FFXIV – Part 172: Eden’s Gate

Summary: The first wing of Shadowbringers’ Eden raid. Ryne attempts to rejuvenate the First with the first sin eater.

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In the Middle of Nowhere

-Ryne senses a concentration of light to the south in “the Empty,” lands once swallowed by the Flood.

-She’s worried. Heck, maybe it’s even another Lightwarden.

-Thancred, Ryne, Urianger and I grab a speeder to cross the aetherically toxic Empty.

-We arrive there, at the buried top of what I know to be Eden.

RYNE: “Instead of being filled with Light… it is Light.

-Urianger calls it the first Sin Eater whom Minfilia vanquished 100 years ago.

-Ryne calls it “Eden.” Fae for “Utopia.” Why?

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Eden’s Gate: Resurrection

-When the Flood hit, it only stopped the flow of aether temporarily. Ryne wants to use Eden to restore life to the Empty.

-Minfilia stopped the Flood’s advance by silencing Eden. She didn’t destroy it.

-It has a core to it, like the heart of a Talos. We’ll try to infiltrate it. This surprises me. I assumed it was biological, but maybe it’s mechanical. Who made it?

-This is going to be an 8-person fight.

-Argh! The recording didn’t take.

-Let me say this place was a visual blowout. We fought EDEN PRIME!

I expected that at the end of the eponymous raid, not at the outset.

She kept transporting us between dimensions. Computery setting, outer space, a real variety.

-Some graphics reminded me strongly of Vauthry’s white building blocks.

-Oh, and not only did the soundtrack remix FFVIII music, but Eden’s big attack was her FFVIII summon animation, blasting us from the planet through some far-off galaxy.

-I regroup with Ryne after. For a new base, we move inside Eden’s core. The boss room.

-Ryne starts to interface with the core. The emptiness around us flashes. Eden is resisting.

-She’s fighting it hard. I’m nervous because she’s bathed in Light during this scene.

-Camera switches to outside. Eden lifts off and takes flight. GO RYNE!

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Eden’s Gate: Descent

-She’s now generally in control, even if specific commands are tough.

-Suddenly, an alarm rings out. An enemy is coming our way. Lots of enemies. Second fight time.

[Later edit: I combined my edited/abridged run through the next three bosses in one video. Enjoy!]

Antithesis Manifest: Voidwalker

-So what the actual hell was that?? Eden is a woman being clutched by this giant glider bird thing. The Voidwalker we just fought was a knight being held by this long-necked dragon-type thing.

And it called us evil. I mean, Eden nearly destroyed the First, so I wonder what it did to the Voidwalker, or why the Voidwalker attacked.

-My favorite visual attack was when it summoned a titanic demon hand (hand of “Erebos” I think?) to push us from the side.

-OH SHIT THE KNIGHT IS GETTING UP!

???: “Damn the Light… Damn you all!” Her armor looks SO COOL!

-She’s confused. “Why am I here? What is happening…?” And collapses. Mind control maybe?

-For now, Urianger says the fabric of reality tore during the fight. That’s how Voidsent got through.

RYNE: “I can’t really explain how, but [the knight] reminded me of Emet-Selch.” Could this knight be an Ascian…? No, that seems unlikely. Something to do with Zodiark though maybe.

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Eden’s Gate: Inundation

-Ryne is strengthening her bond with Eden, learning more about controlling it. That sounds both good and intensely dangerous.

-Eden shifted the Empty’s balance of aether so far to the umbral that it stopped flowing. Ryne thinks she can harness this balance-tipping power to restore the Empty.

-Urianger wants to try this restoration element-by-element.

“As the aether is drawn forth and realigned by Eden, we shall perform a summoning as Master Louisoix once did on the fields of Carteneau.”

We’re going to summon elemental primals… or rather, approximations of those primals from my memory. I don’t quite understand why, but I generally get that doing so and defeating it will somehow restore the balance of that particular element.

-Water first. We’ll summon a variant of Leviathan. How’ll they make this different from the ARR fight?

-Well… for one thing, he has two heads. [Later edit: After this post, gonna raise my music volume and lower other sound effects.]

-DOES FFXIV EVER NOT DO AN AWESOME TRIAL? Seriously, I can’t think of the last 8-player boss fight that didn’t take my breath away.

I often miss World of Warcraft and its big guild raid nights. Even now, I really wanted to find a way to return for patch 8.3 before seeing I don’t have enough time. XIV does a great job tempering that yen.

-The two-headed Leviathan was a powerhouse. It felt like a very new fight from the ARR Leviathan while retaining the same theme of “oh god don’t push me off oh GOD I’M GONNA FALL OFF”

-It said we’re doomed at the end. Whose consciousness was expressed in Leviathan’s words?

-Thancred calls us back to the camp outside Eden. I’m guessing the knight woke up.

-THE PLAN (which I’m still unclear on) WORKED.

Water is restored to the Empty. A lake and rivers flow across the formerly blank landscape.

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Eden’s Gate:

-The next element to align is earth.

-Thancred took off the still-sleeping knight’s helmet to check if she’s okay. Apparently, she looks normal. Not demonic or voidsent or whatever. A bit older than Ryne.

-LOLOL – Ryne asks about my memory of Titan, and one of my dialog options is “The landslides… the landslides…” One of his tougher attacks in ARR, and apparently traumatic to poor Ququshu.

-We head to the part of the empty that used to hold Mount Atlas. Let’s go.

-...OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO HARD.

-His design was phenomenal. A giant dude, but more humanoid than his Source form. And he had these engines/wheels surrounding his body that he constantly realigned.

-The toughest attack for me to learn was when he shifted the engines below him to form a monstrous go-cart. Only at the end did I learn how to deal successfully with the mechanic.

-It mostly worked again. It raised some rocky terrain in the immediate area and may still spread.

-Ryne is happy… then nearly collapses.

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The Next Piece of the Puzzle

-And we’ll take a break from the (still toxic) Empty. All of us, including the knight.

-Ryne especially needs the rest. I’m glad she found the courage to take control of the frigging FIRST SIN EATER, but still is dangerous af.

-The scene changes to Urianger and Thancred back in the Empty, discussing something I can’t hear.

URIANGER: “Though it is mere supposition, it would behoove us to proceed with caution. Moreover, I would refrain from discussing the matter with Ryne and Ququshu until we know more.”

Grrrrr more urianger secrets. My least favorite quality of his.

THANCRED: “The Oracle of Darkness… I pray it is not true.” Noooo! It smells like Ryne will be a raid boss down in one of the later parts of this raid. We’ll see.

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Some Great Player Names Around Eorzea

Hugeman Fantastiballs
Brain Cat
Ko Wala (seen by my friend Almaeron)

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Next time: Likely the 5.1 content when it hits next week. That patch includes a new dungeon, more main story quests, and the first part of the NieR Automata-based 24 player raid, and more.