The Man in Black drove across Thanalan, and the Machinist Followed

Hey so points for trying to make that work at least right? no? alrighty then. A swing and a Miss. Now here is an event that i'm pleased to say held up. A lot of the events in XIV during Stormblood has been pretty lacklustre and while this one is pretty late for its intended cross over with a game from two years ago its still been a fun event. Its been a long time since i took multiple screenshots and recorded video to remember the event.

 First off you can breath a sigh of relief. This is not just another dull Fate grind like Lightnings was. There is a fate where you fight Magitek Troops -or MT's- but you need do to it 3 times tops, it takes like 30 seconds to beat and nets you a currency to buy 6 Orchestrion rolls of what most would agree are the best tracks from the FFXV soundtrack. After that? shockingly its a short but enjoyable single player questline instead!

The story was simple enough. The Warrior of Light runs into a certain Lucian Prince broken down at the side of the road in Thanalan and introduces him to Cid -but not the Cid Noctis is expecting of course- to repair the Regalia. In the meantime you and Noctis investigate reports of things from Eos invading Eorzea. At first its just Magitek from Niffleheim but as nightfalls you get the first solo duty fight against a Demon, Eos' version of Voidsent for those who havent' played FFXV. Its a simple fight is smoked as RDM but tried again as BLU and while it took a little longer was still pretty easy but it was fun. After that you go camping and fishing as Noctis explores the shroud looking for something to tell the boys back home about. He even stops for a photo opportunity with you. Really, that actually happens.
 The real fun comes after that when reports come in of the MT's attacking the Ixal in the North Shroud and this drove them to summon Garuda. Only for them to run in fear when it is "like our goddess, but is not out goddess!" as the Astral of the same name from Eos shows up, following the power of the King of Lucis to this shard from their own.

Honestly this fight is fun and its a shame we can't redo this one. Its a rework of the ARR Gardua fight but instead of using a close to the middle ring of stacked stones for cover you use an action move, in this case the blink strike from temporarily being given the power of a Kingsglaive from Noctis, and you blink around and link strike with Noctis for big damage. Honestly if i wasn't playing a RDM with Corps-a-Corps this probably would have seemed cooler than it felt but it was still pretty great.
 You beat XV Garuda and she says Noctis passed this trial and its time to return home, just as Cid pulls up in a repaired Regalia. Noctis says his goodbyes and everyone gets a brief vision of a woman in white calling him home. He rides off into the sunset so to speak with a promise of 'lets meet again someday' and you end the brief side story with a new outfit, the Kingsglaive title and a trip to the Golden Saucer to drop 200,000 MGP on a G-Type Regalia for your troubles!

Overall i liked the event and i'm not even that big a fan of FFXV in terms of the whole series of mainline titles. It even made me contemplate reinstalling it to finish the DLC but not quite enough to bring me to do it.
 I think in retrospect i enjoyed this one more probably because it was delayed. Because lets be real these cross overs are advertisements at the end of the day. They are to sell a product. This one was just stuck in dev hell much like the game its trying to cross promote so came at a time long after the games a current product on the new release shelf to be shilled. For Lightning, granted i cannot stand her character as Toriyamas tulpa waifu insert, the event felt cynical as it was right around the time Lightning Returns came out and so it felt more like an invasive advert getting in your fantasy MMORPG.
 This like the FFXI events were years after the fact so were more of a 'hey i know that track' or 'they name dropped the thing, i know that reference!' type stuff that gets a smile and a prize. Personally i see the odd rare Lightning cosplay once in a blue moon but when did you last see anyone use the weapons from her event? years? ever? this feels like we will be seeing Regalias in regular mount rotation for a long time and the orchestrion music is already in the rotation at my Free Company house so clearly it did something right.

 In general if i have one complaint its that the event made me want to play FFXV again right until a brief glimpse of Lunafreya showed up to remind me what an absolute mess of a game FFXV is and that its not really worth the trouble.

So yeah like i said at the start "A swing and a miss" with its intended purpose.

 But points for trying though right?

A Nocturne for Heroes: FFXIV X FFXV

 Well this one has been a long time coming hasn't it? over 2 years since its release in November all the way back in 2016, and boy thats flown by hasn't it?, FFXIV is finally having the crossover with the last mainline single player entry in the franchise. A little bittersweet since the actual release of FFXV was kind of a hot mess in some ways. The game launched pretty unfinished, the had to patch in scenes from the movie Kingsglaive to try and explain events, the story goes nowhere then falls apart trying to wrap up a story that barely began, strange wastes of time and money on things like an Assassins' Creed tie in and generally trying to be this "jrpg as a service" that helped contribute to a colossal multi million dollar loss for the companies fiscal year that saw the games future content cancelled and the creative director left or was let go from the company. So not only has general interest in the game as the new hotness faded but in general its taken a place for some as the new worst entry in the mainline series that for most was held, depending on who you asked, by FFXIII or FFIII.

 So just like Lightning showing up in Eorzea was met with groans as it was used to advertise what rumours suggested was a Valkyria Profile sequel -something fans of that series have been crying out for for years that got reworked because FFXIII's production overproduced assetts that needed to be flipped to make a profit while Agito XIII came out as the forgotten on release FF Type - 0 and 'Versus XIII' was considered dead until it would later be reworked into the frankensteins monster of a title FFXV limped out of a loooong production hell- with Episode Ardyn seeing the finale of the whole disastrous "Project Fabula Nova Crystalis" the connotations to FFXV and Noctis showing up might seem less like enjoyable fan service and more of a reminder that the single player games in the mainline series haven't really been good since XII and haven't been truly exceptional since IX back in like 1999.

 Not that groans and eyerolls at another failed mascot will put people off chasing a flying car thats a four player mount right?

 What we know so far is that the event starts next Reset. Outside the Immortal Flames Gand Company building you will find an NPC named 'Kipih Jakkya' who starts the quest "The Man in Black". You need to be lvl.50 and completed the Ultima Weapon questline ending with the fight against Lahabrea at the end of A Realm Reborns pre inital credits roll MSQ. All we know so far is from the trailer. You fight the Imperial Soldiers and mechs, do some camping and fight a different form of Garuda. The camping suggests that this might not all be farming the same two fates for tokens like Lightnings event was.
 The rewards shown thus far are Noctis' outfit, his hairstyle, his Triple Triad Card, half a dozen Orchestrion scrolls and of course the Car Mount which rumours suggest has been datamined to cost 200,000 MGP at the Manderville Golden Saucer. Personally i'm sitting on nearly 500k as i work my way through the last couple of things i dont have but i just save it from the super easy challenge log stuff. It probably won't be that hard to get during the event and i imagine it was made in such a way returning players can easily get it, maybe as part of the event the MGP buff comes back or something?

 Personally i like the mount well enough, we already have Clouds Motorcycle, a Magitek Walker AND Claw to fly around on so at least this actually has a flying mode compared to the Bike or the bloody Elephant from the Ananta! i am surprised there thus far doesn't appear to be any weapons though. The Engine blade is kind of a bland, forgettable weapon but they tried to push it in a bunch of stuff the year after release like in Nier Automata and a boatload of Square Enix owned Gacha Mobile Games.

 All in all i'm predicting a lot of foot traffic at the golden saucer for many, i know a few people who took long breaks coming back just for this, but also thing those of us who have the MGP already will breeze through the quest. So if its time limited and not something like monster hunter i'll take some screenshots, maybe record some footage and then back to the usual routine.


 I swear i'll get Paladin to cap by Shadowbringers! Maybe.

JP Fanfest 'we can't use the 'before the Storm' puns this time' Edition

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4.56 The conclusion of the Stormblood Story

 aaaaand its finished already. Did you blink? you may have missed it then. I kid but i logged in, got the 'put time aside for this' message and was expecting another ARR/HW 2+ hour deal. Instead we get two solo duty fights and a little bit of exposition and then credits. Unsurprisingly this left people a little down going "was that it?" but honestly i was expecting this considering the nature of the ending this time.
 Spoilers for those who didn't attend or watch the JP fan fest stream -which i will be writing about after this post- but Shadowbringers begins with our character using something related to the Crystal Tower to make the jump to another of the shard worlds created by Hydaelyn, the First in fact. So no long trip running from Uldah to Ishgard on the lamb, no waiting for the Ala Mihgan resistance and the whole Shinryu deal to go down. We are going in direct continuity from the end of Stormblood where we wake up in Ishgards Chirugeon's ward to grouping up with the Scions at Rising Stones to go find the way to the First. I'm sure in the future when its not during the awkward waiting period it will flow well and have a sense of immediacy to the urgency. You finally get a lead on whats been afflicting the other Scions and its time to jump on it and continue trying to solve the mystery! For now? we wait. Finish off levelling jobs, clear Eureka if you want, do the side quests and the FFXV tie in event when it hits. We still have stuff to do but for a story heavy game like a mainline Final Fantasy it is going to leave some people feeling like the waiting period came too quick. Personally i found it short, but i understand why.

 As for the MSQ itself? well no shocks here we beat up Elidibus/Ze-not just like in the Shadowbringers trailer but then that creepy Echoe like effect occurs mid battle and strikes you down. Before you can be killed by "Zenos" however you black out. When your character wakes up you are greeting to a scene right out of kingdom hearts including an appearance by a character whos design may as well come from there as well. A hooded man with a crystallised arm tells you that oblivion is coming wether you win or lose the war with Garlemald and the only path to salvation is through him. He has left a 'Beacon' at the Crystal Tower for you to find. You wake in Ishgard to be informed by Ser Amyeric that Estinien showed up to save you, which we get shown in a single still image which honestly seemed a little lazy, and then you return to the Rising Stones where Tataru and the gang welcome you and set off to the Crystal Tower to find this Beacon and 'Open the Gate' to the First.

 What do you mean "and thats it?" well mostly. There is a final scene back in the throne room in Garlemald. The emperor, those suspicious as hell twin bodyguards we fought in the last dungeon and Zenos are there alone. An uprising of sorts is starting due to the rumours of a demon possessing the heir to the thrones body and the Emperor "will not fight for the throne a second time". They also mention that curiously Solus, scene chewer de jour, is absent with neither the Emperor nor the Ascian knowing where he is and assuming he is 'using this chaos as an opportunity for his own ends'. The scene ends with the chief scientist making a return to confirm the Black Rose is ready to begin production again. Ending with a strange fade to black and static close up on a manic Emperor reminiscent of Kefka and Spehiroth to a lesser degree. Wether this was to show his internal, hidden feelings or to suggest some form of mania or possibly even some form of multiple personality syndrome we can't say for sure but it was a bit of a jarring shot to end the expansion on as the very, very long credits roll for a good 20+ minutes after this shot.

Finally for the after credits we see Zenos aka 'EleZenos' cut down a Garlemald soldier and look at the flag nearby to state it is "time to reclaim what is rightfully mine", his body or the throne or both we don't know while lamenting that he missed meeting "his friend" again and hopes we "grow more savage" on our jaunt on another world. Finally our character stands on a hill and stares up at the Crystal Tower and a closing comment of "Sow the Seeds of darkness" marks the end of Stormblood, along with Tataru giving you the most Edgelord outfit for a none DRK player since the Void Ark raid gear sets were the in thing.

Combined with the events of 4.5 i mentioned a little while ago my overall opinion remains the same. I am interesting in where its going, i find the increasingly cartoony jumps to make the Emperor evil shallow and a bit of a bruteforcing that wasn't needed. I'm glad we didn't get a character death just for dramas sake as i was honestly expecting them to try another Hauchefant with Hien at the end but thankfully they avoided that one.
 So all in all the main story quest of Stormblood was fine. Not exceptional, not emotional like Heavensward was to a lot of people but just fine. Not quite the usual standard we expect from the team overall but i've said many times that trying to fit two major stories into one really seems like its been a detriment from the outside looking in. The characters were likeable and the world building was great but i would be lying if the minor trip back to Ishgard to see the Heavensward characters wasn't much more impactful than anything related to the current story, for me at least.

Beyond the main quest we have the Beast tribe finale, the Hildibrand Finale and the associated Trial to round off the expansions wrap up phase. The Beast Tribe questline involves Hancock inviting the Ananta to Kugane, no doubt for some kind of trade deal, with you dragged along to be a tour guide of sorts but naturally for this series a familiar face shows up to ruin everything. You know the drill. Its a greatest hits victory lap, though in this case the animation kind of outdoes the MSQ finale honestly.
 Then we have the finale of a certain Manderville Man's latest investigation. To this point i have felt like Hildibrand has kind of been on a declining level of entertainment since A Realm Reborn. I still get the odd chuckle but you can tell this was something they wanted to do once and it was just so popular, which is understandable, that they are not feeling forced into doing it and it kind of shows at times. This time around the culmination of the questline honestly feels longer than the MSQ did for this half of the update. The Yojimbo trial was fun, effectively a remix of two earlier trials but felt like it was over very fast compared to the other trial fights this expansion. Story wise i got some laughs out of it and overall i think this storyline held up better than the GiGi storyline of Heavensward which felt like late in Development they decided to rush a Hildebrand questline out because they noticed how popular he became during A Realm Reborn. This time around it felt a bit more planned out and varied plus it gave us more time in Kugane which adds to it overall and its a shame we didn't get more stuff in Rahlgrs Reach the same way as the expansion went on. But some Thavnair interaction was neat and the ending to it was a real "oooh, thats how they are setting the next one up" moment that was a nice nod back to FFV.

Overall it was a brief maybe 4 hours of new gameplay content but with the expansion over its really just tying up loose ends at this point. It still feels like Ultima was the finale of the expansion and this is just set up with little actual shock value compared to things like Nanamo and Papalymo's events in the past.

But i guess thats Stormblood over and done. Still got one more job to get from 60 to 70 and some cleaning house on a couple of side things before i call it all done and dusted and give it a write up but hey we still have the FFXV event to go before we are truly done with Stormblood so still a little to go before we are waiting around for Shadowbringers eh?