Thread: Revelations from Patch 5.5 (Part 2)

Originally Posted by Anonymoose

Part 1 went a little crazy due to Fan Fest and is already over 300 posts long, so I suppose we might as well start fresh with the new leads, eh...?


Main Scenario
Dammy

The patch isn't even available to play yet, man. (Note: This is simply a joke)

EDIT:
Main Scenario

I did this first because it was what appealed to me. The final end of Shadowbringers is here and what we learn is.. relatively little. Our protagonists, at the very least, have no idea their duties will take them to the Moon as of yet. Indeed, the first destination appears to be Old Sharlayan to give what for to the codgers on the Forum.

Speaking of the Forum: Forchenault. I didn't know what to think when the twins father was introduced as an Envoy. What little we heard of him through short stories, his EE1 entry, and various anecdotes from the Twins portrayed a contrasting character. I can now safely say that he deserves a punch in the face. Not only did he disown the twins, he didn't even bother to adequately explain his reasons why. The twins are better off without him anyways.

Also the Forum apparently have ways to know if the world is ending, claim that the current battle is simply another petty squabble with Garlemald without listening to the whole story, and are making their own preparations for the Final Days. Time to for some good ol fashion espionage. Krile is stuck in Sharalayan figuring the logistics of transporting us over under their noses. It will take about 6 months by my reckoning.

The Grand Company of Eorzea. So the Alliance manages to convince leaders of the remaining tribes to band together against the Telophoroi and hopefully save the kidnapped beastmen. This grand union of the city-states and the beast tribes gets the honour of being named by us... or Alphinaud if you choose the 2nd option. I am glad that the tribes point out that they still have problems with the city-states, but in face of this greater danger, and the promise of porxies to cure the tempered, such greivances currently matter not.

Arenvald. His injuries have rendered him currently unable to walk, and thus out of comission for battle in the forseeable future, but by gods the flags set by Fordola givesthe mark that he will probably come through in the last moment some time in 6.0. His main reason for appearing in this 2nd half is to re-motivate Alphinaud after his father absolutely shatters his self-confidence, reminding him, and us, of how far the Scions have come in helping Eorzea.

The Ending. The final battle was pretty enjoyable, Fandaniel's plan to cause a super calamity by doing exactly what Y'shtola tried very carefully not to do back in 4.4 with the Burn and the aethric dam was a bit out of left field, but in the end it doesnt matter not, The first plan may have failed, but he has more in store, and the guys know it. I feel like the end only works because we who have watched the trailer and kept up with info, in which that every just randomly decides to look up at the Moon after the battle before the credits roll. Must admit was blatantly confused by the decision for that cut.

Zenos and Garlemald. Apparently Zenos is the 'dreamer' which allows him to somehow acquire an aetheric source to power Fandaniels "gateway to the gods" as he calls it - the remodelled Imperial Palace. This gives off major FFIV vibes with reference to the Tower of Babil, which served as a space elevator/teleporter to retrieve a giant WMD from the Moon's core. Is this how they will free Zodiark? Well apparently Zenos himself is gonna head to the Moon. His gunscythe looks wicked, and is marked with Garlemald's symbol, maybe the scythe was Emet-Selch-as-Solus's weapon? We also see him straight up killing a bunch of no-names, so uhh yeah. Also there is a roar heard very briefly. As KageTokage notes, maybe this is the sound the tempered hear when they near the towers? I'm just gonna guess it's Anima because why not.

The Women in White. Okay, come on guys, this is pretty obviously Venat, and she is really pinning her hopes onto us to prevent the end. Also Crystal Mom loves you and tried her best, as Moose will say. I adhere to the theory that Hydaelyn choosing us to be her champion was a Horizon Zero Dawn style Hail Mary (for those who understand the reference). I am mostly miffed our PC just sees a giant white robed women and tells no-one. Again. But the PC being a passive character is hardly new at this point is it? As for why she only manifested for e brief amount of time, I can only hazard a guess. Still too weak? Her hands are tied elsewhere? Deliberate vagueness? Hard to say.

Also the Towers are apparently absorbing the aether necessarily for their summonings directly from the land's aetheric flow, i.e. the Lifestream.

The Moon. Apparently it is red now? It was in the after credits cutscenes, but I didnt check if its in the actual game. A sign of Zodiark stirring to events on the Source?

EDIT*:
YorHa

That ending was just about as vague as the entire storyline. Some will say it is classic Yoko Taro storytelling. All I can say is that the raid aesthetics and music were nice, but when it came to actually engaging with the characters, we did not have enough interaction with them. I feel this in particular was a major pitfall of the quest line. The twins were intersting, but we honestly never got to know enough about them. All I can say is that they are the devola and popola analogues of the story simply due to their hair and eye colour.

Epilogue summary. Dig Site chief receives word that dwarven automata of Gogg make is being circulated in Eulmore, he deduces that Konogg is the creator. We go check and recieve confirmation that it was indeed him, and get pointed to where he was staying. As we approach, we switch to an actual flashback, not an Echo one, of Konogg after his last message, where he researches ways to use the machine tech to bring his sister back, to apparently no avail and him subsequently falling into despair. Except something he does (we never see him do anything besides researching to be honest) allows for Anogg to seize the chance to return and reunite with him. They then walk off hand in hand to "see the world", whether that be the First or the FFXIV-Nier world the machines came from is left vague. And this is all a flashback, meaning it happened before we got there. All the PC sees is an empty workshop and a bottle of mead they take back to the Chief.

EDIT**
Save the Queen

Okay, managed to clear the last CE with 7 people (wooo!). Let's start shall we?

The Premise: Having given up Lacus litore, the IVth legion have made their flagship, the Dalriada, their new base of operations, bound in the area known as Zadnor, which carries some effects from both the 4th Calamity and the Bozja Incident. With airships in their command they are able to rain down artillery fire on the Bozjans and prevent them from getting close. Thus enters Cid and Lilja, who create mini-shield generators based on the allagan ones powering Seiryuu's Wall to establish new staging points as the Resistance moves forward. Thus comes the main meat of the story quests: use Lilja's D.A.Ms to redirect the flow of aether in Zadnor so that Cid can set up more shield generators, and then pushing forward towards the IVth. While we do this, the IVth legion is excavating a new Allagan relic from ruins beneath Zadnor, while our captive Misija is reflecting on what the shade of her ancestor told her: "Bozja is nothing without it's children" or something to that effect.

Also; we get to see some more Blades that weren't part of Misija's tempering spree, and at least one who was, but was spared the transformation fate in DR, and some new players from Nagxia. Also my boy Oboro (Ninja trainer) is getting off his rear from Eorzea and follows his own little plotline in the skirmishes tracking down another Doman traitor.

The Finale: Cid devises a plan to ground the Dalriada, by causing some sort of aetherochemical resonance with Lilja's D.A.Ms and the Bozjan crystal focus (that's still a thing) to ignite the ceruleum in the airship. It works, and Fran comes in to save Mikoto when the events from her prior vision come to pass. Instead it's Lilja who gets badly injured, but not that badly, she just needs to get the shrapnel removed and she'll be right as rain, but Cid and Mikoto get shelved with her in Doma. We raid the Dalriada (thanks to some very generous Echo buffs, it is passable with 7 people). At the end we face off against Menenius and Lyon in a mech and riding a war beast respectively and beat them... except it's not over. The real final boss is the Allagan weapon they uncovered and basically used to repower the ship, the "Diablo Armament". We manage o deal quite some damage to it, but it goes berserk instead, so all the raiders flee, Menenius gets a full blast of pure energy covering for Lyon (he's dead son) and the Armament breaks out of the collapsing ship to cause chaos on the battlefield.
Thus come the Queen in all her glory. The spirit of Gunnhildr causes Save the Queen to bring itself to Misija, who transforms once more to fulfill her duty to her ancestor, and basically does a suicidal run to destory the machine for good. Misija is gravely wounded, and asks to be mercy-killed instead of healed, because she is still a traitor with her own beliefs. Bajsaljen follows her will. Thus ends the IVth's occupation of Bozja, and another nation is freed with the aid of the "Liberator". Cid has some closure, Bajsaljen is preparing to pre-emptively deal with the issues that Misija brought up and begins drafting a new constituion, with some of the good things the IVth brought with them. Mikoto is sad that Misija is dead and she didnt get to see her off. Afterwards, our allies not associated with the relic return to their homes.

Mikoto: Unlike in the Southern Front and Delubrum, Mikoto did not have as much to do in this final leg of the story. Indeed, even her whole arc on "simply let fate play out" with her visions didn't really go anywhere, and then she is shelved for the last segment, so she is not there for Misija's "redemption" (if you want to call it that) either. If she is brought back for another story-line I do hope Matsuno or whoever is able to see that arc to it's conclusion.

On Fran: She appears as a deus ex Machina to resolve the Mikoto problem we got at the end of the last chapter. She also participates in the Final raid and afterwards essentially says "see you in Dalmasca WoL". More importantly we get her field record. She lead a royal black ops group, and under the approval of one Prince Rasler, she carried out the fake assasination of Princess Ashe, so that the Dalmascan's wouldn't fight to the last man if they knew their royalty still existed. SO yeah the real Ashe is alive, also Fran was basically the one who set Ba'gamman on his path to death, and she is 100% aware of it.

Noah: Again we dont see much of Noah, he simply accepts that Menenius is dead and asks Lyon to take the blame in his stead. Also he may have a condition of unknown significance that limit's the amount of time he has left. And apparently Menenius left some allagan relics as gifts, a wicked looking blade, not "Save the Queen". and an axe, which I was certain we actually can use, but im apparently wrong. But the juicy stuff is all off screen. According to Noah' field record, Lyon staged a rebllion that resulted in the former legatus's corpse being so horribly disfigured that the Dalmascans had trouble identifying the corpse (that's a flag, especially since we know Lyon freely accepted the blame, which was supposedly the mainr eason for his rebellion), and that Lyon himself, as well as few high profile IVth legion members are currently at large as war criminals (that's also a flag.). Accordingly, the IVth legion fell apart off-screen, allowing the Dalmascans to reclaim their kingdom, off-screen (fair enough, we dont need to be a part of every revolution, and the majority of the IVth's infantry were absorbed back into Dalmasca w/o trial, or repatriated to their homes. (I'm gonna say it: "FLAG")

I don't know if it will be in 6.x, but we are definitely getting a part 3 of this Matsuno story.

RE: The Diablo Armament
It is apparently the Allagans trying to bind voidsent in forms that would allow them to use their full power while also keeping them in check. This particular model was designed to house Diabolos, and thus utilises some very familiar mechnics or derivations of said mechanics... mainly his doors and donut AoE.