Revelations from Patch 7.2: Seekers of Eternity

[Iscah]

Getting the thread started early for once, and [deleted talk about patch notes implying there was a quest blockage because I've been through and it seems fine].

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Besides that, we are expecting to get the following content in 7.2:

7.20
MSQ: Seekers of Eternity
Arcadion: Cruiserweight Division
new Cornservant sidequest

7.21
Cosmic Exploration: The Moon + Cosmic Tool enhancement

7.25
Shades' Triangle: Occult Crescent + Phantom Weapons (relic weapons)
Mamool Ja society quests
Hildibrand

[Tehmon]

7.2 Arcadion Story (All Raids Spoilers)

I am so bitter about Brute Bomber's death. It has to be one of the more... heartbreaking deaths in the game for me. Dude gets manipulated by the President, and then the only person, his childhood best friend, who could most likely talk some sense into him, just lets his death happen and doesn't intervene because he is a coward who has " accepted " his own death as well. Oh, and do we learn the cure to the soul degradation sickness right after Hector dies? Of COURSE we do!!! Just to rub salt on the wound.

And then, this entire scenario's awfulness is just emboldened by what seems to be a lovers spat between Retsarra and Eutrope, as there seems to be some ridiculous miscommunication and misunderstandings going on that could've been solved by.. talking things out, or so it seemed to me. And in the meantime, of course Eutrope was never a bad person, not really, she was just trying to save her boyfriend!!! All the edge she might've had has been taken away just for relationship drama that leads to Hector's death, essentially.

The entire romantic relationship now takes precedent over the friendship Retsarra and Hector had, as Eutrope and Neyuni are kidnapped by the President. As Retsarra said, he won't let the President take away anymore people he cares about. That's such a lovely sentiment, but rescuing Eutrope won't take away that you knowingly sent Hector to his death, now does it? We obviously have to see how the finale of the raid pans out and how Hector's death is going to be handled by GEEZ, am I bitter. I know FFXIV gets clowned on for not being brave enough to kill people for good, but this is one death that feels so bad to me, just complete clownery.

Justice for Hector, idk. Maybe they'll rename Arcadion " Hectorion " in the finale, lmao.

[EdwinLi]

7.2 Arcadion Story (All Raids Spoilers)

I am so bitter about Brute Bomber's death. It has to be one of the more... heartbreaking deaths in the game for me. Dude gets manipulated by the President, and then the only person, his childhood best friend, who could most likely talk some sense into him, just lets his death happen and doesn't intervene because he is a coward who has " accepted " his own death as well. Oh, and do we learn the cure to the soul degradation sickness right after Hector dies? Of COURSE we do!!! Just to rub salt on the wound.

And then, this entire scenario's awfulness is just emboldened by what seems to be a lovers spat between Retsarra and Eutrope, as there seems to be some ridiculous miscommunication and misunderstandings going on that could've been solved by.. talking things out, or so it seemed to me. And in the meantime, of course Eutrope was never a bad person, not really, she was just trying to save her boyfriend!!! All the edge she might've had has been taken away just for relationship drama that leads to Hector's death, essentially.

The entire romantic relationship now takes precedent over the friendship Retsarra and Hector had, as Eutrope and Neyuni are kidnapped by the President. As Retsarra said, he won't let the President take away anymore people he cares about. That's such a lovely sentiment, but rescuing Eutrope won't take away that you knowingly sent Hector to his death, now does it? We obviously have to see how the finale of the raid pans out and how Hector's death is going to be handled by GEEZ, am I bitter. I know FFXIV gets clowned on for not being brave enough to kill people for good, but this is one death that feels so bad to me, just complete clownery.

Justice for Hector, idk. Maybe they'll rename Arcadion " Hectorion " in the finale, lmao.

It always does feel sometimes side stories could have been prevented from escalating to the point people die by simply having characters talk it out to clear any misunderstanding since FF14 began. Of course some people do not like it when things can be resolved with simply just talking because of the hate for things that remind them of "Talk no jutsu" but sometimes this path is the obvious reasonable path that should have been taken but stubbornness of characters and some players wanting a reason for escalating events for excitement in the story seem to prevent this from happening.

[Tehmon]

It always does feel sometimes side stories could have been prevented from escalating to the point people die by simply having characters talk it out to clear any misunderstanding since FF14 began. Of course some people do not like it when things can be resolved with simply just talking because of the hate for things that remind them of "Talk no jutsu" but sometimes this path is the obvious reasonable path that should have been taken but stubbornness of characters and some players wanting a reason for escalating events for excitement in the story seem to prevent this from happening.

7.2 Arcadion spoilers

I just think that whenever misunderstandings, coincidences and miscommunication stems from romantic relationship drama and tension, it becomes very frustrating to me when others fall victim of that tomfoolery and clownery. And it becomes especially harsh when the fact that an outsider got killed partly due to their incompetence actually brings the two back together... well I can't vibe with that. But who knows what's going to happen in the finale, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that the death leads to something important and not just corny and predictable heroism that now invalidates all the criticism of past tomfoolery. Nu-uh, I'm not having that this time around.

[EdwinLi]

The new MSQ antagonist...

I kind of understand what they are going with Calyx currently as the new antagonist despite his role is probably going to be very shot unless they plan to have him as a antagonist part 7.3 era contents.

He is basically the opposite of not just Wuk Lamat, Sphene, and WoL but every single person we have known since FF14. A character dedicated to purely logic and reason with his actions with no room for any form of emotional attachment in anyway with his actions.

For him the Endless is the most "logical" choice for evolution since all the flaws of mortality are erased and he see the countless sacrifice of other beings from other worlds as necessary to maintain this form of Godhood since no one will care about people they have no attachments with since people care less about people they do not know and care more about people they do know.

However, I still feel there should have been some kind of build up for him in 7.0 through small hints and mentions. Not to mention they obviously are building up to the concept that he may have faked Sphene's death and planned everything from the beginning to reach this point in 7.2 to 7.3 since he always planned for Endless Sphene to go crazy and fail in her plans to save everyone as Endless then have these Neo regulators introduced after.

[Grivvaint]

I was hoping they'd give us a little more to chew on in general. It feels like not a whole lot got revealed at all in 7.2. We still don't know anything about the key and it's getting frustrating how long we've been waiting to learn more about it.

Edit: ok reading this thread is getting me excited and I hope people aren't just overanalyzing what will be a straightforward "new villain monologues then summons a scary boss in 7.3, is defeated, we move on" like Golbez was

[SannaR]

10 char or so

Msq thoughts

So was Calyx just not paying attention from wherever his endless body has been hiding to not have an idea of how strong the WoL is? Cause otherwise he'd of known that lighting strike wouldn't have killed the WoL. Yet they seemed to have also anticipated the use of the Azem stone and know about reflections and the source. I am glad that we got back to Milos and his mother. That yes porxies can cure the levin sickness, but that as some of us expected if they don't want a relapse they would have to move away from the dome. I do worry about them though cause I feel that they won't be able to get their happy ending.

It's not often that I wonder why the supposed smart people can't figure things out in XIV's story or others but there definitely were times in the msq where I'm going Krile you really can't figure out why Calyx wants to make people panic so they choose to register their neo regulators? I do wonder about why or how that one body in Heritage Found just turned to dust. The dungeon and trial were fun and made you not want to mess up so glad they've kept that up.

Raid

Who would have thought Brute Bomber was secretly a softie and owned cats? I am glad that at least one person pushed back at the idea to stop the fights. As with the dungeon and trial these fights had some teeth. M7 especially. I hope M7 has as many arena changes in savage as it does in normal. Still a bit confused about the petrification attack as my co healer and I would be looking away, far away from the boss and some times not even doing anything and end up being hit by it which would cause us to die from follow up attacks. I wonder about what this drop of life it's called is as I would say physonekrosis sounds akin to what happened to us via absorbing all those light wardens. Did anyone else notice the lack of regulators on people in some scenes even when those people should have been wearing them? One example is after Eutrope and Yaana fight they both don't have their on.

I also am just getting sick of not telling some npcs about our Endsinger fight, our near death dual with Zenos and considering the wants of the msq villain our meeting of simulations of the Ea, Omnicrons and the Nibirun as examples of why it won't work.

[Cilia]

MSQ

Overall, I felt this was a huge improvement over 7.1 and even 7.0, though the new antagonist strikes me as somewhat unnecessary given he's only got like... one patch left to do his mojo. Whatever, it's not like he's going to win in the end; even in-universe, the baddies should stop underestimating us.

Slow, of course, outside of the Underkeep dungeon and Recollection trial. While ordinarily I'd complain a lot about that, getting to meet and bond with the "real" Sphene was worth it if you ask me. Being treated like a player on the stage instead of a mere accessory to Wuk Lamat was of course very nice, as was the writer(s) remembering things like porxies being potential treatments for levin sickness and the existence of other characters (e.g. Alphinaud and Alisae, who IIRC didn't even make an appearance in 7.1?). I think the writing was just better overall this time, no doubt thanks to all the criticism of Dawntrail so far.

So yeah. Robo Beatrix is a lil' tricky but we got her in 2 tries.

Not sure what Calyx's plans are, but props to anyone who guessed Preservation was going to take up a major antagonistic role. I did figure the person at the end of 7.1 was the "real" Sphene, but I didn't think Preservation (or just Calyx, since he seems to be the only person in the supposed group) would take to the stage ever and just be left as a background lore nugget. I don't remember them being brought up more than a handful of times so far.

I'll get to the cage matches over the weekend or something. Schoolwork and work-work.

[Cleretic]

MSQ vibe: I feel like .2 MSQs are always a little weedy, without enough setup or payoff to be exciting at either. This one does kinda have that problem, but this one works, mostly by finding a singular story it can be on top of being 'the middle of the story'.

So this patch is about setting up and exploring two different characters, both independently and in comparison: Real Sphene, and Calyx. It does pretty well with both of these, honestly!

Real Sphene's whole journey is in grappling with what relationship she has in this world she's woken up in, and to a lesser degree her relationship with the Endless Sphene. We see her go from 'I should not be the ruler of a country that's moved on without me', to 'whoever should be ruler it's definitely not these guys', to 'if somebody needs to take the throne, I'll do it'. It works, and I approve, but it's one that's only really nailed down by both her relationship to Calyx (I'll get to him), and Endless Sphene. I like the angle they take, where Real Sphene genuinely doesn't seem to approve of Endless Sphene's actions, and reflexively wants to believe she'd do differently... but at the same time, recognizes Endless Sphene herself as evidence that this is exactly what she'd do. It's an interesting union of the reactions Emet and Venat had to hearing about the End of Days; she has Emet's denial, but it gives way to Venat's recognition that, yes, she would do this.

I also like the minor detail that, unlike Endless Sphene, Real Sphene never uses the name 'Lamat'yi'; it's always 'Wuk Lamat'. I think it shows that Real Sphene actually wants to keep more of a distance; Endless Sphene immediately picked up 'Lamat'yi' and started using it to ingratiate herself as a trustworthy friend, but Real Sphene doesn't know her place in the world, and doesn't want to presume or force one.

And Calyx I immediately love as an antagonist; he's our Kuja, motivated by the desire to escape death, but rooted not so much in fear like Kuja, and more of a broken, hyper-logical altriusm: "I have a solution, and above all else, I will achieve it." It's kind of great that his plan is... honestly a lateral move from Endless Sphene's morality-wise; it's just as bad, and just as dangerous, but in slightly different ways... but the details and precision are what makes Calyx scarier, because it means he's thought about it. He'll melt down all of reality for fuel to save five thousand people, because he's run the numbers and five thousand is sustainable. Just the notion that someone would do those calculations is horrifying, and it means he's turned up with a way more concrete plan than anyone we've faced before.

As for lore hooks: we now have Dali confirmed as another location on the Ninth, as well as confirmation that people have earnestly speculated on: that yes, porxies can cure levin sickness (and it just took a very high-priority patient for Alisaie to give it a shot), but that the environment of Alexandria that caused it will still threaten a relapse. Incidentally, it's bitterly ironic that we discover this in the same patch as we meet Calyx, who was initially motivated by it, but at this point he's too far gone for it to even be worth saying. There's also the very clear and deliberate hook that Calyx calls our world and his 'the Source' and 'the Ninth'; even Krile calls that out as weird, that's clearly adopted language. As it happens, the first person to use numbered designators for shards was Ardbert (naming both the First and Thirteenth in the same cutscene), who definitely learned it from the Ascians... but if Calyx was the same, he would have learned it a very long time ago. I'm even doubtful of that; given the history of the key, it's entirely possible he learned it a few degrees removed from that source.

There's also a very small character design detail about our new antagonist that I want to nerd out about from personal experience. I would call it a pointless bit of nerdery, if it weren't for a later cutscene calling attention to it.

The tube in Calyx's neck. As it happens I have some personal experience with stuff like this, and would've called it a nerdy tangent... if Calyx hadn't specifically reached out to touch it in that final cutscene. So, here's some detail on what that might be if we presume accurate medical reference.

That's definitely a tube to contain some sort of fluid; there's a port around his chest, and you'd do that 'loop' inside the bandage for fluid but not, say, a wire. In the neck, that's more likely to be an 'in' rather than an 'out' tube, that isn't where you'd put an IV; more likely that's a drain, to either get excess fluid out of the body, or to circumvent the body's circulation in the event the body can't do the whole thing. The bandage suggests that it's either a short-term solution, or that Calyx was moving very little; there's more permanent solutions for people who have to deal with this long-term.

Chances are, this was what Calyx looked like when he died ...and that he was probably doing quite poorly in hospital when he did.

This post wound up really long, so I'll add my thoughts on the Arcadion and the Cornservant later! (Who'd have thought the goddamn Cornservant would have a lore-rich quest)

[unlimitedBLACK]

(Who'd have thought the goddamn Cornservant would have a lore-rich quest)

My understanding is that Banri Oda himself wrote the Cornservant quests. (This is based on the recent GameWatch interview with Yoshida on Patch 7.2)

iluna minori's summary of Yoshida's comments go like this:

Why does Cornservant speak in Hiroshima dialect? (Japanese version only)
Yoshida: I've asked Banri Oda on the reason why
from his explanation, the Cornservant is based on 2 motifs during the creation process
1. it's based on the following Mayan tale: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_maize_god
However, it seems that it has forgotten what its actual name and what it's meant to be called

2. The Cornservant is also based on Banri Oda's wife's grandmother
Banri Oda's wife's grandmother was a person who upholds her lifelong principle of "If there's delicious food, you must eat till your hearts full, and you must eat them diligently" (Basically, it's a saying "do not waste food") after the Second World War. The Cornservant's characteristics as well as its personality is modelled from how someone from Hiroshima would look like
Oda himself also lived in deep mountains during his student days in Hiroshima. But when he wrote the story for the Cornservant he had to relearn how hiroshima dialect is like.