A DRG Reblogged

an ffxiv player, primarily on Balmung (alts on Greg and Coeurl) will run instanced content for pretty much any reason at all

[a-drg-reborn]

“I’m looking for a mongrel - black of fur, red eyes? I’ve heard it wanders these parts.” 

Estelline looked up from packing her supply bags. It had been a long day in the Brume; twice a week she came to lend her skills to the people who lived there, and their injuries and illnesses seemed neverending. She never had fewer patients. 

“No strays around here,” she answered, her face held carefully neutral. “Too cold down here for dogs to hang around.” 

The stranger held her gaze for a moment, searching. Then, slowly, they turned and walked away, back up the steps toward the Knight.

Estelline returned to packing her bags. 

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[a-drg-reborn]

Headed toward the Vault and thinking fondly of how this was about the time Estelline entered the canon storyline.

[a-drg-reborn]

[a-drg-reborn]

stopped talking about it much but the replay is up to early Heavensward now! and we're starting to see them develop the "put people in situations where they just get to say our moral premeses out loud" tactic that I am genuinely so fond of

[a-drg-reborn]

I really appreciate the streamlining that happened, and I have noticed a number of places where it makes for incredibly abrupt transitions in a way that makes me a little sad. I just got to the point in 2.x where you fight Ramuh which is preceded by a whole lot of sylphic impersonator shenanigans, and coming up on it I remarked to my partner that I was interested to see if they'd cut a line I particularly liked and remembered (when Thancred shows up, he starts talking about some pretty lady, and Y'shtola has a withering remark about "if it's an imposter, this is close enough to the real thing") and they in fact cut out 99.999% of the sylphic imposter shenanigans: all that's left is a quest titled "Levin an Impression" or something and about 3 dialogue boxes from Papalymo at the quest turn-in saying he's glad you're not an impostor, hinting at some shenanigans the others had to go through but that left you untouched.

I remain grateful to the team for the work of streamlining, and I think it's likely to have done significantly more good than bad in terms of keeping newer players engaged through the early MSQ to play more of the full game. But I'm also really grateful that I got to see the original vision (wacky and underwhelming as it sometimes was!!!) as it came out.

....Baffling that the "hahahah whoops you got the wrong element of crystal" quests were preserved tho.

[a-drg-reborn]

I've played the ARR story at least 4-5 times but this is the first time I noticed that you meet Guillaime when you very first enter Coerthas, after you happened to save a Durendaire knight by killing some of Guillaime's heretics. No wonder he hates us so dang much. "Doubtless they feel indebted to you" is really cracking me up in context of him being with the heretics

[a-drg-reborn]

made it to level 35 quest Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie before getting choked up. some thoughts:

I'm not worrying about XP because this is a ng+ but I'll say the early story is so nicely trim these days, I keep remembering sections that used to feel like a drag where steps have been removed etc and it generaly just feels crisp.

this may just be what i'm bringing in, but it feels like garlemald feels like a much more specific threat in the streamlined story, because you're not getting as bogged down in a bunch of micro-dramas

(exacerbated / complemented by the fact that my backstory is that at the start of this arr playthrough, WoL just escaped from Garlean service, I keep being like 'damn that does go really well with this part huh')

really appreciating how much they forecast, even way back when, that this was always ultimately gonna have to be about learning to live together and fight alongside rather than against each other

bc of how relatively well-heeled and technologically advanced everyone is by 6-7.x, spending a bunch of time back in 2.0 story really does feel like the city states are these struggling remnants trying to get back on their feet

[a-drg-reborn]

startling amount of verbatim text repeats in these lines from Minfilia (she has exactly one pitch and she gives it well, I guess)

[a-drg-reborn]

the Drip playthrough begins

[a-drg-reborn]

Bernard's the first to acknowledge how deeply out-of-place Belriel looks.

[a-drg-reborn]

"only believe, for the Light liveth in thy heart" and then getting hit with 90001

[a-drg-reborn]

the Drip playthrough begins

[a-drg-reborn]

My re re re re re replaythrough tag will be #ex ultima ad astra, not because it is good latin but because it is appropriate. Will also hit it with #ffxiv spoilers and #arr spoilers etc as appropriate per expansion.

[a-drg-reborn]

flavor-only AU where somehow when you got sent to the past in Endwalker, you left Elpis with Emet-Selch for a while, so when the time for Shadowbringers comes around, the shades don't think you're children that Emet-Selch has strangely arranged a residency etc for, but instead think you're one of Azem's familiars sent to help and/or annoy Emet-Selch, and they treat you accordingly.

[viiioca]

i think my favorite aspect of the dynamic between emet-selch and venat is the fact that emet-selch's domain is the underworld. the lifestream. venat knew this. EVERYONE knew this. and when she became hydaelyn, her first order of business after putting zodiark in his moon hole and sundering everyone, is to go down into the lifestream and just sit there for over ten thousand years.

this is a "your mortal enemy takes your parking spot every single day" tier rivalry. venat takes over his domain. venat grabs emet-selch's bestie's soul and marks them with her blessing. venat looks emet-selch deadass in the eyes and goes, "mine now. what are you gonna do about it lil bitch boy? lmao"

venat bullied this man so hard that by the end of it he'd rather explode into glitter and die than suffer the indignity of living by her magic, even though she's already gone. i can only imagine their dynamic when she held the title of azem and he had to deal with her during business hours

[lesbianshepard]

over ten years i've been on this site and every time i open my dash you guys are thirsting over some white haired pretty boy anime looking elf guy from a video game

[a-drg-reborn]

Current favored theory in my household is time mage for the magic dps, with the hint being a very tenuous “turtles in time” connection via yoshi-p’s shirt. Note that this theory is more about what we think is a fun way for the hint to resolve than anything else.

(And, like, some sort of swashbuckler/corsair)

[alastryd]

Even more concept art of Shadowbringers: This time it’s Amaurot (the dungeon) and the Dying Gasp.

Looking at all this artwork really does remind me of how both mystifying the whole climax of Shadowbringers was, I remember being really grumpy I was still being made to do fetch quests after all that stuff on Mt. Gulg happened, then they threw the entire Amaurot segment at me and I was immediately invested again.

[starspaceace]