FFXIV - placeholder topic

Well, I've been a bit of a long time lurker.  Still, it surprises me that nobody's honestly taken a shot at some of the obvious things to come out of this (in my sole estimation) really good reproduction to come out.  Now, this thread is a placeholder for now, and more to spur me onto actually doing a writeup for all the sightings in this game (and there's a few!), but for now, just a placeholder post with a few teaser links.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150729105209/finalfantasy/images/4/47/FFXIV_Warring_Triad_Goddess.png

https://i.imgur.com/ncbKEhD.jpg

http://asianinaction.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/ffxiv-2013-9-12-2-6-6-273.jpg

D has talked about it some, but I think it was all on their thread or in general gaming, so this is good =) Also, first pic is a tad small.

ANYTHING regarding the Goddess of the Triad is new to me. We all knew she was coming ever since they brought in Sephirot the Fiend, but if we can get a better view of that image, that would be amazing.

I just got back into the game myself, starting the Heavensward story. Got to see Ysayle give herself to Saint Shiva again (and get her ass kicked again; this time, not by me).

Okay, I must've misunderstood the Goddess pic (especially with it being so damn small).

I'm in Azys Lla, the final region of Heavensward, and I have now completed all of the main quests up to the final duty, which in this case, automatically gives me the ability to fly in that region. And so I fly up to the entrance to the final dungeon, and I find...



I didn't realize Warring Triad was a thing here for the entirety of Heavensward, as I had never heard a thing about it until the update with the Sephirot fight.
So anyways, this is pretty much what I guess we should expect for the appearance of Goddess (anyone want to take bets on her being called Lakshmi? YES, I know Goddess and Lakshmi are two separate things in VI), or at least her basic form, if she transforms later in her fight.

And some more semi-spoilers, Azys Lla is an old Allagan research station. One of its four quadrants is relegated to the research, creation, and maintenance of Chimerae. And one such creature that has always been counted among that breed of being?
Lamiae. But again, it's the blue-skinned cobra mermaids.

Also, on an unrelated note, goddamn, this is the best final area ever. Were this not an MMO, you'd DEFINITELY be getting finale vibes from this area!
Well, time to go finally get my character to level 60, and take on the final mission of 3.0.

I checked into this since my friend was talking about it, and according to the ff wiki her name will be Sophia the Goddess. It was something Tetsuya Nomura decided when he was working on FF6
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Warring_Triad_(Final_Fantasy_XIV)
There's more about it here in the entomology section
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Goddess_(Final_Fantasy_VI)

Okay, I've pretty much done all of the standard content at this point. It's just Alexander and Extreme battles that I've not gotten to.

So, Heavensward Raid series: Shadow of Mhach. The first is the Void Ark. Final boss of the Void Ark is Echidna, the mother serpent.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eWI2lveDhUk/hqdefault.jpg
That's her primary form, which is actually a fusion of monsters. At times during the battle, she splits, and we see that she is a Lamia (of the Void, not Allagan chimeric experimentation this time).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kejUZ1xpVT8/VkO6OrM3sNI/AAAAAAAAArc/6j0zeLbypI8/s1024-Ic42/ffxiv_11112015_153947.png

Echidna protected a coffin, which we learn from magical familiar Cait Sith contains the Shadow Queen: Scathach. Diabolos, fueled by vengeance for your earlier defeat of him, is seeking to revive her. She'll likely be the final boss of the third part of Shadow of Mhach, not introduced yet.

Second part is Weeping City of Mhach. First boss is Arachne Eve, a giant spider with a feminine torso.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPua81-5J7k/maxresdefault.jpg
She actually had some very confusing web techniques, took me a while to figure out how to remove the web cage. Lots of undead bosses and security systems, yada yada, and we make our way to the heart of the city to find the Null Stone. But we find it contained within a certain guardian: Calofisteri.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/b/b4/FFXIV_Calofisteri.png/revision/latest?cb=20160609102214
And she fights using her HAIR. And that's about all I can say.

Oh, and both Echidna and Calofisteri drop minions of themselves.

Special note for one boss, I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Calcabrina, the boss that's a big FFIV reference? She can turn party members into Calca and Brina dolls.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-j9ZZD6KolO4/Vs1NPNDLDWI/AAAAAAAAES8/rWJZBpYbY-o/s1152-Ic42/ffxiv_02232016_222049.png
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R0t8R6bdfGM/maxresdefault.jpg

Echidna I think may be a FFIII reference. Its FFIII counterpart is 1 of 4 bosses you must fight and defeat in the World of Darkness to reach and defeat the Cloud of Darkness. Calofisteri is a FFV nod. A boss of its name and appearance is one of several bosses found in the Rift, specifically the forest area.

Hornofdesolation wrote:Echidna I think may be a FFIII reference. Its FFIII counterpart is 1 of 4 bosses you must fight and defeat in the World of Darkness to reach and defeat the Cloud of Darkness.

Strange, since World of Darkness was the third part of the first raid series, The Crystal Tower. But the bosses there were Angra Mainyu, Five-headed Dragon, and Cerberus.

And yeah, I knew Calofisteri was a V-nod. The Weeping City of Mhach itself is a IX-theme. The dungeon music is based off of IX's battle theme, I could swear the Headstone guarding the main building should've been referencing Valia Pira, and that fight is followed up by Ozma (Oh boy, was THAT a fight).

I'm in the middle of the Gears of Change but have to get higher level items to go through the Antitower. Where would you recommend I get them from?

Aetherochemical Research Facility (WHAT A NAME FOR A FINAL DUNGEON!)
Enjoy yourself some Imagination.


Repeatedly. And then take the Tomestones of Esoterics to Rowena's shop in Idyllshire, get yourself Antiquated Class Gear.

Or, if you have the gil, buy some level 220 stuff off the market. They're referred to as Eikonic Gear in general, though they don't all share that title, I know I, as a tank, got some High Mythrite gear.

DoubleEdged wrote:Okay, I've pretty much done all of the standard content at this point. It's just Alexander and Extreme battles that I've not gotten to.

So, Heavensward Raid series: Shadow of Mhach. The first is the Void Ark. Final boss of the Void Ark is Echidna, the mother serpent.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/eWI2lveDhUk/hqdefault.jpg
That's her primary form, which is actually a fusion of monsters. At times during the battle, she splits, and we see that she is a Lamia (of the Void, not Allagan chimeric experimentation this time).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kejUZ1xpVT8/VkO6OrM3sNI/AAAAAAAAArc/6j0zeLbypI8/s1024-Ic42/ffxiv_11112015_153947.png

Echidna protected a coffin, which we learn from magical familiar Cait Sith contains the Shadow Queen: Scathach. Diabolos, fueled by vengeance for your earlier defeat of him, is seeking to revive her. She'll likely be the final boss of the third part of Shadow of Mhach, not introduced yet.

Second part is Weeping City of Mhach. First boss is Arachne Eve, a giant spider with a feminine torso.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPua81-5J7k/maxresdefault.jpg
She actually had some very confusing web techniques, took me a while to figure out how to remove the web cage. Lots of undead bosses and security systems, yada yada, and we make our way to the heart of the city to find the Null Stone. But we find it contained within a certain guardian: Calofisteri.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/b/b4/FFXIV_Calofisteri.png/revision/latest?cb=20160609102214
And she fights using her HAIR. And that's about all I can say.

Oh, and both Echidna and Calofisteri drop minions of themselves.

Special note for one boss, I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Calcabrina, the boss that's a big FFIV reference? She can turn party members into Calca and Brina dolls.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-j9ZZD6KolO4/Vs1NPNDLDWI/AAAAAAAAES8/rWJZBpYbY-o/s1152-Ic42/ffxiv_02232016_222049.png
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R0t8R6bdfGM/maxresdefault.jpg

Tried to reply to this last night, but I accidentally backed out of my response midway... Let's try again.

Really like that Echidna design, looks daunting but also sexy. Not the vampiress Echidna from FF4, but a demonic lamia is awesome too =) Mother of serpents, interesting... Would be interesting if it was the propagator of all lamia as well... Potentially harvesting, or merging wayward explorers into itself that become corrupted into lamia or melusine...

I'm also interested in seeing what Final Fantasy does with Scathach, considering the two pop culture versions I've seen of her are rather sexy... and this time she'll be a shadow queen to boot
http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Lancer_(Fate/Grand_Order_-_Sc%C3%A1thach)
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Scathach

Arachne Eve is an interesting design, strange coloring and a statuesque like face, for some reason though I don't care for it, weird.

Yay Calofisteri~! Huh, they made her a little more monster like I see... Even her feet... huh.

Spoiler:

Oh, and by minions, you mean those little pets that follow you around? Again, that just begs for the monstergirls using it as a disguise to have their revenge late at night, that being said OMG THEY ARE SO CUTE!

Calcabrina, that's very interesting... She/they could benefit from a sexy redesign(or the concept could be fused with Castlevania's Killer Dolls)... But yeah that ability would definitely hit a few kink if it wasn't used for turning people into nightmarish baby dolls.

Thanks for the update guys =)

Oh, got a question that's probably been answered a bunch, but what servers are you on. A friend of mine is doing a strong push to get me in and he's on Leviathan, but I still want to know just in case.

Excalibur. Though I have considered starting another new character elsewhere, depending on which friends are actively playing.

I'm on Coeurl. I'm in the middle of As Goes Light, So Goes Darkness.

Famfrit. Though leveling a new character on a different server (and redoing the story with a better understanding of whats going on) might keep me interested in this patch for a bit longer than the last one.

On the topic of Sophia the Goddess from what people are saying on the forums she was worshiped by a country of various cultures. The interesting thing being that the information implied she TEMPERED ALL OF THEM in order to make them get along. This would make it the first mass brainwashing by a female primal since Shiva and Garuda have never been big on tempering. Too bad this is all in the backstory and will probably never be touched on in the game itself since the players will probably kill her permanently like we did to Sephirot.

Well, finally did a level 50 dungeon I was never around for initially, and felt I had no need to go through with Heavensward but...

Sastasha (Hard)
This dungeon has lots of grotesque-looking people. And Lamiae. And it looks like these particular Lamiae are not chimeric abominations of the Allagan.
Nope, this time, these are women who have been corrupted by the influence of Leviathan to the extreme. Unfortunately, not an alluring sort; I know one particular type was screaming in horror at her form (Don't look at me! DON'T LOOK AT ME!!). The men's heads were starting to look more like Flayers, but none ever become a Flayer-type enemy. But the women were 100% serpent-women, and fought you as such.

bad news on goddess though she is accompanied by her thralls, she herself dost seem to do much in the way of charm attacks, she will do mass zombification if you dont clear the add phase quick enougth though.

Okay, here are the REALLY relevant bits from Stormblood-

Lorelei. A sea spirit that can muddle your will. More feminine in aesthetics than figure.

Sri Lakshmi. Divinity of the Ananta. The "Lady of Bliss" is open to interpretations, even between the various Ananta tribes. The Vira clan consider her a goddess of freedom, and even when faced with a manifestation of her, would not prostrate to her. The Qalyana clan are more like to revere her as a goddess of beauty, and ther dire circumstances that summoned her also draw that clan to even offer her their most prized stones/crystals (the clan that obsesses over their gemcraft at that). The fight against Lakshmi is rather strange, in that you're given a critical technique to activate at key moments to guard yourself. The main attack being one in which she truly dominates your will and tries to suck out your soul as you all dance for her in an entranced state (cannot be avoided!). Leading up to the fight, we are again reminded of the soul tempering power of primals, as she attempts to enslave the Scions with you using that divine flame, though apparently it has to actually hit them, and apparently, Warrior of Light can actually act as a wall against this sorcery.



Haven't fought Sri Lakshmi Extreme yet, but apparently her fight only yields accessories of the same level as Susano Extreme's weapons.

Minor enemies include a particular spirit enemy that looks somewhat like a woman. Actually, one of the two versions is a spirit, the other more like a golem (Salt Vardha). I can't be sure, but I think I saw a strange chimera near Ala Mhigo the seemed to have a female body on top.
The Ananta themselves look very nice. Rather than the cobra-hoods we've seen on Lamiae, the Ananta actually have something that looks like hair (when not covered by woven veils). Albeit scaly braids/dreadlocks, but it does actually look somewhat like hair.

Also, one other dungeon has a possessed "princess" as a sub boss with a more monstrous sea witch (that was possessing said princess) as the final boss.

Oh and then there's Yotsuyu. Very attractive villain, but she is no seductress at all.