Time for thoughts. I’m not going to regurgitate what happens in this part of the Main Scenario, as I’m assuming anyone reading this has already gone passed this point and has their own thought as well. These are just mine, and they may or may not align with anyone else’s and that’s perfectly fine! That’s the fun of experiencing the same story across the world – different feelings towards it!
What I did not expect was actually going to the Fourth already. The closest we’ve ever got to physically going to the expansion area(s) was in Heavensward with the Dragon Bridge Fight™ that was originally a fun trial but got converted into a solo instance (also fun, but not the same experience). Shadowbringers is probably the second closest technically but we didn’t actually see the First until 5.0 launched. Regardless, it’s a neat touch to actually step foot there and get a little prologue sort to speak.
So I’m not going to bash or be critical of what is done and said here, however the fact that only Alphinaud and Estinien being here with us has me pause and notice a parallel between Evercold and Heavensward. Floating Landmasses, lots of snow, and the fact that even the fight with Bismarck is brought up later on during this part of the Scenario Quests has me at least raise one eyebrow just a little bit.
Is this necessarily a concern? Maybe, maybe not – as of this writing the expansion nor the final trailer have been released so, this is all speculative. It’s just difficult to wave it by as ‘okay’ for something that I worry is retread to help the players feel some rose tinted glasses moment. Similarly to Star Wars Episode IX being really similar to Episode IV (sorry if this is a mild Star Wars Spoiler?)
What does transpire on said small floating island is a pretty good prologue as I have mentioned before. We get involved into said instance fight that is typical for an endcap expansion story, and if one is maxed out in stats, it will be a pushover. It is fun, I’ll give it that and thankfully not overly complicated. Then we’re greeted by Visna, a very young Miqo’te sky pirate(?) and her merry band on the same said airship that helps us out in the instance fight. She herself is absolutely adorable and I’m am almost wholly convinced is the second job they are going to reveal in the last Fan Fest coming up. A class that uses crossbows and a bird familiar would be absolutely a blast to play.
There is a ton of little details that Visna explains about the Fourth and where they’re heading. So after a quick ‘click and go’ quest, the whole band including Alphinaud and Estinien are off to the mother airship – for in which I am assuming is the first zone and first major city we’ll arrive upon entering Evercold via the portal we conveniently left behind on this little island. Which begs a few questions about how it moves with said island while it’s being towed, and what will happen to said island once it arrives at the destination.
Nitpicks I’m sure, but explanations are half the story most of the time, so if it just gets a hand-wave, I’m not going to be pleased. The whole explanation about brands and keeping populations under control is just some serious dystopian insanity and that everyone is just fine with it, really makes it a lot more bonkers of a thought. It all reminds me of Logan’s Run to an extent, but I suspect there’s a bit more to it all.
Anyway, it’s all pretty quick, self contained, and leaves room for more inquires once Evercold begins in January. Overall I am truly looking forward to it, but will not be the happiest Bunny in the room if this does in fact retread both Shadowbringers and Heavensward to drum up hype and that feeling of nostalgia to help the bottom line. That will irk me to no end, and I do understand that there’s still a whole expansion’s story and beyond to unpack, so it might be something else entirely, maybe we’ll figure out how to use the key a lot better and then bring more friends over or hop to other reflections like…. oh I don’t know… THE FIRST where we left all of our friends behind!
There is one thing that piqued my interest after the finale credits ended, and boy howdy did I like the artwork that was depicted in said credits! Halmarut and Calyx arriving on the Fourth and her getting a little annoyed with the fact that Calyx told us about where they were heading. He seems to have a motive, but knows to not mess up the Winterer’s pact in the process. So I am genuinely curious as to what that motive is and/or if Halmarut will go along with this eventually.
Something tells me not as much, but we’ll see eventually. What I don’t want is her to become another Emet-Selch that we end up sympathizing with just in the end to kill her off; not like in Evercold per se but in the future ultimately. It would be nice to have another friendly Ascian in our pocket like we do with Gaia.
We go back, talk to everyone else with a comically placed portal and then everyone goes on their merry ways. It was good overall, but I just hope it doesn’t do any of what I have mentioned prior. Them adding in Final Fantasy VII as the 8-Player raid set doesn’t necessarily help this however. I get it will all be fun and such, but these lingering thoughts will stick with me well into Evercold since Dawntrail was such a sore spot for me and a lot of the community as a whole. Evangelion, however, sounds like an absolute blast of fun and them making the fights using the Arcadion design has me looking forward to all that too.
I think that’s all I got for thoughts on this; regardless overall I am looking forward to Evercold and heading into it in January. Aikirees and I will more than thus be ready when the times comes, but until then, we got a few other worlds to tackle and a whole new Vice City to explore.
Grab a thick coat and some earmuffs, it’s about to get a lot colder soon enough!