While I definitely have enjoyed the content we have gotten in Final Fantasy XIV’s latest patch so far, it’s also very decidedly an x.1 patch so far. The custom delivery client isn’t here yet, Manderville quests aren’t here yet, and a good chunk of the content is for people still getting their feet underneath them. Basically, this is a roundabout way of saying that what I find most interesting in this particular patch at this time is more about the stories than the content itself. A new dungeon and a new weekly objective is nice, but it’s not the most engaging part.
As for what the story actually delivers, though, it’s decidedly… odd in various ways, although I don’t mean that broadly as a negative for the most part. It’s something best enumerated in more detail, so I’ll jump into that directly, but before we go on it’s important to note that there will be spoilers in here. If you haven’t finished the MSQ or other quest lines, this is your time to back out to avoid spoilers. Got it? Got it.
Mommy issues
The funny thing about the MSQ is that the majority of its runtime is devoted to a gigantic plot dead end with Gulool Ja, which is something that sounds like a complaint about how it’s structured. But it really isn’t. It’s just a description. This is a whole plot that resolves without anything materially changing for any characters, including Gulool Ja’s place in the world. And that’s followed by another plot dead end with Koana!
Now, let’s be clear about something: I like these decisions. I think that learning more about Koana is a good thing, and this entire episode highlights something that I think a lot of people miss about his characterization in the base MSQ, which is that Koana’s high-minded intellectualism is a very deliberate tempering of his hot-blooded nature. (As I mentioned during columns about the story, the fact that there was a lot of ground to cover means that some things don’t get a lot of space to be fleshed out.) And I think that Gulool Ja’s mother arc actually wraps up perfectly because it doesn’t resolve.
Seriously, hearing his line toward the end? “But sometimes things don’t work out, no matter how hard you try.” Absolutely ruinous, and a perfect coda for what was a minor narrative curiosity about his heritage that lends more weight to his personal loss and tragedy even as nothing materially changes.
That’s what I mean by calling this a plot dead end. No one’s characterization is altered by the end, no one’s personality changes, and no circumstances alter. The big revelation that alters everything is what comes after all of that, when suddenly Sphene is back but obviously it isn’t her, if for no other reason than we clearly have another Sphene in Living Memory.
An obvious implication here, of course, would be that one of the remaining Ascians is impersonating her, but that doesn’t explain either the apparent additional version that runs into Shale and Y’shtola, nor does it explain why she glitches the electrope at one point. Heck, it doesn’t even explain what she’s trying to do, which seems malicious but at this point has no obvious consequences.
So what’s going on here? I honestly feel comfortable just saying we don’t have enough information yet. I have a feeling this will ultimately tie into the next expansion, but right now we just don’t know what’s going on. What we do know is that there is now a material threat in place moving forward for 7.2 to deal with.
Memories of Jeuno
I did not have Sareel Ja on my list of returning antagonists, but I find it even more interesting that Sareel Ja is very explicitly sending us on a tour of the game here. In previous crossover raids there’s been either an explicit crossover or an effort to integrate the concepts, but here? It’s just outright stated that Vana’diel is somewhere out there, he saw it, now he’s inspired to do stuff with it and that’s all there is to it. I don’t feel like it’s explicitly stated that it’s one of the reflections, but it’s kept vague enough that it could be.
Beyond that, while the story thus far seems a bit weird and shaggy, it seems well-constructed to give us plenty of excuses to just marinate in elements of the original game without trying to repurpose antagonists. This is a good thing. You don’t need to know why the Shadow Lord or the Ark Angels or whatever are dangerous, but you accept that they are; this is probably the right call as a whole.
In fact, based on Sareel Ja’s stated goals, if anything I’m left wondering about who else is going to show up. Promathia feels like a shoo-in for the final boss (and well-suited based on the story) but it’s going to be harder to sort out all the other bosses that haven’t shown up elsewhere. Eald’narche, Pandemonium Warden, Ma’at… those all feel reasonable. But most of the bosses from Treasures of Aht Urhgan exist elsewhere in FFXIV; ditto the big endgame of Abyssea, and I don’t feel as if Wings of the Goddess will get as much of a pop. So it remains to be seen.
Still, it’s engaging enough as a diversion, and I appreciate that it’s a straightforward case of an antagonist who is bad doing a bad thing that we as players need to stop. If we don’t do that, bad things happen. The setup is clear.
Pelu-ted
Unfortunately, the Pelupelu quests have exactly the problem that made me less than enthusiastic about having them as an allied society. The Pelupelu are, thankfully, not another attempt to do the Namazu again; I appreciate that. But the problem is that you don’t really have anywhere to go with them. They’re just portrayed as decent merchants who are willing to spend money to make money.
And it’s compounded by the fact that Liplu is not an outlier for her people. She’s not unique. She saw a different business opportunity, but that opportunity mostly is dealing with the Hanuhanu, the Moblins, and the bandits in the area – which are all not terribly interesting but also not Pelupelu. Instead of learning about societies we don’t know about, we’re getting Pelupelu quests that tell us nothing we don’t already know about the Pelupelu (or Hanuhanu et al) and one that doesn’t have a lot of narrative momentum.
That doesn’t mean the story is agonizing or anything; it just feels like kind of a mulligan. It would probably bother me less if we didn’t have several other societies in Tural that seem way more interesting and, like, actually have space to explore. I know, we’ve got crafting and gathering to fill things out, but I’m less than enthusiastic about the first one being a solid base hit instead of aiming for the stands.
Feedback, as always, is welcome in the comments down below or via mail to eliot@massivelyop.com. Next week is actually going to be a bit different, because as you saw, I moved a column about the mobile version into last Friday’s spot, but that was actually half of another column that I rewrote to be specifically about the mobile version. The other half still has some good stuff in there, though, so I’m going to spin that into its whole column. And what’s that about? Oh, bad fandom misconceptions about budget. Should be fun.
The Nymian civilization hosted an immense amount of knowledge and learning, but so much of it has been lost to the people of Eorzea. That doesn’t stop Eliot Lefebvre from scrutinizing Final Fantasy XIV each week in Wisdom of Nym, hosting guides, discussion, and opinions without so much as a trace of rancor.
