Final Fantasy XIV, Part 11 (Casual Friday)

I'm thinking maybe I need to make a tumblr or an imgur or something for this? Eh, whatever - blogger works. We'll make it work! Here's a shitload of screenshots!

Aericka's enjoying herself at the ol' fishin' hole.

Glock's been sight-seeing, and happened across some gorgeous vistas.

Aladbross has been shopping for a house for the Owlbears. For about twelve straight hours last Tuesday, this is pretty much all he saw:

And yes, that's Drippy in the background.

After that harrowing experience, he decided he needed some serious eye protection.

Worfina, Truffle, Drippy, and Aericka spent some time wandering around the Lost City of Amdapor. That place has a ridiculously high pollen count, but really, just take an antihistamine and carry a battleaxe you'll be fine. This happened about two weeks ago. Crazy how time flies.

Last Wednesday, we raided the first two levels of The Crystal Tower. We were part of a raid with a sardonic fellow called Yoyo who complained the whole time made himself into a memorable villain. We still crushed Labyrinth of the Ancients at a good clip, and segued into Syrcus Tower with some real momentum. Drippy rolled up with a katana because samurais are cool. Can't wait to go back next Wednesday and experience the thrilling conclusion.

Cinder Bin, session 4

...these are the materials we're working with... 

THE PLAYERS

I am Eli                                                                                                 

Julian is Deadeye Duncan                                                            

Willie’s out this session, but he’s Gorman normally         

Reuben joins us and takes over playing Rue                       

Scaddy is the DM                                                                            

session 4

Scene one, the campfire. We’re up a family of NPCs from town (a man, a woman, and a child). Everyone else has headed east-ish, but we’re sure that the next town’s the best way to go. Nothing happens overnight. It’s pretty peaceful. Probably the most dangerous things out here are feeders, or big lizards (it’s the wrong season for that really) or other people.

We ride off towards the next town over. Neither Eli nor Deadeye have any memory of the place. It’s only been there about six months or so. Most of the folks here used to be at a different dig site, half a day west of here, give-or-take.

In town, there are a pair of drinking establishments, a couple of scavengers, and a collection of hovels, rocks, tarps, plastics, and walls. Doctor’s office, too.

There are two horses piled high with trade goods. There’s a woman sitting in front of the horses with several large boxes and a plank of plastic. Her name is Amya, and she’s a traveler and a trader.

She’s got a few pieces of tech for trade; there are a bunch of things on the horses, also. Deadeye Duncan makes a beautiful introduction for us:

Deadeye—Y’know, lass, fifty’s the new forty. Which means I’m forty six and three, honey.

We haggle with her for a time, and after a couple castings of detect tech and detect radiation, we settle on a solar charger for our power packs, and trade away our street sweeper for it.

WE TRADED AWAY                                                          AND WE RECIEVED

Corona laser rifle                                             Crab Venom x10 w/Pre-Burn Medical Injector

Azmuth laser rifle                                            Solar Charger

Second Skin x2                                                Changes of clothes for Duncan and Eli,

     and a few small knick knacks

Deadeye—If you can’t help me find a type two power pack, maybe you can help me find out what you’re doing later tonight.

This line gets him tazed. Duncan rolls around in the dirt like a turtle for a bit, but we still manage to close out negotiations amiably and proceed to hit the town.

Duncan declares that every rest stop needs a bar fight. We stroll into the bar and we meet Jinx, and he tells us that a couple of Simplification street preacher folks were in here a few days ago, but he hasn’t realized that the other town got taken out by Simplification folks. He’s taken aback. Duncan tells him all about our fight with the simplification; Jinx says the Simplification hit a couple other towns, too, recently, but it was nothing so exaggerated as what happened to the other town.

Kess is passed out in the corner after fifteen minutes of hard drinking. Rue and Sunday go exploring the town; Sunday goes to see the doctor and inquires about his services and expertise.

Duncan tells Jinx all about the fusion bomb that went off, which, of course, Eli denies. Eli’s really wondering about how he’s going to strike back at the Simplification with this crew. Duncan’s dying for a fight, and neither Sunday nor Rue are really sure what we should do next, despite their know-how and their skill sets. Gorman’s an amnesiac. And Duncan, while a legendary fighter, is more intent on drinking and fighting than he is on grandiose tales of revenge. What to do, what to do…

Rue gives Sunday’s armor a buff, too, while they’re all hangin’ out that evening. Just a neat little thing she does. Y’know. Magic. Or tech. Or both. Anime stuff.

Digby and Xaiden are two dudes in the bar that Deadeye challenges to a game of cards. Amazingly, Deadeye wins. We drink for free. We start to talk about the Simplification and, well, Eli gives a pretty dang inspiring speech. It gets the townsfolk roused to action. Of course, we’re not quite sure yet what that action should be, but it’s definitely military, and it’s gotta happen soon.

There’s a real sentiment – the Simplification needs to be defeated! There’s a vehicle out there, in the town. We can probably use that. Lyric is a knife fighter, and he’s already killed a red-cloak. Nice to know. The mechanic and his brother would both be good in a fight. We’ve got horses, too. And laser rifles. We brainstorm a scenario where we leave a bunch of caltrops in the grass, and then bait the Simps into following us and cutting up their feet while we pick ‘em off with laser rifles.

Eli consults Haley about battlegrounds, and it turns out there are a few decently shaped flat plains nearby. Covered in grass, no less. Interesting…

The next morning. Kess is super hung over. Deadeye makes sure to encourage him with lots of loud noises. To escape Deadeye, he heads to the edge of town with his plane, and does a little scouting maneuver…

And discovers we’ve all got about ten minutes before fifty Simplification soldiers crest the hill and sack the town. Fuck.

Final Fantasy XIV, Part 10 (S L O W I N G D O W N: mid and endgame structure)

Continuing the summary and structure of A Realm Reborn begun in this post:

Final Fantasy XIV's mid- and end-game content is linear in its structure, but that linearity allows for some interesting embellishments and diversions. The progression goes like this:

[early game] --> [scions] --> Ifrit --> Titan --> Garuda --> [endgame]

After joining the Scions, the professional is tasked with investigating a series of strange events in the deserts of Thanalan. These events ultimately build toward a confrontation with the amalj'aa, the lizard-folk who worship the primal Ifrit, and then, naturally, Ifrit himself.

This formula repeats itself twice more: an odd occurrence, beast-folk causing troubles, some fetch-quests and maybe a dungeon run or two, capped off with a battle against a giant boss monster. There are a few false leads and storytelling flourishes which prevent it from feeling too formulaic, but the structure is easy to see, and honestly, it's satisfying in the same way as a classic Nintendo game: Navigate the level, beat the boss. The levels are open-world areas, sure, and the bosses are a team event, but the basic idea remains intact.

You could rephrase this to make it even more transparent (though this is definitely too simplistic):

Desert level (Boss: Ifrit) ---- Forest level (Boss: Titan) ---- Snow level (Boss: Garuda)

By the end of the mid-game, the professional has faced (and defeated) the primals Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda. After Garuda, Gaius van Baelsar, the evil legate of the Garlean Empire in Eorzea, shows up in a dramatic fashion and lets the player know in no uncertain terms that he's the villain, now. This marks the start of the endgame: All of the main characters have been introduced, and most of the exposition has been handled. What remains, now, is to defeat the Garleans and topple van Baelsar.

The endgame follows a similar structure, though it's more like Dr. Wily's Castle from the Megaman series than a big, open-world exploration game ending in boss fights. Rapid fire, one after another, you go from one big battle to the next, fighting a series of bosses who, until now, have only been featured in cut-scenes being jerks to NPCs. They get their comeuppance in the form of raiding adventurers.

Playing this game in 2020, seven years after A Realm Reborn's re-release, means that defeating these original end-bosses isn't as much of a challenge, now, as it was then. But it's still a satisfying thing to do, if only for the sense of narrative closure. Finishing a story feels good. Doubly so, when it's a story as massive and detailed as this one.

"Detailed?" you exclaim. "Why, you've shared almost none of the details!"

In summarizing the plot of A Realm Reborn, I've left out all but the most essential elements. If you'd really like to dig into the meat of the story, play the game. If you want the cliff's notes, this site does a fine job of it (https://landofodd.net/ffxiv-arr-story-summary/).

I want to appreciate and talk about the structure of the story. Especially, where it concerns other hobbies, like D&D or writing fiction. Honestly, this game's structure is solid gold. If you shave off the serial numbers, the plot structure - as applied to D&D - could resemble something like this:

The campaign kicks off with an introductory module, Lost Mines of Phandelver or whatever. Something short that gets the players' feet wet and lets them figure out their roles within the party. From there, the players are introduced to some important NPCs who offer them an opportunity to join a secret society: something chronically under-funded and a little misunderstood, but they know all about dangerous rumblings and evil omens and magic, and they're in desperate need of heroes. Assuming the PCs are "in" (and that's a big assumption in D&D, but let's pretend), the organization then sends them to go investigate some mysterious disappearances. One thing leads to another, and within a session or two, the players are all facing down a suitably intimidating boss monster! If you stop there, you've got a great set-up for a monster-of-the-week campaign.

If you've got players who love investigation, tactics, and big boss battles, this campaign could go for a really long time. When you're approaching a natural end point, you ramp things up: Introduce a Big Bad who has been watching from the shadows (in a perfect world, the Big Bad ties neatly in to the player characters' backstories) and gives them an ultimatum: Surrender or die! And also - they've got a clockwork dragon! Or a tarrasque, or a pit fiend, or the kraken, or something else suitably epic, the point is this -- Your endgame content is a test of everything the players have accomplished thus far, and plays out in a suitably grandiose way.

This is, of course, a perfect world scenario for a D&D campaign. But if you're looking for a map, or just some place to get started, you could do a lot worse than borrow from A Realm Reborn.

The devil's in the details, of course. And as I've shared with every other post, the details are plentiful in these games. But those details need a place to live; devoid of structure, they're just noise. Though... they're pretty sweet noise, sometimes, regardless...

Cinder Bin - Session 2 ½ and 3

Cast

The Storyteller [aka, everyone who isn’t Deadeye, Gorman, or Eli] :: Ryan

Deadeye Duncan :: Julian

Gorman Sterling :: Willie

Eli Tabasco :: Me

notes from session 2 ½

Fleeing the fallout on foot, across the desert, we take a moment or two to consider our circumstances.

Kess—I know a shortcut, but here’s the catch. It takes us near a nest of feeders.

Eli—I think it’s worth half-a-day to find out if we can make it past those feeders.

Eli speaks with Rue later on, once everyone’s made camp and settled in for the night. Eli knows that there was a cult in town, destroyed a few years back. That cult was called the Church of the Sorrow. And Rue and Sunday have left hints that they used to be a part of the Church, but maybe not willingly. Not wanting to pick at scabs, but curious nonetheless, Eli asked Rue a few questions. Sunday got defensive on Rue’s behalf, but

Rue—They’re all dead. What does it hurt?

And Duncan wanted to know what we were babbling about

Eli—This has nothing to do with fightin’ or drinkin’, Duncan

Deadeye—What’s life without fightin’ or drinkin’, though?
Eli—It’s a little quieter. Sometimes.

Eli explained how his knack worked, and lamented that he’d never met another living soul with a knack.

Eli—Your power comes from something outside of you, y’know?

Rue—Different for me. The world’s all blocks. Sometimes I can put ‘em together.

Eli—(looking at Duncan) I can make his blood grow back.

Rue concentrates, and some bits of dirt and stone start to re-arrange themselves on the ground.

Later, Rue and Kess set about making some of Kess’s stuff feel more intact. Kess instructs her that it’s more intact, but not correctly more intact. They start over and try to get closer the next time.

We set watches, but nothing really happens.

The next morning, before anyone else wakes up, Sunday and Eli have a conversation. She speaks coldly about the Church.

Sunday—Let’s go with cult. That’s accurate.

Eli notices she has a brand on her forearm with a loop and twist motif.

Sunday—We ran away. The church in town was a branch. One little one. But as an organization, it was devoted to the death of the world before. Interested in tech, but—

Eli—To gather new, or to destroy like the Simps?
Sunday—To gather. To know everything that happened at the instant of the Burn. To do that, it collected people. Like us. Like Rue. So, you said Rue’s the first you’ve met with a knack? Everyone we knew growing up had a knack. Mechanics made up more than half.

Eli asks her about her armor. Asks if she made it, or knows how to make it. “We didn’t make this, exactly. We took it off the crew of the hummingbird. But… we also can change it in ways you can’t. The Sorrow could, I guess?”

Sunday has a blade with a wood-handled sheathe. She’s never reached for her pistol in our presence.  She also selected the sword from the dropship equipment as the only thing she was really interested in picking up.

“The sword is made out of ship-metal. Took Rue almost 3 years to shape it. Every night, just a tiny fraction came off, and bit by bit.”

“I knew how to open the ship because I’d found one before. Hummingbird.”

“They were devoted to learning everything, and they couldn’t even protect themselves. They were not good people, but they didn’t deserve to go out like that either.”

“I guess the Simplification had one thing right. Living off the bones of a dead society is no way to live.”

session 3

We need to hop the canyon. There’s really only one spot we can cross, and there are a few little switchbacks and a winding path that we need to take in order to be able to make it. About an hour in, we notice that there’s a guy, wearing yellow, standing on the cliff above us. He’s wearing a pendant that has a crystal on it.

Do we run? Hide? Kill him fast? Gorman tells us to go on ahead, and when we make a bit too much noise, the Simplification guy produces a device. Gorman takes a las-pistol shot at him and nearly kills him, but doesn’t. The device goes up and turns into a loud bang and a cloud of smoke.

Deadeye takes a shot. Not dead. Eli uses his telekinesis at finishes him off with a rock. Nice shot, Eli. We truck on, leaving the body behind. This is a bad spot.

Eli produces Haley and asks her a couple of questions – any feeders nearby? Who’s following us? She explains she doesn’t have those sorts of sensors any longer, and Eli puts her away.

Ahead, we see the feeder nest. Behind us, we hear footsteps. We concoct a plan to try and slam our enemies into each other by making a stand near some fallen stones. We wait in ambush until we hear a masculine voice shout out, “Tech worshippers!”

This fight went worse for them than it did for us.

Gorman fires a sniper rifle shot and hits one for 26! Duncan tries to finish him off, but misses. The simplification dudes all rush in. One of them gets cleft in twain by Sunday. Another one uncorks a flask, and out pops a weird creepy ghost. It looks like one of those black-clad Simplification priests! Spooky!

A wreath of red fire pours out of one of the red-clad dudes’ chests, dealing us all some freaky damage. We respond by killing him with guns. The ghostly dude does a trick that knocks Sunday and Eli flat on their asses, then he proceeds to maul poor Sunday.

The feeders show up, then. They swarm the remaining Simplification, and we all escape, even Sunday. The ghostly dude gets mobbed and, before going down, turns into a yellow-clad normie. How strange.

Deadeye—A cave!

Eli—Shut up!

The feeders aggro and chase us a bit, but ultimately, we get away. We leave the battlefield behind us.

Later, we camp. Rue took a crystal from one of the dead Simplification dudes. Eli examines it and casts identify.

When worn, the crystal lets us see more purple. Very good quality crystal, commonly found nowhere ‘round here. Connected to something south of us. It has some sort of mystical bond to something… south-ish. We decide to keep it.

We head to bed. On watch, Gorman notices a cylinder on a SmartParachute™ floating down from the sky. Inside, a small sheet of paper with some writing on it, and an object folded in thirds. Gorman reads the note. He says to himself, “Oh, great. Now I need to think of more plans.”

The object is a pair of glasses. “Oh, glasses! I’ve done one of these before.” Thermal vision. Neato.

Duncan fails a Perception test on his watch, right before dawn. Later, on our way to town, we spy a column of smoke. Kess spies it with his drone, and then freaks out, and starts running.

Every building in town’s been knocked over, burned. Lines of bodies on the road covered in sheets. People trying to dig out buildings. There are fifteen foot tall posts in the middle of town. Mel, Olegard, Doc Peska, and Tyro the mechanic have all been crucified. Their corpses are still nailed up on those posts.

This was Simplification. Fifty came to town, maybe more. A passerby says they came into town yesterday and just started killing. They killed everyone who fought, then grabbed these guys – called ‘em out by name – and killed ‘em in front of everyone.

Even the metal looks like it’s been rusted or corroded somehow. There’s nothing here that couldn’t have been built in the dark ages.

Gorman checks on something… The doctor’s hut has been leveled. No scanner. Dang.

Deadeye—Step one, recover moonshine. Step two, recover bike. [Sees moonshine jug, all shattered] Noooo!

Olegard’s place has been burnt. Totally looted. Backroom is smashed up, tech's corroded. All gone.

Rue brings a kid, maybe nine, covered in mud, crying, to stand before Eli and Kess.

He says, “It was Jethro. It was your brother, Kess. He was pointing people out. Calling us out, just yelling at all of us, saying we were evil.”

Rue pats him on the head and he slinks away.

There’s another settlement north-east from here, and the sea’s east after that. We don’t really know what’s south of us, but the Simplification comes from that region, so… North, far far north, is the frozen forest, and after that, the ice. To the west, there’s the mountains. The Storm Spires. Where do we go from here?

Sunday muses, "Most of those Simplification folks aren't fighters, they're farmers who figured that the way of the Great Above is something better than scraping cattle shit off the ground. If we can kill those reds, they'll scatter, and maybe we've got a shot."

We go north and gather some of the horses that ran off, then head off to the town to the north-east. Some folks just followed us and grabbed horses as well. Sunday drops back and starts talking to a small family. They’re planning to head to a smaller town, along with us. City means a bigger target in their thinking.

Three townsfolk join the party.

Evening. We cluster together and make camp. Sunday’s training in earnest. Rue and Kess work on the radio and, that night, they get it to work. Maybe, just maybe, we've got a shot at getting some revenge.

Final Fantasy XIV, Part 9 (S L O W I N G D O W N: recapping the early game)

I wonder...

When I write these posts, am I writing a review, or is this a stream-of-consciousness thing? Or is this blog a digital scrapbook with lots of notes scribbled in the margins? Am I thinking critically about game mechanics and what makes a game fun to play, or am I just giving a shout-out whenever the game does something that amuses me? The answer, so far, has been, "Yes! Yes to everything!"

And truthfully, that will continue to be the case. But I'd like to try a little more focused approach, this time. So, let's focus on the story, specifically the early-game, for a bit.

If someone said to me, "What's the story like?" How would I respond? What value can I give, what meaning can I convey, to someone who wants to experience Final Fantasy XIV but isn't willing to marathon it from quarantine for a solid month?

I think it's a valid question. I love tabletop RPGs, and I'm always looking for new and exciting scenarios to add to my games. There are wheelbarrows full of lore, here, just waiting to be carted out of Final Fantasy and dumped into a weekly game of Dungeons & Dragons. They're largely anecdotal, like re-enacting the Hatching-tide celebration or giving your party's paladin a chocobo whistle, but it's a mistake to think that the decorations are the only things worth stealing. A Realm Reborn has a fine story structure, and the world-building is top notch, so let's get into it.

Get some popcorn, kupo. It's time to reminisce.

A Realm Reborn tells the story of an aspiring young professional who, through tenacity, luck, and strength of character, finds himself in the midst of a series of deadly conflicts. In each conflict, the professional rises to the challenge, meeting and resolving it in a dramatic fashion, usually through strength of arms, but occasionally by guile, charm, or sheer hard work. Violent resolutions are the professional's specialty, and the place where the most time and attention to detail is spent. But to say that the professional's tale glorifies violence would be misleading; to understand the professional's tale, we must understand the world in which he lives.

Eorzea is an enchanted land blessed by magical and technical wonders, but plagued by an endless instability. Civilization consists of several races of humanoids co-existing under various banners; A Realm Reborn focuses on the civilization of three city-states: Ul'dah, Limsa Lomisa, and Gridania.

Each of these city-states has its own distinct character: Ul'dah is a desert city where wealth and poverty coexist in stark contrast. Ul'dahns people pride themselves on their own ingenuity while turning a blind eye to obvious social problems. Outside the city walls, Ul'dahns are menaced by the amalj'aa, a beast-tribe of desert-dwelling lizardfolk who worship the primal Ifrit.

Limsa Lomisa is a coastal city, and also, a military autocracy: The Admiral's will is supreme. Luckily, Admiral Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn is a benevolent and wise ruler, and takes her job very seriously, so Limsa Lomisa is a prosperous and inviting realm. Lomisans are menaced by the sahagin, a beast-tribe of fishfolk who worship the primal Leviathan, and by the kobolds, who pray to mighty Titan.

Gridania is a forest city defined by slow-speaking elves and their culture. Gridanians are primarily concerned with sustainable living and survival. Their forest home, the Twelveswood, is enormous and often hostile place, so foresters, scouts, and archers have a prominent place in society. Gridanians are menaced by the ixal, a beast-tribe of birdfolk who worship the primal Garuda, and also by the sylphs, who worship the primal Ramuh.

The relationships between these city-states and the beast-tribes which harass them is central to the professional's tale.

Early in his career, the professional finds himself in one of these three city-states, and there begins his journey toward competency. In Drippy's case, he joined the Marauders' guild in Limsa Lomisa and received training from its teachers. He later went to Summerford Farms and spent an inordinate amount of time picking oranges and chasing off bees. It was essentially a summer job, but one where he still got to swing his battleaxe. Not exactly what I'd envisioned when I rolled up "water genasi pirate Conan" on the character screen, but hey, I can adapt. The game clearly had a story it wanted me to experience, and I would experience it at the writers' pace.

Alternatively, one could argue that the early game is almost totally unconcerned with pacing. The game throws a whole world at you and says, "Here, catch! If you get lost, there are about six-thousand tutorial missions. Good luck!" In a sense, the feeling of being an overwhelmed young professional just starting out on their chosen career is communicated splendidly.

The professional advances in their chosen field at their own pace until roughly level 17, when a series of serendipitous events line up, and (in Drippy's case) a gang of local kidnappers target a workman at Summerford Farms. Investigating his disappearance leads to the revelation that those kidnappers are, in fact, Serpent Reavers, an ancient cult dedicated to worshiping the primal Leviathan. They kidnap and sell slaves to the sahagin. Fighting and defeating them is the first real step along the hero's path - It's the place in the story where the professional meets his mentor and proves his value to her. This is about the time when Drippy met Y'shtola, the cultured conjurer, and fought alongside her against the Serpent Reavers.

As a twist, then: A masked mage appears. He is an agent of chaos, and he has a gripe with the professional. The mage is an Ascian, though that word holds no meaning for us at present. The professional has seen this mage before, both in dreams and in the waking world. The mage had summoned a golem to kill him during the professional's first fight with the Serpent Reavers, then vanished. After defeating the Reavers with the help of the local Lominsan guard, the Yellowjackets, the Ascian appears once again and summons a gargoyle, disappearing yet again before the professional can kill him.

After triumphing over these menacing enemies, word of the professional's skill spreads quickly. New organizations seek him out. The professional, for his part, welcomes the attention. He uses the opportunity to learns new skills and sharpen old ones. Drippy discovered, much to his surprise, that his actions had earned him an audience with the Admiral of Limsa Lominsa herself. The Yellowjackets must have sung his praises loudly indeed!

The Admiral greeted him warmly and told him she was pleased by his decisive actions against the Serpent Reavers, and furthermore, she wished to give him a ceremonial duty as a reward: He was to go to the other city-states and present each ruler with a hand-written letter from the Admiral, and thereby coordinate a memorial service for those who had died at Cartenau, a famous battle five years past. Drippy naturally agreed, and was given unrestricted access to the city's airships and sent along his way.

While all of this was a bit overwhelming for a humble axe-man like Drippy, as a player, I had been itching to get out of Limsa Lomisa. I digress, but as interesting as I've tried to make it all sound, these early quests bored me half-to-death. I bought this game to run raids and puzzle through tactical boss-fights with my friends, not harvest oranges at Summerford farms!

But now - airships! Freedom! We're leaving the starting zone and getting into the real meat-and-potatoes of the game. This is what I signed up for—the raids! Bring 'em on! Sastasha's first, where you fight against Sahagin raiders, and then it's Copperbell Mines, and Tam-Tara Deepcroft, and...

Ah, but we've lost the thread here, haven't we? Sufficed to say, the professional succeeds at his task. He travels to Ul'dah and Gridania and holds audience with their leaders. Drippy the diplomat. The leaders themselves are amenable to the Admiral's request, and take the opportunity to pontificate on the virtues of their respective city-states, but ultimately, the professional returns from his journey more worldly than when he left, and he delivers the good news to the Admiral.

Time slows down a little after that. The pressure lifts. There is yet the mystery of the masked mage, and plenty of work to be done, but the professional has done enough to earn a little vacation. Now Eorzea opens up, and dozens of new avenues present themselves for exploration.

After a few such adventures, a chance encounter in Ul'dah brings Y'shtola back into Drippy's tale. This event leads to the professional joining the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, a secretive order dedicated to defeating the primals: ancient beings of remarkable power who are worshipped as gods by the beast-tribes. It's a difficult task, and not everyone can do it, but the professional - who has been haunted and harassed by dream-like visions his entire life - has just the right make-up to be part of the team. On top of his personal qualities - dedication, heroism, selflessness - he has a supernatural gift. Minfilia, leader of the Scions, calls it the Echo. Those with the Echo have visions, and headaches, and all manner of troubles because of it, but also, they are immune to the primals' greatest weapon: Mind control. Y'shtola sussed it out of you. She saw you had the Echo during your battle with the Serpent Reavers, and saw, too, that you would be a perfect fit for the Scions after your heroics in the market square. So, the professional becomes, among other things, a Scion.

That's where the mid-game begins, and where this post about the early-game leaves off. Until next time, please, enjoy these screenshots devoid of any context:

Final Fantasy XIV, Part 8 (A Realm Reborn!)

Happy Easter motherfuckers

We did it! Continent's saved, Empire's defeated, game's over, gg y'all. Sometime late on Good Friday, the Owlbears assembled and we ran through the end-game of A Realm Reborn. I had been drinking strawberry mead for the better part of two hours previous, and we had a pick-up pugilist who was aggressively pulling aggro, but somehow we still managed to keep our shit together long enough to shatter Gaius van Baelsar's hopes of Eorzan conquest.

These screenshots really sum it up for me. The vibe, I mean. All these heroic figures standing together to take on a larger-than-life villain. It doesn't really matter who or what they're up against; what matters is that they're facing it as a team. It's a mood.

Here's what it looked like in the moment. This screenshot is actually a lot calmer than the penultimate fight. Pure chaos.

So - How does this Final Fantasy experience stack up against the other ones? That's a difficult question for me to answer, mainly because this is my first real experience with a Final Fantasy game! Oh, I played a little bit of FF6 twenty years ago, and I marathon'd FF7 in an energy-drink fueled weekend once, but those experiences are so anecdotal that they're not really valid as a basis for comparison.

My friend Aladbross Siracha, however, is much more experienced with regard to these matters. In our Slack chat, he shared the following thought:

Ranking FF games is so hard because they’re very different games.  Comparing XV vs VI feels nearly impossible because they have different merits.

Instead, I’ll do awards:

The Most Quintessential James Fantasy:
FFX - From the weird aesthetics to the turn-based battle system X is the most on-brand Final Fantasy.  Love story, dope cast, stage mesh of magic and sci-fi.  It also holds up the best relative to when it was made.

The best FF character:  Cloud Strife.  Cloud ostensibly sucks.  He’s an anti-hero but such a wiener about it.  But what the games does with Cloud using certain reveals is awesome, especially considering the meta-commentary of many 90-RPGs at the time.

Most Overrated FF game:  FFVII.  Aside from the themes, FFVII isn’t great.  The art has aged atrociously and it’s combat system makes me feel hurried.  It also feels like the most linear game.

The FF that’s dreaming big:  FFXV.  Just a stab in the dark here, but I think a lot of Japanese game developers played Skyrim and said “LETS DO THAT!”  FFXV takes the open-world adventure and imagines it as a bachelor-party camping trip fighting demons with a recently disposed prince.  And I stan that energy.

Best FF of my childhood: FFIX. We used to swap our N64 for a friend’s PlayStation so it lends to us trying to binge Final Fantasy games while he breezed through Banjo-Kazooie.  We played so much FFIX my dad got concerned and made us trade back.  We also renamed all the characters to swear words.  We were cool sixth graders.

FF game I want to play that I haven’t: FFXII.  People lose their shit over this game and I have no idea why.

Best Music:  FFX.  Cash me outside tho

Where does FFXIV fall into this?  I couldn’t say.  While there’s obviously that FF energy, there’s so much that’s different.  I do miss having a fleshed out cast of characters and an ever-expanding world.  But I love the social aspect and the Dungeon-heavy design.  I could never pitch this game to someone casually, but I want all my friends to play it.

I have to give this game high marks, with the asterisk that, yeah, it's not a casual experience. If you're gonna get from it what we got from it, you pretty much need to marathon it during a pandemic. When I started playing, I was very resistant. I don't like MMOs as a rule, but these are strange times we're living in, so I caved and downloaded it. I nearly rage quit during installation. Twice. The early game wasn't thrilling, either, and with all the side-quests and grinding to get to a place where I could actually start running dungeons, it all felt so boring and dumb. I think those were my exact words. Very pretty, but also, very dumb.

I definitely would've quit if it weren't for my friends egging me on. And I'm glad they did. I'm glad that I stuck with Final Fantasy until I met Jihli and she sold me a bunny mask. I'm glad that Evil George Washington made me crack a smile, and then picked a fight. I'm glad that my early adventures nabbed me some outrageously sexual body armor, and that I wore it with pride as I beat up a mess of giant crabs. Why?

Because those moments are the game! And the more you play, the more of them you get to experience.

I'm glad that the Owlbears stood in a circle of flames, facing down a mechanical dragon together as a team. I'm glad that this year's Hatching-tide has been such a success! I'm glad that I finally completed my marauder training and went on to meet Curious Gorge and spar with him under a waterfall. Heck, I'm even glad that Drippy was able to help the wayward youths of Ul'dah when they needed a role model.

A Realm Reborn has a pretty good story. It's got a lot of satisfying narrative elements, a couple twists and turns, and a few fun and memorable characters. It's a Saturday Morning Cartoon on a massive scale (note: I think Aericka said this first, but I absolutely agree). It's fun, it's wild, it's silly, and yet somehow, it still has heart.

And was it just me, or is Gaius van Baelsar actually Julius Caesar cosplaying as Rita Repulsa?

But these are questions for another time. Heavensward awaits!

Final Fantasy XIV, Part 7 (A Note on Structure)

I think we're starting to hit upon some sort of structure here, yes? Both in regard to the game, and with regard to the way these posts are constructed. I'll speak more on the game's structure elsewhere; let's examine the structure of one of these little updates first, shall we?

First, we check in on Drippy. See how he's doin' and what he's been up to in the world.

Drippy has come into his own. Last night, he bested his mentor Curious Gorge in honorable combat. In recognition of this event, Gorge bestowed upon him the ancestral armor of his tribe as a symbol of Drippy's mastery. Look at those dope cat-print kneepads!

As Drippy's agent/handler/parent/co-conspirator, I've gotta say, it's been a crazy two weeks. I play less often than the other Owlbears, but even so, I still feel like I've lived, breathed, slept, and eaten nothing but Final Fantasy for days. That's probably because it's true. And what a ride it's been! As much as I'd like to say something witty or insightful about the story so far, the time for quiet reflection is later. Right now, I've got quests to do and NPCs to bother, aid, or slay!

Anyway, these two screenshots turned out lookin' dope, if I do say so myself.

Drippy pleads with a young yet talented scholar to accompany him to the Isles of Umbra

Drippy, Biggs, Wedge, and Cid take some time to reflect on their accomplishments

Now - getting back to structure, here - let's talk about the Owlbears. What have they been up to? Well, Drippy's 50, Worfina's 57, and everyone else is somewhere on the spectrum. This means that Drippy hasn't had as many opportunities to experience all of the SICK ENDGAME CONTENT with the rest of 'em, yet, so, rather than report on what I haven't experienced, I'll report on what I have: The stuff I've overheard on Discord!

-- Lots of people shouting "holy shit this is crazy!" during the "final battle" against the Garleans, at a pitch and with a fervor that suggests to me that shit does, indeed, become crazy

-- There is a "bridge quest" which involves finding some lost children that causes plants to wither, cattle to die, strong men to blanch, and women to deliver forth monsters

-- Inspector Hildibrand is the greatest living detective, and helping him investigate his cases is the supreme privilege of all who love justice

Glock McLargehuge experiences a brief existential crisis

And last, we share a deluge of colorful images with little-to-no context. They're not meant to tell a story as much as they're meant to capture some of the magic of the whole experience. A tiny slice of the spicy pie that is Eorzea.

Yeah, the structure is working for me, too. Keep circulating the screenshots. Next episode: Fashion!

Final Fantasy XIV, Part 6 (The Joy of Clichés)

Drippy pauses for a moment to reflect on the true meaning of Hatchingtide.

It's been quite the week. As we travel across Eorzea, conquering our foes and growing our fortunes at a pace that would make Alexander the Great pause to take notes, it behooves us to spare a moment for quiet reflection: How came we to this place?

A few days ago, Drippy was walking through the markets of Ul'dah searching for armor polish for his mythril greaves and hungering for a donut, when he happened across a troubling sight: A desperate damsel, accosted by an obnoxious merchant and his coterie of thugs. What? A literal damsel in distress? In my heroic high fantasy video game?? Say no more!!!

What an obnoxious guy! He took off after his thugs once he realized things weren't going to go his way. Good riddance. Even so, I have a sinking feeling this won't be the last time he bothers innocent people...
Having successfully resolved one pleasant cliché, Drippy immediately encountered another:

Watching from the sidelines during this damsel-debacle was Drippy's favorite catgirl conjuror, Y'shtola. She confessed that she had been following him with benevolent intentions - monitoring his progress and hoping he'd do something impressive enough to warrant an offer of recruitment into her super-secret selective order: The Scions of the Seventh Dawn.

We headed to their clubhouse and talked about all kinds of stuff. Turns out, the Mighty Owlbears are already working with the Scions! Considering that their mission statement is essentially, "Complete heroic quests and help save the planet from magical monsters," how could Drippy possibly say no? Plus there's a really nice bar across the street from their HQ. Super cheap mimosas. What's not to love?

Ah, how simple things were, back then. Last Thursday, I think it was? It feels like a lifetime. So much has happened. So many adventures. I can't put it all into words - so, I'll have to use pictures.

"Fear not, inspector. I'm on the case!"

"This town ain't big enough for the both of us!"

Truffle McCabe, Glock McLargehuge, Drippy, and Worfina explore the Sunken Temple of Qarn.

On a lonely dock in Limsa Lomisa, Nekuma practices her swordplay as well as her sorcery.
There are surprising synergies between the philosophy of the red mage and the way of the samurai.

Aladbross and Aericka enjoy a night on the town.

Drippy meets with the very living essence of haute couture. 

There's more. There's always more. But for now, this will have to suffice. It is a simple tale, too quickly told, yet it hints of tales yet to come...