Chris
Potato del Grande
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I really disliked the Shadowbringers Thancred battle (I assume you are talking about this), but the Endwalker one is great.
Final Fantasy XIV (Guide in first post)
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Daidraco
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Shadowbringers is the height of this game. At least for now. Endwalker drags ass till the end, and thats not enough to redeem it for me. The newest expansion I havent touched yet, but I havent heard good things about that either.
Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Loved the Thancred one, was very on brand for his character and it was a big moment in the story. If it was a tiny bit shorter, I wouldn't have complained...but for story purposes that whole fight made sense being on the longer side.
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Caeden
Silver Baronet of the Realm
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Oh wow. If that’s the case I regret all the time I put into this then. It’s not been great. I’m generally a FF fanboy for mainline entries, but I thought shadowbringers was just above average. I flipping bought endwalker full price and never made it past shadowbringers. May just have to be sunk cash.
Chris
Potato del Grande
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He's wrong. Endwalker is better than Shadowbringers. Let me hype it up a bit.
Basically a new storyline tied to the previous one starts at lv79 in the last Shadowbringers zone and it's pretty action packed from there until lv90 which has an excellent ending to all of the main storylines.
Endwalker drags in one zone (Sharlayan/Labyrinthos) but it is otherwise much faster paced than the previous expansions, people actually complained that stuff that should have been a full expansion were single zones. Actually each expansion has a related Endwalker zone to tie up plot threads, then there are two secret zones.
I suggest you uninstall after the final encounter of Endwalker unless you like raiding, that should leave you with a satisfying experience and reward your time investment.
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Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Everyone has their own opinions on the expansions, although hearing Shadowbringers "just above average" is a pretty rare take. Most everyone regards it as tremendous. I would rank EW a slight drop from Shadowbringers, but the two are so interlinked it's hard to really rank them as their own thing separately. EW by existing actually only makes Shadowbringers even better with some of the lore and knowledge you gain along the way...while the patch content in EW brought it down a little bit for me.
That said, they did change how they did the story for Endwalker. Most patch stories would actually start in the previous X.4 patch MSQ and continue through the X.3 patch of that expansion. Whereas EW's only really runs from 5.4 through 6.0. The 6.X series is kind of its own thing entirely until the slight DT intro stuff in 6.55. I don't know if they will consider DT story to be a fully connected thing 7.0 through 7.5, but I would suspect that is going to be the case.
That said, they did change how they did the story for Endwalker. Most patch stories would actually start in the previous X.4 patch MSQ and continue through the X.3 patch of that expansion. Whereas EW's only really runs from 5.4 through 6.0. The 6.X series is kind of its own thing entirely until the slight DT intro stuff in 6.55. I don't know if they will consider DT story to be a fully connected thing 7.0 through 7.5, but I would suspect that is going to be the case.
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Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
- 16,920
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There are unresolved plot points at the end of DT, so I suspect it may fall back on “xpac story through .3 patch and then we start to get heavier into next xpac leadin”
If I had to guess
If I had to guess
7.1 will focus on aftermath in Alexandria - levin sickness and the residents being connected to the wider world
7.2 will get more into living memory remnants and Sphene’s crown. I predict little Gulool Ja Ja is actually a clone and not a biological birth. His original purpose was to serve as a replacement of Zoraal Ja by imprinting Zoral’s memories over the clone in the event Zoral Ja died of old age.
7.3 will involve Sphene’s crown and the Alexandria reflection. Ends with them recovering data on how to reach other reflections and uncovering info about Azem’s artifact
7.4 will either continue that or introduce the next xpac story on the source (like Mericydia)
7.2 will get more into living memory remnants and Sphene’s crown. I predict little Gulool Ja Ja is actually a clone and not a biological birth. His original purpose was to serve as a replacement of Zoraal Ja by imprinting Zoral’s memories over the clone in the event Zoral Ja died of old age.
7.3 will involve Sphene’s crown and the Alexandria reflection. Ends with them recovering data on how to reach other reflections and uncovering info about Azem’s artifact
7.4 will either continue that or introduce the next xpac story on the source (like Mericydia)
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Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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All pretty plausible, the clone idea hadn't occurred to me but makes a lot of sense. I always forget about the crown being shown and how they made such a point about it being so advanced. Definitely a plot point they will touch on.
I doubt they double up on the use of souls since that's being covered in the Arcadion raid series, but you never know. Agree that the endgame will be the Azem artifact and how to use it to travel to other reflections. I do wonder how they'll balance that with the obvious eventual trip to Mericydia, though. If that ends up being 8.0 story and it's a good bit more slow burn build to whatever big evil is coming next, might turn off some people.
I did see a pretty great video the other day discussing who the next big evil will be, and it drew from stuff Yoshi P had already said apparently.
Vid claimed Ultima (XIV's version)
Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Actually that could work - Heart of Sabik, the Pandemonium raids, the Ivalice Raids. They've all had this history hinting at that being somewhere out there. If they made it some inter-dimensional threat, then Azem's artifact becomes the perfect mcguffin to allow for us to respond to that. I just don't know if they want to dip hard into the other reflections just yet since there is a lot on the Source we haven't dealt with. However, other reflections have an advantage in that they are sort of "blank slates" and let them deviate heavily from the established history on the Source.
I also had another thought, although it would take a lot of balls and resources. What if we visited a reflection, but the flow of time got fucked and when we returned to the source, like 100+ years have passed and almost everyone we knew was dead or incredibly old. The Warrior of Light would basically just be a legend at that point, save to those who remember him/her, like the dragons.
I also had another thought, although it would take a lot of balls and resources. What if we visited a reflection, but the flow of time got fucked and when we returned to the source, like 100+ years have passed and almost everyone we knew was dead or incredibly old. The Warrior of Light would basically just be a legend at that point, save to those who remember him/her, like the dragons.
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I am so glad that WE decided to hold onto the fancy hourglass rather than let some random take it like we did the Heart of Sabik.
Still probably give it to Y'shtola to study or something in a patch though.
Still probably give it to Y'shtola to study or something in a patch though.
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Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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Ya Y'shtola is 100% going to want to study it. Although a thought did occur to me: the audience saw Azem's symbol on the artifact, but our character presumably didn't because of the angle. That means in-game no one knows that connection yet, so it becomes a question of when they figure that out.
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Chris
Potato del Grande
- 19,179
- -9,900
Yeah that was my thought.
We fought a primal versions of Ultima and the other FF12 summons in the Stormblood Alliance Raids and the real pantheon is out there?
They could have us fight one this expansion.
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Chris
Potato del Grande
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I don't think it's an "Azem" artifact.
I think it's a convocation artifact and would show the symbol of whoever held it.
My guess is that it is what the Ascians were using to rejoin shards, someone fucked up and lost it.
Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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I don't think it is Ascian. A few things:
1) The South Sea Isle lalas were in possession of it before Alexandria. The south sea island was famous for its big volcano
2) The game has repeatedly told the story of Azem going to an island to stop a volcano. They joke it was because Azem loved wine made with a certain grape only found on the island, but the fact they've mentioned that story about Azem multiple times is the key part
3) Lahabrea and Emet survived the sundering because they were outside normal space
4) We do know that some remnants of pre-sundering things can be found - for example, the sunken city ruins on the First.
So it is quite possible Azem made the artifact AND purposely placed it at the volcano pre-sundering (the real purpose of their mission there). The artifact either survived the sundering because it was able to exist outside normal space or perhaps it was sundered, but its special properties of interdimensional travel basically let it rejoin itself with all its split fragments. Also something has to have prevented it from being noticed by the ascians, otherwise they would have just taken it and used it to help rejoining. They did mention the artifact seemed to be not working properly in the Alexandria reflection for some reason, so perhaps that is why it wasn't noticed?
2) The game has repeatedly told the story of Azem going to an island to stop a volcano. They joke it was because Azem loved wine made with a certain grape only found on the island, but the fact they've mentioned that story about Azem multiple times is the key part
3) Lahabrea and Emet survived the sundering because they were outside normal space
4) We do know that some remnants of pre-sundering things can be found - for example, the sunken city ruins on the First.
So it is quite possible Azem made the artifact AND purposely placed it at the volcano pre-sundering (the real purpose of their mission there). The artifact either survived the sundering because it was able to exist outside normal space or perhaps it was sundered, but its special properties of interdimensional travel basically let it rejoin itself with all its split fragments. Also something has to have prevented it from being noticed by the ascians, otherwise they would have just taken it and used it to help rejoining. They did mention the artifact seemed to be not working properly in the Alexandria reflection for some reason, so perhaps that is why it wasn't noticed?
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Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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This is a pretty interesting idea, too. Although presumably they would have had plans in place to retrieve it if they thought the First was close to rejoining at one point. Wonder if we run into anything as a result?
Chris
Potato del Grande
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- -9,900
Thanks, I think I already saw it a few days ago which is why I'm in agreement.
They seem big on FF12 lore since they used it for the Ascians and Venat, but seems weird to use it twice.
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Merrith
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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I do wonder how they will juggle MSQ going shard hopping v. sticking closer to home (Mericydia) over the next expansion or two. Maybe even patch content for 7.X and 8.X. Obviously at some point Mericydia is in the cards, and very likely will have some overlap points to the 6.X patch content given void/dragons connections.