Revelations from Patch 5.4

[Sathona]

Minor end-of-MSQ question:

Does anyone know enough Greek to figure out what "telophoroi" means? The first assumption I made was that it was a compound of "telos" and "phoros", but I know nothing about Greek, so I could be mistaken.

im greek but unfortunately i cant think of something. Telos and Phoros could fit as 'bringers of the end' or something tho

[Rannie]

I just finished the msq... I'm going to bed. Will edit this post tonight at work.... if I'm not asleep that is its 1:10 pm right now and I need to be up by 7pm... (the sacrifices i make for this game)

So im awake now and still at work

MSQ

To start off, I figured that the whole thing with Aymeric talking to us in Ishgard wasn't going to be something huge ot earth shattering. It was nice though to see that he fully backed us and the Scions in the endeavor of curing those who are tempered. Also did we still have to use that Ironworks promissory note? Lol.

Ga Bu's voice was just completely adorable though. I also figured that they would need a lot of porxies to be made to do that.

Matoya's Relict was a nifty dungeon and the Magma area was really pretty and colorful. Probably my favorite room by far also the water boss... when can we get that as a minion. Plus add in the fact that it created by Y'shtola of all people O_O.

I still don't like Asahi/Fandaniel, while yes he is campy and over the top, I do still want to just stab him repeatedly.

Lunar Bahamut looks pretty awesome and I can't wait until we get to fight him... I love purple. ^_^

Other than that I'm going to sit and wait for more of it to play out to pass further judgement.

Will make another post later on eden and the rest... like I said earlier I was only able to get the MSQ done then had to go to sleep and even then I still didn't get enough sleep due to RL stuff...

[Ryaz]

MSQ spoilers:

I enjoyed the MSQ. Seeing Ga Bu restored was a big highlight, imo, and brought a tear to my eye. The new dungeon was fun.

Can't say I'm a fan of Fandaniel and Zenos at the end, though. They somehow took Asahi, who was an annoying twit, and made him even more so. He's like a Kefka try-hard, an insane fop who just wants to destroy everything for the lulz. And Zenos is as boring and one dimensional as ever. A far cry from the multi-layered villains we have been getting. Plus, the WoL's cutscene incompetence never ceases to amaze. Lol.

And apparently Garlemald can temper people now. Oh joy. Fake echoes, tempering. They probably created their own Primal as well, despite the constant rhetoric about wanting to destroy them all.

[TheRod]

Can't really get to like Fandaniel.

He looks like he is trying too hard.

[Tracewood]

Can't really get to like Fandaniel.

He looks like he is trying too hard.

It is going into Joker/DC territory, a guy who is looney and creates chaos for the sake of it and wants to die himself. Though I see Zenos killing him off later down the road, or they merge together.

[Theodric]

Eden Finale:

Visually and mechanically the fights were a lot of fun. Though the story felt a bit all over the place and I'm not a fan of the Ascians being forced to roll over and be snuffed out or 'reborn' as if nothing they desire themselves is of any value. Even worse that a touching love story is overshadowed by the 'feels' of two teenage girls. Then again, given the story's direction and habit of pandering to Twitter I suppose that is fitting in a way. It's a real shame that Emet-Selch's promise to remember him and his people doesn't amount to anything substantial. Like so many other story elements, I feel as though it could and should have been bolder.

Gaia and Ryne suffer from the same issue as the Warrior of Light and Haurchefant. In terms of the amount of time that passed, both pairings only knew each other for a very short amount of time. Ranging from a few weeks to months, if I'm not mistaken. It's baffling that the game insists on ignoring character friendships and relationships that have spanned a much greater length such as the friendship of Regula and Varis as well as Loghrif and Mitron.

[Mieck]

The Main Ten Character Scenarios Quests

For no better reason that it remains in play and is still unexplained to a degree, I'm sticking with my thoughts that Fandaniel was corrupted by the Sound that caused the Final Days. I didn't have those towers flagged as Garlean at all; they reminded me way more of the twiddly features of the bosses in Amarout (although, that could well be confirmation bias on my part). I don't feel like Fandaniel is just doing this to get himself killed - there are any number of easier ways, including all the Warriors of Light across all the remaining Shards - but other than my pet theory, I don't have much to go on. Any useful steer on the etemology of Telophoroi?

Matoya's Relict was fun, and it was nice to get some slightly more involved storytelling inside one for a change. yes, I know it was still just 1-2-Boss, but there was an actual narrative to this one. Also, Y'shtola's failed familiar being a boss was quite funny.

I was totally prepared to find an Ascian (Mitron - is that the mask we say in the trailer?) funnelling funds to the Bloody Executioners (via Fandaniel/House Brutus). I guess I've just been conditioned to expect Ascians at every turn.

Something else that nagged me, and I'm glad we got it tied off during the patch is how all the other Scions are happy to imbue the others with aether, but we were noticeably stood off to one side and not involved. I was happy when they worked that into the solo instance in the Navel.


I was reminded of how I felt playing 3.4 and 4.4. The direction of travel for 4.x felt pretty clear. 5.x... well, we had enough hanging threads for the First to be a reasonable assumption. But 6.x? I'm feeling quite in the dark, even though I think Sharlayan is getting set up way more than usual - and the Luna Bahamat (with its obvious ties to both FF4 and, in this universe, the moon where Zodiark is) feels like direction, I have no clue as to what the story might be. Maybe, now the guiding hand of the Unsundered is gone, we really are, for once since 2.x, in uncharted territory?

Safekeeping / Void Quests

Any cut scene with Giot is a cutscene well spent. I didn't have Granson flagged as untter lightweight, though. I feel like the Unukalhai / Nyelbert link is a reasonable assumption - I'd go one step further and say that their Source shard counterpart could be Urianger. I wonder if this will be an ongoing project / reason to return to the First for some side content in 6.x

Sorrow of Werlyt

With the added context of Valens's jealousy versus Gaius... ooof, that was quite a cutscene. Laid on a bit thick, sure, but...
Interesting to learn that the XIVth were a new legion prior to the events of 1.0. They also referred to the VIIth as a new legion - I'm guessing this confirms that whatever was left of them following Catenaeu was officially disbanded?

Eden's Promise

I was kind of on the fence with the first two phases of Eden. I loved the call backs to FF8, but Nomoura... is a struggle for me. So, I really appreciated the spin on community expectations, especially with regards to Griever and Ultimecia.
It was quite late, but I essentially got that because the First was so tipped towards Light from the get go, that what worked quite nicely for us in the Source when it came to undoing the likes of Nabriales, had the unintended consequence of creating Eden? It was about 12.30am when I got to the end...


Also, totally worth it for the end sequence replay of the FF8 ending. When I was young and buying games cost me weeks of saving, the only game I had for my PSX was FF8. I would reload the final save, enjoy smashing the last bosses and watching the ending, so I knew the beats of that cutscene very well, and it was great to see the gunblade / reunion / flower field in order

[JeanneOrnitier]

Okay MSQ time

I am unreasonably excited about the Scions having our own airship. I love airships, and this one's design is great. I hope it gets used a ton.

Alisaie talking about Sharlayan feels very "we're telling you this so you're prepared to go there soon", to me.

I expected them to say Owen was a relative of Desch, G'raha's ancestor, given Desch and Owen in FF3. Surprised that never came up.

Is Cid's voice new or am I still not used to his London VA? Even after all these years since the cast switch, with all those Praetorium runs anyone but Grant George sounds odd.

The main room of Matoya's Relict has FF1's player sprites on the bookcases, that's a cute touch. And if you go in with Y'shtola and G'raha in a trust, Y'shtola comments on how G'raha seems to be having fun. <3 He also gets giddy at the rainbow magma (which btw, Y'shtola said is dissolved crystals).

I'm glad to see Limsa being the ones to spearhead the efforts for peace with the beast tribes, it shows a lot of growth from them. Also extremely glad to see more Merlwyb screentime, she sorely needed it (Can we get some for Kan-E next?). I appreciate the kobolds' apprehension, to put it lightly, to Merlwyb's attempts, too. Of course they wouldn't just forgive and forget.

Based on the trailer I expected Fandaniel to have more screentime than he did. He absolutely stole the show whenever he was on screen, his VA did a phenomenal job, but I hope despite his words he does have more motivation than just "for the lolz". Zenos alone is already bad enough, I wouldn't want both of 6.x's villains to be so flat; but at least unlike Zenos, he's at least fun to watch. Also, his voidsent-looking dragon being called Lunar Bahamut seems to imply Zodiark is related to it somehow? And Estinien potentially coming back to the main cast is just, mwah, *chef kiss*.

Overall this patch was fine, but it was mostly just setup. After how emotional and bloodpumping 5.3 was I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad let down, but then stories can't have highs like that all the time.

[ICountFrom0]

Okay MSQ time

Is Cid's voice new or am I still not used to his London VA?

Not a spoiler, so I won't hide it.

The person mentioned sounds different to me too. There's times that it's almost the same, almost familiar, but it's like somebody doing a bad imitation....

[Mieck]

Not a spoiler, so I won't hide it.

The person mentioned sounds different to me too. There's times that it's almost the same, almost familiar, but it's like somebody doing a bad imitation....

From memory... the last time we had voiced lines from either Cid or Nero was... 3.5 The Far Edge of Fate in 2016? Possibly Stormblood intself, but also 2016. Plenty of characters have changed (meaning since the recast in 3.0). Also, yes, lines are being recorded from home and Soken had to do a pass on all the lines for 5.3 to try and even out any kinks. I imagine they had to do the same for this patch, too.


I think it was the same actors, just that it has been a long time since they had to do these voices