Blizzard Lawsuit

 This entry will not be about lore or story. We have something more important to talk about. Growing up, we spend a lot of time looking back on our past and putting it into perspective. I know I wouldn't enjoy being friends with the silly, ambitionless twerp I was ten years ago who spent way too much time being happy about escaping his bullies and not enough time getting his shit together.

We also look back on our favorite movies and books and realize that, they were kinda dumb. Like the Star Wars movies or the Harry Potter books. Now adding to our old shames we need to consider that perhaps some of our favorite games were made by sex offenders.

I am of course talking about the allegations against Activision Blizzard by the state of California. Now officially these are still just allegations. However this isn't just some Karen suing the manager. This is the freakin government filing a lawsuit after a two year long investigation. And the defendant is a gigantic corporation paying a lot of tax to said government. They probably wouldn't do this if they weren't absolutely sure.

And the allegations themselves aren't just small things either. This isn't just a few instances of catcalling or one random drunk employee grabbing an ass at the company Christmas party. We are talking about mysogyny and abuse ingrained in the system that has been going on for decades. Women were payed three times less than they should. Afrasiabi was such a creep that employees unironically named his hotel rooms after a well known rapist. We even know of a woman who commited suicide due to the constant harassment.

You might be asking, if this was so bad why haven't we heared about it before? Well, for instance, fear. Even know, years after me too, following a two year long investigation and dozens of public testimonies you can read on twitter, there are still people in denial who claim this is fake or that thin skinned people are attacking white men. As a white man I say to that, fuck you with a fucking anchor. Don't involve me in your conspiracy theory. They would rather believe a company so out of touch with its costumers it is practically a meme. Naoki Yoshida can make more sincere apologize for making the game so popular the servers cap, than Blizzard executives for political blunders. You have to ask yourself. Back when Blizzard was still independent, beloved and had its peak with WoW during Wrath of the Lich King, would you have risked being the only one willing to speak out? All alone against the dream team of the video game industry? Of course you wouldn't. Not when you have a family to feed and nowhere else to go. As Javik, our old friend from Mass Effect would tell you, honor means fuck all if you want to survive. Furthermore a former employee shared a document everyone had to sign which said whatever happens you can't go to court. As if they knew there were things you should have gone to court for.

Response from Blizzard were mixed. The official corporate response was that these allegations are false and nothing like this ever happened. Hmmm, you guys still remember what happened when the voice actor for Kael'thas Sunstrider was accused of sexual harassment? He was immediately recast and all his voicelines re-recorded. No benefit of doubt or innocent untill proven guilty. Just complete erasure. Incidentally he turned out to be innocent. Funny that. Another Activision executive who has only been in the company for four months, says that she hasn't seen anything wrong, so it has to be a lie. There were a lot of unofficial responses as well though. Some public, others internal emails that got leaked. Being the absolute tool that he is, Jay Allen Brack of "you think you do, but you don't" fame gave a weird response that is a mix of acknowledgement, ignorance of the scope of the problem and lots of self congratulations. We have dozens of former employees saying things along the lines of "I saw it happen" or "it happened to me". And there are people like former  CEO Mike Morhime or present employees like Christie Golden or Steve Danuser who while not flat out saying that it is true, respond in a way that suggests they treat it as true. Concerningly as of writing this blog post, the only response from Chris Metzen is a weird tweeting of his own name suggestinng he was trying to look up himself in the allegation report but instead accidentally sent a tweet.

So what to do know? We have a 99.9% confirmed allegation of the worst kind. What do we do? How do we respond? Who do we blame? That is not an easy question to answer, as there are a lot of different people and a lot of different viewpoints to consider. First off, the only person explicitly named as an abuser is Alex Afrasiabi. Nobody else. So if you point at a random Blizz employee and call him a mysogynistic creep, there is a chance you accuse somebody completely innocent. All the executives claiming everything is alright and the government is just trying to go against legitimate businesses? Yeah, fuck them. They deserve a prison sentence. I wouldn't suggest harassing them cause unlike them, we are better than this. The people condemning the actions but saying they didn't know how bad it was? I can see that being true, honestly. Blizzard was a pretty big company even before the merger, which is why we like so much to joke about them being a small indy company, when they fuck up a release really bad. You can't be anywere all the time. Sure, Ion needs to know what's going on in the WoW team cause he is the director there. But he has nothing to do with the Diablo team for example. Brack should have been aware as the lawsuit does mention that he was repeatedly told about Afrasiabi, but all he did was give him a few stern talks. As I said before, very few people were actually named in the lawsuit, so condemning the work culture and the official company response is okay, but going after specific people is not.

What about players? Pretty much any response that isn't making fun of the victims is a valid one. Boycott Blizzard games as a protest? Go for it. Have prepayed subs that you don't want to go to waste so you organize an in-game protest with your friends that you can only contact in WoW? Sure. Continue playing as if nothing happened? Well now. Let's be honest this is a kinda meh response as nothing will change if you coontinue to give them money, But it is also true that if things aren't going well for a company financially, it is the little guys who are hurt first and most. If Blizzard goes bankrupt, Bobby will snort a little less coke off the butts of hookers. But the regular people down the line who may have suffered from the abuse mentioned in the lawsuit? They'll have nothing to eat and nowhere to go.

And here we have to take a look at content creators. First off, it is a legit job. You need to invest in proper equipment, promote yourself, be entertaining, keep up a schedule, and communicate with your audience. On chat, on reddit on discord, everywhere. And much like a job at Blizzard that may have involved relocating to another state, enrolling your children in local schools and making friendships there, changing your main game as a streamer is not easy. If you have been a WoW streamers for over ten years, you can't be expected to suddenly change. Especially not overnight. Yes, Asmongold broke his streaming record during his first day at Final Fantasy XIV. But he is the exception, not the rule. And also consider that even if he were to lose half his audience, he would still have a lot more than anybody else. Small streamers can't afford to take these risks. And also some people need to stay and talk about these issues, or there won't be a change. Yes, a few people might get fired to give the illusion of change, but if everyone just leaves there won't be anyone left to raise issues that need raising, and ask the questions that need asking.

So, yes. There are a lot of potential correct or at the very least understandable responses. So let's put down the pitchforks for a little bit longer and just wait and see what happens. This is absolutely and issue that needs to be talked about, has to be solved, and the abusers have to be punished. But if we just go balls to the walls withouth thinking, we might hurt the victims more. This is a delicate issue with a lot of traumatised people. And other who now have a crisis of conscience. Can I separate the art from the artist? Should I? I'm in the priviledged situation where I haven't enjoyed a Blizzard product in years. But if somebody is saaay a bullied school kid, who only enjoys himself when he does a few mythic+ runs with his guild mates, what are you supposed to do now? Definitely not endure harassment from keyboard warrior who don't personally know you. Let us show that we are better than Activision.

Also while the story in World of WarCraft is in an interesting situation right now with Sylvanas and the Jailer, I don't think I will be writing any Blizzard related posts untill this stiuation resolves itself in a manner I personally judge satisfactory.

World of WarCraft - Final Fantasy XIV dictionary

 Finally it is here. The reason I am actually doing this blog. A short dictionary that might help you settle in if you come to FFXIV from WoW. Why not the other way around? Cause I'm a sad little person with a hateboner for Blizzard. Nah, just joking. WoW is more than an MMORPG. It is a cultural phenomenon. And while I don't doubt there are some FFXIV players who know next to nothing about WoW, I think the majority is the opposite. How can you not know at least about the general setting?

Now you can have many reasons to join. And it is a good time for that as well, considering Endwalker is six months away. You might have started already like Pyromancer, planning to start like Bellular, or just watching the trailers and being curious like Asmongold. This guide is for you. I will try to make it as spoiler free for FFXIV as possible.

Races

Final Fantasy XIV has a considerably less races. Granted there are no factions so they don't need to make two of each races. Also each race has two subraces, called clans. Yes, we had them before Allied Races became a thing. I won't ellaborate on the clans unless they relate to different WoW races.

Midlander Hyur

And the first one is your average bog standard human. Just like the ones you see in Stormwind. If you are really lacking in imagination be sure to pick the most mundane class and your own real life gender. Not much to say about them. They are humans.

Highlander Hyur

Now this might surprise you, but the Highlanders are the orcs. Most of the Highlanders lived in Ala Mhigo. Now the coalition of good guys, the Eorzean Alliance was founded to push back the Ala Mhigans after they made good progress invading one of the city states. Sounds familiar? Their history also includes a long occupation by the Garlean Empire, the closest analogy we have to the Burning Legion. This was after said invasion though. One of the most prominent Ala Mhigans is Raubahn Aldynn the Flame General, who used to be a slave fighting as a gladiator before gaining his freedom and becoming a political and military leader. Yep, he is very much like Thrall.

Elezen

This is where things get complicated. The Elezen are the elves, obviously. But there is a slight problem with the clans. The Wildwood Elezen have a majority population in two cities. One is Gridania, a city close to nature, lead by priests who practice nature magic. The other is Ishgard a gothic city ruled by the Archbishop and defended by knights. So they are both Night Elves and Blood Elves. The Duskwight live underground.

Roegadyn

The giants who could probably rip your head off, but are in many cases a lot more gentle than they appear. Case in point the weaving and the culinarian (cooking) trainer is also a Roegadyn. Tauren would be a logical pick, but if you venture outside of playable races, there is an even better one. Vrykul. The first playable clan are the Hellsguard who live close to volcanoes up north. The clue is up north. Gigantic buff humans from the north of the map is pretty much what Vrykul are. The other clan is the Seawolves. They are usually pirates, and even ones who are not are sailors of fisherman. They are very close to the sea. They also tend to have blue or blueish green skin. This fits the Kvaldir perfectly.

Lalafell

Probably one that will shock WoW players the most. Lalas look a lot like gnomes. However a disturbingly large ammount of them are criminals, loan sharks or corrupt businessmen. They are all about the money. While they are less likely to blow you up than their Azerothian counterparts, they are definitely goblins at heart.

Miqo'te

So what would be the best equivalent for fanservice cat people? Would you believe me if I said Trolls? They are excellent hunters, can be fierce when the situation calls for it and naturally live in tribes. Considering how Sunseekers often live in deserts while Moonkeepers prefer forests, we can divide them into Sandfury (Farraki) and Amani Trolls.

Au Ra

Probably the easiest one. Added in the first expansion, often blueish skin color, has horn, tails and scales, not native to this part of the world, the most extreme case of sexual dimorphism in game. They are the Draenei. They also face discrimination due to looking draconic, not unlike how Draenei look like Eredar. The Raen are more the city dwelling type, while the Xaela are tribal people close to nature. So for this reason I'd consider the latter to be the Broken.

Viera

Probably the hardest one to decide. This requires a bit more context. Viera first appeared in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance back in 2003 and have been a popular race in the franchise ever since. Request to make them playable in FFXIV continued untill it happened in Shadowbringers. So far they are locked to female, but in Endwalker male Viera will be available. This is a first in the franchise as they live in a matriarchal society. They have limited costumization options due to their heads and legs. Now de we know of any immensly popular WoW races with weird legs and a female lead society that made its debut in 2003? Sure we do, they are the Naga. Only ours are rabbit people not snake people. And they are playable.

Hrothgar

The most bestial of the playable races. And funnily enough one of the best when it comes to technology. They invented the gunblade after all. A fitting counterpart for my favorite playable WoW races, the Worgen. Helion have a monarch while the Lost do not, so let's make the latter Bloodfang Worgen.

Classes and Jobs

Obviously I am not going to do all of them. World of Warcraft has 36 specs and naturally Final Fantasy XIV does not have a counterpart for all of them. In turn, we have jobs that WoW doesn't have. Just a quick explanation here. Classes are what start at level 1. All the starting classes, plus rogue belong to this category. These base classes evolve into a job at level 30 where you equip a job crystal and enhance your class. You can have every class and job on one character. Each expansion job works without a base class. You can't unequip the job crystal. They also start at a higher level, like hero classes in WoW. The odd one out is Blue Mage which starts at level 1, but they are a different breed as vastly different rules apply to them. Also each class/job only has one spec. On the flip side they are more distinct. Casters are Disciples of Magic, while physical classes are Disciples of War.

Gladiator - Paladin

Gladiators are your standard blocking tanks. They are pretty much Protection Warriors. Their job version is the Paladin which, you guessed it, plays like a Protection Paladin. In FFXIV your class is tied to your weapon, so all Paladins fight with a sword and a shield.

Marauder - Warrior

Visually they appear to be Arms Warriors, with their two handed axes, but in reality they play closer to Blood Death Knights as they do a lot of self-healing and are tanks.

Dark Knight

This one does not have a base class. Starts at 30. Very dark aesthetic, a giant greatsword, unlocked in the first expansion. Very close thematic similarities with Death Knight. Not so much in gameplay, but if you want a dark and edgy tank, this is the way to go.

Gunbreaker

The final tank. Number two when it comes to health regeneration and comes with a high damage potential. Also the highest starting tank job. It also carries a very iconic weapon, the gunblade. While this comparison IS admittedly a little forced I don't think it is unreasonable to look at them as Vengeance Demon Hunters who carry iconic weapons, deal damage and regenreate their health to tank. They also used to start at 90 which was the highest level available.

Conjurer - White Mage

Conjurer is the only starting healer class. It is also the only easy healer to compare as the ones in both games are very different. Conjurers and White mages are definitely specced in Restoration as they use nature magic, but the question is are the Druids or Shamans(Shamen?). Both have merits. They start in Gridania the Darnassus equivalent and they are trained by the Malfurion equivalent. But their magic comes from the Elementals so....yeah. Any of the Resto specs.

Arcanist - Scholar

As I said healers are hard to compare. But I could see maybe Scholars being Discipline priests as they are focused more on absorption shields than direct healing. They can do that as well of course, but they are more what you would call a barrier healer. In fact an aim for Endwalker is to make White Mages and Astrologians pure healers, while turning Scholars and the new Sage into barrier healers. Also worth noting is that the base class, Arcanist, is DPS, probably a node to the damage dealing capabilities of the Disc Priest.

Thaumaturge - Black Mage

This one is easy. Most of their spells are either fire or ice spells and they are the only pure direct damage dealing casters. These are the Mages. Not much else to say.

Arcanist - Summoner

Yes, Arcanist again. It is the only class with two jobs, which makes leveling easier, but gearing harder. But to stay on topic, they summon pets and mostly deal damage by spreading dots. Not to mention as a Summoner you dable in arts that could endanger the world if it goes out of control. They are Affliction Warlocks. Wether they will get closer to or farther away from Demonology in Endwalker will remain to be seen. But they are definitely Warlocks.

Red Mage

One of the more iconic jobs of the FF series. The main fantasy of Red Mage is balance. It uses two schools of magic in equal parts to maximize damage. Also they have a pretty good healing toolkit for a dps. They are Balance Druids. Their rotation also includes melee attacks, which the Balance Druid might not do often, but they are certainly capable of it in cat form if they really want to.

Archer - Bard

Considering World of WarCraft doesn't have Bards (shame on them) the only logical choise becomes Marksmanship Hunter as they use bows, but don't use pets. Not an exact comparison as all three physical ranged classes have a heavy support lean.

Machinist

Poor Machinist has been drasticly reworked in every expansion it was in, but at last they appear to be in their place now. What remains unchanged is that they shoot guns and use gadgets. Their current, and most popular, version even has a robot it can summon for a short time that fights for it. While they don't pilot mechas, they are pretty close to what Tinker is envisioned as by its fans.

Pugilist - Monk

Have a guess, They are monks, they punch things untill they die. The things, I mean. Windwalker Monk fans come right this way!

Lancer - Dragoon

The single most iconic Final Fantasy job made popular by Final Fantasy IV. A focus on spears and polearms is not quite common, but thankfully WoW has one in Survival Hunter. This one does not ahve a pet though, to the disappointment of Final Fantasy XI fans, as it had a pet there, but as they are often reminded of, that was only in FFXI and nowhere else in the franchise. Still has strong ties to dragons, at least.

Rogue - Ninja

Rogues are unsurprisingly Rogues. But in this case they developed the Subtlety Rogue fantasy into actual Ninjas. Before role actions were introduced to make sure no job is excluded from raids, Ninja had hands down the best raid utility out of all DPS jobs. It is still my main and will remain so untill they mess it up.

Samurai

I don't think there is a direct analogy for the Samurai playstile where short but very strong bursts of damage are patiently set up, but if Blademaster ever becomes playable the visuals will at least match quite nicely.

Reaper

The job that was for a long time rumored to be Necromancer due to the heavy hints at the Grim Reaper. Well we got the scythe at least. As it will only release with Endwalker we don't know too much about how it will play, but it is an edgy DPS in heavy armor that can enlist help of a summoned minion. While their power is more demonic in nature, the way it fights bring Unholy Death Knight to mind.

Professions

They are one of my favorite parts of the game as they are a lot more developed compared to other MMOs. The are considered classes in game and have their gear, questline and abilities. There is also group content for fishers and any gathering profession can find treasure maps that can lead to special dungeons. Gathering professions are called Disciples of Land while crafter and Disciples of Land.

Botanist

Herbalism with a twist. They also gather wood for carpenters to use. The plants they gather are used by Alchemists, Culinarians and Weavers. They train in Gridania

Miner

Well they are miners. Not much else to say. The mining trainer is in Ul'dah. Mostly supplies the three different smiths.

Fisher

Yes, they are fishers. Shocker, I know. Mostly supplies Culinarian. But you can also frame caught fish to put them on the wall of your appartment or house. Also possible to place them in your aquarium.

Alchemist

Take a guess. Granted beside potions they also make wands and potions.

Weaver

Tailoring in Eorzea. The most important difference is that yarns are woven from plants supplied by herbalists.

Blacksmith/Armorer

What WoW has for Blacksmithing has been split into two professions. The difference is obvious. Armorers make armors, while Blacksmith makes weapons and tools.

Goldsmith

This is the Jewelcrafter profession. The easiest smith profession to level as both it and the Miner trainer is in Ul'dah.

Culinarian

This is the cooking profession. You can train as a Culinarian in the restaurant Bismarck in Limsa Lominsa. Not much to say about it.

Leatherworker

Yes, this is the Leatherworking profession. Go figure. The main difference is that there is no skinning profession to supply it. Skins from mobs are automatically looted just like everything else.

Setting and Geography

Okay so we know what kind of heroes we will be, but what does the world look like? Well, the map has more foggy area and we don't know how the universe was born, but at least that will give us more area to explore in subsequent expansion. I will ignore several locations, for example Shadowbringers as a whole, because spoilers.

Hydaelin

The planet named after the sentien crystal guarding and guiding it. Not at all dissimilar to Azeroth the planet and the titan soul within. It is not used widely in game. The people prefer our world, this world or the more archais this star. There is one other name, but that would be a spoiler.

Aldenard

The main continent where most of the action takes place. Ruled mostly by city states that are independent, but often cooperate. They are like the Eastern Kingdoms in WoW. Also while the name of the continent is Aldenard, the preferred use in game is Eorzea, which refers to the continent and the neighbouring islands.

Ul'dah

A city in the desert ruled by midgets and with a gladiator arena in the middle. Yes, this is pretty much Gadgetzan. Only it is far larger. Imagine Gadgetzan as the size of Orgrimmar. Now also imagine that it is run by Boss Mida and an advisory board called the Syndicate that includes Thrall, Gallywix, Gazlowe, Marin Noggenfogger and Silas Darkmoon. That is what Ul'dah is like.

Limsa Lominsa

The pirate town down south. Actually it is not even on Aldenard proper. It is on the Island of Vylbrand. Founded by migrant sailors. I labeled it as Booty Bay for a long time, but frankly Boralus is a better fit. I mean the title of the ruler is Admiral for fucks sake.

Gridania

As I mentioned many times before already, Gridania is Darnassus. It is in the forest, it has a lot of wood and the ruler is a priestess of a sort that the story often forgets about. Populated mostly by elves. Go figure. Ul'dah, Limsa and Gridania are the three starting city states. Where you start depends on your class. As far as the story is concerned, you migrate here from outside the continent.

Ala Mhigo

We have already established that Ala Mhigans are the orcs. So does this make Ala Mhigo Orgrimmar or Garadar. Well it IS a place they have to reclaim, but the surrounding area does resemble Durotar, so let's say it is Orgrimmar during 5.4. Trying to take it back is part of Stormblood.

Ishgard

Well this is an interesting one. Ishgard was one of the founding members of the Eorzean Alliance. In fact it came up with the idea. But later they closed the gates of the gothic looking city and only opened it up much much later. It is very easy to see where I am going with this. Elezen or no, Ishgard is our Gilneas.

Sharlayan

Oh, now this is fun. Sharlayan is Dalaran, but with a twist. While Dalaran was originally in the Alterac Mountains before it was moved to Northrend, here the movement was the opposite. Old Sharlayan is on an Island North of Eorzea. Later they established a colony in Dravania, the Northwestern part of Eorzea. The city state was later abandoned, so now it is ruined just like Dalaran crater. Sharlayan both Old and New is a center of knowledge. Most of the central figures that accompany us in our adventures studied there. Quite a few of them were students of our Medivh analogy. Of course Sharlayan is a bit more serious about guarding knowledge. Our Astrologian trainer suffers multiple kidnap attempts, that also include bound and gagged decoys to slow us down. Sheesh. The ruins of New Sharlayan are visited in Heavensward, while Old Sharlayan becomes a hub city in Endwalker.

Othard

Pandaria, but not quite. While it IS the weeb contient it is more japanese and chinese. But it also has a version of Mongolia, populated by the various Xaela tribes.

Ilsabard

The last of the so called Three Great Continents. Notice how all of them end with -ard. We don't explore that many parts of Ilsabard because it is occupied by the Empire. The Nation of Garlemald expanded to cover the entire continent and even moved outside. Often the continent is referred to as Garlemald due to this. Considering it is the home base of the main enemy force, let's say this is Argus. In Endwalker we will get to explore the Garlean capital. A limited glimpse just like with Argus in Legion.

Thavnair

A southern nation mention often in Final Fantasy XIV, but never glimsed. Will feature in Endwalker. It is more or less our version of Tel'Abim, expect instead of bananas it is famous for alchemical ingredients and dancers, Gives up very strong One Thousand and One Nights vibes.

Manderville Gold Saucer

A gigantic casino where you can play minigames, card, race your mounts and fight with your pets. It is essentially the Darkmoon Faire, except it is available all the time once you unlock it. As I mentioned our Silas Darkmoon sits on the Syndicate. He is Godbert Manderville a very wealthy Hyur Goldsmith.

Meracydia

The old continent that is very important for the lore, yet we have never seen it. The map doesn't even show where it should be. It can be considered the FFXIV version of Kalimdor.

The Carteneau Flats

The sight of the final battle against the Empire before the game was reset into A Realm Reborn. While geographically speaking they are the exact opposite it does serve a similar purpose to Mount Hyjal where A Reign of Chaos ended.

The Crystal Tower

A sparking light blue tower that is a reference of the tower of the same name in Final Fantasy III. It is used for a raid. Well, Icecrown Citadel looks similar and has a similar role. Big difference is that it IS the same IC that appeared in WarCraft III.

Persons of Note and Organizations

Again I will not cover everyone, but definitely those who are important to the story and have a counterpart on Azeroth.

The Eorzean Alliance

Considering it is in the damned name it is easy to see that this is the Alliance.

Nanamo Ul Namo

She is the Sultana of Ul'dah. I already mentioned that she is Boss Mida, but that is purely because she is a midget lady who is in charge of actually leading her people and is quite reasonable. Not much of a fighter, but very strong willed and has a strong moral compass.

Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn

This unspellably named lady is the Admiral of Limsa Lominsa. But she is no Katherine Proudmoore. No, no no. She is very tall, has a nice cleavage and could probably shoot you down from a mile. She is pre-Legion Sylvanas. 

Kan-E-Senna

She is the Elder Seedsear of Gridania. The story often forgets she exists, because there is not much drama in the woods so we have no reason to go there. But she is nice at least. Tyrande. Pre-BfA Tyrande to be specific.

Raubahn Aldynn

The above mentioned Flame General. We already discussed how his life mirror's Thrall very much. No point in repeating. He is among the more active faction leaders as unlike Nanamo or Kan-E-Senna, he is a military man and can be counted on when there is a fight. Especially if said fight involves Ala Mhigo.

Archon Louisouix Leveilleur

Used to be the most awesome mage ever, untill he dies/disappeared after the Battle of Carteneau. Personally thaught several important character. The people of Sharlayan didn't like him much, because he was not isolationist like them. He is our counterpart for Medivh.

Minfilia

An annoying blonde with large tits. That is pretty much the full extent of her involvement with the story. Supposedly she leads the main faction of heroes, the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, but beside giving orders and getting kidnapped, she is not much of a help. Looks like Jaina, kinda.

Y'shtola

Since we had visual Jaina, now it is time for everything else, Jaina. Y'shtola is among the most learned members of the cast and also a very strong mage. She is also on almost every poster for the game cause nobody can resist a hot catgirl.

Alphinaud Leveilleur

The grandson of Louisouix and the most self important brat to ever exist on the planet. A sheltered rich kid with delusions of being fit to lead. His heart is in the right place, but boy does he need to learn. He is the FFXIV Anduin except with more character and more development. He matures a lot along the way even during the free trial (includes the first expansion).

Alisaie Leveilleur

The twin sister of Alphinaud. The story never tires of people mistaking one for the other. She is a bit more fiery than her brother and likes to spend more time fighting than in meeting rooms. Do we know of a girl roughly Anduin's age who is a relative of an important character and doesn't shy away from a fight? Yes, we do. Taelia Fordragon.

The Garlean Empire

As I mentioned it is the Burning Legion. They don't have a supernatural origin. In fact they can't use magic at all. But they have vast armies and they want to conquer the world, for a good reason, Bonus points for actually having legions and legionaries. They use a lot of Roman titles and positions.

Solus zos Galvus

The founder and, at the start of the game very old, first emperor of the Garlean Empire. Who else can he be if not Sargeras? He wants to conquer the world to make sure nobody uses creation magic that would destroy the land. Not unlike how Sargeras wants to destroy the world to make sure the Void Lords don't get to them first.

Nael van Darnus

The imperial legatus against whom the Battle of Carteneau was fought. It took everyone uniting to bring Nael down, but even then it was a hard earned battle. In short, Archimonde. Just switch the pivotal battle.

Gaius van Baelsar

The other important legatus. The van in his name shows his rank. Became the most important imperial bad guy after Nael's defeat. Tries to conquer Eorzea with the Ultima Weapon, but works about as well as Kil'Jaeden creating the Lich King to conquer Azeroth. And yes, Kil'Jaeden is probably a good analogy. He is a lot closer to the Velen variant than  Nael.

Cid nan Garlond

Imperial defector and famous engineer. While he is no prophet and his relationship with Gaius is closer to a father and son dynamic with him being younger, but as a very prominent defector who preeches freedom and outshines everyone who want to follow in his footsteps, he is as close to Velen as we will ever get.

Yugiri Mistwalker

Lady Yugiri is a ninja and probably one of the strongest ones as well. Not much to tell beside her being a very good fit for Taoshi

Hildibrand Manderville

A complete and utter moron who fancies himself a master detective, but needs to be saved by the player all the time. While Azeroth does have a parody detective in Horatio Laine, but I'll be more harsh here and say Matthias Shaw. I mean seriously, for a spymaster he is laughably inept.

Hilda

A tough half-elezen who is heard turningly pretty and very good with a gun. A better developed Amber Kearnen ins a nutshell.

The Ascians

A group of evil cultist who worship and evil god and want to cause the apocalype. Doesn't get much closer than this to the Twilight Hammer. The most important distinction beside the more fleshed out backstory is that the Ascians worship one single god, Zodiark, whom they want to resurrect. By contrast the Twilight Hammer worships Old Gods as a whole.

The Allagan Empire

While they did not create or order Hydaelin, but they did leave behind plenty of relics. Everything old and advanced is pretty much sure to me Allagan. So it is safe to say that they are the Titans of FFXIV. The arsehole titans.

Game terms and modes

Let us step away from the gameworld proper and look at gameplay. Even if you don't worry about classes and races, some of these can get really confusing if you come from other games.

Encyclopaedia Eorzea

The volumes of lorebooks desperately needing a third. This is what we have instead of Chronicles, but a major difference is that EE is more like a compillation of lore we already know. Sure it has new stuff like age and family name for some characters, but nothing like the existence of the Void Lords. Story development and lore is 99.9% ingame with just a fraction in the lorebooks, or the short stories available from the website for free.

Fan Fest

Our BlizzCon. Heald every two years and only for FFXIV so there is alway a new expansion. When we don't have stupid covid to mess things up, there are three events to slowly feed us info and build up hype. Naoki Yoshida, the game director often wears t-shirts that tease the next job.

Patch X.4-X.5

Final Fantasy XIV doesn't have an expansion prepath. Instead the expansion story finished with X.3 and the remaining two major patches are there to lead into the next expansion. They still include raids and dungeons of course.

Guilds

Probably the worst offender. Guilds are the trainers here. Each base class and profession has one. For jobs it is different cause they are often lost and/or secret arts so there is no formal guild tied to them.

Free Companies

This is what you are thinking of when you say, Guild. Free Companies are the player groups. They can also have their own House. Housing plots are limited, but if you are rich, quick and lucky, you can have one apartment, one estate and a private room in the Free Company estate. There are other stuff tied to FC-s like buffs and a workshop, but mostly it is used to chat with people and organizing statics.

Grand Companies

PvP factions. While FFXIV does not have factions the way WoW has, each city state has its own military and at one point in the story you will have to pick between the ones in the three starting cities. It is assumed that you will pick the one you started in, but it is not required. This choice mostly detemines what team you will be on during the 3 way battlegrounds. Your Faction will give you your first mount.

Squadrons

NPC-s you can recruit that can be sent on missions for you. If this sounds like mission tables that is because they are. Upside is that they are absolutely not mandatory. You can safely ignore it. But if you want, they are there.

Frontlines

These are the battlegrounds. As I mentioned there are three teams fighting each other so it is a bit more dynamic than say good old Warsong Gulch, Don't have many and the rules aren't that varied, but still.

The Feast

This is ranked Arena. Not tied to factions. PvP is not a big thing in FFXIV, but we will get a new mode in Endwalker. As of writing this dictionary, we don't know details.

Aetherite

Bigass crystals you can find in every zone. You have them instead of flight paths. Technically you have chocobo porters instead of flight paths, but nobody uses them when they can use cheap instant travel as well. Large cities have an aethernet - a network of smaller crystals you can attune to for easier navigation. This is important as you can't mount up in cities. You can register one aetherite as your home and you will return there if you die. Naturally you can change it much like your Hearthstone location. You can also register a limited number of favorites that are cheaper to use.

Triple Triad

Speaking of Hearthstone our card game is Triple Triad from Final Fantasy VIII. Bonus points for not needing to leave the game for that. It is all integrated. Same with Mahjong a second card game available. Bosses often drop their triple triad card versions.

Lords of Verminion

An often overlooked game mode you can play at the Saucer. It is our version of Pet Battles except it is closer to a MOBA than Pokemon. You play an entire team and destroy enemy crystals as you defend your own.

Minions

This would probably be the right time to mention that pets are called minions.

Duty Finder

This is the Looking For Group tool. There is also a party finder, but there people organize parties. DF matches you with random people. However even if you have a full party you still need to use Duty Finder to enter. You can also go in on your own, but unless you are massively overleveled, that is not a good idea.

Duty Roulette

The random anything. There are many categories, each giving a daily reward if you do them. Leveling roulette throws you and three others in a leveling dungeon. 50/60/70 Roulette throws four people into a dungeon that used to be endgame in previous game versions. With Endwalker this will of course include level 80 dungeons as well. There is also a roulette for endgame dungeons which are level 80 now. Expert Roulette throws you into one of the two most recent dungeons. You also have Guildhests which are short grop scenarios. They were phased out after ARR, but you can still do the old ones for quick EXP at lower levels. All of these use a light party which is a tank, a healer and two dps. Trials are a one boss fight and can go from trivial to kill me now. Normal trials are light party affairs, but only three trials have normal modes. The rest start at hard mode. There are also extreme trials that are close in difficulty to raids. Often above them. Hard and extreme mode uses a full party. Same as Light, but double of everything. Frontline roulettes are obvious, they are the random battleground. Each team consists of an alliance which is three full parties. You also have Alliance Raid roulette. Alliance Raids are, as the name implies, raids you take on as an Alliance. As there are three full parties there are often boss encounters where the party has to split. They tend to be somewhat easier than Normal Raids as there is less individual repsonsibility. Normal roulette matches a full party for a Normal Raid boss. Use at your own peril. Bosses can be qued for separately, but obvisouly you can't fight a boss if you didn't kill the previous one. These fights also have savage versions which are roughly analogous for mythic and are absolutely harder than extreme trials. There are also Ultimates which are one encounter each expansion and involve three savage bosses attacking you at the same time. Well, harder than savage bosses. The last roulette is the Mentor Roulette. If you have a high enough item level and cleared pretty much everything available in the Duty Finder, you can qualify as a Mentor. The Mentor Roulette will match you with struggling groups.

Deep Dungeons

Torghast before it was cool. Or rather Torghast before it was uncool. Two dungeons with changing levels and an independent progression system that will give you good XP and reasonably good gear for your efforts. Completely optional.

Beast Tribe quests

Daily quests you can grind for reputation Like everything else it has a story behind it, but mostly done for mounts and minions.

Orchestrion

The Jukebox. It is by default in inn rooms, but can be crafted by carpenters and placed in any apartment or estate. Bosses tend to drop orchestrion rolls of their battle theme, but quite a few are quest rewards as well. Some are faded and have to be restored by crafters.

Glamour

Also called the true endgame by players, it is the FFXIV version of transmog. A nice and flexible system that would really benefit from a catalogue like what WoW has.

Aesthetician

Instead of having a barber shop we can call the Aesthetician to our inn room to give us a makeover. Hairstyles you earn ingame are only available there and not during character creation even they are account wide.

Levequests/FATEs

Instead of World Quests Final Fantasy XIV has two systems. Levequests are short quests that you can pick up, go to a designated location, activate and complete during the alocated time. You can also set the difficulty if you want more of a challenge. At the end you can get bonus rewards if you did it quickly enough. There are levequests specific to certain profession and for certain Grand Companies. You have a limited number of allowances daily, but you can use as many of those as you want.
FATEs or Full Active Time Evens are open world quests that pop up and need to be done till the timer runs out. They can be escort mission, can ask you to gather items, kill a certain number of enemies, or even a world boss. The strongest world bosses have FATEs that don't show on the map. You know they are present by their exclusive weather effect. The whole server goes apeshit when Odin is on.

Linkpearl

Chat rooms. Linkpearl is the in universe name as they are real and NPCs also often use them. close to the end of 1.0 when the world was ending, the magical energies went apeshit and linkpearl were temporarily useless. That is why there are also postmen now. Or postmoogles in this case.

Allagan Tomestones

Allagan relics. They are roughly analogous to Valor Points as they are used to purchase endgame gear. Old Tomestonesa re phased out in favor of newer ones that award better gear.

Calamity

And finally an important term. Whereas WoW has the Cataclysm, we have the Calamity. In game the release of ARR is celebrated as the anniversary of the Calamity. In history there were multiple such events but when they are talking about THE Calamity it is the most recent one that ended 1.0. Like the Cataclysm it was also caused by a dragon. In this sense Bahamut is like Deathwing. In terms of size he is closer to Galakrond.

Anyroad this was my short summary to help you better find your footing in Eorzea. I'm sure I overlooked something important. If I did, please let me know. And if you did join the game, enjoy your stay.

Fan Fest Fun

 Okay, time for another blog entry. This one is a bit late and not cause I use internet explorer. I don't. I was just busy wrapping up my university studies. And also had to organize my thoughts regarding the Fan Fest Around the World. This proved to be a good idea as a lot has happened. So what have we learned about Endwalker?

Trailer

Well first of all we got ourselves the complete trailer. I will not go over the things I mentioned last time. Let us focus on the new stuff. And there is plenty of new stuff. Hell with the trailer being twice as long as the teaser, it was bound to happen. Untill Alisaie gets healed, things go on quite normally save for the now cleater lyrics. We still can't nail it 100%, but it is not mumbling anymore. Now after our Red Mage - Sage - Paladin trio strikes a pose, we get our first new scene. Eorzea  being overrun by uncomfortably attractive tentacle monsters.  But as Emet contoniues to describe the End Times in his voiceover We see a dragon, Vrtra fighting the monsters. Vrtra is one of Midgardsormr's children, and founder of a dragon horde we have yet to name. He isn't dravanian or meracydian. More importantly riding him is Estinien. Technically this is his second showing in a trailer, but the first time showing his face. He also shows dragoon skills in a far larger power level than possible ingame. I bet you it won't look like this with him as a trust companion. Power levels are weird. I wouldn't mind an official list of where eveyone stands as of Shadowbringers. I think the WoL caught up to the Archons. Also worth noting that this sequence takes palce in Thavnair. The statues and the rock formations show it. Now trailers are often symbolic. The scene with Y'shtola and Urianger never happened in Shadowbringers and unless Graha is stingy with his Gil, Lyna doesn't work as a dancer between guard duty. But it is worth noting that Thavnair is shown.
Anyroad after Vrtra blast all the tit monsters we transfer back to the original footage. This is interesting because here the trailer splits. If you just watch the trailer because you are curious or something, this part doesn't have much meaning. BUT if you played along with each content release, we have known Zenos would job change since 5.4. We have been waiting far too long for that weapon reveal. And SE knows and pulls our chain just a little more. After the transition we have Urianger and Thancred in Radz-at-han. Now others noted that they are a bit more skinny and young than in ShB. It does make sense, because they spent a lot of time in coma. Also in ShB their souls spent more time in the First than what you would guess from the time on the Source. Time works weirdly between the shards.
After this we pull the Stormblood trick of zooming out of the map and moving to the new area. In this case Old Sharlayan. Now Sharlayan looks a lot like the colony in Dravania, which makes sense. There are some criticism online about it being unoriginal, but I'd call it being consistent. This would be our chance to get a glimpse of Krile, but she is nowhere to be seen. Not even on the official art. Death flaaaaaag. Instead we see G'raha for the second time and Y'shtola tying with Thancred for the third appeareance in trailers. Speaking of tying. Y'shtola gives a speech in front of non other than Fourchenault Leveilleur, the father of the twins. He is a more conservative member of the forum. Now as hollow as shtola's promise to fight to the end sound, considering her thic plot armor, delivering a verbal smackdown before walking away did take a lot of guts. The Forum doesn't shy away from extreme measures to gatekeep knowledge. In the Astro storyline not only did they try to kidnap Leveva multiple times but even left decoys bound and gagged on the streets to make sure we waste time untying them while they abscond with the real girl. They are crazy. The scene cuts away but I'm sure the Forum members pulled out knives or at the very least bottles of chloroform as soon as Y'shtola turned her back to them.
And finally at the end we can finally see Zenos with his gigantic scythe. His seems to be a gun scythe, distinct from the main weapon of Reapers. We also solo the First Beast, or a lookalike, on the Moon. And with that the trailer ends.
A final thing to mention is that Soken truly outdoes himself with this trailer. Not only is the music amazing, but it incorporates themese from all previous expansion. It is a true work of art. As expected reaction vids are popular. Even Asmongold made one and he was actually impressed by many parts of it.

Ah yes "Reapers"

So the wait was over and we finally got the new job: Geth ship. Again Yoshi-P teased us as long as he could before revealing Reaper. And yes, it is not Necromancer. Doesn't even use death magic. Its powers seem to come from the Void. Not sure how it will be justified ingame, but it at least looks amazing. As a sort of melee warlock it can be viewed as a Hexblade from DnD, but if you want to look at it in WoW terms, gameplay seems to be an Unholy DK. We do get a pet, of sorts, but it does not function as Summoner egis or Scholar fairies. We can even absorb our pet and transform. This is something I have been wishing for Ninja for years. Not much to say, it is awesome.

Zones

DISCLAIMER: Personal bias and nitpicking.

Let's get the obvious out of the way. I love the new zones. Even Labyrinthos with the corny music. I like the idea of an underground zone. We also got more footage of Thavnair and Detroid. We also get a tease for a zone with floating islands. And finally Mare Lamentorium. One zone on the moon. It has caves, crashed Allagan ships, Amaurotian architecture and even a remix of Beneath Dark Waters. I am already in love with the zone. Makes you wonder what the final zone is, if this is what they were willing to show.
Also I think we should talk about the Garlean capital AKA Detroid here. Sure it might seem to be a copout to give us a run down city instead of an Ilsabard centric expansion, but I like the idea of this whole empire imploding without the charisma of Solus. The fact that this happened pretty much independent of the WoL makes the world seem more alive. Things occur without the hero. We are just one person.
Now for my problem. First, it looks like all of these zones are from different continents. Hell, we know that at least one will be in a completely different celestial body. Normally it is detrimental for an expansion if there is no new contient or area to explore. Disjointed zones break the sense of exploration. This was one of the criticisms for Cataclysm over at WoW. I'm worried. I trust Natsuko Ishikawa to write a story that connects these all, but still I am worried.

And here comes the Anal part. I love the sea. I love underwater zones. I eat that shit up. And I think swimming and diving was done poorly in FFXIV. There is just not much to do. It is poor man's flying while you are leveling. There are no underwater mounts as flying mounts swim and every mount flies. There is no underwater combat. And honestly how many zones let you dive at all? Five in total? Around that. So why am I saying this now? I'm not seeing any place to dive. We have a green pool in Thavnair where you can maybe swim. But dive? Nope. I think this is one of the reasons why Stormblood was not as well received as Heavensward. Flying was a game changer. Swiming is just hollow. It is super underutilized.  Ironically the only fully underwater zone, the Tempest has absolutely zero opportunities to swim, because it is in an air bubble.

Myths of the Realm

Picking up the pace now because I've talked about the parts most important for me. But one small thing about the new Alliance Raid. Myths of the Realm. The illustration shows the symbols of the Twelve. Now I'm not suggesting anything but many streamers noticed that a raid series has twelve boss fights in total. Makes you think.

Not lore

So I am a story nerd. Go figure. But I still want to talk about a few not story related stuff. First off we get Oceanic servers. This is again something to help the long term health of the game. I love these steps that show they are planning to stay for a long time and want to make that time smoother for players. What will be less smooth is the six months between 5.55 and 6.0. Now this is still better than WoW where currently TBC came out after the least wait with seven months, but this is still extreme for FFXIV. Personally I am happy about it, because I need to do a lot of leveling. There is also a lot of things I haven't tried. There is a mindblowing ammount of content. I only recently realized I missed the Monster Hunter trial in Stormblood. Also there are good reasons for a delay. Not only did the dev team needs to deal with Corona, but Soken spent more than half of 2020 battling cancer in a hospital room. This is something he only revealed now. Only the CEO and Yoshi-P knew untill the end of the Fan Fest. It shook his coworkers and the entire fanbase. The outpouring love for Soken was truly heartwarming. Back when we believed 6.0 would be titled Forspoken, people joked that it should be For Soken. Well it really should be. That man is a treasure and I'm very glad he is still with us. Welcome Back Soken.

Viera

The keynote had a final surprise. We are going to get Male Viera. Honestly I am surprised they happened this soon. I sort of knew they would do it because people want it and this wouldn't be the first time the devs to something just because. Rule of thumb: When Yoshi-P says there is no dev time for something, the team generally does it in their free time to please fans. Happened with mahjong and ARR flying. Outsiders might thing that this is just some fetish. But Viera have been a part of Final Fantasy since Tactics Advance and this is the first time we see males. This is making franchise history. Also it is worth noting that Viera males are smaller than females. This wasn't said officially but people made the smallest possible females and visited the areas showed in the male reveal and compared. They don't fuck around. This difference is great because sexual dimorphism usually favors males in these cases. I love variety and this is something very new. Plus Zepla's reaction was priceless.

The bad guy or girl

And here is where I go crazy. A common criticism to Endwalker is that Zenos and Fandaniel are not compelling enough villains after Emet-Selch and Elidibus. But let's be honest. Elidibus was a snooze till 5.3. Let us trust Natsuko Ishikawa.
Also I'm not even sure they are the villains. Look at the art with the main characters. There is a white robed blond female there, we have never seen before. The most popular theory is that she is Venat, the Amaurotian who became the heart of Hydaelin. I think she is going to be the villain in the end.
Why? Well let's look at the facts. Or at least how we understand them now. There is room for some Rashomon with the Final Days. So TL;DR: Things went tits up so the Convocation, sans Azem, Sacreficed half the population to summon Zodiark to retcon the rules of reality. to a more stable one. After that they sacreficed another half to repair the damage. Next on the agenda would have been to sacrefice more to bring back the friends of the convocation, but at that point the rebels lead by Venat summoned Hydaelin who split not only Zodiark but all of reality.
See the problem already? We are talking about people who can conjure up whole cities from their personal aether. Now the convocation in total needed half the population to summon Zodiark. So how did Venat and co summon Hydaelin? They couldn't sacrefice all those people. Nor should they, considering the sacrefice was what they were against. So is she stronger than the entire convocation? Unlikely. But if so why didn't she just help the convocation. Or did she discover a limitless wellspring of aether? Why didn't she share? Hydaelin being strong enough to beat Zodiark raises a lot of question. Also, what was the goal? What did they ask for and how much control Venat had? I'm asking because the split killed everyone beside Lahabrea and Emet-Selch. As brutal is sacrefice to Zodiark is, their race could survive. But if their soul splits, it is game over.
Venat's rebellion is very fishy. She is evil, mark my words.

Slight injury unto dawn AKA my least favorite tropes.

 Welcome back everyone. And sorry for such a delayed post. This was long overdue, but when I was not busy with IRL stuff I was preoccupied with playing games and not writing about them. A lot has happened since last I wrote. 9.1 finally hit the PTR and it is as disappointing as it is late. We also saw the release of the new Mortal Kombat movie which will piss off fans and confuse non-fans. A terrible movie all in all save for the final battle between Scorpion and Sub.Zero. That was cool, but not good enough to warrant a second movie.

Speaking of which we also had one of the most disappointing Star Wars days this week as the only real news was the premier of the Bad Batch. Because of course we don't have enough stories in the rebellion era with familiar faces, amiright? But that is a discussion for another time. Because we also have...

The first hald of patch 5.5 Slight Injury unto dawn. You can guess from my passive-agressive tone that I will be somewhat critical. Yes, I can be. I don't have a bias towards Final Fantasy. Now I didn't complete the whole story. the NieR raid is followed up by a series of weekly quests, that are still not done. Leave it to Yoko Taro, to take advantage of a video game being a video game. I didn't inderstand everything yet, but that is the beauty of Taro games. They are a confusing mess that destroy you emotionally.  And the raid had some of the best mechanics in the game yet. Not only are you playing a rythm game with a flower girl as she yeets the Square Enix HQ at you multiple times, but it sort of makes sense in the narrative. I'm sold. I also understand those who preferred Ivalice and how it was remade to fit the canon of FFXIV, but as a fan of Yoko Taro, I've had a blast.

Moving on we have the finalee of the Sorrow of Werlyt. TL;DR: The Empire loses nother important territory. But of course there is more to tell. Naturally what everyone was wondering was wether our old pal Gaius will make it out alive. He actually did. Granted Shadowbringers was always good at making villains nuanced and somewhat likable, but van Baelsar is the only one to get a bona fide redemption arc. And it is glorious. To tell you the truth as badass as he was in 2.0 Gaius was a huge chump. I mean he struck a deal with Lahabrea, a guy who looks more satanic than satan himself. Yet his betrayal came as a surprise. Pathetic indeed. But Gaius survived. He relinquished his rank and became an Ascian hunter. But the past has the bad habit of not staying in the past. We knew the fate of some of his orphans. Livia and Rhytatyn are dead while Fordola is working for Eorzea now. But he had more kids who looked up to him, and a crazy madman used them to fuel his own Evangelion project hoping to use that to become emperor. Eventually he can rescue his last foster daughter and begin working on a new state free from imperial rule. What is most interesting is that I really enjoyed this storyline despite it using some of my most hated tropes. It was an absolute cliche storm. Gaius' orphans kept sacreficing themselves so that the final girl could surive. During the final fight between Gaius and Valens, the latter reveals to have studied the former's combat data in detail, only for Gaius to reveal one special technique not included in the data. And he even pulls out the  "I only need one bullet" trick. During the saddest part of the scene rain starts to fall, and Allie, the final rescued girl, stays catatonic from her trauma till Gaius remembers to show her the recorded memories of her foster siblings. It's riddiculous how many clichés are included. But somehow the story makes it work. The reasons are numerous, but I want to highlight one. Allie is not really just a passive damsel in distress who needs to be saved. Oh, no. She often takes initiative, nearly kills Valens herself and is shown to be an observant and often shrewd girl. She is anything but helpless. We also learn quite a lot of past events. Who was there at the Praetorium or during Zenos' attack on the resitance camp. Not quite Rashomon level, but we now have a clearer picture of events. All in all it was a great storyline. And it put me in the mood for some big fat tacos.

I'm less enthusiatstic about the MSQ however. I understand this is only the first part, but I was honestly underwhelmed. Everything is going too smoothly. We kill Lunar Bahamut in a dungeon. He isn't that difficult to kil either. We rescue Tiamat, make peace with the Amal'jaa and scout one of Fandaniel's towers. Oh and Estinien officially joins the Scions. And what is the terrible price we have to pay for all of this in a patch titles DEATH unto Dawn? The leadup to the apocalypse? Arenvald, somebody with deathflags around him all the time, getting so hurt that he needs medical attention. Yep, that's it. That is all. Pathetic. Now I don't want a Red Wedding, but I want consequences. As Mr Plinkett put it in his TPM review: "It really adds tension to the scene if the enemy force is useless". I need more than injuries and the usual swiftly undone Y'shtola deaths to make me care. If there is no feel of danger the player is not invested. Granted the patch was not all bad, but I really want to emphasize this, because I am approaching a breaking point. If by the end of 6.0 I wont feel that we have to struggle to save the world, I will say goodbye to Final Fantasy XIV. Maybe Diablo Immortal will finally release. We have the next alpha going on now, and everyone who is not the player character of Deckard Cain can die, and quite a few of them do. DuD showcased everything I like and dislike about the writing. The characters and their interactions are amazing. Just look at Estinien and how he relates to everyone else! Fordola is a fellow cynic, but one who embraced his cynical side. Alphinaud looks up to him as if they were brothers, and Estinien finds his idealism inspiring. Alisaie absolutely hates Estinien for mistaking her for Alphinaud and calling her rugged. And finally we have Krile, that Baldesion woman, who is halfway between annoying and terrifying. How many times Estinien was bribed and or blackmailed by Krile and Tataru is anyone's guess. Speaking of Fordola, she doesn't really get a redemption arc. Nor does she want one. She just investigates the towers for closure. She aided the Empire and fought for Zenos. Now Zenos is bringing about the apocalypse and she wants to know what she fought for. A completely understandable sentiment.

And finally since we brought thicc Sephiroth up, let's talk about the stinger. Zenos is one frame away from revealing the new melee job. Now be it Templar, Necromancer, Beast Master or Reaper, most agree that the new weapon will be a scythe. While we didn't see the weapon, we've got plenty clues to support this theory. Zenos draws the weapon with the same motion as a katana, yet the sound of the blade is more drawn out, suggesting a long horizontal blade. More importantly Fandaniel calls the weapon choice surprising but rather apt. For one, they are trying to end the world, Additionally Fandango was talking at lenght about how seeds have been sown and all they have to do is quicken. Now what you do with quickened seeds? You reap them of course.

Sage advice

 This is a long overdue blog post that was delayed both by thesis writing, and all the playing around I did. All to gather stuff to write blog posts about. 5.5 dropped on the liver servers, 9.1 the prodigal patch FINALLY appeared on the WoW PTR and of course there was a new class released for Black Desert Online.

It is a funny one too. Remember how Endwalker will introduce a classy caster who wields floating metal tingies, called Sage? Well BDO released a classy casters who wields floating metal tingies, called Sage. That's right. Of course the BDO Sage is pure DPS and is a tad more ancient than the futuristic looking Sage from Sharlayan. The default character looks a lot like King Leonidas from 300. A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. An older, traditionally masculine character in a korean MMO happens like, every third blue moon.

Inspired by the dude being an ancient mage, I tried to make my best Emet-Selch impression. And proceeded to.....have a lot of fun actually.

Now I have to say that I don't actually like BDO that much. The interface is a disaster, everything reminds you that there is an in-game cash shop that you SHOULD use and they don't really give you any reason to care about the story, or any of the characters you meet. Supposedly professions are fun and you can build your own trade routes and shit. But my GOD is it tiresome. I do believe it is a great game who like this sort of experience. You can ignore the plot and just enjoy the action combat, the character creator is very detailed and the visuals are great from a technical standpoint. But the game isn't really for me.

However. I did try six classes, and Sage was definitely ammong the ones that are fun to play. Kinda works a lot like Doctor Strange. Lots of portal, energy patterns and sexy explosions. It wasn't stupidly overpowered, but it was strong, and the spell effects were a sight to behold.

So if you like open world action combat monster yeeting and can't wait for Endwalker to roll a Sage, this might be a good way to pass the time. Those who like BDO will definitely enjoy playing the Sage. Later it can be awakaned to be a Dragoon.

(My favorite was the Hashashin by the by.)

Final Fantasy XIV: Deathflag unto dawn

Welcome back everyone. Normally we would have already had a nice blogpost about patch 9.1 of WoW, but it is still not ready. It should land on the PTR a little over a week from now. So instead let us look at another patch. Granted 5.5 isn't done either, but we've had a live letter that gave us a trailer and additional information. In short, it is going to be epic.

But you aren't here for the short version. You are here for the long one, so let's freakin go.

The trailer begins with something that sounds a lot like my new favorite track, I'm curious where it might be placed. Definitely not the new Dungeon Theme. Paglth'an is the home for the nomadic Amal'jaa, so a banger rock anthem wouldn't fit.

Next we have Fordola returning and giving Alphinaud a forceful shove. If we haven't done much side content we didn't see Fordola since Stormblood. Quite a lot of late Shadowbringers feels like Stormblood. It makes sense though. Before G'raha spirited us away we were fighting against the Empire, more specifically Zenos and Asahi. Now we are battling the Garleans again with Zenos and Fandaniel in Asahi's body as the main villains. I'm glad Fordola is joining us. Fictional wars are often black and white. We have clear good guys and bad guys. Also often the bad guys are ugly to make sure you identify them. Such was the case in Lord of the Rings, is in WoW, and 90% of the cases it is also true in Star Wars. So what happened with Fordola? Well Ala Mhigo was always a complicated place. The Eorzen Alliance was first formed to combat Ala Mhigo and its Mad King. They were seen by the continent at large as agressors. Pretty much everyone was glad when the king was overthrown by a rebellion. Problem is, one of the key figures of said rebellions was Gaius van Baelsar undercover. The leaderless tired Ala Mhigo was easy picking for the Empire. A lot of people fled ironically enough to the territories they used to threaten. And the people who stayed? Some supported the Garleans, some didn't. Fordola's father was the former. Unsurprising when you have a wife and a small daughter. People aren't prone to unnecessary heroics if they have a lot to lose. Of course the more rebellious people took issues with this and stoned him to death. Actually they wanted to stone Fordola (a girl of less than ten years) to death, but she was shielded by his father. This of course didn't endear the rebels to her. But Gaius supported her, so she was loyal to him. But no matter how hard she worked she was always treated as a second rate citizen due to many Ala Mhigans rebelling. This of course just fueled her bitterness. But she would help them without hesitation if they were in danger of being tempered by Primals and she were their only hope. Her story is amazing. And the same can be said about Alphinaud. When first meeting him he was a self important obnoxious twerp. This changed gradually as fate likes to punch him in the face. First his arrogance and naivity got all his friends murdered and him framed for the deed. In Heavensward he spends his time traveling, gathering firewood and doing all that adventuring entails, just like uneducated poor people. We also learn that he can't swim, he took up drawing classes to impress girls, he has no sense of finances due to his sheltered upringing and he is terrified of ghosts. All of which later becomes a plot point by the way. Some of them more than once. And the universe is not done with him. After the Fordola shove we see him trying to heal a soldier before stopping and punching the ground in frustration. Dang. Well serves him right. He is still an Arcanist, which is a base class. We know from Endwalker that he will pick up Sage, the new healer job.

By the way. This whole paragraph? It was about the first half minute before the title card.

Next we get another mix of the Bozja theme as we get a glimpse of the new area for the relic weapons. Zadnor isn't in Bozja proper. It is a plateau between Bozja and Dalmasca. It is there we will have the final battle with the IV Legion. More specifically on their airship which houses the Guard Scorpion from Final Fantasy VII and recurring boss Cuchulainn, the bane of everyone not irish. I think he is supposed to be called koohooolain. The Bozja series is interesting. I haven't gotten far, so most of what I know is form cutscenes, but that's beside the point. A recent interview revealed that 50% of players do Bozja. That is a pretty good number for an optional content. Because it IS optional even if some people don't realize it. Relic weapons are there to give a needlessly overpowere weapon for those who don't raid or do Savagre raids. Still, the exclusive story draws in many people. It is content like this that makes me hope that whenever FFXIV ends and the servers are shot down (an event that will not happen soon considering FFXI still receives content updates) it will be converted into a single player game without server issues and the meta to hold it back.

Next the scene cuts to Carteneau, the single most important place that never became an open world zone.

We also have more of Fordola who now talks with Estinien. Although it should be noted that trailers like to manipulate, by placing voiceovers onto different scenes. Likely Fordola is still talking to Alphie as I doubt a jaded dragoon like Estinien has a narrow idealistic notion of what a hero is. Also a warning, if you haven't done so yet, go play Final Fantasy IV. Or watch a walkthrough. Or just read one at least. But least do it. Endwalker has so many IV allusions, it is not even funny, and it shows in 5.5 as well.

We also get a nice glimps into the new NieR raid. And I say NieR raid instead of NieR Automata raid as one of the bosses is a shade from Reincarantion. Funny how this comes out so close to the NieR Replicant remake. Coincidence? I think not. The story implications for fighting a giant version of the machine network avatar red girl are interesting to say the least. Yoko Taro loves to mess with people and I wouldn't be surprised if finishing the raid once wouldn't end the story. All I know is that I will grind the fuck out of the Devola glamour outfit.

We also get a good look at Diamond Weapon as it casually dodges and kicks missiles. This time our mission is to capture the weapon instead of destroying it. The Sorrow of Werlyt storyline will end as we try to rescue at least one of Gaius' orphans. Again a great story that humanizes past villains and gives us more imperial areas beside the usual boring castrums. I just hope the end won't simply be: A sucession of more capable characters sacrefice themselves so that the cute one can survive. It is a trope I hate with a passion.

But let's go back to the main story. Things are really getting close to a breaking point. Remember Tiamat? Bahamut's wife/sister who let herself shackled due to guilt and wants to stay alone untill the world is ending? Welp the world IS ending and Estinien will go to tell her. She will join the fight against Lunar Bahamut. Remember what I told you about IV? Well Lunar Primals appeared in IV: The After Years. Joining Bahamut are Lunar Ifrit, Lunar Ravana aaaand...

Fuckmothering Lunar ODIN! If everyone was ever in the Black Shroud when the colour drains out of everything, they know what a big deal with is. Odin is a monster. I once had this happen to me while I was in the Sylphlands, an already dangerous part of the place. In fact I won a halloween story contest when I wrote down what happened. THAT Odin is now powered up. Granted we know that Odin is just a convenient transport for Zantetsuken the true Primal. No Idea how Lunar Primals function, but this will be quite the fight. Interestingly he is fought by Thancred and Urianger in this scene. So is he a solo duty boss? Who knows?

Speaking of things we don't know, Zenos is in the palace trying to pick a weapon out of a pile of surprisingly advanced looking ones on the ground, One of them might be a scythe, but we can't tell from the angle. Oh speaking of which, during the Live Letter Yoshi's shirt really looked like an angel. Maybe a fallen angel? A weird cross between an angel and the grim reaper.

And since we are taling about dead things, the final and most enigmatic shot of the trailer shows the Warrior of Light at Silvertear Lake visited by a glowing ghost. Some think it looks like a hooded figure, so every ascian, or a long haired female, like Minfilia or Hydaelin herself. The important thing is that Silvertear Lake still has a mistery. Something is at the bottom of the lake. Something that Midgardsormr had to guard, and we still don't know what that is. We were promised an answer in Shadowbringers.

5.5 is going all out. We thought 5.0 to be a satisfying finalee. We believed the same for 5.3 and now 5.5 seeks to outdo them all even though it is just a lead in for 6.0. This two part finalee is a work of art. One thing left to discuss. The title of the patch, Death Unto Dawn, a lot of the scenes showing people downed by Lunar Primals, and the sometimes desperate voiceover suggests that somebody will die. Hell there are people who believe that all Alliance Leaders will perish. I wouldn't go that far, but considering what we are up against, things were running way too smoothly. My money is on Raubahn not surviving.

Sin(noh) City

 Okay I don't know anymore what's going on. Just as I finished reporting on the three new Final Fantasy VII games that aren't Remake part 2, we get two new Pokemon games announced, and a new trailer for New Pokemon Snap, a decidedly more peaceful pokemon game. Although if I were a wild animal I wouldn't appreciate being pelted with fluorescent dyes and woken up by music. I guess I need a Switch as well. How much do they cost again?

It seems it is Sinnoh year because both games are set in the Sinnoh region. I still think Kanto is the region with the most appearances though. Let me see. Red, Blue, Yellow, Silver, Gold, Crystal, Fire Red, Leaf Green, HeartGold, Soul Silver. That is ten. Sinnoh has had three so far and now we get well three more, because one announced game is a pair. So that is six. Kanto is way ahead, but Sinnoh is now second place. Oh I'm done I forgot the original Green version plus Let's go Eeveee and Pikachu, So three more to Kanto I guess?

The paired game I mentioned is of course the Diamon and Pearl remake. As usual the third version didn't get one. Confession time: It always bothered me that Gold and Silver got a Crystal version while Diamond and Pearl got a Platinum version. Wouldn't the opposite made more sense thematically? Anyroad say hello to Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. There aren't many details yet. It won't look like recent 3D titles. It is closer to a remaster. If we get any new gameplay modes or Mons or region forms, we don't know yet.

And now for the more interesting, but potentially more problematic entry.

Pokemon Legends Arceus on paper sounds like a game I would make. It's Sinnoh, but it is set in the past, where everything looked like Feudal Japan and you used steampunk poke balls. And the player characters totally look like ninjas. Sounds like high quality Pokemon fan fiction, minus the bondage that is included in pretty much every Pokemon fan fiction (take a note Gamefreak). Also the title kinda suggests, that if this go well we might get other Pokemon Legends games. Again, gameplay info is sparce. We do know that we can capture mons without battle if we want and if we are good enough. We also know that the starters are old mons we are familiar with, but not ones we had in Sinnoh. Rowlet, Cyndaquil and Oshawott are starters from Alola, Johto and Unova. But now they are here. Oddly enough Piplup is a wild Mon now. Outside of Go the only starter Mons you can encounter in the Wild are Pikachu and Eevee. Maybe we captured all the wild ones by the time Diamon and Pearl comes? That doesn't sound familiy friendly.
But what concernes me is that a Pokemon Professor will send us on a journey to fill the first ever Pokedex. I'm sorry, what? Professor as a title doesn't sound era appropriate to me. More importantly, Professor Oak invented the Pokedex much much later. Maybe this is just some marketing nonsense and you will complete the PokeScroll or whatever, but I did wince when I read anachronistic stuff like Pokedex, Professor and research. I like how the game looks, the base concept and the promise of more RPG elements. I have concerns nonetheless, but this looks good. I will keep an eye on this project.