The following is a review of the story content from the role quest and MSQ introduced this patch for discussion and reflection. I wrote these as I played through the content, so the overall tone may fluctuate considerably as they are essentially live reactions.

On Garlemald – complete mismanagement and a terrible ending.

And Garlemald becomes another United State of Final Fantasy. Imagine my surprise. No one seemingly had the time to put together a few already existing assets to make Nerva’s human form prior to his transformation. Fourchenault offering them Sharlayan citizenship after having nearly condemned them to abandonment was...something. Then they ended up being sent to the moon. Seriously? This is what they decided to lock behind the final role quest? These events sound so unusual that people think I am joking when I try to discuss Garlemald’s fate.

Overall, from the decision to completely scrap a Garlemald expansion to the Empire reverting to a republic with some few individuals choosing instead to go live on the moon, this was just bad story telling. Too much rushing on this and too much investment in meme slice of life moments with the Scions. Enough already. Stop trying to make the Sims University: the mmorpg and get back to making a Final Fantasy game. I do not know who is responsible for handling Garlemald’s fate but they have lost a great deal of my confidence in their ability to carry major story elements like this forward.

The more that these once distinct nations become just another republic one after the other, the less and less magic and uniqueness there is in FFXIV’s world. It is high time for this trend to stop. The last monarchy remaining in the world to my knowledge is Doma’s, everywhere else is just another democracy, apart from Gridania being ruled by its conjurers and Limsa being pirate land. Garlemald’s fate was little more than another attempt to preach some vague, cookie cutter dream of democracy onto us again like they did in Ishgard and Ala Mhigo. I suppose I can also expect Hien to abdicate his throne at some point as well, and for Alphinaud to run for office in his place. Goodness.


The Problem of the Scions.

Y’shtola, despite being one of the more stagnant characters since Endwalker, at the very least got to show off her Titania voice in the English dub, which is also voiced by the same VA. I did enjoy this moment, I’d wish she’d go into crazy fae mode more often if they are insistent on keeping her around. Titania and all things fae was a major high point for me back in Shadowbringers, and this VA’s performance as Dragon Age’s Sera was also excellent. Y’shtola however is in desperate need of vulnerable moments rather than this constant sassy act-I cannot stress enough how stale this has gotten over the years. If nothing else, it is refreshing to see her pursue the goal of shard travel, giving the character some sense of direction at last. This is a character who is more defined by fakeouts and constantly being brought back to life than anything else of substance. Women in this game rarely have vulnerable moments these last two expansions in stark contrast to previous Final Fantasy games like FFIX’s Garnet or FFX’s Yuna, some of FF’s strongest heroines who grew the most over their journeys, instead those moments are almost always delivered by the following character:

G’raha Tia continues to be little more than comic relief and seems to act more as a vehicle for testing and showing off new animations than a character who deserves to take up screentime. This was one of the best characters in Shadowbringers and seeing him reduced to a running gag is just sad. His behavior is a problem. His mannerisms continue to push on the limits of my patience and I want nothing more than to tell him to get lost. I do not want him in my party anymore. I mentioned this before in a previous thread but if you are going to have a male character constantly be obsessed with the player character either give us the option to avoid his antics or at least let this obsession come from a character with a traditionally masculine look, without the memelike mannerisms. I would not care if someone like Aymeric flirted with my character for instance, or any of the other male characters in the game who look like men.

Evolve these characters in meaningful ways or replace them with new party members. Do not follow WoW in having unkillable forever characters like Sylvanas who took over 20 years to exit the plot. The twitter fans you are trying to please with the Scions will move on to the next pretty face the moment they see it. They will happily adopt them as their new comfort characters and not only will they be satisfied, so too will those of us whose patience has been exhausted by the lack of stakes or development of the Scions.

And no, Ultima Thule wasn’t stakes, that was a fakeout that a significant amount of us could see coming from a mile away. Please respect the intelligence and maturity level of your audience, it was just too predictable. Those of us who fell in love with this game in Heavensward sorely miss the writing style of that expansion, please consider bringing back that team who is believed to have worked on FFXVI back to FFXIV at the earliest convenience.


The Void – the star of this patch.

As I entered this patch, I was prepared for a slow start. Not 30 seconds into the patch, suddenly I find myself looking at an impressive vista of the void, with its swirling sky of lavender clouds and beautifully ornate ruins. My first thoughts on seeing this were: “I want to go here *now!*” I was truly impressed, and thankful that I have something concrete to look forward to in the future in wake of my other disappointments with the recent writing. Forget Ishgard, I want housing on the 13th. Whoever designed this area along with Pandaemonium’s castle has my respect and admiration. While I am saddened by the shelving of Garlemald, the 13th shard gives me a new area to be invested in.

A hauntingly beautiful dark fantasy world, whose denizens I have a degree of sympathy for, given the history of the 13th shard. Talk of the void would not be complete without mentioning Golbez, I am so glad to see him in FFXIV at last. Regardless of whether he stays on for the MSQ or is just for the upcoming trial series, his presence is a welcome one. Introducing more humanoid characters to the void will provide a suitable basis for stories told in its setting. I would however strongly caution against using the meme/slice of life moments we’ve been seeing lately in the MSQ in the void, that stuff hardly has a place on the Source let alone the 13th.

Though we have seen ruins of some kind of temple along with Golbez’s throne, the close up of the floating island area where various Gargoyles and Kindred congregated during Y’shtola’s explanation was largely incomplete and lacking in detail. Even if not truly alive, to make the void more visually appealing, structures such as grass and trees should be added. Any remaining settlements I naturally imagine would take after the ruins showcased in the MSQ along with places like Dun Scaith.

Again, this was the highlight of the patch for me and now serves as the hook that keeps me attached to this story after having lost Garlemald to the United States of Final Fantasy trend and the conclusion of the Ancients’ storyline. I am especially intrigued by Zenos’ voidsent given that it seems the model has been touched up somewhat and eyes have been added in. For those who may not have played FFXIII, the hands over the creature’s eyes are very reminiscent of Cie’th. To summarize, Cie’th are essentially people who fail the focus (mission) given to them by the gods (Fal’Cie), whose bodies become twisted by crystals, or in this case by the void’s taint. I can only hope that this voidsent proves to have more of a personality than Zenos and more goals beyond simply forcing a confrontation with the player character at all costs, which made for long drawn-out periods of buildup with Zenos that led to nowhere.