Hokay, the second half, mostly. Right before leaving Yak T’el to head back to Tuliyollal for the Dawnservant Ceremony, we discover (at the end of the 95 dungeon), the gate to the City of Gold. I kind of always suspected it would be a bit less literal that a city of pure gold, and it mostly gets the name from the aura of golden illumination that the gate, the surrounding material, and what is passed the gate give off. However, we’re left hanging on just a simple not of ‘it can’t be opened right now,’ because that’s what’s about to come.
So after the Ceremony, Erenville offers to be our guide through Xak Tural, the northern part of Tural. He wishes to go home and to see his mother, Cahciua in a region known as Yyasulani, and that’s North of Shaaloani. Shaaloani being the next area we got to visit was a pretty self-contained zone with a very wild west feel. I suspect this zone was mixed because it added a lull between things, but it was an absolute blast going through it! Aside from the zone itself with aesthetics reminding me of my time traveling the country specifically the southwest, the amount of details put into the towns themselves made them feel so lively! I could easily see a lot of those taverns used for hangouts or role-playing events.
The main objective for Shaaloani was to get through it safely, but it ended up involving fixing a train, and figuring out the mystery behind a group of bandits (which ended in a literal western-stylized quick-draw moment). It’s all so fun. There was a really heartfelt reference to the trolley crew from the First too. That hit me pretty hard emotionally. One area I don’t know how I felt about it, and still not ‘great,’ was the inclusion of a local tribe to this region – that… didn’t sit quite right. It’s not blatant or anything and I get what they were trying to do with the whole ‘introduction to modern tech versus traditions,’ but just felt rather strange.
Anyway, after bandits & train hijinks, the final act begins with a giant lightning dome appearing over Yyasulani, and a bunch of sci-fi warships flying out of it heading towards Tuliyollal. Both things are bad, but we go back to the capital see what’s happened.
Zoraal Ja plays his card and comes to pay a visit with a bunch of warships. This is mostly just a flex move, but does a decent amount of damage still and hurts/kills a lot of civilians. Gulool Ja Ja takes on Zoraal Ja, but ultimately is defeated by his son. He leaves with an ‘invite’ to Wuk Lamat to come deal with him in the dome, with then following is seeing her grief and pain as she struggles to help in the aftermath of the invasion.
After spending nearly the entire first half with her and see her grow into the Dawnservant, this hit really hard emotionally. Struggling her to do everything she can to help all over the city only to see so much pain is heartbreaking. We really really wanted to go after Zoraal Ja once we got back on our feet after this; it kind of paralleled how we felt after Eulmore attacked the Crystarium in Shadowbringers while watching Lyna go through a similar scenario (less words, but just as impactful if not more though).
After some planning, and revealing that Krile is from through the Golden Gate that leads to another reflection of the Source, we’re off to the dome to find out what happened there. We get into some more Shaaloani train hijinks with taking the one we just got running and turning it into a colossal battering ram to blow a hole into some sort of entrance/base that straddles both sides of the lightning dome. The cut scenes leading up to and including the said exploding crash is both emotional and really fun! Seeing everyone work together across the entire continent to make this train a massive exploding weapon was strangely emotionally heartwarming.
So once the train does it’s final run and explodes a massive hole into the gate/stronghold facility at the edge of the dome, we head into the level 97 dungeon. This one was a blast to go through with great music too! A lot of fun mechanics and it just looked neato as it’s the first time we really get to see what technology we’re about to be up against.
Upon coming out under the lightning dome is a new area introduced as Heritage Found. This area is a vastly different in contrast to everything seen up to this point. It’s eerie, the sky is crackling of lightning with a massive mushroom shaped tower seen off in the distance absorbing it, and what was left of Yyasulani is left in desolate.
The initial feeling we got upon seeing all this is ‘what the heck happened?!’ So one does a bit of exploring, finds Erenville’s town abandoned and rundown, which should have been a far more emotional spot to breathe, but soon thereafter we’re introduced to Queen Sphene who has been ruling this region with Zoraal Ja for 30 years. Come to find out when this region, Alexandria from another reflection, merged with the Source using something called ‘Interdimensional Fusion’ via a relic known as just the ‘Key,’ and that accelerated time 30 years in a matter of minutes.
We tour a little more with Sphene showing us what’s been happening and how people are fairing, but also meet up with Cahciua in a matter of form. What’s revealed way too late in the story is she passed away some time in those 30 years and is controlling a floating machine of sorts. We’ll get back to this.
There’s an abundance of Final Fantasy IX references here on out, which is fine even if a few felt a bit forced. I know Endwalker had an astronomical amount of Final Fantasy IV references but for some reason they didn’t feel the same way at least to me. There’s a lot of new support characters one gets to meet both within the end-game city, Solution Nine, and around Heritage Found. Of the many new faces met, a couple stand out: a former knight with his soul transferred to a robot named Otis, and Zoraal Ja’s son, Gulool Ja. Shale is another support part of the backrooms team that I liked too, and does help in the main story here on out, but stays somewhat in the shadows with everyone else.
Solution Nine itself is probably one of my favorite cities to date in the game. It’s just so cool and massive! It’s a huge sci-fi city filled with neons, flying cars, highways, amenities, hang out spots, and the music is perfect. I love this place and we could easily idle there for way too long if given the chance. The backrooms, which is an instance inside Solution Nine where some of the story progresses, has a great Lo-Fi track.
I know this is starting to sound a bit ‘jumpy’ but a lot of this is in rapid succession with little time to breathe between it all. We go from learning about Everkeep/Solution Nine, Sphene and her realm of Alexandria, how her people live and use souls as a currency for ‘extra lives,’ and take on Zoraal Ja at the top of Everkeep all within the span of one zone. There are some good pause moments, like with Otis and Gulool Ja in Heritage Found (Otis became one of my favorite characters pretty quickly even with little we get to see him).
After all that, Zoraal Ja and Wuk Lamat confront each other, Zoraal Ja tells the warships to attack the city, and then heads back to the top of Everkeep for the final showdown. He gains control of Otis, and takes Gulool Ja with him after he tries to plead with his father to stop. Meanwhile in Tuliyollal, they easily fight back the invading army that now also includes Vrtra and his kin of dragons. This whole cut scene was super fun, and showed what Koana was up to while we all headed to the dome initially.
So were off to the 99 dungeon, and then the trial with Zoraal Ja after that. Both the dungeon and the trial are very good. The dungeon had a lot of good remixed mechanics from previous raids, but the first boss was a bit troubling. Zoraal Ja’s trial is once again optional with duty support, so that was fun to do and see everyone react in the fight. It was a 2-phase fight, with the second phase having some mechanics that tripped me up a few times. That one will take a few runs to get down for certain.
Finally with Zoraal Ja defeated and his son the new King, Sphene reveals to be the big ‘baddie’ to deal with now that Zoraal Ja has been. So she heads back to her own reflection with the interdimensional fusion ‘key’ in tow as well. Meanwhile we’re left to figure out how to pursue her before she succeeds in her plot to plunder aether from all of the reflections/Source to keep her people, the Endless, from fading away entirely. The Endless, including Sphene herself, are people who have passed away but with their memories stored within large databases that can be recreated back into reality like a hologram of sorts (or in Sphene’s case, take control of other humanoid sentry robots temporarily).
It’s… a lot.
I think I’m going to leave it here, and conclude this in another post. Up to her departing, even with it being a lot going on for just one area, it was mostly understandable to follow and interesting. Shaaloani was one of my favorite areas in this part of the story, as it was just so darn fun! Solution Nine I adore a lot and some of Heritage Found was good too. Both dungeons were great as was the trial with Zoraal Ja to go along with all that.
The fact that the Alexandrian’s use things called regulators to hold spare souls like a form of currency was really eerie. Even more so is they could use them to avoid accidental death, and it erased memories of people who have passed away. It just felt rushed and a lot of this, especially poor Erenville and what happened to his homeland, really needed extra time.