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End of Chapter 7
-Finished up my side quests in Vesperpool and I’m ready to leave.
-End of chapter. Chapter 8: “Seaworthy.”
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A Precious Source of Power
-Aranea drops us off in Lestallum, where there seems to be trouble at the power plant. See ya, Aranea.
-Noctis goes in solo in full hazmat gear.
-The plant is infested with daemons. Holly is our contact in the power plant, and while I’m clearing it out she’ll treat our newly-acquired mithril.
-A hunter went in ahead of me. Maybe I’ll get a guest partner.
-Yup! It’s Gladiolus. They weirdly conceal his identity even though his voice is clearly Gladio’s.
-We clear out the daemons inside before a core surge hits. Holly passes over the mythril.
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Side Stuff
-This product placement is ridiculous. It’s fine to have Cup Noodles as an in-game item, but the side quest where Gladiolus gives me full advertising pitches for the food is annoying and over the top. People don’t talk like this! STOP GAME.
-It keeps going. I just skip the dialogue. Which, if you’ve seen my LPs you should know I don’t do lightly.
-OMG IRIS GOT ME A STUFFED MOOGLE <3 <span class="idc-smiley"><span style="background-position: -48px -12px;"><span><3</span></span></span> <span class="idc-smiley"><span style="background-position: -48px -12px;"><span><3</span></span></span> I LOVE HER DEEPLY AND IF ANYTHING BAD HAPPENS TO HER I WILL THROW THINGS
-lolol the moogle can even be used in battle as a decoy to draw enemy attacks. I’m sorry, Luna, we have to break this off.
-THE CAT FROM GALDIN IS BACK! He’s at the Caem lighthouse, where I get him some fish. I hope he follows us everywhere.
-And the reward is a Sky Gemstone, needed for a weapon upgrade.
-There’s a vegetable garden mini-game at Caem. I can grow carrots to sell to a local restauranteur. I can trade a number for either gil, berries, or weapons. I opt for weapons (upgradeable daggers) and berries.
-My favorite weapon to use by far is a two-handed sword, but I can’t bring myself to take Gladio’s Genji Blade. Would feel wrong for it to not be in his hands.
-One side quest brings me to the Crestholm Channels, a dungeon outside Insomnia.
-This is an intense dungeon with many enemies in the 40s. A confusing maze.
-There are a lot of mini-bosses here, include a giant naga thing and even Yojimbo himself.
-I have to backtrack quite a bit before I find all four valves that unlock the final boss room. So glad FFXV doesn’t refill cleared rooms with new enemies. This would have taken forever if it did. Instead, the lack of enemies after a first clear gives me freedom to explore.
-I thought the final boss might have been Leviathan, but no. It’s Jordmungandr, a giant dragon snake.
A tough fight! But again, Ignis’ Overwhelm carries me.
-My one complaint is about the lack of save points throughout the dungeon. That’s some Final Fantasy III bs. If the final boss had beaten me, I would’ve had to do the whole thing over, right? Punishing af.
[Non-rhetorical question: if I leave the dungeon to save, do the non-boss enemies respawn? And were there autosaves along the way that I didn’t see?]
-One side quest I took on was, Formouth Fortress, was just a giant battle against seven million troops along with Loqi and Caligo again.
-I got to summon Titan here for the first time. Epic af, though I think I still like the Ramuh one more.
[Non-rhetorical question: what triggers the option to summon? Totally random, or only happens in bosses at low health, or something else?]
-LOLOL CINDY REMODELED THE REGALIA INTO A MONSTER TRUCK XD
I took djinn87’s advice to customize the car and might have gone a bit too far.
-It gave me access to a new off-road race course, and I hate it. It feels so clunky and awkward to drive in this car.
-Woot, hit level 60! There are just so dang many side quests and hunts now.
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Adventurer From Another World
-Uh… Another event quest?
-It’s a Miqo’te woman beneath a fat chocobo. And she has the FFXIV quest icon above her head.
-A fat chocobo sits atop her. I have to get it some veggies to make it scoot off.
-She’s Y’jhimei, a Miqo’te. A divine summoning is happening nearby. Primal trial in my XV?
-This is bizarre. She gives us a linkpearl, refers to hunters as “adventurers,” etc. The fat chocobo musical theme only adds to the strangeness.
-We head over to the nearby imperial base.
*linkpearl starts ringing*
GLADIOLUS: “You gonna get that?”
NOCTIS: “How am I supposed to ‘get it’?” lololllllllll idk
An XIV “Duty Ready!” window.
-A group of Ixali are here preparing to summon Garuda.
-She seems to be a healer. White mage or scholar.
Y’JHIMEI: “You better watch it, or else I’m gonna have to hit you with my book!” Nm, she’s a scholar.
-There’s a bird statue here. It’ll definitely come into play, but not sure how.
-As we fight, I like how she yells out her spells as she casts them. “Physick! Physick!” That’s my new canon for XIV: to use abilities, characters just yell the names out over and over. Raids must be a cacophonous mess.
-We’re too late; Garuda’s coming. THAT XIV GARUDA MUSIC!! My favorite piece from ARR.
-What a great fight! It mirrors her fight in XIV, razor plumes included. She also splits into different versions of herself. [Non-rhetorical question: is that a new mechanic for XV, or something from her extreme mode in XIV?]
-At the end, that statue from before awakens. It’s a messenger, like Gentiana.
HOLY SHIT THAT SUMMONING THOUGH! THAT MUST BE XV’S VERSION OF GARUDA
-When Noctis connected with XV!Garuda, his eyes turned pink. He was “dreaming” briefly. Just a sign of telepathic communication with XV!Garuda or the canon explanation for that XV crossover event in XIV?
-The messenger then whispers to Noctis only. She was defeated by the gods, and then awakened by a traveler from another world. Must be Y’jhimei.
The gods defeated her? I thought messengers were servants of the gods. Maybe she rebelled in time past. Either way, I have a new summon!
MESSENGER: “Over my long slumber, my name has been forgotten. I shall therefore take on the name of the goddess of storms.” So she IS XV’s Grauda! But only in reference to XIV’s Garuda. That’s wild.
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Next time: A bunch of tier 5/6 hunts and side quests. The Hunter HQ has a whole mess of new hunts available, and Dino gave me a quest to go to Costlemark Tower.
