Thread: Revelations from Patch 7.4: Into the Mist

It's that time again! Share your thoughts on the patch, but keep your comments concealed under spoiler tags [ HB ] [ /HB ] while the patch is new, and label by quest group.

For reference: map of where Arcadion characters can be found after completing the story
(Let me know if you spot a similar one for MSQ)

Big-ish MSQ spoils:

As expected, the alleged death of the Ninth has been greatly exaggerated. This was, of course, clear when we saw the sun rise at the end of the base MSQ once the dome was deactivated, but I had seen people be insistent that it was all gone except for Alexandria.

Edit:

Ah, so it was Halmarut, our Winterer Ascian. She seems nice.

Originally Posted by Zero-ELEC

Big-ish MSQ spoils:

As expected, the alleged death of the Ninth has been greatly exaggerated. This was, of course, clear when we saw the sun rise at the end of the base MSQ once the dome was deactivated, but I had seen people be insistent that it was all gone except for Alexandria.

Edit:

Ah, so it was Halmarut, our Winterer Ascian. She seems nice.

Are...Are she and Calyx even going to be villains?

I'm not sure what to make of the end of MSQ. Still isn't giving us much to go off of. Not in the fun, alarming way of 4.4, but it's not necessarily bad either. They're holding the cards for this next arc really, really close to their chests.

We knew more about the ascians at the end of 2.0 (though it wasn't much) than we do about the Winterers at the end of 7.4. They're taking a really long time to build up the next arc.

Freed from school but also now unemployed, I sat down and chewed through everything just tonight. Overall I'm going to have to give this one a solid B: good, but it didn't particularly wow me. Anyway...

MSQ

A sojourn onto the Ninth, passing through Ice Lightning Cavern Mistwake to find it's (dilapidated) incarnation of Treno inhabited solely by Lalafell. Mildly unnerving, to be honest - a racially homogenous settlement is quite strange in the wake of diverse Tural and Alexandria. Well, whatever. While it was cool to see a small-scale recreation of Treno, and Krile had some good plot beats, but we didn't really learn anything other than that settlements beyond Alexandria survived the Storm Surge... and that Halmarut is one of Calyx's Ascian collaborators, the latter of whom has been put into a monochrome Mica the Magical Mu plush toy. Oddly fitting such a menace should be put into such a harmless form.

And here we go with the cryptic bullshit! Honestly, as much as I may rag on the story for trying to portray Emet-Selch a bit too sympathetically in spite of the many terrible things he did even in recent history, just talking to us could yield a better end than fighting. You don't get to say "I told you so!" or "Looked what you screwed up!" when you run and hide instead of telling us anything, Halmarut!

I guess this was a formal send-off (for now) for Wuk Lamat, Erenville, and the Leveilleur twins. Here's hoping we don't see the latter in 8.0 after all that, but I'd bet dollars to donuts they'll be back sooner than later. >_> Nice to have Sphene around for one more adventure, though the fact she does next to nothing in the narrative tells me she was probably put there to pad out the Trust system with a healer. Don't see why we couldn't have just called on Urianger. (Where are Thancred and he?)

Still curious as to where we go next. Exploring more of the Ninth seems like the most likely direction, especially with the Doomtrain out of commission, but "lightning-ravaged wasteland" is already a little stale after Heritage Found and associated areas plus this short excursion to the surface of the Ninth. I can't see them making a whole expack based on that, and XIV Treno gave me "Zero's Domain" vibes...

And of course, despite having the Key since the end of 7.0 we still don't know anything more about it. Tune in next time, kiddos!

Arcadion: Heavyweight

Well, I was starting to get a sneaking suspicion the President was actually engineering our rise to the top, seeing as everything that transpires does so according to his design and it wouldn't make sense to possess a cure for psychonekrosis and not give it out (even from a business perspective). So he had just unwittingly mutated himself into a Lindwurm and needed us to kill him because of regen to get the cure out, and dressed it all up in kayfabe. Cool.

Wish we could have told the Xtremes they could come at us at the same time and it wouldn't make a difference, rather than saying that was the only way they'd win. You need to up your trash talk, WoL!

Anyway, fun fights, killer tunes. Vamp Fatale is a bit of a wringer because of all the dynamic AoEs, and the Xtremes are a little tough as a dual boss, but the Tyrant wasn't at all challenging and the Lindwurm was almost a pushover. (That directional knockback on the broken stage is a dirty move.) Even being rusty from not having played GNB for a long while and getting used to the tweaks, it was a fun romp.

Mildly annoyed they cheaped out on Hector / Brute Bomber's death, though.

All's well that ends well! ... or something like that.

Remembered Hildibrand released with the patch, so I picked it up while hunting the Arcadion fighters around S9.

Another goose chase, this time through Shaaloani. Tracked down a... giant wolf man soul transplant, who was trying to blow up the train with ceruleum bombs after causing a ruckus around the region by destroying buildings and stealing food. Unfortunately, he was a real rube who got played by Carnelian (the slime guy's true identity, an Eldite criminal mastermind who killed Hardiboiled's incarnation of Nashu when they lowered their guard after apprehending him) and the still-unnamed scientist behind the plot. After some runaround the wolf guy was apprehended and Nashu freed from jail (long story).

So apparently oglops are a thing on the Ninth, and Hardiboiled is deathly afraid of them like pretty much every character in IX not named Garnet or Vivi. No points for guessing what the ultimate reward for the Hildibrand quests this time will be. (Please?)

Originally Posted by Cleretic

<snip>

MSQ

Honestly, I wasn't 100% sure what the cave was supposed to be. On the one hand the intro shot is a 1:1 to Quan's Dwelling, but it seemed to be more of an Ice Cavern reference to me... still, one part of it is called "Quan Caverns," and the route you take into Treno is a compressed adaptation of a direct route there from the overlook in Quan's Dwelling so it's definitely the former.

It's not 1:1, but Treno has even more references. The slums and canals are prominent areas of Treno, and another architectural mark carried over is Queen Stella's gazebo. The railway is likely a reference to Gargan Roo or the nearby South Station cable car. It didn't feel like a step up to me because the back half of Dawntrail is drowning in IX references. (The front half is lots of XI.) We fought IX's final boss as the "true" final boss of Dawntrail, for cryin' out loud!

I'm not all that disappointed by Halmarut since we knew the Ascians were back in play after 7.3. I'm just... irritated she's doing the "If you knew what I know, we'd be on the same page" shtick Elidibus did back in 2.1, and this time entirely offscreen except in front of Calyx. She's understandably wary of us given our resumé, but you can't expect us to change onto the "right" course without even knowing what we're doing "wrong," let alone how to fix it. It's the usual "don't tell us anything and then blame us for not knowing" bit that's just... worn by this point.

Originally Posted by Cilia

Honestly, I wasn't 100% sure what the cave was supposed to be. On the one hand the intro shot is a 1:1 to Quan's Dwelling, but it seemed to be more of an Ice Cavern reference to me... still, one part of it is called "Quan Caverns," and the route you take into Treno is a compressed adaptation of a direct route there from the overlook in Quan's Dwelling so it's definitely the former.

It's not 1:1, but Treno has even more references. The slums and canals are prominent areas of Treno, and another architectural mark carried over is Queen Stella's gazebo. The railway is likely a reference to Gargan Roo or the nearby South Station cable car. It didn't feel like a step up to me because the back half of Dawntrail is drowning in IX references. (The front half is lots of XI.) We fought IX's final boss as the "true" final boss of Dawntrail, for cryin' out loud!

Mistwake is my new favorite dungeon. /10char

You can see the card stadium on the east side of Treno as well: it's inaccessable but you get some passerby dialogue referencing a tournament if you stand at the waters edge.
Also, the quick camera pan around the first mobs during the dungeon intro is itself a bit of a reference to the startup of IX's battles, it's a fun nod alongside the very nice arrange of the battle theme.

You can go back to Treno after MSQ but sadly you can't interact with the NPCs for dialogue anymore.