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The Hunt for Omega
-We last saw Omega at the end of Heavensward, crashing towards Gyr Abania after fighting Shinryu.
-Cid, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie have been getting close. Nero tol Scaeva’s helping too, irking Cid to no end. I love this dynamic.
-We find a giant pool of purple condensed aether. The sight wakes Midgardsormr, my ancient dragon buddy who’s been dormant since Heavensward.
MIDGARDSORMR: “Long have [Omega and I] known one another. Our history spanneth eons and stars.”
-UHHH WTF??? A super chibi baby chocobo appears out of nowhere fleeing from a ghost dragon.
-Apparently, Omega isn’t just about firepower. It can “weave aether into life,” create beings out of raw aether. It’s trying to make that ghost dragon into a real dragon.
-Okay okay, but what about the chocobo? Midgardsormr can communicate with it. We cannot. This is definitely no ordinary chocobo. More likely some chocobo god.
-So previously we thought the Allagans built Omega, but Midgardsormr’s comment contradicts it.
MIDGARDSORMR: “It haileth from another star. More than that I will not say.”
Omega is really an alien being that came here and was discovered by Allag. Maybe it provided knowledge that fueled Allag’s rise.
-The chocobo says it was born in a “strange plane” and ordered to fight for unknown reasons. It didn’t want to and escaped to our plane.
Omega created this chocobo as a test for its winged dragon creation.
-So let’s find out more about Omega… by jumping into the aether pool. The chocobo will guide us.
-We jump in and find nothing. The chocobo’s the only solid creature; the rest of us are translucent.
???: “Welcome home, Alpha. Welcome mortals.”
CREEPY. Omega introduces itself. The chocobo is named Alpha.
OMEGA: “You stand in the rift between dimensions, where a vital experiment is presently in progress. Your participation is appreciated. Please indicate your consent. <blip>”
At least it’s asking us for consent.
“Non-participating entities will be summarily erased. Please indicate your consent. <blip>” lol nm.
-Ok this is fucking cool. It now assigns us to the “Alpha Group,” and we’re teleported to an interdimensional rift.
This must be a loading area for its tests. All kinds of coils and orbs and gizmos float around.
-Omega’s stated goal is to determine the mightiest being in creation.
“To that end, eighty-nine candidates have been selected and recreated. They are grouped by dimension, matched by strength, and pitted against one another.” He’s running a tournament.
-The chocobo is subject Alpha. It will lead our group, grant us access to different parts of Omega.
-The first testing ground is “Deltascape.” I know from being around FFXIV that there are three different Omega raids: Deltascape, Sigmascape, and one that just came out this week called Alphascape.
-Deltascape looks like a castle on the monitor.
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Into the Deltascape
-The only way to learn more about Omega is to play along with its request. Into the Deltascape we go.
-CRAPPY THEORY TIME! Alpha, the “weakest” creature here, is actually Omega. It took this form to observe us from a different perspective.
-Deltascape is an 8-player raid. The first part is Deltascape V1.0.
-THAT’S what the castle is! It’s the castle in the FFV rift right after you pass Omega and Apanda.
-The first boss is that ghostly worm we saw earlier, now given form. Alte Roite. The name is familiar though I can’t quite place it. [Later edit: checked and it’s a Dimension Castle boss I just forgot.]
-Its mechanics focus on the four elements. It lobs fireballs, turns the floor icy and slippery, knocks us around, and lobs thunder at us. Often in combos.
-Midgardsormr believes Omega’s main goal is self-improvement. We defeated Shinryu, hence this tournament of champions it started. It needs new competition.
-Creating new life takes a lot of energy. That’s why Omega is using this inner virtual testing ground. Presumably, it’ll bring the winner into existence.
-lol at Alphia quietly observing all of our discussion. Wedge loves Alpha deeply.
”He’s a good boy! …He might not be strong, but he’s brave! And reliable! And adorable!”
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A Catastrophe Waiting
-The quest name tells me all I need to know about who the next boss is. They’re sticking with this FFV theme.
Catastrophe.
Btw, for my prep, I use two sources:
1) https://ffxiv.joshdrink.com/trials/ - This site has GREAT tl;drs.
2) The MTQcapture YouTube channel. A visual tl;dr.
-I LOVE THIS FIGHT!
-So the key gimmick is that Catastrophe plays with gravity on two levels. We get a duty action specific to this fight that lets us Levitate.
Yellow = upper level, purple = lower level.
Some attacks are on the upper level where you CAN’T be levitating, and some attacks hit only the lower level, where you have to levitate to avoid them.
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The Croak Queen
-The next opponent is Halicarnassus, the queen of Dimension Castle. (IS EXDEATH GONNA BE THE FINAL DELTASCAPE BOSS??? PLZ???)
-Interesting! Nero has heard of Dimension Castle and Halicarnassus via folktale:
“In the tale, [Halicarnassus] is one of the chief antagonists, and as such things are wont to unfold, she meets her end at the hands of the heroes – incurably valiant youths not unlike our adventurer friend here.”
I frigging ADORE that Deltascape is the retelling that classic Eorzean folk tale, “Final Fantasy Five.”
Is that what Alpha’s about? Is he supposed to be a chibi version of Boko from the story? That would make sense – our party is playing the role of Team Bartz.
MIDGARDSORMR: “Fact… fiction… the distinction holdeth no meaning for Omega. All is equal in its eyes. If a thing is logical, it can be created.”
Queen Halicarnassus.
-I can’t get over how awesome these raid encounters are. Halicarnassus is a playful, mischievous queen obsessed with games.
Three of the best parts:
1) She sets up a series of tiles on the ground. You avoid her next burst of damage by going in the tile associated with your role. I as a DPS had to stand in the sword tile, for instance.
2) She has a frontal cone attack that turns everyone hit into frogs. And at one point, you HAVE to get frogged to survive her next attack.
3) A mini-game where she literally TAKES A BREAK TO HAVE SOME TEA. She goes to her throne, crosses her legs, starts drinking tea, and warps us to the mini-game zone.
It’s a puzzle! In keeping with the FFV theme, it mirrors the conveyor belt puzzle in the Desert of the Shifting Sands. We have to navigate our way to the end within a time limit.
-I also like how the bosses die.
They don’t just poof. They fade away in a blip of computer programminess, as if deleted.
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A Void At All Costs
NERO: “From what I have been able to gather, your opponent is, and I quote, ‘a great tree born of an agglomeration of evil will, which assumes the form of a dark mage.’” I FUCKING KNEW IT
-Just as in FFV, he commands the power of the void.
-Cid asks a great question: if the heroes in the story (Faris, Bartz, Galuf, Krile, and Lenna) defeated Exdeath, why doesn’t Omega conjure them?
-lolol we get interrupted with a phone call before nero can answer. There is no answer. They just thought it’d be cooler to fight Exdeath than against Team Bartz.
[Later edit: Omega’s final lines this session, about bringing out our best with stress, make me woner. It’s possible he knows Exdeath was weaker than the team that fought him and that he is intentionally setting those up as foils for us.
Or not. Omega seemed surprised that we won.]
Exdeath.
-He gets a remix of “The Evil Lord Exdeath” music from FFV. It’s not bad, but lacks the heartpounding punch and rock elements that made the FFV version work so well for me.
-Exdeath’s main mechanic is his magic. He has regular versions of his spells, but sometimes channels the void while casting to send those to overdrive. Gotta watch him as he casts.
-Midway through the fight, he casts “The Decisive Battle.” This turns the castle into something much closer to the rift where we fought him at the end, a void with debris and roots throughout.
His second form even pops up, a giant tree head that spews zombification breath.
-VICTORY! The Deltascape is cleared.
-I have to imagine that Sigmascape and Alphascape both draw on enemies from other worlds. I doubt they’ll draw on additional FFV bosses like Enuo. Fingers crossed for an FFX raid!
-All of us except Alpha leave the cleared Deltascape. Midgardsormr pops up to talk to her.
“’Tis well that thou harborest doubts, mortal, but they are misplaced. Omega could have conducted its tests in complet secrecy, unbeknown to all. Yet not only did it betray its presence to you; it allowed you to come this far.
“Alpha, what art thou truly? The instrument of the mortals’ triumph? Or the bait that lureth them unto the abyss?” Could go either way. Maybe Alpha doesn’t even know herself.
-We get Omega’s perspective afterwards, looking down on this. It’s surprised. It didn’t expect us to win.
OMEGA: “Outcome supports hypothesis. As previously observed, certain beings may unleash hidden potential when subjected to stress.” Uh oh. Its likely conclusion is “MORE STRESS.”
Yup. “Event found: the death of a comrade.” OH NO YOU DON’T. Cid? Biggs and/or Wedge? Alpha? Who will Omega target?
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Next time: the next Omega wing, Sigmascape, if the queue times aren’t too bad. If I can’t get into it, I’ll come back to Omega later and move onto the new main story quests.
