Having finished everything but ranking up Island Sanctuary - constantly paused MSQ for the new Ocean FSH routes which have adorable scene transition animations, too many thoughts for one post.

Pandaemonium First:
"Fleeting Memories" as yet another variation on the Amaurot theme I had to mute the bmg. I could not get halfway through that fight without silencing it just to focus, my brain hates it. Fanservice for those that care about the Ascians and Convocation, congratulations. Very ostentatious golden tower, but I hope if we ever return to the Ancient World we learn about the other cities and civilizations beside the last one standing during the Final Days. An exact parallel to seeing the Sharlayan Forum, checklist marked off.

Fight itself nice. Finally against Elidibus in his own body instead of yet another power/body he stole. His staff I'm pretending is an Emperor Mateus reference. I wanted a FFII Soul of Rebirth raid, so Aitiascope is my consolation prize.

All the fights mechanically were interesting (wiped 4 times on p10 learning). P8 bored me from the beginning. Playing with the stage layouts.

Writing felt ...uneven. I was terrified Athena would be forced to have a moment of regretful motherly affection, thankfully avoided. Still the implied blame on outside alien rock, if nicely pulling back in that Ivalice raid Ultima thread, is an overused JRPG trope. And the Ultima raid was the only reason that the Heart of Sabik needed any answers beyond "Ancient Concept Crystal". The crazy neck hunch pose trope, held too long, made me snort.

I ADORED beyond words that ghost-memories Lahabrea refused to whitewash the actions of the Ascians, rightfully labelling them as hypocrisy and evil and took the extra step of acknowledging that while not as bad as Athena, he was not a good father to Erich, even when Erich was still forgiving. A lovely counterbalance to Gaius and the orphans. In that shining moment I liked Lahabrea almost as much as Erich - and then we go to the past and he's a high-handed asshole while Erich backslides in divorcing himself from his toxic family. No surprise he recombined with past self. The "we stand on two mountains" speech was clunky and eye-rolling. "Will of the Star" sounds the same as Ishgardians harping about Halone's will. Yet again I wish we had a window into the pre-Sundered world that wasn't the counterpart to Thordan or Fourchenault.

The memories shoved on random souls (poor real souls temporarily overwritten by Athena, I worried about them more than the Ancients) was a clunky write-around to avoid bootstrap paradox but the most serviceable solution to tell this story.

I like that Elidibus's ending speech looking out the the Aetherial Sea didn't end on a "foreshadowing coming doom" note. Also, yes, sea! fishing! Refocus and become a FSH Main, it has the best XIV community!