I am to the point where the raid boss intro cutscenes ought to be made unskippable, and I am not kidding.
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@sarriakadijah
I am to the point where the raid boss intro cutscenes ought to be made unskippable, and I am not kidding.
Thanks for the adventure!
(also available as a postcard)
(ArdbertWoL) “I wish we could’ve stayed like this for just a moment longer”
I dunno how describe it, but not pulling Phleg, Xande and Cloud of Darkness before the sprouts are done with their cutscene and in position with the rest of the group feels like an FFXIV version of the shopping cart litmus test.
It's not just CT. It's every fucking raid now. I was in first wing of Ivalice the other day, had a first time CS and the tank pulled. Then from the chat, paraphrased:
'some people just want to get the tomes and get the fuck out'
...okay so if you're in a rush, why the fuck did you sign up for a roulette? Alliance raid roulette? Why are you even trying to possibly speedrush something that with x amount of other random people has the possibility of taking a significant amount of time depending on everyone's else's level of skill or multiple wipes? There are other ways to get the mogtomes, go do those instead of inflicting your poor ass time decisions on the rest of us.
This kind of shit is the reason why we got unskippable cutscenes for the ending of ARR MSQ. Because people kept fucking rushing newbies. I was one of them. I didn't get to see any of those cutscenes until they became unskippable.
Have some fucking manners. Wait for newbies. Otherwise if we possibly get hit with unskippable cutscenes for every single raid don't fucking complain.
Merchant's Tale from FFXIV, Part 1
Credit where credit is due. FFXIV's latest Variant Dungeon, Merchant's Tale, came out this week in Patch 7.45. There's been a lot of well-deserved criticism levied towards it already, because some of the most prominently marketed aspects of this new release - the gear, some of the bosses, etc. -- have been Orientalist caricatures that are demeaning, racist, and frankly rather disappointing. It's obvious why this is (sex sells and Disney's Aladdin sells; hence the "exotic" belly dancer gear, the blue genie of the lamp, the flying carpets, etc.), and I won't rehash those points here because that isn't the focus of this post.
The point is this: there's been some actual research & work that's gone into Merchant's Tale, and those facets should be recognized and praised and discussed, even as we are justly and rightfully denouncing the aforementioned Orientalism. I'm an Iranian-American; I may not be the best person to speak on this on account of how I am diaspora, but my grasp of Farsi/Persian and my cultural upbringing gives me enough background to recognize the work that Creative Unit 3 did put into this latest release. It's my personal belief that we should be encouraging more and better representation, not less and worse, and until matters & industries & reach improve enough that we can enjoy homegrown representation developed in the countries best suited to represent themselves, we ought to give companies feedback to encourage them to do better (hire natives and first language speakers, do their research, understand what not to do, etc.) rather than to become entirely avoidant ("why bother with representing this culture when we'll only get slammed for it") or, worse, to start disregarding our feedback entirely in favor of what sells best. There's enough good representation in Merchant's Tale that it's worth not losing sight of it, and I'm going to be covering all of those things in this post.
Be warned: spoilers await you.
Finally, before we start: please pray for the people of Iran.
Merchant's Tale from FFXIV, Part 2
More Farsi, coming through!
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘵 ffxiv · Alphinaud, Alisae · アルフィノ, アリゼー Tarot Art Card series
My artwork for the FFXIV EU Fanfest Art Contest, based on the intro to Shadowbringers, one of the most memorable scenes in the whole game for me. I'm so happy to be chosen as a finalist!
I spent a very long time on the details of this piece, including various flora and fauna from around Lakeland. I remember looking up through the trees from the first place you wake up, seeing vines hanging down and birds flying overhead. The place is so strange and deeply affected by the everlasting light, and yet still full of life that has survived in spite of these conditions... And then, there is the Crystal Tower rising above the hills in the distance, a familiar beacon standing out against the unsettling sky.
For me this moment represents so much of what I adore about the experience of this game and it's one I'll never forget.
In the fan favorite expansion of critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, Shadowbringers, at one point you go to the DMV. Not a regular DMV either. It's a ghost DMV. It's the bittersweet memory of a long dead civilization's DMV crafted from the mind of the only surviving member of that civilization, who is apparently the kind of guy who takes great comfort in meticulously recreating the fucking DMV. And you have to wait in line, despite the fact that you and your companions are the only living beings there and everyone else is a ghost. At the ghost DMV. Because that's what you do at the DMV, obviously.
And the guy's dead wife is there. At the ghost DMV. The dead wife is a ghost and he's the ONLY ghost who knows he's a ghost. In the ghost DMV. You make friends with the guy's dead wife (while waiting in line) (at the ghost DMV) and he tells you that the lunatic immortal wizard who's making you defeat his seven evil bureaucratic processes while you die of magic cancer before you can even fight him directly is really just a silly sentimental fella.
Then in the next expansion you get to live through the dead wife flashbacks yourself. You get to meet the dead wife when he's alive in the past, outside of the DMV. And it turns out he works at the real DMV, in the past. And he has pink hair. And he and the past-self version of the insane immortal wizard (who sent you to the ghost DMV) pull off a sick prank to help you close the timeloop.
Later, you run into the dead wife's real ghost on the moon, which is actually a spaceship full of immortal bunnies.
I think "In From the Cold" would have been infinitely better if Zenos got kicked out of your body by Ardbert not some arbitrary timer.
Let my bro be on screen again, if only as an internal force. Let Zenos be confused as to why he's not alone when he gets in your literal head.
I will not be taking questions at this time *walks off stage*
meow
Ardbert clearly having the time of his life (in spite of complaining that Thancred is not being very sporting)
Dragoon headcanons
1.) The WoL's brand of Dragoon is slightly different from everyone else's because they are partaking not just of Nidhogg's essence, but of Midgardsormr's.
2.) Also since the WoL isn't Ishgardian (at least not by default), they're probably not descended from one of the bloodlines cursed by Ratatoskr's murder, which could make Nidhogg's essence fight against them a little less? 3.) When we use powers with a distinctly Red hue we're drawing more directly on Nidhogg's essence, whereas Blue powers are more aspected to Midgardsormr.
Blue: Mirage Dive, Gierskogul, Battle Litany, LB3, active Blood of the Dragon
Red: Rise of the Dragon, Nastrond, Stardiver, active Life of the Dragon
Both: Wyrmwind Thrust
Neither: All the Spear Stuff that we learned with the Lancer's Guild that's just normal ways to channel aether through a polearm without any Draconic influence, but that fits together nicely with all the leaping strikes that we pick up after exposure to the Eye of Nidhogg.
4.) This is not to say that Estinien is inferior in the Dragoon arts to the WoL. Estinien became so saturated with Nidhogg's essence that Nidhogg was able to be temporarily reborn using his flesh, and a generous portion of that essence is clearly still in there. If anything the WoL needed a boost from the Father of Dragons to catch up.
5.) Nidhogg's still in there for real. Not just a memory, not just an energy source, but a presence, an intelligence. Mostly dormant and submissive to Estinien's will, but it may grow in time. Probably not into another catastrophic Rage Monster though. I fully believe that if we came back to Etherys in two or three thousand years, there would be five living members of the First Brood once more, just one of them would also remember having been an Elezen child in Ferndale, having been a knight in service to Ishgard, having been one of the heroes who saved the world from the Endsinger, and the lived experiences would temper the new gestalt entity. I think Estinien knows this, and is at peace with it.
6.) I think the rest of the First Brood know this and are also cool with it. Nidhogg's essence is going through an unexpected phase, but the Dragons of FFXIV are weird and absurdly complicated. Azdaja and Midgardsormr are also rebuilding themselves basically from scratch after mostly dying, so Nidhogg being a current of aether inside of this mortal isn't that weird.
7.) Speaking of currents of aether, I think Ratatoskr is still in the people of Ishgard. Maybe just the tiniest sliver, maybe not enough that she could ever truly regain memories or any sense of continuity with the Ratatoskr that was, but enough that one of the Ishgardians who have been transformed into dragons by drinking dragon blood might some day re-evolve into a new Ratatoskr.
8.) I think Bahamut is irretrievable though. The Allagans were thorough as fuck, and what essence of his lingered on may have been caught up by Tiamat's summoning ritual and incorporated into the Primal. And if being absorbed by a Primal is enough to kill one of the Unsundered Ascians, I'm going to say it could erase any possibility of an ancient dragon coming back as well.
9.) If the WoL can draw strength and abilities from their connection with Midgardsormr, pacts with other dragons could be forged that don't require the dragon's eye to actually be popped out of their head first. In fact, stealing their eye is probably just a way to force such a pact from an unwilling dragon.
10.) The surviving Knights Dragoon might just figure this out, as Ishgard and Dravania establish closer ties. Rather than the Dragoons dying out, they could be reborn from a partnership where young Ishgardian knights seek out a specific Dragon to form a personal bond with.
11.) Bonds with other First Brood, or with particularly ancient and potent dragons from later generations, would also deviate from the baseline job as its manifest by the current Knights Dragoon.
A Dragoon of Hraesvelgr might manifest ice and holy light instead of searing flames, and have themes of self-sacrifice and preservation of allies. They might even be a Healer instead of a DPS job!
A Dragoon of Tiamat might have characteristics of exceptional, unwavering durability and resistance born of long penance, and be a Tank job.
A Dragoon of Vrtra might be much more teamwork-oriented, although probably taking the greater burden of risk in a fight, as a Tank job with support elements not unlike a Paladin.
A Dragoon of Azdaja would be weird as hell, and almost certainly reflect on the ages spent lost or imprisoned in the 13th with some frightening Darkness-Aspected powers.
A Dragoon of Bahamut, if one could scavenge enough of his aether to forge a bond, could just be a weird backwards way of becoming a Summoner? Probably more of a Caster than a Melee DPS in any case, Bahamut seems to have had more of a penchant for blasting the shit out of things from a distance than his siblings. Or that could just be a characteristic of the twisted Primal reflection of him.
A Dragoon of Ratatoskr could, like Vrtra, have a great deal more teamwork-oriented traits but be more focused on providing support where needed rather than being the anchor point around which the battle takes shape. I think a Ratatoskr Dragoon would be another Healer, but a "pure" healer while the Hraesvelger type would do shields with ice effects.
I can think of a dozen other powerful dragons in the setting who might grant unique gifts. Maybe an individual Dragoon could collect blessings from multiple sources, like the WoL already has?
Anyway, I have no real proof of any of this, I just like the idea that there may still be Dragoons in the future but they'd be dramatically different than the ones who were only empowered by Nidhogg's stolen eye (and possibly the lingering wisps of Ratatoskr's essence in most of their bloodlines).
ardbert
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