Atarase (he/they) // 28, gay and kind of dumb, but apparently not dumb enough // mostly Drakengard & FFXIV and whatever else I feel like at the time // Hates Eulogia // YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse made me read Crime and Punishment
Nier Reincarnation x Drakengard 3
One // Two // Three // Four // Five
My interpretation of special NieR Reincarnation costumes for Zero's sisters. I started these back when the Automata and Replicant special costumes were found in the game code so they don't fit Zero's outfit at all...
Theme
"The girls crash the NieR Reincarnation Release After Party"
(One is pissed she wasn't invited and forced everyone else along)
(Two was invited but didn't want to go)
(Three is tired and lost her shoes)
(Four tried a cute hairstyle but only Five noticed and made fun of her)
(Five arrived drunk)
I also gave Five's chibi form one of those big fur jackets, because I think the design I drew was looking a bit bare..
also thanks for the nice tags some of you left on the individual posts
i read them all but i don't think i'm supposed to reply to them lol
I know we knew a couple of lines of Lore Book Lore about Thalaos, Perykos and Dalamud, but is there any Lore about Althyk's Horse?
Honestly kind of crazy that they refused to talk even a little bit about the Twelve and their in-universe Lore, but then they just gave Althyk a whole Horse out of nowhere. Just gave him a Horse. And now I have to draw the Horse. Square Enix made me draw a Horse. And for what.
Here's a WIP of the Horse.
i don't know how i'll get this finished by the 7th but let's pray to the 12 that i do
also i looked it up but you can post about this art contest they just recommend you don't so nobody steals it so a wip should be fine right
I know we knew a couple of lines of Lore Book Lore about Thalaos, Perykos and Dalamud, but is there any Lore about Althyk's Horse?
Honestly kind of crazy that they refused to talk even a little bit about the Twelve and their in-universe Lore, but then they just gave Althyk a whole Horse out of nowhere. Just gave him a Horse. And now I have to draw the Horse. Square Enix made me draw a Horse. And for what.
Here's a WIP of the Horse.
i don't know how i'll get this finished by the 7th but let's pray to the 12 that i do
also i looked it up but you can post about this art contest they just recommend you don't so nobody steals it so a wip should be fine right
It only occurs to me now but they could have made Deep Blue and Red Hot's Feral Souls Thalaos and Perykos
is there one thing you people won't fumble about the twelve
Someone on the site formerly known as Twitter pointed out that this Evercold snake building concept art has the exact same shape as Azem's (alledged) Glyph.
hehehe it's almost as if the dawn fcking trails!!! all according to plan, ouroboros take the wheel!!!
Just watched the Hasunosora Movie in 360p no subtitles and I have some thoughts
It was nice :) A beautiful little Epilogue for the Sanrenka era. Even if you haven't watched anything about Hasunosora it's a nice watch as long as you're not a coward, it is actually very easy to follow even if you literally don't understand what they're saying. That being said if you look at it as a movie, it is a weird movie. It's much more of an OVA with a theatrical release and it's not really trying to be anything else. It's definitely not a "Love Live Movie" and I promise you now, Non-Hasu LoveLivers will never let it live that down.
Anyways, let's get into some Spoilers!
not condoning anything here this is not legal advice but if you're quick it's still up on y---
To get the negatives out first, I knew it wasn't particularly long so I didn't expect too many songs, but I did hope for more than one unannounced song :/// It's a really beautiful song but ://////
i foolishly hoped they would end on a 106-only Dream Believers after the credits...
While I really like that Maika is the Main Character of the movie, the character balancing is a little off because the limited air time means they have to triage who else they care about. We thankfully get a lot of 102, but in turn Kosuzu and Ceras in particular just don't really have anything to do in the movie. Ceras at least has some banter with the other characters, but Kosuzu is literally just a background character oof. Like literally, most of her lines are intercom announcements spoken in the background of other dialogue, which they made really cute for her, but... I'm pretty sure Sachi-senpai had more lines than her. I mean, she's going to be in the 2D anime unlike most of the other characters in this movie so she's going to be fine, but damn. maybe that's why she gets tsuzu's haircut
Another thing I really didn't love is that they pretty much completely ignored the entire last year? They have this entire thing during the ED song of showing 2D Anime stills of notable story moments to reminisce Sanrenka's time at Hasunosora and the other two years get quite a lot of them while 105 gets an entirety of 2. Izumi and Ceras felt a little off-character tbh (then again I can't really judge too much because no clue what they were actually talking about), they didn't acknowledge that Izumi is kinda/sorta part of 104's Little Triangle/Star Square; While Sachi is in the movie quite substantially, Hiromi isn't in the movie at all (that's the one that really feels crazy to me) and they also cut around showing anything from the Final FesLive. I think what happened is that due to the production timeline, most of this was probably written way ahead, but it's still a little :/// to see how little of the year was actually mentioned.
Also, why was the third 106 girl not in the movie at all. I didn't expect her to do much, I didn't even need her to speak, I get that the point is that she's not going to have pre-established relationships going into the anime and therefore not a straightforward Kaho-bound backstory, but you still could have shown her existing in the background of someone else was watching BGP on their phone or something, idk, feels wild to leave her out completely.
That all being said, I do really appreciate this movie existing. It feels like a solid epilogue for the game and looking at it from that angle, I can't even mind that the movie is at the end of the day just a lot of standing around and talking. Very pretty standing around and talking, a lot prettier than the game for sure - sometimes even walking around and talking - but for a movie, it's still a lot of standing around and talking.
I love Maika, I'm so interested to see her as the new redhead MC in the future. I wonder what they have planned for her, she has such a different vibe to the other MCs. It will sting not having the space to develop her like the game would have allowed us to, but this movie gave me some hope that it will be fine. If the OG writers are involved, I'm 99% sure they will give everyone the time to shine.
As Ceras Yanagida Lilienfeld's biggest fan I am fine that she's not the biggest part of the movie, I'm a little bit :/// that she's once again Izumi's side character but, hey, Izumi is in the tough position of being the character with only two years at Hasunosora, she gets to have a little bit more focus. That being said, it really is time. We have to split up Ceras and Izumi and let them be actual members of the group, I'm kind of sick of them constantly getting treated as a duo in group songs, it just serves to make them feel like tolerated outcasts, lol.
Since we still have no news on Be Cera-fish, I am still wondering what's in store for Ceras' future. I am at this point firmly Team "Ceras should do a Sachi" where she switches groups for every single (1st single she's Ceribou, 2nd Dollke, 3rd Mirapa,...) because I think that would set her up perfectly for a devastating 107 graduation, but if she has to join only one group then I am 1000% Team Cerise Bouquet. Don't get me wrong, I love her relationship with Kosu, but you can't present the option of a Ginko/Maika/Ceras sub-unit to me and not deliver.
By the way!!! They have basically confirmed Izumi and Aoi are indeed related!!! I mean, not really, they said literally nothing about it, but Aoi conveniently leaves Maika to interview EdelNote alone so they never interact and in the scene right before she leaves, she adjusts her black undershirt collar that she shares with Izumi, too!!! Subtle Cinematography Hints!!! It's happening!!!
I wish I was able to understand what Ginko said at the end, I really want to see what they do with her next year as the club president, I feel like they could take her in some really interesting directions. I actually really grew to love her and her whole deal, the heavy "I wish my crush would look at me like she looks at her girlfriend" they had her do really worked, I love her.
Like, I know LoveLivers want to gaslight others and themselves that LoveLive has always been Yuri(TM) actually and not just milquetoast ship bait (i'm not doing this, love yourself and watch/read some real yuri), but I don't know, Hasu just hits different. I haven't thought about it enough to draw the line between a NozoEli and a RuriMegu, but maybe it's the actual Yuri writer and the wedding rings that make me more willing to call it Yuri-adjacent than the rest of the franchise.
But yeah, it's a nice little movie :) I will probably watch it again once someone provides good subtitles, but then again maybe I won't, it kind of already gave me everything I needed out of it.
And once again:
Congratulation, Sanrenka, for Graduating.
Thanks for everything!
FFXIV 7.5 Spoilers
also some thoughts about halmi, calyx and someone else
Me, when they literally say out loud "Did Venat know about this and if so why didn't she tell us" and nobody mentions the Twelve, who literally told us they only exist to fix Something(TM) to do with the balance of the planet even though they didn't feel the need to tell us what exactly. If .56 isn't at least a little bit about the Twelve I'm going to be the Clown in Halmi's Freak Parade, it's literally called Trail to the Heavens, you can't do this to me.
Btw, I love Halmi so much. Her just fluidly going from bumbling, nervous antiquarian to "I'm funding war crimes and I don't really care for your moral input on that, I just need somebody here to win and survive this and you're currently not doing it" is like, chef's kiss.
I will say I was a little annoyed about the Zenos thing, I have not thought about that man in 3 years and I really don't care to ever again. Please just let that man out of the story, I will not be gaslit into believing his character wasn't a complete and utter mess writing-wise, especially not by the people in this fandom with big thoughts about how bad DT was, and I will certainly not let my WoL be held accountable for the dev's writing decisions regarding his entire arc.
Not that I think he wasn't interesting at all - I too had Zenos thoughts somewhere in-between SB and the end of ShB - I just really don't need them to do the Haurchefant thing again and dig up another fan-favorite man(!) out of all things that could have made an emotional impact on the WoL to give them a reason to do the things they do. I know a supposed majority cares deeply about these two - and good for those people, I guess - but could you instead assume I care about anyone, really, anything else that happens in the story as much as you assume I care for these two men I'm actually completely indifferent to, especially when there's other dead characters like Ysayle and Papalymo who you continually completely ignore on that front. I don't even remember if you let the WoL be personally sad about Moenbryda in Labyrinthos 2 or if that was another "I'm not from here, Fortress of Emotional Numbness" moment for them.
All of that being said, I genuinely hope Calyx doesn't go the way of Zenos where they just abandon giving him any sort of, well, Hope, and if it means they have to bring up Zenos as a motivation to not repeat that storyline for him too, I guess I'll take it.
Not that Krile telling him what he did was inexcusable instills much hope to me for his future development, but he did say at least twice now that all he wanted to do is to save someone so clearly he's heading towards some point of betterment. I think what he lacked is allowing himself to imagine something unrealistic, something optimistic, an optimal possibility that he and his people could in fact win without any downsides - which means unlike zenos he is in fact just like me for real - you know, the kind of stuff we regularly manage to achieve, but I do think he is 100% right that we lack his willingness to proactively do something. For pretty much all of the past Expansions we, the Scions, have been passive defenders and it's finally time to be pro-active ones instead and I think he's kind of the perfect person to teach us something about that.
And really, I just want them to finally add a redeemed villain to our main group, I already don't know why they didn't go out of their way to do that with Zenos (like, him joining our side because we always go to the biggest fights was right there? that could have been his EW arc, that he cares more about fighting at all than he cares about fighting us specifically- whatever), but Halmi and Calyx aren't even after different things, they just don't believe we can achieve such a lofty goal as a happy end for everyone.
But whatever they end up doing with them, please, for Menphina's Love don't botch it and make Calyx sacrifice himself for us to repent for his sins. Let the boy live!!! And let Halmi live, too! Let them all live!!! n-no, i didn't mean zenos by that, no he's dead, i meant everyone except for zenos, not him nononoNO---
FFXIV Evercold Fanfest Part 1 - Anaheim
Thoughts, Feelings and Story Predictions
>> Did somebody say "Godless"!? <<
this post includes hints of a guy who has thought too much about myths of the realm
What can I say.
Cool.
So let's get right into it.
The Trailer
I really like the whole vibe and the setting, at first I thought it was going to lean more into a germanic witch aesthetic than it ultimately did, but the tapestry is a really cute choice especially with the Fate of it all (My Halmi = Ariadne stocks are rising) and I do love me a good Nordic Fantasy Aesthetic (and judging by some of the concept art it defo still has a certain fairy tale aesthetic to it too).
The words written in gold at the beginning about meeting your Fate and stuff... That's the kind of shit Azem would say, right? We're going to speak with Azem in 7.5(6)... right???? Or at least receive a message from them through the key or something like that.
For some reason the little spark at the end of the Rejoining Animation is really ominous and foreboding to me, but since I highly doubt they'll end this Saga with the WoL dying, I wonder if we'll have to give up our "Azem Ancestry" so to speak to make it all happen...
The second I saw Meteor and 1/3rds of the gang I kinda sighed, I don't know why I was still hoping we would finally get a (temporary) new main group and I do, genuinely, hate the Viper Gear, it looks so annoyingly bland and boring for a MC design, thank god he changed into Reaper at the end, that makes him look so much more appealing.
My Paulaner Spezi was left unopened, I had it ready to cheers to my girl Krile but she was nowhere to be seen... Hopefully she's in the Berlin Trailer with Halmi and/or Zero and/or Ryne (my two faves have yet to meet...)
I really love the Amano Logo, absolutely Classic Final Fantasy vibes, they really nailed it. I also have a feeling that the girl it is depicting is going to be (part of) the Big Bad, something along the lines of "When we get rid of the Gods, people will pray to literally anything else" (put a pin in that)
By the way, the German trailer is really good too, even if they for some reason only subtitled the English text instead of just replacing it. Maybe they only do that for the final one? Too lazy to check, doesn't really matter anyways.
I do like the title Farwanderer for the WoL, I think that's neat. I do by all means hope they don't do the Genshin Impact thing of having everyone address [our name] as Farwanderer in Voice-Over going forward, I hate stuff like that, there's something incredibly tacky about it that sucks away any identification I could possibly feel with [Player Character Titles].
The Fourth
I am in absolute love with the area designs, they're all so fucking pretty, always a sucker for Skybox Objects and they already showed so many of them, just imagine what they have in store for the Final Map...!!!! The scale and grandiosity of the architecture reminds me of FF13 in a way, I hope that's on purpose... I think Brynhildr or some kind of Fimbulwinter Odin based on his 13 version is definitely on the table as a Trial.
I do hope we'll see the white tree from the trailer tapestry in-game, that looks so pretty... Prime Real Estate for a Latter Half Map, imo.
I guess the plan is to do a Shadowbringers Night/Living Memory sort of thing where entire areas freeze over/thaw as part of the MSQ? The trailer narration talking about how the planet has already frozen over definitely does imply some sort of timeline shenanigans where she might not actually be talking about us but our shard back in the day or something like that.
The Big Monster Gods remind me so much of Tears of the Kingdom. I like it! Really weird in a fun way.
I also thought there were a lot a lot of Aetherites (or is it Eitheryte) in the concept art? I didn't count them all and maybe some of those were just additional artwork of the same location, but I am very open to the idea of more, but smaller maps. For the record, I would also be fine with another round of 6 Big Maps, I like the Big Maps.
That being said, outside of the cat dwarves, the three Au Ras and the storyteller in the Trailer, we have yet to see, like, anybody from the Fourth and how they look like, I wonder if there's some reveal happening about that in Berlin... On the topic of the praying Au Ra girl, I do want to throw Yeul & Caius FF13-2 in the ring as inspo for them. I doubt that's the reference they went for, buuut I just want to say it in case I'm right about my hunch.
I also want you guys to know that my Fourth Azem Shard OC is a Lunar Au Ra Pope Lady living on the moon, so she's perfectly ready to be inserted right into all of this (she even looks like Halmi and I designed her what, 2 years ago? I'm a visionary)
btw i also need you to know that i made designs for all of the azem shards. all 14.
The Crossover
Let's get this one out of the way - Just as a disclaimer: I'm legally not allowed to complain about this because I'm Y:DA's Number 1 fan. This is fine, this is fun, let them cook. Alliance Raids are just simply the best place to put Cross-Overs because they're the easiest type of content for casual players to get into and their scale is perfect to make things look really cool and impressive - so I'm sure it will be an experience like no other. I had the slightest hope it would be a Bravely Default Cross-Over, that's the only reason I'm disappointed.
That being said, I'm looking forward to another expansion of people complaining about YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse, I will never be free, this Cross-Over can be as good or as bad as it wants to, all paths lead to "Y:DA Bad". I might not be willing to call you people dumb for not getting it, but you sure as heck are annoying about it. Get over it, one quest line out of 15 thousand is not for you, we get it.
It's interesting that apparently they are going to write it themselves? I wonder if, since they can't really do the Y:DA thing of more or less copy-pasting settings into the FF14 engine (I don't really know what they would copy from "earth but kinda weird" that is big enough to theme an entire raid around), they'll make the Raids original high-fantasy locales on the Fourth that Angels or an Eva or whatever crash landed into. Maybe even fully original Fantasy Evas? Who knows. Just don't do the FF11 Best Moments Gallery thing again, give us something cohesive.
Actually, if they don't scale the Angels down to a more sensible size and let us fight enormous death geometry beyond comprehension on foot while there's an eva on the loose trampling over the battlefield I could actually get invested into this...
What I do know is that this 100% happened in the same meeting as the Yoko Taro Eva Anime, right. Who else at Square was in that meeting? What else is Evangelion planning?
Also, just to spite you people, I hope every single shard from now on gets a stupid Sci-Fi-Adjacent Alliance Raid Cross-Over. I'm already looking forward to the Steins:Gate Raid on the 11th in 9.1 and I'll applaud it when it happens.
The New System Stuff
It looks. Crazy? It's out there for sure.
I'm not that bothered about it, I actually kinda like how it looks, I love that they want to make it customizable. Armory-wise all of those changes sounded sensible. Ngl, I was a little spooked by the Season Pass until I remembered I already pay money for this game and in my first impression the UI also looked very FF13 and as much as I adore 13's whole deal, the UI in that game can get very confusing to look at, at least to me.
I love the Character Customization Updates, the color wheel stuff was obviously already half-way implemented in Dawntrail's NPCs so glad to see that we get those now, too. I hope it does include new face options down the line even if they didn't announce that yet, but even just the armor toggle is such a big deal to me, I love it, the number of armors in this game with hideous shoulder pads and thingumabobs that ruin the entire thing is no longer too big. Action Skins sound tailor-made for Picto, big fan on that front - and I do wonder if that means we'll finally get actual Egi Glamours for Summoner.
The obvious thing that's still missing for me is a Glamour Catalogue of some sort, but I think even if it's not in the cards for this expansion that's clearly in the pipeline, they clearly know they have to do something about that and are working on getting there.
The Reborn/Evolved thing seems like it's bringing the PvP combat update into PvE content - which sounds fun to me, seems like a good idea - I just think it's kinda crazy that they're giving themselves the... challenge? of introducing 21 more jobs to balance around instead of just ripping off the band-aid, it's not like people aren't already complaining anyways.
Not that I ultimately care, I've played since the end of HW and always had fun with the combat while everyone else always seemed high-key miserable about the state of combat at all times no matter what - It's just... interesting to already see so many people fully doom-posting potential healer changes they haven't even announced yet and bemoan how they dumb down combat when... they left Reborn Mode right there. Why do you think they invested time and effort in doing both, huh. It's almost like they want you to use Reborn Mode if you prefer it. Congratulations, you are the target audience for Reborn Mode. what's not clicking
I will say I think it's still a bit early to judge certain parts of it, especially the complexity. Not that I think WHM will be much more complex than what they showed, but I'm pretty sure that what they did show was somewhere between the new Lv. 50 Base Version and Lv. 100, not the final kit with all of its features, it definitely didn't have any new 110 updates yet and they also didn't show every single skill option in the current prototype line up either.
Like, the idea that they got rid of Blood Lilies for example doesn't really track to me when they spent all of Paladin going "we tried our best not to get rid of the most iconic stuff." They might have axed it, I don't have proof they didn't even if I don't really see the point of keeping the Lily Gauge if they did, but in my mind he probably just didn't show it off because he didn't happen to proc it during his little exhibition and he probably just forgot to go out of his way to show that it was still there because he was clearly really nervous some of you people are so fucking mean lol how about you do a two-hour long public live panel about your mmo's eternally hated on combat design choices
Similarly, if the entire point is to give Jobs more pronounced Identities like in PvP there's no reason to assume they would get rid of stuff like AST cards, how does that logic track, that's kind of the exact opposite of what that entire segment implied, if anything they're going to lean in and make them weird and potentially niche busted like the new DRG Jump. I mean, we can be uncharitable to everything they say, sure, and yes, Healer Gameplay is a little bit too worried about entry level players, but considerrrr... that you people sound miserable, please look into a mirror and explain to yourself why you're this hung up about a video game you clearly don't like anymore not catering to your specific taste, this is getting weird.
On the other hand we haven't even seen how this change influenced Encounter Design yet either. Current PvP combat is obviously built around having to react much more dynamically to your situation than with our current static Overworld Enemies, so if they actually make bosses notably more dynamic like they said they want to, it might be better that the new combat system isn't quite as complex as before because you actively have to react to things and change your rotation around what's happening which is much harder to do if you have 5000 different buttons to worry about.
Either way, no MMO audience will ever not complain about the state of combat, so.... What do I care what joyless people think. Your problem.
The Jobs
We're getting the Two Shield Tank they talked about last Expansion, don't we. I was hoping we were getting Halmi as a Puppetmaster-esque Job but I think that's off the table since we're getting original jobs. Maybe a Fate-Weaver Ranged DPS using Puppet Threads as weapons? let me dream...
Another thing that popped into my head was a Ryne Job Change for the Ranged Job, no idea what kind of job though. I don't know why I'm doing this to myself and hope she'll even be in this expansion, but... please? If we get On-Demand Shard Travel in 7.5, can I have my girl and her bisexual goth gf back? I did really start to miss her ever since I thought of that.
The Clown
And I'm not talking about Tetsuya Nomura!!!
(jk jk massive fan you could never make me hate him)
I assume he didn't just show up for voice directing, they didn't say it but yeah, we're getting a new Kefka form, right. Honestly, I love that he keeps coming back to 14, a game he has barely any connection to, to give us new designs for those old games he designed for, even if it's just for a relatively niche ultimate or a savage phase. It's just nice to get 'official' new designs by the man himself.
I wonder what weapons they'll use as base models for the rewards, surely not the weapons from that raid tier that have nothing to do with him in the slightest? Then again, what other weapons would they use instead. Also, iirc that tier's weapons are really pretty... yeah okay I changed my mind use those weapons please
The Story
First of all, I love that they have us do a Rejoining!!!!! I wanted them to do that but never ever thought they would shake up the world to that level, especially after Myths of the Realm decided to not reflect the Twelve's departure in any singular way in the Overworld. (this is not the Myths of the Realm section yet. keep the godlessness pinned)
But that's so cool!!! The sense of world scale I hoped we would finally get to. Looking forward to a fully new world map in 10.0 that still covers Ilsabard in clouds.
I don't know what's not clicking for the "But didn't we try to stop the Ascians from doing that?" people, clearly this is the difference between two trains slowly approaching each other so they can couple up and drive off into the distance together and a train crash at full force. Both involve the contact of two or more trains and only one of them results in a mass casualty. We're just going to merge the dimensions into one big world, maybe even multiple planets next to each other if they're too lazy to draw a new world map, and we'll do it safely and slowly (okay maybe not slowly) instead of letting them all collapse into havoc and destruction. Easy.
I also don't really get the "Just HW+ShB" Allegations, like yes, sure, on paper maybe, but like. I think that's a lot of assumptions from the first trailer alone - which I will add, never really reflected the actual story of the expansions in any meaningful detail anyways.
Clearly the Fourth is on a much different level advancement-wise than the First which had an entirety of two cities left on it, so the actual things we're doing there, the stuff that's going to stand in our way and the people we interact with are going to be driven by completely different motivations. We - as in the Scions - are also in a much different position than we were in both HW and ShB, that's going to make a giant difference in tone as well.
Sure, the overall concept and story outset is maybe a little bit too similar, I will give you that, they could probably been a little bit more creative on that front to make them stand apart more on first glance, but I honestly don't think that's going to be that much of a problem when we're actually in 8.0. We'll have that talk when we get to it.
I do wish we would go to the Fourth with anyone but the Scions - Ryne, Gaia, Zero and Golbez, I'll take anyone - but I think that train is long gone, somebody over at FF14 decided that this Game needed a Dedicated Main Party like the other games, one that's around at all points always and forever, right behind the current Expansion's guest characters and all that "The Scions have disbanded" ultimately really amounted to is to get Tataru, the best Scion, completely out of the story, lol.
Sure, specifically Zero is still somewhat likely to show up in one of the later trailers, but after how Alphinaud and Alisaie's send-off in 7.4 pretty much overshadowed Erenville's only for them to immediately come back into the story the next patch - It's over, they'll be here forever.
actually, since they said that what happens in 7.5 is in some way spoiled by the 8-man raid setting and there's only so much that can happen in 7.5, what if the 8-man raid is the extended void squad (ryne, gaia, zero and golbez, maybe even cyella and unukalhai if they actually get to be relevant ever again) readying another shard for the rejoining like how we presumably do it for the 4th in the msq?
Anyways, we should talk about The Godless Realms Saga.
Because I have thoughts about The Godless Realms Saga.
The Godless Realms Saga
Listen, I'm so excited, I'm as happy as I can be about these announcements so far, I will be sat Day -3 or whenever Early Access starts and have the time of my life on this bus. I'm aligned with this game on a wavelength that makes me really easy to please because I just kind of get it, so even if I sound kinda mean or pissed or whatever, I'm enjoying myself, this is playful ribbing at most. I am not part of the miserable Post-EW Brigade that needs to tell you how I "do not recognize my favorite game anymore", no, far from it, at this point I don't think there's much FFXIV can do to get rid of me, not even be boring or stupid or whatever because it already was and I'm more invested for it.
All of this to say: Get your pin out from earlier - this is the Myths of the Realm section. This shit is going to suck ass!!! (I say excitedly)
I bet you that we have FF16 and the inevitable FF16-themed Expansion "Farwanderer" to thank for this, but this name promises me one thing and one thing only: This is going to be so. stupid.
Yoshi-P or whoever else is to blame for this over at Creative Studio 3 seems to have a thing for the theme of "Humanity doesn't need Gods." That's neat for him, technically I should like that, practically he and his writers sadly haven't yet demonstrated that they actually know what they're talking about. Maybe Evercold they'll finally getting it right, as far as I can tell the HW guy isn't involved which is a good sign, but either way - this is not about them.
This is about the fact that the writer of Myths of the Realm couldn't possibly disagree more.
To abridge my upcoming video essay "I hate Myths of the Realm as much as Nophica should hate Halone", the writer of that story line questions so little about what it means to worship and to pray that they have to be supremely religious or the entire quest line doesn't make sense or they just didn't think about it at all which is much more likely.
Like, this writer argued that it wasn't all that bad that a Lamb of Dalamud didn't leave their homicide cult because at least he stayed in it to honor the legacy of his favorite Love Goddess, neither of them noticing the obvious problem... that said Love Goddess would never want you to stay in a cult that does homicide in her dog's name, that is simply the furthest possible thing a Love Goddess could ask of you. This guy has clearly not thought a single second about what Menphina stands for and what praying even really does and why you do it, to him it's just some ignorant sense that Praying to your given god is "Good" and "Should Reward You Someday."
To our dear writer, the fact that this guy blindly "worshipped" her was more than enough, everything else is the other Lambs of Dalamuds fault. Thinking about if what he's doing aligns with her moral teachings in any way shape or form is really not that important, just follow the script you were given and you'll be fine. They even went so far to make Deryk reassure this Lamb of Dalamud of all people that he should just keep on doing what he thinks is best without any attempt of introspection whatsoever and then they made Menphina herself go so far as to break her hallowed vow of silence that she continually reminded you about beforehand just to pat him on the back even more.
On the other hand this writer also made this completely devoted and unreflected act of "Praying"/"Worship" a fundamental necessity to keep the world going by making up an actual environmental purpose for these gods (and only these gods) that is solely fueled by praying to them and instead of providing us with an actual alternative to fix this still completely unexplained problem without them, they instead replaced the Twelve with AI so we can simply keep on praying.
This is of course a major problem if you suddenly want to tell a story about how Humanity doesn't need Gods, because you just textually established that regardless of what they do for us (keep in mind that they did in fact just leave) we absolutely do need these Gods or at least their "Blessing" in not just spiritual but outright secular ways. Like, they're not just arguing that praying can make you feel good when you're down low so it's good to have Big Religion around for people that need it - they established that a notable amount of people absolutely need to pray to this One True God-AI or the Planet Dies. That is what Eulogia is. You did in fact just explicitly say that Aetheris is completely dependent on the Twelve and that we can't just stop praying to them, even now that we know for a fact that they left. fuck this quest line man who at any point thought this was a good end for the twelve and the world???
So now that Halmi introduces this Weltenwende in 7.5 (i'm too lazy to look up the english term sry), another existential threat to the planet that has to do with some spiritual force (the will of the planet) and which is therefore likely an allegorical stand-in for "We need to figure out how to approach Godlessness in these Godless Realms", Evercold has, in my mind at least, three options:
1) Establish that whatever the Twelve helped to fix was actually to prevent the Weltenwende but Eulogia either doesn't suffice anymore or still needs to be get rid of regardless.
Unless the writers come up with a really good explanation for how this was the plan all along, this would make the Twelve look really stupid. Like. Really Stupid. They really couldn't wait for another couple years so we could fix all of this with them there to help us, huh. They didn't tell us about the big problem facing us because they just thought it was going to be fine with their magic spell and it immediately turned sour. There would be no way around establishing that Myths of the Realm was a massive and profound waste of everyone's time and brain space, that the Twelve were in fact completely out of their mind in their approach to their departure.
The Academy of Sharlayan would need to open an investigation into Baldesion's scholarly practices, G'raha and the Roe Girl with pretty hair would lose their accreditations for failing to follow basic academic procedures, news about the Twelve leaving would reach the public and fuel a populist agenda about how academia is lying to the populous which ends up pushing at least one nation, more following rapidly, towards becoming a Fascist Dictatorship. Deryk, the Wanderer, would be hunted for sport because he of course knew all of this and a few WoLs who love white bread will be absolutely devastated by this development. All around bad times.
I really want them to do that so bad. I want them to get the Twelve in here front and center, I want them to give the Twelve the Lore Depth they deserve instead of treating them like Cardboard Cut-Outs That Love Us and have us actually confront getting rid of them. I want them to explain to me in detail what the fuck the Twelve even did in the first place. I want them to admit to me that "Goodbyes are hard but you don't have to do them" is in no way an adequate resolution for Deryk's character arc. I want Evil Twelve Primals, I want NPCs struggling to confront the Twelve Leaving instead of this bullshit "Blessing" that left us without a single reason for why the Twelve needed to exist at all, without even a singular trace in the overworld that they even left.
Needless to say that they're not going to do that.
2) Spread Eulogia
I mean we could just give all the Godless Realms a God in Eulogia and simply argue that "Humanity needs Gods" but that would be utterly Fucked In The Head.
3) Completely ignore that Eulogia exists
Unless Halmi really surprises me tomorrow, they will 100% just pretend that the Eulogia Blessing doesn't count even though its entire function is to be a Twelve-Stand-In so every NPC in the game can keep on pretending they exist. Maybe they'll even ignore the Twelve completely, but even if they do mention them they will just pretend that we are indeed Godless - which is technically true after all, all we have is a meager Blessing that does everything that they ever did without any drawback for anyone whatsoever while chaining us to religiously worshiping gods that do no longer exist.
That way we can proceed to condescend to the people of the Fourth about how unlike us enlightened few who can handle life without our Gods, they can't handle their Godlessness and are instead moved to pray to fuel a White Devastation like the pitiful losers that they are (this is btw what I think is happening in evercold, the whiteout was fueled by people praying to it for salvation and just imagine how much harder that would fuck if they made that whiteout a menphina primal)
It will be exactly like when Alisaie called the Soul Cycle Stuff in Alexandria - a cultural practice that everyone most* people have agreed to participate in - "unacceptable to us" after we spent the entire first half of DT establishing that you can't just dismiss cultural practices and their reasons and impact just because you don't get and/or like them.
*she wasn't even mad at that part, she was mad at the idea that people view the value of souls differently than us
Or maybe they don't. Actually, it's much more likely that the God in Godless actually refers to Zodiark whose powers kept the Reflections in balance or something. He's probably the God we need to learn to live without - us too even if we never prayed to him - but that only occurred to me after writing all this so that's that. Either way: Halmi Saves!
Have a little WIP of Paper Dalamud for making it all the way down here.
It took me this long and a long glance at Chibiterasu to get that his design was 100% meant to be an Okami Reference, right, he's an Black Ice Moon Wolf instead of a White Fire Sun Wolf. He even has the disk!
The thing I don't get about Dawntrail's reception is that I don't really know what people were expecting. The amount of people I see that feel the need to tell the class that "this didn't grab me like it used to" apparently absolutely taken aback by the fact that the first expansion in a new arc didn't engage them fully right out of the gate and how that must mean it's badly written and badly bad bad bad compared to the other expansions is kinda... like... yeah. Usually stories are the best in the first chapter, especially in this game, I completely agree, normal thing to expect. Better quit cold turkey right now and develop hard feelings about it, I'm sure there's nothing coming down the line that could possibly make a little slow period worth it. We should just stop doing breaks, ever. Nothing good has ever come from a break.
I probably disagree with most criticisms of Dawntrail's MSQ, but the one I find the weirdest is this unspoken undertone some people have that the narrative doesn't know what it's doing and isn't clearly and blatantly setting something up. Those people treat DT as if the writers didn't know the first half was a little low-key, a little bit more calm and placid and might not grab you as much as last expansion's unannounced but urgent hardcore time-travel with all of your ancient faves. As if they didn't know Wuk Lamat would go the way of Lyse and never show up ever again outside of a brief cameo if we happen to go back to Ala Mhigo/Tural (and even then only in the MSQ and for side quest stuff someone a little less important will be the quest npc instead) and that's why she talked so much. As if the Overwhelming Amount of Modern/Techwear* gear wasn't because they knew they wouldn't go back to Techwear* aesthetics anytime soon so might as well get it all out now, while something similar to the Turali aesthetic is much more likely to come up again somewhere else.
*wannabe goths ruined techwear, it's not real techwear, the only people in gaming that know what techwear is are hideo kojima because he knows the acronym guy and some but not all of the art designers at arknights
But there are clear and apparent reasons for why they did what they did, unlike Stormblood's two halves the first half of Dawntrail directly sets up its second half thematically. Like yes, there's the coronation scene in-between them telling you the first part is over and that you can take a little break if you want - but they're not disconnected, all of DT was written with intention and that's - in my opinion - incredibly obvious even without a guy in Urqopacha literally telling us that he thinks the only reason people think "War is Good" is that they don't remember how exactly "War is Bad." And then War happens. And it's Bad. do i have to explain what a yellow-purple contrast is, it's almost like all of this is on purpose
I mean I get it, there wasn't nearly as much Hype around DT to fill in the holes like it managed to do for some of the other expansions and thanks to Wuk Lamat's Trans Voice Actress daring to even just exist the worst people on the internet poisoned the fandom's water supply so people just kinda assume it has to be bad because vibes - but some of you guys need to check yourself, because in which world could it have grabbed you more than Endwalker, why would you base anything off of that. Like, after all of our joking, did you actually expect them to escalate from the End of the Universe? Because that's what some of you guys sound like. This is a Beach Episode.
And I will say that by all accounts except for (maybe) the story (and even then only at some points) EW was a much worse expansion that I've seen so much less discourse around; meanwhile so many people eagerly go on the record to dismiss the woke expansion - even here on the woke website might I add - and will with the utmost sincerity tell you that the Expansion wasn't about the WoL just because nobody in-universe pointed out that every single of these lessons about Inheritance directly apply to the WoL's relationship to Azem. When it's called. Dawntrail.
If you wanted to actually be worried about the game quality-wise, you should have been worried last expansion and not this one, they literally did most things they could have done to give the game a substantial face-lift, they listened to complaints about how combat got too stale and massively over-delivered giving us some of the best instance design we've ever had. Sure, they couldn't fix literally everything and they still seem kind of confused about their in-game reward structures turning new content almost immediately deserted - but some of you guys seem to think it's feasible for them to just upend their entire production pipeline completely from one expansion to the next while simultaneously giving us more content then ever.
Dawntrail was a perfectly fine expansion, period. You might not have liked it, you might not be interested in it thematically, but it was at the minimum perfectly fine. Certainly better for the game than Heavensward ever was and you guys love that expansion. The only thing wrong with it were people's impossible expectation that the game they've played for up to 10 years suddenly magically becomes a completely different game overnight.
...if they're talking about the actual will of the planet they kinda have to at least address what exactly the twelve (thought they) were doing to preserve it, right. please. pleaaase. pleaaaaaaase have someone state outright that eulogia was a bad idea that didn't help anybody, pleaaaase, i need the plush boy to say that the gods were useless pleaaaase
Well, so much for that. I guess all that Hasu News was too good to be true, huh.
Man, how horrible. Someone fucked up to have let them announce their three-year plan literally last week. Apparently the Scenario Team didn't even know until a few days ago. Or maybe someone knew and wanted to hope announcing it was enough to let them keep going? I don't know, what a mess. Horrible way to end the careers of a creative team that is very good at their job with barely any overhead. You could have literally just announced it would end with 103's exit and give everyone involved a natural end :////
And the girls, did they know?? Istg I hope at least their management already knew this was probably going to happen. Actually, the more I think off it the more this seems like it could be in the realm of Breach of Contract for Odd No, someone might get sued into oblivion for this...
I guess at least we're still getting the Movie and the Anime and hopefully Seihasu continues, too, but 106 is probably dead, right. I feel so bad for those seiyuus... Going from a stable 3-year intro career opportunity to "over before it even started" must be soul-crushing. I wasn't thinking it was going to, but now I'm kinda hoping the Anime actually is 106 just for them :/
edit: it seems like odd no is getting liquidated/merged/laid off by their parent company for profitability's sake - so the usual suspect when something's killed off without any dignity. yay capitalism!
reading certain takes on this in other corners of the internet makes my idol economics jump out. my clenched fists are filled with the power of "i know this shit better than you people."
some people really do believe idol groups are about the music, huh.
Well, so much for that. I guess all that Hasu News was too good to be true, huh.
Man, how horrible. Someone fucked up to have let them announce their three-year plan literally last week. Apparently the Scenario Team didn't even know until a few days ago. Or maybe someone knew and wanted to hope announcing it was enough to let them keep going? I don't know, what a mess. Horrible way to end the careers of a creative team that is very good at their job with barely any overhead. You could have literally just announced it would end with 103's exit and give everyone involved a natural end :////
And the girls, did they know?? Istg I hope at least their management already knew this was probably going to happen. Actually, the more I think off it the more this seems like it could be in the realm of Breach of Contract for Odd No, someone might get sued into oblivion for this...
I guess at least we're still getting the Movie and the Anime and hopefully Seihasu continues, too, but 106 is probably dead, right. I feel so bad for those seiyuus... Going from a stable 3-year intro career opportunity to "over before it even started" must be soul-crushing. I wasn't thinking it was going to, but now I'm kinda hoping the Anime actually is 106 just for them :/
edit: it seems like odd no is getting liquidated/merged/laid off by their parent company for profitability's sake - so the usual suspect when something's killed off without any dignity. yay capitalism!
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