it's slower than running with a party (because the NPCs are bad at optimizing their DPS and they don't like to multipull) and there's fewer loot drops, BUT you get character interactions, you don't have to stress about other people's time, you get ALL the loot that DOES drop, and the NPCs will actually teach you how to do mechanics
(they're not UNIVERSALLY reliable for mechanics, there are a few dungeons where a given boss will have a gimmick mechanic and every trust member will approach it differently and not all of them will succeed, but that's literally like two examples I can think of)
basically shadowbringers is where they start realizing that there are a lot of players who want to play 14 like a traditional single-player FF, and start providing options for those people
(which btw is something I do really like about 14, unlike many MMOs it strives to improve its old content rather than remove it and tunnel you to endgame)
Pity about losing her memories each time, but that's what generally happens with reincarnation, until The Plot gives them back at a suitably dramatic moment.
... I love how not two hours ago I was making half-jokes about Minfilia getting her past life memories back at a Plot Relevant time and oh now it turns out original flavor Min is just hanging out in the back of her mind and has been the whole time.
Okay, so First!Minfilia is feeling horribly inadequate over not being able to be Original Flavor!Minfilia, meanwhile Original Flavor wants her to be her own person even if it means no more reincarnations for her. Yeah, that sounds about right-
Okay, so: the light from the angels I've nommed is still inside me and that's probably a very bad thing, also mister super-monk general has showed up to make things more difficult again.
"Hydaelyn and Zodiark are the original super-primals" yeah, not surprising. We have yet to see any examples of non-primal deities that we know actually exist, the twelve being still pretty unclear. So, yeah, if anything, them being non-primal deities would have been the bigger twist.
"The Ascians come from the world before it got split apart" again, not a huge twist, explains their motives, end goals, makes it all fit together pretty nicely and actually gives us a reason to sympathize with the evil super-wizards.
As for Zodiark being the one who saved everyone from whatever the original calamity was and Hydaelyn being summoned because some people were scared he was too powerful and needed to be reined in, I'm reserving judgment there, given the source of the information.
The implications are what are really interesting. Does this mean people with the Echo are tempered by Hydaelyn? It'd explain why they're immune to tempering from other primals, but the rest of the abilities, not so much.
Finally, does this really change anything? Yeah, it sucks the Ascians lost their world and all, but that doesn't make the whole repeated genocides thing alright.
And now we're sneaking through the last non-Eulmore section so that First!Minfilia and Original Flavor can decide who gets the body. Or maybe they'll do a fusion dance.
And goodbye, original flavor Min! We never got to see you actually do anything cool, but it was nice of you to give babby!Min her own life and a new hair color!
He's got a perfectly reasonable goal, he's funny, actually pretty charming... and he's a fucking sociopath, or at least he's going to act like one if he doesn't consider anyone living on one of the current worlds "actually alive".
Just imagine Earth being split into 13 shards and people in each of those shards are less intelligent and less advanced and you find a way to bring back things to the way they were. With nobody to tell you "dude, that's fucked up" you'd radicalize yourself fast.
We've had some villians who made some sense. Thordain was trying to protect his people, Nidhogg had lost himself to grief, Gaius genuinely thought rule by Garlemald was best for everyone...
A really excellent villain. A rare treat. Thankfully, it just keeps getting better. There's a pre and a post-Yotsuyu era IMO. A moment when the writer decided "Okay, I'm not going to let you face those villains and not feel bad about it."
I think there are some criticisms I have about Vauthry’s design on the fatphobia end of things but I do think it’s kind of neat that he’s essentially a big horrifying cherub to start and then he becomes a classic renaissance angel
The plan made sense, too. And then here comes Emet to fuck it all up, because yeah, of course he would. Turning the WoL into a super-warden to finish off the First works perfectly for him.
(Ishikawa is the MSQ writer from Shadowbringers on, which is why you've probably noticed a stark increase in general writing quality and specifically character writing)
(She did some assorted quests and side content, then in Stormblood they let her do the entire Steppe, and then in Shadowbringers they just handed her the keys)
Discovering that "gun" in FFXIV came from gunblade, which came from a group of royal guards naming their weapons after their queen, is kind of amazing.
I mean the implication is, I think, that every spoken race is descended from the lines of the ancients after being split up and sent through the cycle of reincarnation so
in a questline that unlocks after you've done all the role quests, there's a strong implication that two characters are corresponding shards like you and Ardbert
but yeah I believe the implication is that all player races descended from the sundered Ancients and all non-player races are the ones that arose on their own after Zodiark's ascension
Glad Estinien took out that new proto-Ultima. But now we have the empire flailing about at itself, some new Ascian showing up to help Zenos find Zodiark, and... Ardbert alive and clean-shaven.
Bring this idea into KH sometimeWELCOME TO SHADOWBRINGERSNew ship?