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Allagan Tomestones are, well, Tome-stones. They're little digital books, much like what you'd see in a Star Wars or other old sci-fi, although I'm pretty sure that originally they were meant to be USB sticks/SD cards. It's basically like you're going into ancient Sumerian ruins and bringing back clay tablets, except in this case the ancient ruins are sci-fi precursors and the tablets you're loading into your backpack are closer to Samsung.
Tomestones of poetics have poetry in them, tomestones of heliometry presumably have Allagan knowledge about stellar diameters/distances in them, etc. etc.
The reason for why Rowena buys them from adventurers, for reference, is because there's a huge market for knick-knacks among people with more money than sense who just want to go to their tea parties and brag about all those ancient Allagan tomestones they have. They don't translate or read them, obviously, they're just conversation pieces.
The reason Rowena stops buying certain varieties every other patch, meanwhile, is because that particular type has fallen out of fashion in Ul'dahn high society and the market's dried up.
The tomestone smartphone emote is a little joke related to a series of smartphone distraction safety PSAs advertisements they made for the japanese market, yeah. They aren't canonically used like that, don't have a screen on them, they're more like memory cards.
I finished Dawntrail and I have many opinions on the story and how certain NPCs and relations between NPCs are handled. I’ve been mulling it over for a bit, because FFXIV has been “my” game for such a long time, I always want to seek nuance or find reasons why my initial negative reaction is wrong. But after a few days these take-aways remain. I think I’m most concerned with Erenville. As you expect: massive spoilers for the complete story.
Erenville, part 1 his relation with Wuk Lamut
Erenville and Wuk Lamut have known each other for many years, or so we’ve been told. Their interactions veer a bit between “annoyed serious older brother picking up his kid sister from school” and “total strangers”. It feels like Erenville and Koana are sometimes swapped out, but both have to play the straight man to Wuk Lamut’s zany antics. It annoys me that these two couldn’t just be friends who look out for each other or share more of their history as you progress through the expansion. This was such a good opportunity to have them be a positive example of a friendship between a boy and a girl without any of the ‘will they/won’t they’ that often plagues these kinds of relations.
It also makes it feel strange and out of place why he’s helping her all this time. As a Gleaner he would be a natural person to cast doubt on whether Wuk Lamut would actually be the best next ruler of Tuliyollal. He could have a nuanced take on a Koana-led Tuliyollal and would be perfect as a go-between for the two siblings to understand that what’s best for Tuliyollal is a dual monarchy.
Erenville, part 2 his friends are weak idiots when confronted with his mom.
God damn, this is probably my biggest frustration and one I’ve thought about the most. This should be a minor story beat, but it is what has got me riled up the most! So first off: his mother is fucking bullshit. She was absent throughout most of Erenville’s childhood and whenever she gives praise it’s either with belittling cutesy-speak or as a teacher would to a student. She ignores his obvious discomfort with the way she treats him, will drag other people with her to avoid having any 1-on-1 time with her son and is more concerned with her own enjoyment of the theme park than with her son.
This is fucking obvious to me, she is a dipshit! This should also be obvious to the really smart friends of Erenville who are all but forced to listen to her bullshit as their sensitive friend is standing there. “hey WoL, wanna go ride capibaras with Erenville and his mom?” Any sensible person would go “actually, you two deserve some time alone, go ride your capibaras.” “huh interesting question, my son, but ...what’s that museum in the distance?” “no ma’am, Erenville deserves some answers”.
I understand that in Japan it’s not normal to tell someone older than you to can it, but there’s other more subtle ways to be there for a friend in need. Instead we’re just hanging out with Erenville’s mom like there’s nothing wrong. Wuk Lamut in particular has spent most of the story meddling with everyone and everything, but now she’s more excited about a fucking tree in the forest than her friend’s well-being? She showed more empathy for a random goldsmith she had never met than for her friend.
At this point I’m ok with the WoL not yeeting an axe at any monologueing villain, but the fact that they didn’t speak up here just hurts.
Erenville, part 3 his connection with the Leveilleur twins
Hello, yes, the twins! Spent so much time in the spotlight before that when they’re just supporting characters it feels weird. But hey, let’s talk about how they and Erenville would have some things to talk about re: absentee parents and being raised by someone who was also a mentor to them. And then losing that parent-figure.
They need to chat with Erenville. Their relation with Louisoix was healthier than what Erenville had with his mom. They would recognize that for what it is and could talk with him about how he is treated unfairly. They also had a super weird experience with their grandpa back in the Binding Coils of Bahamut, where they got to talk with their dead grandpa and actually got some closure. Whereas Erenville is mostly just left even more hurt than before after talking to his dead mom. Dude needs a hug, and the twins should be able to really connect with him in this.
They’re also pretty well-versed in having a strained relation with one of their parents. It feels like those experiences combined would have them be naturally emphatic to what Erenville is going through. Instead the story just has them on door duty.
Koana who has not been to Solution 9
Koana is the tech-head of the story, he would have a lot to say about Solution 9, yet he’s never allowed his time to shine analyzing this strange new world full of exactly the kind of shit he would love. His character already has the ugliest outfit (low-poly old MCH armor) and his personal growth is completely resolved by the coronation ceremony and then he’s just like the other heads of state we’ve met before. Highly capable, but mostly just hanging out in his castle.
Along the same line of thought: no one bothered to call Cid? Dude would have a field day tearing one of those robots apart. Him and Koana together would be very exciting to make the fans consider the kind of insane technological improves they would cook up (and inevitable interstellar boss monsters that would attract).
Krile who did not get the spotlight
Character growth? None! She’s still the same person, only now we know her backstory. There’s no weakness she had to overcome (she just picked up PCT and was good at it, no learning curve!), all she had to do was tag along with Wuk Lamut to eventually roll into her birth shard and get to spend time with her parents. As an aside: she gets to spend time alone with her parents!!! None of that for my boy Erenville!!!
Also, annoyingly, we don’t learn how her parents died. They’re not that old and there’s a few options hinted at that would be interesting to learn more about. In particular: were they killed years ago when they dissented, or did they actually go undercover for years? Actually, my first thought was that they weren’t dead at all and had just been undercover in the last zone, much like WoL was. Sadly nope, they’re just dead. Sorry JP voice actor who voiced the dad with a love gravely low voice! You gave it your all.
Perhaps there was no good way to give her character growth considering she had been with the Scions for many years and never had an interesting weakness in the first place.
Gulool Ja for who has a better story
Sorry, but this is just as much bullshit as the end of Game of Thrones. He’s just a kid, he needs to play tag with other children and stay far away from the volatile politics of Alexandria. It’s weird that everyone is like “well, you’ll be in charge of the army, you will have plenty of time to think about what you want to be when you grow up”. How anyone would consider this to be a good idea is beyond me! Also, so many questions left on how this child came to be. Who was his mom, what happened there? Really looking forward to finding that one out.
In general: y’all need some democracy
It’s weird to see these modern cities and then there’s still an absolute monarchy. It feels less weird in medieval cities, but when you’ve got billboards and cars I can only imagine what other subjects they teach in school there. I feel like a bunch of leaders in different city states are only there as temporary leaders, but haven’t vacated power because Creative Business Unit 3 forgot about them?
- Alexandria
- Ala Mhigo
- Ishgard
- Crystarium
To me it makes sense to consider the amount of very smart and good-hearted NPCs we keep finding wherever we go and conclude that they need to hold elections to figure out a way forward. I really hope Creative Business Unit 3 is interested in revisiting these places. Maybe also go back to Dark Shroud to fix that damned forest. … One can dream.
those are all valid and well-thought out critiques imo
I hope at least some of that gets to be explored in the patch story stuff but I don't expect most of it will be, alas
The "happy go lucky person" and "quiet, demure person" being good friends is a pairing one encounters often in anime/manga, so maybe it's my familiarity with seeing it already that had it work for me more than it did for you
I think Erenville is just... not good at talking about his emotions with anybody
The "happy go lucky person" and "quiet, demure person" being good friends is a pairing one encounters often in anime/manga, so maybe it's my familiarity with seeing it already that had it work for me more than it did for you
I think Erenville is just... not good at talking about his emotions with anybody
Oh, I 'get' the kind of relationship the writers were going for, that's not that outlandish to me. But in a lot of stories their odd pairing is explained in a flashback or their mom smile at them and go "gosh I remember the first time you brought your friend home and ..." The relationship is also not deepened further throughout the story.
Talking about emotions... I feel like they're not even aware they're doing it. With Urianger it seemed intentional and it was something Urianger showed growth with. Resulting in the scene where Moenbryda's parents hug him. Erenville hasn't had anything like that. It can change! But there were so many opportunities to get there already, the writers just did not go there.
those are all valid and well-thought out critiques imo
I hope at least some of that gets to be explored in the patch story stuff but I don't expect most of it will be, alas
yeah I'm pretty confident that we're going to return to the age-old format of 7.1-7.3 being an epilogue to 7.0 that wraps up all the loose ends (and there's a couple notable ones!) and 7.4-7.55 being a prologue to 8.0
also 7.1 is almost definitely going to be specifically about resolving the new government situation in one of the featured city-states in the expansion since, well, if you go look back you might notice that that's every x.1 patch
some stuff that'll likely come up at some point (7.0 spoilers):
Shale is looking into Krile's USB earring to find out more about Preservation (the organization that spearheaded the entire Endless and dimensional fusion projects)
Gulool Ja is the new child-king, but if you talk to NPCs they seem unhappy (IIRC one line is "weren't we supposed to have a king and queen?")
Sphene's crown was her regulator; it featured prominently in the post-credits
That one kid affected by levin sickness can probably be cured by Alisaie's porxie
Per the Strayborough Deadwalk unlock quest, Oblivion are exploring Living Memory (I imagine this might be an allied society quest, though)
Moving over to Tuliyollal, they've probably got a whole bunch of stuff to deal with now that they've got new rulers, an alliance with Radz-at-Han (which itself is making friends with a whole bunch of places it seems), and probably some dealing with Old Sharlayan considering...
Mamook still has some campaign promises that need resolving, probably
however, keep in mind that this'll all probably be resolved in 30ish quests, three dungeons, and 1-2 trials (depending on if the trial series is MSQ or not)
7.3 will probably be a cool climax in the same vein as 3.3, 4.3, or 5.3, but they'll always leave some loose ends hanging so that they have something to return to later if they want to
those are all valid and well-thought out critiques imo
I hope at least some of that gets to be explored in the patch story stuff but I don't expect most of it will be, alas
yeah I'm pretty confident that we're going to return to the age-old format of 7.1-7.3 being an epilogue to 7.0 that wraps up all the loose ends (and there's a couple notable ones!) and 7.4-7.55 being a prologue to 8.0
also 7.1 is almost definitely going to be specifically about resolving the new government situation in one of the featured city-states in the expansion since, well, if you go look back you might notice that that's every x.1 patch
some stuff that'll likely come up at some point (7.0 spoilers):
Shale is looking into Krile's USB earring to find out more about Preservation (the organization that spearheaded the entire Endless and dimensional fusion projects)
Gulool Ja is the new child-king, but if you talk to NPCs they seem unhappy (IIRC one line is "weren't we supposed to have a king and queen?")
Sphene's crown was her regulator; it featured prominently in the post-credits
That one kid affected by levin sickness can probably be cured by Alisaie's porxie
Per the Strayborough Deadwalk unlock quest, Oblivion are exploring Living Memory (I imagine this might be an allied society quest, though)
Moving over to Tuliyollal, they've probably got a whole bunch of stuff to deal with now that they've got new rulers, an alliance with Radz-at-Han (which itself is making friends with a whole bunch of places it seems), and probably some dealing with Old Sharlayan considering...
Mamook still has some campaign promises that need resolving, probably
however, keep in mind that this'll all probably be resolved in 30ish quests, three dungeons, and 1-2 trials (depending on if the trial series is MSQ or not)
7.3 will probably be a cool climax in the same vein as 3.3, 4.3, or 5.3, but they'll always leave some loose ends hanging so that they have something to return to later if they want to
They can certainly resolve some things in other ways too. For example we still don't know what the variant/deep dungeons are going to be about yet. The role capstone quest still isn't in yet, though I currently feel like it may stay unrelated to anything else like the role quests themselves (though it could easily end up going in any wild direction).
I dunno about that lore thing from the gamescom interview, sounds like the kind of thing that might have been misspoken or mistranslated in the moment
it sounded like he was saying it was the shard from the already-occurred calamity of lightning as well
It's explicitly canon that the lightning calamity is the 12th, so it would be misspeaking if he said it was the 9th. The 12th has explicitly rejoined with the Source and been obliterated.
yoshi-p explicitly stated that Alexandria was the 9th reflection, not the 12th (the one which suffered the Lightning Calamity)
Timeline didnt work for the 12hlth since we know stuff only went to shit after the ice calamity anyways
Technically, it could with how special relativity works (depending on the frames of reference, events can happen in different order), but I doubt they would do something like that. The time shit is already complicated enough.
This honestly wouldn’t be the second third or fourth time they’ve just ret-conned shit in an ‘obi-wan kenobi certain point of view’ way so if they decide to do it again with time travel or whatever it’s not the end of the world
The Unlost World being the 12th requires you to make a whole bunch of assumptions.
The Milalla time traveled from the 4th calamity to a fair bit of time before the second (probably ~3000 years from the Source's perspective)
Alexandria's barrier managed to prevent itself from being reabsorbed into the Source during the Rejoining.
Furthermore, the still-extant area around Living Memory that's now outside the barrier... also somehow avoided Rejoining.
Yoshi-P was mistranslated and didn't actually say that the Unlost World was the 9th reflection (one of the four remaining that we haven't visited, alongside the 11th, 5th, and 4th)
Meanwhile, it being the 9th only really requires you to make the following assumptions:
The devs are cheeky enough to make the FF9 reflection the 9th.
The Ascians were setting up a second Calamity of Lightning (note that they already used all the six elements+astral/umbral, and had five reflections remaining)
Yoshi-P was not mistranslated and meant what he said.
"I'm sure that all of the media and our players probably suspecting they really want to have our game release on Nintendo's consoles, but the concept that we have for Final Fantasy XIV is to release our game on as many devices as possible."
"So looking towards achieving that goal. We are working towards, making progress and we are having discussions. So I hope that everyone can look forward to news in the time to come."
it'll probably have lower-res graphics, I figure, but also I have to wonder what the RAM/CPU on the Switch 2 looks like because IIRC those were a big bottleneck for development back when the PS3 version was a thing
(like, IIRC the reason the dwarf society quests are in Lakeland rather than Kholusia was because the game couldn't handle having all the stuff (and players) from both the alliance raid and society quests in the same zone)
EDIT:
looks like the current Switch has 1GHz CPU and 4GB RAM
the minimum specs for Endwalker, so pre-graphics update, was... 2.4GHz CPU and 4GB RAM
Dawntrail, for reference, wants a 4GHz CPU and 8GB RAM (but, IIRC, is more about just wanting new architecture that supports the new post-processing and DLSS etc.)
looking at what the current mobile phone market looks like, though, since the Switch 1 just used a custom NVidia Tegra X1 chip... well, the first phone I clicked on Amazon was a Samsung SM-A556B/DS which, going over to Samsung's page and technical specs, has 2.75GHz CPU and 8GB RAM. That clears that particular bar.
...On that note, them making a version for the Switch 2's presumably custom smartphone-based hardware could maybe open the door to Final Fantasy XIV on your phone. That'd be... something.
Neveron on
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I think the average alliance raid roulette DPS is already playing on their phone.
when everything is done I'll have 8 books for a second weapon, and I kind of want to get the blm one. but if I do everyone will be like "this blm has a savage weapon! why do they suck so much??"
I'm such a filthy hipster, I wasn't interested in black mage until picto came out, and then all of a sudden I was all-in on black mage. I guess picto was the gateway drug for standing still and making big booms.
Anyway I got the anima weapon for blm and this thing rules.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
I'm such a filthy hipster, I wasn't interested in black mage until picto came out, and then all of a sudden I was all-in on black mage. I guess picto was the gateway drug for standing still and making big booms.
Anyway I got the anima weapon for blm and this thing rules.
BLM has a significantly more defined rotation this expansion than they previously did, which may be helping. I've definitely been more in on BLM this expansion over others for that reason.
some of the complaints about blm now make no sense. like a people are saying they can't reliably get off flare star, but the only way that's happening is if you refuse to use your firestarter proc during astral fire. just use the fucking firestarter and get your flare star.
some of the complaints about blm now make no sense. like a people are saying they can't reliably get off flare star, but the only way that's happening is if you refuse to use your firestarter proc during astral fire. just use the fucking firestarter and get your flare star.
IIRC it's a potency gain to hold it through ice phase and then go Transpose->Firestarter F3, so that might be why.
...But also most of the complaints are just from Endwalker players who really enjoyed that expansion's weird melange of alternate theorycrafted BLM rotations.
I did like the choose your own adventure style of BLM spell rotations it used to have. It's still my favorite class though, and I like it way more than playing whack a mole with flashing buttons on pictomancer.
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Also, there was this PSA:
Tomestones of poetics have poetry in them, tomestones of heliometry presumably have Allagan knowledge about stellar diameters/distances in them, etc. etc.
The reason for why Rowena buys them from adventurers, for reference, is because there's a huge market for knick-knacks among people with more money than sense who just want to go to their tea parties and brag about all those ancient Allagan tomestones they have. They don't translate or read them, obviously, they're just conversation pieces.
The reason Rowena stops buying certain varieties every other patch, meanwhile, is because that particular type has fallen out of fashion in Ul'dahn high society and the market's dried up.
It also makes it feel strange and out of place why he’s helping her all this time. As a Gleaner he would be a natural person to cast doubt on whether Wuk Lamut would actually be the best next ruler of Tuliyollal. He could have a nuanced take on a Koana-led Tuliyollal and would be perfect as a go-between for the two siblings to understand that what’s best for Tuliyollal is a dual monarchy.
Erenville, part 2 his friends are weak idiots when confronted with his mom.
This is fucking obvious to me, she is a dipshit! This should also be obvious to the really smart friends of Erenville who are all but forced to listen to her bullshit as their sensitive friend is standing there. “hey WoL, wanna go ride capibaras with Erenville and his mom?” Any sensible person would go “actually, you two deserve some time alone, go ride your capibaras.” “huh interesting question, my son, but ...what’s that museum in the distance?” “no ma’am, Erenville deserves some answers”.
I understand that in Japan it’s not normal to tell someone older than you to can it, but there’s other more subtle ways to be there for a friend in need. Instead we’re just hanging out with Erenville’s mom like there’s nothing wrong. Wuk Lamut in particular has spent most of the story meddling with everyone and everything, but now she’s more excited about a fucking tree in the forest than her friend’s well-being? She showed more empathy for a random goldsmith she had never met than for her friend.
At this point I’m ok with the WoL not yeeting an axe at any monologueing villain, but the fact that they didn’t speak up here just hurts.
Erenville, part 3 his connection with the Leveilleur twins
They need to chat with Erenville. Their relation with Louisoix was healthier than what Erenville had with his mom. They would recognize that for what it is and could talk with him about how he is treated unfairly. They also had a super weird experience with their grandpa back in the Binding Coils of Bahamut, where they got to talk with their dead grandpa and actually got some closure. Whereas Erenville is mostly just left even more hurt than before after talking to his dead mom. Dude needs a hug, and the twins should be able to really connect with him in this.
They’re also pretty well-versed in having a strained relation with one of their parents. It feels like those experiences combined would have them be naturally emphatic to what Erenville is going through. Instead the story just has them on door duty.
Koana who has not been to Solution 9
Along the same line of thought: no one bothered to call Cid? Dude would have a field day tearing one of those robots apart. Him and Koana together would be very exciting to make the fans consider the kind of insane technological improves they would cook up (and inevitable interstellar boss monsters that would attract).
Krile who did not get the spotlight
Also, annoyingly, we don’t learn how her parents died. They’re not that old and there’s a few options hinted at that would be interesting to learn more about. In particular: were they killed years ago when they dissented, or did they actually go undercover for years? Actually, my first thought was that they weren’t dead at all and had just been undercover in the last zone, much like WoL was. Sadly nope, they’re just dead. Sorry JP voice actor who voiced the dad with a love gravely low voice! You gave it your all.
Perhaps there was no good way to give her character growth considering she had been with the Scions for many years and never had an interesting weakness in the first place.
Gulool Ja for who has a better story
In general: y’all need some democracy
- Alexandria
- Ala Mhigo
- Ishgard
- Crystarium
To me it makes sense to consider the amount of very smart and good-hearted NPCs we keep finding wherever we go and conclude that they need to hold elections to figure out a way forward. I really hope Creative Business Unit 3 is interested in revisiting these places. Maybe also go back to Dark Shroud to fix that damned forest. … One can dream.
I hope at least some of that gets to be explored in the patch story stuff but I don't expect most of it will be, alas
I think Erenville is just... not good at talking about his emotions with anybody
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Talking about emotions... I feel like they're not even aware they're doing it. With Urianger it seemed intentional and it was something Urianger showed growth with. Resulting in the scene where Moenbryda's parents hug him. Erenville hasn't had anything like that. It can change! But there were so many opportunities to get there already, the writers just did not go there.
yeah I'm pretty confident that we're going to return to the age-old format of 7.1-7.3 being an epilogue to 7.0 that wraps up all the loose ends (and there's a couple notable ones!) and 7.4-7.55 being a prologue to 8.0
also 7.1 is almost definitely going to be specifically about resolving the new government situation in one of the featured city-states in the expansion since, well, if you go look back you might notice that that's every x.1 patch
some stuff that'll likely come up at some point (7.0 spoilers):
7.3 will probably be a cool climax in the same vein as 3.3, 4.3, or 5.3, but they'll always leave some loose ends hanging so that they have something to return to later if they want to
Steam: pazython
Meanwhile, it being the 9th only really requires you to make the following assumptions:
I feel like a real melee player now
Portable FFXIV on Switch 2 would go crazy
(like, IIRC the reason the dwarf society quests are in Lakeland rather than Kholusia was because the game couldn't handle having all the stuff (and players) from both the alliance raid and society quests in the same zone)
EDIT:
looks like the current Switch has 1GHz CPU and 4GB RAM
the minimum specs for Endwalker, so pre-graphics update, was... 2.4GHz CPU and 4GB RAM
Dawntrail, for reference, wants a 4GHz CPU and 8GB RAM (but, IIRC, is more about just wanting new architecture that supports the new post-processing and DLSS etc.)
looking at what the current mobile phone market looks like, though, since the Switch 1 just used a custom NVidia Tegra X1 chip... well, the first phone I clicked on Amazon was a Samsung SM-A556B/DS which, going over to Samsung's page and technical specs, has 2.75GHz CPU and 8GB RAM. That clears that particular bar.
...On that note, them making a version for the Switch 2's presumably custom smartphone-based hardware could maybe open the door to Final Fantasy XIV on your phone. That'd be... something.
Yeah they are but what about the computer that the game of FFXIV is actually running on?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
a single potato
Ok, but what were they playing ON, not what they were playing AS.
Steam: pazython
Anyway I got the anima weapon for blm and this thing rules.
BLM has a significantly more defined rotation this expansion than they previously did, which may be helping. I've definitely been more in on BLM this expansion over others for that reason.
Hopefully they're customizable in some way, the text color and word limits are rough
IIRC it's a potency gain to hold it through ice phase and then go Transpose->Firestarter F3, so that might be why.
...But also most of the complaints are just from Endwalker players who really enjoyed that expansion's weird melange of alternate theorycrafted BLM rotations.