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Upon the Great Loch’s Shore
-Alphinaud, Lyse and I will head east to the Lochs, my last unvisited zone in Gyr Abania.
-Castrum Abania sits on the border between the Peaks and the Lochs. The Alliance now fully controls the Castrum.
-Pipin heard rumor of a unit of Skulls ferrying a single prisoner towards the capital. Krile.
-The Alliance has sent reinforcements towards to a new base within the Lochs.
-I LOVE LYSE’S ALA MHIGAN FOLK DRESS SO FRIGGING MUCH
-The cinematic as we move into the Lochs, complete with Lyse’s voiceover, is awesome. The resistance and Alliance has joined forces and is ready to finally free this place from 20 years of Imperial rule.
-That said, no way this will be simple. Last we saw Zenos, he was off to do stuff with Shinryu. We’ll have to deal with him before all is said and done.
-An extended siege on Ala Mhigo will hurt the citizens as much as anyone and give the Empire a chance to reinforce. Raubahn proposes an all-out assault.
-The Immortal Flames will form the vanguard. The Twin Adder of Gridania will support as archers and healers. Limsa Lominsa’s Maelstrom and Ishgard’s Temple Knights will follow-up as artillery. The Ala Mhigan Resistance will occupy the residential district, keep civilians safe.
The Scions will stay in reserve as specialists.
-This is exciting! My current prediction is that the Zenos will somehow control Shinryu or merge with him and that’ll be our final fight, an 8-person raid/trial.
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The Key to Victory
-Thancred reappears. He spied where the Empire’s holding Krile: the ruins of an old temple of the Fist of Rhalgr, an order of Ala Mhigan monks.
-The Empire turned it into a research facility to give Garleans access to magick.
-An old friend arrives: Wiscar, the “Cynical Youth” from early in Stormblood who Lyse inspired. His grandfather has a key to a hidden waterway into Ala Mhigo.
-What follows is a major scenario taking me through the zone, past imperial defenses over until we find Wiscar’s grandpa. Got the key.
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The Resonant
-Our path takes us underwater into the city. Lyse and I still have the Kojin’s Blessing, letting us breathe/swim.
-Urianger has been researching Fordola’s strange power spike. He gives us Moenbryda’s staff that she used against the Ascians as she died. This will apparently help us against Fordola.
-This is wild. We head through a long underwater tunnel, and boom. We’re finally in the city of Ala Mhigo, opening the gates for an attack.
-The city itself has a very FFXII feel. That same sandstone coloring with Persian-style arches.
-Our party reaches the research facility where Bionic Fordola awaits us in full Limit Break mode.
-Moenbryda’s siphon works, weakening Fordola enough to make this a fair fight.
-Lyse is ready to finish the job. I don’t think she’ll do it, but maybe she should.
LYSE: “There’s no place for that kind of justice here. Not in my Ala Mhigo.”
Idk. There’s a place for killing someone in the heat of battle, especially someone like Fordola. And yet, she has Fordola dead to rights, so it’d maybe be like killing a prisoner of war at this point.
-Fordola’s enraged at this. Thinks Lyse is destroying everything she’s worked to build within the Empire.
LYSE: “You’re slaves to a tyrant! There’s no freedom in that!” Damn straight! I believe that Fordola’s been working to give the Ala Mhigans as good a place within the Empire as possible, but that work has supported a regime of murder and terror.
-There are a series of containment pods on an ascending platform with metal stairs. Stormblood’s drawn a lot from FFVI, but this is straight from FFVII. From the area with Jenova and the super soldiers in tanks.
-We open one up and Krile lies within.
-Krile is… okay? That’s it? I was expecting her to go feral and try to rip our faces off.
-Lyse takes Fordola prisoner. Fordola laughs at us thinking we won, saying that Zenos “commands a power echoing that of the eikons.” Yeah, Zenos is definitely on that Shinryu juice somehow.
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Legacy of our Fathers
-We regroup with Raubahn, debating what Fordola meant about Zenos’ newfound power. After all, I saw the cutscene where Zenos hears about Shinryu. These characters didn’t.
-Aha! Their process of enhancing Garleans to use magick requires extracting “some manner of primordial essence.” They must be harvesting energy from Shinryu.
-These “Resonant,” the enhanced Garleans, have been given a form of Echo.
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The Measure of His Reach
-The attack’s into Ala Mhigo is about to continue. First, Raubahn gives me something for his son. No no no NO please no heroic sacrifice for Raubahn.
-Phew. The package I deliver to Pipin at the front contains “Tizona,” Raubahn’s sword. A symbol of Raubahn’s strength, his rebirth, his legacy.
-A unit of imperial wolfmen – the Ferae Domitae – approaches from the north. Wait, these wolfmen are the ones we met in Doma! The Empire coerced them into fighting by threatening their kin.
Maybe they don’t know we freed Doma. After all, why would the Empire tell them the hostages are free?
-Alphinaud wants to talk to them directly.
-They don’t believe us. No surprise. They think their master, Lord Hien, is dead.
-Hakuro Whitefang is their leader. Seems like an honorable puppy.
AND HOLY SHIT IS HE A HARD FIGHT! There’s SO much stuff to dodge. It takes me two tries to get him down.
-Defeating him without killing his troops convinces us of our honor. He hears our tale of Doma. Rejoices for Lord Hien’s return, mourns Gosetsu.
-Scene change. The Allied forces are hunkered outside of the Ala Mhigan palace, besieging the place.
-Oh HELL YES! The Ul’dahn thaumaturges – my very first class trainers in this game – are here.
They roast the city gates and then freeze them. It’s fucking awesome.
-Then out comes the Imperial counterattack, stopping us before we finish off the wall. Ships like the first XII boss, the Tonberry.
-But we have an airforce of our own. The Lord Hien on those purple birdy things.
HIEN: “Bear witness, my Eorzean brothers and sisters! Doma is come to pay her debts!”
-The Domans give us enough cover to finish blasting apart the gates. Ala Mhigo’s palace is open.
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Stormblood
-ooooh that quest title. This smells like the last main story quest.
-Into the castle we go, pushing for Zenos yae Galvus himself. The dungeon’s name: Ala Mhigo.
-The first boss blocking our way is a familiar face from FFVII. A Magitek Scorpion.
-The city is suffused with animal statues and imagery.
-The final boss is Zenos himself. Another tough fight, centered on three different swords/strike types to deal with.
-And he goes down!
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Random Stuff Around Eorzea
A Humbaba-esque enemy:
A fan of FFIV: The After Years:
Desserts in FFXIV:
I love this sand sea:
I... I don’t know exactly what’s going on here.
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Next time: Final face-off with Zenos.
