Final Fantasy XIV - Kiwi Free Company

[Dopey Cunt]

My only problem with Vauthry is that after he turns hot, he still keeps his fat guy voice and it's kind of jarring lmao

 

[Ravana]

I finally checked Eureka off my list of things to finally do. Played ball with the BA discord and got in a party and an easy Ozma mount too,

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I mean, they could've just as easily included the Crystal Exarch as a Trust more frequently instead. He can already be every single role, including a Tank. It'd just take some narrative tweaking so he isn't stuck sitting in the Crystal Tower all day and has even more of an active role in the proceedings of things.

While true, Crystal Exarch's whole shitck in the story is him being a enigmatic figure who knows way more than he probably should and is meant to keep the player questioning him. So if you use him too much in order to replace Thancred, than he loses some of that mystique if you retool him to be able to just walk outside the Crystal Tower that also means we need to force reasons why he needs to stay around without then asking a question of "why can't the WoL just fix this?" unless you force a hard time limit on the whole plot to keep things on the move. I think Crystal Exarch being in just lakeland's dungeon is fine to give him enough to do while keeping his whole enigmatic thing functional

I think the better idea without much narrative rigging would be to let Alisaie flex into dps or tank (she's used Gladiator animations before), so Thancred being the only tank doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. It also adds to the synergy of Alisaie and Alphinaud, because Alisaie is a more combat gifted person so she can do more roles, while Alphinaud is not and he can heal his sister. If Y'shtola and Urianger can class change entirely, than Alisaie can flex to tank or dps.

My only problem with Vauthry is that after he turns hot, he still keeps his fat guy voice and it's kind of jarring lmao

I believe it is supposed to contrast his normal look and be a "beauty is only skin deep" thing. I think it fits him with the slight voice filter he gets to make him have more presence.

 

[Gravemind]

While true, Crystal Exarch's whole shitck in the story is him being a enigmatic figure who knows way more than he probably should and is meant to keep the player questioning him. So if you use him too much in order to replace Thancred, than he loses some of that mystique if you retool him to be able to just walk outside the Crystal Tower that also means we need to force reasons why he needs to stay around without then asking a question of "why can't the WoL just fix this?" unless you force a hard time limit on the whole plot to keep things on the move. I think Crystal Exarch being in just lakeland's dungeon is fine to give him enough to do while keeping his whole enigmatic thing functional

Granted, it doesn't have to be for every single time that a Tank's necessary that the Crystal Exarch should've also been an option. You could just as easily have had story beats where Thancred is gone for some time and unavailable for an upcoming dungeon, maybe for more dramatic reasons, and the Crystal Exarch shows up to lend his assistance as needed instead.

But then again, Thancred's involvement as a Tank never meant anything to me because I main tanks. He could've easily been gone for longer, especially after the showdown in Amh Araeng, and I certainly wouldn't have noticed anything different.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Spoiler: epic reddit lore shit, spoilers implied

Personally those little side-stories are part of the adventure if you want to better define what is worth fighting for

The intro arc of ShB does a good job of establishing this, because it sets up the players of the new world, the general situation, and then gives you a personal story at the asylum and Eulmore that set the stakes, introduce the antagonists, and set a great tone. The factions that get introduced in the forest are almost totally pointless, "thanks for the rock you cured my alcoholism" is fucking stupid, and "actually everyone here wasn't acting out of warped hedonistic self-interest, they were MIND CONTROLLED" is retarded.

Selch is the only positive note in that entire section, and even then he's tarnished because they just can't -wait- to revive Y'shtola. Again. Obviously none of the main cast will ever die at this rate, but couldn't you have waited, I dunno, until a little later on to do it?

Thancred being a trust npc and the only tank there really hampers what they can do with him

Then they shouldn't have yet another fakeout section where 'o noes is thancred dead???' is the entirety of the emotional gravity, because it's just annoying when he shows up later and goes 'haha o yea close one buddy'
I have also never once run a trust or with NPCs.

I don't think Y'shtola gets redone more so that she was just a really bland sassy female character from the start

I liked her in HW, because she was sassy, headstrong, competent, and intelligent. She slips into the aetherstream because it's an absolute last-resort, and it nicely blends her brash nature with her wealth of knowledge. Her becoming blind was originally a nice touch to compensate for that recklessness, except that at some point that detail just gets forgotten about and if anything she sees even better than before because a different writer took over for a bit.

She vanishes for much of SB and then in SHB she's written as if every single player thinks she's just the coolest ever, and most of her 'witty' moments come off like Whedonisms. The whole section with the poison and there being only one antidote is fucking tripe - Ran'jit magically catches up to them in forests and temples that haven't been explored in thousands of years, Y'shtola is conveniently wholly unharmed by jumping into the aetherstream again, Ran'jit magically survives and also magically knows where the player is going and cuts them off... Like, compare how Ysh'tola behaves in Aumarot to how she behaves in this middle section, if you remember. It has to be two completely different writers.

Since when the fuck was Vauthry himself ever captivating? He was always as generic as generic gets.

Remember when you go into Eulmore for the first time, and Vauthry's entire shtick is that he provides peace and stability? "The world is doomed, and nothing will change that, so wouldn't it be better to stop struggling and just enjoy your final moments?" Vauthry offers an actual logic and reasoning to his actions that makes some degree of sense, particularly since up until your appearance, no-one has made any real headway against the sin eaters for hundreds of years. He offers peace, stability, and sustenance in the world's twilight years - even if you don't get let into the city, people willingly emigrate to the slums for their stability. Stability and safety over freedom and struggle. This comes off the back of I LIKE SWORDS, although lo and behold if you give based ShB lady Zenos, she understands to turn him into a foil for the player-character rather than how he was presented in SB, where the writer just thought his fat ass would be really really cool

Ran'jit's "story" seemed like it was supposed to play off of this - years and years of seeing people he cared for fruitlessly throw themselves at an unstoppable host giving birth to nihilism and fatalism - but it feels like they cut out all of his character development so we could have amazon bunnies, furry hippies, and dig for some rocks to help a guy through bereveament in two hours. Vauthry offers succor to the hopeless, because his system makes the most sense to them. The people of Eulmore are there willingly, because they are complicit in this hopelessness and agree that if the world's ending, they're gonna have a good time while it does. This Vauthry actually contrasts quite nicely with the primary antagonist, Selch, who against all odds has himself refused to give up on his own hope even in the face of his world already having ended.

...then actually that's all a lie, they've been mind controlled the entire time! No-one would really think those things! Vauthry wasn't himself convinced that the world was ending and that he would shepherd his people into oblivion, nor was he making an actual appeal to people who had been beaten into apathy - he was just some crazy plot contrivance who thought he was a GOD and wanted to be a GOD and he's not mad that you're potentially condemning his people into pointless suffering, he's mad because you're getting in the way of him being a GOD. It goes from a somewhat-middling contemplation on learned helplessness to the absolute worst of JRPG shounen writing in the snap of a finger.

Why do you guys want your hands held so badly?

All of the other vendors for end-game stuff are up there at the counter in Eulmore. The 510-520 augmentation one is sitting completely apart from them in the middle of the big ballroom, with not a lot to suggest that's the place you can cheaply get a massive 10 ilevel boost for a few days' worth of roulettes.

 

[Gravemind]

All of the other vendors for end-game stuff are up there at the counter in Eulmore. The 510-520 augmentation one is sitting completely apart from them in the middle of the big ballroom, with not a lot to suggest that's the place you can cheaply get a massive 10 ilevel boost for a few days' worth of roulettes.

Unless you actually look into it. Which is as simple as talking to NPCs, seeing what they offer, and then connecting the dots from there. Hell, I knew those NPCs were involved very early on back when I looked into Neo-Ishgardian gear.

As for the story spoilers, I could sperg out pretty hard on why I disagree with you, but it once again boils down to a simple matter of conflicting subjectivity. I, for one, had Vauthry pretty dead to rights on his characterization from the very earliest moments of the expansion, and this is bearing in mind that the only thing I had been even remotely spoiled on when it came to Shadowbringers was the final boss fight and the ending, so it came as absolutely no surprise that he amounted to little else than an entitled rich kid powertripping on delusions of grandeur and self-righteousness. Hedonistic despotism usually tends to go that route.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

Unless you actually look into it. Which is as simple as talking to NPCs, seeing what they offer, and then connecting the dots from there. Hell, I knew those NPCs were involved very early on back when I looked into Neo-Ishgardian gear.

So everyone knows about that, and no-one at all is sitting unnecessarily in 510 gear thinking the only next step is the 520 cryptlurker? No, most people wouldn't know if they didn't get told about it by some guide or other they looked up.
If you just moved them to the same area as the other NPCs that offer the same thing, that's enough of hand-holding. I just see the guy selling Cryptlurker gear, who looks like all of the Poetics vendors I've interacted with before me, and I assume the natural progression is from crafted 510 -> Crypt 520.

Hedonistic despotism usually tends to go that route.

Yeah, that's the hack writing route. The boring and plain one where you're just working with tropes, which is why I think the second act is trash in the same way the Eden storyline made my physically ill.

Spoiler: how to un-fuck his arc's conclusion

Vauthry is haughty and egotistical because he feels he's providing real peace and stability through his dictatorship, but still maintains that the player-character is offering false hope. His people are not suffering pointlessly, and he feels the end is genuinely inevitable. He believes he must institute his own harsh, warped, twisted form of justice to keep order, for order flows from him. The fact that Eulmore is thriving, and that people from all over the world throng for a chance to enter it, are his vindication. He genuinely believes that you are wrong and he is right - that's all you need.

'I am salvation from suffering, thus I am justice' is enough, because the broader setting of Eulmore the first time you run into it really is the city partying at the end of the world. It reflects real-world dictatorships, at least just slightly. The second time you run into it, everyone is a mind-controlled zombie and actually would never willingly choose to participate in something so heinous and evil!

The WoL doesn't know what absorbing all the light will actually do, and even if the First really can be saved - have Vauthry try to cut away at your resolve by contrasting his own egotistical behavior with what he frames as the player's: elongating the inevitable death of the world, promising scores of people a false hope that they will needlessly struggle and die for, all out of a belief that -you- are the savior of the world? How is it any different than Vauthry in its egotism, if you can even just slightly entertain the possibility that the other guy might really believe what he's saying and might even be right?
The WoL in the end is still the good guy, and the people of the world themselves -want- to struggle, even pointlessly, but that lingering question of 'don't you yourself have a savior complex?' plays into the budding Hydaelen-Zodiark WoL-Zenos foil theme. Rather than 'yeah that vauthry was one bad dude, moving on'

 

[Gravemind]

So everyone knows about that, and no-one at all is sitting unnecessarily in 510 gear thinking the only next step is the 520 cryptlurker? No, most people wouldn't know if they didn't get told about it by some guide or other they looked up.

That's exactly my point and subsequent criticism about this explicit desire for hand-holding even for a very simplistic feature of the game. I even previously outlined how you could go about attaining this information for yourself outside of having to look up an online reference or asking around, but there's not a single thing wrong with having to do either of those things in an MMO experience either.

Spoiler

You seem to be completely overlooking multiple factors here. First, that we already know for a fact that saving Norvrandt is good for literally everyone else, not only in the First and the Source, but across all reflections that aren't already fucked like the Thirteenth (which could potentially get reversed in a number of years as we've recently come to find out), because we've known since 2.x, at least to some extent, that the Rejoining is bad for literally everyone. To have this fat fuck suddenly develop enough self-awareness and humility to even think to question whether we're truly in the right is something anyone in their right mind would laugh in his stupid gunt face since we already know the score and have an inkling of the consequences of our failure. As long as the Light doesn't COMPLETELY flood over the First, it can be saved. G'raha Tia surely wouldn't have gone through the trouble of bringing everyone over if that wasn't the case, same with Hydaelyn actively STOPPING the initial Flood from progressing any further.

It also seems like you're overlooking the fact that all of Vauthry failings and your solutions to them are already handled by Amaurot, Emet-Selch, and Elidibus over the course of the entirety of Shadowbringers' full story. It'd be dumb if we were asked, "How do YOU know what you're doing is actually right for Norvrandt?" because, once again, we've long since had a very clear idea of what failure portends. What we didn't know was why, exactly, the Ascians were so keen on causing the Rejoining until Emet-Selch finally explained everything to us. It's a lot more poignant when the stakes of our success means the doom of the unfortunate survivors who came before us. We're actually, in-game, left asking ourselves if what we did was the right thing after all by the time we actually stop Elidibus, so the writing you wanted IS actually there – it's just not coming from the character and framework you wanted it to come from, because it wouldn't have made a damn lick of sense coming from Vauthry's ass.

I'm also not sure why, exactly, Eden would make you ill when it's demonstrating that restoring the rest of the First IS actually possible and doable. The only thing that ended up being cringe to me about the whole raid was the continual gay girlfriend gay so gay best friends girlfriends gay between Ryne and Gaia, and that, at the end, everything ended up being a ploy by Gaia's spurned Ascian ex-boyfriend who just wants her back and to forget about her gay lesbian girlfriends gay with Ryne. Even though the ploy ended up actually helping to restore the aetherial balance to the First anyway.

 

[John Titor]

Do you not read tooltips?

Yes? When I see it's called Crypt Twine, my instinct is "it must be a crafting mat". Since there's no associated recipe, I figured out it's an exchange item and thought I would find it at the Crystarium because it mentioned the Crystalline Mean and not Eulmore. It was just luck that I figured out how to do the Augmentation stuff by checking out everything the merchants were selling.

 

[Gravemind]

Yes? When I see it's called Crypt Twine, my instinct is "it must be a crafting mat". Since there's no associated recipe, I figured out it's an exchange item and thought I would find it at the Crystarium because it mentioned the Crystalline Mean and not Eulmore. It was just luck that I figured out how to do the Augmentation stuff by checking out everything the merchants were selling.

Have you never gotten twine, coat, or ester for any of the prior augment gear in previous expansions?

An unwholesome-looking yet effective thread woven by the innovative artisans of the Crystalline Mean for the purpose of enhancing the attributes of cryptlurker vestments.

The tooltip gives a pretty clear indicator for what it's for right there where I bolded the text. Reading comprehension is important. It's why ester and coat also specify that they're used for a specific type of weaponry or accessories as well, usually denoted by the namesake of the upgrade item. It was slightly more obscure back in maybe Heavensward and ARR, but they've come to standardize everything since Stormblood.

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

That's exactly my point and subsequent criticism about this explicit desire for hand-holding even for a very simplistic feature of the game.

You've convinced me. In fact, I don't want the tomestones guy next to the Eden guy. I want them in completely different cities, or at the very least on different parts of the map.
You might counter that it's obtuse, but I'll counter that you're asking for your hand to be held.

Have you never gotten twine, coat, or ester for any of the prior augment gear in previous expansions?

I started playing like a year ago, and the game's active population may have just doubled in the last few months thanks to a balding neet and Ian "ian't seen nothing" Hazzikostas falling perpetually down some stairs.

Reading comprehension is important.

thought I would find it at the Crystarium because it mentioned the Crystalline Mean and not Eulmore.

He knew what it was for. Naturally, he's retarded for not instinctively knowing that "Glorious Geargews" in fact actually means "Cryptlurker Augmentation" and there's a very, very good reason why you wouldn't just have the Crypt Ester/Twine/Dusting under the 'gear exchange' guy's various Cryptlurker augmentation menus. Whenever I cook a burger for someone, I always make sure to put the lower bun underneath a side of fries for this very same reason.

Spoiler: fat man could have been based

First, that we already know for a fact that saving Norvrandt is good for literally everyone else, not only in the First and the Source, but across all reflections that aren't already fucked like the Thirteenth (which could potentially get reversed in a number of years as we've recently come to find out), because we've known since 2.x, at least to some extent, that the Rejoining is bad for literally everyone. To have this fat fuck suddenly develop enough self-awareness and humility to even think to question whether we're truly in the right is something anyone in their right mind would laugh in his stupid gunt face since we already know the score and have an inkling of the consequences of our failure.

We know that, and the player knows instinctively that we're going to be the good guy because that's how stories tend to be written. The thing that elevates Aumarot is precisely that it calls into question what happens when two ostensible 'good guys' are both condemning the others' whole civilization to dust in order to preserve their own. But it kindof comes out of nowhere, doesn't it? It sure as shit didn't need to.

Does Vauthry know there's a bunch of parallel realities? Would he even need to in order to ask the question: what happens if absorbing another sin eater causes you to blow up, I'm dead, and now the Sin Eaters are attacking everyone as the world takes a little bit longer to finally die? How do you know, other than by virtue of the fact that you're the main character, that absorbing the sin eaters wouldn't result in something even worse - like how you were set to become a sin eater way worse than all the others? If that happened, what did your self-righteousness accomplish except to give everyone false hope and suffering? Was his rule and cruelty so bad by comparison?

The WoL and their allies can then come up with any number of counters - the people want to struggle, they want to suffer, it isn't hopeless, or even if some of them might have lost hope, it's wrong to force that perspective onto others. But the villains' logic should make sense from their own perspectives, and Vauthry can offer a challenge that you could very well make things much, much worse for everyone.

It also seems like you're overlooking the fact that all of Vauthry failings and your solutions to them are already handled by Amaurot, Emet-Selch, and Elidibus over the course of the entirety of Shadowbringers' full story.

Almost like I really like when a story has consistent theming and ties all of its elements together rather than has a block where the bad guy does an about-turn on his original setup and instead becomes a generic villain that could've been ripped out of any number of other stories. You could use Vauthry (or Ran'Jit even before him!) to introduce the idea, Selch confronts you from a much more inassailable position, Elidibus further compounds this question by confronting you as the Warrior of Light, and that all builds up into Zenos as a foil of the player-character: immortal, an evident pawn of an ancient primal, and primarily just a wrecking ball pointed at things.

Instead, Vauthry is a completely flat character that sticks out like a sore thumb and caps off what feels like an unnecessary filler arc in ShB. master matoya, i want to BARB you

I'm also not sure why, exactly, Eden would make you ill

A middle-aged japanese dude writing how he thinks two teenaged girls would talk is bad enough, but it's worse when one of them is the embodiment of deviantart and the "lol akshually im a ascian" twist (which could have been neat) manages to come off like Kingdom Hearts because the dialogue is so bad. don't forget lol muffinz xD humor. Redneck Titan rolling around on his lawn mower was funnier than any of the gags they tried at.

 

[John Titor]

Have you never gotten twine, coat, or ester for any of the prior augment gear in previous expansions?


The tooltip gives a pretty clear indicator for what it's for right there where I bolded the text. Reading comprehension is important. It's why ester and coat also specify that they're used for a specific type of weaponry or accessories as well, usually denoted by the namesake of the upgrade item. It was slightly more obscure back in maybe Heavensward and ARR, but they've come to standardize everything since Stormblood.

Actually I haven't because the moment I started playing seriously was when they stopped giving out pre-augmented gear.

 

[Peasant]

Well I finally got my desired difficulty spike in the Aurum Vale. Wiped on the locksmith three times, twice of which was because the fruit I was standing by "mysteriously vanished" when I was near death and decided it was time to have a snack. Our tank was a bit overzealous and liked to stand in AOEs, and the ninja liked to pull a neat trick where he would suddenly go from full health to dying in the blink of an eye for reasons I was too busy panicking to spot. Nearly wiped on the last boss, but me and the red mage managed to clutch a couple of raises and bring it back just as I was out of MP.

It was not our finest hour, but in the end I had genuine fun for the first time since starting the game.

 

[Gravemind]

You've convinced me. In fact, I don't want the tomestones guy next to the Eden guy. I want them in completely different cities, or at the very least on different parts of the map.
You might counter that it's obtuse, but I'll counter that you're asking for your hand to be held.

That actually was how certain upgrades were (and still are) handled for older ARR and Heavensward content, namely the relic weapons. Not to mention the myriad clusterfuck of methods by which you could acquire upgrade for the level 50 Ironworks gear before they just started making the full Augmented Ironworks sets tradeable for Poetics.

Point being, it's been a hell of a lot more simplified than it used to be. The next step towards dumbing it down even further is the game just explicitly giving you a straight up tutorial for the upgrades, and that would just bring in a lot more complaints from grognards similar to myself or otherwise uninitiated people who don't like that the game is (perhaps rightly) treating people like unobservant idiots.

There's an extensive argument that could be had regarding how much more the game needs to be dumbed down for people, but it's a circular argument because it's predicated on people having different preferences for how the game should be handled. Some of us don't mind having to do that little bit of extra legwork or referencing outside sources to figure out how things work, some do.

He knew what it was for. Naturally, he's retarded for not instinctively knowing that "Glorious Geargews" in fact actually means "Cryptlurker Augmentation" and there's a very, very good reason why you wouldn't just have the Crypt Ester/Twine/Dusting under the 'gear exchange' guy's various Cryptlurker augmentation menus. Whenever I cook a burger for someone, I always make sure to put the lower bun underneath a side of fries for this very same reason.

That's... Exactly why I previously said you need to talk to NPCs and figure out exactly what options they all offer. Granted, the gamerescape wiki is a browser search away for figuring out exactly who you need to talk to for what and under what options from said NPC that you'll find what you're looking for.

Actually I haven't because the moment I started playing seriously was when they stopped giving out pre-augmented gear.

Understandable, if not a somewhat vague time frame because any current expansion tomestone gear has never come pre-augmented.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Spoiler: epic reddit lore shit, spoilers implied

The intro arc of ShB does a good job of establishing this, because it sets up the players of the new world, the general situation, and then gives you a personal story at the asylum and Eulmore that set the stakes, introduce the antagonists, and set a great tone. The factions that get introduced in the forest are almost totally pointless, "thanks for the rock you cured my alcoholism" is fucking stupid, and "actually everyone here wasn't acting out of warped hedonistic self-interest, they were MIND CONTROLLED" is retarded.

Selch is the only positive note in that entire section, and even then he's tarnished because they just can't -wait- to revive Y'shtola. Again. Obviously none of the main cast will ever die at this rate, but couldn't you have waited, I dunno, until a little later on to do it?

I liked her in HW, because she was sassy, headstrong, competent, and intelligent. She slips into the aetherstream because it's an absolute last-resort, and it nicely blends her brash nature with her wealth of knowledge. Her becoming blind was originally a nice touch to compensate for that recklessness, except that at some point that detail just gets forgotten about and if anything she sees even better than before because a different writer took over for a bit.

Spoiler: Epic Spoiler argument

1st: The forest faction is effectively a plot device to give Eulmore's army an in, but they're so overall pointless that I almost completely forgot them. Agree.

2nd: Curing someone's alcoholism being a means to bring hope to a different part of the world (like slaying Titania and turning Feo Ul into Titania for Il Mheg) I think is fine because I think it'd be ridiculous to have just one lightwarden suddenly mean that the entire world (save eulmore) rallies around you, especially when you're not a public figure yet more like an as of yet unknown champion that just showed up and seemingly did he impossible. The whole idea is all people need to be given a reason to believe in the coming of this new world instead of just one section with the Exarch who already believes in you for obvious reasons, so getting that side to rally behind you is actually extremely easy.

This might be a taste thing, but I am generally perfectly fine with little things like this. Because in the end this story only even happens because of all those "little things" and generally regarded mundane nonsense we did throughout the Source, because those little things are what rallies the timeline that was hit by the 8th umbral calamity to cause this entire story in the 1st to even happen in the first place. The whole idea of ShB is that all little things you do add up to a greater whole, it creates a legacy that you leave behind to in theory make a greater tomorrow, and this entire story's existence and your survival ultimately hinge on all those little things. Plus unlike The Source, the 1st needs to carry itself because it isn't realistically possible for the WoL to fix everything forever like The Source can, so the Scions need to ensure everyone is perfectly capable of handling itself and being willing to rebuild. So if you need to cure alcoholism to get the only village on the west side of the map to actually be productive, then that is what needs be done. If that village actually becomes something again, that is solely because of the WoL's actions and that gives me enough feels good vibes that I'm okay with being taken for the run around to look for a rock.

3rd: Y'shtola's "blindness" was also dumb from square one, it was effectively a non-factor (save for her thinking the WoL is a lightwarden for like 5 seconds) or even a benefit because everything that matters is comprised of aether. What matters, if anything, is she is supposedly on a death clock but I expect that to go nowhere. Thancred being unable to manipulate aether is more of a relevant handicap because that means no teleporting and as a GNB he can't charge his cartridges which in the case of Trust NPCs means he can't use many GNB abilities in the 5.0 dungeons unless Ryne is in the party. Yes that is a real mechanic and it looks janky if you watch Thancred's AI in that situation, and it means he has to be tied down with Urianger now in the Source. On a more vanity level it also means he looks old because the Archons apparently use magic to maintain a youthful look, which is why Hilda called Thancred old when he returns in Heavensward.

Side note I don't believe everyone was mind controlled the whole time in Eulmore, I'd have to rewatch that section or even re-read it, but Alphinaud states to the citizens in the cutscene after Ran'jit goes down something to the effect of "When you attacked us you were being controlled, but prior to that you were wholly yourselves and you are responsible for what you've done". So unless Alphinaud is just wrong, the mind control only matters during the solo instance when we beat everyone up.

 

[Gravemind]

Spoiler: Epic Spoiler argument

3rd: Y'shtola's "blindness" was also dumb from square one, it was effectively a non-factor (save for her thinking the WoL is a lightwarden for like 5 seconds) or even a benefit because everything that matters is comprised of aether. What matters, if anything, is she is supposedly on a death clock but I expect that to go nowhere.

Spoiler

That's one plot element that still irks me ever since Heavensward. She's been deathflagged since Heavensward. I'm hoping Endwalker will finally make that tidbit relevant again since it's supposed to be wrapping up this overall story.

Spoiler: Epic Spoiler argument

Side note I don't believe everyone was mind controlled the whole time in Eulmore, I'd have to rewatch that section or even re-read it, but Alphinaud states to the citizens in the cutscene after Ran'jit goes down something to the effect of "When you attacked us you were being controlled, but prior to that you were wholly yourselves and you are responsible for what you've done". So unless Alphinaud is just wrong, the mind control only matters during the solo instance when we beat everyone up.

Spoiler

Correct. Meol mind control was only ever relevant for the one time that Vauthry actually used it. Eulmorans being shitters until the Warrior of Light brought massive sociopolitical upheaval was entirely on them before that point. I'm not sure how one would forget the moment where Alphinaud calls everyone the fuck out immediately after that solo duty. Just tells them straight up "This is where you fucked up, and this is what you can do to make it right again not only to us, but for yourselves as well."

 

[Rich Evans Ayypologist]

It was not our finest hour, but in the end I had genuine fun for the first time since starting the game.

You're at the point where things start to be fun indeed. AV is the clusterfuck fun, which is best enjoyed as a healer. But you'll move on to some hard-mode versions of old trials, which aren't the most difficult things but do offer a certain bite to them. Dungeon bosses start to have mechanics, even if the pulls are still boring. Lots of people dislike the hundred quests (less now, I think) between ARR and HW, but I actually found them to be the first time I found myself actually caring about the story.

Word of advice, get some friends when you need to do Praetorium / Meridianum. Hop in voice chat, get some drinks, and just have something to occupy your time.
Absolutely, dreadfully boring places otherwise.

Point being, it's been a hell of a lot more simplified than it used to be.

That may be the difference in perspective. For you, it's a lot cleaner than what it used to be. For me, I think about how I would make these menus from the ground up and I can find no singular shred of logic that would put the crypt dusting/twine/ether on someone that isn't the guy who sells the only items which use those things.

Spoiler: buzzle bieces

The forest faction is effectively a plot device to give Eulmore's army an in, but they're so overall pointless that I almost completely forgot them.

If you combine the rabbit amazons and the forest cult into just the forest cult and have Ran'Jit beat the shit out of them, then have Yshtola sacrifice herself in some manner for the WoL to just barely get out with the Crystarium trying to delay and rout the Eulmorans from behind, you'd have a pretty good setup for the 'low' arc that point of the story is supposed to be. Keep things real tense, have us really need the catgirl to get to Malikah's Well in some way, and who arrives just in time at the most desperate moment to help you out but your old pal Emet-Selch? The pacing would be great. Instead the weird forest people basically just rout the Eulmorans themselves, Ran'Jit fails miserably, Ysh'tola takes a little nap and is back, and the game insists to me that the army which has done nothing but lose is actually a big threat for... some reason. The Eulmorans not invading the faerie land struck me as a wink that the WoL lucked out big-time in a sin eater being there, as otherwise they'd have put a swift end to our jolly adventure. Apparently no, they were just retarded and useless.

Curing someone's alcoholism being a means to bring hope to a different part of the world

It's stupid because it's contrived. It's supposed to be a race against time and a low point, but you basically fart around and suddenly erase the last few years of an alcoholic's life in a few minutes. While getting someone who gave up on life to give it another shot fits into the overarching theme, the way it's presented breaks my suspension of disbelief. Alisae using porxies to cure Ga Bu is a far more poignant example of something smaller-scale that folds into a wider story.

Y'shtola's "blindness" was also dumb from square one, it was effectively a non-factor

Very, very briefly in Heavensward they make it a factor. Then the aether-sight bullshit comes up and it's completely forgotten about. It's incredibly stark compared to Thancred's, as you say, because they actually take the effort to make sure his condition stays consistent, is a drawback, and can make sense in the world.

Alphinaud states to the citizens in the cutscene after Ran'jit goes down something to the effect of "When you attacked us you were being controlled, but prior to that you were wholly yourselves and you are responsible for what you've done".

By making them mind controlled in the defense of Eulmore, it robs the citizenry of any real conviction. Rather than people who really did believe it was the end of the world and who wanted to protect their paradise, they're just hapless nitwits that get tugged along by whoever is in power. Alphinaud says that they're responsible for what they've done, but there's no grand tribunal established or anything that would generally be enacted upon a population that willingly perpetuated atrocities on others. Classism gets abolished so everyone can kumbayah.

Instead of showing that a stubborn and desperate ideological attachment to nihilism and "the world is ending and nothing can stop it!" ironically leads the nobles to their own destruction, it becomes a flat 'lol well they dindunuffin moving on NEXT SETPIECE.' If the people really convinced of Vauthry's vision had willingly fought to their own destruction, it would also make a lot more sense why Eulmore didn't have civil strife breaking out in the way that it did in Ishgard.

 

[Sunflower Samurai]

Ive gotten Titania skipper or newbie shitters 3 days in a row please fucking end my suffering i just wanna get DNC to 80

Last roulette i did (like 3 hours ago ayy lmao) had only 3 non skippers, we had a shit DRK, Freestyle SAM and MNK, and a fucking AST that used LB2 twice

 

[Gravemind]

For me, I think about how I would make these menus from the ground up and I can find no singular shred of logic that would put the crypt dusting/twine/ether on someone that isn't the guy who sells the only items which use those things.

It's also partially because there's multiple ways to acquire the materials. You either trade Nier raid tokens for them, tokens from Eden's Promise Savage, or you can redeem them for a hefty sum of Nuts from the Clan Nutsy NPC in the Crystarium.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

You could always cheat the roulette system by queueing with shitty gear.