That felt more like a vacation commercial. One of those commercials telling you about the features of a specific country.
My FFXIV diary (Leo can post here too, I guess)
DG_Nick
#26
Hey! Letās talk.
The Gold Saucer
So they released a casino-style area called The Gold Saucer a little over a month ago. Iāve done most of the events and mini-games now, generally events are fun but mini-games arenāt worth your time. My favorite of the events is the one where you look at an NPC and find the one other NPC that looks exactly like them. Itās not like theyāre telling you to use your phone but itās probably a good idea. Itās fun to look up and compare all the NPCs to the picture I took of the one Iām trying to match. Thereās also a daily and weekly lottery, Iāve yet to win the big prize from the daily but Iāve gotten the 2nd best prize a couple of times. This week I managed to get one number right on the weekly lottery for the first time, paid out almost as well and the 2nd best prize for the daily version. Thereās also a card game and chocobo racing, but I havenāt checked out either too much. The card game is a little too pay2win for my tastes, except you arenāt actually allowed to pay2win. Thankfully they nerfed it in the latest patch and it does seem a little better, but itās not my focus right now.
The Main Story
With Garuda defeated, my next task is to take the fight to the imperial army. They demonstrated a new superweapon thatās basically just a metal gear. Unfortunately many of my group, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn (our organization specializes in defeating primals like Garuda), were captured by imperials. We find out that theyāre being held at the fortress Outer Heaven Castrum Centri and that I need to disguise myself as an imperial soldier to get them out.
I forgot to mention that FFXIV has a Cid too, heās even of the same ethnicity as the imperials. A true imperial is a garlean which basically means theyāre human but they have a third eye on their foreheads. It appears that a fair amount of the imperial forces are actually subjugated races, made to serve or their lands burn. Imperials are bad news, plain and simple. Their superweapon destroys primals (which is good, technically) but they also plan to use it to help subjugate the whole of Eorzea. The big problem with that (among many) is that itāll will end up destroying the world because Primals feed on the desperation of their subjects. Pushed too hard, the Ultima Weapon wonāt be able to stop them and the world will be ravaged by the primals. This is a serious threat which causes the three major cities to reform their alliance in order to take it down.
And then the leader of the Scions, Minfilia, says what Iāve been thinking since the beginning of the game.
Even the bad guys think so too, this one in particular personally betrays you. This is Lahabrea, unmasked. Heās the reason almost everyone in your group gets captured or killed. To me heās been the main antagonist, heās had his hand in a lot of pots. Just about every enemy Iāve faced, he was involved somehow.
DG_Nick
#27
Hatching-Tide
Not a particularly interesting event TBH, though the quest line was a little cute. The main organizer of the event has a prophetic dream and the event coordinators secretly work together to realize it without her knowledge. They go as far as to recruit a spriggan monster like the one she sees in her dream and have it copy the actions she dreamt it took. They also dig up the strange eggs she sees in her dreams. She finds out in the end it but it turns out itās really just a surprise birthday party and then they laugh about the dayās events. Itās a really strange 90s sitcom scenario. After everyone disperses, youāre approached and told that all the eggs that were dug up were actually all ancient bombs and the prophecy was real all along! It really IS a 90s sitcom scenario!
That said, the main draw of the event for me is that whenever I find myself in town, I try to hang out by event coordinators so I can listen to this theme.
The Main Story
It sounds a bit like an ME1 theme!
I infiltrated another garlean fortress last night. And by infiltrated, I mean I blew the fucking front door down and marched through.
The boss of the place is named Livia Sas Junius. Nothing to it but to say sheās one tough bitch. She casually kills one of her subordinates and tortures Minfilia, although she merely beats her up, itās not real torture.
The coolest thing about her is that she appears to be missing an eye!
Leo
#28
Rhitahtyn, Nero, Livia, and Gaius are all badass characters. They are ruthless and have impressive armor design. Square Enix was always good about creating marvelous-looking armor.
DG_Nick
#32
It means I completed the main scenario. I was planning on making a post about it later today.
Leo
#33
Now you can join the rest of us in frustration, doing tome and allied seal farming for better gear.
DG_Nick
#35
Should I not? Iāve been posting with the assumption that you werenāt going to play anymore.
John
#36
Oh, by all means do post, i was just thinking about the trophy. Even if i do one day manage to play this i donāt have any trouble with being spoiled, which i really only care about in very few situations.
MidnightTrain
#37
Hm, I never gave this game a lick of my attention since itās an MMO, but it looks quite intriguing. Anyone got a good video that might sell me on it? Preferably with an overview of the gameplay.
DG_Nick
#38
I dunno. Does the thought of an MMO fully controllable with a pad interest you? How about the ability to switch your class/job at will and retain all your levels? Do you like crafting? This game has the best crafting system Iāve ever seen. The character creator is also extensive, thereās like 14 different voice options per gender too. Thereās a fair amount of voice acting and cutscenes, but not all of cutscenes are voiced. I think the general rule is that if itās a Main Scenario quest, then it mostly likely has voiceover.
But what I like most is how the game treats the player. Iāve never played an MMO where it feels like youāre important before. In FFXIV, itās your story that matters. Sure there are other adventurers, but for the purposes of the story, youāre front and center.
That said, I mean it is an MMO. It has the holy trinity. Youāre doing dungeons and getting loot. Youāre probably going to kill five of this and get three of that. I feel like they put a lot of care into the quests even if they donāt break the mold as far as mechanics. Context matters to me and if you tell me you want me to kill seven wolves so no one has to experience what you did, one for each severed body part of your fianceeās corpse, then Iām gonna go out there and kill me some fucking wolves.
Iāve even been impressed by the quest log popup, Iām like, lady I aināt even talked to you yet and Iām intrigued.
Also, every class and job has its own specific quest line and the ones I played through were all pretty great. Itās absolutely insane that they would put that much work into something maybe only 10% of the player base will see (no one is gonna level up more than maybe 2 or 3 classes/jobs, at least probably) but it speaks to the soul of this game. Thereās such a crazy amount of polish that you probably wouldnāt find in an American MMO. For example, I talked to my Archer guildmaster, which was my starter class, and she wanted to know what was up with me not being a Bard(itās the Job you get after leveling your Archer class). Thereās literally no reason for them to go back and do that other than the fact that they can. Iād totally be fine with the game being inconsistent and not acknowledging stuff like that because thatās just what Iām used to. I asked her about Archery (you can ask for a basic rundown) and sheās like umm, donāt you know? She proceeds to tell me anyway, but the whole speech is clearly rewritten to reflect the fact that Iām already a seasoned archer. Itās fucking insane.
Anyway, I donāt know if that all convinced you. I tried looking for a video but no one is really like trying to show a close up view of combat or whatever. Give the free trial a try. GAF is on Ultros I think.
DG_Nick
#40
Sorry Leo, looks like youāll be forever alone. I meant to make that post about the main story but I forgot. Instead I started working on my Omnilexicanum, the scholarās ultima weapon. They call it a relic weapon here since thereās already something called that.