Thread: Patch 7.1 Discussions

Originally Posted by Cleretic

really

I've never made any secret of the fact I was curious about DT's reception, so my being around and joining in discussions during launch is hardly strange. Since then, I've subbed... twice, and two (2) of the handful of posts I've made were actually related to DT in some way - most were about this segment of the current patch, so I don't get why it wouldn't make sense that I'd have done it. Very weird that you're paying more attention to my sub history than even I bother to and that for some bizarre reason you seem to think I have some secret agenda where I'd bother playing DT and not announce it, but you do you. Baseless assertions have ever been the fortifying foundation of your reasoning, why stop now?

Well, here goes. I've only done the MSQ and the unlock quests for the Pelu Pelu society.

MSQ:

The funeral for Sphene went mostly as I expected. Sphene Alexandros XIV was a beloved ruler during her original life, and as far as everyone outside the main cast was concerned, her Endless simulacra only continued her exemplary behavior. It bears repeating: The vast majority of Alexandrians, Yysaluni "immigrants" included, are entirely unaware of her duplicitous behavior or the costs behind maintaining the systems that used to keep them safe. Because of this, it is only natural that these people would grieve for her.

That said, I was actually surprised when the Neo Regulators came up again near the end. I won't lie, I wholeheartedly bought into the initial explanation for them. But it did leave me wondering: Was the Queen's Aide, the man who introduced them to us, in the know? Or was he being sincere when he explained their purpose, and their true nature wasn't made apparent to him until the same time as us?

Speaking of which, given the sketchiness behind them, I suspect that the Neo Regulators don't actually do what they're claimed to do. Rather, I feel like their purpose is specifically to gather the souls of those sacrificed for some ulterior motive. On the other hand, it'd be just as screwed up if they worked exactly as described—executing their hosts in order to convert their memories into Endless.

Relatedly, it seems like most NPCs with regulators have rolled back their dialogue from what it changed to at the end of 7.0. All references to Sphene being dead are gone—among those people, at least. One of the only NPCs to still reference her death is the blind Shetona woman out by the docks in Heritage Found.

Yuweyawata Field Station was a refreshing splash of splatterhouse horror, and oddly enough the final leg of the dungeon reminded me of the Cosmic Horror-themed DLC from Darkest Dungeon. I can still hear the Ancestor's scathing disdain for the poor old Miller while walking down that final stretch to the last boss, lol.

Speaking of which! Between the research notes you can read in the dungeon, the Echo flashback you witness at the end, and her last words in the audio logs Shale shared with us, I felt it was heavily implied that Tesheel Ja's soul had been successfully merged with the captured vidraal. I say implied because the story never outright says so, nor does it make any bones about where she is at this juncture. I'll happily accept her continued appearances further down the line if she still has a role to play, but I'm also content with the idea that we released her from her torment and simply left her fate unspoken.

Also, while I was going through this dungeon, I couldn't help but think that Neyuni, Yaana, and Eutrope could make use of whatever information we gleaned from the computer terminals there. As Yuweyawata Field Station was the birthplace of feral soul transfiguration, it's possible that the researchers had notes on psychonekrosis that could lead to a cure. Hopefully the second wing of the Arcadion takes this into account—it's gonna be a long five months, lol.

Koana's section in Shaaloani, aside from setting up the Custom Delivery quests later on, is clearly meant to reinforce the patch's themes, and I'd say it does the job. I'm not a fan of taking the grit out of Koana's backstory by revealing his parents hadn't actually abandoned him—and really, I have to wonder why nobody actually saved the boy in the first place—I'm okay with it because there isn't truly hard confirmation that they were indeed his parents.

If hearing a story about a Hhetsarro couple giving their lives to save their son was what Koana needed to move on from his childhood abandonment, then I'm happy he got that closure.

Finally onto the last big reveals of the patch. When they were setting things up with the funeral, I wholly expected the first reveal to be that the governing forces of Alexandria (Preservation?) had erased all memories of Sphene from the people's minds in a futile effort to keep their paradise from being rocked by their grief.

I was NOT expecting Fake Sphene at all. Nor the suicide cult-esque approach she pushed forward with the Neo Regulators. I'm left salivating at the prospect of uncovering the mystery behind her. Relatedly, I can't help but see parallels here to the summoning of Zodiark, or more specifically the infamous "He Shall Walk" scene.

To wit: The Alexandrians, consumed by grief over their suffering and fear of an uncertain future, wish to sacrifice their lives to reclaim the paradise they've lost. But where the Ancients were responsible for their own actions, it's clear this time around that the Alexandrians are being manipulated by an entity with ulterior motives.

Lilyverse fanfic stuff:

With all this in mind, I'd begun to think about how my WoL(s) would behave during this patch. I'd made the decision to have Lily remain in Alexandria while Ascilia takes care of business in Tural. By the time 7.1 comes up Lily has completed her immigration and gained employment as a hunter, complete with a regulator—though hers bears no soul cells and can't receive signals from Origenics, meaning that aside from trapping her own soul and a copy of her memories upon her death, it's largely for show.

And as this would be the first time any of the Scions have seen Lily since the end of 7.0, I imagined it would be quite a shock for them to see her with one. As much as shock as it would be to Lily to witness the Fake Sphene reveal and the truth about the Neo Regulators.

This would put her in a remarkably "fun" position for me to explore. Lily, who has followed Venat's path in learning to love the people of Alexandria and trying to improve their society by whatever means she can, now finds herself in Venat's own shoes, watching as the people she loves ready themselves to offer up their lives to the idol of their devotion in the pursuit of an empty paradise.

Not only that, but while Lily has an ulterior motive for even having a regulator (she plans to use it to give Eutrope her soul), she knowingly and willingly accepted the very thing she'd previously shown only disdain for. It is, in her eyes, a symbol of her acceptance of the Alexandrians. It's basically to her what the Azem crystal is to the canon WoL. For her to have that symbol turned into a weapon wielded unwittingly by the Alexandrians against themselves would be devastating. So much so that I imagine her urging Ascilia and the other Scions to remain in Solution Nine with her. Not only to help solve the current crisis, but out of fear that she might, well. Y'know.

If the only way to save the Alexandrians from succumbing to the temptation thrust upon them is to "sunder" their world, I could imagine Lily accepting the responsibility if nobody was there to stop her. It would be a rather poignant turn for the woman who previously railed against Hydaelyn for such actions.

Also, having both her and Ascilia in Solution Nine finally gives me the opportunity to turn the Ascilia - Lily - Eutrope love triangle into a proper polycule. I was feeling a tad guilty about deciding to keep them separate, as it made it feel like Lily was cheating on her wife.

Anyways, the end of patch teaser was also pretty captivating. Given that the scene was shot from her POV, I suspect that this "new" character's body is actually a machine. Not unlike the Otis we met in Heritage Found. In fact, given her dialogue, I suspect that she's specifically the original Sphene—as in, Sphene as she was at the time of her death, her soul and memories extracted and placed into a machine body. This would mean she has no memory whatsoever of the Endless Sphene's existence, nor of the past five hundred years.

I could be wrong. But I feel like we're going to be getting the followup to Cahciua's observation: The original Sphene's reaction to Living Memory, the Endless, and what's become of her beloved Alexandria.

I think it'd be interesting to see how that plays out next time. Will the Alexandrians heed the OG!Sphene, a woman they've never truly known and who may well argue against their way of life? Or will they continue to follow the Fake Sphene, who is possessed of both an intimate understanding of them and the ability to mold their memories to suit her goals?