My First MMO: Tet's Eorzean Adventures [FFXIV]

[Theozilla]

And here I thought that was just made up for Naruto

Nope, Naruto basically took a bunch of stuff from Japanese folktales, the Jiraiya tale is also where the slug princess Tsunade and antagonist the snake magic guy Orochimaru come from.

 

[Tetsujin]

Stormblood update continued

So we decide to try to get at the Empire by saying "let's just liberate Doma or something" which excites me because the far eastern setting is what I was looking forward to. Just in time too as the ninja job quest has both Jacke and Oboro go there too.
Also, I have a note here of me being confused about the purpose a blue quest chain, something to do with chemical weapons. I think nothing came of it or I was unsure whether it unlocked anything? Jeez that was only last week, my memory is getting bad.

Anyway, off to new lands!

Just as I was thinking "gee, it's been a while and still not a single dungeon yet?" and of course our ship gets pulled into one. Of course I ran into my favorite problem, being a night owl and not getting into a dungeon because no one is queueing for anything at 4am on a Sunday
I kinda liked how the Sirensong Sea actually starts on the ship and has it crashing into the island. Apart from that, it was pretty standard.

Finally our group arrives in Japan Wutai Hingashi

And it's as glorious as it looked in the concept art. Loving this rendition of the Stormblood theme that plays here.

I also formally get introduced to Shirogane, the housing area:

I mean, it's not like I've already had a room here for the past 6+ months or anything...
I notice there are a bunch of those sightseeing spots for the log all over Kugane that are in rather...interesting spots? Looks like they require some platforming, which I kinda like. There is at least one where I can't figure out for the life of me how to reach it though...

I continue the ninja job quests and I'm pleased that they are placed in the new areas rather than always making you return to the usual place in La Noscea. Also, the entire pirate crew from the Rogues' Guild returns alongside all the ninja quest characters, so this is cool! The rogues' have way more personality than the ninjas. =P

Also, I notice how sometimes the scale in this game is a bit fucked:

What the heck are those stairs?!?!
Who are they made for? I mean yeah my character is a smol woman but even if you play as a Roegadyn this has to be way too large lol

A new beast tribe is introduced and it's these adorable fish people. Alongside that, we have...actual ninja turtles??

Then there's a new villain character, the Doman viceroy Yotsuyu.
She's definitely a bitca.

My impression of Zenos and Yotsuyu at this point is that I love to hate them. Just despicable shitstains that I can't wait to beat the crap out of.
From some of the talk I've seen on the net I get the impression Zenos isn't very well liked though and apparently probably still around in Shadowbringers so I guess he might just overstay his welcome.

Moving on to the Ruby Sea...

What the hell is that Heaven-on-High thing?? That looks like a godsdamned space elevator if you ask me.

Anyway, back to the ninja turtles. Through them I get to introduced to their nifty underwater village and...underwater travel??

wtf I didn't know that would be a thing!!! This is awesome. There was a side quest required for one of the aether currents that leads to an optional dungeon in one of those underwater spheres and it looked gorgeous. Apparently explore mode for dungeons is now a thing, so I can't wait for it to get added to the older content so I can just walk around and take pictures.
That dungeon quest lead to a whole sidestory about the princess of that underwater place. Normally I just do the blue quests to unlock content but I actually ended up getting interested in this bit of lore so I did all the following ones even though they give nothing but EXP (which at this point the MSQ are all you really need for leveling)!

Later on I get to fight the first trial of SB, Susano. So here's one of my pet peeves: Why are the trials named after the locations? No one actually uses these because it's not really intuitive. If you wanna fight Ifrit with somebody, you'd say "hey let's do Ifrit Extreme!" or something. No one actually says "Bowl of Embers". Everyone uses the names of the actual bosses yet the actual trials are named after the locations that they take place in.
I can only imagine they were trying to keep naming consistency with dungeons, but...it makes sense for dungeons since the location here is the main attraction. In case of the trials, it's the boss so why wouldn't it be named after that?
I check out what they're called in Japanese and...yep, they name them after the bosses. I don't know, just wondering why they did it like that. There are so many oddities with the naming of trials, I mean we've already been over the "Hard" trials and the reasoning for that because that was another confusing one.

Obvious Star Trek reference noted.

So further ahead, Yugiri and Gosetsu join our group. It's good to have more Yugiri again, I like her. =p
Also, Gosetsu. The entire time I thought he was just a very big Hyur/human. Like, it seems obvious they used a Roegadyn model and he uses Roegadyn emotes and stuff but his face just looks like a regular Hyur so I thought maybe they just wanted him to be a ludicrously burly Hyur. Apparently he really is just a Roe though. Huh.

I also couldn't help that for a while there I was mostly on the road with Alisaie, Lyse and then later Yugiri with Alphinaud being left behind in Kugane and Gosetsu temporarily being captured. With my character being female it was kind of interesting to just have an all-women group travelling around and doing all the important stuff. A sausage fest this is not.

Anyway, Yugiri's my bae now

We're just two gals, looking cool as heck and casually plotting the assassination of the emperor's cunt of a son

Of course it failed but I do enjoy getting to do instanced solo battles.
Oh, and he mentioned I was "Bahamut's conqueror". I like when optional stuff you've done actually gets referenced. Although I wonder what the line is if you haven't done it?
Yugiri also keeps mentioning my status as shinobi and that Oboro would be proud of me lol. Maining ninja feels especially right in this setting and while hanging out with her.

The area of Yanxia is really beautiful. I don't know why I haven't taken any landscape shots yet. I guess I was too invested just advancing the story.
Looks like Estinien is getting back into the picture too with a cutscene showing him...somewhere...doing...something! Mysterious, but I'm excited. He looked better with his helmet on though.

So at last I reach the Azim Steppe which...I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought it has a heavy Calm Lands from FFX vibe, right?
The most recent state of affairs is that I have found this Lord Hien dude who is supposed to help us lead the Domans to rise up against the empire. For some reason he has Cyan's theme from FFVI playing. Kind of random, but cool.

wait no hold the fuck up literally as I was typing that I finally got it lol
His father is Kaien. Kaien=Cyan. Because Cyan is supposed to be pronounced like Kaien/Cayenne in Japanese OMG MIND BLOWN sorry but for the past couple of hours I was like "why Cyan's theme though" now the shoe finally dropped

Alright, so to summarize my feelings on the expansion so far: I really like it tbh. I'm not really feeling the apparent consensus that it's not as good as Heavensward. Not sure if it gets worse later on but honestly so far I've been more invested in the story here than I was with Heavensward. Of course it might just be an expectations thing. As I had mentioned with Heavensward, all the praise I heard it getting had raised my expactations so high up that when it turned out to be "just good" instead of whatever mindblowing achievement of storytelling I was expecting, I was almost disappointed. So maybe here I'm just experiencing the opposite effect. Everyone's downplaying this so I went in with no expectations and now I'm just like "this is cool though?"

But I also just legitimately enjoy the focus on fighting the empire more since they seem to be the main threat and Heavensward with its focus on Ishgard and their war with the dragons felt more like "and now for something completely different".

 

[Lex]

I think I said this before but I (and most of the other people I knew who played when it released) had a fantastic time with Stormblood. I think the problem is that many things happened when it released that damaged its reputation, then the patches felt a little lacklustre in comparison to previous patches. People kinda just weren't into a lot of the enemies and stuff, but I liked them enough.

Did you finish Alexander raids btw? I can't remember. I'm saying this because we should finish them. And then we should do the level 70 raids when you get there. They're amazing.

Anyway I think I can offer some old-man wisdom as to why Stormblood has a bad reputation. Most of these things are things you will not experience:

- There were some terrible server issues at launch, moreso than in Heavensward's launch.
- Said server issues caused the infamous "Raubahn Extreme", a server queuing issue that meant you couldn't get into any instanced duties (and you had to speak to Raubahn to do a solo battle early on):




- I myself was very lucky, I got into the solo instanced duty after maybe 20 minutes or so of trying, which in turn meant that I was about halfway through the expansion by the time anyone else I knew was even past Raubahn. It took some people two actual real days to get past him.
- Square Enix recommended patience and the community formed actual queues to reduce server stress:

(I realise I'm labouring the point a bit here, but don't underestimate that this was most people's experience of the expac on release and it's enough to have been a negative memory for me, even though I was one of the insanely lucky ones who got through).

- Gyr Abania is boring and ugly, something you've already experienced. The eastern areas are all unique and interesting which helps, but Gyr Abania just plain sucks IMO. One of those areas would have been enough.

- Class balancing was completely fucked. Stormblood release was the first big revamp of the battle system, a lot of classes lost abilities, cross class skills were removed and replaced with role skills.
- You know that gauge you have for every class? So for NIN it's the ninjutsu/timers, for WHM it's the lilies, for DRG it's the dragon eye... well none of those existed prior to Stormblood. To keep an eye on all that you used to have to check your own buffs or the enemies debuffs.
- Basically what I'm saying is that to date, 4.0 is the worst state the game's ever been in for class balancing.

- The patches were the first that didn't have 3 dungeons per patch, and the patches on their own were a little lacklustre. This won't be an issue for you since you get to play a continuous story.

There's more but tl;dr, it had issues that Heavensward and Shadowbringers did not, and how much you enjoy the story is going to be based on individual experience a bit more than those also. I think if you're a person who didn't enjoy the SB story and also experienced everything above, it's very easy to see why it would be everyone's least favourite expansion.

The good news is that almost none of the above applies to you, so you get to enjoy it more as it was meant to be enjoyed. Which is probably why you're having such a good time. I mean, I had a fantastic time with it too, but it comes with the memory of those issues, and I can honestly say I don't have the same associated negative memories with the other two expansions

 

[Tetsujin]

Did you finish Alexander raids btw? I can't remember. I'm saying this because we should finish them. And then we should do the level 70 raids when you get there. They're amazing.

We finished Alexander, it's the alliance raids that we haven't finished.

Also LOL at that Raubahn EX stuff, that's insane
I like how the game plays ambient crowd noises when a ton of people are in the same place though, that's a nice touch

 

[Tetsujin]

I've literally been collecting poop in the Azim Steppe
I am the Warrior of Light, a person of great import The things you have to do to win people over...>.>

The Steppe's a cool place, I like all the different tribes here even though their customs don't seem too conducive for a healthy society.
To become a warrior of the steppe I'm sent off to another dungeon, Bardam's Mettle and...it was a minor disaster? Our group wiped...at the first set of trash mobs...
Which then lead to arguments between healer and tank ("U cant heal" "u cant tank"). Somehow it's always arguments between healer and tank, lol

Somehow we make it through but not without wiping a few times at bosses and such.

I win the thing where the Steppe tribes kill each other to see who gets to rule and so our guys get to say "yo we need y'all to ride into war with us to free a people you don't even belong to, cool?"
Apparently they are, but I'm not sure how comfortable I am dragging these people into our war, lol

Also, I'm now lvl 69 (nice) and while some of my lvl 60 Shire gear is slowly getting replaced, I'm still rocking those Shire daggers. I'm starting to get nervous that I might've just missed an opportunity to pick up better weapons somewhere and that I'm undergeared. :')
Been doing all my NIN job quests and couldn't help but notice that you don't actually get new abilities until apparently the last one...I wonder what the new job gear looks like. I'm assuming it's what Yugiri is wearing. I'm probably just gonna stick with glamouring my current lvl60 ninja/Shire gear combo over everything, I've become way too fond of it now.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Tanks and Healers need to swap gear out the most while leveling up... because the incoming damage vs HP healed in leveling dungeons starts to increase a lot. And Tanks and Healers do not have all the actions they will have at the new level-cap to make up for increase in incoming damage and how much HP they can heal. So gear and more stats are kinda the only thing you can do while leveling.

The first few mobs of Bardam Mettle are infamous for being hard to tank/heal right even when you are syncing down. As a Healer, you just don't have enough power or time to heal all the damage as certain healing classes. And if the Tank doesn't know to go slow, they can easily pull too much there. Bardam's Mettle is when ShB enemy damage starts going up a lot.

 

[Tetsujin]

Oh look, an Echo cutscene! Been a while since we had one of those. I almost forgot it's an ability I had! =p
I just finished the attack on Doma Castle. I was suprised to see Oboro as part of the force taking out the Magitek shields. I wonder if he's always there or if it's just if you're Ninja. The latter seems more likely. I wonder if there are any job quest characters outside of Estinien that ever make appearances in the main story or become relevant in a big way like Estinien did.

While waiting to be queued into Doma Castle I went back to Ul'dah to waste some time. I guess the Valentine's Day event started today, decorations everywhere.
I went out to Thanalan and saw a bunch of lvl 2 or 3 sprouts running about doing their MSQs. I suddenly felt super nostalgic, being reminded of when I first stepped into this world, being overwhelmed by everything. Just going out there, hacking away at stupid bees and uh, squirrels or something.
9 months ago now, was it? Somehow feels like a lifetime.

Doma Castle went well. I lol'd at the Roegadyn boss yelling "RIP AND TEAR" thinking he's Doomguy or whatever
Got almost an entire set of gear during this dungeon too, sooo generous

So Yotsuyu is beaten and tells us her sob story. I say, behold, this is the field upon which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and see that it is barren. Unfortunately that's where everything falls apart quite literally. Somehow I had a feeling Brosetsu would not make it

As the group sets off to return to Eorzea I find myself wondering how much the aetheryte teleports actually factor into the story. They are clearly not just a gameplay mechanic as sometimes they get referenced and used within the story proper. Yet in this case, we still make our journey back by ship. It seems the teleports are more limited within the story than they are within gameplay. I wonder what the exact limit is however. Or maybe it was explained once and I have forgotten already?

 

[ForceStealer]

I wonder if there are any job quest characters outside of Estinien that ever make appearances in the main story or become relevant in a big way like Estinien did.

There have definitely been appearances now and then that probably you (and I) miss depending on which jobs we've done. The early questgiver for Summoner, for instance, is Y'shtola's sister. So she'll pop up now and then.

It seems the teleports are more limited within the story than they are within gameplay. I wonder what the exact limit is however. Or maybe it was explained once and I have forgotten already?

I don't think so, and I have wondered this too, lol.

 

[Lex]

I thought it was that only those who have some kind of power of the echo can use aetherytes to teleport over large distances?

There is also the fact that you need to be attuned to them to teleport between them, though I guess if everyone can teleport that doesn't explain why they'd take a boat back from Doma.

 

[Theozilla]

IIRC, the in-universe reasons why Aetheryte use isn’t used by the general populace is because using them requires large reserves of aether (and skill with it?), and that when the average person teleports by aetheryte it drains and semi-incapacitates the individual for a while. But it doesn’t with most adventurers who are extraordinary individuals who have large aether reserves and don’t experience the side-effects.
It’s basically like the fantasy equivalent of why everyone doesn’t fly a plane everywhere but instead of financial cost/toll it’s a physical/aether taxation toll.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Fun Aetheryte Lore and Teleportation Magic stuff...

"Teleportation" really involves turning your body into aether and sending it (and your soul's aether) through the Lifestream/Aetherial Sea to somewhere else and reconstructing your physical body with your soul in it at the other end. Aetherytes function as lighthouses in the Lifestream. Try to teleport without an atuned Aetheryte in mind, and your body/soul's aether won't know where to come out of the Lifestream and will effectively get absorbed by it. So you really do need to atune to the Aetherytes in the lore to make use of them.

Your "Home Aetheryte" is where you are most attuned to and getting knocked out does canonically send you back to your "Home Aetheryte" instead of you dying often.

A person's capacity for... reconstituting their body after teleportation is called their "anima". People with high anima "get over" the act of teleporting much faster than people with low anima. As a result, people with high anima can teleport in quick succession much more often and with a lot less strain on themselves. Adventurers are known to have higher anima than average (or rather, people with high anima often become Adventurers). Given how often Adventuring consists of "get over to this other location quickly", it's not all that surprising.

Items on people's persons can be teleported just fine. Trying to teleport large things like oh... carts... can't. So teleportation doesn't really work for mass-transport of goods. Unless you want a crazy number of people holding small ammounts of itmes and paying a ton of individual teleportation fees. This would be why land routes and sea routes for trade are still really important. Meanwhile, Adventurers caring messages and small items is often faster and more secure (if more expensive) than using the post-office...

This also is why moving around armies with teleportaiton doesn't work all that well either... not only does the entire army need to be atuned to the aetheryte they're ending up at, but they also would still have to transport all their gear to where they end up somehow (and not with teleportation). Teleporting works great for small strike teams though (which the Scions and WoL functionally are a lot of the time)!

Linkpearls are actually really tiny aetherytes! Instead of teleporting people, they teleport sound waves! Unfortunately, "jamming" linkpearls is something people have known how to do for a while and "tracking" linkpearl activity via energy in the Lifestream is also possible. And people in the know can "listen in" on linkpearl communications just fine... In contrast, Garlean technology uses lighting aether to send messages... aka radio waves!

As the Aetheryte Network and Teleportation in general relies on the Lifestream... changes to the Lifestream are... not great for it. In the wake of the Calamity, the "rivers" of aether beneath Eorzea changed and the entire Aetheryte Network went down (you can look at camp Mor Dhona outside of the current Mor Dhona to see what happened in some places....). Ul'dah ended up paying the Sharlayns a huge amount of money to rebuild the system which is why teleporting costs money; Ul'dah is *still* paying off their debts to Sharlayn for it!

It should be noted that Teleporting en masse *is* possile... but that takes a really long period of time to cast with a lot of people doing it and the only people who knew how to do it are the Sharlayns.... and they're not sharing those magic techniques! When the Garleans invaded Gyr Abania, Sharlayn teleported the entire population of their town in the Dravanian Hinterlands to the Sharlayn homeland in a single night!

 

[ForceStealer]

Ul'dah ended up paying the Sharlayns a huge amount of money to rebuild the system which is why teleporting costs money

I remember them explaining this, but where and how does your gil get to them when you teleport?

 

[Lex]

Thanks for that explanation Obs. I knew it had been covered in canon before but I couldn't remember the detail - only that I don't really question it (as in, I don't consider it a plot hole).

 

[Tetsujin]

Done with my lvl70 Ninja quest, got a new ability, yay.

There was a boss battle where I kept dying over and over when dudeface did his bunshin-no-jutsu and would either kill me extremely quickly if I aggroed the clones or kill that Karasu guy instead which would also fail the duty. Somehow I wasn't smart enough to figure out you only need to kill the real guy because I barely even realized there was one that was different from the other clones (real dudeface is transparent). >.>

Can't wait to go 300% Naruto and do the bunshin-no-jutsu myself. Ten levels and another expansion left to go!

The Ninja gear as expected is the same one already seen on Yugiri. It's not bad, although (also as expected) I'm gonna keep my current glamour on.
That new facemask though?

I dig it. A lot. I love that it only covers your face instead of the entire head like the lvl 50 and 60 gear. Prevents helmet hair but still lets you go outside during Covid times

The message afterwards told me the next Ninja job quest would be after finishing the "role quests" and the MSQ "Shadowbringers" which I would assume is the final mission of 5.0
Role quests certainly sounds like a new thing...

Also, I forgot to talk about the Shadow of Mhach alliance raid.
I always feel so overwhelmed with all the chaos during these, heh. I'm pretty sure there was an option somewhere to turn off battle effects. I think next time I partake in one of these, I should do that. It gets a bit much.
On the other hand I am pleased to report that playing the game on PS5 holds a steady 60fps even with all the chaos on screen.

Proto Ultima showing up that one time was a major "WTF!?" moment and immediately I began wondering about the lore implications. The Shadow of Mhach story had nothing to do with Allag so why would this be here? The intrigue! The mystery! What could it all mean??
Cue major disappointment when Lex informed me the fight was just swapped in there for some mundane reason.

Speaking of mystery and intrigue, it's been a hot minute since any Ascian showed its face and I don't trust that. Surely they are still up to no good
Also, still no answers regarding Shinryu and its whereabouts. Omega I know is going to be the next raid series, so I wonder if it's just part of that or whether it'll pop up again in the MSQ...

Rather than playing FFXIV today I mostly watched Kyle Bosman's first-time stream of it
It's fun watching someone go through all this stuff for the first time and be excited about the weird things you encounter and the other players and their outfits and mounts and everything.
Also, he spent an hour trying to create an account lol
I remember being frustrated and confused when I tried the same because for some unfathomable reason, Square Enix has *two* account systems and it is not immediately clear that the one you need for FFXIV is *not* the same as a Square Enix Members account.

 

[Lex]

Ping me on Discord whenever you want to get into the Omega raid series. Honestly looking forward to playing them all again, they come up the least (as you might expect) in the normal raid roulette. Halicarnassus is still the best savage fight ever IMO. I think overall Omega is still my favourite raid series but I haven't played the current tier at savage yet.

I'm excited for you to continue with the story.

 

[Lex]

Omega definitely has the best variation of savage fights so far, though I only got to do up until halfway through O4 before my static at the time disbanded and I stopped playing for a year. As for the current tier ... the previous one was better by far, and there's nothing on the difficulty level of E8S either.
Also, give me a poke on discord aswell when you start doing Omega, I'm still yet to do it on my other character.

E8S was <3 <3 <3

That tier was the first I've cleared within a month of release, it felt good to prog efficiently with my static. I miss them. I think the only reason I'm still hesitant to go back to raiding this tier is because I've been in some shit statics before and now that I've tasted a decent one, I don't think I could bring myself to go through the inevitable time waste of chancing on other groups. Especially since I've missed the early boat for this tier. I do intend to clear it and get what I want from it before 6.0 though.

 

[Tetsujin]

I've reached the lvl68 MSQs and I'm surprised by how much of Gyr Abania still seems unexplored. Most of the Peaks I haven't seen yet and there is one more region I have yet to step foot in at all!

I don't see myself doing Savage tier content ever, I don't know how one finds a group of seven more people and also make sure they're fun to play with and not dicks or something and the TLS FC doesn't have enough active people

Speaking of our FC, man there is an absurd amount of people that haven't logged in in literal years
My favorites are the bottom two members "Unable to Retrieve" and "Unable to Retrieve". Those two were always good for a laugh

 

[Tetsujin]

Zenos has such a slimey voice, I love it. I love to hate the dude, 10/10 prick.
Fordola kind of annoys me, she's always got this look as if someone just took a fresh piss in her cereal bowl.
Lyse is supposed to be the next resistance leader...not sure if I buy that, she hasn't done a whole lot of leading yet now has she. Heck, *I* would be a better choice at this point.
Estinien is back and blowing shit up, good stuff.

 

[Tetsujin]

Next dungeon is Castrum Abania, lvl 69. Looks like I'll be finishing 4.0 later today. I may need volunteers for the final dungeon/trial stuff

 

[Tetsujin]

4.0 main scenario has concluded yesterday, yay.

Lyse changed into the outfit from the CG opening. Was wondering if she was gonna do it. Seems almost like a Dancer outfit but she is still a Pugilist. Hm.
I was wondering whether Krile was taken for her Echo ability and I was right. Interesting how it manifests as a weird Sharingan eye thing (why do I keep coming back to Naruto, I haven't even watched that in a decade).

I enjoyed the whole section leading up to the finale. Standing in front of Ala Mhigo felt awesome.

That view! After hearing about Ala Mhigo and its history since ARR, it was cool to finally be there after all this time and drive out the Garleans.
Hien and Yugiri return for a "Big Damn Heroes" moment, yay!

Final dungeon was good, I liked seeing random fights between imperials and alliance members throughout the entire thing, really made it feel more like a battlefield rather than just a "dungeon". Also, one of the guys giving warning of something ahead where you should "attack while it's tail's up!" They even kept the grammatical error, lol!
Cue a Scorpion Guard Scorpion Sentinel Magitek Scorpion. Alright game, you get bonus points again.

Zenos seemed to have caught Shinryu with...possibly an Allagan Pokeball. And controls it with his Echo Sharingan. Rad. I have the Echo, can I do this too? Let me control a Primal or something. I know it's against what the Scions are but every now and then you have to toss your principles to the side and do what is awesome. IMO.
Final battle went ahead with one wipe but no major issues otherwise and was rather fun. Music was really good too, been listening to that a bunch this morning. When that Stormblood theme kicks in, hng.

Quick and dirty Gpose screencap of Lex and myself after the battle:

So Zenos then decides to not give me the satisfaction of kicking his face in by slitting his throat. And then totally dies. But. I've been seeing people complain about how they don't like Zenos as a villain in regards to current and/or upcoming content so this suprised me as I was sure he'd just get away to return in Shadowbringers or something. Eitherway, he'll be back regardless I guess. I wonder how, he seemed definitely dead here.

And just as I was wondering when we'd see an Ascian again, of course Elidibus pops up in the post-credits scene.
Also very curious to find out what Estinien's deal is at the moment. He destroyed those dragon eyes, but...now that I think of it. Were those Shinryu's eyes? But Shinryu is a primal so doesn't it just dissolve into aether? Why were the eyes still there?
Why did no one else do something about them after the battle, it's not like they are hard to miss. Just went "eh, cleaning staff will take care of it tomorrow" and walked away, didn't we?

Ah, Cid and Nero back together again and with them it's basically like

Spoiler

So that's gonna be fun for the Omega raids
Oh, and Nero has cool shades. I need to know whether you can get them as gear and if not, why the fuck not

Haven't played at all today but next time I'm sure there's gonna be the usual crapton of stuff to unlock.
That reminds me, I'm actually at my tomestone cap. Guess I should exchange those for the usual gear...somewhere. Wait, what's the place to do that in SB? Although I guess you can technically do that in the main cities now anyway.

edit: The theme song Revolutions is...hmmm, it's a bit boring. I mean it's hard to top Answers anyway but this just doesn't do it for me. Dragonsong grew on me but I don't know about this one. =P

 

[ForceStealer]

Wait, what's the place to do that in SB?

Rhalgr's Reach.

And yeah I was never crazy about Revolutions, but then I also prefer Dragonsong to Answers so (Answers is certainly more epic, but I think Dragonsong is a better... song.)

 

[Roger]

Also very curious to find out what Estinien's deal is at the moment. He destroyed those dragon eyes, but...now that I think of it. Were those Shinryu's eyes? But Shinryu is a primal so doesn't it just dissolve into aether? Why were the eyes still there?

They are Nidhogg's eyes, they were given to Illbert by the Ascians as the aether source to summon Shinryu. Nidhogg is not a Eikon so his organs don't disappear.

 

[Tetsujin]

They are Nidhogg's eyes, they were given to Illbert by the Ascians as the aether source to summon Shinryu. Nidhogg is not a Eikon so his organs don't disappear.

Ahhh right!
See, I forgot about that part what with it having been a few months! How do people deal with having months and years between content? I keep forgetting shit and NPCs keep approaching me like "HOW'S IT BEEN, LONG TIME MY DUDE" and I'm just like "new number who dis"

Maybe I'm just getting old and my memory is shit. I swear I was better at remembering stuff.

 

[Lex]

Ahhh right!
See, I forgot about that part what with it having been a few months! How do people deal with having months and years between content? I keep forgetting shit and NPCs keep approaching me like "HOW'S IT BEEN, LONG TIME MY DUDE" and I'm just like "new number who dis"

Maybe I'm just getting old and my memory is shit. I swear I was better at remembering stuff.

Once I started getting interested in the lore I started reading the weekly lore thread on Reddit (I don't even know if they do this anymore) in the run up to a new patch/ expansion so I knew what the "hot topic" in the community was, and I ended up learning a lot of stuff by osmosis just reading through those discussions.

One thing I'll say there is that wherever the community's head is in terms of expectations, they rarely if ever hit the mark on what's about to happen. Which is kind of nice.

But yeah there are a lot of things I don't remember either. You playing through Stormblood has been a nice reminder of some of those plot points, for example.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Usually what I do to help with lore stuff is... few days before a patch drops, I go to the inn and watch all the last patch's cutscenes at the Unending Journey. That helps a ton. It also helps that I have both lore books, so looking up anything in those is really easy when it comes to topical questions.

But the best thing is that the giant FFXIV database site: Garland Tools, has most of the *unvoiced* scripts in it divided up by quest. So looking up quests that don't have cutscenes is really easy. Which is... bascily anything that isn't MSQ. All the side quests, all the job quests all the raid quests... all that text is there someplace I don't even have to be in-game to read. I also have a folder of cutscene pics for the scripts I reference a lot that is voiced... since that isn't in the database.

The thing with lore is that I don't so much memorize the *lore* as where to *find* the lore in the game. Or I create my own diagrams of lore and memorize those. Fortunetly, the lore books have a lot of technical descriptions of lore concepts, so those are pretty easy to come up with. It also helps that FFXIV is *very* systematic when it comes to world-buidling lore. It's not arbitrary. So you can start from a few building blocks about how certain concepts work and then work your way up from there.

But yeah, a lot of it is just that I'm really good at memorizing world-building details and *where* those details were found. I also hang out on a discord that has a designated FFXIV lore channel and most of the people in there discuss FFXIV lore like we discuss FFVII lore on this forum. So there's lots of reasons to go looking things up to see what canon says about subjects.

This... also ties into the fact that I know the best way I remember things is if I *read* them. I wouldn't remember FFXIV lore anywhere nearly as well as if I turned the subtitles in the game off... So figuring out how you remember stuff best and tailoring how you research lore to that meathod helps a ton too. But that works for literally anything you want to remember. Figuring out your brain's preferred learning style is half the battle.