FFXIV – 4.2 Rise of a New Sun Completed (Spoilers)

19 February, 2018. 627 words.

I put off FFXIV for a couple of weeks while I finished my Fallout 4 obsession, then I jumped in and completed the Main Scenario Quest for the 4.2 Patch. It took two whole days, maybe three total hours. I’m glad to have finished it. I had basically zero interest in playing it, to be honest, but I know from experience that no matter how much one doesn’t feel like playing the MSQ, it’s far better to stay up-to-date than to have to catch back up later. (Ask anyone who’s come back to FFXIV after any kind of absence, like, say, me. Go play the MSQ immediately!! Drop everything!! Do it now!! It’s the one inescapable dependency from which literally every other feature of the game inherits.)

I put a spoiler warning on this post even though there really isn’t anything too spoilery here, and I think everyone already predicted the “big reveal” since the end of Stormblood anyway. (I predicted it in my 4.1 post, actually, because they really hung a lantern on it.)

The short version of my review is: I was a bit disappointed. Not that there was anything particularly bad about the story, it’s just that nothing really happened (another reason there isn’t much spoilery stuff in here). It had that “middle book” feel to it-there was no real story here, just setup for the next story.

It was a big let down from the Fordola story in Patch 4.1, which I thought was fantastic character development (and voice acting) and a good little short story that stood on its own. (The other half of Patch 4.1 with Raubahn and the Sultana was more meh to me, for reasons I think I already wrote about.)

By contrast, I’m not sure we saw any character development in this patch. We met one new character, a kid from the Empire whose name I’ve already forgotten, who-shockingly!-turned out to be less friendly than he appeared. These Empire folks are nothing if not consistent with their cartoon villainy.

I do think they’ve setup a very good moral dilemma with Tsuyu, and I’m going to be very disappointed if (when?) she gets her memory back and returns to said cartoon villain status. (Although she was a better villain than Zenos by far, imo.)

But then if she gets her memory back, which is the entire purpose of the mirror, villainy is the only logical choice for her character, isn’t it? She can either double-down on the evil schtick, or try to beg forgiveness and atone for her mistakes, and obviously nobody is going to buy that last one. She’ll be shipped back to the Empire and … then what? Probably punishment, and some desperate scheme to get back in their good graces.

The more interesting thing for me is the moral problem for Gosetsu if Yotsuyu regains her memory. Lord Hien assigned him responsibility for her care, and one would assume that includes holding Gosetsu responsible should she become an enemy again. Will he dispatch her immediately as his honor might demand? And if he does, will that ruin the prisoner exchange and sign the death warrants of an unknown number of helpless Domans?

As you can see, speculating about the future is more interesting than contemplating what happened in this part of the story. Because, to reiterate, nothing really happened.

P. S. I had contemplated letting my subscription run out on the 18th since I wasn’t playing very much, but I decided to get another 3 months after all. I’ve been having some fun leveling a few alts. I did cancel all my extra retainers, though, so no crafting for me in the foreseeable future. (The only thing I need to make is glamour crystals anyway hehe.)

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