I think I've said this before, but once Lena decides she's joining the Superfriends on the street, I think she would want to up her martial arts skills. Like she has self defense skills, probably krav maga training. But I think she might get into something more offensive.
I also like the idea of her getting into free running and/or parkour. I think she'd acknowledge the need for stamina, and also the need to traverse the city more creatively. And then once she starts, she likes the challenge and the outlet to push herself and return to her jock origins.
My opinions and spoilers for the entirety of 7.0 under the cut.
Overall I enjoyed this expansion immensely. There was no point at which I thought to myself, "I can't wait for this part to be over," or "This is really dull," or "I want to move on to the next thing right now." There was no character I did not enjoy and feel at least something small for. Characters I kind of didn't like initially (Bakool Ja Ja mostly) ended up being some of the characters that I loved most. Wuk Lamat was a joy in her development. I wasn't annoyed by her initial faults and I liked that she retained some of them even at the end, after she had grown so immensely. Zoraal Ja's dimensions were revealed a little late into the game, but I had already sort of gotten a notion of them by the time that happened, so I didn't mind, and I find the idea of struggling with the legacy someone leaves you with the best of intentions to be really compelling. I adored Gulool Ja Ja to pieces. And Wuk Eva. And literally everyone else. I'm serious, there's no one I didn't like.
The area that affected me most was Living Memory, and if that was like kicking me in the shin, then Heritage Found was the winding back of the leg. I have dealt with my own losses in life and the whole thing with reusing souls and resurrecting people and preserving them based on their memories was grotesque to me. My loved ones are gone, and we had wonderful relationships and I loved them dearly, but I would never want to speak to them again. Because they are dead and should stay that way. But the scene with Wuk Lamat speaking her last words to Namikka was terribly upsetting because I couldn't help imagining the things I would say to my loved ones if I could see them again. It struck home with painful precision and there were tears.
The themes of love, legacy, war, redemption, death, and loss were poignant to me, and I think they were handled really well.
As for the encounter design, the dungeons were fairly difficult but I never died in a Trust run, so they must not have been too hard. Same with the trials. I can see myself doing these things over and over again without getting too tired of it for the next two or so years. The single player duties were great except for the one QTE in the duel with Gulool Ja Ja, which stressed my hands to the point of forcing me to take a break for a few hours.
For gathering, I appreciate the new action Revisit that the game added to the two gatherers, it's always exciting when it procs. Fisher seems to be sitting pretty too. I haven't done all of them yet but so far the Wachumeqimeqi quests have been great, and I haven't done any of the role quests yet, so no opinions there. For crafting, I haven't really delved into the potential of the new actions, but I know they're probably going to shake up the game a little.
Music was spot on as usual. The game's graphical update has done wonders for the visuals as well. I'm lucky in that I'm completely enamored with Lena's updated appearance; a lot of people aren't so happy. I hope that their concerns can be addressed over time.
This might be new expansion smell filling my head, but I think Dawntrail might be my favorite. I can't wait to see where they're going with this, the aftermath to the threads they made in the MSQ. I want more of these characters and places and I know I'm going to get it, and that's the most comforting feeling.
As for fic, though… I think it's going to be hard to put Gaius in there with Lena. The entire first half the WoL is providing a role of mentorship for Wuk Lamat and I'm going to have to think really hard about how I write the MSQ so that Gaius is there and not just nodding his head and going 🧍♂️. There are a few moments when I was playing where I thought to myself "Gaius could respond to this with something relevant to his character," like for example when Zoraal Ja remarks that the Empire was full of idiots, but those were just a few moments. It'll be hard to fit him in with the rest of it and depict the MSQ in a way that's both not boring/retreading what viewers have already seen to much while still getting the information of the plot AND my changes across. We'll see how it goes. I'm not super hankering to start, so we'll see when I get to that.
FFXIV tip #4356 - Glam farming in leveling dungeons
I ran into at least three people on twitter who didn't know this a while back so I figured I'd make a post about it here.
Every time you complete a dungeon whose level doesn't end in 0 (aka level 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63 dungeons, etc) you will, 100% guaranteed, get a piece of equipment from that dungeon's set for your current class dropped into your inventory. It doesn't come from the last chest, it's just tossed into your bag when you beat the final boss. What's more, this piece is also 100% guaranteed to be a piece of that dungeon's set that you don't already have in your inventory or armory chest.
Which means if you want, say, the Palaka casting set, if you get very unlucky and none of the interstitial chests drop the pieces, you still only need to run the dungeon a finite number of times to get every piece. No RNG involved.
Reminder that this does not happen for level 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 dungeons, because reasons.
Now that I've thought on it a bit I wanted to compile my thoughts on 6.5 for the record and for anyone who's curious.
Spoilers below the cut for both the 24-person raid unlock, clear, and after-quests, as well as the MSQ.
MSQ
I liked where Zero's character went even though it went there a little fast. I think it's safe to imagine that during 6.4-6.5 offscreen time there was a bit of character building we didn't see that sort of made her more comfortable with who she was discovering herself to be. Fanfic and art will make up the gap. As it always does.
I liked the shounen power of friendship vibe that the last bit of the conflict in the Thirteenth gave us. I know some people have a bit of trouble with Golbez' quick turnaround. I don't. My ship features the king of clumsily portrayed turnarounds, I'm used to it.
This whole patch arc seemed to be filler and that's okay to me. I hope they're setting up something for later - it certainly smacked of that in how we said goodbye to Zero. I wouldn't mind running it back in the Thirteenth and doing the same thing we did to the First if we could.
I don't like that Zero won't be with us in 7.0. That was really upsetting, actually. Since she was in the Trust menu I was certain she would be a main fixture from now on, a new Scion friend to add to the main cast, but I guess I was wrong. Damn. Them's the breaks.
Myths of the Realm
During the Thaleia unlock, when Deryk revealed himself to be Oschon and that poor opo-opo staggered after him as he left, I almost burst into tears. The little guy didn't understand and there was no way for anyone to explain it to him. This isn't a knock on the rest of the raid story, but that moment moved me more deeply than anything else had so far.
Likewise when the opo-opo halted Oschon's footsteps at the end, I felt something. What I'm saying is that if the opo-opo had not been there then this entire raid series would have rang pretty hollow to me in its finale. The previous raid had a moment where Menphina talked about hearing the prayers of all her children, and that got to me, but otherwise I had no huge attachment to any of the gods and so I wasn't overly concerned with where the series was going.
Mechanically, Thaleia was satisfying to figure out and execute. Most everything I could decipher through context clues alone, which is a design choice I'm a big fan of, because my memory isn't the best and I don't do alliance raids often, so I tend to forget some things. It helps to be able to just look at what's going on and understand relatively well.
That's all. Not the biggest bang to end on before the expansion, but we do still have 6.55 to look forward to and speculate about. Overall I feel like I'm in a relatively happy place in my relationship to the game. As always, I can grind as much as I want or as little, and outside of that I am creating fan works and still have that drive (even though I'm taking a break from writing right now).
We'll just have to see what kind of expansion leadup 6.55 gives us.
I'm not usually the type to share my thoughts on media so soon after consuming it because how I feel is usually just that - feelings, not thoughts - but I feel compelled to share how I felt for anyone who's curious. So I figured I'd think about it some and post what I decided here - posting on twitter before the embargo drops means jumping through annoying spoiler hoops like rot13 etc. Anyway here we go.
I'm not the kind of person who takes screenshots while I go through content for the first time. I find it distracting and cumbersome to look out for Photo Moments and capture them when my character isn't blinking or something. I'd rather focus entirely on what's going on. So I don't have many pictures to go with this, sorry!
I thought the premise of the conflict was neat enough. Like, someone stealing a giant mech? Oh boy, I wonder what's going to be the deal there. But I didn't like the Valens lookalike thing. It felt really... cheap. Like you bought a nice dress at the store but you need to buy one more thing to get a discount so you pick out something ratty and inexpensive but fine, and now you have them both, for better or worse. I was really hoping when Gaius struck him down that he had passed unilateral judgment upon him and killed him outright for the trouble. But New Gaius wouldn't do something like that, of course.
I enjoyed his characterization still. The writers didn't have him depart from his severe and even nature, his frank way of speaking. I was terrified that they would throw a curve ball at me that screamed "You've been doing it wrong for half a million words!!" but that didn't happen. I don't know why I worried. (I do know why. It's because I worry about everything.)
The painting was nice. Like a few other bits, I'll have to make adjustments to fit my canon when I write this in, since in my work Allie carries the memory core in a hip satchel made by Cid at nearly all times, which means it couldn't have been used by surprise to create the projection. I could take this opportunity to let her detach herself from it a little, though. Much to decide.
Gaius' (badly paraphrased) "words are hard sometimes, thanks a bunch" remark near the end really warmed my heart.
Overall it was okay. I didn't come out of it sobbing or overjoyed or anything but I did come out of it relieved that nothing overtly bad happened. Relief colors the whole experience; I anticipated the patch as one anticipates a blow to the body, not knowing where the strike would land. And I left 6.4 Tataru's Grand Endeavor feeling as though nothing had hit me after all.
I'm looking forward to trying to twist the story to maybe be something better than what it was, especially with my canon of tensions between Garlean refugees, Ala Mhigan Resistance soldiers, and Werlyt troops. Maybe the one who steals the mech won't be a Valens lookalike at all... maybe the nature of the theft will be dramatically different. We'll see.
As our supreme director says, please look forward to it.
PS: Gaius has a new idle after the quest is over where he is engrossed in a book, one leg folded over the other. It's adorable. Thank you for this food, devs.
every time I look at cosplayers, especially cosplayers wearing armor and carrying weapons or bags, I think about how swelteringly hot it must be under all that equipment. at times artists suffer for their art and this is just one way that cosplayers suffer. I'm so in awe over it.
Also sorry I'm still coming to terms with the fact that the same office in which Lena sat on the floor with her brother and told him she loved him is the same office in which he tied her to a chair and made her watch helplessly as Metropolis burned.
