With the Terran Gambit Missions all completed, I went back to where I was supposed to be in the story quests, which led me back to once again the Romulan Mystery Missions. By the point I’ve already done a handful, including mentioning being ambushed at a Romulan outpost in Star Bunny II: Episode 1.
Space, it’s so cool and gorgeous.
I’ll touch on this a smidgen right now, but a lot of the later missions were taken under the U.S.S. Astera III; for the most part the lot of these went rather uneventful and felt like it was building up a prologue to another part of the story later on. Some had neat space fights, while others had… well tolerable/fun ground missions for the most part. I recall ‘Cutting the Cord’ really frustrating me for the ground part. However, on the opposite side ‘Coliseum’ was so much fun even with it being a bit more challenging.
There were a couple of missions with some neat space sections, the first being one that I cannot recall the name for the ears of me has one flying around a planet with a polygonal grid system surrounding it, and unintentionally interacting with it is not a good time.
The welcoming committee afterwards.
The U.S.S. Astera II did have an untimely fate during this mission, but it was fun. Another of note had me encountering a planet with a neat hexagonal shield system. I think this was the ‘Taris’ Mission, but I might be mistaken.
Hexagonal Shield is Hexagonal.
From there, really just did some more missions/side missions and flew through another ten levels rather quickly. My little U.S.S. Astera II’s decommissioning day was looming at this point.
A couple more space shots with the U.S.S. Astera II because space is beautiful.
It didn’t feel so quick with my second starship, but it kind of was. The exploration and battles that I took her into were so memorable; she was a tough little ship and still one of my favorite class’ of Federation Starship to this very day. More space exploration awaits~!
After a long day of adventuring through all of Etheirys, and the First, the two cousins return to Headquarters on this cold wintry night. Laureine placing her technological Allagan Lance and bodysuit into her private chambers, meanwhile Lizicus placing her trusty bow that was a gift from Laureine and armor away in her (rather sparse) private chambers’ armories.
After a quick clean-up and having some hot tea with a little to eat, they both just relax in front of the lower level’s large stone fireplace. They’re normally seen either together or keep in touch as to where they are while running around the vast world, and even on occasion are seen sitting and chatting somewhere, but not like this. On this cold night, while the snow comes down in Ishgard, they are fully relaxed with not a single care in the world even if just for a moment.
Everything from their future endeavors in Tural, Laureine’s next big Allagan idea, Lizicus’ favorite type of drinks, and what the latest ‘rad’ thing she saw in Old Sharlayan the other day just to name a few. All sorts of other things along with that that just came to mind while resting there listening to the light jazzical music from the Orchestration and the crackling of the fire. Lizicus ultimately laying down on a floor pillow slowly dozing out as Laureine just looked at the fire smiling and enjoying the company of her sometimes stubborn cousin, their pets, and just letting time freeze in this tranquil moment.
While it may have been a cold winter’s night outside, it was an incredibly warm and cozy night inside. Stay warm everyone, and enjoy a wonderful fireplace with a hot drink on these cold wintry nights.
This is it! The final Terran Gambit Mission! This was an incredibly long mission with multiple parts and I think it took me almost 2 hours to complete, but it was so gosh darn fun! From what I recall since this was a long while ago, and I still prior to this mission wasn’t very good at documenting these things, is in the Mirror Universe the Emperor (who is Wesley Crusher) was able to get assistance from The Other which is V’Ger’s counterpart in our Main Universe.
The initial mission has us racing The Other through the Sol System as it’s on the way to intercept Earth. We help out the fleet and stop at the Jupiter Station to help the station evacuate while The Other ‘deletes’ it from existence, along with every other planet in the Sol System. Afterwards we head to Mars and do a similar objective, but get as many people off the surface as we can.
The Jupiter one went pretty effortlessly, but the Mars’ part was bonkers! A lot of space firefights going on while trying to transport folks off the surface. It took a few tries. After that, everyone falls back to Earth to defend it from the incoming super threat. Upon arriving at Earth none other than V’Ger arrives to help defend against The Other.
The large scale battle over Earth with V’Ger and The Other looming.
My little U.S.S. Astera II taking on a large I.S.S. fleet alongside the flagship herself, the U.S.S. Enterprise F was such a blast to do! After coming out victorious in the skirmish, we’re lead into the inner section of The Other to stop Emperor Crusher.
The U.S.S. Astera II ominously flying through The Other.
This section was so neat!! It was so similar to scenes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture! The detail was incredible! While flying through this enormous entity, there were a few more skirmishes with more Mirror Universe starships. Nothing really of difficult until the final section.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any images from this part, but if you’ve seen Star Trek: The Motion Picture, it’s that part where Kirk and the Away Team have to set out on foot to reach V’Ger. This part was fairly difficult, even with now understanding how to swap to shooter mode for the ground missions. I honestly think this part took the longest, but after almost dying a few times, we made it out on top and stopped the Emperor with the help of his mother and The Other stopped its attack on Earth.
Mission: Complete Success!
All factions and teams, Mirror Universe as well, stop at Earth Space Dock to debrief and everyone heads back to their respective realities. The Other puts everything back that it ‘deleted’ and heads back to the Mirror Universe with everyone else. This whole series of Missions were so fun, even if they got difficult, and the finale was SO AWESOME! I very much was squeaking and geeking out while doing it.
From there, I just decided to relax at Earth Space Dock until another day.
In comfy clothes no less
Learned how to wear comfier clothes instead of my Starfleet uniform while on ‘off duty,’ and took a long-earned rest until the next mission.
Episode XIV! – Aikirees and I took off to explore the ruins in Sunken Temple for this week’s Fashion Report. While I examined the ruins, I also dictated back to her what she needed to jot down. Spoilers, it ended up being half useful information while the other half were doodles of Carbuncles.
The other day, while Aikirees was hunting down the weekly elite mark, she stumbled upon a gorgeous sunset over Western La Noscea with Pharos Sirius nearly on the horizon. It’s been a very long while since either of us had a moment to just enjoy a sunset while adventuring, so this was a very lovely treat to behold.
Episode XIII! – For this week’s report, we took to the field and adventured into the Great Gubal Library to take some notes and thimble through as many books as we could muster. All well not trying to gain the attention of anything lurking in the dark corridors.
After completing the Hildibrand Manderville 6.55 story, Aikirees and I set out to finish up our relics… only to realize we were a smidgen behind on tomes to acquire enough of the material needed to complete them. After a number of roulettes on my part, and only a couple on her’s, we were finally able to complete our relic weapons for Endwalker!! Quite the exciting moment and they look pretty neat as well.
I very much doubt we’ll ever complete another relic in the game unless they return to being more quest-driven like this series was in the future as opposed to large zone-related tasks like Eureka and Bozja were, but it was a very fun thing to have said that I did at least once.
There’s usually two camps when it comes to Hildibrand Manderville and his adventures/investigations: one either loves them or completely dislikes them. Then there’s another camp within the one for loving them: either loving all of it unconditionally, or liking specific sections. I personally fall into the camp of loving all of it unconditionally.
The Hildibrand Manderville stories are a set of side-stories that are typically accessed after completing a major part of the Main Scenario Quest (MSQ) and are usually just absolutely hilariously bonkers. I very much understand not liking nor enjoying these style of stories, but it makes for a very nice complement to the (usually) far darker/sadder/heavier stories and adventures that the MSQ itself tends to throw at us. Anyone who has completed up to and including The Vault, everything that involves Patch 5.3, and even completing of Endwalker in Patch 6.0 will very much understand what I mean by these being a nice complement.
So here we are at the end of Endwalker with Patch 6.55 and the finale portion of Hildibrand Manderville’s Endwalker escapades, and it was hysterical! Kind of like how the MSQ for 6.55 was a smidgen on the shorter side, this was as well but with the bonus addition of a Trial fight.
Disclaimer, I kind of sort of recall what was going on last as the prior quest was 8 months ago now, and minor spoilers as this will be talking about Patch 6.55 Hildibrand’s questline including images.
I see what you did there!
It starts right where we left off still looking for our alien friend’s, Master PuPu, missing friend and spaceship. We discover a lead in the case and quickly head out to meet up with everyone and begin investigating. From a local fisherman, we find out who is truly behind it all, one of his old friends risen to becoming a wealthy merchant, Vanhudi. What comes about after this is hilariously absurdly bonkers! Doctor Lugae appears on a large battle body, some comical dialogue happens about blatantly saying he’s there to cause trouble at Yedlihmad. Before being able to act upon said trouble-causing, Godbert Manderville comes out of nowhere to instantly stop him.
ALL OF A SUDDEN, GODBERT!
It took me a moment to register what just happened and about that moment it did, several Doctor Lugae clones appear only to be comically thwarted by Julyan Manderville with a colossal frying pan. Meanwhile the original Doctor Lugae back onto his feat only to throw a spiky bomb towards Yedlihmad. Julyan tosses her frying pan over to me and hit the thing like a baseball!
The crowd goes wild!
Doctor Lugae throws yet another one, which I end up missing; only to have Hildibrand leap and catch it in time…
Nashu just causally walking away from the detonating bomb.
…only for it to explode in his face. Nashu casually walking away while everyone else ran was pretty hilarious. The Doctor decides to throw one more as a fast ball with me getting ready for the big throw. He throws the pitch and I send it careering back at him. It was great, even including a dramatic freeze-pose and all when I made contact with the mine itself.
Taking on Doctor Lugae’s Fastball & aftermath.
The crew cheer and we head off with all of the information we’ve gathered prior to this comical incident to confront the person behind it all, Vanhudi. We’re given a personal flight to his rather massive and fancy villa to be greeted by the man himself. After telling him we know all about his dasterly deeds, he asks me to join him to be cloned by PuPu’s Friend’s spaceship and take over the world. I decline such an insane offer (there is another dialog option agreeing to it, but I didn’t choose that one), and he goes about summoning a Primal to deal with me, Asura.
I got this!
Everyone retreats from the battlefield and the Trial is unlocked! The fight with Asura is really fun; not overly complicated (except one mechanic that kind of can be), but very enjoyable none the less. After Asura is taken out, PuPu’s friend recovers their ship, joins the fray to thwart Vanhudi from escaping. The two aliens are reunited and everyone retreats back to Radz-at-Han to finish up and conclude the story. One thing of note is during the climatic final bout betwee PuPu’s friend and Vanhudi, PuPu’s friend’s ship becomes unstable and before exploding Brandihild (Hildibrand’s ‘flawed’ clone) comes to the rescue and gets the ship far away. Presumed gone after the explosion, but once the credits role on concluding the story, come to find out that Brandihild survived the explosion! I let out one hoobers of a cheer upon seeing him alright.
This was so gosh darn fun and such a hoot as always. The whole baseball reenactment scene was the main highlight for me in this part of the story. Loved the Trial lots too and look forward to it coming up in Trial Roulettes down the road once a certain Dragoon level reaches said point.
Hildibrand flies away on PuPu’s UFO into the unknown at the end, so we’ll see you next time in Tural, inspector~!
The other evening, while Laureine was out adventuring on her own taking care of her own personal tasks and objectives that are usually unable to be done during the normal weekly tasks, she comes upon Sirena on the First assisting Granson to find a specific Cardinal Virtue. It was a very lovely intermission of rest from both of their adventuring, where then a couple of U.F.Os come along and attempt to tractor beam them away.
Seemingly miscalculating their size versus said alien vehicles, it ended up being more of a float hammock of sorts. Meanwhile the two kept chatting until their attempted abductors gently put them back on the ground and flew off in a hurry. Quite possibly to find a target far smaller that could be picked up properly.
Anden may want to look over the flock a bit more thoroughly this evening…
Episode XI! – Big winter coats, spiky shoulder gauntlets, fancy pants with some… interesting shoe choices confuse me for this week’s Fashion Report. Once again, Aikirees is having the time of her life and I just still don’t fully understand the situation.
My assistant spending a cold winter evening relaxing in front of EOCA HQ’s lounge fireplace keeping warm. I know a lot of places are on the colder side, so please do take care and stay warm while the weather outside is cold out!
Well technically the ending to Endwalker’s story was 6.0 and the 6.x series was more of a mini-story setting up for things in the future, this is where the finale credits for the expansion happened in Patch 6.55. This small part of the Main Scenario Quest (MSQ) was more of a prologue to the next expansion, Dawntrail, and it was so enjoyable!
Foooood~!
While this isn’t necessarily talking about what exactly happens in this patch/part of the MSQ, there’s very minor spoilers and a handful of screenshots from it, so skim on past or wait till y’all have gotten this far before glancing through it. The entirety of it felt shorter than previous finale MSQ’s, I think Shadowbringers’ was a smidgen longer with a long instance to end it, and Stormblood had a really rough instance to end it as well. I could be mistaken as it has been several years since I’ve done Shadowbringers’ and even far longer since Stormblood’s.
Wuk Lamat is adorable.
Regardless of the length (it’s not really that important, just a side-thought), the amount of stuff that was added into these last few quests of the expansion are so gosh darn full of wonderfulness! Wuk Lamat is officially introduced here hailing from Tural asking for assistance in her homeland for becoming the new ruler, which will presumably unravel as we adventure through Dawntrail.
This was a really, really fun little prologue! The energy, the characters’ interactions, the introduction of Wuk Lamat and showing off her personality all in such a small amount of time made me adore her and get really interested in what the hoobers we’re getting ourselves into during Dawntrail! The instance itself was well done and bumps one up to an absurdly high Item Level that, while it doesn’t make it a full breeze to get through, gives it just the right difficulty and feels like more of an interactive part to the already fun prologue sequence.
Obligatory Map Image, because Maps.
It ultimately ends with us agreeing to go over to Tural and all parties present with us beginning preparations to head on out. Thus the finale credits to Endwalker begin. These ending credits were pretty neat too, a lot of fun little scenes and some concept artwork sprinkled throughout.
Couple of notable credit scenes
Post Credits had one more cut scene with parties not-present but are also Westward bound too. Thancred and Urianger’s specifically being one of note that kind of helps mold some of what we’re going to see happen during Dawntrail.
Dun, dun duuuun~
Final little messages come up, and then that was it. I know I’ve said it a few times already, but this was great. I loved every moment of this whole thing. There’s still a lot for us to do between now and Dawntrail, but this all setting the stage for it leading into a whole new land and story was absolutely wonderful! Here’s to many many more adventures ahead, wherever they take us!
We all have finally attained level 70 Dragoon!! The 60-70 adventure was mostly pleasant overall, and understanding the several rotations that the class has up to 70 hasn’t been all that rough either. The story was enjoyable too, but I personally liked the 50-60 one a lot more.
The full screenshots of us celebrating Level 70 Dragoon
Once the Dragon Gauge was unlocked at 70, the rotations and combo’s become absolutely bonkers! It all makes sense, but upon first seeing it was a bit overwhelming especially when we main Black Mage. All in all though, we’ve been really enjoying Dragoon so very much. It’s fun and balanced between speed and what should be executed next while moving around the battlefields.
This was also really gratifying to see happen upon hitting level 70 as well. It might look really awful jumping from 60 to 70 gear, but we really only stuck with roulettes that kept us around 60 or below all of the time. I can’t believe were only 20 levels left. Here’s to those and more adventures ahead!!
Aikirees and I caught up the other evening after finishing up all of our objectives for the day under the Ruby Sea. This moment was so serene and just relaxing after a haptic day/evening.
Also recently acquired the Major-General minion that had this absolutely amazing item description.
The little feller is an achievement-based minion from ocean fishing. Anyway, we’re quickly approaching Dragoon Level 70 now as well!!
Nothing fancy, just my assistant out and about having a quick daydreaming moment while searching for a treasure map. Some of the things the AFK camera picks up are rather neat, and this one was certainly one of those!
