Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 1)

MSQ only for today

I had never considered Tiamat would be tempered, but it does make sense since she would have been right three when Bahamut was summoned. Seeing Estinien riding her and having her help figt trash pulls were the coolest part of the dungeon.

So now we know how Lunar Primals are made, but the question remains as to why. Draining the land's aether seems too obvious and simple to be the answer. Maybe something to do with spreading their elemental aether like in Eden?

And with that Krile scene there's absolutely no way Sharlayan isn't in EW.

Learning the true nature of the towers just makes that 6.0 dungeon they previewed all the more disturbing,

what with it looking to have hundreds if not thousands of people imprisoned within its numerous spires. I can only assume that's what the interior of the Garlean royal palace is going to look like by the time we get there.

I'm also assuming that some manner of anti-tempering magitek is going to be developed by then because our trusts are going to need a way to be able to help us out there.

While my staycation has come to an end, I was only able to get to the MSQ and Weapon finale tonight.

MSQ

Rendezvous with Thancred and Urianger, who have come back from Garlemald bearing news the Imperial palace is being remodeled by tempered thralls into a supersized "tempering tower," I presume. Set out to Ishgard to rendezvous with Estinien, who we accompany to Azys Lla to untemper and release Tiamat for assistance in dealing with Lunar Bahamut. Success, we ride on Paglth'an, bitches! Kick the shit out of the Telophori (neé Garlean) forces attacking the amalj'aa, and bring down Lunar Bahamut with an assist from Tiamat and Estinien. Unfortunately Arenvald, while on recon into the Paglth'an tower with Fordola, acts rashly and gets a "Lunar Ifrit" summoned by amalj'aa held captive therein, is grievously wounded, and dragged back to Ul'dah by his compatriot. Return to the Rising Stones, Krile announces she's going to petition Sharlayan for aid, and Estinien formally joins the Scions (for the time being).

Cut to the Imperial palace; Zenos emotes for the first time since his death, showing annoyance and frustration with Fandaniel's failures. Fandaniel remains nonplussed, noting that while Tiamat's return will likely deprive them of further Lunar Bahamut summons their plans will proceed apace, then asks Zenos to finally pick a weapon from the massive array he's gathered. Zenos is still unimpressed with any of them, but surprises Fandaniel by reaching for a weapon... hidden behind a pillar. Ye gods, Yoshi-P.

Lots of character moments on Alphinaud, highlighting his relationships with Arenvald and Estinien. Estinien shows his own character well, with his practical approach and Nidhogg's impact on him shown well. Fordola returns to the stage, if only for the moment, which makes me happy (I feel she was the most underutilized character from Stormblood, probably due to the Ala Mhigan "half" of the story feeling so truncated).

So the "Final Days" towers are prisons holding "beast" tribes that temper people to Garlemald and summon "Lunar Primals" loyal to such by way of their prisoners. I'm not sure how that's supposed to help them usher in the apocalypse, but there's lots of rules being bent and so on...

Amalj'aa held captive in the tower in... things... that look a lot like the "cells" from the "Pandaemonium" artwork. I'll, uh, let you draw your conclusions from that.

Sharlayan as the capital of Endwalker confirmed?

Wait patiently for 5.55.

Sorrow of Werlyt

Overmind replaced Oversoul, substituting Alphonse's conscious mind for Zenos combat data. Fight was... OK, not quite as exciting as the previous Weapon battles though. The fact there was no big phase transition and the same song played throughout probably did it. Allie goes back to Valens to hijack the Diamond Weapon, blows up half the Castrum, and gets shut down before a tear activates Overmind. Sniff. Valens survives to the end only to be defeated in a duel with Gaius, predictably, with the latter using an evolved Terminus Est to finish him off before being crushed and thrown aside by Diamond Weapon Alphonse. Gaius leaves to help rebuild the "retaken in the chaos" Werlyt, while a memory sphere left behind by Diamond Weapon Alphonse shakes Allie out of her catatonia after the "credits" along with visions of the rest of the XIVth back during Gaius' legatus days.

Fight wasn't as cool as the previous two, but I guess it was an emotionally satisfying if predictable conclusion. Glad they finally got the Sapphire Weapon out of the water (or it sunk), disappointed they didn't try to haul back the Diamond Weapon and repair it to use in the forthcoming conflict against the Telophori. Valens' whole ambition was to seize the Imperial throne, how disappointing.

Might do the EX again for the GNB weapon, since the Resistance weapon turned out to be a lil' disappointing and the Diamond Gunblade (Zeta, was it termed? Since "Diamond [X]" was already used for the Sigmascape tier in Omega.) looks pretty cool.

I'll get to YoRHa tomorrow, when I have time to deal with the headache fights, but what I've read here gives me the impression it's more of the same from the first two tiers.

Fun fact: Bahamut and Tiamat have swapped their traditional fantasy roles in XIV, where Bahamut is typically a benefactor to mortals while Tiamat is a goddess of evil dragons. This draws back to Dungeons and Dragons, which the original Final Fantasy took a lot of inspiration from to put it lightly (it's essentially an 80s era D&D campaign with the serial numbers filed off; the bestiary, save Chaos, is lifted pretty much wholesale).

Off-topic

Fully vaccinated, yay! ... but nobody else in my D&D group is, and one of them had a COVID baby, so, uh... it does nothing for me. NOTHING!

Originally Posted by MoofiaBossVal

Hydaleyn could have also tempered the WoL to protect the WoL from being tempered by malevolent Primals who would, in fact, order the WoL to go on a murder spree, like when Ifrit tried to temper the WoL in ARR 2.0 but said "hm... I can't temper you because you already belong to another..."

Except for the fact that it has been shown that it is the Echo itself that gives us protection to being tempered. As shown with Fordola being given an artificial version of the echo and it protects her from being tempered and she's had absolutely no dealings with Hydaelyn. While the Blessing of Light may not turn us into homicidal maniacs to our friends and family, we sure do tend to have a fondness to destroying our enemies especially most especially the primals. Though a point to say on this... after we are first awakened to the echo and we hear her for the first time and all the times she even contacts us She always starts it off with Hear, Think, Feel. Mayhap that is the tempering she put on us.

Anway, spoilers i guess

MSQ

Eh not much I can say yet on it, I finished it before having to go to bed yesterday morning and still am kinda half trying to digest it even now. I will say that when they started talking about freeing Tiamat, I had a feeling that Estinien was going to end up riding her. I mean we've ridden Middy, and Hraes, Aymeric has ridden a dragon. It was definitely Estinien's turn to ride one. Also while the dungeon was not too bad, I kinda felt that us finishing off Lunar Bahamut was in a way slightly lackluster, but otherwise I did enjoy fighting and seeing Tiamat put the smack down on it.

I think i've enjoyed more the fact that Estinien mistook Alisaie as Alphinaud in opposition of it always being Alphinaud (minus the one story we heard about Alphinaud's GF one time mistaking Alisaie) and G'raha absolutely fanboying over the Azure Dragoon. I mean I would probably do the same if I ever met someone who to me was a historical figure they've only read about and never met but now finally had the chance to meet them.

Also the call back to the dried squid and krile and tataru chasing Estinien down from the tales story was great too.

For the rest I'm going to wait patiently for 5.55 and 6.0 to formulate anymore thoughts on.

i may or may not post again later for other stuff... If i don't get too wrapped up in the stories for the quests and getting excited for a small birthday vacation next week.