Alright, so, there’s parts of this patch’s story that I really disliked, and portions I really liked. The portion I disliked was the whole addressing Alexandria & loss of Sphene part. This feels like it’s treading fairly close as to how Patches 4.x and 5.x happened. I understand that it can pivot a whole different direction, but as of right now it just doesn’t sit well with me. The rest of it with Koana, Gulool Ja, and the Shaaloani train adventures were absolutely wonderful.
We head out of our cabins to be asked what we’ve been up to, and ultimately get some free tacos at the local place. We overhear a father and son talking about how his son was under the lighting dome the last 30 years with him having a hard time adjusting.
There’s a bit of this happening as of late with folks returning to the city from Solution Nine, which makes sense with a lot of folks having been caught by surprise and stuck under the dome for 30 years, being separated from loved ones until now. During all of this, Wuk Lamat see’s us doing the same and joins us for some tacos too and letting the father & son know about a group/organization to help with getting reaquainted with Tuliyollal’s way of life. From there, this leads us into heading out to Solution Nine for Sphene’s funeral since we kind of sort of are responsible for her being killed and shut down all of the Endless servers. Wuk Lamat goes in official position while were asked to go as support.
The funeral itself did hit some home notes: how does one explain death to someone who has never felt the pain/grief that comes with it? Hard discussion even in this day and age to folks who haven’t yet – and there’s no easy answer unfortunately. I’ll leave it at that, as not to dwell on what a lot of folks who are reading this are well aware of such matters.
Right afterwards, Gulool Ja brings up wanting to find out more about his mother, so we plot a plan to go find out more about here which leads us to one of the creepiest dungeons in the game.
The dungeon itself, Yuweyawata Field Station, is a lot of fun! The middle boss has some bonkers mechanics (not hard, just bonkers), including a combo proximity/confuse mechanic, but this place does both a fun time and be perfectly creepy at the same time very well. Once it’s all done we continue to find out about Gulool Ja’s mother. The whole thing also uncovers a plot to place souls into beasts for ‘unlimited’ life (someone’s been stealing notes from a certain Garlean Scientist…) and this leads into a foreshadow moment but not known yet. We also learn that Zoraal Ja dismissed his offspring as impossible, and… well aside from his inane reaction, we know how that all turned out in 7.0.
After all of this, we are asked to check on the train in Shaaloani to see how transport is coming along to get folks two and from Solution Nine to Tuliyollal.
This whole part was great, and I did like learning more about where/how Gulool Ja came about in the previous part of this leg of the MSQ, and this whole section of giving Koana more character development was sorely needed. He was sidelined so much in the 7.0 MSQ that one really doesn’t get to know him, but now he gets a bit more of the limelight, and it’s great!
After meeting up with Koana and Erenville, we head on over to the Hhetsarro Camp to talk with them about the rroneek as to why they’re grazing patterns have been changing, ultimately leading them closer to the train’s rails. After some investigation and understand their way of life, the thought of a larger critter could be scaring them away from their usual grazing areas. This leads to the thought that it might be a Tturuhhetso, ‘rroneek reaver,’ which turns out to be correct.
After a fun instance battle with said Tturuhhetso, we hear more about Koana’s parents and how they saved him and their village from one of these things years ago, ultimately losing their lives in the process but saving Koana’s.
Now understanding his past a lot more, he comes to realize that he never had a reason to resent his parents all this time, and vows to protect his family just like his did all those years ago. With all that said and one, they take a part of the Tturuhhetso that could become a nifty whistle to keep the rroneek away from the train.
The whistle test is a resounding success, and we begin to head back to Solution Nine to see how progress has been going with Gulool Ja’s mother’s information, and to let everyone know the train should be getting close to being operational again. There’s a really touching moment with Erenville and him having a small new keychain attached to his big backpack as a remembrance to his mother and the promise he made to take her wherever adventures took him. I didn’t get any screenshots of this moment, but it was really sweet.
Back in Solution Nine, we let everyone know what’s been going on, Y’shtola and Shale head to Living Memory, and before we head back to Tuliyollal we go check on some unrest/commotion right quick.
A crowd had formed to discuss the loss of a hunter to lightning out in Heritage Found due to lack of souls left, causing the concerns of death to return to the forefront of their minds.
And… enter ‘Sphene.’ Who calms the crowd and explains this whole new system to make everyone Endless via the beast system, but it will take time. The black regulators that folks got at the funeral are part of this new system, but limited to 5,000 at the moment.
A weird memory anomaly happens and they all forget about the funeral that they literally just had about Sphene’s passing. Wuk Lamat calls out this Sphene as an imposter (because she clearly is), and draws the ire of the crowd. We retreat back to the backrooms to update everyone on what transpired before finally heading back to Tuliyollal for the time being.
…only for Shale and Y’shtola to find the real Sphene had magically reappeared in Living Memory.
There’s really nothing about this Sphene set up I like right now. It feels like how Zenos came back in Stormblood, and to a lesser extend what Elidibus did in Shadowbringers. Just… ugh, and I am fully aware it could be and/or do something completely different, but this just doesn’t compel me to be interested in it at all. Aside from Sphene, the rest of this chapter has been a whole lot of fun and look forward to hearing a lot more of those stories and how they unfold.
I want to like Sphene, but she just needs some sort of time to breathe, and not be jerked back into the story as a quick plot-device. I’ll be curious as to where this all goes in 7.2, and what the custom deliveries will do for the railway system in 7.15. Of course, looking very much to Hildibrand’s return as well then too.
Until next time~!