As stated above, it's quite fast that I'm doing a new post. The liberating thing about blogging but not being an influencer is that you're under no stress to do things in a certain way and within time constraints. Because I'm neither a streamer nor a social influencer, I'm able to enjoy playing FF14 while still having a job and an actual life at least once every Sunday.
Asmongold quits FF14(?)
If there's one bad thing about being a henjin, it'd be that I don't feel I belong to my country. But if there's one good thing about being a henjin, it'd be that I get to know things which my fellow Singaporeans wouldn't since my brain functions differently. Are these things frivolous? Yes. But the good part about knowing frivolous things is that they played a role in preventing me from entering despair. Not that I expect people to understand me though.
Let me point out the only reason why I know Asmongold exists is because YouTube has a list of recommended videos on its home page. The accuracy can be laughably inaccurate, but that didn't prevent me from clicking one of his videos dealing with Blizzard's woke culture. Then from Blizzard, he went to FF14. From FF14, he went back to Blizzard. Whether Blizzard has gone less woke, however, is a matter not of my interest. I can only handle this much cynicism before I quit like a French.
Because of my henjin curiosity, I decided to search Asmongold FF14 on Google. Long story short, there's acrimony involved. I'm not going to take sides here, but I'm going to say something (and hopefully not come across as scolding people).
Firstly, I went through the FF14 Reddit and the responses were understandably negative. There were exceptions where the statement would be more neutral. There's a post stating that purists do exist among the FF14 fanbase. I'm not going to dissect the dark side of FF14 fanbase psychology here. A major reason is that those who comment on the official Reddit channel are probably gamers outside Japan. As for me, I'm currently at Kujata and I've got no plans to migrate beyond the ocean, Balmung or no Balmung. My impression of Japanese gamers is that they tend to mind their own businesses. Interestingly, they often leave a greeting before any dungeon/raid/trial and say "Good Game" at the end. It's a very different culture from what I've experienced in other MMOs. While gamers do say, "gg tyfg" in ESO after dungeons and trials, the frequency isn't at the Japanese level. For your info, there are three Japanese servers catering to non-Japanese gamers (Tonberry and Kujata are excluded because they're more like a melting pot of Japanese and English-speaking non-Japanese gamers). Ramuh for Taeyeon's fellow South Koreans, Typhon for Tzuyu's fellow Taiwanese, and Masamune for Dita's fellow Indonesians.
Back to Asmongold's FF14ドラマ starring Yoshioka "confirmed unrelated to Seijuro" Riho as a Miqo'te. The way I see it is that it's a reaction versus reaction kind of thing. I've gone through the Reddit posts and I have a good idea of the situation minus the b-word. Of course, it's been months since the incident and I'm very sure it's not even 10% as severe as a certain kyodai kujira jiken way before I started playing FF14 (don't ask me what kind of kyodai kujira jiken because I can assure you it's not some kind of sexual innuendo).
My knowledge of streamers is a combination of random curiosity and the close relationship between ZOS and ESO streamers. The former is the reason why I know names like Pokimane and Josh Strife Hayes while the latter enabled me to know names ranging from Alcast to Niniskya. But if I say I knew Pokimane's latest stream, you all can call me a liar.
Hopefully, history won't repeat itself. But if so, then I say it's better for us to pay little heed and carry on with what we're doing. As a gamer, I do recognise the need to have a life from work to church. I don't have to be Dr Carl Jung Shin-ri to understand that when you move on from a certain episode, not turning back is 100% therapeutic. Easier said than done, but at least we can try. The drama wasn't for great watching. Hence, I'm not upping any links. But will I up a meme?
(Solo) Duty インポシブル?
Currently, I only manage to reach the end of the Ishgardian civil war involving Ser Aymeric and those from the south end of Ishgard if you get what I mean. It felt absurd to see my Dragoon hitting level 80 despite not even halfway through the post-Heavensward MSQ. Without the Road to 80 XP buff, things would probably be very different. It's an OP boon, but it's probably going to give me some shock once I reach Shadowbringers. That feels like a longshot distance to me, so my goal in FF14 has changed from getting my Temasek island to just enjoying the ride. It's possibly an attitude cultivated from my time playing ESO. So yeah, it works both ways. I'll have an easier time until the end of Stormblood. Then my brain will have to start sweating from Shadowbringers onward.
So far, it seems that I have my own fair share of solo Duties terribly hard to complete without a combination of Very Easy difficulty level and Echo activation. The Echo system is quite interesting as the developers are probably out to strike a balance between hardcore and casual for instanced solo fights. Most of them are doable from a casual perspective. Then you have a few that felt quite hardcore. I finished the level 40 Astrologian job quest involving an instanced duty synced at level 44. It wasn't pretty because the final phase was a literal brawl where I couldn't target the Ishgardian gentleman (not to be confused with a supreme gentleman) since everyone was jumping on him. Using Benefic and Aspected Benefic wasn't an option because my brain has a tendency to shut down once it has to process too many things (so much for being a Singaporean). The only Plan B was using Helios while keeping my fingers crossed (figuratively) that the Sharlayan lady can single-target heal the Ishgardian gentleman. The brawl was a disaster the first time around. The only reason I could think of was gear level. Running an instanced duty synced at level 44 was never a good idea if the gear level is around 30.
Of course, I didn't wait to craft better gear. Instead, I just chose Very Easy. With the Echo activated, it's weird to see my Astrologian downing the AI with two shots of Malefic. The brawling part was nerve-wracking in the sense that it's really as chaotic as a real-life free-for-all. Even if I was running with gear ranging from 39-41, I wouldn't be confident of keeping the Ishgardian gentleman alive in normal difficulty mode. That's how nutty the brawl was.
It's not just the level 44 Astrologian fight that murmured インポシブル. There were two more solo duties which made me feel the same way. The first was the second jailbreak since saving General Raubahn. The failure part was the inability to save the second last refugee (you save the last one only after helping Aymeric to take care of his fellow ser). The trick in getting this done lies in getting the direction right straightaway. If you have to waste precious seconds navigating the Vault, it's a certified duty failure because you wouldn't be able to reach the poor fellow in time. If you're running as a ranged DPS, you'd have an advantage due to Peloton. If you're running a melee class, I wouldn't be surprised if you have to deal with a major strategic handicap. Even running it with Very Easy and Echo switched on, I counted the fellow lucky to be saved. If I remember correctly, his HP was down by more than half. If I had to be honest with myself, I should have targeted the enemy behind instead of spamming AoE attacks.
The other one was the siege duty in the post-ARR MSQ where I had to take down a dragon before it took down an entire city. This was a DPS check against a flying Minas Tirith. Instead of seven layers of defence, however, I was dealing with a single layer of nigh-invulnerability. You can damage the boss. But that reptile can take so much damage, it's easier to take down Rome itself. This is the kind of fight you probably wouldn't win without food (I'd use HQ Apkallu Omelette) and potion buff. Apart from the insane durability, there wasn't anything of much worry since mechanics were effectively non-existent. At the same time, the duty is synced at item level 110. Even if you're geared with a full Augmented Ironworks set, you're still on the back foot. I'm not sure how well Potent Poisoning Potion would work, but I wouldn't be surprised if using Mega-Potion of Strength whenever engaging that flying Sauronsaurus would work better.
WARNING!
The second part of this post involves events spanning from Heavensward to post-Heavensward. Unless you've progressed to Stormblood or don't mind having your curiosity nuked, please stop here.
Don't look at me, look at Thordan
Recently, a fellow Singaporean got himself into trouble and possibly accolades from human rights activists. Long story short, his name was Ken "not Lim" Kwek of the Sex.Violence.FamilyValues fame and his latest work happened to be #LookAtMe starring Adrian "not The Hunter" Pang as Pastor Josiah Long Island Iced Tee. Again long story short, it got banned. Truth to be spoken, I'm not going to watch it. The reason why is that I've already learnt how to appreciate works like Vinland Saga and Tokyo Ghoul. Then we have Heavensward.
The interesting thing about the Heavensward storyline is that it may well be the most misunderstood plot in FF14. Why I say this is due to the darkness of the storytelling having nothing to do with religion. Because I'm more into Japanese dark fiction than its Hollywood counterpart, I'm actually likelier to be sympathetic towards the villains. Two good examples of this are Askeladd of Vinland Saga and Washuu Kichimura of Tokyo Ghoul. Then we have Elidibus.
The evils of the Ishgardian theocracy beg forth two questions:
1. Is religion a product of humanity?
2. If so, then does that mean the evils of religion came from humanity instead of religious faith?
We must understand that FF14 is made in Japan. This includes storytelling and the Japanese are known for their no-holds-barred approach. If you expect political preaching, you're really going to be sorely disappointed. While the nationalist lobby does command a strong influence in the political circle, the folks on the ground don't care for games of musical thrones. There are things they're capable of being angry at. Then there are things they couldn't be bothered with. As a result, you don't get to see woke themes in their works. This gives the Japanese brand of creativity a unique identity which the Cool Japan initiative failed to utilise.
Hence, it'd make more sense to see the darkness of Heavensward as the darkness of human nature. The cause of the Dragonsong War was never religion. It's down to one thing both clergy and atheists are capable of. That is greed. What Thordan I and his followers coveted was that which the Garleans would have sought as well. One side was religious while the other was atheistic, but both were nevertheless a pack of power-hungry dogs. The lies Aymeric was out to expose were never caused by religion but by human greed. But what if you realised your righteousness was defined by liars instead of the truth? It's never about "them" but "us". Frame it from an objective perspective and you realise not everyone on both sides has the courage to ask the same damning question. There's something harrowing about the priest's visage when he decided to murder a child (if you're pro-life, be glad that Vidofnir was around to save the day). It wasn't the face of religion but the dark side of human nature.
So why is Heavensward happened to be such a misunderstood story? I believe the reason is that we're so indoctrinated by the us-versus-them narrative that we failed to see Heavensward for what it is: A story told by the Japanese instead of Hollywood. Hence, we shouldn't see it as anti-religion or pro-left because that's never the intention of the developers.
If you need definite proof of what I've said, refer to what Matoya said in response to Alphinaud's anguish concerning justice after you finished The Antitower dungeon in the post-Heavensward MSQ. So what did she say?
"There's no such thing as cosmic justice."
If you're an atheistic romanticist, you're going to be sorely disappointed by the context of her words. As a Christian, I chose to view the gravity of her words not as a form of blasphemy but something else.
No comments:
Post a Comment