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[Near the end of SHB] It took me over 50 minutes in queue to finally get into Mt. Gulg and then another 70 to get into the trial afterward, but I got through both pretty easily, it wasn't too bad. The Vauthry fight was okay, a little underwhelming, I guess it speaks to how well they wrote Vauthry as a terrible loving rear end in a top hat because I wanted to get him so bad that I don't think any fight short of me stomping his pudding head 100 times would have felt like "enough." And then after that, loving Emet-Selch shooting the Exarch (and the confirmation that yes, it is Graha)... hoo boy. I woke up and they told me to go tell everyone in the Crystarium to chill out, but I put the MSQ down for a while instead. Now I am going to pick it back up, and kill that loving rear end in a top hat. 
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Sep 21, 2019 18:42
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Nothing in any videogame has ever made me feel as helpless and ineffectual as the post-Vauthry cutscene.
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Sep 21, 2019 21:07
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Seriously. You know it’s gonna be fine, because MMO story, but you still feel pretty  about it. So well written
Ciaphas fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 22:12
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https://twitter.com/surfacage/status/1175423236315549708 https://twitter.com/surfacage/status/1175446473128808448 I love following this dude's adventures in this game.
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Sep 21, 2019 22:19
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Considering my track record in Duty Finder so far I am reading the guide for the Great Gubal Library beforehand and  I am so bad at this mechanics stuff
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Sep 21, 2019 22:27
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I loving loved shadowbringers. One of my first final fantasy rpgs was final fantasy 3 on the 3ds, and despite how much of a pain in the rear end that game is I liked the concepts of the Flood of Light and the Warriors of Darkness and always wanted them explored more. Shadowbringers finally knocks it out of the loving park. Just a really strong and unadulterated story about the power and burdens of heroism, but also recontextualised as you being this force of destruction against the evils of hope, peace and perfection. The whole story was excellent. I don't know if I'd say FF14 has the best final fantasy story since there's fundamental MMO pacing stuff, but the character work is almost undeniably at the top. Emet-Selch is one of the best villians in the series, with all of his glib commentary, contempt for humanity and obsession with saving a world that is entirely gone. It's interesting that despite all his talk about how humanity fails the tests he put forward, you pass every single one and he cannot accept it. The stuff they pull with the Warrior of Light as well is crazy. I'm still surprised that suffering from the corrupted aether landed as well as it did. Along with the excellent cutscenes like having your vision turn to white, just sometimes having you seize up in fights and the concern everyone has. Made it especially sweet to wipe Emet-Selch's grin off his face. That whole ending was some hype poo poo. I did the whole thing as a dark knight, which I'd highly reccomend, since a goth as hell tank is an appropriate fit for a story about enduring suffering. The job quests make an excellent capstone to the story and add so much character to the Warrior of Light, and the final restatement of self-love and acceptance is a perfect end to the story after everything you just went through. Absolute genius update from the ff4 version. Definitely make sure to do the Crystal Tower Raids if you haven't already, and make sure to take and post a screenshot from that hype bit. Now I'm gonna do raids or level a healer or something
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Sep 21, 2019 22:37
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Well the Library wasn't that bad after all and I finally was able to use my Dragoon jumps in a boss fight to work out in a very satisfying way Edit: Then lol after that i immediately do my roulette, get into Bismarck, and get knocked off the island in phase 2. Maybe I should turn off allied particle effects This time the party wiped because of it ugh  At least another member also fell off later
CharlieFoxtrot fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 22:58
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Ciaphas posted:Seriously. You know it’s gonna be fine, because MMO story, but you still feel pretty
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Sep 21, 2019 23:17
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Well the Library wasn't that bad after all and I finally was able to use my Dragoon jumps in a boss fight to work out in a very satisfying way I keep forgetting to turn down allied effects when tanking, sometimes I legit can't see poo poo
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Sep 21, 2019 23:18
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Maybe I should turn off allied particle effects coward
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Sep 21, 2019 23:28
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pumpinglemma posted:To be honest, while I knew there was ultimately a happy ending, I thought they were entirely capable of killing the Exarch so I still felt quite a bit of tension. That said, unpopular opinion alert: They should totally have killed Thancred after he hosed up his own aether driving away Ran'jit at level 77. I was pretty sure he was dead after that, and I think the reveal that he wasn't cheapened things a bit. An overarching theme of Shadowbringers is that dying for the cause is easy, and usually just another way of running away from the responsibility fixing the things you've hosed up. Thancred living, and thus having to actually DO BETTER NOW, is very consistent with the themes of the story. Shadowbringers is very clear that Dying For The Cause and Heroic Self Sacrifice are dumb poo poo for idiots that rarely if ever fixes anything.
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Sep 21, 2019 23:39
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Captain Oblivious posted:An overarching theme of Shadowbringers is that dying for the cause is easy, and usually just another way of running away from the responsibility fixing the things you've hosed up. Thancred living, and thus having to actually DO BETTER NOW, is very consistent with the themes of the story. This makes sense, but if that's what they were doing they shouldn't have made the duty so freaking long and then scripted the cutscene exactly like a death scene.
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Sep 21, 2019 23:45
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Well the Library wasn't that bad after all and I finally was able to use my Dragoon jumps in a boss fight to work out in a very satisfying way I finally did LotA and its follow-ups for the first time this week (and was my first 24-mans) and I had no clue what the hell happened but it was cool
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Sep 21, 2019 23:47
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Yeah, I don’t think there’s been a single RP duty that wouldn’t benefit from being half as long.
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Sep 21, 2019 23:48
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pumpinglemma posted:To be honest, while I knew there was ultimately a happy ending, I thought they were entirely capable of killing the Exarch so I still felt quite a bit of tension. That said, unpopular opinion alert: They should totally have killed Thancred after he hosed up his own aether driving away Ran'jit at level 77. I was pretty sure he was dead after that, and I think the reveal that he wasn't cheapened things a bit. Shadowbringers goes out of its way to pull the rug out from under heroic sacrifices and tell you that dying for a selfless cause isn't necessarily a good thing. It's one of the biggest recurring themes in the expansion. Multiple characters try to sacrifice themselves but end up living, and it puts a spotlight on how precious their lives actually are to the people around them Augus fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Sep 21, 2019 |
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Sep 21, 2019 23:51
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The only time I have ever turned down effects is in BA, because so many boss mechanics there only have animation tells + you're already effectively blinded by the culling so there's no reason to make it worse
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Sep 21, 2019 23:53
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Saro Roggo is my friend
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Sep 22, 2019 00:00
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P-Mack posted:This makes sense, but if that's what they were doing they shouldn't have made the duty so freaking long and then scripted the cutscene exactly like a death scene. Yeah I get that Thancred surviving fits the overarching theme, but that whole scene is literally a death scene except he just says "oh, I got better" at the end.
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Sep 22, 2019 00:01
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P-Mack posted:This makes sense, but if that's what they were doing they shouldn't have made the duty so freaking long and then scripted the cutscene exactly like a death scene. but it is meant to evoke the imagery and catharsis of a death scene. that is the point my man
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Sep 22, 2019 00:06
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It's like that scene in FF10, when Kimahri tries to stop Seymour, and he's willing to lay down his life because protecting Yuna is more important. And then they're running away but they're all, no this is stupid, no more sacrifices, we need to go back and save our friend This would be like that, except they never go back to save him, and then he just shows up ten minutes like nothing happened.
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Sep 22, 2019 00:09
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Sometimes people can grow without dying.
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Sep 22, 2019 00:14
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the actual disappointing thing about that scene imo was Thancred not getting the kill on Ran'jit
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Sep 22, 2019 00:20
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Just got to Azys Lla and oh man, that was a whole thing. It did make me realize that I am missing the high-quality CGI-FMV cutscenes that I have come to associate with Final Fantasy, but lol I guess I understand that the cost-benefit calculations for that are probably pretty bad
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Sep 22, 2019 00:29
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Just got to Azys Lla and oh man, that was a whole thing. They only make one FMV an expansion, and that's more of a promo than a proper cutscene.
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Sep 22, 2019 00:32
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Poops Mcgoots posted:Sometimes people can grow without dying. Only if they don't develop amnesia
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Sep 22, 2019 00:41
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Kwyndig posted:They only make one FMV an expansion, and that's more of a promo than a proper cutscene. They're really loving well made though, and pretty good at hyping their respective releases. Hell the Shadowbringers trailer turns the previous trailers into their own continuity in a pretty badass way.
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Sep 22, 2019 00:42
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Oh man I just went back and watched the FMV for Heavensward, I don't know if that plays in the game itself and I just missed it but holy crap seeing it all again at that level of visual quality was epic
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Sep 22, 2019 00:45
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Oh man I just went back and watched the FMV for Heavensward, I don't know if that plays in the game itself and I just missed it but holy crap seeing it all again at that level of visual quality was epic It played as the "you are sitting at the start menu too long", just like the current trailer for SHB.
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Sep 22, 2019 00:56
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P-Mack posted:This makes sense, but if that's what they were doing they shouldn't have made the duty so freaking long and then scripted the cutscene exactly like a death scene. the length is part of the intended tension of the encounter. it's testing your endurance so you can feel an ounce of the exhaustion thancred is feeling in that moment as his player. that's the power of "Role Play"
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Sep 22, 2019 01:00
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I still think Thancred should've died. I get the theme, but for a really grim story it just feels weird that the only 'good' figure that ever dies in it is Tesleen (Ardbert doesn't count, already dead). It makes the whole thing feel weirdly weightless. I'll grant Stormblood had a similar problem, that this big loving war on two separate fronts has no friendly casualties, but I only noticed in Shadowbringers because they set up so perfectly for kills and then just... don't. I'm still sure that the Trust system played into Thancred living. They can't kill him there, because you've still got three dungeons to go and you don't have any other tanks.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:31
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Killing characters is the most boring way of setting the stakes and establishing a story as serious.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:38
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Poops Mcgoots posted:Killing characters is the most boring way of setting the stakes and establishing a story as serious. I'm mostly just mad that they only stopped killing big cool goodguy characters after Heavensward, where they killed the best one.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:45
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They killed off several good guy story characters in Stormblood. You just didn't like them as much.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:50
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CharlieFoxtrot posted:Oh man I just went back and watched the FMV for Heavensward, I don't know if that plays in the game itself and I just missed it but holy crap seeing it all again at that level of visual quality was epic Imagine seeing that trailer halfway through ARR.
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Sep 22, 2019 01:56
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Sunday Morning posted:They killed off several good guy story characters in Stormblood. You just didn't like them as much. SHB They also killed off Minfilia for good technically but were there any butt window fans?
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Sep 22, 2019 01:59
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Sunday Morning posted:They killed off several good guy story characters in Stormblood. You just didn't like them as much. That might be true, I literally do not remember any of them. Honestly a lot of Stormblood is kinda forgettable mush to me in retrospect. It was all good, probably, but it's the only part of the game where the most I can muster for a synopsis is the name of the zone. "And then Yanxia happened."
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Sep 22, 2019 02:00
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Fister Roboto posted:Yeah I get that Thancred surviving fits the overarching theme, but that whole scene is literally a death scene except he just says "oh, I got better" at the end. Ah, just like my Titan EX clear.
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Sep 22, 2019 02:03
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hobbesmaster posted:SHB They also killed off Minfilia for good technically but were there any butt window fans? I mean there actually is an entire story for her that happened in 1.0, and it would have been perfect to have her take the central role in Stormblood, but they kind of deep-sixed her before it came up. So it's a little sad that her arc gets hosed up because they just couldn't figure out what to do with her, but hey. What are you going to do?
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Sep 22, 2019 02:16
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Cleretic posted:I still think Thancred should've died. I get the theme, but for a really grim story it just feels weird that the only 'good' figure that ever dies in it is Tesleen (Ardbert doesn't count, already dead). It makes the whole thing feel weirdly weightless. I'll grant Stormblood had a similar problem, that this big loving war on two separate fronts has no friendly casualties, but I only noticed in Shadowbringers because they set up so perfectly for kills and then just... don't. Shadowbringers is literally the exact opposite of a really grim story. The entire main theme of the game is personal connections and living in the face of loss and everything ends with a big rallying cry even the sad moments of loss are immediately followed with everyone pulling themselves together to make poo poo better. The entire bit about you being the warrior of darkness is in itself a bit of a Teehee Not What you Expected" bit because you're just doing what you normally do. Dark isn't sad and evil, you're still a hero of justice, in the end everyone hugs and does goofs about how much they hate swimming. Thancred dying doesn't just go against his and Ryne's arcs it falls backwards on the entire moral lesson of the entire expac and every small step along the way. Thancred dying would just be another self sacrifice that didn't even solve the problem it was meant to deal with, which the game goes out of its way repeatedly to go "This is stupid and morally pathetic because the hard part is picking up and living afterwards." Character Death isn't the pinnacle of writing.
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Sep 22, 2019 02:20
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Kwyndig posted:They only make one FMV an expansion, and that's more of a promo than a proper cutscene. I think the only actual in-game FMV is the intro and then the one in Bahamut.
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Sep 22, 2019 02:22
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