"In from the Cold" Scenario, any way to skip it?

[Yencat]

Was it challenging? I figured it out with more time than I knew what to do, having completed it by bumbling around like a moron without any clue as to what to do considering the quest info was blatantly deceptive in what it expected from me. I simply hated it.

Definitely not, mechanically it was no more complex than doing some of the Sylph beast tribe dailies pre-flying while trying to navigate around mobs as much as possible because everything had an annoying Heavy and/or Paralyze effect.

As much as I enjoyed it as a storytelling vehicle to show how strong the WoL is in their own body, even that fell kinda flat in retrospect when it didn't seem to amount to much more than Zenos and Fandaniel going;



And leaving again.

No one was even slightly injured and it's never brought up again.

[Gullis]

I loved it personally. Made you realize how Godly the wol is compared to a standard soldier.

[glitteringcosmos]

What on Etheriys are you all on about? This was, bar none, the greatest solo duty they've ever done. High stakes, an actual sense of danger, a unique situation and mechanics.
... admittedly, I never actually died, and might have been frustrated if it made you restart from the beginning. But, like - they tell you what to do. Avoid magitek at all costs. Never fight two soldiers at once, and avoid as many as possible. Go here, then here, then here, then here, then win.

I felt the COMPLETE opposite - I haven't made it far into the 4th zone yet, but so far, I think Garlemald is the best story zone they've ever had.
Around 20 previous allied NPCs, all acting in-character and being relevant.
A grounded story, with fantasy taking a backseat from first reaching Camp Broken Glass up until this instance near the end.
Actual tragedy - and it all makes sense. Unlike a certain "I will block this spear that shouldn't logically hurt the WoL, and the wound turns out to be unhealable for no explained reason" - I actually felt really bad for the NPCs.
And it's the logical outcome of ARR!Alphinaud's diplomacy too.
Heck, even finding out there's lyrics to the Garlean leitmotif - and what that song's about - is heartbreaking.

It took Fandaniel an enormous amount of aether - quite possibly enough to have ruined what he attempted after the 83 dungeon. And it only got the WoL out of their body for about 30 minutes.
And it's shown (afterwards) to be EXTREMELY likely that after that 30 minutes, we'd go right back to our real body, even if our temporary body was executed.
And they HAVE tried this before - Fandaniel even points out when it happened, in Ala Mhigo. And that he's refined and improved the process.

This!!! I feel like people who disliked it for the story and calling it cheap weren't paying attention to all of the things you pointed out, especially about the strain it put on Fandaniel to do this. People are like "oh it was cheap cuz it stole your player agency and if he could do this all along why didn't he?" Because it was made abundantly clear what the consequences and costs were on Fandaniel's end.

This. Garlemald arc felt like an actual mature game for once.

Absolutely, they hit a home run with this.

My dislike of it is entirely to do with the extremely contrived plot points that lead to a violation of the control over my character that left me feeling so bothered by it all. I didn't feel 'helpless' or 'desperate', I felt irritated and angry. And my ire wasn't directed at the villain characters like the writers were probably hoping, it was directed at the writers themselves for choosing to make that happen. As another said, it felt like a violation of my character, and not by the villains but by the writers.

You were SUPPOSED to feel violated over the control of your character. That was the whole point.

[glitteringcosmos]

Definitely not, mechanically it was no more complex than doing some of the Sylph beast tribe dailies pre-flying while trying to navigate around mobs as much as possible because everything had an annoying Heavy and/or Paralyze effect.

As much as I enjoyed it as a storytelling vehicle to show how strong the WoL is in their own body, even that fell kinda flat in retrospect when it didn't seem to amount to much more than Zenos and Fandaniel going;



And leaving again.

No one was even slightly injured and it's never brought up again.

Now this I can agree with. As much as I love the Scions it would have been a lot stronger of a moment had one of them gotten hurt. Not killed--shock value is bad writing--but injured. It would have made the stress from just thinking Zenos could kill one of them in your body to thinking he had skyrocket. Would have hit harder.

[Yencat]

Now this I can agree with. As much as I love the Scions it would have been a lot stronger of a moment had one of them gotten hurt. Not killed--shock value is bad writing--but injured. It would have made the stress from just thinking Zenos could kill one of them in your body to thinking he had skyrocket. Would have hit harder.

Yeah, that's where I thought they were going with this and I was curious to see the aftermath. Similar to how we still throw a suspicious side-eye whenever we're offered a drink. -Womp womp.

But barring a few nitpicks I really liked the Garlemald arc, even if it was a bit short for how much build up it's had over the years.

[Berteaux_Braumegain]

I maintain that it was a neat solo duty and I enjoyed it, but having seen how the story as a whole played out...

it probably would've been a better moment in an expac that actually focused on Zenos as a main antagonist.

Instead, it's just a set-piece that is more of a distraction set up by Fandaniel. Zenos causes no harm or lasting effect with his actions and then immediately goes back to his body. And then he's side-lined for almost the entire rest of the story, because Endwalker isn't really about him.

can't wait for the tataru solo instance where she only has 2 buttons and you gotta shop and craft for her favourite adventurer

Oh man, I can't even begin to imagine how much frothing rage a roleplay crafting quest would cause.

[ICountFrom0]

it probably would've been a better moment in an expac that actually focused on Zenos as a main antagonist.

10characters

you mean other then him being a critical part of the final battle, and a required post final battle, where he hijacks the entire game to MAKE IT ABOUT HIM though pure force of will

[Limecat]

Oh man, I can't even begin to imagine how much frothing rage a roleplay crafting quest would cause.

Better yet: It's not a strict pass/fail, but if you screw up the crafting you get NQ instead of HQ JSE, and have to spend tomes/tokens after the x.0 MSQ is over to upgrade the pieces you didn't get right.

[Kaliesto]

Why is this topic still a thing.

But just to note I passed this quest on my first try on Normal difficulty, and yet somehow this quest is too hard for others. >_>

[Knot_D]

Although I have 1 wipe, this is nothing compared with Eureka's sneaking game... Especially on Pagos area...