing exactly what I was doing in real life. Just watching. Aside from the dungeon and some fetch quests, we honestly didn't need to be there, and we didn't really do anything. Whether we were there or not, the story would have unfolded exactly the way it did. We had a small part when we gave Alisae some of our aether, but other than that, we really didn't have a purpose here. The main stars here were Alisae, Graha, and Merlwyb. We were just there.

L

I also wanted to mention in my previous post that the voice acting seemed a bit off. I don’t know if it was because the actors were working from home or what, but it seemed overly dramatic and uneven in parts.

Also, there seemed to be some different voice actors for some of the characters. Cid, Matoya, Merlwyb and Raubahn all sounded different to me.

Originally Posted by Lium

I also wanted to mention in my previous post that the voice acting seemed a bit off. I don’t know if it was because the actors were working from home or what, but it seemed overly dramatic and uneven in parts.

Also, there seemed to be some different voice actors for some of the characters. Cid, Matoya, Merlwyb and Raubahn all sounded different to me.

I believe Yoshi-P spoke about this earlier in the year. He said that the recordings for this patch had to be done from the voice actors homes, so most likely what you are hearing is their voice recorded in a different environment. He also implied that this was the most difficult thing to set up when shifting to working from home during the pandemic.

MSQ

It felt that we found tempering cure a bit too easy. Althought I lived the comedy bit in Azys Lla.

Aymeric giving away ceruleum with a light hand was not a great political move...

Matoya's Relic reminded me of Fractal Continuum rather than Brayflox's Longstop Yoshida mentioned. Was milk drop boss analogue to fae folk on the first?

Fandaniel was giving me serious Karasu wibes...

Telophoroi - Endbringers? As in more than just Fandaniel?

Yorha

When you to talk to dig site chief to complete quest he says that he found them both in these very tunnels years ago, so maybe both of them are not what we thought they were?

MSQ

Alisae as a hacker was awesome, even if it didn't work out.
I loved getting to see Matoya again, and her dungeon. Heck, I loved seeing the whole FF1 cast on the walls of the final room (but where was the Armoire of Invincibility?)
Fandaniel was neat; I wish he was around for more than one cutscene. I'm going to be shocked if is motive really is 'destroy it all for the lolz'. I'm glad this thread came up with the translation of 'Endbringers'; all I could figure out from google is that Telophorous is a genus of birds.
WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT LYSE POSSIBLY BEING DEAD? Granted, it doesn't make a lot of sense that she'd die from a single sword stroke plus fade to black. But then, Varis died the same way, a few patches back! And was surrounded by *way* more healers and doctors than Lyse was!

Werlyt

Decent fight. And maybe, unlike Ruby Weapon, I won't feel compelled to ignore Trial Roulette for a patch too - we'll see how it goes next week.
Did Gaius know that was his data in Emerald Weapon? He sure didn't react to it much, if so.
At some point, Valens Van Varro crossed the line from villainy to cartoonish-super-villainy, and I just couldn't take him seriously anymore. Probably the expression on his face. Up until that point, he's the NPC I've most wanted to kill in a computer game, ever.

Eden

And I was ridiculed in 5.0 when I said Gaia was an Ascian. Who's laughing now?
I understand that's Cloud of Darkness's Disidia appearance? I was bummed she didn't get her own theme music. Or even just Hungerer again. It's one of FF's best boss themes.
Cylva was a giant wolf monster? ... maybe I should have paid more attention to the old role quests.
Evil Thancred didn't make a lot of sense to me lorewise. Also, I managed to clear without anyone in the party figuring out how those red and blue circles worked.
The majority of the last fight, where we see the 6 former primals, was amazing. The cutscene bits were nice - once - but grew really grating the second time, when we wiped around 30%; I can't imagine listening to them every week.
Someone in our raid called out "rest your weary soul in my 20 bosoms" and it made my day.
Apparently 'Ultimecia' is better translated as 'Artimecia'? And there was a lot more FF8 symbolism in that last fight, that completely went over my head.
It was good to see that the Ascians were capable of love, even back in the day. And that they'll be reincarnated, hopefully sans evil and/or Tempering.

Moving onward

It seemed really weird that all the patch's sarcastic responses and item descriptions were in Ununkulhai's followup quest.
Along those lines - with it being optional and highly gated - and "possibly taking years" - it looks like we can rule out going to the 13th for 6.0. Or maybe ever.
Why didn't we introduce Gaia to them? She's from the 13th too, I thought? Maybe in 5.5.
We had a number of mentions of Sharlayan, and one very noticeable one of the Moon. Possible 6.0 destinations?
If we're directly continuing the 5.4 plot in 6.0, it would seem to mostly be about Beastmen relations. I'm not sure how that would lend itself to exploring a new continent, which seems to be almost a requirement. Though it *is* supposedly going to be called 'Forspoken'; and 'Spoken' is 14's word for 'player character races'. Perhaps about expanding the definition of 'Spoken' to actually include everyone? Or, less optimistically, an all-out Beastman war?
No idea with the towers. They don't seem like a single-patch threat. It really looks like they do tempering, and we've conveniently just got ourselves a cure for tempering. Which would mean I guess they could be following WoW's modus operandi of "Your steadfast ally just went crazy, and now you've gotta fight them" - though at least we'd be curing them instead. If they indeed bring about "the final Days", it would be through rampant Summoning. The Twelve, perhaps? I dunno.

Telophoroi

So the route of this word is two compound Greek words.

First is Telos--which means "end"

Second is Phoro--which means "carrying or bearing"

So the meaning of the word is "End-bearer" literally, but translates more appropriately as "Those who bring the End" and the "of the world" part is implied due to context of the story.

The 'i" at the end makes this plural, so there are more than one.

It's ironic that this wasn't easily translated by English speakers in America, as we expect people who learn English as a second language in America to learn all the important Greek and Latin route words--which both of these are apart of.