Summary: Playing the Yo-kai Watch event. Teledji Adeledji’s plans for Ul’dah. The Primal Ramuh.
Yo-kai Watch Crossover Event
-I haven’t seen Yo-kai Watch. I’ve heard that it’s Pokemon-ish, about people who battle with minions.?
-The first quest is called “A Complete Game Changer.” FFXIV’s pun game is top notch.
-A new competitor has been obliterating the Gold Saucer competition in the Lords of Verminion mini-game. He brought all kinds of new minions nobody has seen before.
-I find the player is a “Wandering Executive.” He enlists me to help find one of his pets that wandered off, a chatty moogle-looking thing.
-That creature is in the Twelveswood. Someone saw it, freaked out, and trapped it in what looks like a pokeball. I open the ball and out pops a ghosty minion called Whisper.
[Later edit: Now having seen the first Yo-kai Watch ep, I love how this mirrors the protag kid meeting Whisper.]
-The loquacious Whisper assures me he’s friendly. He gives me a watch that will let me catch/see Yo-kai.
-The Executive, Nohi, thanks me and gives me a free minion. I pick USApyon. AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!
He’s a happy puppy in a Spaceman Spiff costume. [Later edit: now I think he’s a weird rabbit.]
-The event itself is basically a grind-and-collect fest. You bring out a Yo-kai minion and clear FATEs (public quests) in a given zone. Doing so gradually rewards the currency required to buy more Yo-kai minions and weapons.
-I collect all of the minions. My favorites are probably Blizzaria, the nine-tailed fox Kyubi, USApyon, the American rabbit-dog astronaut.
Blizzaria.
Special mention to the creepiest Yo-kai: Manjimutt.
Manjimutt is a poodle with the face of a middle school math teacher who has seen some shit.
-My reward for collecting all the minions is a mechanical mount designed/painted to look like Whisper.
-You can also collect Yo-kai themed weapons. There are a LOT of these, so I only get a few. Blizzaria’s weapon is my favorite, this sweet-looking black mage frost staff.
USApyon’s is the funniest. They’re a pair of monk fist weapons that look like USApyon’s head with laser claws out of his ears.
[Later edit: I watched some of Yo-kai Watch’s first episode on YouTube. It’s funny and the animation is solid. Doubt I’ll watch more (not like as a 34 year old I’m their target audience) but special credit to the catchy theme song.
The singers are incredible. I’ve listened to the them a good 10+ times. I reeeeeeally hoped a variant on this theme would play when I used the Whisper mount. Alas.]
Yo-kai Watch Crossover Event
-I haven’t seen Yo-kai Watch. I’ve heard that it’s Pokemon-ish, about people who battle with minions.?
-The first quest is called “A Complete Game Changer.” FFXIV’s pun game is top notch.
-A new competitor has been obliterating the Gold Saucer competition in the Lords of Verminion mini-game. He brought all kinds of new minions nobody has seen before.
-I find the player is a “Wandering Executive.” He enlists me to help find one of his pets that wandered off, a chatty moogle-looking thing.
-That creature is in the Twelveswood. Someone saw it, freaked out, and trapped it in what looks like a pokeball. I open the ball and out pops a ghosty minion called Whisper.
[Later edit: Now having seen the first Yo-kai Watch ep, I love how this mirrors the protag kid meeting Whisper.]
-The loquacious Whisper assures me he’s friendly. He gives me a watch that will let me catch/see Yo-kai.
-The Executive, Nohi, thanks me and gives me a free minion. I pick USApyon. AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!
He’s a happy puppy in a Spaceman Spiff costume. [Later edit: now I think he’s a weird rabbit.]
-The event itself is basically a grind-and-collect fest. You bring out a Yo-kai minion and clear FATEs (public quests) in a given zone. Doing so gradually rewards the currency required to buy more Yo-kai minions and weapons.
-I collect all of the minions. My favorites are probably Blizzaria, the nine-tailed fox Kyubi, USApyon, the American rabbit-dog astronaut.
Blizzaria.
Special mention to the creepiest Yo-kai: Manjimutt.
Manjimutt is a poodle with the face of a middle school math teacher who has seen some shit.
-My reward for collecting all the minions is a mechanical mount designed/painted to look like Whisper.
-You can also collect Yo-kai themed weapons. There are a LOT of these, so I only get a few. Blizzaria’s weapon is my favorite, this sweet-looking black mage frost staff.
USApyon’s is the funniest. They’re a pair of monk fist weapons that look like USApyon’s head with laser claws out of his ears.
[Later edit: I watched some of Yo-kai Watch’s first episode on YouTube. It’s funny and the animation is solid. Doubt I’ll watch more (not like as a 34 year old I’m their target audience) but special credit to the catchy theme song.
The singers are incredible. I’ve listened to the them a good 10+ times. I reeeeeeally hoped a variant on this theme would play when I used the Whisper mount. Alas.]
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Rebellion in Ul’dah
-I meet up with Alphinaud in Ul’dah. He’s not as wounded as I thought.
-Ul’dah itself is in bad shape. The city has a brutal class structure, with the refugees at the very bottom. The refugees resent their treatment, and the Ul’dahn citizens resent the cost of supporting the refugees.
-Many of the Immortal Flames are away on training. Ul’dah is short-handed to deal with this crisis.
-Alphinaud is sure that the riot was not spontaneous. It was too well timed, and the refugees had martial weaponry.
-We head to a nearby refugee camp to investigate. Apparently, a mysterious merchant came and riled people up to overthrow the ruling classes.
-It worked. A number of refugees at the different camps attack me. I don’t necessarily blame them – their situation SUCKS.
-The merchant has to be Teledji Adeledji’s servant. I’m guessing he fomented this failed rebellion because he hates the Sultana in power, and sees this a refugee riot as a way to make her look bad, since she’s pro-refugee.
-We track down the merchant. He panics, ready to give up whoever hired him.
AND THEN A SNIPER KILLS HIM FROM A DISTANCE WITH AN ARROW HOLY SHIT
-This turn of events warrants a meeting with the Sultana and Flame General Raubahn.
-Their own investigation found that the Brass Blade commanding officer during the protest-turned-riot ordered his soldiers to fire on the unarmed protestors. He took orders from Teledji.
-Still, wasn’t Teledji in favor of accepting the Doman refugees into the city?
-Yes, but Raubahn has found clear motive. Teledji introduced the Carteneau Reclamation Bill, a plan to annex the Carteneau Flats for permanent refugee housing.
The Carteneau Flats were obliterated by Bahamut in the Calamity. The destruction uncovered ancient Allagan ruins, so now they’re disputed territory, watched by soldiers of all the Eorzean cities. Teledji’s plan would threaten this alliance.
Still, why risk it? One word: Omega.
Omega Weapon was discovered in the Allagan ruins. A weapon created to destroy Bahamut. It was out of commission, but that doesn’t mean it always will be. He wants it.
-And because we clearly don’t have enough to deal with right now, Minfilia asks me to return to Scion HQ. New happenings related to the Twelveswood primal.
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Lord of Levin
-The Sylphs outside Gridania have called for Ramuh. Unlike Garuda or Ifrit, Ramuh only acts in defense of the Sylphs, so it’s not like he’s on a murderous rampage to destroy Gridania, but still.
-The recent violence in Ul’dah drove refugees away from that city and some went to the Twelveswood. Sounds like that was the cause of the Sylphs’ panic.
-I head off to Gridania to meet with Kan-E-Senna. She hopes I can meet with Ramuh and address things diplomatically. After all, we all want peace in the Twelveswood – Ramuh included.
-OMG THE SYLPH EMISSARY IS SO CUTE! THEY JUMP FOR JOY AND CLAP THEIR HANDS AND SMILE
-The Scions and I head into the Sylphlands to investigate. I really like this series of quests here because it feels very sylphy. The sylphs use transformation magic to pretend to be us, split our party up, lead us on a wild goose chase.
It’s pretty hilarious to see their impressions of some of the Scions and how both terrible and spot on they are. XD
-Finally broke through their illusions and arrived at Ramuh.
“Thine aura betrays thee, servant of Hydaelyn.”
He crashes down in a blast of lightning.
-Ramuh’s voice actor is incredible! Reminds me a bit of Saruman.
-We propose peace and Ramuh isn’t buying it. It’s definitely going to come to fisticuffs.
-Prediction: just like you could target Leviathan’s head and tail as separate beings, I’ll bet you can target Ramuh’s body/head and beard separately. This beard is basically a primal in itself.
-However, something gives Ramuh pause. He sees that I have a Sylph crystal, a precious gift he gave the Sylphs. A token of their trust.
-So he’ll consider peace, but only after a trial. After we fight him.
-I join the fight with four friends, an instance called “The Striking Tree.” The Ramuh fight music has some ululating vocalizing and lyrics I can’t make out, but I like it! Reminds me of Rusted Root.
-The fight is beautiful. We’re on top of a titanic tree trunk. It’s evening/night time. Lights/lanterns hang about, red and purple and more. And there’s Ramuh’s lightning. Really quite lovely.
I really dig how the primals here in FFXIV are (imo) the fullest versions of the these characters from the series. The apotheosis of those characters. The music, the setting, the abilities, everything screams “RAMUH.” (And Titan, and Leviathan, and Ifrit.)
-My friends and I defeat him and pass the trial. Ramuh dissipates. However, unlike Garuda, he goes gently. We’ve proven we can help fight the coming evil, and Ramuh believes in us.
-I report in to Kan-E-Senna in Gridania. One of Ramuh’s arguments disturbs her with its brutal truth. He claimed that by our nature as people, we bring conflict with us no matter where he go. It’s why he was so unreceptive to our offers of peace.
Everything playing out now – the conflict at Carteneau, the post-Imperial world – EVERYTHING is still driven by conflict and self-interest.
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
An old friend from FFIV, Namingway!
A player in a nightmarish pig costume who looks like he’s going to star in his own horror franchise:
A Roegadyn with an epic pompadour:
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Next time: Probably pushing back against Teledji Adeledji's plans.
