FFXIV Spoiler thread

[dope_danny]

Ok, that one is on you, not the game.
Vauthry was beyond disgusting and nothing was sad about that engineered monster. He was a big ball of ego and nothing beyond that. Nothing relatable, sad, or sympathetic about this monstruosity's story.

Did you miss that his Lightwarden name was Innocence? the whole point of Vauthry was the idea of nurture over nature. Emet made him a monster from birth. He never had a choice or a chance at a real life. It was stolen from him before he took his first breath. You aren't meant to like him but he's pretty clearly intended to be a counterpoint to Zenos where one was made a monster and the other chose to become one.

[Thestrawman]

I find it odd that the same people who wanted a full war against the empire expansion are the same people who bitched about how ugly Bozja looked and how dull that story was. When that's exactly what a war against Garlemald would look like.

And I don't understand why people wanted more of the Final Days. It would have played out exactly like Thavnair.

[Leyre]

Yeah, that was something i was wondering about even when playing.
Everything was about the Final Days, the world ending and whatnot, but in the end, the only place we really saw getting affected was Thavnair and everywhere else seemed kinda... entirely safe from it and barely touching on it. You'd suspect everywhere would hell go down, rather than one specific place.
Could've even give it some more urgency with it starting in Sharlayan midway or even right before we departure, since it didn't really feel like it stopping "the end of the world" was an urgent thing throughout the entire expansion.
Garlemald had basically nothing to do with it, outside of Zenos and Fandaniel having their main base and teleporter to the moon there, despite it being the only other new zone where'd it'd made sense for shit to go down.
All in all, for an expansion about "preventing the final days", there seem to have been a surprisingly big amount of "final days" left from how it was told atleast with how often we took a good nights rest in Sharlayan as if everything was alright and we'd merely have diplomatic talks or something

>imagine your world on the brink of destruction but you have time to lol around with some damn bunnies

The whole "final days" was the biggest dissapointment so far i've had with this game

[Maljinwo]

I find it odd that the same people who wanted a full war against the empire expansion are the same people who bitched about how ugly Bozja looked and how dull that story was. When that's exactly what a war against Garlemald would look like.

And I don't understand why people wanted more of the Final Days. It would have played out exactly like Thavnair.

I think that many would've liked to see the Garlemald Capital intact when we arrive to have a full blown assault and all that.
I think we see enough about the city in EW but I wouldn't have minded to see it not completely in ruins tbh.

The Final Days or at least its 'climate' should've enveloped the whole world during the MSQ. I think the visual was enough to convey this dread about the world ending. However once you leave Thavnair and Garlemald it's like... Nothing is happening?
We are told that the Blasphemies can appear even before the Sky is on fire, but... You know

[KrayZ33]

They introduce a new character at the 80% mark with a name thats a play on meteor and her first sentence is literally "hear, feel, think". She was either going to cause the final days or being the key to prevent them. 2 minutes later when she explains her connection to dynamis and emotions I was already thinking to myself: Ok she will get very sad/angry and trigger the final days. It really was obvious.

I said the same thing ealier.
But when it's one or the other and one is the opposite of the other, it's not really "obvious" at all.
That's like saying "Either Frodo will use the ring or destroy it, but it's going to be one of that!"

And her connection to dynamis isn't really hinting at her being the trigger to the final days at all.
It's not like we went to Elpis thinking "this is where it all started!" in the first place.

We still had Zenos around. We went there to find an answer on how to stop whatever is happening or to even understand what is happening and as always, the endboss could've been Reaper-Zenos... who turned into a Reaper in the first place which is a class that is making deals with void-beings who look like the kind of monsters we were slaying during the final-days left and right.
Not to mention that the Source turned "black" just like the void in "prophecy-cutscenes" before, after hearing the voices of a creepy woman saying "Ahhhh.... FINALLY!". Cloud of Darkness - anyone? Which almost caused the "end" for the Source a few thousand years ago as well?

[Graeham]

Yes, a child deliberately being made into a monster to further his parents political ends is a more understandable and sympathetic situation than, "Life is suffering, so lets kill everyone."

Agreed.

Vauthry is a much deeper character than many attribute. I strongly suspect that his appearance is what dampens much of the sympathy towards him - at least in regards to his initial look. Ultimately, though, he was never given the opportunity to live a normal life and there's a good chance that no matter what he did, he was always going to end up consumed by the Lightwarden infused into his very being.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I find it odd that the same people who wanted a full war against the empire expansion are the same people who bitched about how ugly Bozja looked and how dull that story was. When that's exactly what a war against Garlemald would look like.

And I don't understand why people wanted more of the Final Days. It would have played out exactly like Thavnair.

The grey, blasted lands of Bozja would've been okay had the content been a duty or a dungeon you did once, like the Ghimlyt Dark. But that is not the nature of the content. It's an MMO endgame grind zone where you're supposed to spend dozens, possibly hundreds of hours grinding there. A zone has to be aesthetically pleasing or else the player is going to get fed up real quick. That's one of the core reasons why I loved Timeless Isle, and hated pretty much all of the grind zones after (Tanaan, Argus, Nazjatar, etc).

Also, I don't see why a "battlefield" has to be WW1 styled no man's land that has been blasted apart by artillery with trenches and barbed wire and stuff. That's unique to a very specific era of warfrare. The English Civil War was fought in pretty fields and other natural locations.

Also, this is a high fantasy game. It would be nice to see some high fantasy environments. You can see traces of the idea in Zadnor, with the floating rocks, but they're off in the background. Would've been more interesting if you actually fought on top the giant rocks and crossed bridges or jumped between them or something.

[Thestrawman]

The grey, blasted lands of Bozja would've been okay had the content been a duty or a dungeon you did once, like the Ghimlyt Dark. But that is not the nature of the content. It's an MMO endgame grind zone where you're supposed to spend dozens, possibly hundreds of hours grinding there. A zone has to be aesthetically pleasing or else the player is going to get fed up real quick. That's one of the core reasons why I loved Timeless Isle, and hated pretty much all of the grind zones after (Tanaan, Argus, Nazjatar, etc).

Also, I don't see why a "battlefield" has to be WW1 styled no man's land that has been blasted apart by artillery with trenches and barbed wire and stuff. That's unique to a very specific era of warfrare. The English Civil War was fought in pretty fields and other natural locations.

Also, this is a high fantasy game. It would be nice to see some high fantasy environments. You can see traces of the idea in Zadnor, with the floating rocks, but they're off in the background. Would've been more interesting if you actually fought on top the giant rocks and crossed bridges or jumped between them or something.

Well it wouldn't have been dungeons but zones that you'd be leveling through. And yes, blasted heaps and trenches is common with the Garlean strategy and their armaments. It's not like they're going to magically change how they fight just for the sake of zone novelty.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Well it wouldn't have been dungeons but zones that you'd be leveling through. And yes, blasted heaps and trenches is common with the Garlean strategy and their armaments. It's not like they're going to magically change how they fight just for the sake of zone novelty.

Well, sure, you could have pockets of blasted lands, but not the entire zone.

[Thestrawman]

Well, sure, you could have pockets of blasted lands, but not the entire zone.

I disagree. Blasted lands and Castrums the entire march from wherever we enter Ilsabard up to Garlemald itself. And while you.may like seeing the undestroyed city at best it would end up like Ala Mhigo where you see only a tiny part of it.

[Faldric]

We are told that the Blasphemies can appear even before the Sky is on fire, but... You know

Why were the heavens even on fire? Was there ever any explanation for that? Just to scare people to speed up the transformations?

[Graeham]

Why were the heavens even on fire? Was there ever any explanation for that? Just to scare people to speed up the transformations?

It could readily be attributed to a side effect of the Ancient's creation magic being hijacked the first time around, since actual fire rained from the sky during the fall of Amaurot. I'm unsure as to what the explanation for it happening in the Sundered world is, since fire wasn't actually raining from the sky in the more recent set of events. Plus it was the actual bodies of the Sundered that were ushering in the Final Days via Blasphemies, not creation magic.

I guess, like so many other elements of Endwalker, it can be brushed off as a 'rule of cool' thing.

[KrayZ33]

It could readily be attributed to a side effect of the Ancient's creation magic being hijacked the first time around, since actual fire rained from the sky during the fall of Amaurot. I'm unsure as to what the explanation for it happening in the Sundered world is, since fire wasn't actually raining from the sky in the more recent set of events. Plus it was the actual bodies of the Sundered that were ushering in the Final Days via Blasphemies, not creation magic.

I guess, like so many other elements of Endwalker, it can be brushed off as a 'rule of cool' thing.

Pretty sure the beasts caused it, like how the "The First Beast" in Amaurot does call down meteors on you.
It wasn't explained in Shadowbringers either.

[requiemfordeath]

stopped giving a fuck when yoshita asspulled a new big bad ultimate villain out of nowhere in the last few hours of the game.

[Lane]

I didn't feel sympathy for Vauthry until his trial. It wasn't evident until then how he'd been raised to believe that he was the savior of mankind. Prior to that he came across as a man-baby. It wasn't just his appearance that was off-putting, it was his tantrums too. Going through it again, you see more nuance of how he's not used to anyone disagreeing with let alone disobeying him, both of which are unthinkable when you believe yourself a benevolent ruler. This is first evidenced when there's a long pause and surprised questioning when Alphinaud insults him.

I didn't find him the most compelling character, but I get it.

There weren't any antagonists I liked in EW. Hermes' character suffered in the same way as Venat's in that both were written where you're supposed to like them and then they both act in unconscionable ways. Hermes flipping from empath to psychopath was too abrupt for me to believe he was always a "noble soul". Elidibus says he's full of self-hatred, but all of his anger is consistently pointed outwards. Plus, the reincarnation he clings to and refuses to release even in death was Amon, a monster of an individual.

Meteion wasn't even her own person. It was hard for me to view her as anything but a construct, especially as a hivemind. Her personality was more akin to a dog's, and I don't mean to be offensive, but excited to play with new people, sad when her master got upset, and obeyed orders until she was corrupted which ultimately falls on Hermes for a faulty design, purpose, and line of questioning.

It's shocking to me that Zenos came out as the best of them. He's not someone I ever liked, but compared to Fandaniel and Meteion was an absolute joy.

[inafume]

I'm guessing Elidibus is going to get whacked on the head which causes him to forget the WoL.

Not sure if anyone has already posited this, but there were cases in ShB and maybe earlier where it was clear that Elidibus' memory was lost/lacking, so I figure that's the easiest explanation why he doesn't remember you in 2.0+.

[KrayZ33]

Not sure if anyone has already posited this, but there were cases in ShB and maybe earlier where it was clear that Elidibus' memory was lost/lacking, so I figure that's the easiest explanation why he doesn't remember you in 2.0+.

Ya, Elidibus couldn't even clearly remember why he sacrificed himself... or rather, how it came to be. He only remembered that it was the right thing to do or something.

[Maljinwo]

Why were the heavens even on fire? Was there ever any explanation for that? Just to scare people to speed up the transformations?

Considering despair spawned many Blasphemies, I thought exactly that.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I think it simply manifests despair (as a vague overall goal), for the ancients it was their creation magicks running amok, for us turning into monsters. Natural disaster seems to be universal, hence the burning sky. Alphinaud was pondering the same thing during the MSQ. I think the general idea is that Meteion showers the planet with her despair charged dynamis, with the simple goal to make people despair like her and besides monsters what would do that more than invoking natural disaster? I also guess it's part of the allegory regarding her name literally meaning meteor, maybe she just thought it to be a fitting image.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Stopped by the Garlean embassy in Kugane. Sadly the NPC text has not been updated.

It's bizzare how these embassies never amounted to anything. I thought that with Garlemald being destroyed, our first stop in the 6.0 MSQ would have been Kugane. The Garleans here would have been freaking out upon hearing about the destruction of their homeland and maybe would have imparted some useful info to us, and then the Thavnairan ambassador would have given us a letter of introduction to take with us to Thavnair.

- - - Updated - - -

Also wonder what the future of the Garlean embassy will be. The Garleans were a huge, industrialized nation and thus a major power to trade with. Now they are in no position to do so. We know the capital has been destroyed, every last named province has rebelled (Corvos, Nagxia), and presumably due to the surrender of the other legions during the MSQ and Quintius and the other Garleans believing that it is truly over for Garlemald, then it seems like the rest of the country (offscreen towns and cities) are also in ruins too, either because of the civil war and/or break down of infrastructure. So the Garleans won't be trading with Kugane like they used to, in which case... there isn't much need for the embassy. So are the embassy staff going to vacate and return home? What will become of the building then? Will it be bought out by some merchant, or used as an embassy for the Eorzean Alliance, or what?