7.1 MSQ "Crossroads"| Dawntrail Stream

[@serisothikos]

I really, really enjoy where the story is going. Also where dungeon design is going because not only were the fights good, the vibes were impeccable. I was getting big Cerberus-from-Mass-Effect vibes from it. It def draws from lots of sci-fi horror but the first thing I thought was the facility that held Jack as a kid in ME2.

[@Amovetv]

This final fight was INSANE

[@thesunthrone]

Seconding the massive ME2 Cerberus base vibes, the somber synth track just added to it

[@SPAMCAN29]

I also couldn't shake the "galaxy map" theme in the lower piano in the music from Mass Effect. Can't unhear it now

[@beatrixkaelin5120]

To answer why Zoraal Ja is so shocked: when we killed him, he lamented that he never knew a father's love, since he was on a pedastool as the "Miracle" that was all he knew, while Gulool JaJa kept picking up kids he loved as much as him, Meaning he's as important to his father as two orphans. Now instead of being "Aw Gulool Jaja is such a cool dude," Imagine him being surrounded by people saying Zoraal Ja was a Miracle saying such things around him that No matter how special he is, his father must not love him. That's the situation he grew up in. He has NO Positive view of Parenthood. Now Zoraal Ja is thrust upon a child, that only his genetic material is needed to make, he doesn't need to MAKE the child physically, He doesn't even need to do the 'cropdusting.' And suddenly he's expected to be a father? To him who was so unready to be a dad because he hated his own? Yeah, his reaction is natural, it happens in the real world. And yes, Tasheel Ja had no need for him to even be in the same room as her. She could have taken a shed scale, a bit of blood, claim it's needed for experimenting to make Zoraal Ja stronger... Any reason she could get from him what she needed to test tube an egg by herself. He was probably entirely unaware of what she was doing.

[@Eiensakura]

The thumbnail is 10/10. Ave Gulool Ja!

[@kenallsop7502]

I think 4.1, at least narratively, might be one of my all-time favorite patches - mostly for its final quest, Return of the Bull. Between Arenvald stepping up, Fordola's intervention in the Lakshmi encounter and the subsequent conversation with those she has wronged, and that talk between Nanamo and Raubahn, it's some of the best-written and best-delivered dialogue in the entire game. That said, I really enjoyed 7.1 and I'm very excited for everything that's to come, both short- and long-term.

[@memetastic01]

Preservation may have been keeping the real Sphene alive in a tube as backup. I wouldn't put it above a governing body of sorts to lie to their people for their own gain.

[@Amovetv]

Ooooh, I like this theory.

[@karlrassmann4604]

I think whoever is piloting fake Sphene climbed into real Sphene's "pod" in living memory and kicked the real one out. Now the impostor gets to pilot the system and real Sphene is out there, shocked to just be alive. She may have not even known she was still living herself. Also, I theorize the impostor is Tesheel Ja, sponsored by Preservation. She wants thousands of disembodied souls to continue her research and to avenge her beloved. Preservation wants memories shoved into arcane constructs. Match made in the seven hells.

[@beatrixkaelin5120]

This is close to my thought. My theory going is that the original Sphene did die. But they pulled out her entire soul. They made Eternal Sphene as an incomplete Copy of her, keeping her Soul preserved while they kept trying to perfect the Endless form so she could be brought back for real. The Sphene who is stumbling is the Original Sphene's Soul remanifesting a body like how we've seen other souls form bodies (Haurchefant and Ysale in 3.3, (Depending on how you read it) Emet-Selch in 5.3, Hythlodaeus and the Shades outside Zodiark, and again with Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus in Ultima Thule). The new Sphene in Solution 9 is a copy of Eternal Sphene made using her Regulator (her crown), and we'll end this with Real Sphene as adoptive sister to Gulool Ja to rule or Sphene will be a shard of Azem who'll rejoin us after we get super electrocuted or something.

[@Norbert_Sattler]

Well... it would not be the first time, we've seen someone frozen over long times. And while the bodies of the clone twins in the Crystal Tower deteriorated (If I remember correctly), they've been frozen for even longer, than the 400 years Sphere would have been preserved. That being said, Sphene was turned into an Endless, because her body died, or was at least close to dying. If they had been able to safe her, they wouldn't have needed to make her an Endless to begin with... unless this body is hideously maimed and disfigured (other than that one hand we saw, obviously). But if they kept her soul safe in some kind of container (or the maimed boy in stasis) and only hooked that up with the four-armed body, rather than integrating it, it would explain how her personality could regain control from the programming. It could mean the programming was just a sort of wrapper around her real soul, while leaving the "source code" (i.e. her true soul) unaltered, rather than them tinkering with her actual soul as we (or at least I) assumed previously.

[@ghostbearr1]

Sphene could be a primal. There is enough aether and souls in the air.

[@KMCA779]

1:56:30 Kyle channeling his inner Werner Herzog is priceless. "Warrior of Light is a dangerous profession"

[@Golden122]

VOD Squad!

[@RockR277]

Hey Garrett, as a DRK, your TBN and 10% single target mit (whose name I'm forgetting) can be used on party members. Can be potentially life saving if you notice someone is low on HP before raid damage or targeted aoes.

[@RockR277]

OBLATION!

[@akibarea4044]

2:38:20 is my favorite part! 😂 our boys first time experiencing the last boss hahaha. I just love your reactions lol. Love you Kyle ugh 😂

[@Eiensakura]

Lunipyati got hands xD

[@kiriuxeosa8716]

Straight up JACKED RABBIT! 🏋‍♀️💪🦵🤜🤛🫵

[@yatak1000]

I was watching as i was behind and it got privated D: . Then 2 minutes later it was back up :D

[@kiriuxeosa8716]

Stop checking out their privates! 😳

[@thesunthrone]

Love the evil smiles in this patch. History's smuggest queen!

[@carbxncle]

I think you were doing decently at the last boss, you just had a sandbag to end all sandbags with you.

[@TheDoddler]

Not just a little sandbagging, looking at it Sunset Shimmerr did not proc dual cast a single time during the first boss and I'm not entirely sure if they used skills at all, and in the second fight with no deaths he was hard 4th in agro. The other red mage was low dps and struggled with movement mechanics, but did try. Garrett and Kyle probably did more together than both DPS.

[@marslara]

😂

[@Wallie759]

@@TheDoddler i swear to god garrett was trying super hard not to say it, I just felt it. lowkey felt like one of those was a bot or a troll because how do you not use dual cast as a bloody redmage

[@carbxncle]

@@Wallie759 probably the kind of people who write those "Dawntrail is too hard!!" forum posts. Which is fine, but it would sort of clash with wanting to be on stream with your favourite content creator.

[@Reyn_Roadstorm]

As a RDM main that final dungeon boss fight was painful to watch. Honestly not trying to be mean here, but were they trying to make the fight take longer by not healing themselves, not immediately rezzing, and seemingly intentionally dying? Because that's what it felt like. On a lighter note, that boss reminds me of the rabbit from The Twilight Zone movie. I think one of the devs may have watched it at some point while this dungeon was being made.

[@KMCA779]

the RDM's definitely didn't feel like RDM mains... but to be fair my first couple runs on this were almost as bad and apparently I'm not bad. But I also make my own calls for mechanics so new stuff will usually get me.

[@RazzBerrieCharm]

I LIVE UNDER A ROCK!! 🥺🥺😭

[@yuandyberry]

In opening Tuliyollal scenes, we meet Bakool Ja Ja mocking Zoraal Ja for skipping the martial contest. Koana explains that Zoraal Ja was north, leading the Landsguard against a tural vidraal. The timing matches. This might be the tural vidraal referred to during that intro cutscene.

[@medekhgui]

I was super late to do MSQ. Had a lotta fun doing it alongside the stream haha. Might try and keep doing it that way if they get to the patch story this fast.

[@Norbert_Sattler]

Well... at least Gulool Ja now knows that his mother loved him. And even the part about his father's rejection is probably more on the positive side for him. He was already rejected by Zoraal Ja to his face, in what I suspect to be a far more traumatic fashion. But now the recording made it clear, that Zoraal didn't reject Gulool, because the boy was somehow insufficient, but over Zoraal believing himself unworthy or insufficient to raise any child. Sure it was probably a shock in the moment, but overall probably a relief, even if just a small one. Plus the much bigger relief of his mother. If that is the real soul of Sphene, that appeared in Living Memory, that would mean that the Endless were indeed the actual souls preserved, and not just memory matrices or somesuch. That would also mean that when we shut down the servers, what's left of that reflection's lifestream got a massive injection of souls all at once. I wonder if that might be enough to kickstart the life cycle in that reflection again, and put it into a state, where we can bring it back from the brink, similar to what we accomplished in the First. That could well be a story-line for future MSQ or optional side content like Eden and Welrynt.

[@blackdragoncyrus]

inding out more about Galool Ja’s mother could have been interesting, so naturally they take the most, boring, uninteresting, nothing route with this. The kid’s mother turns out to be a nobody healer part of Zoraal Ja’s unit when he went to kill a Tural Vidraal, where she had this obsession with him. She willingly does everything he wants in exchange for being an obedient lapdog, and to get some dick, culminating into tying him with her forever by shoving a baby in her face and expecting him to abandon his ambition to be her husband. So, naturally, Zoraal Ja has a complete meltdown, causing her to cry that he didn’t love her, dumps her kid by a lake and presumably dies off-screen. Nothing about Zoraal Ja is revealed that we didn’t already know, so it just ends up being a massive waste of time; the kid goes “Thanks, I know this now.” and continues on like normal.

[@Bongaboi151]

45:00 quests start

[@mythic_ael]

I did notice the back of Sphene no longer has that Endless writing

[@UltaFlame]

Does it not? I went back to the cutscene from the journal and it looked like it was still there.

[@mythic_ael]

@ I’m probably being blind 😂

[@karlrassmann4604]

I theorize the situaition with Sphene is that the imposter is Tesheel Ja. After being rejected by Zoraal Ja, she joined the ranks of Preservation to find new purpose. She climbed into whatever pod held Sphene's body in Living Memory, kicked her body out and took control of the system. Now actual Sphene is back and alive somehow and will be an ally moving forward, but likely will have to die for real by the end of DT. Evidence for Tesheel Ja being the culprit was in the dungeon. Whoever the imposter is has to have the knowledge and ability to meddle with the parts of souls. Taking the memories out of all the citizens of Solution 9 would leave thousands of bodiless souls ready to be experimented on, just like what they were doing in the dungeon. In this partnership, Tesheel Ja can continue her research and, in a twisted, sadistic way, exact revenge for Zoraal Ja. Meanwhile her sponsors in Preservation get to work on restoring their Endless project.

[@JLOGIAC]

I really enjoy the game one i can accept and watch from you guys discussion that we are a mentor 😊 we are the strongrst but we hold back ourselves to watch someone grow 😊

[@RockR277]

I don't think the echo flashback and recording is about Zoraal Ja, or even about Teshaal Ja really. I think it's more meant to be about how Gulool Ja processes his memories and emotions over loss in relation to the rest of Alexandria. Maybe there's something more there, but that's what I take away from it. I'm not confident on any theories about what either Sphene is, but I do like the idea that they're endless made by the black regulators. Maybe the one in living memory is an unintended by product? What really interests me is the what, why and how of evil Sphene's plan to turn 5000 citizens into endless. Idk if it's gonna end up being directly ascian related, but I'm thinking it'll somehow lead to a primal summoning.

[@donimmortal7692]

tbf, I would be surprise if someone brought me a baby and said I am the father, when I thought I am infertile my whole life.

[@FinalDragoon]

People complained the dungeons weren't hard enough. Is 37 deaths and 5 wipes hard enough yet?

[@kiriuxeosa8716]

You know the answer to that Of course not! GIVE ME LAZER WALLS TO DODGE!!!!

[@serisothikos]

I healed it once with a paladin who only did single pulls and never hit holy spirit/circle or sheltron or any of their cooldowns so they could barely stay alive without constant babysitting, and slow dps on top of it. Four wipes, including three on the last boss, and a 35 minute run overall. It was... rough.

[@weedgoku69]

no, not at all. the dungeon isn't particularly difficult

[@DasKillaPocket]

I answering because I don't think you're joking, but you should clearly know that was not a typical 1st run. Great heals or not, folks dying too much is all it takes sometimes.

[@carbxncle]

We want harder tbh

[@KMCA779]

I mean, Yoshi-P gave people a week for Elden Ring and people are surprised that the game took on some design queue's from it.

[@batwingpie]

@3:20:00 I can only imagine what a Crystal animation of this exchange would be 😆😆😆

[@canatsey]

I had to stop watching right before you got to the Dungeon, so VOD squad it is! I wonder how the Boys liked the rabbit…

[@RockR277]

Huh. I'm surprised Garrett was so against min IL. I figured they were both just really into min IL for first runs.

[@Dostwyn]

I really didn't like the whole Koana bit, because it made no sense. It felt like a cartoon for little kids. So Koana comes to the catpeople tribe and says that he doesn't like their ways because his parents abandoned him to follow some cows around. This kinda negates the whole message he learned during the main game that the old ways can be good sometimes and don't always need to be replaced with new technology, but okay. The catpeople then teach him that they live together with the fantasy buffaloes, which immediately makes him love them. He loves them so much that he even throws himself in front of one to protect it from a dinosaur. The leader of a nation is willing to get himself killed in a futile effort to protect a random cow. Then afterwards this random trader appears and he tells us about this one time 20 years ago when he was at a village that also got attacked by a dinosaur. There he happened to see a couple also throwing themselves in front of said dinosaur. In the one sentence they shouted at him before they got killed, they happened to mention that they have a son. Just from this, Koana immediately decides that those must've been his parents, meaning they didn't just abandon him to follow some cows around. Happy end, hooray. I mean, come on.

[@Rakka5]

GEE BILLY, HOW COME YOUR MOM LETS YOU HAVE TWO SPEENS?

[@verdantnekomoya7965]

@2:28:00 its the dark souls of tank busters

[@Prottoy959]

The quest "Crossroads" is where the new writing team takes over. 100 bucks says so. I hope the Rroneek shyte was the last we see of the DT writing team.

[@TaurusVersant]

why did the streamers cross the roads

[@Ower8x]

At the end you are assuming the whole endless bit it actually true and not an cover for some other aim ...

[@MrKnaives]

I think it's true her whole programing is the preservation of the people of Alexandria, but i do think there's another aim.

[@deice3]

Yeah, I don't think fake!Sphene that showed up at the funeral is the real one. Sphene was just a glamour on a robot, so anyone could've climbed behind the controls in theory. I do think the living being we got a pov of in Living Memory, is probably real!Sphene, the original. So she would have no knowledge of what's been going on since living memory was built.

[@Ower8x]

@@deice3 Hard to say ... from what we know her soul was extracted/captured ... and unless her body was preserved i dont think its her actual body. that said if her actual soul was somehow freed from the ai control and possessed an artificial body that would explain the bit in Living Memory ... but we will have to wait and see

[@Darth0Prince]

I liked most of the patch, but the whole rroneek subplot made me cringe. Especially the scene with koana sacrificing himself for a baby cow. Brother learned about his roots for a day and already forgot he's a head of a state (whos death will be pretty devastating for the nation) and not actually a nomad who was raised as a rroneek maid (he actually hated the nomads with a passion his whole life). Also, where were the others when he was trying to hug a charging dino?

[@katherinemerkel3505]

Honestly that part should have been a quest line for the beast master job or something. Not msq.

[@blackdragoncyrus]

This writing is so dreadful, goodness.

[@7Celestron]

I'm first to comment?

[@wackyzap1304]

This patch was almost as poorly written as 7.0 with the Rroneek section and how hamfisted and conveniently-delivered backstory revelation for Koana was. It feels like a copy-paste of 5.1 with Fake-Ardbert appearing at the end.

[@weedgoku69]

can't believe jehovah's witnesses are in ffxiv now