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Ran Rannerson posted:I feel like we’d get less of a whole Ivalice Expansion and more that we might actually get to visit more bits of Dalmasca at some point during a larger theoretical Ilsabard expac.
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Feb 17, 2024 20:08
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They'd have to be super super desperate for ideas to do an Ivalice thing for MSQ content in the future, imo. What's the pitch going to be? "Remember the worst quest series in the game? The one that's so boring that even our story obsessed audience tells people that it's okay to skip the cutscenes because they're boring and unimportant? The one that's so bad that people can't even make it through forum posts describing it? I think we should base our next expansion off of that."
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Feb 17, 2024 20:39
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Ivalice/Dalmasca/whatever would likely be part of a broader Ilsabard expansion, not exclusively its own thing. While its probably not a part of the world they're in a hurry to revisit, it would be silly to just strike it from existence because of a boring raid story.
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Feb 17, 2024 20:49
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I'm fairly sure they're going to do things with auracite in the future - that at least appears to have made it through. I don't see Ivalice itself ever being a focus.
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Feb 17, 2024 21:06
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The problem with the idea of Ivalice coming back isn't just the issues with Ivalice itself... (SHB) The problem is also Bozja. Same writer and gated behind the Ivalice Raid storyline, but also so badly recieved that the storyline basically got aborted and its epilogue thrown into its collectable items. That's what makes me think Ivalice/Dalmasca isn't coming back anytime soon.
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Feb 17, 2024 21:06
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SMaster777 posted:The problem with the idea of Ivalice coming back isn't just the issues with Ivalice itself... Obviously I don't want to get into it fully yet but I think Bozja is a lot stronger... because it's actually to do with the game!
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Feb 17, 2024 21:11
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Why return to Ivalice when there's blitzball to play instead?
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Feb 17, 2024 21:24
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I really think they should just incorporate all the raids into the MSQ. I want them to be able to make use of Unukalhai and the Prima Vista and especially the air pirate crew whenever they feel it convenient and good for the story.
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Feb 17, 2024 21:30
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It's nice to interact with Garleans who are estranged from the Empire but I don't need to see any more of the theater company
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Feb 17, 2024 22:41
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FuturePastNow posted:It's nice to interact with Garleans who are estranged from the Empire but I don't need to see any more of the theater company Just having the Prima Vista traveling about, learning about the forms of art and culture of the various city-states has so much meat on the bone. You could bring back who knows how many interesting Eorzeans into the mix; I love seeing the old side characters again, and FF14 loves that poo poo too. You could bounce Scholar and Dancer and who knows what other job quest-lines off of them and see what happens.
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Feb 17, 2024 23:12
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Chapter 81: The Mighty Don't Kneel Orbonne Monastery opens in the same stretch of jungle where we lost Ramza. Sunako is again by Kheris' side, ready to see the last secrets Ivalice has to offer.  Fran and Montblanc have come along as well. The Moogle is tense from the start, not because of his usual cowardice but because his pom senses a corruption of the local aether similar to what we found around Ridorana. It's not clear if he means the Cataract or the Clockwork City, and he likens the sensation to the breath of a Morbol before it swallows you whole. Fran mentions that her people know this phenomenon, which they call "The Mist." They're careful to keep the area free of monsters that might feed upon the corrupted aether. Naturally, right after she says this, we run into monsters, implying that the last Viera who came to clear the place were killed by Ultima to pave the way for her release.  Fun note about that ghost mini-boss: he instantly kills six people when he appears to create his six skeleton minions. In 90% of RPGs, that would be obnoxious as hell. Here in FFXIV, where we have infinite combat rezzes, it's a harmless bit of flavor for our warm-up fight. I approve. The raid designers have discarded all restraint regarding music for the crown jewel of their Ivalice collection. Almost every area and encounter in the instance has a dedicated music track. The first BGM is called  "Under the Stars," and it feels fitting as a prelude. Most of the instruments are subdued, but they have a sense of grandeur if you listen past the teasing and playful flute. It's like you're being dared to come closer and see what secrets the trees are hiding. It feels perfect when the party rounds the bend and sees the ancient temple for the first time. The moment we step through the doors, Montblanc senses a shifting in the aether distinct from the corruption. He suspects Auracite is the cause. If you're quick, moments after this comment, you'll spy a ghostly figure floating in the center of the first room, wreathed in a golden aura. In a blink, the man is gone, and a machine takes his place.  When Orran and OG Alma spoke to Delita about OG Ramza's fate, they mentioned they were the only survivors of the attack on Ultima. It seems that was only technically correct. Three of Ramza's Zodiac Braves followed their leader's example, abandoned their souls to their Auracites, and stayed behind to protect the path to Ultima's prison. They've become Lucavi but somehow did not lose their minds in the process. It's too bad we never find out how they managed that. Being able to turn into a giant monster would probably come in handy for Kheris! After the instance, you can speak to Jenomis, and he'll give you a quick lecture on each of these warriors. Mustadio was a machinist from Goug who believed in Ramza's mission to destroy the Lucavi but often argued with their leader about how best to accomplish that goal. I'm sure his Garlean descendants would be proud of his obstinance.  Funnily enough, this description tells you almost everything you need to know about the fight's mechanics. Most of Mustadio's attacks are various flavors of gunplay. He does knockback shots, tankbuster shots, raid-wide shots, and even spinning 2/3rd circle shots similar to Omega. Thankfully, he labeled his Left and Right instead of getting fancy with nautical terms. He'll also toss out slow-tracking crosshairs that need to be spread out before artillery strikes the platform.  His other genre of attack involves tech weaponry. He has the standard landmine ability we've seen a few times and a rocket launcher, but the important attack activates the junked robots around the arena. The ones on the edge throw out line AOEs, while the ones in the ring are proximity-based. You must track which ones he hits with the repair beam and do a little 3D imaging in your head to avoid increasingly complex blast patterns.  …  Both styles fit well with the theme, "Pressure (No.1)," which has a distinctly militaristic sound, but less in the vein of a march and more like something you'd hear in the 'Sneaking Around A Warehouse' scene from an 80s action movie starring Steven Segal or some other C-minus lister.Throughout the battle, Mustadio will trash-talk the party with his robot voice. The guy has a lot of personality. The brashness and self-confidence Jenomis describes shines through when he asks, "And where might you be off to?" before a big attack or boasts about how he rarely misses. Interestingly, while he's heavily voice-acted, some lines aren't given any dialogue boxes. I wanted to post a clip of him saying, "Watch this!" before one of his shots like a kid about to do a backflip on TikTok, but there's no visual indicator that he says it. Nor, for that matter, did I get one for the very memorable "Run, like rats in a casket!" The other bosses also follow this trend. Of course, his best lines are reserved for his Ultimate.  …  …  Jesus Christ, that cutscene is cool!  The gimmick is the opposite of what you might expect from the visual language. 3/4ths of a circle pops up around you, looking like a shield power display from a spaceship game, and the trick is to turn yourself so the boss will hit the EMPTY side. If you're quick enough to get your mouse up to the debuff, it does an excellent job explaining this for once.  The first time through, I did not think to check this, which means the only reason I survived was thanks to my raid group's guidance. As soon as this attack began, Party Chat (and my voice chat with Verossa) lit up with extremely helpful and not-at-all-silly advice: "SHOW HOLE!" I guess I can't complain since I parsed the meme, but still…  (His voice goes back to human halfway through that last line. Nice touch!) ~*~*~ As we move deeper into the Monastery, we pass an enormous painting that has almost rotted away.  Is it meant to be a depiction of Ultima? Or perhaps Princess Ovelia? She did live here most of her life, after all. Beyond that is a series of storerooms filled with recently acquired food and drink. Montblanc feels a palpable sense of joy in the aether here, and Fran explains that this was the home of a small colony of Dalmascan refugees in the wake of the Imperial conquest. So many came during that time that it was impossible to prevent all of them from crossing the border, but their presence was not tolerated by her tribe forever. I wonder if that incident is why Fran left her people. She speaks about how she came to the Monastery many times in the past, but she never saw anything like a Lucavi. Perhaps she monitored the Dalmascans until her tribe was ready to send them back and came to empathize with their plight. Her kin's decision to force them out of a place where they were safe, happy, and not hurting the jungle for no reason but tradition could explain why she thinks of herself as Dalmascan and would risk almost anything to secure her adoptive people's freedom. For some reason, a single deactivated Gougian robot sits peacefully among the wine.  Past those rooms is an open cavern with waterfalls cascading down every wall. At the center of a ring of stone, we find our second Zodiac Brave, Agrias Oaks of the Holy Knights.  Jenomis describes Agrias as a noble, trustworthy warrior responsible for Princess Ovelia's protection and education. When she joined the battle against Ultima, her initiation into the Zodiac Braves was purportedly… rocky.  Still, it seems bygones are long since bygones, and she's pretty cordial in our battle. Several of her voice lines even provide instructions on how to beat her, telling us to take up the Shield and Sword power-ups that she throws around. She can also be a bit melodramatic.  Her boss theme is called "Antipyretic," and it's not only incredible in its own right. It has thematic harmony with Mustadio's theme. While he symbolized everything modern and calculating about war, she is everything ancient and valorous. Past and Future, Heart and Mind, both stood with their Warrior of Light and gave their lives to hold back what he called "True Evil." What a lovely bit of allegory. She has several standard mechanics, but everything unique around her revolves around those power-up buffs. The shield gives you a duty action that will switch on a one-directional invulnerability barrier. Any time you get it, your job is to figure out where the instant-death attack will come from and put the shield between you and it. Generally, that will be the boss, so if you do the most logical thing after you get the power, you'll probably figure it out without needing to be told.  The sword gives you a close-range attack that can kill otherwise unkillable targets. The only times the sword buff appears are when you're dealing with things that can't be hurt, so this is also highly intuitive. Of the two, the sword phases were more fun to me. There's not much to the idea of facing toward the flashy animation and hitting the block button. The main sword phase involves the raid group being divided into three. One group is trapped in magical prisons while Agrias prepares to execute them. A second team has to run around like madmen, cutting the others free before she slashes.  I said 'divided into three' because the last group gets sucked down into a pit full of ghosts. You have to kill the ghosts to "cleanse your sins," or die to a Doom timer, and some ghosts are invulnerable, which is what the sword is for.  The single-mechanic phases are secretly a tutorial for her Ultimate.  While the boss charges up Holy Blade, the raid faces two types of adds, the Sword and Shield Knight. Sword Knight can do an AOE that's almost the full size of the arena, and Shield Knight can't be killed unless you break the little shield critters around the battlefield. No big surprise; the trick is to use both special actions at once to bring down all knights before you get cooked. I also have to say she has one of the most gorgeous Ults I've seen in this game.  When she leaves, she tosses out an interesting piece of dialogue.  I mentioned I had a theory about the "tragic end," of Ovelia and Delita's marriage, and this line gave it to me. I think Ovelia was secretly in love with Agrias while she was cloistered away in the Monastery all those years. When Delita arranged for her to be kidnapped so he could marry her for her title, they came to a mutual understanding that she would go along with his plan if she could actually be with her beloved knight. Then, on the eve of the war's end, after everything else had gone perfectly, her lover went with Ramza on one last mission to destroy Ultima… and never returned. Whether Ovelia disappeared to live alone, took her own life, or died of grief, the official history recorded it as the Star-crossed Princess perishing tragically right after her True Love was crowned, robbing them of their happy ending. It even fits with Montblanc's little comment about Agrias' aether being tinged with sadness. Granted, it's a lot of head-cannon from little evidence, but if they're not going to tell me what the tragedy was, I'm sticking with it. ~*~*~ Agrias' departure unlocks a strange magic circle, which Montblanc can sense is steeped in Auracite energy. We step inside… and find ourselves in Dark Souls.  I mean, seriously, this is just Anor Londo. Was there a portal to a realm of decaying splendor bathed in white light in Final Fantasy Tactics back in '97? Are FromSoft the Fran mutters that this place feels completely different from the Monastery above and that something "otherworldly," is happening. The endless void of white clouds stretching in every direction around our little island of stone would seem to confirm that suspicion. A bit further in, she'll comment that the "Mist," that seeps around the Monastery is present here and hundreds of times stronger. There's new zone music, simply titled "B.E." Tonally, it makes no bones about the fact that we're in a very nasty place. The first half leans heavily on the percussion, and it's not exactly warm, round-edged bass drum notes. They reminded me of modern musicians like Blue Man Group or Stomp using aluminum trash cans as instruments. The industrial nature of the sound felt incongruous with the scenery, and it was almost certainly deliberate to set the listener on edge. Then, in the song's second half, all that pounding instantly vanished, as if it were a rodent frozen in place, trying to become part of a wall because it's seen a snake. The violins take complete control, and they are so eerie and bloodless that I swear I felt a chill go up my spine as they built to their peak. It somehow didn't surprise me when I learned that B.E. stands for "Bloody Excrement." The music team wanted us to feel a very specific way about our new locale.I was just noticing pieces of Gougian robots scattered around the central plaza when our raid was ambushed by empty suits of armor commanded by a larger, mini-boss version. They have the same summoning circle mechanic as Immortal Bibliotaph, which is always a crowd-pleaser.  The encounter is enough to jog Fran's memory of a campfire story from her youth.  So, we've finally found the lost city of the gods. I guess Ajora didn't send it to the bottom of the sea after all. Jenomis will later speculate that the original Zodiac Braves who survived to posthumously accuse Ajora of selling his soul were the ones who sent the city to… wherever this is. Regardless, there can be no question that we have found Ultima's prison. Only one guardian remains to bar our path.  If there's one anime rule more important than "never put something metal in range of a katana," it's "never screw with an old man hiding his face in a cloak."  Ho-lee poo poo. Count Cid is a bit of an enigma to me because I should hate him based on my general philosophies toward boss design. He's a completely blind fight. His attacks are almost all un-telegraphed and give few, if any, hints about what they do until they fire. Some are instant death, and the rest are close to it while also putting a stacking vulnerability debuff on you, meaning you have a minimal margin for error. He's an exemplar of "die until you figure it out," design. He's also… just the best. If Kheris had known about this guy when she was 14, she would have had a poster of him in her room.   Cid's very first attack cuts everyone down to 1HP AND applies a Doom debuff that can only be dispelled by healing people to full. He oozes that wizened warrior slash enlightened philosopher type of charisma. You just know he would beat your rear end with a fishing pole because you're not worthy of his sword. This vibe is helped a lot by his absurdly good voice acting. Don't get me wrong, every boss in this raid is voiced, and each one is incredible. Cid is in a different universe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds9_PRQHjG8 He actually shares quite a few lines with Agrias, although many others are unique to him. The implication is that they're both quoting some famous text on war or swordplay. Hell, maybe Cid wrote the book, and she studied it. That'd be cool.  Even his boss theme, "A Man Consumed," is The Absolute Most. It has a twenty-five-second long overture because nobody could handle it if it just started at full speed! I don't think I'd ever have applied the term "face-melter," to an orchestral piece before I heard this track, but it fits.Another reason I don't hate Cid is because he's one of the fairest unfair bosses I've encountered in this game. His attacks come at a very steady, reasonable pace, and the timing on the swings gives the player ample opportunity to think about what they want to do or reflect on what went wrong last time. Once you know how to fight him, you'll never feel overwhelmed. Yes, you'll almost certainly take hits the first few times, but he gives you a fighting chance to access your memory bank and figure it out on subsequent tries. He only has two mechanics that I would say are legitimately easy to screw up, even after you've learned how to do them. One involves marked players laying down expanding red Death Zones. They get quite large, and later in the fight, he places a lot of them. If you're not aware of the raid's locations and your spacing relative to the other marks, it's an easy way to kill a bunch of people.  The other one is the tether-swapping gimmick, which I'm told is somewhat infamous.  The trick is that anyone hit by the tether attack takes a powerful debuff, so you have to hand it off to three players with some careful timing. If a tank accidentally takes the debuff, Cid's basic attacks will mulch them. Frankly, I left dealing with that move to the professionals. This fight had a lot of professionals, which is another reason I managed to enjoy it in spite of myself. One of Cid's most annoying abilities is a sword strike that can come in three different forms but always has the same name. You can only tell how to dodge it by looking at his pose.  I, of course, did not know the code, but people in the group did. Thanks to the generous attack timers and the way the fight's design encourages tight grouping, the veterans could effectively herd the rest of us even without the benefit of voice chat or macros. Once I noticed that 3-4 people in my party were dodging perfectly every time, all I needed to do was follow them. Side note: I was told that one of Cid's attacks, Duskblade, used to wipe raids all night long when he was progression content. Eventually, the devs had to nerf the ability. I barely noticed it existed until someone pointed that out, so it must have been one heck of a nerf. At around the halfway point, Cid activates his Ultimate, sending us to a second platform to fight three clones. If we beat them before he charges his Swordplay Meter (the best meter), we survive when he unleashes his incredibly dope move.  …  …  If there is one criticism I can level at THE THUNDER GOD (one that also applies to the previous bosses), it's that there's very little escalation beyond the Ultimate phase, even though it's only the halfway mark. Cid does increase the difficulty of some of his abilities, like with the aforementioned Death Zones, and he also gets two new attacks. One is just a fourth sword form. The other is an attack that freezes the platform, which is easy to avoid but also requires the raid to kill three iceballs. If you dodge it wrong and can't help with that job, it could be your fault when they explode and cause a full party wipe.  It's not nothing, but it doesn't feel up to the level of "the fight didn't even start until this point," that you get from fights like Susano. Not every boss needs that level of escalation, of course, but Count Cid felt like he deserved it. ~*~*~ The disappearance of the last Zodiac Brave increases the flow of Mist dramatically. Fran and Montblanc can feel it oozing out of the tower on the city's edge. Kheris leads her party down a long flight of stairs and eventually finds a room known as the Crystalline Goal. There, at long last, we find the architect of all this misery. Before we see Ultima, we see her hands. They're crafting fresh Auracite from threads of aether like a spider spinning a web. The appropriately creepy "St. Ajora's Theme," plays in the background. Her voice is thoroughly distorted and inhuman. She attempts to sound warm and motherly, but it's a weak effort. It's like she can't be bothered to try very hard. Much more prominent in the ear is the salacious, enticing whisper echo sewn onto her words like poisoned embroidery. When the Auracites she's crafting are finished, she lets them fall to the ground, where they lay beside hundreds more that she's discarded.  Some of the most potent magical objects we've seen in this setting, and she treats them like trash. Then she tells us to use them to fulfill our wishes because we're trash, too.  Jenomis said that in the thousands of years since she appeared, no one has been able to determine what Ultima wants. Now we know why: we're ants to her. We're not worthy to know her agenda. We're barely worthy to serve her agenda. She doesn't even ask us to set her free after all the trouble we went through to reach her prison. She is an eldritch horror in the Lovecraftian sense, so far beyond us that we should pray to remain beneath her notice. We exist because she allows it, and we will end because she demands it. Fortunately, another video game hero taught me the proper way to handle this exact scenario.  (By the way, Phase One's BGM is the same theme Argath used, "Ultima's Transformation.")Ultima begins the fight immobile, locked inside the crystal wall, and she hardly moves. This tells us contextually that she is not taking this fight seriously, despite her displeasure over the fact that we've dared "raise our eyes to the heavens." It also implies how powerful she is when you see the size of the spells she can cast while barely waggling a finger.  …  Note the Auracite walls she conjures, which are completely impassible and erase 2/3rds of our dodging space. She also makes Auracite 'crosses' that blast in four directions, leaving only a few safe spots in the arena.  These aren't anything new as mechanics, but how they're presented alongside her irritated impassivity reinforces the sense that her power is absolute and we're flies she's trying to swat. Then, right when you start to feel like you can handle her, she sends an even clearer message that we have no idea what we're dealing with.  What, no Ice Dancer, Chariot, or Math Robot? You're going soft on me, Ultima. These clones don't have every ability that the originals had, but they do serve as something of a pop quiz on the last two raids. They're initially summoned one at a time, with one attack each. Famfrit uses his water buckets, Belias, his two-speed clocks, and Hashmal, his falling towers. All the while, Ultima continues to blast the field while sitting completely still. It's chaotic, but nothing compared to when she summons all three simultaneously. For that phase, they wield several additional powers from the old fights, creating a complex dance that will test your reflexes, awareness, and memory. However, there's something else going on in this phase that's easy to miss but critically important: Ultima has stopped attacking and put up a protective shield.  Mechanically, this is just to make the sequence survivable, but narratively, it is the first crack in Ultima's armor. While her attitude toward the raid is no less imperious, her instincts have forced her to defend herself. The insects she thought she could squash without effort have turned out to have a few stingers. Despite Ultima's fear, Kheris' party cannot harm the three Lucavi. However, before they can destroy us, their rampage is cut short by the intervention of the Crystal Braves. Ultima takes one look at the spirits… and suddenly, the fight seems a lot less trivial to her.  This attack is called Ultimate Illusion and comes with a new BGM, "Descent." It kind of sounds like they took the theme from the shower scene in Psycho, and spliced it with church bells, which is entirely too on-point.The attack's name is a misnomer because most of the destruction it unleashes is all too real. It shatters the crystal prison, revealing Ultima's entire body, though the magic swirling around makes it difficult to get a good look at her. It also destroys the arena, save for a small island preserved by the Braves.  The High Seraph doesn't take this act of defiance well and addresses her old foes directly, saying she will not permit their interference. Then, the mouth in the center of her torso attempts to bite through the shield.  BITCH, THIS AIN'T A CUTSCENE! PRESS A! This bit got a full-throated laugh out of me. The timer on that bite meter is extremely tight, so if the DPS doesn't get on the mouth fast, you're dead. I could imagine how many raids in the first week or two of this content got murdered because they had no idea they needed to play the game during a phase transition. Despite our success in forcing her back, Ultima strikes again with a blast of hellish red flame. The weakened shield shatters, forcing the Zodiac Braves to their knees.  All hope seems lost… UNTIL!  …  Ramza's aether is strong enough to break Ultima's spell and banish all that magical flame, returning us to the broken remains of the prison. While more ground survived than our little circle, her attack brought down the entire fortress, scattering chunks of white stone, crystal, and Auracite everywhere. Ramza and his comrades have no strength left to aid us, but he does offer a desperate warning that we must strike with everything we have. Now that Ultima is free, the Mother Crystal herself is in jeopardy. Our victory is the world's only hope. For Ultima's part, now that her old enemies are gone, she seems at ease again, but she offers us a grudging acknowledgment for our part in holding back her spell.  For the rest of the battle, while the woman part on top remains still, the amalgamation of flesh, claws, eyes, and mouths down below writhes about aggressively. The irony of the final theme's name, which is "Ultima's Perfection," was not lost on me.Since we've upgraded ourselves from annoyances to threats, our opponent responds accordingly by showing us her secret weapon.  These creatures are untargetable and, therefore, don't have names, but the spell that calls them out indicates they are somehow connected to Ramza's Virgo Auracite. If nothing else, we can make the educated guess that these are the origin of the mythical seraphs Jenomis mentioned. She employs these minions in four different ways. The first is a straight-line charge with a unique twist. In this phase, Ultima can reposition her telegraphed attacks just before they fire using a magical gust of wind. The clue on which direction they'll be pushed comes from speed lines that appear in the air.  The seraphs will also divebomb the field, probably the most dangerous mechanic in this phase. A small moving arrow warns the raid about where they'll drop, and each one that isn't blocked will explode for massive raid-wide damage. Their third attack involves locking onto random players with a tether, which others can draw onto themselves. Whoever has it gets a damage buff for bravely distracting the baddies on behalf of their team, which is pretty neat. When you push her to her breaking point, Ultima unleashes her SECOND Ultimate Attack.  Close, but no.  As before, the walls are impassible. While the raid is in darkness, all its abilities, including Sprint, are disabled. Players must run a gauntlet of hazards, reach the tiny square of light around the boss, fight her at point-blank range while occasionally dipping back out to dodge mechanics, and do enough damage to break the enchantment before a wave of light comes up from behind and us kills them all.  It's nice to earn that last bit of respect after she started so dismissive. We still don't know her goals, who was at fault for bringing her to our world, what she even is since she's not a Primal, or really anything about her, but I'll take the respect. Sadly, despite her tough talk, she's got nothing left after the maze, and by killing her, we ensure that we'll probably never know the truth. But at least Kheris and OG Ramza have saved the world from her influence. Cue the last special one-time victory fanfare! …  And pour one out for the priceless archeological site we just blew up. ~*~*~ Prepare to enter the Musical Lightning Round because if we had no restraint inside Orbonne, the epilogue has negative restraint. It starts while I'm sitting around waiting for my loot because the Crystal Goal area sans Ultima gets its own unique BGM, "Hall of Worship."With Ultima gone, our Ramza appears from nowhere and wakes from an enchanted sleep to the sound of "Brave Story." The Ghost of OG Ramza then appears to thank his descendant and his successor for helping his dream come true after millennia of waiting. He's not the only one who got closure.   drat ultra-wide shots, they're so tough on the resizing… Even Delita gets to show up and tell his long-estranged brother that he's sorry they didn't have the happy life in Ivalice they fought for.  …  OG Ramza is the Goodest Boy Ever, isn't he? He even gives us all the credit even though we only got this far because he steered us here.  When Kheris and Only Remaining Ramza return to the Prima Vista, they receive a well-earned hero's welcome.  Yes, you've certainly proven that is your job, Author Self-Insert Character. Jenomis reunites with his children as "Alma's Theme," plays. He begs their forgiveness for the many ways he failed them as a parent because of his obsessions. They're both willing to forgive. Ramza even takes some satisfaction in knowing that they've proven their crackpot theories are true. Now they can tell the world what happened in Ivalice and the true story of the forgotten hero Ramza! See? Look at that. Jeno learned his lesson, and he'll warp his life around work or use his children as tools to accomplish his goals ever again!   …  Or maybe he learned nothing. By the way, we get THREE tracks in about five minutes during the play rehearsal. They are “Poacher’s Den,” “Epilogue,” and, of all things, “Credits.” I guess I can't blame them for the last one. It's pretty great.Now, I've about reached my limit on extracting something thematically meaningful from this mess, but let's try anyway. In Jenomis' version of the story, Ramza defeats Ultima. With this accomplished, he and Alma choose to give up their noble titles and embrace a life of freedom. They vow to travel abroad and build a new life with new friends and family. Then, they will entrust the history of Ivalice to those people, knowing it will be passed down and never forgotten, even if their homeland is lost. When asked why he changed events instead of writing what really happened, Jeno says this:   So basically, he thought his audience would be too depressed by an ending where the hero lost and endured thousands of years inside a necklace to take another bite at the apple. Rather than leave them dissatisfied, he chose an uplifting finale so the story would stick better. But that only addresses half the question. Why have Ramza leave Ivalice? Why have him tell his story to people in distant lands? We can find an answer in a throw-away line of dialogue way back near the start of Act III:  Jeno rewrote Ramza's story as a parable mirroring his exile from Garlemald. The hero espouses a distinctly anti-nationalist subtext and elevates the idea that you can make a home anywhere and a family with anyone, which a lot of Garleans probably need to hear. Plus, it's a story his actors can sell in their performances because they're living through it. Remember our dancing girl?  This interpretation is also in line with Ramza's final talk about how being exposed to new people and places helped him leave behind his supremacist ideology. He dug so deeply into that way of thinking because he feared rejection from people outside his in-group. Better to conform to a group that will accept you because of an inherent trait, even if that means those without the trait need to be destroyed. That, in turn, links up to a very tiny detail that's easy to miss because the game never draws attention to it: Ramza is not Pureblood Garlean.  Perhaps Ramza hopes that people seeing OG Ramza embrace life with outsiders will help them overcome the fear that drove him toward hatred and a way of life that might force others to accept him.  But why use OG Ramza's story to convey this message instead of writing a new play? Well, it's a stretch, but it might be connected to the core conceit that Auracite will fulfill your wishes at the price of service to a higher being who is beyond human understanding. Jenomis spent years chasing secret knowledge: the truths of Ivalice's existence, his ancestor's innocence, and Auracite's power to bring back the dead. That pursuit almost cost him everything. By rejecting the "truth," of what OG Ramza did and reworking that journey into an argument in favor of the things the Prima Vista's crew gained without needing to uncover that "truth," Jenomis could be symbolically rejecting the greed of wishing for the impossible and the idea of seeking higher knowledge at any cost. Like I said, it's a stretch, but it's the best I can do.  So, a couple of final notes: Alma says that OG Ramza's departure has left the Virgo inert. It hasn't bonded with anyone else, and no magic is left within it. She'll keep it as a memento of her mother. Mikoto intends to return to Sharlayan and encourage the founding of a College of Ivalician Studies. She also wants to be more useful the next time we meet each other, so she's going to start training for fieldwork. Fran informs us that Doma and the Alliance have agreed to take on Dalmascan refugees as a small contribution to Lente's Tears' fight for freedom. She hopes that begining may grow into more as time goes on. Last but not least, Ramza says he intends to pen his first play… the tale of Kheris Kilrau, the Warrior of Light.  But wait… someone is missing. Where's the Company Thespian?  …  Oh crap. (Cue our last track, "Intrigue.")At the center of this force of scientists and soldiers stands the man Kheris became in Ba'Gamnan's vision. He is Noah van Gabrath, Legatus of the IVth Legion and Imperial Viceroy of Dalmasca.  …  That's right, we're setting up a sequel! I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Incidentally, am I the only person who thinks they originally intended Ramza to be behind this betrayal and got cold feet at the last minute? That would explain his sudden character shift and why they gave this role to a background extra without a name.  Tartarus? What is-  MATHBOT, NO! I COULD HANDLE THE GUY WITHOUT A NAME BETRAYING ME, BUT I LEFT YOU TO DANCE IN PEACE!  So, remember how I said that Construct 7 has a transition phase where he sucks you into a black hole? I don't blame you if you don't. I thought it was so unremarkable that I didn't even include a picture to save some space. That Black Hole phase was called "Tartarus Mode."  That's a DEEP cut for your sequel hook. I respect it. So, that's the end. Is there anything left to say about the Return to Ivalice Raid Series? It deserved better. There is no part of this thing that I hate. Every idea is good, or at least could be good if it was allowed to breathe and grow. The writers refused to restrain themselves, or the editors refused to impose restraint on them, and the whole thing fell apart as a result. It's a valuable object lesson… said the writer who dedicated two entire chapters to discussing this one raid in excruciating detail. Let's close on a positive: Orbonne Monastery is brilliant. It's a virtually perfect raid. Every boss is fun in a unique way. Mustadio is flashy and dramatic but tuned appropriately for a starting boss. Agrias is tougher but also captures that game-within-a-game feeling you find with the best gimmick-focused bosses. Cid is a stiff mechanical test but ultimately a fair one that feels satisfying to master. Ultima follows in the footsteps of Tsukiyomi, creating a "playable cutscene," style encounter with an engaging level of difficulty and some very creative interaction between mechanics and narrative. This is going to be my benchmark for Alliance Raiding going forward. Whatever the story's failings, the team has every reason to be proud of this instance. ~*~*~  OH, I'M SORRY. DID YOU THINK WE WERE DONE? THE DRAMATURGE NEEDS SOME WINE! YOU'RE NEVER GETTING OFF MR. MATSUNO'S WILD RIDE! NEVER! AHAHAHAHAHAHA! 
Sanguinia fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 00:35
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"Seven shadows cast; seven fates foretold - yet at the end of the broken path lies death, and death alone" is essentially the most metal boss line and line delivery ever and they ain't ever beating it. Every time I love it.
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Feb 18, 2024 00:56
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Ultima is, in my opinion, a high point of raid boss design. She excels in both style and substance. Summoning all the Lucavi like that is what I call a "kitchen sink attack" where everything gets thrown at you including the kitchen sink, which usually just shows up in some of the hardest content. For good reason; every mechanic is avoidable but it's so easy to miss one, they're all pretty lethal (two definitely are), and even recently I have had raids where enough people died that we couldn't recover in time and she chewed through the shield. The whole fight just has me grinning every time I do it. It feels BIG, and while Cloud kinda did that and Diabolos did it in the arena (not the mechanics in my opinion, the gate is neat but everything else feels very small for the size of things) Ultima takes it to a new level. Mustadio's Hole is one of the big flubs of UI design, made worse because they reuse it later. There's been a lot of arguments about how it could have been more readable, I think as far as small changes are co0ncerned making them an angry red instead of orange would have helped. Thunder God Cid's raid-wiping attack was the one where you drop the black orbs that expand. If two of them touch each other they explode and that explosion used to be lethal. "Kill the raid because one guy missed a mechanic" was deemed, rightfully, to be a bit too harsh. Overall the Ivalice raid fights feel very frantic, for better or worse. I'm never unhappy to queue into one of them, they ooze style from every pore.
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Feb 18, 2024 01:13
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Winequest  Honestly love getting this raid in roulette, even if I’m not particularly good at it I always have a good time. The voice acting alone is incredible, particularly the Thunder God. One thing that’s kind of cute imo that a friend pointed out to me is that the model they use for his human form is identical to Cid’s “Marques” getup from ARR when he was an amnesiac.
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Feb 18, 2024 01:18
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I don't think it's a spoiler to say that raids start going hard after this. Mechanically speaking. Like the developers turn to you directly and go "You got here, hero: you've proven you've got the stuff. Now watch this poo poo"
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Feb 18, 2024 01:19
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I have issues with this raid series, but Orbonne is one of my favourite raids in the game, no doubt. TG Cid is also just one of my favourite bosses in the game, great fight design, fantastic music and incredible voice acting. All the story before this raid apparently left it's mark on me though, even if I barely remember it. Every time I unlocked an alliance raid after this, I'm always surprised how quickly the raid actually unlocks.
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Feb 18, 2024 01:34
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Show hole! I swear I've only seen that meme explanation appear in the last few months.
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Feb 18, 2024 01:37
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Show Hole: the most powerful joke call, simply for being both silly and extremely accurate
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Feb 18, 2024 01:39
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The callbacks in this part of the story are relatively nice as a Tactics fan, and I did enjoy fighting Mustadio, Agrias, and Cid. Did you notice that T.G. Cid's human form is identical to Cid Garlond, by the way?
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Feb 18, 2024 01:39
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Bruceski posted:Thunder God Cid's raid-wiping attack was the one where you drop the black orbs that expand. If two of them touch each other they explode and that explosion used to be lethal. "Kill the raid because one guy missed a mechanic" was deemed, rightfully, to be a bit too harsh. Nah, as someone who did a bunch of TG Cid's Wild Ride on Day 1, that mechanic is a pain but it wasn't the raidkiller. Duskblade is the shadowy-looking platforms on every part of the arena. 3 people needed to stand on each one, and they were spaced so every party had to deal with two. On content, if even one of these platforms was not covered appropriately, the entire raid would suffer heavy raidwide damage and a stack of Vuln Up, so if every alliance missed one (or a particularly wiped-out alliance didn't have enough members to cover theirs) it was basically a guaranteed wipe, especially because the phase transition hits right after one of these. I don't think it's unfair to say that TG Cid, on content, was one of the hardest fights to not be sequestered away in EX/Savage/Ultimates. He's extremely fair but each fuckup on-content was completely, relentlessly unforgiving. Also, as an added 'hidden' reference, TG Cid is the raid-breaker because everyone who has played Tactics is aware Cid was busted as fuuuuuck. Monathin fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 01:46
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Hellioning posted:The callbacks in this part of the story are relatively nice as a Tactics fan, and I did enjoy fighting Mustadio, Agrias, and Cid. I couldn't really get a good enough look at him, but I assumed from Montblanc's comment
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Feb 18, 2024 01:51
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There's one thing you can't fault in all of StormBlood, it's that the fights are always great to plain bonkers (bar some exceptions), between the trials, normal and alliance raids, this extension probably has some of my favourite fights of the entire game. They pose the template in boss design that will serve in both ShB and EW, and the difficulty in of some of the mechanics in the Ivalice raids are basically unmatched. Well for "normal" difficulty, can't say much about extremes/savages. The ShB alliance raids contains some vicious mechanics but Ivalice is just one step above.
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Feb 18, 2024 02:07
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Mustadio, Agrias and Orlandu all do join Ramza's party as special units in Tactics; the latter's skillset includes all of Agrias's, hence why they share some callouts here. The two female knights by Agrias and the bandana'd man near them are also nods to FFT units, along with a selection of generics. The sets from Orbonne include more references again; Aiming is Balthier's clothes from XII, the 'leading man' of the party. Striking is Ramza's outfit from Chapter 4 of Tactics, affectionately referred to as 'buttpants' by some players because of the emphasis on his backside.  Healing is the Oracle job from Tactics, a job based mainly around status effects. The only spell of theirs in this game would be Sleep/Repose, which had the casting quote "Lose conscious, wash away into the silent sea... Sleep!"  Fending is Agrias's outfit, which is quite a stylish option. Maiming, Scouting and Casting are recolours. Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 02:13
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Monathin posted:Also, as an added 'hidden' reference, TG Cid is the raid-breaker because everyone who has played Tactics is aware Cid was busted as fuuuuuck. Yeah, TG Cid is the FF Tactics version of the "here's a guy that's stupidly overpowered to carry you across the finish line just in case you had no idea what the hell you were doing when you were leveling up your characters" end game unit. While it's possible for you to build better units once you have sufficient system mastery, if you're playing for the first time or just one of those people who get decision paralysis and have no idea how to properly set up your characters, Cid will happily curbstomp his way through pretty much anything in your path between your recruiting him and the end game.
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Feb 18, 2024 02:15
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Monathin posted:Nah, as someone who did a bunch of TG Cid's Wild Ride on Day 1, that mechanic is a pain but it wasn't the raidkiller. ...huh, then I was lied to. That one feels pretty easy to me.
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Feb 18, 2024 02:16
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W.T. Fits posted:Yeah, TG Cid is the FF Tactics version of the "here's a guy that's stupidly overpowered to carry you across the finish line just in case you had no idea what the hell you were doing when you were leveling up your characters" end game unit. While it's possible for you to build better units once you have sufficient system mastery, if you're playing for the first time or just one of those people who get decision paralysis and have no idea how to properly set up your characters, Cid will happily curbstomp his way through pretty much anything in your path between your recruiting him and the end game. And tying back in to the update wondering about the tie between him and Agrias, one of the reasons he’s so powerful is that he can learn the abilities of all three of the other “magic swordsman” named characters that join your party… including Agrias.
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Feb 18, 2024 02:21
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God I love Orbonne so much. It's just brilliant. The voicelines, the mechanics, the soundtrack, it's just so good. I'm always happy when I get it in my AR roulettes.
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Feb 18, 2024 02:29
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Qwertycoatl posted:I'm not expecting an Ivalice expansion. The playerbase isn't exactly crying out for it and it's got some baggage from this alliance raid. Someone asked Yoshida about more Ivalice at TGS a few months ago, and he responded with a handwavy dismissal by saying he was more interested in a different game's nation than Ivalice, which in retrospect was a 7.0 teaser, but this was before EU FanFest when 7.0 was still just Two Dyes and a raid tool. He still shot the idea down, though. sweet geek swag posted:Maybe if they do an Auracite expansion or something. I can't imagine anything that would make me check out quicker. I think part of the reason the quests do nothing for me is because I prefer Auracite as an Ascian Pokeball plot device they were introduced as, and Ultima as a Big Damage Spell as it is used in almost all mainline FFs, and did not want the Matsunoverse uses of these things applied to either. Craptacular! fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 02:29
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They weren't particularly highlighted in the update, but there's actually two "new" basic enemy models in this raid.    What's special about them is that they are actually originally from Vagrant Story!   Nightstalkers and Dark Crusaders were stronger variants of the basic Dullahan enemy, but since XIV already has a Dullahan...  Anyway, just shouting out the small bit of VS repping in this raid series, too, since Tactics and XII are the main sources of Ivalice Alliance references. Anyway, now that this is done, the final round of gear references:  Ivalician Brave (Striking) is based on Ramza's third and final outfit in Final Fantasy Tactics (and XIV), his "Heretic" getup, sometime affectionately known as buttpants because, well. Ivalician Mercenary (Scouting) is a variant that might be a bit of a callback to Ramza's second outfit from his time as a, well, Mercenary, but it's not overtly so.   Ivalician Holy Knight (Fending) is based on Agrias Oaks's outfit in Final Fantasy Tactics (and XIV). Ivalician Royal Knight (Maiming) is a variant.  Ivalician Oracle (Healing) is based on the Male Mystic/Oracle garb in Final Fantasy Tactics. Ivalician Mystic (Casting) is a variant. In a bit of cute localization naming, the Healing set is named after the original Playstation translation and the Casting set is named after the PSP translation. (The Japanese name for the job in-game is 陰陽士, Onmyōshi, while artistic materials for the Playstation called it an Augur)  Ivalician Sky Pirate is based on Balthier's appearance in Final Fantasy XII.  edit: lol sniped by yapping eevee this time Monathin posted:I don't think it's unfair to say that TG Cid, on content, was one of the hardest fights to not be sequestered away in EX/Savage/Ultimates. He's extremely fair but each fuckup on-content was completely, relentlessly unforgiving. 5.1 added the Echo to Orbonne Monastery. Indirect, but it still makes it an easier fight. The next one is targeted. 5.21: The following changes have been made to the battle with the Thunder God in the Orbonne Monastery. The damage dealt when Shadowblade domes overlap has been reduced. -was pretty easy for panicky players to not drop the domes well The duration of the Bleeding debuff applied by Shadowblade has been reduced. -this was a pretty massive bleed especially at launch, if more than two domes overlapped it could easily be a wipe, especially with other raidwides hitting The damage dealt when too few players are standing on the Duskblade circle has been reduced. - if you didn't have enough people standing on enough of the circles it could wipe the raid The potency of the Burst attack used by the icewolves has been reduced. -when the fight lasted longer, the floating balls of ice really needed to be taken care of instead of attempting to burn down Cid. This change made it easier for the raid to finish even if they aren't all destroyed in time The effect of the Vulnerability Up debuff has been weakened. Hogama fucked around with this message at 04:35 on Feb 18, 2024 |
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Feb 18, 2024 03:01
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Yapping Eevee posted:
It is an S-tier glam. Most pieces from these raids are, though it would be nicer if they could be dyed. 
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Feb 18, 2024 03:02
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I have massive issues with how this storyline handles Final Fantasy Tactics's plot. Specifically, it's treatment of Ramza and Delita, and having them be all best friends here. This is the final scene of Final Fantasy Tactics, and also the tragedy that befell Ovelia, and it should hopefully speak for itself. The WHOLE POINT of Delita's storyline in FFT is that, after spending the entire game backstabbing his way into supreme power, his reward was a hollow life on the throne, beloved by all but ultimately loved by none, to live miserably to the end of his days as penance for his sins! It serves as a stark contrast to Ramza ending happy and free but reviled by the people for his opposition to the Church. Adding this onto that as a final note just ruins the story! Gaaaaaaaaargh! No, this isn't fanservice Matsuno, having your two protagonists make up isn't going to please anyone who played Tactics because one of them is a real bastard!
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Feb 18, 2024 03:03
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This isn't Final Fantasy Tactics, though.
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Feb 18, 2024 03:04
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Monathin posted:Nah, as someone who did a bunch of TG Cid's Wild Ride on Day 1, that mechanic is a pain but it wasn't the raidkiller. Duskblade was definitely a killer, but the expanding orbs was also brutal since originally they'd deal pulsing damage for every tick that two of the orbs overlapped. If multiple people placed them badly they'd add up absurd amounts of damage fast. Cid is heavily nerfed from the original release of the raid. More than a few vote abandons were laid at his feet. As an especially deep cut: FFXIV has in several cases re-used monster models from earlier games in the series. Primarily from Final Fantasies 10 through 13. The animated armors from right before Cid? Those are actually lifted right out of fuckin' Vagrant Story, a PS1 game from the extended Ivalice universe. With greatly upgraded textures of course, that was where they first appeared and I'm mostly sure the skeleton and animations were imported more or less directly. Ultima as a Lovecraftian, alien horror is definitely on point. Everything about her is very very wrong, and it's clear that whatever it is she wants, you don't want to know (if you're even capable of knowing). A good monster design that screams out the need to destroy this terrifying thing. Her evil angel adds, by the way, are based on Ultima, the final boss of FFT and Lucavi of the Virgo auracite. Garleans digging up Mathbot was definitely a hell of a To Be Continued moment, lol
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Feb 18, 2024 03:09
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Thunder God Cid is the best voice acting in the game and I will hear no words to the contrary. Despite appearing in Tactics and XII, Ultima has a brand-new design for this game instead of using the previous ones. That said, Ultima's little minions are based on her Tactics design. Oh yeah, one thing I was unclear on: what was the deal with Argath in Rabanastre? Was he a guy that came with Jenomis and betrayed him? Did he come out of the Auracite like Ramza's friends?
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Feb 18, 2024 03:27
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TG CId was so good at launch. Just the most fucker of a raidkiller. That first week when Orbonne come out, it was not uncommon for raids to fail completely at TG Cid. Like, we're talking running out of the raid timer. It was loving awesome. And it was the perfect boss to be a raidkiller too. Could not be more fitting.
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Feb 18, 2024 03:27
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Blueberry Pancakes posted:Oh yeah, one thing I was unclear on: what was the deal with Argath in Rabanastre? Was he a guy that came with Jenomis and betrayed him? Did he come out of the Auracite like Ramza's friends? The later. It seems like his soul went inside the Duma when he got killed during the "rescue" of Delita's sister and it just stayed there when the stone got left behind. He didn't stick himself in there willingly like the Braves did.
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Feb 18, 2024 03:32
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Orbonne is the best raid, period. Which is not to say future ones are bad, just that it is my personal favorite. It nails every step. It's a true shame that the story couldn't match it. Cut about a third of the named characters and their subplots and give the time and space to the elements that matter more. It was always going to be important that there be fanservice in a raid story referencing the Ivalice games so heavily, but they just didn't manage to focus on what they needed to. I hope that this experience doesn't put people off playing the real FFT, though I suspect it has. It has a very good story that FF14 just couldn't do justice to.
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Feb 18, 2024 03:34
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Hogama posted:They weren't particularly highlighted in the update, but there's actually two "new" basic enemy models in this raid. thats where those weird face birds are from!! does Vagrant Story explain what the gently caress is up with them or anything. cause what the gently caress is up with them
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Feb 18, 2024 03:44
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Yapping Eevee posted:
Looks like Rafa and Malak on the right in white, and in green maybe Meliadoul but I think it's a male character and therefore probably Izlude.
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Feb 18, 2024 03:46
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Chillgamesh posted:Looks like Rafa and Malak on the right in white, and in green maybe Meliadoul but I think it's a male character and therefore probably Izlude. Yeah, everyone in front at least is a reference to a Tactics character.
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Feb 18, 2024 03:52
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