Thread: Revelations from Patch 6.5: "Growing Light", Part 1

MSQ

Was I the only one who thought that the roar we heard in the distance was a tease to Meracydia? You know, when Vrtra and baby Azdaja roar and then we hear a third roar coming from far away? Probably some dragon in Meracydia responding. I had a feeling that Azdaja would be our hook into Meracydia, and the reason why they haven't revealed it in the previous fan fest is because they didn't want to spoil that Azaja lives in the end. Of course this is all speculation but to me it was clearly a hint.

Out of the contents of the letter that Krile received, what intrigued me most was the fact that it was a "secret" commission, that no one else knew about. Why would this mission be so secretive? As for the clover earring, I have no idea what it could mean, and I don't think we're supposed to have an idea either, I think it's just something entirely new.

Also no idea who the mysterious person with Erenvile could be, but it seems they're looking for us specifically? And if the letter Krile was reading is so old, is it just a huge coincidence that someone from Tural came to visit around the same time that she decided to read the letter? I think something is going on...

I was also surprised that we never got to go back to the place we went in 6.2, Zero's home, where we found the statue. If I'm not mistaken the text said something like "You won't be able to come back for a long time, are you sure you want to leave?", but it never said we wouldn't be back there ever. Unless we go there to check up on Zero and Golbez in 6.55.

Very surprised to see Gaia voice acted, did she appear for everyone or only people who completed Eden? Either way, if she is indeed going to have a more important role in the story as she suggests, maybe Eden will become mandatory in the future?

Myths

Extremely interesting to hear the original roles of the Twelve back during their times as ancients. Also interesting that some of them could almost have become Ascians, had they achieved a seat at the convocation. A little disappointed that they never revealed the Watcher's real name (or none of the Twelve's real names, for that matter) but it's all good. And I'm also interested in the decision of keeping Deryk around, although I couldn't even begin to imagine a reason to have him be a part of MSQ again.

Honestly I would say the whole post endwalker quest chain is reasonable enough, it wasn't bad at least and it does seem to have played it safe somewhat. The plot is believable and at least consistent with past lore so I don't see anything wrong with it. At the very least it DOES make for a good groundwork chapter for that Void Expansion that people probably would love to see at some point expecially as well as it would potentially tie in with a future role for the First if they so wish to go down that path (though we still have Hinigashi and Meracydia as well as the remainder of Islabard to explore as well). Lest we forget there's also 3 other shards that are complete unknowns if they wanted to throw a curveball with should the time come.

Myths first and there's a special fun of playing a FemRoe that mains FSH and BRD to enjoy the vibes of the 2nd and 3rd boss

Final boss, however, was Eden's Promise Redux and an incredibly busy design. Was half expecting to be the FanFest Poster mysterious golden figure.

Before the raid even started in 6.1 we knew that the plot would be the gods relinquishing their godhood to bequeath the fate of man into mankind's hands. That's the type of story Final Fantasy IS in virtually all permutations, it's been XIV's foundation with the primals long before Endwalker, which only re-enforced it, and that a game where you play as a mortal protagonist doesn't work with the gods hanging around to gum up the plot anyway- Feo Ul brings enough deus ex headaches on their own. Still, the goodbyes did seem a bit sudden though emotionally and for the story it makes sense not to drag that part of the cut scene on. Deryk and the Opo opo get to stay and will probably become like Alpha and Omega wandering the overworld map if they so choose.

I laughed at how Bryegot's seed/inspiration was the long-suffering and hyper-competent second of useless boss Hythlodaeus and it was nice to get details on others besides Althyk, Nymeia, and the Watcher. Though yet again the most interesting element was the strong hint that Oschon was a true outsider to Amaurot - sadly this goes nowhere because the UnSundered World isn't a fully-realized location setting like the rest of Etheirys but a limited backstory origins answer for a few large concepts and most overworld trash mobs and by virtue of its purpose as that set origins point and the thematic parallel and foil to the main setting and plots. Adding more to the UnSundered World dilutes its purpose.

The mechanical prayer wheel that replaces the Twelve - I wonder if it will me more interventionist or not - what watches it and keeps it running. It'll never come up again but it functions to say that the only element of the religion that changed was that the familiars get to return to the Lifestream.

Started Margrat - won't say much except I LOVE her, I enjoy the clever writing in the questline, very relatable. And that it does cater well to someone who plays DoH/L because they want that wish-fulfillment of helping quest NPCs without need for combat. They needed a third dialogue option of extreme eagerness to help these overworked employees (and their cats!) to offset the begrudging choices.

And for the main MSQ - I was constantly interrupted and had to pause during so many cutscenes so my thoughts are scattered

Wasn't until the end we got Igeyorhm named-dropped as the root cause of the 13th's woes. And the parallels to Ardbert and his party and how they were manipulated, their misguided attempt to save the world damned it, then allying with the Ascian turning out to be a betrayal that would not have saved their world- the only difference being that Ardbert gets stopped just in time thanks to Urianger, us, and Minfilia as Word of the Mother to kickstart the reversal of the damage before the point of seeming no return. But Zero lives - and joins Lyse in the shunted off of main party cast to hang on the shelf as faction leadership of a place the plot won't involve but for a callback or two. Which is the best female characters can expect most of the time. And like the Warriors of Darkness, it'll be returned to once gears needs to shift.
(Though when her battle dialogue was copying Estinien's line I knew she wasn't coming in DT - though it was a cute character development. And that her PLD gear was not a new gear model).

The constant hiding of Golbez's appearance was amusing in the not-so-subtle Probable Azem Shard. But like Ardbert, another canon male and a likely Hyur/Elezen/Roe (or maybe, what with the armor, a hint that Garleans existed on the Shard). Next Azem Shard better be female and preferably a Lalafell or Hrothgar, will also accept catgirl. Bad enough the Ancients and therefore original Azem was just Hyur face on Elezen body, to shake up what an Azem shard can be.

Speaking of hiding faces/models - Erenville's companion is our Tural equivalent of Yugiri. The legs looked too dainty, small, and unfurred to be a Hrothgal. Probably Hyur. Doesn't recognize earring but let job speculation run wild - and agree that the most interesting revelation is the letter was old and to Galuf. Krile's finding a message from her grandfather inside the Golden City.

Most important of all- Azdaja is the CUTEST minion ever- I love the minion-sized dragons and she's vulture-like and red/gray. I want her a minion to take her through Dawntrail. Second only to wanting more Cylva and Unukalhai (I was running to them after every quest waiting for the dialogue update and found much comedy in the wistful "we should meet" from both Cylva and Zero) in the MSQ was wanting Hraesvelgr to re-enter the plot to say hello to his siblings. Having the extra Gaia scene was perfect and leaves the foundation for further optional Void Arc quest continuation.

I adore that Ryne the Botanist mirrors Minfilia the Miner.

Both Eulmorean and Garlean Restorations were hinted at in this patch- I know which one the majority wants and I know which one I want first.

Originally Posted by Cleretic

Best to spoiler-tag, Damian, we're not even two days out from the patch and four pages into the thread; don't want people to get spoiled before they do all the stuff, and a lot of us are dropping in as we go.

For example: I've hit the alliance raid. And I like most of that story, but unfortunately, the one part that fails is the most important part of it.

So, Euphrosyne's biggest failing was that it was too easy, which makes it hard to buy that we're fighting Big-Deal Ass-Kicking Gods.

But at least I saw Euphrosyne wipe a raid once. This one's even easier. So even though I continued to like everything around the central hook of the story, the raid itself was just massively disappointing.

Outside of the difficulty complaints, I've always thought that the big problem with this Twelve story is that it kinda messes up how the game's treated storytelling about gods, religion and faith. A general view of 'diversity of religion and faith is good and should be encouraged' kinda falls flat when the majority religion is objectively correct. So I liked that, in this final leg, the story actually agreed with me from some direction: that the gods themselves should part, for both their good and ours, but that doing so shouldn't invalidate the faiths that cropped up around them. Not exactly the route I would've taken, but it got to where I needed it to get to.

I do think it's a little weird and disappointing that the only conditional text in the entire story from what I could tell was who your patron deity was, if you're a crafter, and maybe also if you've done the Temple of the Fist (that one I wasn't confident on). This is the Twelve, they're the most connected figures in the world and should be the most rewarding of long-term investment. It would've been cool if Menphina recognized if you were married, if Thaliak and/or Llymlaen acknowledged if you were a fisher, or if Nymeia noticed you've leveled Astrologian.

From a Lore Nerd perspective, the main things of interest come from that roll call of who the Twelve were back in the days of Amaurot:

• Byregot was the reason anything got done in the Bureau of the Architect (thanks for nothing, Hyth).
• Menphina was the one that figured out how to seal Zodiark.
• Of course, we all already knew Althyk and Nymeia.
• It's plausible that at least one of the notes we found in Akadaemia was from Thaliak.
• Turns out Pashtarot was basically the Minister for Justice.
• And really interesting is Rhalgr: by dramatic logic of 'it'd be weird if the two curiously adjacent mentions of the same thing were unrelated', I'm feeling like Rhalgr probably smashed the auracite meteor that Athena found a fragment of.

I think if you read this thread, you're probably already willing to risk being spoiled.

Originally Posted by DamianFatale

I think if you read this thread, you're probably already willing to risk being spoiled.

The convention here, for many many patch cycles, is that you blank out your spoilers and label them by storyline, so someone who has completed, say, only MSQ can come and read those parts of the discussion without getting spoiled for Myths of the Realm.

MSQ:

This was fine as a Werlyt-tier sidestory simply written for the purposes of rolling out a few new Extremes. I'm fine with it if they do a more focused Void story at a later point, but they going to need to make a lot of the 'optional' content mandatory to do it justice. I like the work that they did with optional references, but it places a lot of limits on the writing.

This story relies too much on homage to make it work, which was an issue with the Omega raid series as well. A good homage doesn't need to be a direct re-enactment. It's more interesting when you introduce a concept and take it in a different direction.

Zero's decision to absorb the light on the first was a good example of that. There's no point keeping it as a last minute 'surprise', as people can instantly identify the Cecil reference from the patch trailer itself. But the idea of having a 'part-sineater'/'part-voidsent' is a really interesting idea, that could have been explored somewhat had we simply gone to the First a few patches ago. It feels like a lot of these 'final acts' have been a bit rushed on plot revelations on account of being too stingy with secrets.

I wonder if the original Golbez was Azem's shard on the Thirteenth, as per the description of Igeyorhm's interaction with him. It's slightly different from the EE's explanation of events in that the death of the Watcher triggers the Flood of Darkness, but parallels Ardbert's actions on the First. Interesting that having a Flood without a Calamity produces a Void.

Musically, it was fine, although I have to say that I liked the original better. It just makes for an easier listen when doing the Ex. The best FFXIV renditions of final boss tracks have been Neo-Exdeath and Ultimecia's themes, simply because they don't go overboard with trying to add new flair.

Myths:

I enjoyed the Myths quests overall, and the fights were fairly interesting. Again, what was particularly nice were the character specific references, such as your interaction with your patron. I'm curious to know if Byregot's comment on crafting is tied to unlocks or a specific level.

I'm still not entirely sure how much the Twelve actually remember about their past. The tie-in to their past lives at the end was nice, but it felt rushed. I felt that it would have been nicer to hear their stories from each of them directly, rather than narrated by Deryk. Especially since some of them do make comments which seem to recognize you from your past life.

Also, I'm wondering when Dalamutt makes his appearance as a mount.