Yay it seems they kept Haurchefant's voice actor.
The narrator is getting me hyped.
It's a nice, colorful room! Too bad I can't explore the rest of the manor.
Ooo Emmanellain. We're gonna be best of buds.
One quest chain at a time. I'm going with Emmanellain to the Sea of Clouds.
Nice Jazz music.
Just completed my first side quest, my XP bar on a level 50 Red Mage barely moved...
As of 7/13/2019, my WHM is 60, my Samurai is 53, and my Dragoon is 52. Assuming that the MSQ levels a character all the way from 50 to 60, I can afford to level another DPS job for a while before I have to commit to leveling one of them. I like how the Red Mage zips in and out of combat, but it's painful to spend a couple seconds casting with two more seconds to go and then have to interrupt that cast to step out of a two second AoE. It's also frustrating because I do not have a heal at this time.
Ah, looks like he's so useless we're going to have to reassign him to antartica.
"We made peaceful contact with the Vanu Vanu and even managed to trade with them for several months. Then they inexplicably began attacking us. Rather than leaving the door open for a peaceful settlement, you are to simply massacre any Vanu Vanu you see on sight. No shouting "we come in peace!" to see if they want to parley before drawing your sword; just kill all you see!"
Life as a soldier stationed in Camp Cloudtop is far better than being civilian in the Brume, or pretty much anywhere else in Coerthas besides being a noble in the Pillars. The sun is out and the world is vibrant, the breeze is cool, there is no threat of dragons, just some measly owl-bears who can be easily bitten back. Worst thing that can happen? Some critters picking on your food. That's a laid back life right there; I'm surprised there aren't more people signing up in the hope that they get assigned to this place.
How did Haurchefant and Cid find out that we were in trouble and arrive at the Sea of Clouds so quickly?
Wait, we've been here for
days? I was under the impression we had only been here for one.
I have two complaints about the zones: they feel huge for the sake of being huge (possibly because flying was added in that expansion?). I don't have a problem with big spaces with nothing in them. Shadow of the Colossus did this well, but SotC made it's large spaces enjoyable to go through. Here, it's a lot of flat plains with tiling textures abounding. It's not pretty look at.
Why are there voidsent wandering around Coerthas in broad daylight? ???
The fate says that the Bergthurs are trying to get to their home in the void. Are they sentient? Is the void referring to one of the void shards, or just a general void dimmension, possibly like the World of Darkness?
Maybe the village buried beneath the snow at Falcon's Nest will finally be excavated once the Holy See is deposed.
Okay, I think I was doing it wrong and I'm now getting the hang of Red Mage: you want to spend 2.5 seconds casting Jolt/verstone/verfire and then use the instant dual cast on the Veraero/Verthunder. You're not supposed to stand there casting Veraero/Verthunder for four seconds.
I just slaughtered a dozen of her followers - people she's known and interacted with, ate with for months - and she's calmly talking to me?
"It was... beyond my control" lady, you CHOOSE to dismantle the barrier that prevented the dragons from attacking Ishgard. Surely you knew that the dragons would begin killing as soon as they were able.
Seriously, why is my character the Warrior of Light just
standing there while the antagonists simply walk away?
Well that was a surprisingly non-lethal trial by combat. How exactly did I "win"? What, did I bruise them with the hilt of my sword or blow the wind out of their lungs with bursts of water magic till they cried uncle?
One thing I like that FFXIV and Trails of Cold Steel does is that the powers that be acknowledge the extraordinary series of adventures the hero has embarked on and his apparent invincibility. The nations are afraid of the hero's unprecedented victories and the influence he holds, and thus they try to control it. I also like how FFXIV incorporates flashbacks into the canon through the Echo.
RIP badass Merlwyb voice.
"Working in a kitchen", Higiri perhaps?
Did we kill the Braves or not? Sometimes their HP falls to zero and they drop dead, other times their HP falls to zero, they drop dead, and their alive in the cutscene. Which is it?
RIP Urianger's Gideon Emery voice. The dialogue for Urianger was tedious but the voice work was not.
Well that was an anticlimatic resolution to the hype of retaking Ul'dah.
"Drinking the Pain Away", the only heresy spoken of thus far has been showing any sort of indication of sympathizing with the Dragons. Even iconography depicting Ishgardians and Dragons at peace together is grounds for execution according to "Mum's the Word". It's pretty sad to see an entire noble family destroyed just because the lady expressed something positive about the Dragons.
Wow, Aymeric thinks really highly of us if he thinks just the Warrior of Light and the Azure Dragoon can take down Nidhogg.
I like how the sidequests are being presented. In ARR, you'd walk into a town and there'd be two dozen different sidequests around, and it'd be so overwhelming you wouldn't even bother. They felt like busywork and you just skipped through the text under the burdern of trying to get through them as fast as possible. It also bogged down the pacing, as you'd do two hours of tedious sidequests and then getting back to the plot... and then the plot would once again grind to a halt while you did the next batch of sidequests. Here, there are only one, maybe two sidequests available at a time, so it's easy, and you're subsequently inclined to actually read the quest text. Then, once you've completed that one or those two sidequests and progressed the MSQ a little, another sidequest will pop up at town. And then when you come back later down the MSQ, there's another sidequest. Same amount of work but it's distributed over a longer period of time, the pacing flows MUCH better and my experience is all around more enjoyable.
Heavensward also justifies me taking on so many responsibilities quite well: Ishgard has been losing the war of attrition and simply does not have the manpower. They've been constantly forced to slowly withdraw from their territories for years as they do not have the numbers to hold them. Thus, their soldiers have to pull double duty and it makes sense for me to take up tasks that otherwise should have been taken up by the government.
Oh no, hopefully it wasn't the meat I brought back that was tainted...
Props for this sidequest actually being apart of a storyline that came back into focus.
"Too bad! It's made of Dragon venom! There is no antidote! They're all going to die!" Well screw you too!
Holy crap, those cannons that launch javelins are HUGE! Those are Vishap killers, and there are tons of them around Ishgard. How many Vishap sized Dragons are were facing here?
I wonder if the people who lived in Gorganes Mills are still alive.
I prefer dungeons like the Gorganes Mills. They feel like real places, not video game dungeons like Halatali.
What are these Convictors going to do when a dragon comes along and spews fire from the sky while they're stuck on the ground with no cannons or dragoons?
Let me guess: Dominiac is going to get in over his head and keep killing dragons until he runs into one too big for him too kill, and then I'll have to bring back his body.
Wait, the Dragons enslave other races? "Dravanians" aren't the same as "Dragons"? Is it mind control slavery akin to tempering, or simply a hierarchy? I was under the impression that it was the latter.
This whole dragon slaying questchain - going out of our way to kill dragons - is at odds with the MSQ narrative of trying to broker a peace between Ishgard and the Dragons. We told Aymeric to try to keep the knights from sallying out on the offensive because we wanted to show our sincerity, and yet here I am helping these folks out trying to pick a fight because no dragons are coming to them. What if a dragon spies me helping these folks out to kill them and then tells Iceheart? And then I came to Iceheart not a few hours later saying "oh please, we mean you no harm, we want peace!".
It'd be cool if Saintrelmaux could actually fight with me in battle against the Dragons, rather than it only being said to have happened in the quest text.
That was a neat questline
Ugh, the sidequest pacing before was well done but now this is starting to drag on. Don't send me out to collect more yak hides.
For the third time, STOP playing the pronoun game and TELL US THE TRUTH
Hraesvelgr has a beautiful design. Props to who have designed him and the 3D modeler.
Finally, a definitive answer in game: Aldenard is the name of the continent. That makes Eorzea a subregion, possibly the peninsula?
Why is Davy Jone's theme playing in the Dravanian Forelands?
No, the foilage isn't dense enough to cover anyone on the ground from aerial attack.
Anyx Trine is far, far too large for any humans to have inhabited. Was it built by giants or Gigas? But talking to Gullinkambi suggests that it was inhabited by humans.
Ah, it must've been made huge by humans for the dragons to fit in.
Why is there a dead dragon here?
Just did Dusk Vigil, and the Griffin at the end evaporated into a puff of purple smoke. Why do monsters evaporate into a buff of purple smoke, and people don't? Is it just a game mechanic thing? Or do monsters liquify into aether immediately upon death? How are their body parts left behind for use as ingredients if they evaporate into aether? Are Dragons considered people, and therefore don't evaporate into aether? But the fallen Chocobo also didn't evaporate, nor did the corpses of the monsters Godbert slew... guess it's just a game mechanic thing.
And that unlocked flying around Coerthas in my Regalia. Sure beats having to waiting a year after an expansion is out and grinding faction rep through world quests to unlock flying.
Let me guess; the new hunter is out for mommy Chocobos and their eggs.
Ohhh... he's one of
those guys...
He did not...
He did!
Well he's on his way to being blacklisted from Tailfeather.
Nice!
Oh, come on man!
If they're lilies in memory of his dead wife than I'm more inclined to think that this plan will backfire.
Lady, he said he doesn't want your help. Move on.
Honestly, even if there are no other suitable hunters in town to team up with, Q'yantaa would do just fine on her own.
The water textures are pretty bad. Even the water in the Black Shroud looks better.
But how did his last partner die?
Well that a happy ending
My favorite jobs are White Mage (level 60), Dragoon (53), Samurai (53), and Red Mage (53). Those three DPS classes feel fun with the mobility and the combos. It's a shame that I can't level them all at once, as even when completing an entire zone's MSQ quests and doing ALL OF THE SIDEQUESTS IN A ZONE WITH MY 30% EXP EARINGS ON, it's barely enough to advance a single job by one level. I easily leveled my White Mage to 60 by by getting instant roulette queues, and even though it doesn't have a fancy rotation or mechanic (I haven't done the Heavensward quests for the Lily gauge yet), the intrinsic gameplay of bouncing back and forth between damaging the enemy and healing my allies is fun. The DPS classes aren't so lucky with roulette queues, so I have to level them out in the world, which is difficult. I'm fine with leaving Dragoon behind, but it's hard to pick between Samurai and Red Mage. They both feel great; Samurai allows me to pick between three different combos for different benefits, use my combo points at will for different effects depending on how many combo points I have, and they have cool animations. I also love how Red Mage is able zip in and out of melee range, but the melee range doesn't last long enough for me. Supposedly, it gets a little longer later and gets a heal. Hm...
That's the plan! Simple, but brilliant!
Oh wait, a bunch of new sidequests popped up. More exp is nice, but I was just getting into the mode for an exciting infiltration...
I'm actually down for killing members of the Onemind. If they have shared a 100% telepathic link with each other for all of their lies, then it's probably that they have become of one consciousness or more specifically, they all act with the same motives and intentions for each member. There is no more individuality left within them. They would be like the Borg. Each and every single one of them would be sharing the same exact thought of killing or sacrificing the outsiders.
The Amal'jaa didn't strip me of my weapons either when I was betrayed and captured.
He looks like he walked out of Warframe.
Primals require two things to be summoned: aether to materialize a form and the prayers or beliefs of people to imbue that form with will. Sure, there are crystals in the room but where did the prayers come from to allow Ysalye to incarnate as a Primal?
Cool fight
The Dravanian Forelands just isn't very well designed when it comes to convience; there are places right next to each other but you have to go way,
way out of your way to get to them. It's very inconvinent.
It'd be cool to check in on Nameless One as he adventures across Eorzea, exploring the world and seeing how the people react to him. That said, I honestly forgot that there was an adventurer's guild. They only appeared in a handful of quests across the entire ARR MSQ, and I myself haven't been taking any jobs from them, just being an independent contractor.
There's a lot of padding in the sidequests. Saintrelmaux, Q'yantaa, and Nameless One questlines are great but most of the rest could be cut.
I like how the aetheryte of Anyx Trine is shaped like a dragon tooth.
Kal Myhk is cute!
Interesting; a whelping dragon the size of a Lalafell can be thirty years old. I wonder how long it takes for them to grow up to be a decently sized, mature dragon.
Oh... well then your brother is dead. I passed by his body hours ago.
Nvm, different body. Then how did the other guy die? Why are they both here?
Ah, the place is called "Mourn, the final resting place for dragons".
I did not expect the Vath to
start an adventuring guild!
Whew, I finally completed all quests in Dravanian Forelands. Only took seven or eight hours. Maybe only a third of those quests were interesting.
They're trying to tell a JRPG about the party of the Warrior of Light, Alphinaud, Ysalye, and Estinen going on a journey, delving into dungeons and what not, but due to the limitations of this being a MMO, you can't really see this. The characters teleport between points and rather than dungeoning with them, you instead dungeon with three other players... and then the story characters reappear after you kill the boss, with them apparently having fought side by side with you in lore (but you didn't see it...).
Just how many Moogles are there in Moghome?
I can fly the Kongamato mount around to complete the dailiy quest? Cool!
I'm picking hornbloom flowers in a ruined village. Who lived here? People before the war with the dragons?
"My steadfast serv-" haha
Haha it was the Company of Heroes twist all over again: you're sent to seemingly meaningless tasks that turn out to be what was required to progress in the end anyway.
These Hropkens have the distinctive, pulsating, aqua colored energy lines on their bodies associated with Allagan tech. But why? I don't see any Allagan ruins nearby. How did they get here?
What is this sticky stuff, infestation from Warframe?
This is the laziest quest text I've seen.
"Literally murder dragons - who we acknowledge as sentient beings - because they're accidentally trampling our gardens".
"I am Shiva reborn!" haha, no girl, you just doomed our negotiations.
"The tale of thy kind is one of avarice, treachery, and death... and thou wouldst speak to me of peace?" Yeah, because 13 traitors aren't representative of a whole community, much less the people living a thousand year later.
Estinen, dragons have no reason to lie, and any lies would be revealed through the power of the Echo.
If the betrayl happened 1000 or 750 years ago, you'd think that a higher proportion of Dragonkind would have grown up after the betrayl and wouldn't have the same hatred towards Ishgard that the older generation has. You'd think that there would be a higher proportion of Dragonkind chilling out in Dravania, but it seems like they are in the minority and that the vast majority of Dragons are out to kill humans.
Does "traitors" refer to the heretics who join the dragons? So the decendants of the 12 knights and Thordan who ate Ratatoskr's eyes have an impulse/desire with them to join the dragons? Or is he just talking about the descendants of the 13 in general who can awaken dragon powers by drinking dragon blood. That'd explain how the Heaven's Ward knight who talked to the Archbishop magically transformed into a hellish armor.
Ah, okay, the Heaven's Ward knight transformation is a different thing. So by now, pretty much all of the people of Ishgard have the blood magic gene that can allow them to turn into dragons. Without wings. So far, none of the heretics who transformed grew wings. That's a poor deal.
Wait, so some heretics who transformed from dragons are indistugishable from naturally born dragons? So heretics who transform and still walk bipdeal without wings simply haven't matured yet? Anyway, this is some Attack on Titan levels of disturbing: mankind has been at war with a monstrous foe who turns out to be... just humans.
Looking for a lady's lost cat sidequest. We've gone fullblown Kiseki bois.
Why doesn't the series delve into the idea of domesticating monsters more? What about the obvious manipulation of the adventurer's guild, by breeding monsters and then releasing them into the wild near towns so that monster bounties will be posted?
Biggs sounds like Colm Meaney.
Will take a while to get used to Cid's new voice.
"A General Summons" haha
I can't take Loloritto's voice seriously.
With aerial superiority, Garlemald should easily be able to conquer Eorzea. They can simply load up their army on airships, fly over to the city states unimpeded and invade in the middle of town. If they deem Eorzeans too difficult to defeat on the ground due to their ability to wield aether, Garlemald need only bomb enemy cities and installations to ash. It isn't hard folks. Only reason why it failed the first time was due to deus ex super dragon.
Why disband the Braves? The traitors have been weeded and out Alphinaud now knows what to avoid. They're still incredibly valuable! Disbanding them would only be a net loss.
Why didn't they use the awesome Nidhogg eye effect from the level 50 Dragoon quest?
[img=https://i.imgur.com/yrfUEyJ.jpg]
AWESOME!
So if I understand this correctly: Estinen consumed Nidhogg's eye, turning his armor red, and then gouged out Nidhogg's other eye?
Why does Haldrath carry two of Nidhogg's eyes? That'd mean that Nidhogg had none. Did Nidhogg reclaim one of the eyes? Why was the eye Estinen took yellow? Unless Estinen's consumption of the eye he had in his possesion didn't destroy the eye, but drained it of it's power and turned it yellow, and Estinen didn't take Nidhogg's other eye but straight up destroyed it? Or was that Hraesvelgr's eye? Hraesvelgr was missing an eye, so maybe he gave his to Nidhogg? Which would once again mean that Haldrath really did take both eyes but one of them was lost.
Haldrath seems to be a righteous man. He didn't start the war (his father did) but he had to carry it on to protect Ishgard, and became the first Dragoon.
Seems like this guy was the one who founded the Forgotten Knight.
I like how FFXIV explores the history of how the four great houses of the kingdom came to be, rather than just saying "there's four really big and powerful houses that are big and powerful for... some reason".
Ah, so Hraesvelgr must've given his eye to Nidhogg. Estinen didn't consume the eye, but his dragoon armor absorbed the blood of Nidhogg.
Even Estinen suspects it.
Huh, Midgardsomr didn't show up for any of this. Not to lament his son Nidhogg's death or during our two conversations with Hraesvelgr.
Why am I keeping the Manacutter? Isn't it supposed to be returned to Cid once we've killed Nidhogg?
I like how you can see the mountains popping up out of the clouds.
Seamless blending between the clouds cover the floor of the zone and the clouds in the background skybox.
(Vault ending cutscene) I think this is the first time my character's facial expressions has been keyanimated for a cutscene to this level before.
Dramatic character death with somber music
exit cutscene
happy pillars music
enter Fortemps manner
dramatic scene with somber music
exit cutscene
happy pillars music
It's jarring.
But again, like Ysalye, where are the Heaven's Ward knights getting the aether to transform? They aren't carrying crystals with them, and they can't all hold the eye.
That's the most unusual aetheryte shape I've ever seen.
How did Bismarck wind up eating the key, and how do the Vanu and the Imperials know that?
Perhaps the Vundu tribe had a variation on the legend in which Bismarck was aggressive.
Geez, how do you fail EIGHT TIMES?
Good Lord, stealing from the Elder's vegetable garden and the presenting said vegetables to the Elder as an offering for the trial...
So Gunu Vanu wants me to murder another guy for his mount. Sigh.
When the Ascian and the Archbishop beamed onto the island, why didn't Cid and co notice all of the commotion in the back?
HOLY CRAP, he's here in the flesh?
Oooo, we're going to build a new Gundu village?
That is a tiny island.
Y'shotla's thigh stockings don't mesh well with the rest of her outfit.
Gosh, the goblin Illuminati look and act like the Grox from Spore!
If Illuminati are in the area than it would be best for Brayflox to travel back with our protection rather than running off on his own.
What do you mean, you want to fix Idyllshire up? It looks like a bustling town with nice buildings been used to me.
I'm doing all the quests I can on a single job - with the 30% EXP earrings on - and it's still not enough to meet the level requirements for the Matoya's Cave.
I've never seen so many books before.
That demon book was a troll boss fight, wish unique fights like that were more common.
Nice jazz dungeon music.
Interesting. There isn't just an elemental wheel where one element is weak to another (ie, water exintiguishes fire, fire melts ice, etc), but there is also an elemental wheel where elements create other elements (lighting creates fire, fire creates earth, earth creates ice).
And it seems that there is a small triangle within the wheel. I wonder; if earth, water, and lighting are apart of an elemental trainge, are the other three elements of fire, ice, and wind apart of a triangle as well? I'm not sure how I'd rationalize it. Fire could melt ice and wind could carve ice, which would result in water... which is apart of the other triangle. IDK.
Alphinaud will exceed her expectations.
A thought about the logistics of travel in a world where every Eorzean can travel to any Aetheryte they've attuned to. A small portion of the taxpayer dollars/gil of the city-states would go to establishing a weekly class that would instruct people on how to attune to aetherytes and how to travel to them, and a bus/airship serivce that would shuttle people around to the aethrytes of the land so that they may attune to them. So would drastically improve the quality of life in that area, as 1. people wouldn't have to risk their lives traveling through monster lands from place to place, 2. the military wouldn't have to expend as many resources patroling those routes (escorting cargo could be left to contractors), and 3. it'd allow the military to rapidly defend the country. Attuning to every aethryte in the land should be a requirement for the militaries. If, say, Quarrymill was attacked, a Wood Wailer there need only use his link pearl to call headquarters, say "60 Ixal are attacking Quarrymill!", and then headquarters would use their link pearl to call a company of their soldiers, saying "Quarrymill is under attack by Ixal", and then that company would simply portal to the Quarrymill Aethryte. Help could arrive within as little as fifteen seconds of the Wood Wailer's call. With near instantaneous response times, there shouldn't really be a reason as to why the Grand Companies "are stretched thin", as they need only hold a token force at each city that who could summon as many men as required.
The environment artists did a great job making the canyon beneath Idyllshire look vast.
The Enterprise being succeeded by the Excelsior... nice Star Trek nod.
Why is the game playing ancient Dravanian-Coerthan bagpipe music in Helix, an advanced Allagan airship landing?
*Sigh*, another barren rock landscape as the final zone.
But I didn't get to read the conditions first!
Is the Guidance Node interfaced with the rest of the facility? Can't I just ask it where the Archbishop is and to take me to him?
Poor Wedge
A testament to the engineering capabilities of long dead, advanced civilizations in fiction which brought about their own demise.
Three stars out of... ???
These "Lamia" and "Reptoids" wandering about with bows and arrows and swords (presumably made by them) seem to be sentient. They are people. Why not let them down to the surface and give them a chance to live free of this hellish place?
Did the Allagans create the Chimeras? That means that the Chimeras we see on the ground in Eorzea weren't native species, but creations that escapes Allagan facilities in the wake of the collapse/5th Umbral Calamity? Makes sense. They're the only creatures in the game thus far that seem like a hodgepodge of different creatures, aside from maybe the bipdeal dragonmen that Ishgardians can transform into when they consume blood. It also makes sense that we've only seen Chimeras on the surface, as thus far they seem to be the only creatures here that can fly. However, given the trees hanging about, you'd think that the Lamia and the Reptoids would've at least tried the Good King Mog rope plan of escape.
Hydrus commands an entire
legion of troops... and he only deploys twenty guys to the facility full of traps, monsters, and occupied by superpowerful Eorzeans?
Regula van Hydrus has a great voice. Really makes him feel more down to earth compared to all of the other Garlean characters so far.
Oh,
now Midgardsomr shows up to talk to us about the cruelty of mankind five thousand years ago but not when I struck down his son?
Yes yes, "mankind is corrupt, greedy, and evil and you should feel guilty", yadda yadda yadda, thank you very much for your wisdom Midgardsormr. So far, your dragons have been shown to be just as a capable of the same evils as us.
Why would Midgardsormr need reins? Couldn't I just point in a direction or tell him where to go?
Ooo, are they going to fusion dance? Two for the price of one!
Noooo they escaped before I could whip out the Auracite and kill the both of them.
(While waiting for my queue for Thordan to pop, I decided to do the next stage of the Vath reputation questline).
Shoveling rocks is bad? Could be worse. Like digging through poop in WoW.
No, adventuring is about helping people by filling in miscellaneous tasks to raise the standard of living, and building up a network of communities.
Deftarm, you can't do everything by yourself. You need to GROUP UP for the tasks too bif for one person!
I wish there were more situations in the game where you interacted with the world like this. The world feels more tangible when your character literally carries an object, rather than just bending over for five seconds and then the UI says that an item has appeared in your inventory. Such quests made WoW and GW2 feel more tactile and I wish FFXIV would do it more often.
(Thordan queue popped)
Estinen nooooo
So I guess Nidhogg really did die with Hraesvelgr's eye - the last 50% of his vitality - removed, but his spirit lingered with both of his eyes in tact, and since each eye is half of his vitality, when they came together there was 100% of Nidhogg's vitality concentrated in one place, allowing himself to rematerialze.
One nice touch I like is how the six stars that make up the Dragonstar constellation change colors as the story progresses. It's a neat incorporation of the story into the environment.
Aymeric is my favorite GC leader and I would prefer him as leader of Ishgard, but the story seems to have skimmed over the obvious:
why is he Ishgard's leader now? With the Bishop overthrown, the power of the clergy would be severely weakened. The nobles would jump on the chance to install their own leader. Furthermore, with Aymeric being the son of the Archbishop, he'd have a uphill battle as his opponents would use that connection to discredit him. The narrative seems to just skip addressing this questions to "well, he's the leader of Ishgard signing the treaty".
Awww no Ishgard GC to switch over to?
. Hopefully it'll come with the Ishgard housing patch.
Final thoughts
Given how utterly
HYPE the Heavensward cinematic was, the actual deal was... not what I was expecting. No epic retaking of Ul'dah or grand defense of Ishgard; instead it turns out that Ul'dah never needed to be saved and everything anti-climatically wraps up in half an hour and then forgotten about. I guess Nidhogg attacks Ishgard later but there wasn't much actual saving the city itself. Still, 3.0 was pretty fun. The storytelling still suffers from a lot of the same presentation problems that plagued ARR, only that here they are less noticeable because rather than spending a significant amount of time in
Ul'Dah Ishgard dealing with the intricacies of managing of overpopulation, resource deprivation, and starvation on mass scale, the story pretty much just takes place out in the wilderness with a handful of NPCs teleporting from point to point. I'm beginning to suspect that one of the reasons why Stormblood is so hated is because the developers went back to trying to tell a story about large scale armies, logistical problems on a mass scale, and so on but the players see only a sliver of it ingame, shattering the illusion. The facial animation is just as wooden as before which makes it hard to get a read on what characters are thinking. Ysayle's sacrifice was... I guess it happened? I didn't really care. Didn't shed a tear for Haucherfant's death either, didn't make me hate the Heaven's Ward either but it
did make me feel for the Warrior of Light. For as far as he has come, it's still not enough. He can't save everyone. Estinen has a conceptually interesting character arc but he's criminally under explored as a character. You don't get to see his past and there aren't many scenes of him chilling or reflecting. He seems to go from point A "KILL ALL DRAGONS" to "Hm..." regarding dragons in a few lines of NPC dialogue between teleportations to "okay we're no different" over the course of less than an hour of screentime. The Heaven's Ward were pretty forgettable villains. You never really knew any of them; they're just
there, unlike Nidhogg who you can empathize with and has history. Nidhogg has a presence. He was always looming over the story since patch 2.3, whereas I completely forgot about the Bishop until Aymeric went "oh yeah I'm going to go talk to him". As usual, the obligatory Primals/Beast Tribes bring the story to a screeching halt whenever they're involved, ripping you away from an otherwise interesting plot to deal with the formulaic monster of the week plot (though the Vath and the Vanu Vanu have interesting reputation questlines outside of the MSQ). It's refreshing to wander around larger zones but the environment art wasn't adjusted to compensate. There are a lot of boring flat plains with naked tiling of textures, and in certain zones it is a chore to try to navigate the zone (specifically Sea of Clouds and the Dravanian Forelands).
Best characters:
- Cid and Garlond Ironworks
- Aymeric
Very good
- Deftarm
Good
- Alphinaud
- Tataru
- Estinen
- Q'yantaa
- Hraesvelgr
Fine
- Nanamo
- Raubahn
- Merlwyb
- Kan-E-Senna
- Haucherfant
- Hilda
- Regula van Hydros
Everyone else is forgettable.
Yet another Timewalking loot post ( As directed by GM)
Opened timewalking Cache before hotfix
Best way to farm Tusks of Mannoroth?
Did Blizzard just hotfix an ilvl requirement onto Awakened LFR?
Additional Character Slots, Season of Discovery Hotfixes - April 23, 2024
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Originally Posted by anaxie
