Spoilers up to the end of 'Into the Dark' chapter / getting 'From S to S' achievement

This thread can be used to freely discuss the game up to the point where you receive the 'From Sand to Stone' achievement / end the 'Into the Darkness' chapter. Too long a title for each to put into the title of the thread, but I trust people can figure it out...

You can feel free to post unmarked spoilers about this portion of the game in this thread.

...So.

"This game... is over!" Ah, trout, but there's so much more I feel like it has to offer. ;) I wonder if they had to resist making him say that line on the final boss fight instead. It would be amusing.

A completely unapologetic, unsubtle, definite gay relationship in Final Fantasy! \o/ Nice to see it finally happen. But, back to the beginning of this chapter.

Mid is, for me, alongside Benedikta as the best character in the game after just five seconds of her talking. She is without doubt the breath of fresh air this game needed, and then to follow that up with a lot of time with good ol' Uncle Byron gave this game some really, really refreshing... fun! Fun, in my Final Fantasy game? Moments that can make me smile? Enjoyable experiences? How very dare you, Square Enix!

But seriously, it's about time. My personal preference is for a game to start light, then go dark later on, not the other way around. I think the moments from the point of Phoenix Gate through to taking on the Dark Shields with Wade were all too long without any tiny sense of joy inbetween. 30 or so hours, for me, of non-stop depressing moments is a bit hard to take. I really, really, really hope that we see more of Gav, Byron and especially Mid as the game goes on. And more characters like them. They make the game feel more like a Final Fantasy game.

I liked the lore we got from the two sidequests we got from the Hideaway just before we took on Titan. regarding what we learn from themThose brands are laced with poison to stop people getting rid of them? Damn.

Torgal being Fenrir was something I predicted, but it's cool to have solidified. I really liked the lore tying him to Jill, too, explaining how that situation triggered it.

Titan's end was so hecking drawn out. I didn't get a scratch on me until the unexpected shockwaves came during the fist banging into the ground we're on, post-tentacles. I admittedly didn't clock the stone throws and got battered near the end for lack of remembering the buttons immediately for the new move, but I didn't die and never had to use that healing power thing (I forget the name) on the arrow buttons, so overall I'm pretty happy with how I managed it. It was too long, though, I feel. Especially the post-tentacles part. It dragged like hell. Felt good to see him fall down, though.

Bernard's little bit of personal lore that came with his quest was sweet. When he told his parents graves that he was getting married, it was one of the more touching bits of dialogue in the game for me. Very nice tiny little touch, that. I hope he has a long and happy marriage!

L'ubor was cool enough. The springs and other water bodies in Dalimil were so pretty! I love that colour. The desert itself is pretty massive, I explored a lot of it but will go back to explore even more later, I'm sure. I like discovering random people in places and listening to their little anecdotes that pop up. It's probably what slows me down most in this game - the desire to hear what every NPC has to say. xD That and reading every single update Tomes offers me. Not that I feel I'm slow at playing overall, but yeah.

Why we didn't get to use L'ubor's cool forge/shop after we finished his quest is beyond me. Gimme good stuff, dude!

The music when we saw Ultima again was cool, I don't know if it's the same as the first time and I just didn't clock it, but I get the impression the Ultima fight music is going to be really, really cool in this game, hopefully on par with Liberi Fatali and One Winged Angel. My fingers are crossed for a banger. Speaking of, the Titan boss fight music when he really got going was awesome. Metal is my least enjoyed genre, although I do still enjoy a bunch of it - but when it comes to battle music, I love some metal tunes dropped in amongst the others, they always grab me. Reminded me of Titan in FFXIV.

Probably forgetting a bunch of stuff...

I really enjoyed this chapter. I was getting a bit bored of European fantasy countryside and mud and marsh, so to have some varied backdrops was nice too. There seems to be different "types" of desert too, which is nice.

Adventures with Byron was a lot of fun. First time anyone has said "Popinjay" in a FF game I'm sure smurfing Joshua just speak up and say hi though you little bitch, don't give me some half baked story reason why you couldn't do it at the end of the game when you finally do.

smurf me, the battles against Titan. Unreal for spectacle and the sheer scale and scope of the thing. That's some next gen gaming visuals right there. And the music was utterly monstrous. Soken put his smurfing foot to the floor and just went, man.

The Uncle Byron buddy time through the desert was excellent. The game definitely could have used that comedy relief after the last two chapters.

The desert landscape and the inside of Drake’s Fang were gorgeous. Stunning settings all around in this game.

The Titan fight was easy and slow, but damn the scale and visuals were top notch. And the music just rocked it. I guess it fit Hugo to be about brute force and very telegraphed attacks.

I liked the unapologetically gay relationship too! Prince Dion is a cool customer. I am betting the battle with him is going to be next level. Unlike Hugo, this guy is a thinker.