Spoilers up to the end of 'Through the M' chapter / getting 'The Promise' achievement

This thread can be used to freely discuss the game up to the point where you receive the 'The Promise' achievement / end the 'Through the Maelstrom' chapter.

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

...So.

Well that was the longest build-up to a kiss ever! About damn time. I get that they have other important things to be doing but they would both have clearly known from that time Gav interrupted them at the infirmary that they were both gagging for it. Sneaking a kiss at some point on the way to save everyone should have been vaguely viable. Still, this had cinematic value. When he kissed her hand I was like "Oh, come on! Just get on with it!" As for absorbing her Ice element, I wonder if this means that we won't see her using ice attacks anymore? Logically that would make sense in line with what we've seen in the game thus far. For battle mechanics, getting Ice means I'm finally getting rid of my tornado because I got annoyed at how frustrating it was to not be able to actually see what my enemy was doing.

Honestly thought we'd see Leviathan make an appearance when we were on the ocean floor, but water continues to be a complete no-show in the Dominant front. Very mild speculation about WaterWe only have room for one more type of magic on our abilities page, which is kind of spoiler in mechanics, perhaps they shouldn't have made it so obvious that we don't get all eight by managing that better. It does make me wonder, though, do we get Water or Dark? Dark makes sense because we have seen it in the game, but Dark not being there also makes sense because, well, it's Barnabus, and it's Dark which is in some ways synonymous with evil. Omitting Water entirely thus far seems like a big oversight if we're supposed to "catch them all". The game very clearly defines that there are eight magics, and that there were eight mothercrystals. Water must surely be out there somewhere. It's always at the back of my mind.

Sleipnir being so much weaker (seriously the Ironworks variants were mostly one-shotted by me if I hit them with any ability) when there were many of him was weird, but it was fun having five characters kick ass together. Barnabas being OP is cool and all but I felt the first meeting with him was a little too absurdly one sided. Also, I love how the second Joshua and Clive were like "oh she's alive" they just stopped mentioning or verbally worrying about Jill at all. They were hyperfocused on the plan, which is great, but you'd think they'd be like "we need to get to Jill!" instead of "we need to get to Barnabus!" all the time. Clive even had time to go and do a bunch of trivial sidequests and take out some Hunts! Disgusting attitude towards his lover, I tell ya.

Speaking of sidequests and hunts: I finally died in the game! I didn't pay attention to how much my HP was dropping during the fight with a certain comet tosser, and I got slammed. I had only used one high potion, too. Oops. Did it a second go and got through the fight having only used one high potion. But oh man, if anyone has spent time in a certain area of FFXIV, especially if they were there when it first came about... that fight gave me a spot of trauma. It was just as ruthless in the online game. xD On the sidequest front, I've really enjoyed getting to know Blackthorne, Goetz and Charon. I feel we know far less about Tarja and Gav, really, after all the subquests we've had for the others. I hope we get more Tarja/Gav subquests. Maeve, too. Because she's pretty. :p

Mid and Byron are my favourite remaining characters in the game and I just adore Mid in particular, she's amazing. I'm definitely crushing on her.

I love the NPC in the Hideaway that has been rotating her thirst between all the male NPCs xD Honestly, the NPCs on the Hideaway are real hidden gems in this game. I love the gardener that talks to his plants which are named after those that passed on during Titan's attack. I love the kids that help Tomes, and the kids that study with the teacher, and I think it's really sweet that they also show an adult learning how to read alongside them. We see the courtesans at the Veil doing similar at one point - honestly, the little things NPCs say throughout this game have really impressed me. There's a continuity in the world, a sense of progression not just in the key characters, but in every soul across the continent. Some are very generically done but overall I feel the writing of NPCs has been superb.

Medicine Girl appears yet again. I've got my eye on that one.

Barnabas just looks too much like the generic FFXIV hero for me to take him entirely seriously, plus his Straight Outta Skyrim accent. But they did a great job of showing how powerful he was.

Glad Clive and Jill finally sorted themselves out, but let's hang out nude together on some rocks was a little bit weird. I know the pretense was for their clothes to dry, but it was still bizarre.

Been some decent, interesting drama and intrigue and also some good storytelling through sidequests. Let's see if it holds into the home straight.

At this point, there is not a lot more for me to say about the game. It's a fun game, but doesn't have a lot of variety. The only thing I had trouble fighting in the last several hours is that S ranked hunt. But other than the battles, there is literally no challenge to this game. There are no puzzles to figure out, nothing you need to search out on your own (everything is marked, and most chests are garbage), no platforming section, maps are mostly linear, etc.

The strong point in the game is the narrative, which has paced out very well. Waloed has been a thorn in Clive's side the whole time but never the top priority. That is good buildup to this final stretch. Barnabas's power and menace is clear, though a little one dimensional. The one big drawback to the narrative is how bleak it is, and demotivating. There is just not a clear compelling case made that what Clive is doing will make things better. At this point, stopping Ultima will clear up the old 'pending doomsday' scenario but before that and even during, there is not much good that comes out of Clive's actions. Yet another major city gets destroyed with thousands of people killed because of the plot. There is constant reference to people starving once they can't use crystals. It feels like 70% of the population smurfed at this point. There are a few holdover settlements trying to make things better but basically all the major cities are in ruins, and those people suffering.

Although the sidequests are pretty generic, how they complement the story is fantastic. I like the progression in quests for all the side characters, and how it ties into the broader narrative. Maybe the best I've seen in terms of synchronicity between main plot and side quest plots. The end of Blackthorn's quest line gave me some hope for this world.

Final thoughts: the part where Joshua, Byron, and Gav all fought alongside Clive was awesome. And the naked on rocks scene was weird!