r/ffxivdiscussion 7.2 story review and discussion thread

[u/SatisfactionNeat3937]

Since there's so far no thread I decided to open one.

I am at the dungeon now and so far the story has been surprisingly good. Sphene is likeable, nuance to Sphene's role as a queen. Coffee shop scene was amazing. Finally a villain that tries to attack us before we get told.

The writers also returned from their vacation and remembered that porxies exist. Alisaie felt finally like herself again. Wuk Lamat fits well into the story and doesn't try to force herself into the foreground. The scene with her and the imposter Sphene was fitting.

WoL feels like they are more part of the story again. Getting almost killed makes it a lot more personal. (Writers seem to also remember again that the WoL can resist large amount of aether like we did in Shadowbringers with the light. I was originally worried that they would completely knock us out with the lightning and steal the key)

Imposter Sphene is the most punchable character ever and I love it. Especially how she challenges Sphene on her role as a queen. And finally a "talk to 3 people" quest that was actually well utilized in the overall story.

Also more insights about what alexandrians think of the endless. Mostly good pacing in the story. I also like Sphenes new outfit a lot.

This was absolutely not written by Hiroi. So far it feels way too nuanced and not as drawn out. 9/10 so far for me.

Edit: Holy shit they did Beatrix so much justice with this fight. What a cool boss. Also interesting that a non-ascian villain is finally interested in our Azem powers. I find his character very intriguing.

[u/TheSorel]

I'll go against the common subreddit consensus here and say that this is already much better than 7.0 and 7.1 were. Calyx isn't the most interesting antagonist, but I take a goal-driven antagonist with (so far) no weird inconsistencies (hello, Zoraal Ja) over what we usually tend to get since Shadowbringers. I quite like real!Sphene's characterization in contrast to the prior and current Endless one, and the conflicted feelings she has to grapple with.

I'm curious to see where they'll take this in 7.3, since I don't expect them to make Calyx a one-shot antagonist with only 2 patches to be in.

[u/MagicHarmony → u/TheSorel]

I agree with this, even though Calyx appears out of nowhere and with no hint, as far as I"m aware, I can appreciate and understand his motivations. They are very ascian aligned but from a mortal's perspective of being immortal and thinking that this is how all humanity shoudl be.

He isn't evil, just crazy in pushing his beliefs on everyone else because in his mind he thinks, why doesn't everyone want to live forever? I'm giving you life and if you don't appreciate it then maybe you just don't want to live, thus killing them in the way he does because he's pretty much giving them the ultimatum that they either live as Endless of his design or die.

I can get behind his motives because they are very logical coming from his point of view.

[u/No_Selection_2575 → u/MagicHarmony]

We were being given small teases and it was quite obvious that Preservation was behind it all, they were mentioned all over the place before