it's weird not being able to fly in new zones. and by weird i mean sucks it's Sucks having to walk around everywhere. especially Labyrinthos with its sectioned off levels, taunting me with its big ledges i can't just jump off to get where i need to go quicker. whenever i enter a new zone i'm doing a few fates first thing so i can unlock higher mount speed to make it a little less painful. i just replayed all of ARR through Shadowbringers with flying already unlocked and i've been thoroughly spoiled by the experience

my little owl still sits on my shoulder in toadmode :) walking everywhere would be more tolerable if i could always do it in this form

wasn't big on Thavnair. Radz-at-Han is kinda gaudy, the elephant people suck to look at with their big gross arms, and this section was kinda boring up until i saw them all horrifically entombed in H. R. Giger walls. big problems seem to be getting solved suddenly and passively lately. i spent a few minutes helping out a small group of alchemists with one experiment and now we have magic charms that protect anyone and everyone from being tempered. cool!

this is the leading institute on research into made-up fantasy science, so obviously anything i learned here realistically would be like, "when something is on fire it gets hot" levels of obvious baby knowledge in this world. but we get lectured on the basics of aetherology and even Krile and the twins are like damn that's crazy i didn't know that. what did you even study here in that case??

this is it!!! the payoff for my weirdo lore completionist OCD!!!! we've assembled a buncha characters from all over to accompany us to Garlemald, and i had a nice time catching up with everyone. i only did all the ARR jobs up to level 50 plus a few select more, so i wonder if there woulda been more characters here depending on what i'd completed. and they're coming with us!! i'm so excited about these guys all becoming main story characters and getting to see hard-earned two lines of bonus dialogue

physically felt my brain straining to remember things whenever i talked to someone. couldn't count the amount of times i must've said "uhhhhhhh Ohh yeahhh" to myself while in this room. get acknowleged as an "experienced White Mage" in a cutscene by the WHM story character, even though i'm not currently a WHM, and i don't remember anything about the job, and also i did that storyline years ago and i don't know who he is even though his hair is memorably stupid, and also don't talk to me kid

man Thancred sure is going into great detail about this infilitration mission i'm not involved in, i probably don't need to pay much attention here 'In the coming battle, you will fight as Thancred' oh. luckily it was maybe the most lenient stealth section i've ever played in a game

i was pretty worried when i first saw there was a zone simply called 'Garlemald'. this is the final boss of this game's open zones working to the detriment of its world. this was the supposed ultra-advanced capital of a massive empire?? shoulda been split up into multiple zones imo, each focusing on just a small area, even if it is all rubble now. i was majorly disappointed when Ala Mhigo ended up just being a dungeon but now i'm thinking Garlemald might have been better off as one too. also the rubble is annoying to navigate i gotta unlock flying man

this is a very emotionally confusing part of the game. the limits of my empathy are continuously tested and eventually i'm just left yelling at my screen and asking what's the point of any of this. i often have to remind myself this is a journal and not an essay space. this is the kind of thing i feel like i could talk about with someone for hours. in short this whole section is kind of a bummer! time to settle down with a warm meal with my friends and recuperate

goddd damn it

conceptually this quest was extremely cool. while playing it i guess i lucked out into not having much trouble with it, leaving me feeling like it was still very slightly cool. and upon reflection i think it might be one of the worst-designed "levels" i've ever played in a game. i suppose i only feel that way upon thinking back on it because this game is incredibly formulaic and rarely tries anything like this, so it doesn't phase me when it does try something and it ends up being bad. in the moment it's like yeah this sucks but it's a boring MMO what do you expect

a 15-minute-long survival segment where i'm soulsucked into some no-name imperial's body while Zenos, in control of my body, takes his sweet time walking back to camp under my guise. it's a wonder i caught up with him in time when my way forward was constantly barred my arbitrary red-dotted walls, telling me to go very jankily stealth my way around instead. where is "around"? i don't know, just walk along the magic barrier until there's randomly a part i can pass. now for no reason at all i need a mech to get past this part, so turn back and search the entire city for fuel. remember it's a stealth mission!

i was wrong before, this is the final boss of this game's open-zone design. this area was not designed with this mission in mind and it shows. and while initially it seems like a big deal story-wise it ends up being totally inconsequential? i make it back in time, mine and Zenos' bodies get switched back which would've happened regardless because Fandaniel just decided that was the case i guess. no one seems any the worse for wear for the experience. the game just felt like flexing its terrible stealth segment on me

i looked ahead at the quest list briefly to see when i would be going moonmode. i was surprised to see it was only a couple quests after this, i thought there would be a big buildup. the Endwalker logo has a spaceship(?) on it. there's no spaceship, Fandaniel and Zenos suddenly peace out to the moon and i go into the teleporter after them

stupid check-in! here's the state of stupid currently. been-billed-as-the-ultimate-big-bad-for-ten-plus-years Zodiark is in this room, i killed him in a rather anticlimactic level 83 trial. i rode a magic space dog named Argos here. i applied for a job at Argos in 2016, against my will they made me talk about FFXIV in front of a room of applicants. and another two quests after killing Zodiark i am now dealing with funny rabbit people. we are thoroughly in "things just happening" type storytelling territory

i took my ADHD meds for the first time in almost a year today, which i only mention in case i sound particularly manic in my writing. the initial euphoria has made me super pumped to see where the story goes whereas yesterday i was kinda starting to not super feel it. i won the Slice Is Right for the third time ever due to being able to perform one billion bamboo calculations per second

still reeling from how quickly this game went from Prometheus to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. this reminded me i was gonna play FF4 before Endwalker, not for any dumb OCD reason it just had me thinkin about it. but as is the case whenever i want to play an older FF i quickly became paralyzed with indecision over which version to play. i appreciate the turban space bunnies regardless, and all they do for us

this is the first time one of these has made me laugh, if only because i'd been saying things like this to myself while i was on the moon

i would ask who wouldn't choose G'raha to visit them alone in the dead of night, but i've come to be less tolerant of the idea of him being close with anyone besides me. saw fanart today of him with another person's WoL (not canon) and grew violent. i offered for him to come inside and he declined, i became yearnful. i need to draw him and J'khet boning