Into the Breach before the break of Dawn.
(Private & Selective Indie RP blog for FFXIV OCs Demistel and Tallyn Locke; Sargatanas server; see Rules for more info)
Tracking: #voidblood
OOC: #;out of memes
I have collected the pre-revamp data, compiled just a few into these percentages you see here, but the majority of what I looked at can’t be easily graphed and will be under the cut
I will be playing through ARR again post 5.3 and will make a new post once that’s done comparing the before and after (note: data does not include Coil or extreme trials, but does include all sidequests)
Now, without further ado: read on to see the final numbers for all the horseshit ARR put us through
I have collected the pre-revamp data, compiled just a few into these percentages you see here, but the majority of what I looked at can’t be easily graphed and will be under the cut
I will be playing through ARR again post 5.3 and will make a new post once that’s done comparing the before and after (note: data does not include Coil or extreme trials, but does include all sidequests)
Now, without further ado: read on to see the final numbers for all the horseshit ARR put us through
BASIC STATS
Total Quests in A Realm Reborn: 284
Number of Main Quests from lvl 1 - “The Ultimate Weapon”: 184
Number of Main Quests 2.1 (The Price of Principles) - 2.55 (Before the Dawn): 100
Company Seals Required Private 3rd Class - 2nd Lieutenant: 44k
NITTY-GRITTY
Total Times Returned to the Waking Sands: 24
Total Objectives in the Druthers Water Bucket Quest: 6
Total Times Talked to Synhtgot in Ul’dah: 3
Total Quests Where Corpses Turned Into Flowers: 6
Total “Rub Beer On Trees to Kill Slugs” Quests: 3
Total Quests to Unlock Stone Vigil (Alphinaud’s entrance in the church - “Stone Vigil Now Accessible”): 23
Total Quests to Unlock Garuda (Cid’s Crystal Boogaloo): 15
OTHER
Qarn Normal Mode is still required for post-50 2.1 story
ARR zone music does not play from the hours of 6PM - 6AM Eorzean Time
IN MEMORIAM (things patched out over the years but The Wood Remembers)
2.1 story requiring guildhests up to “Annoy the Void”
Hildibrand and Zodiac Relic necessary for Trial Roulette because if you didn’t have everything unlocked you couldn’t have the roulette (Ultros, Battle on the Big Bridge/Big Keep, Chimera, Hydra)
Crystal Tower FATEs
FINAL IMPRESSIONS
So much of base 2.0 is about making you visit every corner of the map (Cid’s Crystal Boogaloo is the biggest culprit here) and so much of the 2.1 - 2.55 patches are about making you pay attention to side content like guildhests and non-story dungeons. There are only two story dungeons in all of the 2.x patches and they’re Snowcloak and Keeper of the Lake.
(sidenote: i hate keeper i hate keeper i hate keeper i hate keeper i hate keeper i hate keeper i hate keeper i hate keep--)
ARR has a real problem of “time passage” quests where you’re made to go do something stupid like kill 3 random enemies to make it feel like the NPCs are doing something in your absence, such as moving a cart a couple clicks east.
ARR patches are also SO FULL of plot threads and story meat. I knew and expected all the plots that were introduced and dealt with but I’d forgotten just how dense the A Realm Reborn patches got at points. Before Ishgard was even a passing thought the Scions had already:
met Elidibus
dealt with Moggle Mog
investigated crystal thefts in Thanalan
resettled the Domans
dealt with Leviathan
investigated the riots in Ul’dah
ran around the Sylphlands and faced Ramuh
and built the Crystal fucking Braves with Alphinaud
I did Defenders of Eorzea content on Saturday of this past week and it took me 7 hours to complete start to finish.
The first time you meet Aymeric and get a hint that Snowcloak might be a dungeon, and that Ysayle is a character, is at least 5-10 quests away from when you actually get to do Snowcloak.
Early patches badly need cutscenes. There are quests where all the characters have to have a conversation, but instead of resolving that in a cutscene the player is forced to talk to each NPC individually. Later patches have a sudden and noticeable uptick in both cutscenes and voice acting.
There were lots of Shadowbringers revelations foreshadowed in A Realm Reborn, despite what people may say about ARR’s writing. Did the writers know absolutely everything about the beginning, end and middle of this story? Of course not, but nothing came out of left field and everything revealed thus far makes consistent sense with what came before.
That said, there are an equal number of plot threads in ARR that turned out to be completely irrelevant! The Isle of Val being the biggest waste of time, since the whole thing got forgotten for one and a half expansions and then shunted into Eureka.
All in all, A Realm Reborn suffers from a bad case of bloat, and could be steadier in its early narrative voice, but it is a good game and replaying the whole thing start to finish, skipping no cutscenes, was a nice reminder of that.
I won’t be starting my next run-through for a while yet, as I do have a main that needs weeklies done and I’d like to take a break, but yknow? I think I’m actually looking forward to it
By now, the sibs feel they’ve wrung all the information out of Emet-Selch they’re ever going to get, so they’d rather he just shut up and leave them be. Demi particularly didn’t enjoy the speech about conquering and crushing rebellion under heel
The entire conversation wasn’t a terribly pleasant one. Emet-Selch spoke of them labouring under misapprehensions, and yet he laboured under a misapprehension of his own: that either of them give a damn about the world beyond their immediate circle. Whether the world before time was better or worse is irrelevant; the only world they care to protect is the one that houses their family and friends
Ardbert on the other hand, they could happily talk to for a lot longer--given some privacy so they don’t appear to be completely mad
Tal laughed maybe a little too hard at Alisaie’s puns, but it was real laughter
Amity is nice, they like Amity, and Demi was glad to see Tristol safe and well after pulling him from the sea
Tallyn stayed behind in Amity while Demi went to scout with Alisaie; she was asked if she could jump to the base of Mt Gulg, partially as a joke about what she did in Eulmore, but the answer is no. It’s much too high
Part of her was dismayed at a waste of such perfectly good magitek bits--and wary, now, of the Exarch, though she wants to believe he’s going to help her before the Light takes over
As it turned out Tallyn already had a talk with him in Amity, and while he still wasn’t happy with how things were going, he was markedly less anxious when they came together again at Top Rung
They were completely floored when everyone started volunteering to help. No one’s ever done that before, most people are content to leave the impossible to the Warriors of Light and nevermind the details, but--people are helping
Demi tried to call on Feo Ul again and was yet again interrupted before she could get the name out
Chai-Nuzz: Who are you people?
Demi, grinning: The Warriors of soddin’ Darkness, an’ don’t you forget it.
Seeing former free citizens of Eulmore sincerely try to make amends for how they treated those beneath them was touching, but bittersweet for Demi. Why these people? Why now? Why never for her? There is no meol blinding the nobility where she hails from, all the suffering they wreak is entirely of their own volition. She just...wants to believe it when the Scions tell her people are inherently good, but it’s hard
Demi: Lali-hoooo!
Tal: L-Lali-ho?
The entire run to the Duergar’s Tewel was supremely weird. Why was the Exarch saying those things? Why did it sound like he knew her before all this? Why did his voice almost sound familiar? Why was he insisting that her tale mattered?
Seeing the entire world band together was enough to make her tear up, and made Tal smile
He helped Demi imbue Toddia’s heartstone, using his aether to give hers a little push, and they went off in search of the Exarch
Demi knows for certain that she knew the Exarch before all of this, before Norvrandt, but for the life of her she can’t place where or how, until he mentioned slumber. She knew then he was G’raha Tia, but she chose not to speak up
Feo Ul: such a heartless thing our younger sapling is! Cold and cruel and HEARTLESS -- oh but not you Demi you’re a treasure and we are thrilled you’re here
the lore explains this actually and it’s real silly.
so there’s people… who use weapons called gunblades. which are blades with guns in em. but in-universe the word gun doesn’t exist. instead, they’re named that because they were named after one Queen Gunnhildr. so they’re Gunnhildr’s blades - gunblades.
so then eventually people with actual guns show up. but the word gun still doesn’t exist. and in a ridiculous turn of events, the word gun comes into being because their weapons resemble gunblades. except they don’t have blades. so they’re just guns.
so the people who use gunblades start fighting people with guns.
and break their lines.
so the people who use gunblades… become known as… gunbreakers.
If you’re considering making an alt to rush through ARR again before the streamline/revamp, so you can see the difference before and after for yourself
FEAR NOT
I have undertaken this task for you, making a grand sacrifice of having to listen to ARR voice acting and watch every pointless cutscene without skipping, to put together this comprehensive tally of all the absolute garbage nonsense inherent in the 2.x patches that we tell everyone to skip now
Note: tally not currently finished, alt in question is about to do Castrum Centri and I had to pause to grind out my grand company ranks because that’s still a thing and it sucks
Come 5.3 I have another alt lined up to experience the New ARR, gathering the same data, and we will know once and for all how good the youngins have it
Well, well, what have we here? Are you a vulture, I wonder? A scavenger poking amidst a corpse whose bones have been long since cleaned? Or merely an intruder, come into these darkspawn filled wilds of mine in search of easy prey?
I will say this one last thing, and I’m not reblogging that post because it’s long and I don’t want to
I didn’t say Thancred was right, I didn’t even say he should be forgiven without doing something to earn that forgiveness. The question was “how is he supposed to cope with this situation” and the premise was that Thancred 1) had no one he felt he could talk to and 2) has a lot of baggage and trauma around this situation, and it’s hard to find the Right Way to cope when your own issues are heavily affecting your judgement and you have no support (self-inflicted isolation or otherwise). There’s a Right Way, a Better Way, a Bad Way and a Worse Way when it comes to coping and Thancred landed on Bad; he’s absolutely at fault and was 100% a dick, but yknow, ripped yellow star sticker for “not as bad as could’ve been”
That post was @ people who specifically call him an abuser or say that he should die or that Ryne should ditch him and hate him, which is blowing the whole thing way out of proportion and is honestly a draconian and unnecessary way to react to a flawed person fucking up while trying to do the right thing
like, the fuck do people want? A perfect sunny reaction? Bye Minfilia, it was nice knowing you but I love Ryne now? Absolutely not, Thancred is a deeply flawed person with a lot of issues that we are GOING to drag to light kicking and screaming; it’s going to be messy and people are going to get hurt and relationships are going to be strained and then they’ll make up or they won’t, but nobody needs to be condemned to death or Shitty Abuser Jail over poor judgement
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