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Yeah the Holminster Switch is a superb first dungeon and it's a really interesting momentum switch. We've seen just how horribly hosed things are, but now we can fight it! Once again it's the game making the player feel empowered and like they have a good amount of agency in the world, even as they follow a set path.
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May 7, 2024 08:09
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I really, really love the lyrics to Tomorrow and Tomorrow. It makes every time I return to the Crystarium and hear it a joy. I think it really gives more and more the more of the story I played.
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May 7, 2024 08:15
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ProfessorCirno posted:As I understand, the desired timeline was: We set poo poo up in both worlds, and right as poo poo in the First starts to boil, we slam on the Elf Pope. And then we, uh, murdered the Elf Pope, which meant all that Light Aether did not go into the Source, it stayed in the First. And started to rage out of control. Which means, when Elidibus and Ardbert showed up, the ascians had hosed up real bad, and had (potentially) broken another shard. By sending Minfilia to the First, you did save the Shard...but in turn, you threatened the entire Source by re-arming the Ascians. And now you're seeing how that potentially pays off.
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May 7, 2024 08:18
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Holminster Switch is a really fun first dungeon for an expansion. A couple of things that stand out:
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May 7, 2024 08:42
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Hogama posted:Alisaie will also drop everything to Verraise Alphinaud if he happens to get knocked out. And while it may or may not be "intentional" behavior, Alisaie is slightly more prone to getting clipped by AoE as she finishes her attacks before moving to safety. Essentially, using the twins together in a Trust is actively detrimental to performance. Yapping Eevee fucked around with this message at 08:48 on May 7, 2024 |
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May 7, 2024 08:45
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For what it's worth, the only detail the fight seems to give about Philia's past suggests Philia was a woman at one point. The raidwide is named "Scavenger's Daughter". As for the Taphephobia/Fear of Being Buried Alive, the Philia Triple Triad Card might have a clue. Yapping Eevee posted:She even sometimes not-quite-dodges attacks to make Alphi heal her. As in, she moves to the edge of the effect but stops short of actually being out of it. I have died as a tank because Alphinaud prioritises healing Alisaie and the AI are bad at big pulls (especially in Holminster Switch).
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May 7, 2024 08:46
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Staggy posted:
Lord_Magmar posted:For what it's worth, the only detail the fight seems to give about Philia's past suggests Philia was a woman at one point.
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May 7, 2024 08:50
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GilliamYaeger posted:The "scavenger's daughter" is actually a torture tool, which means that Philia does follow the naming convention of the other two bosses, though only a little. Huh, fair enough. On that front though I feel like Headcrusher and Pendulum still sound like methods of Torture to me, although not specific tool names. To that end chain down does too, and a Knout is a Russian Whip intended primarily for fatal flogging. Fierce Beating also sounds as much like a method of torture as anything else, the only really unfitting names for the Torture theme are Aethersup and Into the Light. Pendulum in particular puts in mind the swinging lowering axe fantasy likes, and Headcrusher as a slower "twist a screw to clamp wood down on someone's skull/head" thing. Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 08:59 on May 7, 2024 |
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May 7, 2024 08:56
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Staggy posted:(plus the slightly less sinister "The Tickler"). quote:Philia's attack names don't follow this convention and are fairly generic (Headcrusher, Pendulum, etc.) GilliamYaeger posted:The "scavenger's daughter" is actually a torture tool, which means that Philia does follow the naming convention of the other two bosses, though only a little.  quote:This metal device featured a plate that sat below the victim's jaw, which was connected by a frame to the head cap. As the torturer slowly twisted the handle, the gap between the head cap and plate decreased, crushing the skull  quote:With the help of a rope, the victim's wrists were tied behind his back. As the torturer turned the handle, the rope slowly elevated eventually dislocating the victim's shoulders.
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May 7, 2024 08:57
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ProfessorCirno posted:I was on the edge of my goddamn seat when I played through this content, and I think I gasped at my WoL splitting the sky. It's such a strong scene. I was also lucky and it was night when the CS had ended, allowing me to wander over to the Crystarium and enjoy it's night theme, which still hits me pretty decently after the fact. There's also so many little things here, but I do want to laugh a bit at Heart Stealing Ali there. I'm sure she'll get over her WoL crush soon enough, and her growing fanbase of women might help that along. 
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May 7, 2024 09:02
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Everything about Holminster Switch lands absolutely perfectly, on an emotional level it's an incredibly hard-hitting first dungeon for an expansion. And you get to do the Cutscene Thing! I love it when you see a cool thing in a trailer and actually get to do it. lmao
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May 7, 2024 09:05
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Staggy posted:Holminster Switch is a really fun first dungeon for an expansion. A couple of things that stand out: It's one pack after another,you can't even multipull, making this section a pace killer that just slows you down so that the dungeon takes 20 minutes.
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May 7, 2024 09:09
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Incredible
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May 7, 2024 09:16
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What I'm learning from this is there are far more methods of torture than I first appreciated. And while I suppose being buried alive could in and of itself be a generic torture method, thinking about it does now bring to mind (given the mention of Poe) The Cask of Amontillado, if that counts as "burying".
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May 7, 2024 09:17
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For the love of Hydaelyn, Montressor
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May 7, 2024 09:22
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incredible how has no one done a virgin Alphinaud/chad Alisae meme yet I did find this during the search, though 
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May 7, 2024 09:25
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It's not the most impressive vista within the game, but that first view across the fields when you get over that little hill after the first boss fight really sells Holminster Switch. The little path winding its way to the village between the fences and the rolling green would make a postcard motive in our world and instead you've got fire and smoke in the distance and the fields dotted with sin eater eggs and the dead.
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May 7, 2024 09:27
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dyslexicfaser posted:incredible The Roe Scions is a thing with almost every member afaik, there's also the Lalafell ones (who extend to other cast members, I'm pretty sure there's a Gaius Baelsmol or some such)
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May 7, 2024 09:28
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The rock version of Insatiable that plays for midbosses is usually referred to as "Insatiable (Scions and Sinners)," since Scions and Sinners is the FF14 remix album where it appears. The album wasn't released until well after the track was added to Dissidia; I would guess that The Primals recorded it for that album, but it happened to debut in Dissidia first.dyslexicfaser posted:I was really baffled to find they'd set the Trailer Boss as the first boss of the first dungeon. She's not even a Light Warden! Literally a speedbump. To be fair, she's already not particularly unique, since her model is taken from an ARR dungeon enemy, like the other two monsters we see in the ShB trailer. Expansion CG trailers are locked in about a year before before the expansion ships, and one consequence of that is that they generally don't feature many monster models that aren't directly based on existing ones, which in some cases can be a little misleading. Hogama posted:As a dungeon run without Duty Support, though, I will say this one tended to be a rude awakening for teams wall-pulling with the various changes 5.0 brought (and can still catch newbies off-guard, regardless), because some of the combined pulls hit dang hard. On top of the generally spicy pulls, Holminster Switch is also notorious for parties wiping thanks to overconfident healers who run the first available dungeon as Sage as soon as they unlock the job without actually knowing how to play it.
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May 7, 2024 09:43
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It's a funny meme but this happened just as much in ShB before sage even existed. The dungeon is generally punishing if you're on a healer you haven't played in a while (sure, sage because it's new, but it might also be the astrologian someone leveled to 70 a year+ ago and haven't used since), particularly in combination with tanks who think they can wall pull as usual but who aren't using all their mitigations.
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May 7, 2024 11:48
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Holmisnter Switch just kinda hits hard, I think the ilvl limit is maybe tuned a little closer than later dungeons or something. It defiantly feels like it hits harder than say The Ghimlyt Dark, despite how close those are in level and ilvl. First dungeon of Endwalker is kinda the same. At least I feel a little more on my toes when I do those dungeons than some of the later ones.
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May 7, 2024 12:05
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Here we go. Everybody says Welcome To Shadowbringers in the desert but Holminster Switch is where it happened for me. The sheer heroic gravitas of fighting Philia with that boss theme playing is perfect and the rise of difficulty of dungeon bosses helps set the intensity. The first time that earthquake tantrum goes off and doesn't stop...  The feeling of struggling to push back the end of days and achieve any win makes the Holminster win incredible. The Burn(Extreme) 
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May 7, 2024 13:25
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Thematically Holminster Switch is great as the opening dungeon. It carries a lot of tension and emotional fraughtness even if it's not all that complex mechanically. At release it was also a fairly brutal healer check, especially if you had a fresh gunbteaker charge in to pull everything up to the first boss. It's true the scene after the dungeon does happen to work better if it's night at the time. But the normal sky is pretty too. Gaius and Estinien's Buddy Cop Adventure was a good choice for keeping the player apprised of events back on the Source. The world's two biggest badasses snarking at each other while they march relentlessly into Garlean territory is a pretty fun dynamic. Looking forward to seeing what you think of Minifilia.
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May 7, 2024 14:32
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The main reason I think Holminster Switch is amazing is that is acts as catharsis after the oppressive opening of the expansion. You spend a whole bunch of hours running around in the more and more grating light slowly realizing how utterly hosed the world is. And then you finally get something you can punch to make better, and it's probably the best cinematic dungeon experience in the game so far. And once you win you first get the split the sky cutscene which is superb, and then everyones reaction to night returning. And then you get another Ardbert conversation, and I at least love each and every one of them.
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May 7, 2024 15:34
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Is anyone else reminded of Tacitus? No? Just me? Never mind. "To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire, and where they make a desert, they call it peace."
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May 7, 2024 15:42
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Absolutely amazing.  Also, this just about sums up my reaction to Holminster Switch: ProfessorCirno posted:
with the addition that I let out a whoop of triumph when the sky got split and the starry sky was revealed. I was also lucky enough to have time of day sync up with the cutscene, which just underscored the impact of what you just pulled off even more. Ardbert's melancholy appearance after is ... something. It doesn't come across as undercutting your achievement, but it does point out that even the victory you've just had comes with perils of its own attached, and at least in my case it really made me feel for him.
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May 7, 2024 15:47
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tiercel posted:Is anyone else reminded of Tacitus? No? Just me? Never mind. Gaius is against black rose because it would cause...such devastation. That line doesn't suggest he has any problems with empire or conquest in general.
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May 7, 2024 15:58
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Gaius is an imperialist who's only ok with some kinds of genocide. Black Rose is the wrong kind. Gaius is the guy going "hey hey hey hold on, don't just slaughter the slaves. They're useful!"
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May 7, 2024 16:12
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Algid posted:Gaius is against black rose because it would cause...such devastation. That line doesn't suggest he has any problems with empire or conquest in general. Yeah, uh. Gaius is still Gaius. The trouble he has is that he's an idealist who genuinely believes in, and has attempted to put into practice, the lies that the Garlean Empire have used in their propaganda, both internal and external. So even if he's turned on the Ascians, he's still loyal to the idea of Garlemald as a 'benevolent' enterprise that is worth all the bloodshed and horror sown in its wake.
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May 7, 2024 16:13
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tiercel posted:Is anyone else reminded of Tacitus? No? Just me? Never mind. This meme is all I can see with that screenshot now  And since we've now seen that scene, I can post it! FuturePastNow fucked around with this message at 16:19 on May 7, 2024 |
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May 7, 2024 16:16
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Thundarr posted:Gaius and Estinien's Buddy Cop Adventure was a good choice for keeping the player apprised of events back on the Source. The world's two biggest badasses snarking at each other while they march relentlessly into Garlean territory is a pretty fun dynamic. Biggest badasses (currently on the Source)
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May 7, 2024 16:17
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"... We stand in the presence of a Lightwarden." Holminster Switch is basically my favorite dungeon in Shadowbringers, and possibly up to the end of the current MSQ. Everything about the atmosphere of it hit me very hard, and both that and the dungeon theme (which is solidly my favorite in FF14, or at least top 3) urge me to hit sprint and keep running forward. If I move fast enough, maybe I'll be able to save more people. My previous favorite dungeon was the Aetherochemical Research Facility, for faintly similar reasons. I think I just like there being a tone of desperation going on.
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May 7, 2024 16:21
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I agree that changing the midboss music takes a bit away from hearing Insatiable at the end of the dungeon. I actually liked the earlier take better. Still, Holminster Switch has imo some of the best ambience/atmosphere of any XIV dungeon, especially of those up to this point.
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May 7, 2024 16:24
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Algid posted:Gaius is against black rose because it would cause...such devastation. That line doesn't suggest he has any problems with empire or conquest in general. You make an excellent point; I was doing shallow analysis based solely on the wording of the last line.
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May 7, 2024 16:27
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dyslexicfaser posted:Biggest (remaining) badasses While true, they probably are the strongest fighters to appear in the story so far that don't also have the Echo (artificial or otherwise). Gaius' Men of Power shtick worked because absent weirdos like Zenos and the WoL, there genuinely would be no one with the power to stop him.
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May 7, 2024 16:31
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Algid posted:Gaius is against black rose because it would cause...such devastation. That line doesn't suggest he has any problems with empire or conquest in general. I think the point was more that Gaius saying that poo poo made them THINK of Tacitus EDIT: Or maybe I was wrong
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May 7, 2024 16:34
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I am a little surprised you didn't go into the lyrics for the Main Boss theme of Shadowbringers.
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May 7, 2024 16:37
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Rorahusky posted:I am a little surprised you didn't go into the lyrics for the Main Boss theme of Shadowbringers. I did. They're the lyrics from the Opening Cinematic.
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May 7, 2024 16:41
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Sanguinia posted:At the risk of jumping ahead of my own LP slightly to Lakeland sidequest content wasn't the Ascian plot on the First at the time Ardbert was Warrior of Light something totally different? One of them was posing as a weird fascist cult leader trying to whip the Elves into a giant war with everybody else and/or themselves, and Ardbert and co killed him. That's what triggered the Flood. Then again, with the whole "Time works weird between shards," plot point who knows exactly when the Ascians learned that Ardbert had killed their guys on the First and set Light on the path to total dominion? The abilities of the Sin Eaters are almost exclusively tools of torture in HS too. Pillory, Brazen Bull, Thumbscrew, Wooden Horse, Scold's Bridle, Fevered Flagellation, Scavenger's Daughter, and the ever simple Fierce Beating.
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May 7, 2024 17:11
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primaltrash posted:Pillory, Brazen Bull, Thumbscrew, Wooden Horse, Scold's Bridle, Fevered Flagellation, Scavenger's Daughter, and the ever simple Fierce Beating. For the record, I did realize this, but not until later, which is when I'll bring it up. I didn't realize it's full extent though, stuff like Skullcrusher and Pendulum being part of the trend was a surprise.
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May 7, 2024 17:17
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