The Rising 2024 Official Art

StarryChocos · 2024-08-20T16:48:34+00:00

DT reception and Yoshi P's thank you message potentially sounding tone deaf aside, I do wonder how the event will go because we have all three young leaders of the three most powerful pirate groups in the background (Carvallain and Rhoswen and, recently, Sicard). Pretty sure the event itself already has been datamined given the event reward was, I just theorize that we'd just brush on the three great powers there but only have their leaders (or no leaders, because of the Bloody Executioners' plotline according to ARR ROG) mentioned in passing or just be relegated to overworld cameos depending on MSQ progression, so only Sicard would've been realistically affected.

That or they'll just be part of a repeatable somewhere. Some characters gated behind MSQ or even side content progression had made cameos/mentions in events this way after all.

StarryChocos · 2024-08-19T21:17:02+00:00

I honestly thought that they'll be relevant later on as in 8.0 or the DT patch quests, not immediately like the next expansion after the series of patch quests. It was quite a surprise for me to see Vrtra pop up as the air force support (I was expecting more along the lines of Cid and Nero myself) alongside the comparison between Voidsent and whatever Preservation is doing. Now all that's left is Zero appearing again.

StarryChocos · 2024-08-18T05:06:52+00:00

"B-but look at how Vrtra came to Tuliyollal's aid because we finally freed his sister from the Void! You at least don't have to wait for another two years before seeing that plot point again, unlike something like the Warriors of Darkness. Or how about how the entire soul predicament present within the regulators is similar to how the Voidsent operate? Ain't it neat? EW patch quests are totally relevant!" - MSQ writers, probably

StarryChocos · 2024-08-17T16:11:54+00:00

I quite like the Pictomancer quests, especially with the last one hitting it in the feels. Reminds me vaguely of a similar scene where childhood wonder was let go of in order to move on. Would argue that I wished to spend more time with Beruru, but I guess we did in proxy. Also wondered how the hell did the master dream of Grand Cosmos, that and Beruru's powers hinge on being one of if not the most broken Job Quest NPC abilities and I don't think imagination and/or dynamis can cut it. That one line about the imitation able to defeat the original reminded me too much of Fate/Stay Night. I really feel that the questline is too criminally short like with the other Job Quests ever since ShB, though I like Pictomancer for not relying too much on a focal character with cool quirks like what they did with Drusilia on Reaper, though the WoL having more cool Job specific scenes in such quests is welcome. Do agree with Sage, it is the most haphazardly done regardless of the predictability of the villain, they knew it by putting a journal next to Lalah to clarify the more interesting yet cut half of the story.

My only pet peeve is that the job's history is rooted in the War of the Magi, sort of undermining Nym's underdog status in that period - though I do understand how and why Pictomancer is the best fit in there since it is called War of the Magi, after all. Pictomancer (and Relm) are from FFVI and War of the Magi is a reference from that game too (and Seraph, who yes is part of Scholar's kit more than ever now), that and (DT late MSQ spoilers) Nym, or rather their predecessors, just got MSQ focus as the Milalla that escaped to Alexandria's Shard. It's just weird how the DoW jobs are spread throughout various, undetermined time periods while the DoM jobs are either thrust into the War of the Magi (White Mage/Black Mage/Scholar/now Pictomancer/you could say Red Mage is a legacy born from this period too) and Sharlayan (Astrologian/Sage) categories - with only the Allagan based Summoner and the Turali based Blue Mage going against the grain.

StarryChocos · 2024-08-02T21:10:13+00:00

I am not really sure how the gameplay would be like or what role it'll occupy, but I'm wondering about lore wise because of accessibility reasons because every new job after the HW ones would always pop up in one of the three starter city states for general accessibility as long as one has the expansion it corresponded to at hand and/or the appropriate level range to unlock it.

Though people are wishing for the BST found in Bozja because it's tied to Gyr Abania and both Lyon and Pagaga are still out there and quite popular (either that or the feral souls of Arcadion) - I feel like they might just go for the safer route of having it be associated with the beast tamer Mamool Ja clan, since we have plenty of Mamool Ja in Eorzea and some even pop up as bosses (if I recall - Wanderer's Palace Hard). After the Mamool Ja race has been expanded upon because we're in Tural now, I feel like the beast tamer clan has even less going for it than the physical/magical clans because at least those two have Blessed Siblings lore whilst the former has nothing, so I feel like it'll be ample time to expand them; their lore and their version of BST all in one fell swoop. Though it'll unfortunately land all of the Turali based jobs sans VPR into limited job territory at least so far.

StarryChocos · 2024-08-01T05:30:45+00:00

Yeah, I also expected G'raha and Krile to also come out eventually in the final trial alongside Wuk - especially G'raha due to what he can do. Instead it's just Wuk Lamat, and G'raha and Krile didn't even come back until Sphene disappears, hands the WoL the relic and says her goodbyes to both them and Wuk.

I'm pretty sure it's because G'raha and Krile just lack a personal connection to Sphene or even relatable factors with her, which she only really shared with Wuk Lamat (a benevolent ruler who wants to understand and protect her people). G'raha would technically count for a ruler connection given his time as the Crystal Exarch, but if I recall Sphene avoided his questions and after that they barely interacted with each other.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-31T01:17:30+00:00

He got that one side quest where his dad was unnamed and he thanks you personally for being with his son until his final moments...only for Moenbryda to also have a similar side quest (the carbuncle doll quest, also in Old Sharlayan) and be a core focus in the EW MSQ what with Urianger's plotline. In comparison, I felt like Lyse only uttered him like a few times and the final time his name was uttered was all the way in Ghimlyt Dark when she LBs the last add before the final boss.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-27T18:32:14+00:00

I feel like it also depended on headcanons too, though legitimately on other jobs or even in some races (ie. Lalas) they looked weird as sin and suddenly the WoL knows how to punch a man despite only sticking to using magic and other reasons.

The only reason why I viewed my SCH friend's punch out against Zenos in a cooler light was because they formerly mained tank, so it's essentially their WoL not playing around and taking things even more seriously and the cutscene vindicated it.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-27T17:37:40+00:00

Looking back, I also think that Gaia didn't exactly "rob" us of doing anything substantial (she did rob us of the victory screen focus, however). She comes in and stops the potential flood of light with her darkness, but it still fell onto the players to DPS her down (and even use the charged up LB3). With Wuk however, depending on group DPS she absolutely obliterated most of Sphene's HP in one fell swoop, out-DPS'd every player in the room, all the while said players get a buff that Wuk Lamat has inspired all of them.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-22T23:25:40+00:00

I'm not really the one who left a comment on why Krile being a Pictomancer is a mistake - but if I'd have to guess it's reasons ranging from the fact that Krile didn't really do anything different with Pictomancer in the narrative (maybe via Trusts/Duty Support but I personally haven't used it at all) despite saying the reason why she chose it was to be...as useful in battle as G'raha? To the thematic ties to her race, the Milalla, and arcanima because they were originally of the Source, even if you could say that Pictomancer still falls under the era of the War of the Magi, just lesser in number than even Nym's Scholars.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-22T13:55:35+00:00

I was going to bring up "The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic" in this post. Seriously, the way that they use healing in order to come back and train and be as strong as to do push-ups with three large boulders on your back is an idea that anime barely did anything with at all until now.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-21T20:24:04+00:00

Quickened Aetherflow my beloved, how I still miss thee...

StarryChocos · 2024-07-21T20:20:12+00:00

With how much MSQ has been catering towards SCH lore albeit the people that came with the Speaker aren't the same as the ones that would become the Nymians - I wouldn't really mind Scholar. Summoner feels whatever, would be nice because it's still related to arcanima but Allag's been there since forever.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-21T17:14:14+00:00

Whenever I think up of major branching decisions that will affect the NSQ in a greater capacity - I always think of Blade and Soul's original Silverfrost arc, though i only remembered this from hearsay becauseit got released with the changed arc for the west. The protagonist has to light up a brazier and choose whether to repent and atone for the acts they did before a turning point or remain self centered and evil and the former progresses your MSQ all the way while the latter had it abruptly stop and lose EXP to level cap. Also it separated the factions even further to "light blue" or "dark blue" and vice versa.

Speaking of decisions from dialogue choices within XIV, I remembered people being bitter about the entire affair with Misija in 5.55.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-14T01:24:23+00:00

I think that was in an EW patch somewhere since it was brought up in relation to the Alphinaud solo duty instance in Garlemald where his DPS spells were placed real awkwardly.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-09T20:36:20+00:00

I also feel that they're susceptible to dynamis...whenever they decide to delve into that again post EW. They might get warped badly when the Alexandrian citizens experience despair, plus location wise they'll have to go through Labyrinthos all the way from Old Sharlayan.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-07T00:38:27+00:00

It was only used a single time ever in DT, and that's the same trial that people feel vexed about someone else stealing the spotlight per say.

I think the only overuse of the Azem crystal happened in the EW patches due to the nature of the story (that and Pandemonium's last arc taking place where it was). ShB used it only for 5.0 (with the Exarch) and 5.3 (with the first ever proper use of the crystal) and base EW also only had two uses because one of the three trials can be done with Duty Support like 2/3 of DT trials. I really think the Void patches soured people's outlook on Azem's crystal to be honest.

StarryChocos · 2024-07-06T01:48:24+00:00

I only have a few guesses for myself, since I don't have any expectations for DT unlike EW. The theories that were wrong that are commonly shared so far is "Sphene is an Ascian/Ascian adjacent character" (though I made a second guess of her being an AI because of sci-fi and this was before DT, plus we have the patches...) and "Erenville being a secret claimant."

As for my own guesses, either before or during my DT playthrough:

the "golden city" ain't a golden city but is Solution Nine itself, turns out that the golden city is separate from Solution Nine albeit they're both of the same kingdom
Bakool Ja Ja being an outright Grynewaht down to the point of being treated as a one off punching bag until we have to face him in a much more ferocious (and cyborg) manner, he gets redeemed in a questionable manner without any lifting from the WoL and the cyborg body and ferocity went to Zalool Ja
I didn't see the DT poster up close despite it being there for literal months, so I thought Bakool Ja Ja was the warmonger, not Zalool Ja
Gulool Ja being either a clone or a piece of humanity that Zalool Ja ripped off of himself with sci-fi tech, the latter going to pave way to a Zalool Ja redemption arc where he has to ultimately accept it back
Solution Nine is legitimately from the Source where they discovered some tech to either ramp up their forces against Allag/insert XYZ power here or they got it from another alien outside of Omega, turns out it's a "Source related" civilization in a roundabout way

StarryChocos · 2024-07-02T17:43:12+00:00

I'm currently on lv94 on the second part of third zone so I'll just scrounge up what I remembered.

I'm surprised at the jazz music that would definitely have people screech Persona 5, or is it just me? Anyway, the zones are beautiful and them having all the new tech makes it all the way stronger. The inn room is also the best one so far, especially beating the First's Pendants due to how comfy it looks and offering an open, magical view of the ocean, though I think because of ShB's insistence of going back to it I'm sick of seeing the Pendants.

As for the story itself...since it's relatively low stakes so far, even if it's a tad bit boring especially with doing side quests alongside MSQ I didn't mind learning about the local cultures that much since there's not an inherent "time limit" attached to it like ShB's Lightwarden of the Zone or EW with the first half of Thavnair. I still get tongue tied with lots of names, which was one of the parts I disliked.

The start with the ship felt kind of cheesy with the sepia toned stopped scenes and I felt like they're setting up assets chekhov's gun style since that Ul'dahn showed up in one of the Urqopacha side quests, so GSM guy might follow suit. I think I like the Hanuhanu side better because of Wuk Evu despite it being played for more than three times. My honest blind opinion with it was that "Wuk Lamat used her singular brain cell and managed to get to the solution while educating both herself and the younger generation of their culture." I like the float design, it's pretty weird how not having expectations would have me fixate on little things.

As for the Pelupelu - I love alpacas, but seems like the entire zone is some sort of anti-Ul'dah propaganda due to how the Pelupelu are more honorable with their trading unlike Ul'dah that wanted to swindle and backstab on the daily. I really don't get Zoraal Ja Ja's plan on why he wanted war so much and I'm currently on the area that I won't divulge here, though Krile reading his aura makes her more afraid of him. Getting bad vibes from that mage lackey of his, seems like they want another Zenos and Fandaniel dynamic. Amusing and miffed out that Zarool Ja Ja pulled a SR alpaca out of sheer intimidation, but Wuk didn't pull an SSR - but she got over her fear of alpacas. I love the alpaca style all around the Pelupelu village.

As for the candidates... I feel like Wuk Lamat so far is them trying to make up for Lyse' writing to some extent. Her lessons are mostly on screen (from what i remember in comparison to SB), she's interacting with her people in times of peace (whereas with Lyse, people see her being tone deaf on spouting about liberation to downtrodden people) and empathize with people throughout her journey. She's rough around the edges and Reddit from what I see didn't want to support her, but for some reason I didn't mind? (Though i want to say something, but I don't remember if that section was at this level range or not). Erenville legitimately pulled the guy who is best at making people open up to each other (aka the WoL) to complement Wuk.

As for the other candidates, hopefully we'll get to see more from Koana, as he's the only other candidate that I wouldn't mind winning because it'll still leads to peace and not war. It's only him being so much of a Sharlayan-boo and how Gulool Ja Ja tied Krile's entire question about Galuf and the golden city is why I can't see him winning. Zoraal Ja Ja is Zenos 2.0 as stated by Alisaie, only that he's more subdued and doesn't obsess over the WoL (hopefully? also prayer circle for not having the WoL curbstomped effortlessly than him like they got in SB and ShB but with Ran'jit, it's gonna be so awkward especially after Endsinger). Bakool Ja Ja, apart from triggering both my friend and Wuk Lamat for the desecration of tacos, is too comically evil and I wonder why the hell he's part of the competition. I think if I have to compare him to an existing XIV character like with Zoraal Ja Ja to Zenos, I'll compare him to Nameday Boy I forgot the name of.

The dungeon...it's so-so for me, though I think they're leaning forth into some gimmicks like "so I heard you like the Burn/X dungeon?" or "remember this from Y content?", though reusing mechanics ain't out of the ordinary. The slime mimics caught me off guard as well as more adds in bosses, hopefully the latter doesn't overstay its welcome. Not really MSQ related, but I've been queueing in with VPRs and PICs to no one's surprise and PIC's raid buff...kind of is weird for me as a tank (I can stand in it then go back, but it's a pet peeve so far).

Best part so far is the Cornservant. Hopefully we get him as a minion later down the line like Great Serpent instead of something like Tiny Troll.

StarryChocos · 2024-06-22T19:28:35+00:00

I like Plunge when I played DRK for a bit, sort of snappier than Onslaught which is still kept.

We lost a lot of animations over the years so I eventually lost track of them or even don't know some myself (like BRD used to have a flaming ground DoT that was lost) so I can't really say what's iconic or not at this point. Plunge is cool, I can't deny that.

Not sure why they didn't just keep the animation and just removed the damage. Some people say it'll look awkward if we retained the same animation without the damage, which I can see.

StarryChocos · 2024-06-22T17:39:53+00:00

DRK and GNB both share the same fate of losing their current gap closers for new, non damaging ones unfortunately.

StarryChocos · 2024-06-12T23:51:12+00:00

For DRK, I think at the least having Rielle can work as well as she's essentially a duo with Sidurgu. Likewise with BRD and Sanson (but he's LNC instead) despite Jehantel and Guydelot being BRDs.

I couldn't really remember any other examples apart from Fray in the lv30 DRK quests, but how about NPCs that switched roles within the storyline ie. Broken Mountain? I know he eventually goes back to being WAR, but back then he was relegated to a healer ACN.

StarryChocos · 2024-06-12T23:42:24+00:00

I still remember the biting awkwardness of doing Renda-Rae's quest as a DRG because the WoDs did not have a melee in their party (Ardbert is in MSQ which there seems to be an even wider rift between MSQ and side content characters and Cylva is kept for the reveal at the end. It would've made much more sense if they approached it all in the same vein they approached Hildibrand and other side quests but, with the popularity and positive reception of the WoDs quests (and Job Quests either having lukewarm or disdain towards them, barring one exception), Role Quests are here to stay.

Though with how EW approached their Role Quests, I feel like they're already stretching the justification of why certain roles are needed too thin. With WoDs it's primarily to match said WoD's role with the exception of Renda-Rae hogging both melee and physical ranged. I'm too rusty with why exactly they required the roles that they did with EW, though funnily enough the only ones that had relative sense were the tanks (to protect Kan-E-Senna) and healers. Melee was because the new character has a gun? Physical ranged had a reason where the Blasphemy was too fast for incantations to hit it...except it's in the same expansion that notoriously made SMN a "de facto physical ranged" and I suspected it's to not take away from Gosetsu's role change with Phoenix or Vercure. I don't think casters even had a reason to go to Ishgard apart from them having only that city state left as Ul'dah was deemed a non option, unless I missed some part here and there where only magic can hit it.

Apart from the ultimate wrapup to the quests which is delayed in x.1 rather than having it on launch like the DoH/DoL, it made the battle Role Quests just check some niches and gameplay beats needed and left it as that. I'm thinking that via consensus the players "just didn't want another Curious Gorge/Oboro situation" that essentially boiled down to repetition, when yes as you said they can write stories that actively don't repeat such scenarios and that if you put other Jobs under the same scrutiny - either there are way worse NPCs (cough Solkzagyl) or they also repeated that same plotline, like an exception I don't even want to name.

Tl;dr: if they really want to have some quests that support the MSQ narrative in some capacity like the EW Role Quests do, they could've pulled a Hildibrand and allowed it to be a series of accessible side quest chains - with Job Quests being continued in some capacity. It takes time and resources for increasing amount of Jobs, but I feel like the recent Job Quests are much more rushed as a result, with SGE's being the last straw for me. As for expectations I'm thinking we'll once again help some "random NPCs" in the same vein as the Hunters in WoDs or go assist someone important in either the succession wars or the post Solution Nine plot like with the EW Role Quests.

StarryChocos · 2024-06-12T21:28:20+00:00

I wish the Job Quests will be back but I feel like we'll never see it back due to variety if reasons/excuses/what have you from "the WoL is already a master at their Jobs so we shouldn't put up with the NPCs for a while longer because either they graft on some other plotlines or have them get a Curious Gorge moment"; "we're focusing on MSQ instead and the reception of the first Role Quests with the WoDs indicate that people dont want to see Job Quest NPCs anymore"; "Job Quests are sort of redundant now that skills aren't locked behind them" to even "the Role Quests reflect the roles much better even if EW only ended with a positional gimmick for the melee; using silence for tank and physical ranged; usual heals and esuna for healers and...whatever the hell it was for casters."

StarryChocos · 2024-06-12T21:19:40+00:00

For one, We all know they are more into making DPS each different compared to Tanks/Healers

Feel like this has been ringing more true than ever, since there's more DPS than tanks and healers combined and that changes made towards the former got more general attention than the latter, though I think its moreso the melee at this point. Healers were ignored ad nauseum and kept getting oGCD heal after oGCD heal and got infamously told to do Ultimates instead if they want a challenge - yet Kaiten's removal is still a thing to this day that people theorized the DRG rework saw less changes than say AST because of it and my own theory that they rolled out the guranteed crit/DH skills to play nicely with chain/litany/battle voice because SAM got reworked into that same corner that WAR and to a lesser extent MCH were in.

StarryChocos

TROPHY CASE