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I just liked how Stoneskin looked. Cleric Stance was too punishing in its original implementation but it did give healers a bit more of a gameplay flow that's kinda missed.
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Jul 31, 2022 07:10
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Big problem is bringing Cleric Stance would do almost nothing to Healer dps (still spamming 1-2 buttons), while increasing by 100% the number of deaths by forgetting to switch.
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Jul 31, 2022 08:33
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What I want to see for Scholar is a reverse Cleric Stance that offloads the offense onto your pet. Your Fairy turns into an offensive pet for a while that does equal or greater damage per attack than your own offensive GCDs while your own offensive buttons are turned off entirely, allowing you to actually use all those GCD heals that serious players never touch unless they don't have a choice in the matter.
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Jul 31, 2022 08:48
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GiantRockFromSpace posted:Big problem is bringing Cleric Stance would do almost nothing to Healer dps (still spamming 1-2 buttons), while increasing by 100% the number of deaths by forgetting to switch. Cleric stance was absolutely massive for healer DPS especially in AOE situations. Cleric stance also made book clubs work even better than they do now. You could clown basically any content with nothing but scholars in cleric stance because fairies would heal everyone regardless of what the players were doing. Scholars also had more than just 1-2 dps buttons and so did WHM. Also, people only died if you didn’t use your tools. There were plenty of skills that bypassed cleric stance entire (whm had stomeskin and benediction/sch had lustrate). Stance dancing did take skill, but good dpsing healers were absolutely benefitting from cleric stance. Since removing it from the game, healer dps has cratered. Tanks used to stance dance for DPS as well and wear accessories that traded durability for damage. I get why they changed, because unless I was running with raiders I would generally be top dps in a dungeon on healer or tank depending on which I was playing.
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Jul 31, 2022 13:23
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It did a lot for increasing DPS numbers, but didn't do as much for the complexity of actually doing that damage. You were still only setting up a DoT or two, spamming one spell (either the ST or AoE) and used your situational or CD-based damage abilities every minute or so. Sure, there was making sure you were in the right stance for healing or damaging, but it was a mandatory switch you flipped and not really an engaging mechanic.
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Jul 31, 2022 13:47
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Yeah that's what I meant. And honestly from what I remember like Scholar only had Bane, Miasma II and Shadowflare as aditional options. But WHM I'm 100% sure it was only stone and aero, the only difference you had Aero 3 for AOE Dots.
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Jul 31, 2022 13:56
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GiantRockFromSpace posted:Yeah that's what I meant. And honestly from what I remember like Scholar only had Bane, Miasma II and Shadowflare as aditional options. But WHM I'm 100% sure it was only stone and aero, the only difference you had Aero 3 for AOE Dots. Scholar had bio, bio II, and miasma. You'd single target those on a mob then use bane to spread them to the pack of enemies, then you'd use shadowflare followed by miasma II for aoe or switch to ruin for single target and use ruin II when you needed to move. SCH DPS buttons were very much the same as SMN buttons for quite a while. WHM had aero, aero II, stone, and holy which was really all you needed. e: I'll admit that I was a stance dancing/strength accessory wearing tank and a stance dancing healer. I also was part of the small set of people that beat A4S pre-nerfs, so I don't think I'm typical. I personally enjoyed stance dancing because I could get incredible DPS on either role with it, but I totally get why they removed stance dancing to lower the skill floor for top end DPS on tanks and healers (and also reduce DPS for the same so that they're not out DPSing the damage roles). Mr. Nice! fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Jul 31, 2022 |
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Jul 31, 2022 15:02
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I mean, let's be real here. Stoneskin was basically just a fancy Shield Barrier desperately mascarading like it wasn't. There's nothing SS did then that abilities like TBN or the myriad of Shield Heals do now, other than 'Stack with existing shields' and 'have an obnoxiously long cast time that made it completely impractical to use outside of pre-pull and/or phase transition'. It's been rendered completely meaningless by the fact that pretty much every healer and tank has their own Insta-cast Barrier ability that they can use during an OGCD.
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Jul 31, 2022 15:20
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Rorahusky posted:I mean, let's be real here. Stoneskin was basically just a fancy Shield Barrier desperately mascarading like it wasn't. There's nothing SS did then that abilities like TBN or the myriad of Shield Heals do now, other than 'Stack with existing shields' and 'have an obnoxiously long cast time that made it completely impractical to use outside of pre-pull and/or phase transition'. It's been rendered completely meaningless by the fact that pretty much every healer and tank has their own Insta-cast Barrier ability that they can use during an OGCD. Stoneskin was useful because it would work through cleric stance, so it was a way to stretch DPS times. As a WHM you'd throw regen on the tank and/or medica II on the party, cleric stance, and then dps using proactive stoneskin to prolong the amount of time that you could continue DPSing. You could mitigate the cast time with swiftcast. Stoneskin+adlo was also necessary to keep dragoons alive on T11 because of their lack of magic defense. Eventually it was buffed to match the rest of the DPS, but at ARR launch dragoons had the inverse armor stats of caster DPS. They had the lowest mdef but highest pdef which made thematic sense. It doesn't make gameplay sense, though, when exactly one job is unable to survive standard raidwide AOEs in an endgame raid. e: had to correct the turn. I put t10 when I meant t11. Mr. Nice! fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Jul 31, 2022 |
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Jul 31, 2022 15:42
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Imagine if instead of Protect applying a (tiny) static amount to your Defense it boosted Defense by a percentage, or even did something crazy like "adds 1/4 of the caster's Defense value to yours". We'd still be using it to this day.
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Jul 31, 2022 15:57
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Protect was a percentile defense increase, it just usually wasn't relevant and healers hated it taking up a role action slot that could be put to something more useful. Same with Esuna, but with that they just made it standard instead of removing it entirely.
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Jul 31, 2022 16:41
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Really? I thought it scaled so poorly that by the time it was removed it would Protect you from like one auto attack worth of damage over an entire dungeon instance, which would imply a static amount rather than a percentage.
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Jul 31, 2022 16:52
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During ARR, protect was a 10% damage reduction with the conjurer trait and 5% for anyone else. Stoneskin similarly shielded for a larger amount cast by a white mage than anyone else. When it was changed to a role ability they removed the class specific trait that made it better for whm. At that point it was just something that at least one healer in the party had to have in lieu of other role abilities because otherwise you're taking an extra 10% damage for no reason. It's good that they removed it. During ARR it was a design decision so that you would always have a scholar and a white mage in eight man content. Once they added in a third healer, that reasoning vanished and it was just a wasted button.
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Jul 31, 2022 17:00
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Mordiceius posted:Rest in piss to stoneskin and cleric stance. I'm just mad that they removed stoneskin and gave WHM an instant cast shield in the same patch but didn't use the cool animation from stone skin. Divine benison's animation is just such a wet fart and was wasted dev time.
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Jul 31, 2022 17:03
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It wasn't damage reduction, it was a percentile increase in defense, which mathed out to worse than straight up damage reduction.
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Jul 31, 2022 18:04
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Protect (with the Proshell trait) added 15% to the Defense/Magic Defense values. A level 70 tank with 2402 Defense/Magic Defense has, without any other modifications, 40% damage reduction against physical and magical attacks. (Edit: should be noted I'm talking in level 70 content - there's level modifiers and divisors that change with level so 2402 isn't going to cut nearly as much damage in level 90 content) With Protect, that'd be 2762 Defense/Magic Defense, which raises the mitigation to... 46%. In other words, a 5000 damage attack on the tank would be 3000 damage without Protect and 2700 with Protect. And that's the jobs with the highest Defense/Magic Defense values. At the same level and gear tier a healer's got 963 Defense and 1681 Magic Defense (the latter is what's used for most unavoidable raidwide hits, so the lower physical only really comes into play if they get aggro) - magic mitigation would be 28% without Protect, 32% with Protect - 5000 damage taken down to 3600 and 3400 respectively. Saving a few hundred damage per hit might add up and be the difference between a fatal hit or not in, like, current/minimum ilvl Savage content (particularly when dealing with random boss crits), but most of the time it didn't affect a fight in nearly the manner the player base at large believed it to. As for Cleric Stance, well, it wasn't anything like 1-2-3 combos but when Cleric Stance was around the healers had multiple different duration DoTs to stack and juggle in addition to oGCDs (Aero was 18 seconds, Aero II was 12 seconds, Aero III was 24 seconds, they all stacked and were more damage for the cost of a GCD than Stone III except for Aero which still had the advantage of being instant cast for the small amount of weaving available to WHM), so there was a bigger spinning plate aspect to Healer DPS. Stormblood removed the "accidental flip when healing is needed" aspect but of course the limited role actions at launch kind of killed the newer version in the crib for the player base at large (plus they were beginning to pare down DoTs - Aero II now replaced Aero and had the same duration). Hogama fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jul 31, 2022 |
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Jul 31, 2022 21:29
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc5HY3KEqug Oh while I was looking for the benchmark videos I found the 2.0 launch trailer and for some reason Meteor Survivor has red hair in it and it is super distracting. Like who decided to do that in spite of all the promos showing him with brown hair? OhFunny fucked around with this message at 01:53 on Aug 1, 2022 |
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Aug 1, 2022 01:49
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OhFunny posted:Like who decided to do that in spite of all the promos showing him with brown hair? Colorblindness, maybe? That shade of red is the red used for the Wandering Minstrel's hair...
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Aug 1, 2022 01:54
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Minor note on the 2.0 benchmark commentary: the Gridanian Aetheryte shown isn't Gridania itself, but the one in Bentbranch Meadows, which makes the transition to the next combat scene smoother because it's in the area outside of Tam-Tara Deepcroft.
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Aug 1, 2022 10:50
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Hope you're feeling better Sanguinia.
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Aug 1, 2022 23:57
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wdarkk posted:Hope you're feeling better Sanguinia. I am. My symptoms are mostly gone, though I still feel kind of weak and exhausted. But I'm going back to work, both at school and writing. Look forward to it.
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Aug 2, 2022 01:19
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Sanguinia posted:I am. My symptoms are mostly gone, though I still feel kind of weak and exhausted. But I'm going back to work, both at school and writing. Look forward to it. https://i.imgur.com/qUmgBHE.mp4
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Aug 2, 2022 04:46
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Chapter 11: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything The Ruby Sea, as Lyse’s narration helpfully informs us, is named for the hue of the seawater when the morning sun strikes its surface. I would have guessed it had something to do with the active volcano, Hells' Lid, pouring lava into it. But hey, what do I know? Aside from this ominous sight, the camera shows us a few surly-looking natives idling around dilapidated buildings and an impossibly tall tower shooting into the sky. Add ‘impossibly thin’ to that description as well, since it has the relative thickness of a pencil and appears to be made out of single Jenga blocks stacked crosswise. Everything about it defies logic.  Our port of call is Ruby Price, an artificial island built to serve as a border fort and lighthouse dividing Hingan territorial waters from those under Confederate control. Its stone walls bristle with enough canon to break an armada, and its strategic position allows the samurai garrison to see vessels approaching Hingashi’s western shore from horizon to horizon. The place serves as a warning to every ship en route to Kugane that threats to Hingan sovereignty won’t be tolerated. Of course, keeping an outpost on the open ocean is a resource-intensive operation. The sulfur and seawater are corrosive, meaning the sentries need constant resupply to keep their base fighting fit. It’s not surprising when an NPC discovers a brace of unlicensed firearms hidden in a crate of sundries. This spit of rock may be militarized, but smuggling will be a problem when you have enough goods coming through any port. I’m sure the Confederates aren’t complaining. Alisaie also notes, in her typically too-frank fashion, that this impressive fortification would do little to deter a Garlean air fleet. I guess that’s why the bakufu is in a hurry to invest in their own airships. Soroban explains that we’ll need to present ourselves to the Confederacy’s leaders and pay the Ruby Tithe to secure safe passage. Lyse, none too eager to get back on a boat, suggests to Kheris that they swim the distance rather than ride along with the others. This demonstrates that we’re in a zone with a lot of water deep enough to disable combat and mounts, and thus should get used to swimming to reach our destinations. It’s also an opportunity to mention one of the more delightful changes that Patch 6.1 put in the game: the ability to apply Glamour Plates to your gear at any Aetheryte.  Taking thirty seconds out to zone back to Kugane and turn my Ninja set into my swimsuit glam was a small thing (and I technically could have done it before this change because Kugane is a city). However, the immersive improvement to the game’s RPG aspect was significant. Being able to stash my armor and weapons, get into something appropriate before diving into the ocean, and then get back into my fancy uniform before talking to the pirate leader helped me feel like I’m living in this world, not just steering a character through it. The “small things,” in this game are everywhere, and the way they compound on each other to improve your experience always makes me smile.  As I said, it’s the small things that make me smile.  After her swimming race, Kheris meets the others on the docks of Sakazuki, “The Goblet.” It’s one of the Confederacy’s main outposts and serves as a watchtower. From here, Confederate lookouts can sight ships crossing the Sea so they can be intercepted and the Tithe collected, one way or the other. While they have several such bases, I’m told this one has particular significance because it is the spot where the Confederacy was founded. The top pirate captains of the age shared a drink from the same cup here, sealing the pact that would let them rule the Ruby Sea for centuries. To this day, every recruit who joins their ranks is brought here to do the same with the current leader. So, let’s talk about the Confederacy’s real-world inspirations. The word sakazuki here is instructive, and not because it’s the name of a primary antagonist in One Piece. That being said, if you’ve watched or read a lot of One Piece, you already know what a sakazuki is: a drinking ceremony. Technically it’s also the name of the cup used in the ceremony; the type of flat, shallow, wide-brim cup often associated with sake in more formal or period-specific settings. The game telling us the word means ‘goblet’ is accurate. But generally, the term refers to the ceremony itself, a formal sharing of a drink between parties to seal a bargain. This has religious connotations, as the sakazuki ritual often takes place on grounds or around icons that Shinto priests have prepared for the occasion. That said, the word's connotative associations with family are more important to general Japanese culture and our literary analysis. For example, a traditional Japanese wedding involves three sakazuki rituals between the husband and wife over the course of the festivities. But in the mind of the average Japanese media consumer, there’s one place you’re more likely to see a sakazuki than any other: the initiation of a new member of the Yakuza. The aspiring young gangster shares a drink with their boss from the same cup in an elaborate ritual witnessed by all their fellow gang members. Once this is done, a relationship akin to father and son is said to be forged, making the new gangster a brother to the rest of the crew. This is why aniki, a less formal word for brother, is a common epithet among thuggish characters in Japanese tv and film. It is this notion that the sakazuki creates familial bonds without the need for ties of blood, and its connection to romanticized bands of criminals, that led One Piece writer Eiichiro Oda to make it such a prominent motif in his pirate manga. FFXIV’s writers may be directly alluding to One Piece by casting their pirates in a similar mold. Still, even if it’s not a send-up to Japan’s most famed pirate story, I think it is safe to say that the effort to link the Confederacy with the Yakuza is very deliberate. One need look no further than the man we’re on our way to meet, Tansui.  Two competing images of the Yakuza and their precursors exist in Japanese storytelling. We’ll worry about the second if/when it becomes relevant, but the first has its roots as far back as the silent film era. This tradition portrays the Yakuza (near-exclusively in pre-World War 2 period pieces) in a fashion reminiscent of American gangster movies. Yakuza are romanticized, their outlaw status and criminal activities framed as honorable and heroic. They are usually sympathetic individuals with good hearts, often yearning to return to the peaceful and law-abiding part of society despite the violence and crime they are surrounded by. They are always fundamentally moral people; despite being thieves, they would never hurt the innocent. This peaked in the 1960s with a uniquely Japanese evolution to the formula, the “Chivalry Film.” These movies went so far as to portray the Yakuza as a modern inheritor of the samurai legacy. Themes of conflict between your duty to the clan and your personal feelings, honorable conduct in all things, and self-sacrifice for the sake of your brothers, your boss, or the common people became the heart of the genre. It is this type of story that Tansui evokes. Much like Thancred, his speech carries an informal formality, proper in all respects but not uptight, for he is not bound by the strict social rules that law-abiding people are forced to observe. His appearance is a very managed sort of unkempt, that two-day beard and mustache and his untamed bangs looking like he paid a stylist a small fortune to create a media-friendly level of disregard for his looks. His kimono is downright regal, but he wears it open to show off his chest because he’s a working man, not some stuffy merchant. But the most critical visual detail is his sarashi, the bandage-like cotton cloth wrapped around his midriff. This is the fashion item for delinquent and criminal characters in Japanese media, either implying that they get into fights so often that they are perpetually injured or serving the practical purpose of holding a covert weapon like a tanto dagger under their clothes. While it’s not uncommon to see a wrap like this worn by a more traditionally heroic character, the usual reaction of a Japanese audience to seeing it, especially under an open jacket or kimono, would be to assume that this character is a criminal or some other form of social outcast and that they are intentionally flaunting it to the world. Our meeting with Tansui certainly fits with his image. After exchanging pleasantries, he lets us know that our gil will do fine for the Tithe since the foreign currency is currently in demand among traders. However, he also informs us that given the “tempestuous seas,” he can’t guarantee we’ll reach Othard unless we pay triple the standard rate. Soroban is aghast at this extortion, but Tansui says it’s necessary because the shadow of war is looming over the Ruby Sea. Many merchants who once paid the tithe now avoid the area altogether, and those that don’t… Well, we soon see that for ourselves. A low-ranked man pulls Tansui aside over some trouble, and we sneak after them to see what’s happening. Naturally, the problem is Garlean in nature.  Even though he’s captaining a dingy, this particular Garlean commander is acerbic to the Confederates even by his people’s standards. He not only refuses to pay the Tithe but says the only reason the pirates haven’t already been put to the sword is that they’re too pathetic to bother with. He even goes so far as to invite the Confederacy to try and board his ship, as he would love it if they gave the Viceroy an excuse to exterminate them once and for all. It’s a proposition the two red-armored Kojin with him seem to relish. The younger pirate is eager to take the offer, but Tansui holds him back. He then tries pathetically to get the Garlean to pay as an act of charity. The commander mocks the purported 'sea lords' for being all talk and continues on his way, leaving the Confederates humiliated. Tansui invites us out of our hiding spot despite his shame and mentions that while the Garleans have always been hit or miss for their Tithe, this eagerness to pick a fight is new behavior. He believes the change is because many among the Confederacy are ethnically Doman, and Viceroy Yotsuyu’s hatred for those who carry that blood runs deep. She’s likely encouraging her troops to heightened hostility in the Ruby Sea just because a battle would give her a reason to go after an enclave of people she hates who are currently out of her reach. That’s… troubling. Lyse, calling back to her earlier idealism in Ala Mhigo, asks why the Confederacy isn’t fighting back, especially if so many of them are Domans who should be eager to strike those oppressing their homeland. His answer is as straightforward as her question: they’d lose. The Confederacy are just “boys with boats,” stacked up against the Imperial Army, and they learned well what fate would befall them if they tried resistance when Doma fell. It’s not the worst explanation he could have given, but he continues with another point that reframes that reason and leaves Lyse visibly gritting her teeth. See, by the laws of the Confederacy, any person who joins must forsake all ties to their original home. Taking that drink with the captain means that your fellow pirates are your only nation and family, and “We look out for none but our own.” The implication is that even if the Confederacy could help Doma, they wouldn’t because it’s none of their business. The Confederates have fallen into the same trap as the Hingans. They see the Garleans as an insurmountable foe because of the example they made of Doma. In response to the fear of that foe, they’ve adopted policies that appear self-preserving but are ultimately self-defeating. Instead of forging alliances, lending strength to those in need, and presenting a united front against the aggressor, the people of the East continue to retreat into their shells and hope things don’t get worse. All this being said, it seems that Tansui is not entirely satisfied by the party line he’s repeating to us. He mentions that the way things are going, their leader will not be able to sit on the fence much longer. The Confederates must soon choose between a blaze of glory and living off the Empire’s table scraps. He also elects to allow us to travel the Ruby Sea free of charge, cryptically stating that he feels the things our party will do in the future will be more than worth our Tithe. Speaking of cryptic, while Lyse grumbles that she doesn’t believe that the Doman Confederates care nothing for their homeland, Kheris notices that Soroban has gone missing. It doesn’t take long to find him, and he apologizes for making himself scarce. He needed to ensure the Red Kojin on that Garlean boat didn’t see him. He doesn’t go into any detail about the relationship between the Red and Blue Kojin, but he does assure us that their behavior does not reflect on his or his tribe’s allegiances. Fair enough, I suppose. With that squared away, the party returns to his boat to sail to the Doman shore. Kheris, of course, does all the newly unlocked sidequests instead. Most of this wave of quests are simple things meant to toss out a morsel of local culture, such as a quest to collect magma from the volcano because swords forged with magma are purported to be capable of slaying demons. They do serve a couple of larger purposes, however. First, they let us get a better picture of the Ruby Sea’s geography. There are a lot of shallow waters and coral reefs in this sea, and islands that are little more than boulders with small flows of navigable current between them are frequent.  The second purpose is to give insight into the relationship between the Confederacy and its neighboring nations. Gosetsu comments that before Doma fell, its attitude toward the pirates was “guarded acceptance.” As their organization is bound by a code and thus can be dealt with reasonably compared to most outlaws, Doma felt that allowing them to operate was more beneficial than opposing them. After all, part of their methods involved keeping the Ruby Sea clear of other threats and thus stabilized for traders, and this was such a benefit that fighting the Confederacy never seemed prudent. We see some of this dynamic firsthand in a few quests. One involves the Hingans taking note of a pre-teen lad putting himself in danger hunting the local fauna. While their laws forbid them to leave their posts to rescue a pirate, they have Kheris help the kid on their behalf. It’s a gesture that the Confederates appreciate, as the lad rarely listens to his elders and would have been hurt if she hadn’t stepped in. A more significant example involves a Confederate sailor discovering a Hingan soldier from the garrison stowing away on a merchant’s vessel. He’d hoped to perform illicit trade with the Red Kojin, and interrogation revealed that this was on the direct orders of a samurai officer. While no Confederate could approach Ruby Price to deliver this information, Kheris can do it on their behalf. The fort’s commander has a long-standing unofficial relationship with the Confederates and is glad to receive this news. It’s the last evidence he needs to put the corrupt officer in a dungeon for abusing his position. Unfortunately, he’s escaped into the Ruby Sea, but Kheris tracks him down and delivers some summary judgment when he doesn’t come quietly. The commander assures her the Confederacy will be compensated for their assistance with this internal matter, though he won’t tell her how he’ll send that reward. The whole thing illustrates effectively how the Confederate’s existence is a boon to the other powers who use the Ruby Sea. Even in a political climate that has made direct dealings with them impossible and left the pirates a shadow of their full strength, they can still prove their worth easily. ~*~*~ This leads us back to the discussion on the Confederate’s real-life inspiration. As they’ve been portrayed thus far, I think we can look at three distinct maritime regions to find our source material: the Ryukyu Archipelago, the Yellow Sea, and the Seto Inland Sea.  The first and loosest connections are in the Ryukyus. These sub-tropical islands stretch from the southern tip of Japan’s home islands (excluding the Osumi Islands, which are considered part of Kyushu) to Taiwan. They form a natural border dividing the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea and are best known for the island of Okinawa. Today that island is the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, the Japanese government’s administrative organization for most of the island chain. Many know it as the site of one of the last major battles of World War II. Japanese history buffs may also know it as the center of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Ryukyu is not a native designation but an exonym originating in the “Book of Sui,” an Imperial Chinese history dating to the 5th Century. Indeed, the native people of these islands have rarely had a collective term for themselves or a name for their region. Some embrace being known as Okinawans, while others use Ryukyuan as an ethnic identity despite the Japanese government’s refusal to recognize it in their official census. Others don’t like either term because Okinawa’s (and the Ryukyu Kingdom’s) historical dominance of the area has led to other local cultures being marginalized throughout history. What can be said is that this island chain spent hundreds of years vacillating between being an independent power capable of exerting some authority over its territorial waters and serving as a vassal state to either Japan or China, depending on the era. It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that Japan formally invaded and took sovereignty over the archipelago. So, what does this have to do with the Confederacy? Admittedly, not much, although there are some other things that I think mark the Ryukyu Islands as a central inspiration point for the Ruby Sea. But those can wait until later. The main things that I believe the Confederates pull from the Ryukyus are their clothing and outlaw vibe. For the former, every Confederate we see is dressed in lighter clothing than we saw in Kugane. Open shirts or bare chests, loose sleeves, and open sandals are the norms of Confederate fashion. This is consistent with the type of clothing associated with Okinawa and Japan’s other southern regions. While hot and humid summers are the norm throughout Japan, the south ‘enjoys’ that weather almost year-round. Thus the people there are commonly connected with clothing that can be breezier and less confining than the Japanese norm. Another thing about their clothes that sticks out is how they’re flamboyantly decorated. Even the lowest ranks sport a lot of fancy embroidery. While there’s a notable absence of the bright red and yellow coloring associated with Okinawan and Ryukyuan culture, the general view that islanders are a bit showier than those from the Home Islands seems to be on display here, especially when we compare these clothes to the simpler kimono designs we saw in Kugane. As for the vibe, the “Book of Sui,” I mentioned described the Ryukyuans as barbarians who practiced cannibalism and filled all who traveled to their lands with dread. This account colored perceptions of the Ryukyus for more than a millennium. Even modern Japanese fiction has a habit of stereotyping those who hail from there as a bit more untamed, dangerous, and lawless. Maxi from Soul Calibur and Mugen from Samurai Champloo are good reference points. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Yakuza-inspired pirates live in a region that reflects a place in the real world commonly associated with being “wild.” For the inspiration that hails from the Yellow Sea, we need to trek to the island of Tsushima, the setting of the popular video game Ghosts of Tsushima and one of the principal battlegrounds for the Mongol invasions of Japan. You’re likely aware of the broad strokes: that the legendary Kublai Khan twice tried to take over Japan in the 1200s, and both times his invasion fleets were crushed by typhoons. What you might not know is that in the wake of this war, the coastal defenses of Japan, Korea, and China were in ruins. None of these regions could field any serious naval power, rebuild damaged defensive infrastructure, or even really keep sizeable armies. Add to this the fact that Tsushima itself and many other islands in the Yellow and East China Seas were economically ravaged by the conflict and the lack of trade in its aftermath, and you have conditions ripe for folks to turn pirate out of desperation. The Wako Pirates, as they came to be known, raided and pillaged nearly the entire Korean Peninsula and some of the wealthiest regions of China’s northern coast. In later centuries their operations would extend nearly as far as Hong Kong and the Philippines, which led to an infamous battle between Samurai and Conquistadors that people on Youtube love to make videos about because it’s awesome.  What the Confederacy borrows from the Wako is diversity. This could also apply to the Ryukyuans, as Japanese scholars consider them an internally diverse region. However, I think the Wako are a better reference point because modern scholarship goes out of its way to note the variety of Wako nationalities. While Wako ships were commonly commanded by Japanese who claimed descent from or membership in the samurai class, crews were often majority ethnic Chinese, according to most recent studies. Korean and Mongolian individuals, among others, also had a strong presence among Wako crews. Indeed, some evidence implies that one of the Wako’s first prominent leaders was of mixed Korean and Mongolian descent, so this diversity was present from the earliest days of their operations when they were near-universally identified as Japanese by the governments of Asia. We see Hyruans, Roes, and Au Ra among the Confederacy, but in terms of real-world connections, I think the comment that a large number of Confederates hail from Doma (and by implication, a lot of them hail from other places) is the key. These people grew up in many different nations but have abandoned their places of origin to seek their fortune. Sometimes, this is due to not fitting in with their societies. In other cases, it’s because of a lack of economic opportunity or political instability. Regardless, they find a funny sort of equality that knows no border in the dangerous life of a pirate. A romantic vision, perhaps, but no more so than the West typically has of our pirates, and one with some roots in history. Our final touchstone is the most important one. The Seto Inland Sea is Japan’s largest and most crucial internal body of water, connecting three of the four Home Islands. It links the Pacific to the Sea of Japan and connects to Osaka Bay, granting ocean access to several of Japan’s most productive economic regions. The Inland Sea is like a mini-Mediterranean. One of the narrowest parts of the Sea is thick with a collection of islands, some as close as a few hundred meters. To the untrained eye, they appear like inviting stepping stones, but their proximity creates dangerous tidal currents. Without a trained navigator who knows the safe routes, even the most veteran sailor might find his ship at the bottom of a whirlpool. Fortunately, the inhabitants of these islands were more than happy to act as guides and help trade flourish between the larger landmasses in exchange for a fee. They even took it upon themselves to patrol these waterways and keep them free from danger! And if you didn’t want to pay their price and tried to make the passage on your own… well, I don’t know. That ship seems nice. It’d be a shame if something were to happen to it along the way. These islanders, a group of three distinct families who worked in tandem to control the entire Geiyo Island region of the Inland Sea, were known as the Murakami Pirates. They never participated in looting because they didn’t need to; simply controlling the safe passages and charging any ship that wanted to go through was far safer and more lucrative. They worked cordially with several major daimyos who claimed authority over the sea, maintaining order and ensuring trade ran smoothly through their waters and acting as a naval levy in several important battles during the Sengoku Era. As a result, they were generally left to their business and even lauded as gallant peacekeepers. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi established anti-piracy laws, which led to the extinction of the Wako Pirates, the Murakami were integrated into the government rather than hunted down due to their sterling reputation and effectiveness. Yet we shouldn’t forget that these folks were outlaws for most of their 200-year existence. A Portuguese missionary using their routes famously wrote that he didn’t feel safe on the Inland Sea unless he was on a boat flying the Murakami flag. It’s a cute double-entendre since it refers to their navigation skill but also implies the threat of what would happen if you didn’t pay their toll. If all of this sounds familiar, it should. This fascinating little footnote in samurai history is the most direct inspiration for the Confederacy, down to the Ruby Sea drawing a fair degree of geographic inspiration from the Seto Inland Sea. Still, I think those other two references are an essential part of their identity, and we’ll touch back on why that is in the future. ~*~*~ Kheris meets back up with the others, and soon the boat makes landfall in a secluded cove some distance from a nearby fishing village. Tansui had warned us that Viceroy Yotsuyu had been holding court across several villages to conduct “purges of radical elements.” She was even rumored to be near the coastline. Still, it’s just a precaution. We’d have to be unlucky to the point of absurdity for her to happen to be at this particular vill-  Yep. That’s about right. Also, hey, it’s our buddy Gryne! Bodyguard for Doma’s top official? He’s done well for somebody kicked out of the XIIth on the Crown Prince’s orders. The first thing that strikes me about Yotsuyu is how she sounds wrong. She looks exactly like I expected her to, every inch the Yamato Nadeshiko, the ideal of traditional feminine beauty by Japanese reckoning. Pitch black hair runs halfway down her body in arrow-strait locks with full sidebangs, often referred to as “the hime (princess) cut.” Milk-pale skin sets off her thick red lips and narrow, angular eyes, commonly seen as a mark of strong will or pride. Those eyes also appear silver or pale gold, an exotic color befitting an aristocrat. Her chin bears a small beauty mark. Her build is willowy, radiating a languid grace reinforced by her form-fitting silk gown, lace choker, and long-stem pipe. Throw in her black and red color scheme, and I couldn’t have designed a more on-point look for an evil empress if I'd tried. Yet her voice and words are somehow… off. A character like this usually conveys quintessential aristocratic traits with every word they say. Just from looking at her, we expect sensuality. But even more critical for this sort of character is to convey a sense of control. The traditional literary shorthand for a Japanese noblewoman demands a sense of unbreakable, effortless poise. The feeling that nothing can shake her and nothing is beyond her ability. The mask can be strained, even broken, eventually. But the first few times you meet her, she should seem almost inhuman in her perfection. Instead, within moments of meeting Yotsuyu, she's already whining about how Domans are gross and stinky, she doesn’t want to be around them, and she’d rather get wasted than deal with doing her job. It's a perfect subversion of the expectation. She’s the pettiest person imaginable rather than the superior product of courtly breeding she appears to be. This is backed up even further by her actual voice. The expectation would be for her to sound something like Y’shtola, Minfilia, or even one of the Fortemps. A handful of accents are appropriately ‘noble’ for this type of character, and if you expose yourself to enough fantasy media, your ear knows them by heart. Yotsuyu doesn’t have one. She speaks in distinctly ‘common’ tones, and even when she’s actively trying to cover it up with fancy words, you can tell she’s doing it wrong. Your brain knows without even being told that this is a usurper on a throne she has no right to. Her actions quickly reveal just how tyrannical a ruler she is. Her guards present a man taken by the Kojin while attempting to flee to Kugane. She announces she’s seeking “affirmation,” and gives the runner a chance to beg for his life. When he cowers instead, she asks the villagers if they have anything better to declare than he does. One fellow takes the hint and pledges his total loyalty to Garlemald, promising to do anything she says. Yotsuyu is pleased to take him up on that promise.  The villager is horrified by this blunt command to murder one of his neighbors in cold blood, but armed soldiers surround him. Feeling he has no choice for the sake of his family and begging the Kami for forgiveness, he turns the weapon on the ‘criminal’ and fires.  Yotsuyu is all smiles as she praises his loyalty. Then, without even a moment’s thought, she picks two elderly folks out of the crowd.  As it turns out, these two are the gunman’s parents. He protests, thinking even she can’t be this despicable. Her smile is gone as quickly as it came, and she gestures wordlessly toward the old couple again, making it clear that this order is no joke. She wants to see him murder the same family he used to justify the first killing, and she wants to see it right this instant. Rather than comply, the villager turns the gun on her. She doesn’t even flinch, and one of her soldiers puts two rounds in the guy’s chest before he can pull the trigger. Some might call this over-the-top or ham-fisted as a means of characterizing our new villain. Even setting aside that subtle interplay between design and performance I mentioned, I personally appreciated how raw this event was. This is as rooted in reality as anything we saw in Ala Mhigo, particularly in the treatment of occupied China and Eastern Europe under Imperial Japan and the Nazis. We were told that this woman bears a racially motivated grudge against the people she rules, and now we’ve seen the truth of it firsthand. I can’t help but wonder, is she not Doman? How can she hate her people this much if she is? More importantly, how can she hate them in this hyper-generalized way? There seems to be little personal to this grudge. It’s disturbingly abstract and omnidirectional. Speaking of disturbing, seeing her sadistic pleasure dissolve into an emotionless void during that final order was horrifying. I want to know more about this woman. Gosetsu can’t allow himself to sit in our hiding place and do nothing after seeing that boy shot for refusing to murder his parents. He rises wordlessly to his feet, and you’re given a choice to agree that we need to make them pay or try to hold him back. Kheris, begrudgingly, chooses the latter. Alisaie had mentioned moments before that our only advantage is that the Garleans do not know we’re here. If we charge into this nightmare and even one enemy escapes, especially Yotsuyu, this endeavor might be over before it begins. Alis concurs with this assessment and further points out that if we try to help, all those people we'd attempt to rescue could be made into hostages. Not to mention that on top of our infiltration being ruined if we expose ourselves, an attack on the Viceroy will likely lead to military retaliation against the populace. None of this matters to Gosetsu. An argument that the people will suffer doesn’t count for a ton when the people are suffering right in front of you. He can’t walk away from this madness and dare call himself a samurai. However, in a concession to our points, he does offer a compromise plan. He’ll stop the butchery by surrendering himself. Since he is a rebel commander of some repute and personal retainer to the missing Lord she’s hunting, Yotsuyu will be compelled to drop everything after taking him into custody and start some rigorous interrogation. We must use that time to come up with, as Alisaie puts it, a ‘miracle’ that will rescue him and the townsfolk both. He even has a suggestion as to where we can start looking for it: that mysterious tower. Lyse is quick to object to this plan. She reasonably points out that they might kill Gosetsu the moment they lay eyes on him. But Alis understands that nothing we can say will deter our comrade from this course. He’s going out there to save those people one way or the other; this plan is the only one he’ll consent to that might lead us to a positive outcome. She agrees to let him go through with it on one condition: he must swear on his honor that any “noble sacrifices,” be reserved as a genuine last resort and not indulged for the sake of his ego or bushido tradition. We need him alive, so he has to give us the chance to rescue him no matter how bad things get. The big lug agrees and then walks into the Garlean’s clutches with his head held high. Funnily enough, Yotsuyu does consider simply shooting him dead when she recognizes him, implying that they have more history than I previously thought. When he announces that he’ll die taking her and every one of her guards with him if she doesn’t arrest him, she seems to think better of it.  …  Alis takes a moment to lament having to be the responsible one, remarking how she wanted to go out there and solve the problem with her sword as much as the rest of us did. It makes me glad that Kheris backed her up on the prudent thing. My poor #1 Primal Slaying Assistant has too many cats to herd as it is, and she’s doing it while wishing she could be one of us. She’s grown up a lot since we fought the Warriors of Darkness. But there’s no time for regrets. The Imperials have taken Gosetsu into the village tavern and secured a perimeter, so they’re free to work him over. We won’t have much time to make our miracle, so we need to head for that tower as quickly as possible and hope to find something there that can help us. Yeah, the pressure is certainly on. Time is short. We’ve got to hurry on this one. No time to play around. Extremely urgent stuff. A lot of tension in this story. I’m confident nothing will undermine that. Not even a little. …I’ll see you all next chapter. 
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Aug 7, 2022 05:19
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I really enjoyed the deep research dive! Perhaps I should have looked into more of this stuff myself beforehand, but I'm glad to see someone else really going for it too. Also Yotsuyu is a great antagonist, I like her a whole lot. She really nailed her intro.
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Aug 7, 2022 05:38
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Gosetsu: "you expect me to not help just because it's a bad idea? What kind of samurai movie are YOU guys living in?"
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Aug 7, 2022 05:38
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Yeah, the details about Japanese history and culture are really adding a lot. Its always a nice reminder that no story is original, just varying degrees of hiding 
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Aug 7, 2022 05:42
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Glad to see this back, great way to cap off the week. 
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Aug 7, 2022 05:46
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That historical background was fascinating, thank you for writing that up! It does seem like a combination of the inland sea pirates, who were very well-organized and practically formed their own government, and the Wako, with their wide-ranging and more independent status. The whole political situation in the Ruby Sea is kind of fascinating. And yes, Yotsuyu... Stormblood certainly has no shortage of villains that you love to hate.
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Aug 7, 2022 05:55
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Hey now, don't begrudge the gods their game of Jenga. (That tower really does stand out as a WTF moment during your initial look around the zone.) Chalk me up as another who was completely unfamiliar with the inspirations of the Confederacy and found it fascinating. Tansui also has quite the look going on. Yotsuyu... Hoo boy. Your assessment of how she sounds wrong is great; she really is spiteful, but not in the way her looks make you think she 'should' be.
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Aug 7, 2022 06:15
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I had a premonition this would resume shortly... Lots I'd like to comment upon but I'm sure will be covered in further updates. For now, since it's so very prominently displayed, I'll just note some additional trivia on Yotsuyu's design here: that flower in her hair is from Epiphyllum oxypetalum, a type of cactus also known as Dutchman's pipe and princess/queen of the night.  Even from as little as we've already seen of Yotsuyu, I'd say it was pretty deliberately chosen, wouldn't you?
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Aug 7, 2022 06:31
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Welcome to Yotsuyu! She is certainly a thing.
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Aug 7, 2022 06:35
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Yay, Kheris is back.  I also wondered about that Jenga Tower when I first got here. Also, Yotsuyu! She's... a character! I wouldn't be surprised if she knew those were that man's parents and was looking for an excuse to either torture him mentally or just have him killed. Sanguinia posted:Yeah, the pressure is certainly on. Time is short. We’ve got to hurry on this one. No time to play around. Extremely urgent stuff. A lot of tension in this story. I’m confident nothing will undermine that. Not even a little. 
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Aug 7, 2022 07:03
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I really enjoyed that history lesson, good stuff!
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Aug 7, 2022 07:29
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Welcome back! Thanks for the deep dive on the pirates - it's nice to know the depth of real-world inspiration that the developers were drawing from. You've met Fordola; you've now met Yotsuyu. I'm sure you'll have some thoughts on how the two compare/contrast before long.
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Aug 7, 2022 07:32
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That impromptu history lesson was pretty awesome. I know the Confederacy was based on SOMETHING but I had no clear idea what, so it helps a lot.
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Aug 7, 2022 07:50
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Yeah, I’m 99% sure that Yotsuyu knew full drat well that they were the man’s family, and just wanted the excuse to show the rest of them exactly how cruel she can be if they so much as think of stepping out of line. She pretty handily beat Zenos in the “love to hate” department when I played through Stormblood because of it.
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Aug 7, 2022 07:53
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Hogama posted:I had a premonition this would resume shortly... This is awesome Regalingualius posted:Yeah, I’m 99% sure that Yotsuyu knew full drat well that they were the man’s family, and just wanted the excuse to show the rest of them exactly how cruel she can be if they so much as think of stepping out of line. She pretty handily beat Zenos in the “love to hate” department when I played through Stormblood because of it. Even if she didn't know when she picked them, bro told her they were his family right after she gave the command, which is when she goes flat and gives him a "sometime today dude," head gesture, as if she was faking the glee over the murders and is so dead inside that she just wants the corpses made as quickly as possible and can't be bothered to put up with toying with him anymore. It was both the dumbest thing he could have possibly said and one of the eeriest moments I've seen in the game. I mean, just watch her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVbWzVbQdqU&t=451s Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Aug 7, 2022 |
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Aug 7, 2022 08:27
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I've seen some people complain about Yotsuyu's voicework and cite it as a reason to switch to JPN for Stormblood. These people are so incredibly wrong
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Aug 7, 2022 08:46
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Yotsuyu's English VA is Naoko Mori, probably best known for playing Toshiko in the series Torchwood, but to me mostly as Sarah, Saffy's somehow-more-nerdy friend from Absolutely Fabulous. I didn't recognize her voice at all, but she utterly kills it. Also I'm reminded that this expansion really is where Alisae's long-overdue character development starts. (EDIT: Okay it's more the Heavensward-post-expansion stuff, but still.) Good post. I too made sure to change into something appropriate before swimming the Ruby Sea. Maxwell Lord fucked around with this message at 09:00 on Aug 7, 2022 |
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Aug 7, 2022 08:48
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Obligatory JoCat video that goes into great detail about how Yotsuyu is Morally Grey. I also feel like her apathy towards a gun being pointed towards her is less out of confidence that the Garlean would handle it before he pulled the trigger and more that the yawning void inside her that you mentioned has progressed to the point where she just didn't give a gently caress either way. GilliamYaeger fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Aug 7, 2022 |
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Aug 7, 2022 09:43
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