So last night, I finished Heavensward 3.3. In other words, I took down an angry Nidhogg, cleared the Firmament questline, helped Consulting Inspector Briardien de Manseauguel to restore order, and bought myself an apartment in the Empyreum. All in all an eventful Saturday.
[Note: This part was done on 23rd Oct]
The Japanese insist it's okay not to be okay
Japanese storytelling can be intriguing. Its society isn't the sharpest tool in the global shed in dealing with mental health. But in terms of fictional characters dealing with mental issues, chances are that no one does it like the Japanese. If there's a story that says it's okay not to be okay, Bungo Stray Dogs would be it.
Recently, my henjin self decided to act up again. I downloaded Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost mobile game. And I have to say I'm impressed by what I'm dealing with. The gameplay is about thinking out of the box where you try to smash as many orbs as possible with a marble. It works like a pinball game minus the flippers for lack of a better way of putting it.
While I have information on the series and its characters via the fandom site, seeing the real deal resonated with me in a way no counsellor could. The good thing about this game is that you get to unlock vital scenes at various points of game progression. Because I couldn't jump all over the place like a Dragoon high on weed, I decided to focus on the main story. Before that, I already knew about Nakajima Atsushi's trauma. While it's a reflection of what I had to endure, going through the scenes made the impact very real.
In Atsushi, I saw myself. In the cruel words of the orphanage director, I saw the standard uttered by a toxic educational environment. Hence, I find Atsushi inspiring even though I disagreed with how he gauged his self-worth. Despite having gone through hell, he did not come back a demon. There are always two ways to live your life if you're a social reject demonised by others. You can be a supreme gentleman like Elliot Rodger or someone like Nakajima Atsushi. I looked at the former and knew this was what I could have been. I looked at the latter and knew where I now stand today.
On a side note, my main team consists of SSR Yosano Akiko, SSR Mori Ogai, and SR Nakajima Atsushi.
The Final Steps of Faith: Have faith in your healer if you went down like Hraesvelgr
Final Steps of Faith was the most intensive trial I've done currently. Considering I've yet to reach Shadowbringers, it's not saying much. The fight was an eye-opener as in I got myself two one-shots. On the flip side, I got two commendations for that. Okay, it's probably a lie because respect beyond the basic level is something to be earned, loldrg or no loldrg.
As someone being a schoolyard meme from Henderson Primary School to Gan Eng Seng (Secondary) School and all the way to ITE Dover, I'm blessed with the ability to laugh at myself. If I got no issues in calling myself an incel and a henjin, laughing at Dragoon memes as a player maining a Dragoon is nothing.
My first attempt to swing the Balmung (i.e. the sword, not the server) threatened to become a trainwreck. The reason was that I got one-shotted despite no AoE warnings. The same went for the second time I got one-shotted. I thought there were invisible mechanics afoot. Then I realised that was not the case. It's weird because this was my first time getting the invisible treatment. I've already done a clean reinstallation of my NVIDIA driver, so let's see whether it works.
[Note: It's easy to do a clean install of your driver via Geforce Experience. Just click the lower three-dotted column. Then again, what ntall1 said in the Lodestone forum was likely what happened to me.]
Below is the video of the actual fight. No, this wasn't done by me because I wasn't there N years ago.
I had to go through the guide to see which attacks one-shotted me. I wasn't the only one at the receiving end of a healer's act of resuscitation. The first one-shot was Cauterise in phase 1. As for the second one-shot, it was Hot Wings during phase 3. The fight wasn't frantic since the remaining six members were good enough to hold their ground. But the pace was clearly so because it took the healers quite some time to revive the fallen. Personally, my only problem was these two moments. Phase 2 wasn't that hard because it was all about knowing where to move. Geirskogul happened to be the easiest to dodge. After getting this far (?), I already got used to the momentum.
At the same time, a vital tip for new players is this: When in doubt, please follow where your group is moving. Isolated movement isn't the best way to make your healer revive you. Just don't do it when everyone is marked individually. It's not going to work 100% of the time, but you get the drift.
If there's a reason behind getting two commendations even though most of those I got came from dungeons, it's likely due to phase 2. I believe half of phases 1 and 3 each were waiting for the healer to pull me up from the ground. Thankfully, my group members likely had an inkling of what was happening. Otherwise, I wouldn't get a single commendation, let alone 2.
Further proof that Heavensward is a parable to our current era (?)
I like the Briarden sidequest. I really do. It's the plot-driven counterpart to Hildibrand's questline. This is not to say Hildibrand's story wasn't good. It's interesting in its own way. More specifically, a combination of the inane and heartwarming since we're talking about Hildibrand Manderville. Briarden's questline was clearly darker. In this sense, it mirrored the nature of the Heavensward storyline stretching to Litany of Peace.
When I think about it, there's not much difference between Nidhogg and the Ishgardians. In today's world of identity politics, we always insist we're not like them. Needless to say, those on the other side would also insist they're not like us. But what if we're all wrong? Nidhogg believed himself to be different from the Ishgardians. The same went for vice versa. But Estinien knew otherwise when it came to himself. If someone like him wasn't that different from the monster he swore to kill, what did it say about the Ishgardians? This is why I see plenty of our world in Heavensward. Granted, it wasn't Yoshi-P's intent (after all, he's Japanese). But the parallels were too close to be dismissed.
Like Dravanians and Ishgardians demonising each other without realising the dark truth about themselves, the commoners vented their wrath on seminary students. Their only crime? Religion. Sounds like the Dravanian animosity towards the Ishgardians and vice versa? Definitely and literally.
Yet, there's something heartwarming about the Briarden questline. Instead of demonising others, it drew a clear line between right makes might and might makes right. Needless to say, right triumphed over might. All in all, it's a heartwarming experience I'd never have if I remained within the bubble defined by Mediacorp and Hollywood. It's a good questline and one I didn't regret doing even if it's to unwind from that frantic nuclear fight with an equally nuclear Nidhogg.
I finally got my apartment (i.e. not a private property costing at least 3 million)
Not so recently, I came across an article on Bloomberg. FF14 is so famous, even a Bloomberg journalist was playing it. Now I'm not going to doubt what the person said about obtaining private property. At the same time, I acknowledged the kind of notoriety FF14 has on the housing system. Out of all the MMOs I played, Everquest 2 had the best housing system since furnishing was easily accessible. You could buy a decent range of furniture without stressing yourself out in the crafting aspect. Events are a good source of crafting recipes, so you don't have to worry. For me, furnishing tier 2 New Halas housing wasn't hard despite New Halas' reputation for huge houses. For ESO, it's way harder on the furnishing end. But getting a house was easy. The Greymoor event gave players free housing in the form of the Antiquarian's Alpine Gallery. Upon a certain point in the Elsweyr storyline, you would get a Hall of the Lunar Champion. You can also purchase additional housing from the game store. Some of them look awesome (e.g. Forgemaster Falls and Hunter's Glade).
For FF14, there were issues. But we need to credit the developers for trying to address them. Unfortunately, it's like dealing with the British economy, PM Sunak or no PM Sunak. It's not about reversing the damage but mitigating it. In this aspect, FF14 and the British economy are in the same HMS. Yes, it's easier to get your dream private property. But how easier? The lottery system may be something Yoshi-P learnt from the HDB, but I doubt it unless he's friends with the PAP government. However, it merely gives players a higher chance of getting houses under a specific condition. And that is if there's an empty house up for sale. That's a very big IF because players have to either give it up or not logged in for 45 days in a row. If and when the developers decide to increase housing plots, you can be very sure of a land grab scenario. The circumstances still made it difficult for gamers to get their dream home. And this is not to mention that you need at least 3 million gil to qualify for the lottery. That being said, I prefer to use the term balloting because you don't lose your gil if you can't get a house.
This comes to another article arguing for the merits of getting an apartment. If you really want the private property, you have to decide whether to settle for an apartment first. Assuming you don't want the hassle, getting an apartment is a no-brainer. That is unless you're perfectly okay with an inn room. But there's a perk housing has but not an inn room: The option to port straight into your home. If you're to stick with an inn room, it's travelling back to the major city in question and moving accordingly. So far, Gridania has the best accessibility route between the inn and Grand Company base as the main aetheryte is between the two. Ul'dah comes second. Limsa Lominsa is at a distant third, but the flip side is that it has the best accessibility to the market boards.
For me, I chose Empyreum. The reason why is that Ishgard has grown on me. It's interesting because when I first arrived, I only saw the contrast between light and darkness in a city-state closest to the medieval setting. It could be due to going through the MSQ, but I grew to like Ishgard despite its flaws. Ever imagine what it is like to enter a relationship? My pastor once said that entering a relationship has to be done with the premise of marriage. Conservative, yes. But is that the relationship I'll like to commit myself to? Again, the answer is yes. Such is the analogy I'd give to Ishgard. One thing I realised only after coming to Ishgard was that there's actually an aesthetic in a city of stone and winter. My love affair with this manner of beauty started not from G.R.R "not J.R.R" Martin where Winterfell was concerned. It was Orsinium during my days in ESO. Ishgard isn't Orsinium, but it's closer to the city of the Orsimer rather than its more refined counterparts like Eastmarch and Solitude.
Now that I've gotten my apartment in the Empyreum, all that's left is furnishing it. By my estimation, the hard part lies in farming the materials to craft the furnishing. Thank the Twelve and Light alike for Mor Dhona due to the clusters. My top priority is the armoire, followed by the summoning bell. As for the chandelier, I'm gunning for a glade design. As for the interior wall, it's alpine. The bed would be the riveria canopy type, while the flooring is the manor design. Then there's the orchestrion as well. I'll need to get the crafter scrips ready. As for the glamour dresser, we're all waiting for news of the developers getting the relevant programming code right. After all, it'd be unfair to expect government intervention from Kono "not Jiro" Taro.
Before I end this, I'm going to up the titular source of my WoL's current title.
No comments:
Post a Comment