[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Graeham]

Whether or not Emet is a good person is very much a matter of perspective. Which in turn is something that the writers themselves have acknowledged across a number of official interviews. There's also a lot of different reasons as to why he is liked, so it's not as if it can said that his popularity is due to the same reasons across the board.

One thing I will point out that may have been missed by some is that there's an entire scene in Elpis where Hythlodaeus points out to the player character that Emet frequently travels Etheirys and works tirelessly to help those he meets without demanding praise or gratitude for it.

[Sorrior]

Preach is definitely team Hydaelyn/"Mommy". I suppose I am, too, but "that scene" after Elpis really got to him. That's one thing that Endwalker did masterfully - set up emotional scenes. Soken and his team were on fire and the dialog was translated very well. I think a lot of Endwalker's faults are kind of overlooked and what people remember were those scenes. I could go on about it but yeah. Great expansion, and I think it will probably remain the fan favorite even over time, but I think it's a bit overrated.

6.1 is right around the corner! Time is flying.

See i feel like EW felt rushed with a bit of whiplash..Or perhaps crunched might be better? Like it just feels like two expansions rolled into one imo.

That said my favorites were ARR and Shadowbringers oddly.

I loved the adventurer vibe of ARR and i loved seeing the first in ShB as well as kinda being an adventurer again as opposed to straight up hero from the start(though we did regain the status pretty quick)

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I'm not sure how people even play this game on console. There's way too many abilities to map to a controller, even with their left/right trigger modifiers to open new cross hotbars.

Like, how do you heal on a controller? Mind-boggling. My dragoon opener has like 3 double weaves and like 4 jumps. Come on man. Not sure I could play the game without an MMO mouse, something I've never said with WoW, but that might be because I hate the Ctrl and Shift modifiers, which rest under my (dominant) left hand. I've found my hand placement on keyboards is very non-traditional as is, the only modifier I use is left-alt which rests under my left thumb.

I have it setup so i can swap between 4 bars damn fast. Quick presses swap the cross hotbar while i have the fourth w bar for most of my big skills(or in smns case my summons abilities..or at least pre EW how it was)

It's surprisingly comfortable tbh. But also cones down to what you are used too

[Lane]

See i feel like EW felt rushed with a bit of whiplash..Or perhaps crunched might be better? Like it just feels like two expansions rolled into one imo.

We know Yoshi-P pushed the conclusion of the Ancients arc to 6.0 based on ShB's popularity and in a recent interview they said they had planned a Garlemald expansion. It's not too far off to say EW is a combination of what they had in mind for both 6.0 and 7.0 at least.

[Yarathir]

I loved Shadowbringers and Endwalker and I would have trouble choosing between the two.
They both have their lows and their highs. Sure, most of Labyrinthos was shit and Mare Lamentorum was a massive wasted opportunity, but I'm not going to pretend like the second half of Amh Araeng (despite the amazing music) titillated me much aside from the Minfilia conclusion and Thancred vs Ran'jit. Hell, I couldn't even bring myself to care about most of Rak'tika, a good chunk of Kholusia and the Tempest other than Amaurot.

If I had to separate the two into their more powerful moments, leaving out the filler or the weaker stuff, I'd probably say I had about an equal amount of enjoyment and felt pulled in just as much.

Elpis, its conclusion and the Hydaelyn trial and Venat's farewell are infinitely more powerful to me than what we would be doing around the same point in Shadowbringers (latter half of Kholusia/Lightwarden Innocence)

Similarly, while Ultima Thule is absolutely beautiful and pointedly melancholic as it should be, the Dead Ends and The Final Day can't hope to stand up to Amaurot and The Dying Gasp.

Garlemald, similarly, is far better than most of the Shadowbringer zone stories if you separate them.

[eschatological]

People actually think Emet Selch is a good guy? He created the Garlemald Empire to inflict decades of suffering. You don't erase that with a change of heart at the end which was shoehorned in.

He's a smarmy asshole.

Can't the conclusion be that none of the Ascians were good guys? Like...that's what I took away from it.

This is what I don't get, sometimes, about this game. People love the twins, graha, and y'shtola, and I can't stand them either. Maybe I am, indeed, too old for this shit.

[Yarathir]

He didn't have a change of heart, though. He literally says "Though you defeated me, my ideals are inviolate. Invincible."

He simply concedes that the WoL (you) got much farther than the ancients did, and that by defeating him, you asserted your right to write the future. It's also the reason he snaps himself out of existence again.

And no, Hades isn't a good boy, but he's an understandable antagonist with methods that may, no, are utterly extreme, but with a completely sensible motive that probably wouldn't be too far from your own were you in his shoes.

Elpis merely shows that while he was always a bit snarky and grumpy, he had a good heart and tried to help people. But shocker, thousands upon thousands of lifetimes surrounded by what one may consider bleak imitations of your people breaks a person. I don't think many here will say "haha garlean empire haha allagan empire, conquest and mass wanton destruction, so epic and based," but they will understand him and his viewpoint. And that's the mark of a good villain.

[Lane]

I ended up liking the unsundered way more than the sundered. I know Yoshi-P thinks players need a break from 6.0, but I was hoping for something in 6.1 that would be a hook because 'new adventure' ain't it when they rushed to be done with my favorite story arc and characters.

I'm not crazy about the Scions. Thancred's great when he's not moping about Minfilia, Estinien's great when they're not using him for comic relief, Alisaie is okay when she's not Alphinaud 2.0, and I adore G'raha I don't care what anyone says. :P The rest could exit stage right permanently and I wouldn't care. I'm not looking forward to Krile being a major player because she's borderline Minfilia 2.0 for me, just not as useless.

Ishikawa herself has commented on Emet's kindness being his downfall, so the intent is that he's a good person who ended up doing bad things (for reasons he thought were right) due to extenuating circumstances.

[Sorrior]

We know Yoshi-P pushed the conclusion of the Ancients arc to 6.0 based on ShB's popularity and in a recent interview they said they had planned a Garlemald expansion. It's not too far off to say EW is a combination of what they had in mind for both 6.0 and 7.0 at least.

Yeah i know. Just saying i think it really shows in the execution. The first halfs pretty good but post garlemald it just feels so squished/rushed.

Like i can almost tell how it would have been broken up given there prior storytelling style/cadence with things like visiting the ancients world likely being for the next expansion or even a patch and things like fynamis probably being first mentioned in the garlemald xpac.

It kinda reminds me of Babylon 5 season 4 where it's actually two planned seasons in one and you can tell because it just feels so different from prior seasons in it's cadence and just too full of events(and if you know Babylon 5 you know it is a very dense show already).

[eschatological]

So, with the new patch coming, this is the first patch of FFXIV where I'll be max level when the patch launches (started playing in December, a couple months after EW released afaik).

So I have a couple questions:
1) What do people usually do for pre-patch preparation?
2) My understanding is new crafting gear comes out with this patch. Seeing as I took the time to level all my crafters/gatherers to 90, how do I maximize that? What should I gather? Are the recipes "out there" yet so I know what to gather? How are new recipes released, in new books? Should I have basically max white/purple scrips?
3) How big a shitshow are the 24 man raids in the first few weeks?
4) Is there a new rep being released?

[Absintheminded]

So, with the new patch coming, this is the first patch of FFXIV where I'll be max level when the patch launches (started playing in December, a couple months after EW released afaik).

So I have a couple questions:
1) What do people usually do for pre-patch preparation?
2) My understanding is new crafting gear comes out with this patch. Seeing as I took the time to level all my crafters/gatherers to 90, how do I maximize that? What should I gather? Are the recipes "out there" yet so I know what to gather? How are new recipes released, in new books? Should I have basically max white/purple scrips?
3) How big a shitshow are the 24 man raids in the first few weeks?
4) Is there a new rep being released?

Best thing you can do get a stack or two of all the EW mats. A lot of the time gear will take mats from many different levels. Idk if the gear will be in new books or in the current EW books, though, but it wouldn't hurt to be ready.

Yes, Arkadoa is the new beast tribe, but idk if the rep stuff has been announced. A lot of the times it's like housing, orchestrion rolls, minions/mounts, etc. Maybe materia.

AFA 24 man stuff goes, it should be doable in roulette, but I don't think it'll be as easy at Panda.

[eschatological]

Another question: What should I spend my Irregular tomes on if I've already got the earring, and all the mounts/minions?

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Best thing you can do get a stack or two of all the EW mats. A lot of the time gear will take mats from many different levels. Idk if the gear will be in new books or in the current EW books, though, but it wouldn't hurt to be ready.

Yes, Arkadoa is the new beast tribe, but idk if the rep stuff has been announced. A lot of the times it's like housing, orchestrion rolls, minions/mounts, etc. Maybe materia.

AFA 24 man stuff goes, it should be doable in roulette, but I don't think it'll be as easy at Panda.

By a stack, you mean 999?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

3) How big a shitshow are the 24 man raids in the first few weeks?

The first couple weeks of alliance raids take a lot longer to complete because people don't know the mechanics and wipe a lot. If you don't have much time then avoid them at launch.

4) Is there a new rep being released?

Yes, the elephant people are getting a new beast tribe and it seems that there will be hippo chariot racing involved, though it's unclear whether or not that takes place in a cutscene or if there will be actual gameplay.

[Absintheminded]

Another question: What should I spend my Irregular tomes on if I've already got the earring, and all the mounts/minions?

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By a stack, you mean 999?

No, 99. Sorry my head works in marketboard math.

[StrawberryZebra]

Whether or not Emet is a good person is very much a matter of perspective. Which in turn is something that the writers themselves have acknowledged across a number of official interviews. There's also a lot of different reasons as to why he is liked, so it's not as if it can said that his popularity is due to the same reasons across the board.

I think the biggest take away from Emet is that people like nuanced, well-written characters. No matter which side of that arguement you come down on it's hard to disagree that he was a well realised character.

Sadly, characters like Emet are in increasingly short supply across all forms of media.

3) How big a shitshow are the 24 man raids in the first few weeks?

In my experience, they're a little bit messy for the first week or so. Personally, I usually focus more on getting the mechanics right rather than putting up the numbers for the first couple of runs. The numbers come later when I've got the patterns down.

I'm hoping to go for a similar style to Pandamonium, where mechanics are intuitive but punishing. If they go for a similar style to the Nier raids though, expect a super slow kills and people dying left and right.

[Graeham]

I think the biggest take away from Emet is that people like nuanced, well-written characters. No matter which side of that arguement you come down on it's hard to disagree that he was a well realised character.

Sadly, characters like Emet are in increasingly short supply across all forms of media.

It'll be interesting to see if there will be another character as well received as Emet with as much depth as he had. I do think it was a mistake for Endwalker to have tried to wrap up so many established storylines instead of giving them their own fair share of time in the spotlight. Having seen what 6.1 is teasing, I'm just not understanding the rush to start something new when a lot of it looks like more of the same.

Maybe they're holding their cards close to their chest in order to avoid spoiling a surprise - and if so, I'll happily eat my words - but to me, at least, it just doesn't feel like we're entering a new era for the game.

[Yarathir]

Totally unrelated, but..

G-Warrior mount, when?

[Merie]

So, with the new patch coming, this is the first patch of FFXIV where I'll be max level when the patch launches (started playing in December, a couple months after EW released afaik).

So I have a couple questions:
1) What do people usually do for pre-patch preparation?
2) My understanding is new crafting gear comes out with this patch. Seeing as I took the time to level all my crafters/gatherers to 90, how do I maximize that? What should I gather? Are the recipes "out there" yet so I know what to gather? How are new recipes released, in new books? Should I have basically max white/purple scrips?
3) How big a shitshow are the 24 man raids in the first few weeks?
4) Is there a new rep being released?

The 24 man raids aren't bad at all on day 1 in my experience. While you'll probably wipe due to unfamiliar mechanics, the raid tends to bounce back pretty quickly. My experience is that the players that hit those raids on day one are generally of significantly higher ability than the riff raff you'll be pugging with in a couple months. If you wait until the end of the week to run it, it'll probably be worse. But on day 1 those damage meters just explode with all the Savage crowds jumping in to eviscerate new content.

[RampageBW1]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around why Yoshida thought that this was a good idea. He does play his own, game, right? When he was playing Elpis and doing those quests about the nice wizards taking care of their own creations and trying to make a better world, how did he think "this is a corrupt society that needs to be sundered"?

To play devil's advocate here, an argument could be made that "creating life only to destroy it if it doesn't fit in to their vision of what the beasts should be" is just playing god.

I mean, they created land sharks for crying out loud. LAND SHARKS!

[Lane]

To play devil's advocate here, an argument could be made that "creating life only to destroy it if it doesn't fit in to their vision of what the beasts should be" is just playing god.

Were that something that modern humanity didn't do maybe it would've struck a chord, but my issue with it is they're wanting me to condemn a practice when we do so much worse and for far lesser reasons. Elpis is a dream facility compared to the usual breeding, animal testing, and slaughtering that occurs. It made me feel like the writers are the types who are blissfully ignorant of the abhorrent treatment of non-human creatures in the world.

[DodgeHellcat]

Were that something that modern humanity didn't do maybe it would've struck a chord, but my issue with it is they're wanting me to condemn a practice when we do so much worse and for far lesser reasons. Elpis is a dream facility compared to the usual breeding, animal testing, and slaughtering that occurs. It made me feel like the writers are the types who are blissfully ignorant of the abhorrent treatment of non-human creatures in the world.

Oh come on.... that's pathetic.

nice whataboutism btw. Especially since "our world" has nothing to do with the FFXIV world, were animal husbandry isn't even remotely as horrible as in ours.

But to say/or think the writers are basically "ignorant" little shits because they adress this clearly morally questionable behaviour as such is just beyond stupid. Wth were you thinking while typing that.

It seems like you don't even realize that this "blissfull ignorant thinking" you seem to condemn is exactly what the Ancients do as well and their society is thus flawed to the same extend as any other. It takes some kind of mindbending substances to put a direct connection to the writers mindset and their moral values over that point. Seriously - wow.

edit: And we also know what the Unsundered are capable of doing "FoR tHe GrEaTeR GoOd". So this "paradise" or "dream facility" is questionable from the very beginning in the first place. It's actually even scarier since we know what they CAN do and that they CAN make mistakes and have significant flaws themselves.
A single sundered being is certainly much less of a threat.