Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.4

I think Zenos is fine with waiting as long as he needs to if it's giving him and us more time to prepare and ensure the eventual reunion will be as satisfying as possible.

I am a touch curious as to where exactly he intends to find a new weapon since he evidently wasn't satisfied with the one he got from Yotsuyu and legendary swords with mystical powers don't exactly grow on trees.

On the subject of Fandaniel, I think I'm most curious about when exactly he became the way he is.

Namely, are the Telophoroi a group who existed back in time of the Ancients, or are they a more recent development, perhaps formed by sundered Ascians who have grown sick of Convocation's obsession with chasing their perfect world and intended to rebel the instant a suitable opportunity presented itself?

The mention of him finally being free from his memories does possibly imply that what he wants is not what his unsundered self would've wanted, but only time will tell.

Gonna backread the whole thread at some point, but I wanted to get my thoughts out now, before they are possibly changed by cool theories/perceptions.

MSQ

So, I'm a fan of anything that kicks off with Alisaie wanting to do something.

That said, this entire first part of the patch felt like fan service with a side of extra fan service. Catboi Sage Deluxe ramrodding in a, "Remember the olde days?" Along with a smidgeon of Sharlayan lore. It was all smile worthy.

I was most interested in the supercomputer, and it was nice for Griggs of Vinheim to furnish us with transportation for the ceruleum. No Lucia dialogue Q_Q

Not quite sure why we had to run the computer until it blew up, could it not store the previously eliminated results? Could we have not shut her down and come back tomorrow? I wonder if Allagan Royal Blood = eidetic memory or if G'raha had that just by luck.

Wow, they actually did it. There goes my argument for this being dark fantasy bottled as high fantasy. OTL But wow, that's also really cool that we can just untemper anyone now.

Why flying pigs? Because it caps off the expression, "Heh, sure kid, maybe when pigs fly!"

New dungeon was cool. I loved the FF1 sprites on the bookcases. I ran with Trusts just to see if Alisaie would cast Scorch now. She does not seem to cast Scorch for me, though I had thought she had been shown casting it in the trailer. Second boss the Trusts didn't know what to do, how refreshing, but I got tipped off that I needed to get knocked up because I could target the balls that need dead, and instantly thought of other mechanics where you need to at least get knocked into the air or up to another platform, namely Castrum Lacus Litore's final boss. Even with the balls at 70% cast done, we were able to kill them. EZ PZ

The fan service kept going, and except for the G'raha fan service, this patch seemed dedicated to pleasing me. Merlwyb STYLES on Sicard by shooting his musket ball out of the air, and then shooting him in the thigh. I didn't play 1.0 so Captain Asthma didn't draw any reaction. The instanced battle did though. I was a little scared that Mistbeard killed himself for oursake.

<Insert 5G Towers joke here> Really though it made me go WTF?! when they stated, "The towers are of Garlean make." Sister, nothin' about those towers looks Garlean to me.

At last, Fandango swoops in and drops a FFIV reference on us. He wants to burn the world to ash and die. Huh. You know, a lot of people are saying he's just not being upfront with his motivation for that, and I can understand wanting more.

It all set my head ablaze with theory. Patch 5.4 casts Run Wild on my imagination. So here's the skinny on what I think Fandaniel's motives are:

I think, personally, he's dead serious about wanting to usher in the end. Whatever the Ancients did to their souls to make them everlasting, I don't think that was a natural part of life. Emet-selch sold us the visions of a Utopia. Remember though, Utopia means no place, and I'm fairly certain whenever we do learn Fandaniel's impetus, it will sell Amaurot's dark side to us.

Consider: The 5G Tempering towers are likely not an original innovation by Fandango. I've long wondered about the state of world politics and Amaurot's place in them, along with the darker aspects of that culture. Conformity was the norm. Suppression of individuality was also the norm. Somehow though, conformity of thought wasn't the norm? Debate was encouraged? Hmm. I find that hard to believe. So I think that Amaurot's spires were tempering spires, and that they tempered those Ancients with wrongthink, and had them sacrifice themselves to fuel Zodiark. Likely along with any foreigners near Amaurot's embassies, assuming they had such things. Yeah, it's completely unsubstantiated fanfic material, but I'm fairly certain Fandango got the idea from those times.

Related to this would be the Terminus cult idea. So many of the monsters in the Amaurot dungeon, including all of the bosses, had humanoid faces. Even if those faces were warped in grotesque fashion, they were still unmasked faces. I believe that Fandaniel, in spite of being a convocation member, was aligned with this Terminus Cult, even back then. He just hid it, or, the Fandaniel we're dealing with is one of those rare cases of raising any old sundered soul up to the station. Anyway, it's my thought that a death cult that wanted to end the utopia existed back then. When the calamity occurred they almost got their wish, but were denied.

Anywho, that's enough imagination.

The end that showed the towers tempering people to Garlemald had me wonder if it's a red herring that we're going to what's left of Garlemald for a whole expansion, or if it's setting us up for some interesting boss fights and character deaths/injury.

For one, it made me wonder if Thancred, Urianger, and Estinien could possibly come back tempered by the towers. If maybe Estinien might skewer his Lalafellin tormentors. Ruh-roh!

Eden

Just Gals being pals! Which honestly didn't bother me. The prismatic crystal also didn't bother me. But, I don't really care about Gaia, even given her true identity. I did enjoy the theme of memory and identity though.

The fights were also very enjoyable, though I'm not really a fan of the Cloud of Darkness one. I can't decide whether Shadowkeeper or Fatebreaker were my favies The music in the final fight was orgasmic, but the boss itself was ehh, weird to look at and pretty boring once you memorized the patterns.

Kinda felt bad for Mitron. Guy basically just wanted his wife back. No going about it in a good way, but hey, induce sympathetic reaction achieved. Course, his original real name was Artemis. Artemis a goddess. Gaia a Titaness. Originally gay? Guess it doesn't matter, they kinda transcend sexuality due to all the soul transmigration.

Emerald Weapon

Gaius redemption arc, ho! As much as people are complaining about this arc happening, it's pretty much just another Vegeta story. Remember in DBZ, Vegeta, the guy who's killed billions of people, destroyed whole planets, sold planets and any remaining population to Frieza etc. Yeah he got redeemed into a loving, caring husband and father. Pretty sure the writers for FFXIV will have no problem redeeming Gaius in similar fashion.

The Emerald Weapon fight was fun. I actually died three times, twice to knockback, because I had my camera angled in a way where I literally could not see the blue Sephirot circle because it was on the other side of the boss. Third death was magnet mines iirc. Second phase the music was pumping and I was refeeling Monk, and it was just 100% groovey.

New villain seems to be a mix of the devil himself and Bishop Frolo from Hunchback of Notre Dame. Except he probably can't sing as good.

The pilot for the pod test for Diamond weapon looks almost 100% like my character, and I was freaking out that my twin brother was being killed.

Nier, Cylva, Unukalhai, and the Role NPCs

I can't remember which dwarf I picked. Poor Anogg though. Poor Konogg too.

Carrying Unukalhai across the rift and reuniting him with Cylva was cool. Urianger saying that they'll need physical bodies at some point kinda rings hollow to me though, because if that's the case, they've been incorporeal for thousands of years. When's the best by date? Another 2~3 thousand years?

Role NPCs got hammered. Poor Granson, you'd think he could have smelled it as he raised the mug. Lue-Reeq never realized how expensive booze can be till now.

Taynor and Unukalhai have the same soul maybe? Guess it could be read as Unukalhai has Nyelbert's soul or whatever too. Why aren't this void gates trying to suck us in like they did during the mage role quests though?

Originally Posted by QT_Melon

Where are they now

Anyone have a list of where the scions, Gaia and Ryne and other notable characters' location after this patch and after dialog

Thoughts on the future growth
[hb]

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo

aliphinaud and Alisaie are in the rising stones main area graha and yshtola are in the dawn area of rising stones thancred and urianger are somewhere in Garlemald the others no idea

So eden and the rest... (I'm also back inside so less bad typing hopefully?)

What can I say about Eden, wasn't expecting Gaia to be Lohgrif, but when Mitron showed up and started saying what he did, I figured it out. I did want to cry during the final fight when we had to protect her memories. They did homage to the ending of FFVIII though when she was walking in the darkness. Btw I want that Giant Crystal its so pretty and rainbowish. Oh also loved the responses we could give especially the one about Thancred.

ROLE QUEST

The role quest... omg yes him being a lightweight was hilarious... also some of the response we could give were funny like using the CT please?! Lol. Also I'm really glad they're shying away from U boy being our shard from the 13th. I think its better to see him possibly as Nylebert, or maybe even Taynor (though I'm doubting this one)

NEIR quest

OMG is Konogg one also, its hinting at it but omg

Are there other side quests im missing

Nier quest

I kinda think that Anogg might actually be dead, for the original Dwarf and her replicant. I'm also starting the think that the latter, deceased or no, would play a pivotal role in the last tier

Emerald

I mentioned in part my opinion on Varro elsewhere (though forgetting that there likely are people as evil as he in RL). But I must also mention that the wife and kid are likely probably dead and that their final thoughts would be Zenosesque clamoring for prey. And this was after hos torture session with Alfonse. I will say that Varro deserved everything that will come to him, and think that if he was put in charge of Bozja instead that things would've been even worse for the region

The post trial quest was also interesting in that established that yes, the dead orphans did have friends beyond their group. As well as motivating Terncliff to defy their Garlean oppressors.

Role Quests

I kinda think that a 5.5 addition would exist to add Gaia and Ryne to the group of bounty hunters. And also think that afterwards they might wind up being the ones taking up extradimensional heroics while we stay on the Source, culminating in a few short stories about them every Rising, a token quest in 6.0 and beyond that serves to follow up on the void at most and maybe a possible expac about a partially restored void.