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nivienne-grovant · 11 months

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It's about Trust

I had so much fun with the Dark Knight one that I decided to work on a Black Mage write up for Nivienne as well. This covers the MSQ up to the end of Stormblood, and contains mild spoilers for the Black Mage quests up to 70.

Growing up Nivienne always imagines being a healer just like her mother - eagerly tagging along with her work in the Shroud. Josephine Grovant on the other hand, knows early on that her daughter can never be a conjurer. When they practice together, Josephine can see how dead Nivienne's senses are to the elementals, but also how potent her own personal aether is. Josephine knows that Nivienne can never be a conjurer, but she also knows her daughter can be a powerful sorceress of her own if she is willing to study anything outside of it.

Josephine wonders how best to break the news to Nivienne, and privately hopes that she might not have to. For all her magical aptitude, it was possible that Nivienne's connections to the elements are just lagging behind, and that she is just a late bloomer. Perhaps, Josephine hopes, if she is lucky Nivienne's interests will simply shift over time so she wouldn't be so caught up in following in her mother's footsteps, and no so devastated to learn that this would not be her path. So Josephine puts this to the back of her mind, and decides to simply let Nivienne come into this truth on her own, or to present it to her when she is ready to hear it.

But then Josiphine answers the call for healers in Carteneau and as determined as she is to stay away from the front lines and make it home to her daughter, that day she is far from the only soldier who dies dreaming of home.

So instead of hearing about her inability from from her mother, Nivienne finds out about it from a Gridanian conjurer who is exhausted tending to those too few returning from the war, and being pestered by a duskwight teenager who nearly scorches her eyebrows off trying to prove she can help. It takes Nivienne some time to accept this state of affairs, but she is quick to realize that just because she can't be a conjurer doesn't mean that she can't be a healer.

Nivienne turns instead to Arcane Geometry. No one at the out-of-the-way hamlet at Buscaron's practices it, but once she shows an interest in it somehow their regulars seem to have a great luck stumbling on books that they can pass off to Nivienne since they "have no use for them anyway" and "didn't want to haul them back to Gridania to sell". Eventually they shed the ruse, and for Nivienne's twenty first name day they buy her a ticket for the ferry to Limsa Lominsa, and a letter of introduction to the Arcanists Guild.

Nivienne is good at summoning. She has a mind that grasps the work easily, and absorbs the texts of the Guild like a sponge, learning and building off of the concepts with ease. The first time she manages to cast physic she is happy beyond words. She could have been been happy with that, and may have one day been an accomplished scholar herself, but she was the Warrior of Light, and when facing down Ifrit she could think of was that if she has been more powerful, then she could have done more, and saved more lives. So she turns to where she knows her talents truly lay.

Entering the Thaumaturgy Guild is strange for Nivienne, and not just because she towers over most of the other guild members. Thaumaturgy has always been spoken about in hushed tones in the Shroud, leading to Nivienne having a somewhat unflattering opinion of their work. She quickly discovers that while some (many) of their practitioners are a little eccentric, the thaumaturgists she meets don't seem as hell bent towards destruction and ruin as she was told. After years of trying unsuccessfully to channel wind and earth, Nivienne is taken aback at how easy Thaumaturgy is. Her own sizable pool of aether is eager to bend fire, ice, and lightning into shape, and she takes to the art alarmingly fast.

When Nivienne first receives the offer to pursue Black Magic all of the warnings she has heard about the destructive nature of her magic flash before her eyes. She was fine with Thaumaturgy, but even the other guild members are appalled by the nature of Black Magic. It had torn apart the world asunder once, and no one is eager to take up the study. And Nivienne too would have been content to leave that behind, if not for the attack on the Walking Sands mere days later. With the Scions captured or in the wind, Nivienne knows she needs power she doesn't have as a Thaumaturge, and is ready to take the Black to find what she needs.

As it turns out, the path of the Black Mage, much like that of a Thaumaturge, is not what Nivienne expects. She had never treated with the Beast Tribes before now, even the Sylphs had been something to be wary of instead reasoned with, and the soul stone in her hand feels right, like it has been waiting for the right student all this time.

Armed with her new power, and untold rage at the man who threatened her home, attacked her colleagues, and led the attack that killed her mother, Nivienne descends on the Praetorium. It's easier than she would like it to be to tear through the soldiers that guard the facilities and rip apart the machines of war that they have built. It is when she is face to face with the Ultima weapon and Lahabrea himself that Nivienne hits a fever pitch. Fighting to get through the machine, she reaches deeper than she should, forcing out the aether from both within herself and outside the land, tapping into Ultima and the Heart of Sabik itself. The effects are devastating. Nivienne does not survive her outburst. But Hydaelyn has need of her champion still, and she keeps Nivienne alive, piecing her tattered self back together, and costing the god dearly. Nivienne rises once again, and finishes the fight. Once she escapes the Praetorium she thinks about what she has done. She thinks about why she did it. She wonders if she can be trusted with this power she has sought out, and what she is to do with it now.

After the dust settles, Nivienne feels hollow. It's all she can do to follow directions, and smile politely at the revelers from the Alliance. Minfilla takes notice, and gets her working with Alphinaud - she knows well enough of her fondness for their youngest Scion, and is sure this will help draw her back out. Even as they work on Alphinaud's latest plan, Alisaie reaches out for help with the Coils of Bahamut, and Nivienne watches as the twins declare their dreams with such confidence that she can't help but feel something once again. She guides them through the Coils, the rise and fall of the Crystal Braves, and eventually all the way through the Dragonsong war in Ishgard. Feeling gradually returns to her like warmth to frost chilled fingertips, and yet grows far too fast and hot with the deaths of Haurchefant and Ysayle. It's so easy to be furious again, turning her power on the Garleans and the Temple Knights who stand before her. She crushes them underfoot, and wonders if she can really be trusted with this power, if she will always be quick to fight and kill as soon as she finds a reason to.

Wallowing in these feelings, it is completely unexpected when Master Matoya asks Nivienne if she ever knew of a woman named Josiphine Grovant. After taking a moment to process a name she had never mentioned to any of the Scions, she confirms that she is her mother, who died years ago in Carteneau. Matoya calls it a shame, and that she seemed like an interesting woman.

Nivienne does eventually give in and ask how Matoya could possibly have known Josephine, and she explains quite happily that several years ago, before the Calamity, Josephine had sent a series of increasingly angry letters trying to get Nivienne a place to study in Ildyshire, citing her strong talent for magic and her concerns that her daughters status as a Duskwight and her predisposition for Thaumaturgy would cause many teachers in Gridania to treat her with suspicion. Matoya was particularly impressed at just how colorful Josiphine's language became as she realized her letters were being ignored, and recalls fondly the face someone important had made when Josiphine finally just shipped them an expensive looking wand for their troubles, alongside a suggestion of where they could shove it.

Nivienne is at once mortified and relieved to hear the story. It sounds so much like something her mother would do that she doesn't doubt it's veracity for a second. It is also the first time she realizes that her mother knew her talents lay in destruction and not creation, and not only was she accepting of that, but she wanted to encourage and protect her daughter's development of that talent. She trusted that Nivienne would do good with them. Nivienne could hardly let her down now could she?

With her mother's posthumous blessing, Nivienne starts to explore more about what it really means to be a Black Mage. She visits the ruins of Nym and Amdapor keep and sees the destruction they have wrought. She meets Cait Sith,and explores the void ark and the twisted remains of the city of Mhach. Quite unexpectedly she also starts to work with the founder of the art, Shatotto, and has the opportunity to see her perspective on the art as well. This is the legacy she is inheriting from her soul stone, and this is the destruction it can reign. She keeps that in her mind every time she lets loose a burst of fire, or draws power from her ley lines.

Nivienne finds her defeat at the hands of Zenos is frustrating and humiliating, and she is itching to go another round with him and correct this mistake. She knows well the cost of reaching too far but she also hates the thought of losing to that man again. She studies, she learns, she meets a man who shows her the ways of the much more mobile Red Mage and wonders if this might be the key to her victory.

Sword in hand, she meets Zenos again in Doma. This time it's not just black magic that she wields against him, but red too joins the fray. It is difficult, having to compensate for her weak white magic with the full force of her black magic at her fingertips, and while she does fall Nivienne feels a deep satisfaction at drawing blood from the seemingly invincible Zenos. She pays little mind to his words however, and it leaves her unprepared for their next encounter.

In Ala Mhigo they meet for a final time, but this time with Zenos mcuh more eager for the fight than Nivienne. He calls her a kindred spirit, a friend, and while it's easy to deny him in the moment, she can't deny seeing a reflection of the joy she feels with a well placed flare when his steel strikes down a powerful foe. She sees the reflection as well, of her own wide eyes in his sword as he slits his own throat in the Royal Menagerie.

The image stays with her longer than she wants to admit. His words linger even longer, and Nivienne asks herself again what she hopes to get out of this power she has worked so hard to cultivate. Is it really just about the power and violence that she can command? The strength to hurt the people who want to hurt her? Is what Zenos saw in her the answer she has refused to consider?

Her answer starts with Sadu of all people. They two havefaced off many times, with Nivienne thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to compare forms with another practitioner from a tradition outside of Eorzea (and, if she's honest, it's just fun to blow things up with another mage). As the two face off on the Steppe Sadu catches Nivienne holding herself back and bristles, calling the whole fight off to a stop.

"Do you think I am weak? What is this Khagan?"

Nivienne tries to deflect the issue, but Sadu is not one to play games, and refuses to continue the fight until Nivienne explains why her heart isn't in it.

So she lays it out, not in all its gory details, but directly enough. She's worried that Zenos is right and even this is just an excuse to destroy for her own joy of it. Does she not seek out Sadu to challenge herself? To test her own strength and come back for more every time? She is no better than Zenos in this fight for fighting's sake.

Sadu is not so easily swayed however. "You know your soul, Kadan. No one else. Before it was Nivienne Grovant it was someone else, another peerless warrior I'm sure, and after you die it will change hands once again. But never doubt that it is yours, and you know it better than any other. Whatever you fight for is yours to decide, not for some pompous man to dictate."

Nivienne argues that even then, what if her soul is not something to be proud of? What if she looks and finds that Zeno was right?

Sadu asks if Nivienne thinks of her as prey. She denies it, and Sadu agrees. "No, of course not. You are not Hunting me Kadan, together you and I can dance and make something spectacular. That is the joy you feel in combat. You were told to fight to your best at the Nadaam and you did, and yet somehow this year we had fewer casualties than we have had in decades. You find no joy in death - I can assure you of that much." She scoffs, reiterating her earlier point. "Think on it if you must - you know your own soul, but trust that this power your wield, you wield for noble reasons. Even if you seem to spend far to much time despairing over ridiculous notions from dead men."

Sadu raises her staff, challenging Nivienne to continue their fight and after a moment she does. She raises fire and ice and watches as Sadu follows suit, reciprocating her joy easily. Sadu calls it dancing of all things. It's so different from a hunt, and something that she had never considered before. So Nivienne and Sadu dance, throwing powerful spells at each other across the Steppe, reveling in the destruction and matching each other beat for beat. It's fun and Sadu gets her going enough that she forgets about her Zenos.

When Sadu calls off the fight, both of them are sore and exhausted, Sadu just laughs. "See? You think too much about everything. You can tear the stars from the sky and shake the bones of the earth, and then you turn and worry that because you can you will tear the world apart. Trust yourself with the power you wield. Don't shrink back from it, embrace it!"

And it's not quite that simple, but it is enough that Nivienne tries to enjoy her power the way she once did. She won't ever let herself be the angry girl who tore apart the Preatorium, but she won't shame herself into letting people like Zenos decide what she cares about.

When the meteor passes over Eorzea Nivienne stands with Shatto and Lalai to watch it disappear. Shatto calls her an inheritor of a legacy of Black Magic. Calling out its complicated past, its dangerous future, and all the responsibility that she has entrusted Nivienne, her student, with.

She is Nivienne Grovant and she is one of the most dangerous women alive. Every time she bends aether into a destructive form she trusts that she is able to wield that destruction. Not just for herself but for the good of the entire star, and the many stars beyond it. This is the legacy that has been entrusted to her, and she will not flinch back from it again.

#Featuring the fact that Nivienne and Sadu are besties #the fact that Nivienne's mom is very cool #and the fact that Nivienne 100% used to follow her mom around with a stick she found and pretend to heal people #Anyway it's not as sappy as the Dark Knight one #but I do like Nivienne's Black Mage arc a lot #short stories

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syngigeim · 1 year

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I posted 324 times in 2022

78 posts created (24%)

246 posts reblogged (76%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@autumnslance

@aethernoise

@nuclearanomaly

@storms-path

@cheshirepirouette

I tagged 298 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#warrior of light - 46 posts

#syngigeim usynlonwyn - 37 posts

#alisaie leveilleur - 24 posts

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#alphinaud leveilleur - 22 posts

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#urianger augurelt - 19 posts

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Longest Tag: 138 characters

#lovely spot and just hearing that region theme as i stepped out into stormblood proper is something i'll keep with me as a favorite memory

My Top Posts in 2022:

Day 1 - Cross

Syngigeim couldn’t help it. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and tilted her head up, hoping to stem the flow just a little. She was alone. Everyone close to her giving themselves up to make a path for her. Or else an infinitesimal distance away back home.

She opened her eyes and glanced forward ahead at the lonely world, a fragment of one that Meteion found...and at the glimmering bridge ahead.

Her path was clear.

Shadows began to form around her. Were they the spirits of those lost? Or something more? It was along her way forward and so she strode towards it. She thought of this lost world. Where all life was gone without a trace. Meteion said she found nothing and yet-

If you need a push, I’ll be right there behind you.

Syngigeim stopped. And laughed. She smiled, pressing her hand up against her heart, where she could feel a warmth blossom. Of course it was him. She set forth again, her stride steady.

Do not despair. You are not without allies.

Of course, she thought. She turned her thoughts towards those back home, awaiting her return. And there was still hope, was there not? By the matter that she still drew breath, that before her was that bridge, the breeze upon the wind, they weren’t fully gone. Not yet.

What we have sown in blood, we have reaped in suffering, and it can not go on.

Syngigeim’s smile faded but she kept her pace steady. She fought and struggled and in the process, hurt others. Taken lives. Bloodstained were her hands...but she still had to try.

Upon the souls of they who have sacrificed themselves to pave the way for peace, we will never abandon our cause.

She had to try. To struggle. To believe in that brighter future. For those who we’ve lost. For those we can yet save. For everyone else who was struggling at the very same moment.

While it is true that man succumbs all too often to anger and avarice, he may yet overcome his baser instincts through the forming of bonds with others.

It always felt a little silly when it was presented in stories such as these. For what can a person do on their own? Walk on, her mind countered. Walk on and keep moving. For their sake.

Such victories are rarely won without sacrifice. But the prize is worth the price.

Syngigeim took a breath. Sacrifice. She wanted to stop. Wanted to stop and break into tears anew. She focused instead on the next spirit ahead of her, of the bridge she was coming up upon.

And we for our part are glad indeed to be able to welcome friends both old and new…

New. New friends. As of this point, she could only envision a faceless mass in front of her, in shadow. What would they be like? What were they doing at this moment? She reached the bridge of light.

Save your tears for the morrow. You may be sure we will have ample cause to shed them, be they for joy or for despair.

She gave a short snort at that. It was a little late for that but perhaps when this was over when journey’s end came, she could finally allow herself to feel it in full. “That she may find happiness at journey’s end…” she whispered.

From tragedy and sacrifice, we rise to greet a new dawn.

This place was a place where worlds ended. But she suddenly thought of the fact that day and night still came over those planets. The universe was destined to have all light vanish one day...but what caused life in the first place then? Questions yet unsolved.

A future shaped by the choices we made, in ways we could have never forseen.

Who would have thought that a search for a friend would end up to all of this? Lost, struggling in the dephs of despair, her mind countered. He’s still fighting, she counter-thought. Still fighting. Move on.

Yet miracles do happen. So let us pray, and will our friends home.

She gazed ahead. She was near the end of the bridge. There was a way to do just that...at the risk of undoing all of the protection she had.

I won’t stop praying until I know they’re safe.

Still, she’d find some way shouldn’t she? For amidst all of this loss, she kept a kernal of hope in her heart. The warmth she kept alive in her chest.

Strong art thou, mortal.

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Friendly reminder that airships exist and can be way cheeper than teleporting. This is from a teleport from Limsa Lomina versus taking the airship from it.

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My #1 post of 2022

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Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #so I should do more cool photosets in trust trials GOT IT!

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carboghetti · 5 years

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my guiding moonlight...

#final fantasy 14 #yotsuyu #ffxiv #ff14 #stormblood #digital art #my art #hhhhhh i just love her design #i hoped shed be happy at the end of stormblood

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entropic-introspection · 3 years

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Final Fantasy XIV: A Quick(ish) Summary As Told By Someone Too Lazy To Recheck Exact Times/Things

1.0- We don't talk about it

A Realm Reborn (ARR)- for some strange reason the world got like, completely blown up 5 years ago, crazy! You are some dumb kid from nowhere in particular, with nothing but the clothes on your back and a weapon that is little more than a chunk of wood, or a book. Possibly just your fists. You have got 50 levels and a shitload of lore to get through until you reach the first expansion.

Essentially: you don't have enough money for chicken nuggets, your fashion game is nonexistent, and every high level player calls you a sprout and exhibits Concern about your every action (they mean well).

Garlemald bad, Ascians bad, Eorzea uhhh trying to be good but kinda racist/capitalist/pirates with a history of colonialism, Coerthas is French Catholic and in the Crusades with the dragons. Hydaelin... good? Confusing, for sure, often referred to as Mother in text. Primals bad and scary, but fortunately you are immune to their mind-fuckery techniques thanks to Crystal Mom and surprisingly good at kicking their asses. Garleans mad that you ""savages"" keep killing Primals, despite having a whole mandate against Primals and Primal summoning. Ascians mad that you keep killing Primals because Ascians are dicks. People die, there is an amnesia plot, some annoying twerp is annoyingly right about a lot of things and also you can't get rid of him, Moogles, possession, fucking Ancient Aliens Allagans (if it's a problem in ARR, it's Ascians or Allagans aight), and hey ho you go and kick Garlean asses until they throw a giant machine at you that they stuffed full of Primal juice. Such devastation-!

Then there is the slightly post ARR stuff, where we're still level 50-ish but not really into the next expansion. So basically, we meet Dragon Dad who slaps Crystal Mom's blessing off of you to build character, Ascians are once again dicks, Who The Hell Names These Things, wow Lysanderoth you're definitely not suspicious at all, and our annoying twerp is dabbling in politics and for some reason you're getting fond of him?? Just in time for...

Heavensward (Lvl 50-60)- Congratulations, you are now an enemy of the state! We return/flee to French Catholic Coerthas/Ishgard, where we get to room with our Dear Friend, Haurchefant.

Don't mind how all the high leveled players have started crying. This expansion is emotionally devastating, has a great storyline, and also features canonical consensual dragon vore as a plot point. You know that tweet that's all "Church bad because they won't let you fuck dragons"? Yes, that's Heavensward. You will still cry. We embark on an epic road trip with the annoying twerp (ft his existential teenage crisis), a famous dragon killer and sadboi, and a famous lady who advocates peace/fucking dragons. Somehow, none of you kill each other. Instead, you murder a weirdly attractive bug-man with good music and a desire for violence, a giant flying whale, and some old dudes. You also beat up the same Ascian from the first bit, again. And again, in his final(?) form. Dragon Dad has come along to watch your progress, and also check on his kids cause he's actually, y'know, the entire progenitor of the dragon race. Wow! His family is very sad, mostly. But he does like you, so hey, he can adopt you and have one kid that turned out ok and happy! Hahahahha there's no therapists in Eorzea :')

Then we get to deal with "Hey we ended your like 500 year+ Crusade and kind of upended your social structures, y'all good?" (no), something something Warriors of Darkness, something something Urianger sus, then ALISAIE JOINS THE PARTY. I love her ok, let me have this. She's the annoying twerp's twin, and she's more inclined to hitting things that politics and philosophy. She's also kind of crushing on you. Also Minfillia kinda fucks off to nowhere, which is weird, b/c she has been Important but also Not Involved with the plot for like. 8 years.

Stormblood (Lvl 60-70)- Return of Lysanderoth! Briefly. Before he fucks you over, again. And a bunch of other people, honestly. But hey, this puts Eorzea in open contention with Garlemald for the first time in years, instead of them hovering in an uneasy cold war. For the first goddamn time in the game, you canonically get your ass kicked. Hard. So hard you decide fuck it! And go overseas to Fantasy Japan/China to visit some nice people you helped out earlier. You get catfished. You meet a weeb. There's some pirates, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There's Ravana take 2, this time in a slightly more 'Forever 21' phase. Wild, young, free, REJOICE.

You attempt to inspire rebellion (since your character doesn't talk much, this is quite difficult). Garleans crack down, and hey look, the dude who kicked your ass is back! Prince Zenos Yae Galvus, as by this point you've hopefully learned, even if you're bad with names like me. He kicks your ass again, but this time we break his helmet, and wait shit is he... kind of hot? Maybe? Fuck?? He pins you to a wall and tells you to find him later, it's all confusing and prompts strange butterflies in stomachs. (Side note: as a lesbian, I am making some assumptions here. Mostly based off of how I reacted to the idea of Tsukuyomi doing the same. Mm.)

Then he promptly fucks off, and to work off that sexual tension you square up and work with local friends on Rebellion! You get help from some neighboring nomads after proving you're cool enough to tame a bird, and this proves enough to free the area from Garlean control (for now). We go back to Eorzea, and prepare to kick Zenos' head in. He's playing hard to get though, so we gotta get through some other folks, learn hard lessons about war/colonization, and feel bad. AND THEN WE KICK HIS- oh no wait. Is he... coming on to us again? Oh jesus man, get a therapist, oh my god, this is awkward for us both. Turns out he's kinda depressed and just wants you. To fight him. To the death. There is some bullshittery and he becomes dragon. Fails to kill you, so he kills himself. (Spoiler: it doesn't stick)

The Garlean Empire is now pissed off at you, and Eorzea in general. Everyone is kung-fu fighting, but oops, Garlemald is preparing to commit ~war crimes~! Someone is doing something weird, which is making your Scion friends fall into comas, which is both very convenient and highly inconvenient, cause all of you are kinda needed right now! Zenos, or something in his body, is causing trouble as well. Look, even when we thought he was dead he was causing trouble.

Shadowbringers (Lvl 70-80): We find out what's been making our friends pass out- someone from another dimension has been trying to yoink you over to them, and like all attempts at using the Rescue spell, it just sometimes leads to hilarious accidents. In this case, some epic lag, so although your friends have only been out of it for a week or two at most, they've been in this other world for 5 whole years in some cases. Turns out, Garlean war crimes are all an Ascian plot (what isn't, by this point), and mysterious Crystal Exarch is hoping you can save this world and your own.

At this point, Yoshi P, the lead developer, pulls out a gun and asks if you've been doing all those side-quests and optional 48 man raids. He worked very hard on those, you know. He put in lots of lore. Then he asks if you remember all those dangling plot hooks from previous expansions. We're addressing a lot of those. And adding more. You are sweating and nodding frantically while scrolling a wiki on your phone.

You get to feel like you're in an Otome game, because there's two dudes being weirdly polite and interested in you, but also real snappish to each other in terms of "fuck off she's mine". Alisaie and Alphinaud off-screen character development. Urianger still sus. Thancred now a dad? Y'shtola still so good. A lot of things happen, and you get progressively sadder as the expansion goes on. You get a nice, great big burst of hope and love, and then SOMEONE is a DICK with a GUN. (It is not Yoshi P.)

Now you just feel bad. Your character feels bad. This is all build up for the A) some motherfucking revelations and B) the utter catharsis of "If you could take one more step... would you?" "What, all by myself?" "THROW WIDE THE GATE"

I have shed legitimate tears over Shadowbringers ok, between the music, story, and pacing it is an Experience. Oh my god tho, all the music from Shadowbringers is so good. La-HEE

#ffxiv #theres some spoilers in there but its all p nondescript #again: i aint checking exact facts here folks this is all in good fun

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voidsentprinces · 3 years

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I am seeing some weird defensiveness in the community lately so, I thought I’d write a little something up on my thoughts regarding it. Because though I love Final Fantasy XIV, my experience getting into it seems to begun to echo through the influx of WoW Refugees coming. So before I go forward let me say, I enjoy FFXIV. I think Shadowbringers is the best MMORPG story, I’ve ever been through. That being said, Heavensward was over hyped for me and Stormblood might be slightly worse than ARR for dividing its focusing among two separate revolutions. One which takes up a sizeable chunk of the game and doesn’t impact it until precisely the penultimate quest before the end of the main Stormblood MSQ. That being said, I have like 50 Million Alts and am planning an OC AU Comic to be posted eventually. With that out of the way let me say my peace:

I am glad, there is a surge of new players in FFXIV but like...ARR is still a hurdle. The story time meanders, it rarely finds focus and it feels very monster of the week up until the very end and not every player is going to wait or want to wait for that whole “It gets better later” spiel. If a game doesn’t grab a player within its first few hours, its its own fault. Another wave of new MMOs doing something different is on its way. Between New World and Ashes of Creation, the MMO Market is about to be bombarded with potential once more. After Endwalker, ARR is gonna have to be polished and shifted even more to compensate because the stagnation of the last twenty odd years ain’t cutting it no more. MMORPGs gonna have to sink or swim. No matter how much I like this game, I am not going to be writing home about how surprising the twist behind the ambush before Ifrit was. Or that same story beat is used in quick succession for Laurentius and again for Tiduslayer also being an imposter or for Thancred being possessed by Lahabrea or how it turns out the Inquisitor is also an imposter spy.

Like ARR has one twist beat and it is always that someone is a spy or isn’t who they say they are and it never refreshens it. By the end of Post-ARR its the same story beat they used for Ungust and that’s like Hours of Content that amounts to, “Yeah so, here’s another person who isn’t who they say they are.” Final Fantasy XIV is a fantastic game and all, but the incoming population shouldn’t be expected to stick around especially if we as community keep hyping up, “Oh it gets better in Heavensward” or “Oh Shadowbringers is where its at”. You set the expectations too high and they’re going to expect the second coming of Christ and as we saw with Cyberpunk 2077 or No Mans Sky or hell who remembers Spore? You put too much stock in something it is never, ever going to deliver on that promise.

I came to FFXIV during WoW Legion which is turning out to be the last good thing that MMO has done. And the grind, the overused story beats, and the world did not warm itself to me. It wasn’t until BFA that I actually broke into FFXIV and the only reason I broke through ARR is because I had already done the same thing with Dark Souls. A game about banging your head against a wall until it submits itself in defeat out of pity. Pretty sure general population didn’t get into Dark Souls either.

Point is, I am starting see a lot of defensiveness when a WoW Refugee comes over and isn’t instantly enamored with FFXIV and goes to try something else. If someone is turned off by something and goes to do something else they aren’t worst for it and they didn’t personally break into your house and steal your pets. They’re giving valid criticisms as to why it just didn’t connect with them. No one should have to get use to a look or a story. The story and look should be there to draw them in. Serve as a way to hook them and if it doesn’t there is little you can do about it.

And actually now that I think of it, I feel the need to quote a game critic talking about Dark Souls that I feel holds true for FFXIV experience and how the community seems to have to hint at it getting better at certain story beats later on:

“Now, I never reviewed Dark Souls because other titles were out and my playtime was limited, and every time I sat down to it, it was like walking into a dark shed full of rakes, immediately treading on one and getting blatted in the face. Other people with more time on their hands started telling me it was the greatest thing since tummy-rubs, so I'd go back in the shed thinking, "Well, maybe there was just the one rake," before BLAT in the face again!

So I left it for a while, but this week with plenty of free time in my schedule, I thought to myself, "Last chance! I'll just keep tanking the rakes and maybe I'll somehow become really psychotically into being rake-faced just in time to be prepared for the sequel." And I'll be blatted in the face with a rake if that isn't kind of what happened. I've been raking myself all week right up to bedtime, I'm at risk of going blind!

You see, I resisted Dark Souls partly because people kept telling me, "It's good once you're used to it" and I've always held that the same thing can be said about being boiled alive, so I'd ask them to explain why it's good and they'd reply, "Ooh, we can't tell you. You'll just have to find out for yourself." And then I'd say, "Shut up or fuck off, ideally both, in either order!" But then after watching a decent Lets Play of the game, gone over the wiki a few times and a six week preparation with a team of advisors and physical trainers, I was able to break through the wall. And I suppose that's the first failing of Dark Souls; that you need the fucking Cliff's Notes to get into it.”

Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn treads the same road and is unfortunately the entry point in the series and not everyone is built to do the grind all over again after coming from another MMO. Heavensward is an okay story, the aether currents if you’re not an altoholic like me are irritating to track down especially if, like me, you pick up flying to finish exploring a zone. Stormblood leaves much to be desired from the way it sort of forces Lyse down your throat to the way Hien just sort of goes about thing a little too pragmatically to be called a hero and doesn’t enamor any more confidence during Yotsuyu’s amnesia arc. Shadowbringers is the moment the story becomes about you. Which is kind of strange in the context that an MMO should make you feel like you are the central character and WoW’s greatest failing is in that the world changes about you and you have little say in how things actually unfold. It is a difficult balance to find but one Shadowbringers has done beautifully.

But again, to have to drag yourself through a two expansions to get to the actual goods while having the ever present need of FOMO to be with your friends. ARR certainly isn’t doing the influx any favors.

I am happy our community is welcoming and that there is a sizeable group of people sticking with it til the good stuff. To expect everyone to immediately become entranced by this new world we’re being thrown into is a little silly.

I am sure no one I follow or who can see this is causing an uproar but hey it never hurts to just get it out my system. Oh hey and there’s only 3 months until Endwalker. Here’s hoping for another solid expansion folks. Be excellent to one another even those who only stick around for five minutes and then leave the game for something else.

#{ words from beyond }#{ long post }

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