When I learned about the twist, I went "holy shit". Also the twitter memes/reactions are amazing, especially the MGSV "played like a damn fiddle" quote ones.
Kind of... the person telling us that is basically the Ardyn of FFXIV (minus the tragic backstory so far) and is an Ascian. And the Ascians are notorious for not telling the whole truth ever... Whenever they tell the characters anything, there's a bunch of other context that always comes out that changes what the Ascians really meant. Basically, the Ascians might not lie to anyone's face, but they are professionals at lying by omission.
There was a Live Letter today and they kicked it off with a dungeon trailer!
They also showed us one view of the area Eden takes place in and well... if you've ever played FFVIII, then you should probably have some idea what you are looking at...
Yes... the Scions as a whole are heavily involved in the 5.0 plot. They have all gotten class and wardrobe changes from the looks of it. A lot of them also have custom classes...
5.0 is apparently going to have a lot to do with Zodiark and Hydaelyn and involve at least one Ascian in particular very heavily. The devs are also being a lot more cagey then usual with a lot of plot-related details, so to a large extent, the community is going in blind to what exactly is going on. So... spoilers for people who haven't got caught up with Fan-Fest released info!
We know that 5.0 isn't taking place on the Source, the world where the preveious expansions have taken place. Instead, it will take place on the 1st Shard, a kind of alternate reality. It's not quite that for various reasons, but all the revealed zones so far correspond to zones of 2.0 and 3.0 areas so far. So we have an alternate reality Gridania, alternate reality Mor Dhona, etc. The 1st Shard was first talked about in 3.3 and 3.4. It's where the Warriors of Darkness were from and the world they and Minfilia left to save from a Flood of Light. Apparently they still need help and we're the ones to do that.
We also know in general that the Warrior of Light is going to become the Warrior of Darkness to deal with the Flood of Light and that somehow, they and the Scions will be traveling together. They will be dealing with the Sin Eaters (light Voidsent) and bringing back the night to the world as the world hasn't had night for a century due to having too much Light. We will also be seeing how the Flood of Light was started by the Warriors of Darkness from 3.3 and 3.4. Oh, and Solus/Emet-Selch is on the 1st Shard. So who knows how that guy will be meddling with what we are doing.
We also know that the 8-man raid will be happening on the 1st Shard after the MSQ is done and somhow involves Eden and bringing back the other aetherial elements to the 1st Shard. The 24-man Raid? Well... It's called YoRHa: Dark Apocalypse and features Yoko Taro and Yosuke Saito as guest creators...
You can think of this plot as being FFXIV's take on FFXV's plot, but with the light and darkness flipped and the Ardyn character doesn't have a sympathetic backstory and the Crystal God(dess) as always having our backs before this and doesn't want us dying.
I'm glad they're going this way with the story. I was literally just thinking to myself a couple of weeks ago that it would be cool for an FF (or other fantasy IP) to do a
nightmare of eternal day. We always see the opposite, so this is a welcome take for me.
It's been an Eternal Day on the 1st Shard for like... over a century. The first town we are supposed to get to, The Crystarium, is pretty much the Lustelum of the 1st Shard. As in, people fighting off the Sin Eaters. Also... it is built around the Crystal Tower which somehow showed up on the 1st Shard and seems to be functioning like our anchor point to the 1st Shard somehow. Also, the person living in the Cryatals Tower is their leader. And the leader looks an awful lot like FFXIV's Desch (from FFIII) reference. It's just that when that character was first introduced, he hadn't managed to hit Desch's amnesia plot yet... So that's a thing.
We've also seen in trailers that there's another town, Eulmore, that has a very different approach to dealing with the Sin Eaters. Somehow, the people living there are living side-by-side with the Sin Eaters. From what we've seen in trailers, it looks like the people living in Eulmore are feeding other people to the Sin Eaters so that the Sin Eaters don't gobble up the people of Eulmore's aether.
Getting mixed up in all this is Solus, an Ascian. Who was the guy who changed Garlemald from a rebublic to an Empire. He's basicly Ardyn in terms of how he acts. Only we know he's an Ascian who has been around for centuries and he is clearly enjoying himself and doesn't seem to have the tourtured back-strory that Adrydn did. He's come to the 1st Shard to do... who knows what... but it's probably nothing good. The crazy thing is, none of the Scions or the Warrior of Light/Darkness knows he even exists yet. The player does, but no one on our side in the story does. So he's a bit of a wild card.
Basically, I would not at all be surprised if ShB comes off as the FFXIV team taking FFXV's plot and fixing the worst of the characterization and world-building by melding it with some concepts from FFIII.
I am playing this game now! I am a L54 White Mage main, also have Warrior at L30, and my Thaumaturge is still below L10! I originally only took up the tank class so I could adventurer in need more for seals to build up my Grand Company rank and I didn't like it at first but surprisingly ended up quite enjoying it. It hasn't been that stressful yet. I have been kicked three or so times as healer but nobody was communicating or advising in party chat. Then other runs I got tanks telling me what the problem was and I was able to change what I was doing and help the party complete the dungeon from there. Incidentally the first time I encountered the voter dismiss feature was in the darkhold dungeon where the party kicked the tank. I abstained then and didn't vote because I didn't know what the problem was. The dungeon did get easier after though and was able to look after the damage dealers until we got to the boss bit and could wait for another tank.
Currently going through withdrawal waiting for game to be back up! I hope my garden didn't die ...
That was the best expansion yet IMO. I still have the post-game and years of patches, wooooo <3. I watched every single cutscene without skipping, and did all "unlock" sidequests (but not the normal exp only side quests because I didn't have to - going to use them to level up other classes).
There was one period where I was bored shitless, and it was when I was level 77 - the main scenario does something to do with mining? It feeds back into the plot (as in, it has a payoff) but fuck me was it not worth it. Weird meandering point but it's totally forgivable because the entire MSQ was stellar, I thought.
the lore, THE LORE OMG.
I don't know where to start, so much happened. I really loved the "high fantasy" setting, things that had a potential to be annoying (the fairies) didn't overstay their welcome and shit. The Vauthry storyling or overarching "sin eater" storyline was good and came to a satisfactory conclusion, but the wider storyline re: the founding Garlemald emperor (Emet-Selch THE ASCIAN) was just OUT OF THIS WORLD AMAZING. Hades!? Come on!!! I want to discuss this so bad but nobody even posts here lmao
Ardbert? Gra'ha Tia? Thancred? Urianger? "Minfilia"? The Twins? and Y'SHTOLA!? That entire expansion was amazing and the scions playing such a heavy role was just jaw dropping. I wonder if the patches for this expansion will centre around getting them back to the source?
UHGHGHGHGHG SO GOOOOOD and so much to talk about!
This doesn't need to be in spoiler tags: I hate the dragoon i430 armour, it's shit
I've got some screenshots to share, I'll collate them when I can <3
This was an amazing MSQ. You can really see long-form story-telling at its best in it. There are plot points from over five plus years of storytelling that finally get either resolved or expanded upon. I think Shadowbringers is probably in the running for best-paced plot in the last decade of Final Fantasy games. It is just so tight and keeps the momentum going so well. The final build up feels really, really good and the ending is very satisfying.
I have to say, after Stormblood and patches 4.4 and 4.5, I was very leery of the FFXIV's story team messing up the pacing of Shadowbringers. Stormblood didn't have great pacing for the opening expansion or the closing patches. The lore and world-building were fine, but the way that lore and world-building was incorporated into the story wasn't as good as how Heavensward did it. Shadowbringers is better then Heavensward.
What really makes the plot work is that the FFXIV story team knows how to make antagonists you can sypathize with, but not to the point you wonder why you are fighting them instead of joining them. On the one hand, it is really easy to see where Emet-Selch is coming from. On the other hand... it wasn't like people in his own era didn't have differing ideas on how the problem should be solved... No matter how Emet-Selch, Elidibus or Lahabrea feel about their situation, they don't view current day humans as being people really. And it seems like the people who opposed them were okay at the prospect of being Sundered themselves into something lesser if it meant Zodiark was stopped.
Including one of their colleges who left the Zodiark plan behind before Zodiark was even summoned and is heavily implied to have been the one behind planning Hydalyn's summoning. The college who seems to be reincarnated as you...
As far as where the story can go from here... I see three main directions. The first is getting the Scions back to the Source.
The second would be whatever Elidibus is now up to. With the added caveat that there's still a lot we don't know about Ancients (like what effect Zodiark's tempering had on the Ascians for one...) and now that we know, he might start talking about it more. Also... Zenos wants him and the WoL to take Zodiark's and Hydaelyn's power for themselves and fight again. Which would probably be a bad thing if this MSQ's revelations about both Zodairk and Hydaelyn are anything to go by.
The third direction would be Garlemald. Garlemald is a powder-keg ready to go off. Varis is dead and Zenos doesn't want anything to do with actually running the Empire. Meanwhile, there's an aweful lot of conquered nations that really would like to be out of Garleamld's control and would love to kick Garlemald while it's down. I don't see that ending well at the moment. Honestly... a lot of Garlemald's situation probably depends on Gaius surviving or not...
If you don't want to read spoilers yet... The FFXIV Dev Team totally nailed it. The story is the best it has ever been in FFXIV. The zones look amazing. The dungeons are at least a major visual spectical and have fun bosses. Sokan is an amazing composer and the BGM is phenomenal.
This is Final Fantasy as it is meant to be experienced.
I've watched videos of the MSQ on YouTube, and yeah: that shit is legit. Definitely FF storytelling at its finest and most intriguing.
And as you said, Obsidian, the story earns our sympathy toward Emet-Selch without compromising either his or our own sense of morality.
We wish he could be our ally, of course. His interactions with us earn our understanding, and even our fondness, so we're sad to see him taken down. But we're still never in doubt that he has to be.
No matter how Emet-Selch, Elidibus or Lahabrea feel about their situation, they don't view current day humans as being people really. And it seems like the people who opposed them were okay at the prospect of being Sundered themselves into something lesser if it meant Zodiark was stopped.
Including one of their colleges who left the Zodiark plan behind before Zodiark was even summoned and is heavily implied to have been the one behind planning Hydalyn's summoning. The college who seems to be reincarnated as you...
I didn't see that from that interaction. Earlier in the city, some of the NPCs you can talk to say that the 14th member of the Convocation of Fourteen resigned and that it was very odd since no one on the Convocation had ever resigned. And the day Emet-Selch is remembering is the day right before the "Final Days" happens and Zoidark is summoned. Thing is... if you talk to Emet-Selch earlier in the story (around the lvl 76 quests I think?) he admits that when Zoidark was summoned, he and the rest of the Ascins all got tempered by Zoidark. Which we most definetly are not...
The scene Hythlodaeus is in is the scene where the Ancients/Ascians are lined up to sacrifice themselves to summon Zoidark. What I got from that interaction was that Hythlodaeus was a good friend of Solus and he saw both you and Albert had the same soul as someone on the Convocation of Fourteen. He even wonders if Emet-Selch recognizes you and seems to think that what happened to whoever you were back then seems like something they should have expected.
Then, right before we fight Emet-Selch, we see him see our character as one of the Ancients. He is more furious at us then we've ever seen him and that is what sets him off on facing use in his true capacity. So I'm thinking Solus realized that we are the 14th member of the Convocation who resigned and that since we have the same relationship to Hydaelyn that the Ascians have to Zoidark, he realizes we had something to do with Hydaleyn being summoned.
Other Spoilers
Eden is going to be super interesting. The last boss of Akadaemia Anyder is Quetzalcoatl. Specifically the FF8 Quetzalcoatl, including the fact that it is a Guardian Force... And it seems it was created by an Ancient giving up all their life force to create it...
One of the side quests in Amaurot mentions automatons made using creation magic that don't have any emotions... including fear... Some people in the lore community wonder if that is going to be relevant for the YorHa raids...
with Hythlodaeus I see that you are correct. They were a separate Ascian from the Convocation member who resigned and was eventually sundered into the various versions of the Warrior.
That does bring up some other notions I happened upon, though -- the first one being that I'm suddenly pretty sure Unukulhai is the Warrior's shard from the thirteenth world (the one that became the Void). This is most likely the reason Elidibus saved him.
Secondly, I'm thinking that the Warrior has unknowingly been enthralled/tempered by Hydaelyn all along. This seems especially likely if they were party to Hydaelyn's summoning. As you mentioned, Emet-Selch confesses that he and the other Ascians were enthralled by Zodiark upon its summoning.
