| 1 | [[WMG:[[center: [- ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV''\ |
| 2 | ''Tropes:'' [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesAToC A to C]] | [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesDToF D to F]] ([[Foreshadowing/FinalFantasyXIV Foreshadowing]]) | [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesGToI G to I]] ([[GameplayAndStoryIntegration/FinalFantasyXIV Gameplay and Story Integration]]) | [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesJToL J to L]] | [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesMToO M to O]] | [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesPToR P to R]] | '''S to U''' | [[FinalFantasyXIV/TropesVToZ V to Z]]\ |
| 3 | ]] -]]] |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 6 | [[folder: S]] |
| 7 | * TheSacredDarkness: ''Shadowbringers'' in general exudes this trope, especially with the Night's Blessed, a friendly religion that worships darkness, avoids the daylight by living under the shroud of a forest, and believes that souls will find their eternal resting place in the "sunless sea", their name for the night sky that's been hidden by the EndlessDaytime the planet's been stuck in for a century. They become staunch allies of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and their religious beliefs are treated with the utmost respect with Y'shtola in particular somewhat going native as she'd been living with them for some time. |
| 8 | * SacrificialRevivalSpell: |
| 9 | ** The aptly named Sacrifice-L action in Eureka fully revives a knocked out player on the spot and bypassing the Weakness status, basically being a single target version of the level 3 healer LimitBreak. In exchange, the caster is afflicted with an incurable Doom status that kills the caster in ten seconds. |
| 10 | ** The blue mage's Transfusion action allows him to bring back a downed player with full HP and MP, at the cost of dropping himself. |
| 11 | * SadBattleMusic: |
| 12 | ** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2EWB6we6BY Breaking Boundaries]]" [[note]]Video contains spoilers for the final bosses of the Warrior, Dragoon, and Bard! Beware![[/note]], the song that plays during the level 50 and 60 job quests is a very sorrowful sounding melody that sounds like a fight that shouldn't be happening, [[spoiler:In pretty much every circumstance, your final opponent is tragic at best and well-intentioned at worst. It returns for the finale of ''Shadowbringers'' role quest lines with the final confrontation with the Lightwardens based off of the Warriors of Darkness.]] |
| 13 | ** The BGM for the Lost City of Amdapor plays uninterrupted throughout the dungeon save for boss fights, and fits the desolate, somber ruins nicely. |
| 14 | ** [[spoiler:And in ''Heavensward,'' we have the melancholy, chiming tune used in the very first dungeon, the ruined fortress of Dusk Vigil.]] Like the Lost City's theme, it plays without interruption through the whole of the instance. |
| 15 | ** During the final boss of Turn 13 of the Binding Coils, ''Answers'', the main theme of ''A Realm Reborn'' is playing throughout, and while it grows louder and more powerful by moving into the chorus on the phase shift, it's still the same song with the same heartrending lyrics to it. |
| 16 | ** The first phase of the final battle with Nidhogg has ''Heavensward's'' tragic main theme ''Dragonsong'' playing from the preceding cutscene instead of any of the more bombastic things. |
| 17 | ** While the first phase theme for Tuskuyomi is a bombastic and villainous sounding tune fittng for the return of [[spoiler:Yotsuyu]], the second phase instead plays a heartbreaking piano mix of the Yanxian field and Doman themes [[spoiler:as the specters of Yotsuyu's abusers strike at her, feeding her malice]], and the third phase finishes with ''Wayward Daughter'', a haunting song whose lyrics [[spoiler:consist of a desperate plea from Yotsuyu for her abuse to end in Japanese and an English male chorus urging her to simply accept it.]] |
| 18 | ** And again, the final MSQ dungeon theme for ''Shadowbringers'' has a similar haunting tune that's only interrupted for boss music [[spoiler:as you go through the apocalypse that happened to Amaurot.]] |
| 19 | ** ''To The Edge'' plays during the trial boss of 5.3, one of the biggest fights in the game's story [[spoiler: against Elidibus channeling the concept of being ''the'' Warrior of Light.]] The song accordingly is a rocking but melancholy remix of the dungeon theme just above, with lyrics that [[spoiler: contain the voices of the ancients lamenting that Elidibus' death is the only likely outcome for this fight, while noting how the fog of ages has made him forget ''why'' he fights,]] which adds a tragic, emotional pitch to close out that storyline. Notably, this song also has a measure of RealLifeWritesThePlot because Soken made the song while he was ''in the hospital fighting cancer'', so he put all of his being into writing it because he wasn't sure if he would be around to compose for any future content. |
| 20 | * {{Sampling}}: Ramuh's theme, Ratika Greatwood and Bozja are [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e30WxfF_KRM sampled from vocal soundtracks]], which are tracks that can be legally purchased and repurposed. |
| 21 | * SanityMeter: Used as the sole failure condition in 2017's All Saints Wake event. |
| 22 | * SavedFromTheirOwnHonor: Fittingly, this is a prevalent trope in the "Samurai" job questline. The [[PlayerCharacter Warrior of Light]]'s samurai master, Musosai, demonstrates this trope at one point when a repentant traitor surrenders himself to his judgment, expecting to be beheaded for the offense. Instead, Musosai uses his sword to symbolically "cut" the evil out of the person, allowing them to go on with their life. Later, [[spoiler:Musosai reveals himself as a wanted fugitive from Kugane. Dying from an unspecified illness, Musosai trained the player for the explicit purpose of defeating and killing him in a DuelToTheDeath to enact penance for his crimes. Though the WOL does defeat him, and Musosai lay dying of his illness, the player instead repeats the same action of "cutting the evil" from Musosai so that he can die in peace. Musosai dies happily, stating that [[SoProudOfYou he has never been more proud]].]] |
| 23 | * SavingTheOrphanage: |
| 24 | ** Zhloe Aliapoh opens "Menphina's Arms", an OrphanageOfLove on the west side of Idyllshire. Unfortunately, Zhloe took out a loan to start it up and is bleeding money due to the number of children she's taken on as well as her lack of inventory to sell. Her Custom Deliveries has the Warrior of Light help supply her goods to sell for the gil she needs to care for the children. It isn't until the final stage of the deliveries that the orphanage is financially solvent enough to provide more than moth-eaten bedding and one meal a day [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} (when Zhloe remembers to feed the kids).]] |
| 25 | ** Similarly, M'naago starts a fund to aid the widows and orphans left behind by the Garlean Empire's occupation of Ala Mhigo. But since she's been a soldier and a hunter her whole life, she has no idea how to run it, much less make money to actually have funds to distribute as aid. This is why she goes to the House of Splendors and then the Warrior of Light for assistance in running it and getting the inventory they need to sell to make money. |
| 26 | * ScaryImpracticalArmor: The Dreadwyrm Armor, both normal and Replica types, both bearing stupidly pointy spikes and/or wings on the armor. |
| 27 | * SceneryCensor: The NakedOnArrival flashback images of [[spoiler:Thancred surviving in the Dravanian wilderness]] have hilariously convenient squirrels -- er, ''[[CallARabbitASmeerp nutkin]]'' -- quite close to the camera, blocking out anything one might consider objectionable. |
| 28 | * SceneryPorn: All over the place. |
| 29 | ** From the beaches of Limsa Lominsa, the sprawling forests of Gridania, to the sweeping deserts of Ul'dah, this game is very, very pretty.ltiy to |
| 30 | ** Norvrandt, the Eorzean equivalent of [[AlternateUniverse the First Shard]] takes this even further, especially in Il Mheg. |
| 31 | ** [[spoiler:Elpis, a zone that exists in the far past of the Unsundered World of Etheirys, takes this up to eleven with lush wildlife and vibrantly colored skies everywhere you look.]] |
| 32 | ** The game has a built-in Sightseeing Log encouraging players to explore and take in the sights in some otherwise out of the way or hard-to-reach locations. Doing so nets you achievements and the ability to purchase paintings of these vistas to hang in your house, apartment, or free company estate room. |
| 33 | * SceneryGorn: |
| 34 | ** Should you survive a run to Mor Dhona, you'll be greeted by the wreckage of the Garlean mothership from [[WhereItAllBegan the FMV opening]], encircled by the dessicated corpse of a dragon. |
| 35 | ** The pre-Ishgardian Avalonian ruins in the Dravanian Forelands or the desolate, charred landscape of the Churning Mists. |
| 36 | ** The frozen battlefields in the Coerthas Western Highlands, with Dravanians reeling from the impact of Dragonkillers and Bertha cannon fire, all of it locked in the moment from the flash-freeze brought on by the Calamity. |
| 37 | ** The level 80 dungeon [[spoiler:Amaurot]] is best played with a group of friends who don't mind waiting as you take loads of pictures of [[spoiler:the world ''[[ApocalypseHow tearing itself to shreds around you]]''.]] |
| 38 | ** The first level 90 dungeon [[spoiler:Dead Ends]] showcases some of the [[spoiler:failed civilizations that Meteion experienced as she explored space and the first one is especially bad, showing a race of fish people that succumbed to a deadly plague. The streets you walk through are riddled with dead, rotting bodies as mutated but still living members of the species attack you out of desperation to die. In the distance, the sky is red with what looks like black veins winding all throughout it and giant purple oozing orbs dotting the sky as far as the eye can see.]] |
| 39 | * SchizoTech: Fairly deliberately done: |
| 40 | ** Eorzea generally has a "Renaissance", pre-powered-locomotion technology base - they do have non-repeating guns and cannon (most prominently used by Lominsans) but the majority of their armed forces still use melee and non-powder ranged weapons. This is offset by "ranged combat" including throwing ''Final Fantasy attack spells'' around, however, meaning that powder weapons are more a niche appliance for things like ships, who need the extra range at sea. There's also not been as great an incentive for powered locomotion thanks to Aetherytes and the preponderance of chocobos, although Garlond Ironworks has introduced airships and Ul'dah is finally experimenting with freight rail in certain, secure parts of the realm, and in ''Heavensward'' firearms technology picking up significantly is a cornerstone of the Machinist questline. |
| 41 | ** Garlemald, by contrast, possesses substantial powered locomotion including walking robotics, large-scale airships, large-scale trains, cars, radios (as seen in Endwalker), semi-automatic gunpowder weaponry reliably capable of reasonably high rates of fire, metallurgy beyond what Eorzea seems capable of, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and modern milk cartons!]]. This is all posited, however, as a lack of skill in any kind of "magic" - without the ability to throw Flares around and whatnot, Garlemald was pushed into the development of higher levels of technology to compete. |
| 42 | ** The ancient Allagan Empire was, and still is, ''ages'' of progress ahead of anyone (even real life) technology and Magitek of the entire world of Hydaelyn. Wonder materials stronger and lighter than anything that can be produced (real or fantasy ore alike), and drones still active and fully operational millennia after the empire fell. |
| 43 | ** Cid Garlond's Ironworks (now outdated level 50 gear) is Allagan tech inspired ''carbon fiber''-based armors, and ''powered weapons'' (the Ironworks bow for example, looks like it features [[MagneticWeapons magnetic rails]] or a WaveMotionTuningFork to assist with the launch of arrows). Players can purchase these with Allagan Tomestones of Poetics. |
| 44 | *** Stormblood's Scavean gear at level 70 is very similar to Ironworks, with lots of glowing bits and expandable weapons. |
| 45 | ** In Heavensward, the technology in the lost ruins of Sharlyan also qualifies, including some of the machines the Illuminati Goblins built based on Sharlyan blueprints and [[spoiler:Alexander]]. |
| 46 | ** Averted mostly in ''Shadowbringers'', as the First has no modern "Magitek Empire" to speak of (at least not in the hundred years since the Flood). While the Crystal Tower stands as a straight example, it is from the Source. The Ronkan empire does have some technology that is a bit out of place, but compared to the Allagan empire it is downright primitive and seems based more on magic than technology. For the most part, the First is a more traditional fantasy world - magic and soulstones animate technology rather than technology animating itself. The Warrior of Light, especially as a Machinist or Gunbreaker, is probably the most out-of-place tech-wise compared to the mostly martial or magic-wielding denizens of the First. |
| 47 | * SchrodingersGun: Gear coffers, which become a common quest reward in ''Shadowbringers'', contain a piece of equipment for a specific slot with a set item level, but further details aren't determined until you open it, at which point you obtain the appropriate piece of gear for whichever job you are at the moment. |
| 48 | * SchrodingersPlayerCharacter: Your character is ''the'' Warrior of Light, and despite many of the quests having you team with other player characters, the story treats it as you being a OneManArmy slaying dozens of enemy soldiers. There are some exceptions explained away in the story, such as the final leg of ''A Realm Reborn'' explaining away your fellow party members as other adventurers hired to help you with your assault. Some fights, such as Ifrit, imply your fellow party members were others captured by the Amal'jaa, but the story quickly returns to "you slayed that Titan by yourself!". |
| 49 | * TheScottishTrope: An early sidequest in Limsa Lominsa shows that the Bloody Executioners, the most powerful pirate fleet in the city-state, are TheDreaded by how unwilling people are to even speak the ''name'' of the group unless they're a similarly grizzled pirate. Dodozan, the merchant selling ale to them, continually refers to them simply as one of his clients and has to stop himself when he almost blurts it out loud. |
| 50 | * ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In the final quest of ''Stormblood's'' Bard storyline, Sanson has been captured by the villain, who is ransoming him for the release of information that will severely damage relations between Gridania and Ala Mhigo. Guydelot reports the situation to the high command of the Order of the Twin Adder, who decide they won't negotiate and will instead eliminate their enemies, even if it means also killing Sanson. Guydelot, and you yourself if you choose, rightfully call the decision out as "bullshite", only to be told by Serpent Commander Heuloix that precisely because this was a bullshite decision, one made without consulting Elder Seedseer Kan-E-Senna and headed by more timid members of command, he and many others are electing to ignore it, starting a rescue mission. |
| 51 | * ScrewThisImOuttaHere: A Garlean soldier was furious that [[spoiler:another Garlean unit fired a cannon at his unit while they were still inside the building intending to sacrifice them]] and would prefer to be jailed by the Alliance than to continue serving the empire. |
| 52 | * ScoundrelCode: Limsa Lominsa was founded by pirates to be their safe haven after raids. To keep the different crews from tearing their budding city-state apart, three core rules were set. Breaking any of these rules will get you marked by the Rogues' Guild and [[DeadlyEuphemism milled]]. |
| 53 | ** Rule One: Never steal from a fellow Lominsan. |
| 54 | ** Rule Two: Never rob another pirate crew of their hard-earned spoils. |
| 55 | ** Rule Three: [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil Never treat other people as goods.]] |
| 56 | * ScryVsScry: In the third chapter of the ''Save the Queen'' storyline, [[spoiler:Mikoto has a vision of the Resistance ambushing Misija in the depths of a Bozjan ruin, and of Misija being unable to defend herself because the crystal she's using to summon Queen Gunnhildr has run out of energy. She tells the Resistance of her vision, and they launch an ambush which plays out exactly as Mikoto foresaw. Unfortunately, Misija saw the ''same'' vision thanks to her Resonant powers and prepared a counter-ambush.]] |
| 57 | * SecretAIMoves: Enemies that are the same class as the player will usually have a skill or two that the player never has access to. ''Stormblood'' makes it a weird case where numerous skills like Stoneskin and Kiss of the Wasp were removed for the players due to the skill rebalance while enemies still have access to these moves. |
| 58 | ** Not just enemies but ally characters often still have access to moves removed from player characters such as Lyse being able to use the now removed Monk move "Touch of Death". |
| 59 | ** Class- and job-quest [=NPCs=] similarly will have skills they cannot otherwise have (or cannot since cross-class skills were removed), often with a non-healer ally in a quest able to cast a healing spell. |
| 60 | ** Alphinaud presents a very specific example with his choice of familiars. Where arcanists generally learn to summon only two Carbuncles (Emerald and Topaz) and an Ifrit-trained summoner can shape Ifrit into a third, Alphinaud can summon Onyx, Obsidian, and Moonstone carbuncles. Justified in that he isn't just a standard Arcanist of the Limsa school, but a Sharlayan-trained Academician, more akin to the (save for the PC) lost Nymian Scholar job. |
| 61 | ** Members of your Adventurer Squadron can use attacks they shouldn't be able to at lower levels. For instance, a Lancer can use Chaos Lance at Level 21 even though it's a Level 50 skill. |
| 62 | ** Justified in most casss in that the Warrior of Light is a generalist - they can learn any available discipline, where most people can only learn two or three at most - but that also means a lack of dedication to any one class or job. As such, there may be tricks you could learn only if you were highly dedicated. Further, job-related skills are learned in conjunction with Soul Crystals, which contain many of the skills that we eventually unlock; an average person without a crystal (or with a unique crystal) may be able to master a skill so well that it becomes a general skill for them, as certain non-combat abilities like Glamours and Dyeing are general skills for the Warrior of Light. |
| 63 | * SecretPolice: The Rogue's Guild of Limsa Lominsa are a rare benevolent example of secret police. The Rogues work in the shadows to uphold the three original laws of Limsa Lominsa while the Maelstrom and Yellow Jackets focus on larger, more public matters. |
| 64 | * SecretTest: The character who gives you the quest to unlock Heaven-on-High is [[BadLiar not at all subtle about having a hidden motive]]. Clearing floor 30 as he asks reveals that [[spoiler:the ''entire tower'' is a secret test of strength set up by the local BenevolentConspiracy]]. |
| 65 | * SelfDeprecation: |
| 66 | ** In ''Shadowbringers'', one of the many new [=FATEs=] introduced in the expansion is entitled "Pray ''Destroy'' the Waking Sands". While it doesn't involve actually wrecking the eponymous base (it's a {{pun}} on the fact that you're [[MassMonsterSlaughterSidequest murdering a bunch]] of [[SentientSands sand monsters]]), it seems that Square-Enix took notice of all the times they forced the player to trek back to that old base. |
| 67 | ** In the Return to Ivalice raids, a member of the theater points out that their costume looks nothing like the moogles that appeared before them and wondered if they've seen a moogle before. This is a reference to how moogles in the Ivalician Alliance series are anatomically different from the classic moogles in the series. |
| 68 | * SequenceBreaking: It's possible to access areas of a map that aren't available to you yet with the help of another person who has a mount capable of flight and taking an additional passenger. |
| 69 | * SequelHook: ''Endwalker'', being the end of the MythArc, naturally raises the question (both in-universe and out) of what the hero will do next. At the end of the game, [[spoiler:Emet-Selch, briefly brought BackFromTheDead,]] very thoroughly quells these concerns, casting out not so much a sequel hook as a sequel trawler net: |
| 70 | -->Tell me, have you been to the ruins beneath the waters of the Bounty? Or the treasure islands beyond the frozen waters of Blindfrost in Othard's north? The fabled golden cities of the New World? The sacred sites of the forgotten people of the south sea isles? What about Meracydia, the southern continent? Do you know aught of its present state of affairs?...I thought not. Even of your little Eorzea, you know precious little. The true identities of the Twelve, for instance. All of which is to say: expand your horizons. Go forth and seek discovery. Some of the civilizations in the reflections will surprise you. As the [[spoiler:bearer of Azem's crystal]], you may consider your duty to see at least that much. I certainly did. |
| 71 | * SerialEscalation: Each expansion one-ups the last one in terms of plot. ''A Realm Reborn'' has you fight against Primals, ''Heavensward'' focuses on ending a millenia-long war between humans and dragons, ''Stormblood'' takes the story to a new continent and has you liberate two countries, ''Shadowbringers'' brings you to a new world as you fight to save both that world and your home world, and ''Endwalker'' [[spoiler:has you save the universe from a being who wishes to kill all living souls within it.]] ''Dawntrail'' breaks this trend; as the start of a new MythArc, it's back at starter levels of plot intensity, with a competition to determine the New World's next ruler. |
| 72 | * SerialKillerBaiting: the player character, reasonably new to the art of the samurai, is hunting down a mysterious serial killer on the docks of the pirate town of Limsa Lominsa with their master and his assistant. True to the trope, the assistant turns out to be the perfect lure for the killer, and when it's revealed that the man in question is killing people with a finely-wrought katana because he's an OccidentalOtaku who thinks the sword is too fine to "waste" sitting around decoratively, your master's wrath is... decisive. |
| 73 | * SeriousBusiness: |
| 74 | ** Brayflox Alltalks asks for your help to fend off goblins who are a part of the Illuminati in Brayflox Longstop Hard. Why are the Illuminati after Brayflox? They want to know and claim the secret behind her cheese recipe and she doesn't want to give it up. They show up again in ''Heavensward'', and they still want the cheese. There's also this [[HumongousMecha huge robot that's capable of laying waste to the world]] that they'd like to get their hands on, but mainly it's the cheese. |
| 75 | ** The Sundrop Dance to the Vanu Vanu, which was made to avoid unnecessary conflict. The dance is supposed to demonstrate the dancer's strength and courage, and can cow lesser opponents and prevent them from fighting altogether. |
| 76 | ** Triple Triad is as outrageously popular on Hydaelyn as it is in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. Everyone and their grandmother seems to know how to and want to play it, even in places as far away from Eorzea as the Azim Steppe and [[spoiler:the First, another world in teetering on the brink of apocalypse]]. There are a handful of Garlean soldiers who'd rather duel you with cards instead of steel, and they'll even play it [[spoiler:in the midst of the [[TheEndOftheWorldAsWeKnowIt Final Days]]]]. |
| 77 | ** The Last Stand is the only restaurant in Sharlayan that refuses to serve the nation's signature NondescriptNastyNutritious food. According to its current proprietor Dickon, the restaurant is a cultural bastion against Sharlayan's otherwise bland and mediocre food. He also implores the Warrior of Light to carry on the legacy of the restaurant's founder, Mervyn, who dropped out of the Studium because he couldn't stand Sharlayan food. |
| 78 | * ShaggyDogStory: The entire arc where you, Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle form an uneasy alliance to meet Hraesvelgr and peacefully end the war. Hraesvelgr refuses to do a thing and you are forced to kill Nidhogg with Estinien. Estinien notes the trip wasn't completely useless as during the trip to Hraesvelgr, you happen to kill one of Nidhogg's lieutenants, changing the focus of his immediate anger from Ishgard to ''you''. |
| 79 | ** During the Healer role questline in Shadowbringers, you learn that [[spoiler:Lamitt went on a quest to find a cure for her fellow dwarves, sister included, who were dying of a condition that slowly turned them to stone. For breaking Dwarven codes of honor, she was promptly exiled from her village, but on the bright side, the Dwarves she cured went with her, as they had basically been left to rot inside caves away from the other dwarves, and didn't appreciate seeing their savior treated like scum. Bittersweet ending overall that Lamitt accepts. Except shortly thereafter, Lamitt and her fellows accidentally kickstarted the flood of light, which is implied to have killed everyone that she saved and turned them into Sin Eaters. Giott and the Warrior of Light come to the conclusion that Lamitt, herself now an especially powerful Sin Eater, has been going around mindlessly reviving slain Sin Eaters who were once her kin that she had cured, as she notably leaves other dead Sin Eaters where they were slain.]] |
| 80 | ** The riddle side quest chain turns out to be for nothing as the reward for solving it [[spoiler: is a collection of love poems by a former king of Belah'dia. Much to the quest giver's annoyance, they actually have no value, not even historically. Of course, it's not as if the game didn't warn you that the real reward is a paltry 10 gil.]] |
| 81 | * SheepInSheepsClothing: A protracted questline in Idyllshire focuses on a duo named Dedean and Notched Bone, a pair of TrueCompanions who came to Idyllshire fleeing from Ul'dahn {{Loan Shark}}s. But they continually distrust and shirk off the goblins' acts of kindness [[FantasticRacism on account of them being goblins]]. They rope the Warrior into a series of schemes to try and "expose" the goblins as evil even as the goblins do nothing but aid them. |
| 82 | * SexSells: |
| 83 | ** Most of the females among the races are sexy in a cute and petite way. Even if they aren't petite, they have notoriously flat butts. This was remedied by the tall and curvaceous Viera, which, to unsurprising magnitude, had players buying Fantasia (the race changing potion) in droves to use on their existing character on the release of the sexy elf-bunnies. |
| 84 | ** Standard practice for many [=MMOs=], many of the sexier cosmetic pieces such as swimsuits, maid and butler uniforms and whatnot are bought as microtransactions. Unlike most cases of this, the swimsuits are put up for sale as past event prize reproductions, which could be obtained for free during the event period. |
| 85 | * ShadyLadyOfTheNight: Yotsuyu was hired as an expendable spy asset for the Doman Liberation Front. She was supposed to use her beauty to seduce Garlean customers and get information out of them that could be of use to the Resistance. But given that she was sold into [[SexSlave sex slavery]] and is a BoomerangBigot who hates Doma, she quickly grows frustrated with her position and reveals her hatred before Zenos, who was indifferent to her advances. Seeing this, he instates her as the acting viceroy of Doma, allowing her to crush the nation she hates so much under heel. |
| 86 | * ShiftingSandLand: The Red Sands arena in Crystalline Conflict takes place in the arid deserts of Thanalan, complete with sand pits that spew out desert fauna to disrupt your advance. There's antlions that will threaten to chew you up, Sabotenders that will spray 100,000 Needles, or occasionally the benevolent Acutender will show up to give an acupressure-induced barrier. Being a desert, however, it's also prone to heat waves that will quickly drain your stamina without the strong generation from the oases or the geysers that will erupt from the sand pits. |
| 87 | * ShipTease: Though there are innumerable examples outside of the game where certain relationships are surmised between the PC and given [=NPCs=], several specific ones stand out. |
| 88 | ** In general, the game shies away from showing explicitly romantic feelings involving main characters but will show characters having huge amounts of arguably platonic admiration for someone. For example, during Alisaie's time on the First she told Tesleen a number of stories praising the heroic deeds of the PC. After you've escorted Tesleen back to her encampment and she's seen you fight, she notes that she's almost smitten with you as well, hinting that Alisaie's stories make ''her'' seem to have a crush on the Warrior of Light. Whether Tesleen is right and Alisaie's feelings for the Warrior of Light are romantic or she merely has a huge amount of respect and admiration for the Warrior that could be mistaken for attraction is an open question, so the player can pick their own interpretation. |
| 89 | ** The PC isn't the only one being shipped, however. There's very clear indications that other [=NPCs=] have crushes on each other, or more. Wedge clearly has one on Tataru, leaping into action to save her when she's in danger; Urianger also has some history with Moenbryda, creating the first cracks in his stoic persona when she dotes on him, and then again [[spoiler:after her death, when he tries, and fails to conceal his grief.]] |
| 90 | ** A side-quest in late Stormblood involves a Garlean prisoner-of-war, captured in Gyr Abania, but who isn't in cuffs. As it turns out, he was significantly more benevolent and idealistic than his kin to the locals, making it so that they won't believe anything bad about him or turn him over, to the point he fears a riot if the Alliance formally arrests him. It turns out to be [[spoiler:a case of misunderstanding, as the locals, having known nothing but Garlean rule and propganda, assume the Alliance will execute him for just being Garlean, where he only faces trial and has a lot of mitigating circumstances in his favor]]. It also turns out that one of the [=NPCs=] involved wants to save him because she's in love with him, which he reciprocates but didn't realize was the case. |
| 91 | ** During the 6.x post expansion quests, it is heavily implied that Jullus and Zero have an attraction to one another. |
| 92 | * ShootTheDog: |
| 93 | ** Standard practice in the city-states for victims of [[{{Brainwashed}} primal tempering]] is to put them to death. Even if they could be kept imprisoned safely (they can't), their newfound devotion [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly is making the primal stronger]], and they don't know any way to ''un''-temper someone. |
| 94 | ** Similarly, in the First, [[spoiler:those afflicted by sin-eaters' aetheric corruption]] need to be put down before [[spoiler:they [[TheVirus turn into a sin-eater themself]]]]. The standard method is by mixing poison into their favorite food. |
| 95 | * ShootTheMedicFirst: |
| 96 | ** Occasionally a useful strategy for the players, though proper healers are somewhat rare, and some quests also play with it by instead having a mage of some variety attempting to summon something that it's in your best interest to interrupt. More interestingly, it's the ''enemies'' that frequently play this role against the players: Foes will, in the usual MMO style, prefer to attack whatever they perceive as the greatest threat. Usually, this means anyone who's doing damage to them - a vital role tanks play is increasing enmity towards themselves so that enemies go after them rather than the squishier DPS or Healers - but players using healing spells on their allies also register as a threat to any enemies near their healing target. This means that, should an enemy not have their target well established (say, because it entered the combat halfway through) it's most likely to decide that the Healer is the greatest threat and make a beeline directly for them. Particularly excessive displays of healing can cause an entire group of enemies to all gang up on the poor medic at once. A number of bosses also have attacks that will target healers explicitly, regardless of enmity, which tend to be particularly dangerous since an adventuring party without its healer is not likely to survive very long. |
| 97 | ** The Wolves' Den [=PvP=] arena has the trope played straight by both teams, since obviously players are smart enough to recognize this. |
| 98 | * ShopFodder: Most quests already offer an amount of gil for completion, often along with other items the player may choose from. On the off chance that a player may not need(or want) the available choices, most quests that offer equipment awards will also give the option of an "Allagan <metal> Piece", which can be sold for even more gil. |
| 99 | * ShotInTheAss: During the King Mog fights, one of the Moogles, an archer, threatens to "shoot you right in the rear" (the soundtrack even has it as part of its lyric). Defeating him instead has him complain that ''he'' got it right in the rear. |
| 100 | * ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/FinalFantasyXIV Has its own page.]] |
| 101 | * ShownTheirWork: |
| 102 | ** The Vanu Vanu perform the Sundrop Dance to show off their strength and intimate their opponents. The player can learn them with both males and females getting their own versions. The dance is based off the Haka dance in real life and both versions of the dance are also performed by the Māori tribe. Said dance is also used for purposes similar to the one in game. |
| 103 | ** The song sung at the end of ''Stormblood'' (''The Measure of His Reach'') has one little detail that's easy to miss unless you have a good ear for it. Everyone singing the song are slightly off on the timing, which sounds very natural for a group of people that are not professional singers. Compare the song to ''The Measure of Our Reach'', a Garlean rewrite of it, where everyone is singing in perfect unison since they are soldiers trained to be perfect. |
| 104 | ** The 2nd boss in the Temple of the Fist dungeon has a pair of attacks that are based on direction. Fore and Aft hits anyone at his front or rear. Port and Star hits players near his sides. The attack names may sound nonsensical, but they're actually terms used to describe one's location on a ship, thus it gives players a clue on where they should be standing to avoid the directional attacks. |
| 105 | ** The slight-but-still-noticable sexual dimorphism between male and female viera, with the females being taller than the males, may seem a little odd at first glance and most would assume it's a nod to their society being matriarchal. However, female rabbits ''do'' tend to be a little larger than the males in real life, though it varies from breed to breed. Both male and female viera are also shown to stomp their foot in frustration during certain emotes, just like real life rabbits do when they are angry or stressed. |
| 106 | * SidetrackedByTheGoldenSaucer: The 2.51 patch gives us the Manderville Golden Saucer, along with new mini-games. Why bother doing dungeon runs or leveling up your characters when you can play cards or race with your chocobo? |
| 107 | * SignificantWardrobeShift: Most of the Scions gain brand new outfits throughout ''Heavensward'' with all but one of them made by Tataru. Thancred gets his from the Vath and Minfillia, Yda, Papalymo and Urianger don't get one [[spoiler:as Minfillia [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence becomes a mouthpiece for Hydaelin]], Yda reveals herself as Lyse at the end of ''Heavensward'', Papalymo performs a HeroicSacrifice and Urianger isn't given the choice, but probably doesn't want to.]] Even you get in on the fun with the Scion Adventurer's Garb. |
| 108 | ** [[spoiler:Lyse joins the fun with a Tataru-designed outfit near the beginning of ''Stormblood'', and she gets a second wardrobe shift near the end of the expansion when she pulls out one of Yda's traditional Ala Mhigan dresses.]] |
| 109 | ** It happens again in ''Shadowbringers''; though Alphinaud and Alisaie retain the outfits they'd gained in previous expansions, Thancred, Urianger, and Y'shtola all get new outfits to fit the new adventuring roles they'd taken up on the First. [[spoiler:In the epilogue of 5.3, when the Scions's souls are returned to the Source, Tataru commissions matching gear for their true selves - and Alisaie is a bit downcast that she and her brother didn't happen to take up any skills to merit a similar wardrobe update.]] |
| 110 | * SimpleSolutionWontWork: In one sidequest, the Warrior is teaching Wiscar how to deal with the various monsters around Gyr Abania as part of the Ala Mhigan Resistance. They can either tell him to [[AttackItsWeakPoint aim for a specific weak point]] where the monster is most fragile or to [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer hit it really, really hard.]] In both cases, the monster goes down, but Wiscar is exhausted if he doesn't go for the weak point and it's implied to take much longer. |
| 111 | * SinsOfOurFathers: [[spoiler:The ultimate reason for the Dragonsong War between Ishgard and the Dravanian Horde under Nidhogg. Centuries ago, the King of Ishgard Thordan I and his forces attacked the elder dragon Ratatoskr, killing her and taking her eyes that they might consume them and gain her power. In vengeance, Nidhogg attacked Thordan and his Knights; Nidhogg was driven back with his eyes taken, but still alive, while Thordan and many of his Knights were killed. The survivors returned to rule Ishgard, while Nidhogg declared unending war upon the city, even centuries later when the people of Ishgard no longer remembered the reason for the war and many of them pushed to end it and make peace once the truth comes out.]] |
| 112 | * SlashCommand: The game has an exhaustive list of text commands to perform things, from changing the chat channels, to executing job actions. A savvy player can string together these commands within the in-game Macro system to execute a sequence of actions with the click of a single button. |
| 113 | * SlasherSmile: [[spoiler:Edda Pureheart]] gives one to Paiyo Reiyo at the end of the ''"Corpse Groom"'' quest. Double as a KubrickStare. |
| 114 | ** A family trait of the Garlean royal family. Special mention goes to [[spoiler:the resurrected, half-primal Zenos yae Galvus, who is downright ''broken''.]] |
| 115 | * SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: |
| 116 | ** The Arcanist questline has a slaver as its BigBad; he's a completely horrific individual that's been on Limsa's most wanted list for years. The third and final rule of the Rogue's Guild's code forbids treating people as goods, and while they're willing to deal with violations of the first two (stealing from Lominsans or other pirates) by simply stealing the loot back and leaving the offenders to the authorities, any crews involved with slavery are marked to be slain without mercy. |
| 117 | ** In the second Samurai quest, you end up tracking down a moneylender who is selling indebted clients into slavery. Musosai explicitly calls him a "stain" that needs to be purged. Even worse, the moneylender is selling his slaves to [[CorruptCop corrupt members of the Brass Blades,]] and says that one woman will have an easy time [[SexSlave "making money laying on her back."]] Needless to say, the warrior of Light and Musosai bring some swift and righteous justice on both the moneylender and the corrupt Blades. |
| 118 | ** Part of the ScoundrelCode of Limsa Lominsa is to "never treat other people as goods" in the country, no matter what your profession. Even pirates have a code of honor, and the Rogue questline sees you going after people who are attempting human trafficking. You and your Rogue allies end up enforcing the code with lethal results on those who try to sell people into slavery. |
| 119 | * SleepyEnemy: |
| 120 | ** An example that overlaps with LazyDragon. In the Aery, there are numerous Slumbering Dragons resting inside Nidhogg's den. They won't wake up if you hug the wall opposite their nests, allowing the party to safely bypass them. However, Nidhogg's Broodlings will aggro and chase after the party, and killing them too close to the Slumbering Dragons will cause their death cries to wake the dragons up to avenge their young. |
| 121 | ** In Sohr Khai, there are several gates guarded by sleeping Cloud Gardeners, rocky beings that rest inside cube-shaped stones. There's no way past the gate without killing the Gardeners first, forcing the party to wake them up and kill them to proceed. |
| 122 | * TheSlowWalk: The Warrior of Light does this during the "''The End of the Song''" quest in truly awesome fashion. [[spoiler:The forces of Ishgard are pressed to the brink against Nidhogg's armies, on the verge of collapse...until the [=WoL=], Ser Aymeric, and Alphinaud [[BigDamnHeroes fly in on the backs of Hraesvelgr and his allies]]. The [=WoL=] leaps down and starts a slow walk towards Nidhogg as the rest of the Ishgardian force retreats.]] |
| 123 | * SmashCut: M'zhet Tia is a swaggering M'qote who wants to become the leader of his tribe via its AsskickingLeadsToLeadership rule. But he's so pathetic that the chief of the tribe sends the Warrior of Light to train M'zhet. When this is pointed out to him, M'zhet tries to demonstrate just how strong he is by fighting the Warrior. Only, he's so weak that there isn't even a fight, just a quick fade to black before returning to see M'zhet lying and groaning on the ground. |
| 124 | * SnobbyHobbies: |
| 125 | ** Lolorito Nanarito is the richest man in Thanalan, if not the world, and spends his free time as an amateur food critic known in culinary circles as [[TheDreaded "Chefsbane"]]. Due to his vast economic power and reputation, he gets a laugh from watching esteemed restaurants go under after scathing reviews from him. Even the Bismarck, the most esteemed eatery in Eorzea, trembles when he books a table. So when [[PlayerCharacter the Warrior]] cooks him a meal he can't criticize, he attempts to humiliate them by having them cater a diplomatic dinner with the sultana while making it as difficult as possible to satisfy her royal tastes. He also once put out bounties on rare fish for him to eat, but soon got sick of those same fish and retracted his reward. |
| 126 | ** Collecting orchestrion rolls is a hobby of the rich, with rarer compositions being exorbitantly expensive [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall (perhaps as a nod to the prices charged on the player market)]]. Artoirel de Fortemps, the heir apparent of one of the four High Houses of Ishgard, is one of the foremost collectors in the Holy See and dabbles in composition in his free time. |
| 127 | * SocializationBonus: In the Save the Queen areas, being near a player as they win a [[{{Superboss}} solo engagement]] will grant a buff [[ExperienceBooster doubling your mettle gain]] for an hour. |
| 128 | * SoLastSeason: Zig-zagged. Many of your skills and abilities will still be useful once you hit Level 50 and dash into ''Heavensward'' and ''Stormblood''. A lot of this is due to the fact a vast majority of the dungeons you run will probably still be from ''A Realm Reborn''. Weapons and Armor are an odd thing - though they will be replaced inevitably, the Relic/Tomestone gear can be used through at least half of an expansion before you need to take up a new piece of gear. |
| 129 | * SoftWater: |
| 130 | ** Averted. The ''Stormblood'' expansion adds deep water, but landing in it hurts just as much as hitting the ground would, and if you're in combat, it can easily kill you. |
| 131 | ** Averted again in ''Endwalker'', a woman is chased by a beast through the jungle while carrying her infant child. Despite her best efforts to get away, she's grabbed by the beast and hurled into the nearby reservoir. When the Warrior dives in to save her, they find that she died on impact, but [[ImprobableInfantSurvival her child is still alive]]. |
| 132 | * SolidGoldPoop: At the end of the Halloween event, it was revealed that the cookies given by the Imps were actually [[IAteWhat Chocobo dung]]. [[GoMadFromTheRevelation The reporter that discovered this wasn't very happy]]. |
| 133 | * SomethingWeForgot: The Ixali Beast Tribe quests start when you are to help the Twin Adders deal with the Ixali tribe that has been causing grief for Gridania. You track down a crashed Ixali vehicle, but it turns out to have belonged to a splintered tribe of Ixali who simply want to create an airship that will allow them to reach their promised land. You get roped into helping helping them build it which leads to a long questline that takes weeks to finish due to daily limits. Finally you craft it after many trials, and one of your companions asks you why you decided to help the tribe. At this point, you finally remember that you were originally there on the orders of the Twin Adder Lieutenant and go report back to her. Luckily, she had forgotten all about it too and in the process of building the ship, you had to sabotage the enemy Ixali tribe's ships anyway, meaning the Twin Adders got what they wanted. |
| 134 | * SoundtrackDissonance: |
| 135 | ** In the Wanderer's Palace (Hard), the victory music from defeating the final boss cuts out in time for a horde of freed tonberries to lunge at their former captor with their knives out. The music picks up again immediately where it left off even as your character cringes and another member of your party starts BackingAwaySlowly. |
| 136 | ** The special mounts dropped from the extreme Primal battles now play the battle theme of the respective Primal while you ride. All well and good if you're riding into battle, not so much on a pleasant stroll through Mist or other residential areas. |
| 137 | ** Speaking of Primal battles, Lakshmi's theme about dreaming is somewhat surreal to hear while Lakshmi herself is trying to kill you. Unlike most other Primals, Lakshmi's theme is the same throughout the fight and doesn't change with the mood, resulting in a hilariously awkward contrast between her uplifting theme song and her own (voiced!) angry ranting. This is a bit jarring when compared to Sophia, another female Primal who instead has a calm voice to go with her mellow theme. Curiously this is reversed in the Japanese version, where Lakshmi's [=VA=] is calm and Sophia is the one that sounds angry. |
| 138 | ** Customizing the music that plays during your eternal bond ceremony can also invoke this. You can use some classic ''Final Fantasy'' themes, use themes from the grand companies to give the event a military like feel, or you can decide to go the silly route and play Hilidibrand's ''Inspector'' theme for an event that's supposed to be about two people joining their souls in love and harmony. |
| 139 | * SoupIsMedicine: In the quest, "The Strongest Among Us", Esugen, an Oroniri culinarian, brews a Yanxian bi fang soup cooked with eight strong medicinal herbs to treat a fellow member of his tribe who has fallen ill before a major tournament. |
| 140 | * SpaceWhaleAesop: For the ''Endwalker'' expansion specifically but the entire game up through 6.0 in general; academic peer review is ''extremely'' important when conducting experiments, because not allowing your work to be reviewed or your hypotheses to be questioned and refined [[spoiler:can lead you to accidentally creating the incarnation of existential despair that causes the apocalypse for your civilization and sets the stage for twelve-thousand years of strife and struggle to try and fix your mistake.]] |
| 141 | * SparingThemTheDirtyWork |
| 142 | ** Unukalhai executes the thralls tempered by the Warring Triad, believing that a hero like the Warrior of Light shouldn't have to stain their hands with "the dirty work". Y'shtola admonishes him for this, pointing out that the Warrior already has already acknowledged that there's no other recourse for the tempered until a cure can be found and has killed others many times before. In the end, Unukalhai realizes that he's put the Warrior on a pedestal rather than working openly and earnestly with them. |
| 143 | ** At the end of the Save the Queen questline, the Warrior can prepare to execute [[spoiler:Misjia for her crimes against the Bozjan Resistance.]] Should the Warrior have advocated against the execution earlier in the storyline, Bajsaljen will stop the Warrior and say that it is his responsibility to do the deed as the Resistance's leader. |
| 144 | * SpecialAbilityShield: Gunshields are a form of MixAndMatchWeapon used by high-ranking Garlean officers. In addition to being made of cermet, an alloy harder than any metal Eorzean smiths can forge by hand, shields like the ones used by Rhitatyn sans Arvina can be equipped with gatling guns and missile launchers. The shields can also project barriers that repel and counter-attacks made against them. Before Varis became emperor, he wielded another gunshield like Rhitatyn's in tandem with an enormous gunblade. |
| 145 | * SquareRaceRoundClass: Players have absolutely no restrictions on what classes their chosen race can be, resulting in the sight of physically intimidating Roegadyn and Hrothgar being casters, and the absolutely diminutive Lalafell being warriors. While a lot of characters hold tightly to the expected tropes of their classes, such as lots of axe-weilding Roegadyn and crafting caster Lalafell, the game's lack of hard limits on what a race is capable of pulling off is as much in effect for NPC as it is for the player characters, with a Roegadyn being the guild leader of the Arcanist's guild (Arcanistry being the most elegant - and mentally taxing- magical art besides Astrology) and the Scholar's class partner and escort is a Lalafellin Marauader. |
| 146 | * StableTimeLoop: This is a common thing that happens in the Alexander raid storyline: |
| 147 | ** When the protagonists [[spoiler:travel back in time, Shanoa, a kitty that's been tagging along, boops the one chronicaling everything that's been happening so far on the head, causing them to drop the journal and allowing Quickthinx Allthoughts to obtain it. Said journal is the source of his "prophetic" powers." Shanona stays with Quickthinx until the present.]] |
| 148 | ** In one cutscene [[spoiler:Quickthinx Allthoughts time stasis bubble to freeze the protagonists and while Alexander charges up a massive WaveMotionGun. But somehow at the last second, the stasis bubble breaks and everyone's able to dodge the blast. During the fight with Alexander, he summons adds that go into time portals that you have to chase after. Said adds were responsible for the stasis bubble and you're defeating them to save yourself]] |
| 149 | ** In the end [[spoiler:Mide Hotogo melds with Alexander and finds her lover Dayan. It's implied they somehow end up in the past and start the Hotogo tribe. Which also means that Mide and Dayan are [[MyOwnGrampa each other's ancestors]].]] |
| 150 | ** Another occurs [[spoiler: in ''Endwalker'', one which underpins the ''entire setting''. The Warrior of Light travels back in time to Elpis in the days of the Ancients, only to swiftly become embroiled to the point they're forced into telling their entire story to Emet-Selch, Hythlodaeus, Hermes and Venat in their attempts to discover just what was so important that Hydaelyn pointed them right to Elpis. The Warrior of Light ends up participating in the events that caused the Sound that sparked the Final Days, and while the former three end up having their memories of the Warrior and the Sound's origin wiped, Venat remembers everything and uses it to guide her course into becoming Hydaelyn, shaping the very events that led the Warrior to time travel in the first place.]] |
| 151 | ** Averted with [[spoiler:the bad future that Crystal Exarch!G'raha came from. In that universe, Garlemald unleashes a chemical weapon that essentially causes society to collapse from how much death it unleashes (being more potent than Garlemald expected due to Ascian influences) and the Warrior of Light and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn are all killed. When G'raha awakens to this, he works with the surviving members of Ironworks to create a machine that crosses both time and space, allowing him to both travel back in time to before the chemical weapon was released but also to the First, a shard of Hydaelyn broken off into a separate reality that was involved in the events that led to everything in his timeline. This alone creates a new timeline than the one he experienced, and ultimately his soul fuses with his counterpart sleeping within the Crystal Tower after business in the First is concluded. But he also believed that changing the past would cause the BadFuture timeline to disappear from existence, but one of the ''Tales from the Shadows'' makes it clear that that timeline continues on it's own path separate from the "Prime" timeline.]] |
| 152 | * StaminaBurn: The Briar Caltrop power-up causes a ring of briars to grow around the user's chocobo, rapidly sapping the stamina gauge of any other chocobo to come in contact with it. This leaves the victims unable to accelerate and lagging behind the competition unless they can restore it with power-up or a skill they've learned. |
| 153 | * StatusBuff: Every class has some kind of way to increase their power in a fight. |
| 154 | * StatusInflictionAttack: A near-universal mechanic in boss fights is that player(s) hit by any non-Tankbuster ability, certain hazards, and most other onscreen threats, will be struck with a vulnerability debuff, which can stack for as many times as they are hit. Depending on the boss, the attack and other factors, multiple stacks will almost certainly result in the player(s) dying to the next attack they fail to avoid, and sometimes, even a ''single'' stack is enough. |
| 155 | * StealthBasedMission: Some of the Ninja job quests have you sneaking around enemies to avoid being spotted. One main story quest in ''Stormblood'' enforces stealth as your only option since attacking the guards or letting the guards capture you completely will have the quest end in failure. |
| 156 | ** The 2017 All Saints' Wake event consists of trying to find specific objects in a (slightly) repurposed Haukke Manor. There are no normal enemies, but if you're spotted by one of the ''ab''normal ones you'll be turned into a pumpkin and lose points from the party's shared SanityMeter. |
| 157 | ** ''Endwalker'' has several quests that require you to follow an NPC without being spotted, forcing you to use the terrain to hide whenever they look back. |
| 158 | * StealthPun: |
| 159 | ** In the Hildibrand quest "Seeds of Rebellion", Lewenhart will send you to recover a stolen vegetable that "very closely resembled the Eorzean dragon pepper -- save for its color, which was a deep purple". However, a [[SpotTheThread thread is spotted]] when you recover them and they are, in fact, blue -- that's right, [[spoiler:there ''are'' [[WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone no purple dragon]] peppers!]] |
| 160 | ** The "Pulse" music album remixes various songs into different music genres. The genre chosen for [[ShockAndAwe "Thunder Rolls"]] is ''[[ElectroSwing Electro]]'' [[ElectroSwing Swing]]. |
| 161 | ** Similarly, Titan, the Primal associated with the Earth and one you fight underground, has a theme that is ''hard rock''. |
| 162 | ** The Shadowbringers trailer has the Eulmorans represented by a group of indolent, overweight Mystel (Miqo'te). In other words, they're Fat Cats. |
| 163 | * SteppingOutToReact: Roaring Spring is a stressed-out aviation researcher who begins commissioning toys and treats from [[PlayerCharacter the Warrior of Light]] for his pet cat. He's happy to get help from such an accomplished gleaner until he learns he's been buying his kitty goods from [[spoiler:one of the passengers of the ''Ragnarok'' and the savior of all life in the universe]]. He then runs out the door before screaming from embarrassment. |
| 164 | -->'''Roaring Spring:''' [[FlatWhat What?]] So I've been waxing poetic about kitty cats to...no, ''commissioning'' kitty goods from... I-If you'll excuse me! ''[sprints out the door]'' ...''Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa''!!!\ |
| 165 | '''Margrat:''' ''[watching Roaring Spring leave]'' ...I'll, er. Go and check on him later. |
| 166 | * SticksToTheBack: Most two handed weapons and shields work this way. One handed weapons usually stick to the hip. |
| 167 | * StockMarketGame: The Island Sanctuary has a pseudo-stock market in which you can gather materials to produce items to ship back to the mainland in exchange for cowries. The supply and demand of these manufactured items fluctuates based on hidden patterns every week, both of which greatly affect potential payouts. This encourages players to gather lots of materials and carefully plan what items to make on a given day to maximize profits. |
| 168 | * StormingTheCastle: [[spoiler:Two of the Dungeons in Stormblood, Doma Castle and Ala Mhigo, are pretty much this.]] |
| 169 | * StoryboardingTheApocalypse: PlayedForLaughs with the Namazu beast tribe quests. The story deals with a Namazu who has somehow received visions of a disastrous future awaiting his people, and each quest shows how he inadvertently prevents a different disaster that would wipe the Namazu out, from famine to indentured servitude and so on. |
| 170 | * StoryDifficultySetting: [[DownplayedTrope By comparison to the Binding Coils]], raids released in ''Heavensward'' and onward are intended to be far more accessible to the "clear them once just for the story" section of the playerbase. While it still requires decent gear and coordination, it's quite possible, even early on when everyone is undergeared, to clear them in two or three wipes with a [[PickUpGroup Duty Finder group]]. The old, harder difficulty still exists, but it's no longer the default, instead being designated "Savage" and clearly intended for dedicated players. |
| 171 | * TheStinger: The final quest of each patch has one, foreshadowing events yet to come. There's also one at the end of each launch Main Story Quest, which include a lead-in to that expansion's trial series. [[note]]Binding Coil of Bahamut for ''A Realm Reborn'', Alexander for ''Heavensward'', Interdimensional Rift for ''Stormblood'', and Eden for ''Shadowbringers''.[[/note]] |
| 172 | * StrangeSalute: Being part of a Grand Company gives the player character a unique salute emote depending on which one they join. The Maelstrom favors a traditional MilitarySalute with the palm towards their face, while the Order of the Twin Adder and the Immortal Flames have stranger variations (respectively crossing both arms in front of their face and placing one arm in front of them with their other hand behind their back). The Garlean Empire have a "hand over heart" gesture (which is unlocked upon completion of a main story quest involving [[spoiler:infiltrating a Garlean outpost to rescue the Scions]], and as such usable by all characters) [[spoiler:and the Crystal Braves have their own one, shown only in cutscenes and inaccessible to the player.]] |
| 173 | * {{Stripperiffic}}: While there is a slight lean to more revealing female outfits, they amount to lower necklines, shorts instead of pants, or cutaways that don't reveal too much skin, making this heavily downplayed. That said, straighter examples include Subligars, which can be succinctly described as "leather-padded briefs", and the Coloseum Shawl, which leaves little to the imagination no matter who wears it. Even the Hempen Camise and Undershirt, which are rather modestly-covered smallclothes, can have some revealing variations such as Female Highlander Hyur's version amounting to straps and cloth strips that cover the important places, and the Male Elezen's sleeves-only, chest-baring top. Then there's the bunny suits from the Gold Saucer and the Thavnairian Bustier, which were ''previously'' women-only glamour until updates allowed men to wear them too. |
| 174 | * StrictlyFormula: |
| 175 | ** While the context and events vary between each city state, the level 1-15 main quests from your starting city all roughly follow the same pattern. |
| 176 | *** You start off having a dream sequence of you facing down Lahabrea in the signature equipment of your starting class's Job. You then wake up on the way to your starting city alongside Alphinaud, Alisae, and a peddler (Brennan, Bremondt or Brendt, depending on the city). |
| 177 | *** Your journey is interrupted by one of the local threats. |
| 178 | *** When you arrive at the local Adventurers' Guild, you're accosted by the local guards, who scoff at your inexperience. The local guildmaster helps you start making a name for yourself by helping out the locals. |
| 179 | *** While investigating a strange occurence (Out of control monsters in Gridania, local kidnappings in Lominsa, a lost noblewoman in Ul'Dah), you meet the region's Scion (Papalymo and Yda in Gridania, Y'shtola in Lominsa, Thancred in Ul'Dah), who helps you fend off a sudden monster attack. The monster drops the first Crystal. |
| 180 | *** Shortly afterwards, you run afoul of a tense scene (Poachers attempting to steal a valuable Chocobo egg in Gridania, a former Serpent Reaver being blackmailed into sending the Reavers more slaves, and an assassination attempt on one of Lolorito's rivals in Ul'Dah), but the situation is suddenly interrupted when an Ascian appears and attacks you with a Golem. |
| 181 | *** After doing some more questing, you ultimately stumble upon an insidious plot (A massive Ixal invasion in Gridania, a Serpent Reaver raid in Limonsa, the theft of Nanamo's crown in Ul'Dah), which ultimately culminates in a BigBadassBattleSequence between you, the nation's army, and the bad guys. After the initial enemies and their leader are killed, the Ascian from before ambushes you again, and you defeat him with the help of the nation's Scion. |
| 182 | *** In recognition of your heroics, the nation leader personally invites you to a ceremony. During the ceremony, Hydaelyn contacts you again with a vision of the Calamity before beseeching you to find the remaining Crystals. The nation leader asks you to introduce yourself to the other nation leaders. As your airship departs, Gaius van Baelsar is seen watching your departure... |
| 183 | ** Since ''Heavensward'', the content releases for each patch cycle follows a set release formula, though in the case of ''Endwalker'', the pattern was broken due to being the end of the MythArc. [[note]]''A Realm Reborn'' followed parts of this formula, but it wasn't until ''Heavensward'' and onwards that the formula became more consistent.[[/note]] |
| 184 | *** The initial launch patch (Patch x.0) has the expansion's Main Story Quest up until the level cap, with high-end content usually being relegated to a few max-level dungeons and the initial four trials of the expansion's 8-man raid series (Alexander for ''Heavensward'', Omega for ''Stormblood'', Eden for ''Shadowbringers'', Pandaemonium for ''Endwalker'', and The Arcadion for ''Dawntrail''). |
| 185 | *** Patch x.1 introduces the first act of the expansion's 24-man raid series. ''Stormblood'' also introduced Ultimate raids, the first in each subsequent expansion pack being released during the x.1 patch. |
| 186 | *** Patch x.2 introduces the first of a trilogy of single-encounter trials (The Warring Triad for ''Heavensward'' and the Auspices/Four Lords for ''Stormblood''), and the second tier of the 8-man raid series. With these encounters comes a requisite tier boost in available gear. New tomestones are made available for some of this gear, with previous tier tomestone gear being moved down to being accessible with Tomestones of Poetics (the lowest and only consistent tier of Tomestones) and the previous raid tier's Tomestones being made redundant. |
| 187 | *** Patch x.3 introduces a new 8-man raid that's integrally tied to the patch's Main Story Quest content, and is usually a [[TheClimax major climax]] in the post-launch narrative. Alongside this, the second instance of the expansion's Alliance Raid is released, along with the second Ultimate trial. |
| 188 | *** Patch x.4 releases the second of the expansion's trilogy trials and the final tier of the 8-man raid series. As with patch x.2, gear tiers increase at this point, with new tomestones and old raid gear being moved down to Tomestones of Poetics. In terms of the Main Story Quest, it begins to start heavily hinting at the next expansion's plot, and the narrative begins ushering you towards it. [[note]]For all expansions thus far, the expansion has rarely been announced at this point, making the fandom rife with speculation as to what it's pushing towards. The expansion's name and initial details are usually revealed at a [=FanFest=] between the patch x.4 and x.5 cycle.[[/note]] |
| 189 | *** Patch x.5 is unique in that it is split into two major releases. The bulk of the content is released during the first major patch cycle, with notable mainstays such as the conclusion to both the expansion's Alliance Raid and the expansion's trial trilogy. A few weeks after the initial patch, a patch x.56 is released that includes the last part of the Main Story Quest, acting as a prelude to the next expansion. |
| 190 | * SuccessionCrisis: Tural, the setting of ''Dawntrail'' is undergoing one, as the current Dawnservant is planning to step down and relinquish the role to his successor. [[spoiler:Wuk Lamat plans on winning the competition and claiming the throne, with the knowledge that there's one unsavory candidate wanting to claim it to wage war on Garlemald.]] |
| 191 | * SuccubiAndIncubi: |
| 192 | ** Despite having an overall draconian appearance, the Au Ra associate more with demons, meaning their imposing (but attractive in their own way) males and beautiful, waif-like women have more in common with incubi and succubi, respectively. |
| 193 | ** Succubi themselves have been a recurring foe for most of the game. According to their Triple Triad card, Succubi are normally formless spirits, but can enter the physical world by (and only by) possessing recently-deceased women, morphing them into the Succubi's form. |
| 194 | * SuicidalOverconfidence: In one questline, the Nunh of the Seekers of the Sun tribe in the fringes tells you about a Tia who wants to take his position, but has lost miserably every time he challenged the Nunh. The Nunh is intrigued by his persistence and asks you to train him to see if there is some hidden potential. When you find the Tia and tell him this, he balks and says he will just beat you up before challenging the Nunh again. He is so outclassed that he gets beaten by you off screen, the game cuts from you pulling your weapon out to him being down on the ground in what is probably the first instance the entire game of the Warrior of Light beating someone offscreen. |
| 195 | * SuicideAttack: |
| 196 | ** The giant wasps in the Sunken Temple of Qarn and Hullbreaker Isle will use an attack called Final Sting when their HP is critically low. Final Sting kills the wasp who used it, but it also deals a {{fixed|DamageAttack}} [[PercentDamageAttack 80%]] of the target's max HP as damage, making it lethal to anyone, even the tank, if they're not topped off. |
| 197 | ** Bees make a return in ''Heavensward'' in a level 60 dungeon, Neverreap. Woe be to any group that pulls both pairs of bees after the first boss battle. |
| 198 | ** For a player's option, there's Catastrophe L, a Logos action from Eureka Pyros. It only has three uses, but using it will cause an explosion that inflicts an obscene amount of damage, while the user takes 999999 damage, ensuring they're killed off upon using it...provided they're not under the protection of a skill such as a Paladin's Hallowed Ground. |
| 199 | * SummonBinding: |
| 200 | ** Mhach was once a civilization specializing in the use of BlackMagic, summoning voidsent and creating rituals to bind them as a means of controlling them. These voidsent were used as living weapons against Mhach's enemies in its bid to conquer Eorzea as well as living power sources for creations like the Void Ark. However, these rituals were not foolproof, as even High Voidmage Cessair's binding rituals eventually failed 1,500 years after the fall of Mhach, freeing powerful voidsent like Scathach and Diabolos to wreak havoc in the present. |
| 201 | ** Reapers normally enter a contract with their voidsent avatar to borrow its powers in exchange for the aether of the reaper's victims. However, Zenos's avatar was specifically summoned and chosen by Fandaniel. Instead of a contract, Fandaniel bound Zenos's avatar to him through unknown rituals, giving Zenos the avatar's power without requiring him to spare it aether. |
| 202 | * {{Superboss}}: |
| 203 | ** Every trial has an extreme version, which is strictly non-mandatory and isn't part of any extra story -- most of them are even non-canon, just a minstrel's retelling of the actual events. But for completing them, you can get special gear and sometimes even a special mount. And if you collect all the Extreme mounts from an expansion, you get a mount for that too. |
| 204 | ** ''Stormblood'' introduced Ultimate raids, gauntlets that that only the most dedicated of players will be able to conquer. The entry requirements are already stringent enough as one must complete the final floors of certain Savage tiers. And the fights themselves are very demanding, the most challenging content so far in the game even. |
| 205 | *** For defeating Neo Exdeath, you gain access to the Unending Coil of Bahamut, a MarathonBoss that pits you against Twintania, Nael deus Darnus, Bahamut, all three together, then a golden version of Bahamut. A successful run [[MarathonBoss generally takes about 20 minutes to complete]] and it demands that you understand mechanics that all appeared in the original Binding Coils. |
| 206 | *** For defeating Kefka's God of Magic form, you unlock The Weapon's Refrain, a big gauntlet that pits you against in rapid succession Garuda, Ifrit, Titan, Lahabrea, and finally the Ultima Weapon. Surprisingly, the fight is not quite the Marathon Boss that Unending Coil is, but it is much denser and mechanics occur much more rapidly, leading to a fight that is equally challenging. |
| 207 | *** For defeating Titan Maximum, you unlock The Epic of Alexander, a gauntlet that pits you against Living Liquid, Brute Justice ''and'' Cruise Chaser, Alexander Prime and the previous two, and finally an entirely new form of Alexander combined with Brute Justice and Cruise Chaser called Perfect Alexander. |
| 208 | *** For defeating Hesperos, you unlock Dragonsong's Reprise, a retelling of the ''Heavensward'' storyline. The story plays out normally with Sers Adelphel, Grinnaux, and Charibert, King Thordan, Nidhogg [[spoiler: in Estinien's body]], and finally Nidhogg's eyes. [[spoiler:It then takes you back to the point where Haurchefant died in the main storyline, but this time you need to also ''save him'' from his HeroicSacrifice. This leads to an alternate timeline where Thordan reaches Azys Lla without any resistance due to the Warrior of Light's lack of vengeance against him and the Heavens' Ward, allowing him to subjugate the Dravanian Horde with Allagan technology. The alternate storyline then pits you against King Thordan again, who will plead for mercy after reaching a critical percentage of his health, Nidhogg and an enslaved Hraesvelgr, and finally, if previously spared, Thordan absorbs all four of their eyes to become Dragon-king Thordan]]. |
| 209 | *** For defeating Hephaistos, you unlock The Omega Protocol, an expanded retelling of the Omega raid storyline. The raid focuses on the titular boss in a WhatIf scenario where its testing continued, eventually culminating in [[spoiler: Omega gaining the ability to use dynamis, then merging with Alpha to create a near-perfect being with complete understanding of endings and beginnings, and finally obtaining the answers on the mortal heart it sought]]. |
| 210 | ** The Bozjan Southern Front has three {{Duel Boss}}es, which can only be challenged by completing certain Critical Engagements without ever taking avoidable damage. A single player out of those who registered after meeting the requirements will be selected to face the boss alone, and almost all of their attacks are avoidable {{One Hit Kill}}s. Defeating them rewards 99 lockboxes, an achievement, and a title. |
| 211 | * SuperDrowningSkills: In the Leviathan Extreme battle, your characters can get knocked off the platform you're on and into the water below, causing instant death. Justified as there ''are'' Sahagin and Leviathan in the water, and the waters are too fierce for your character to swim. Otherwise, you just can't swim at all until ''Stormblood'', which introduces bodies of water you can swim in. |
| 212 | * SuperPrototype: In the ''Heavensward'' Leatherworker storyline, the Warrior of Light produces multiple extremely high-quality products to Elde for her considerably less-skilled artisans to use as templates for a lesser (but still high-quality) version that can be mass produced easily and affordably to sell to both lowborn and highborn Ishgardians. |
| 213 | * SureLetsGoWithThat: In ''Endwalker'', the Warrior travels to [[spoiler:the ancient past before the world was sundered with the help of Elidibus and Syrcus Tower. Although they're intangible and incapable of being seen or heard by normal means, both Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus notice the Warrior due to their AuraVision letting them percieve the Warrior's (and thus Azem's) soul. Both Ancients are baffled by this, wondering if the Warrior is a familiar since their soul is so similar to their friend's. The Warrior, unwilling to explain that they came from the future, just rolls with this.]] |
| 214 | * SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: |
| 215 | ** In "[[WhamEpisode The Parting Glass]]" and [[DarkestHour its immediate aftermath]], the culprit's plot goes off more or less without a hitch: [[spoiler:the Sultana is dead, as is Lord Lolorito's peer/rival Teledji Adeledji, Raubahn is in prison awaiting execution for [[PayEvilUntoEvil murdering Teledji]], and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn have been broken apart and branded as regicides]]. Afterwards, the culprit runs into the problem of trying to run a FrameUp on someone as beloved as the Warrior of Light. Most of the public only knows rumors about what happened, and almost nobody believes the accusations against the Warrior are true, so the FalseFlagOperation fails. The few people that believe that the Warrior is guilty decide they'd rather just turn a blind eye, mostly because the Warrior has a well-earned reputation as a OneManArmy, so any attempt to arrest them would rely on the Warrior feeling charitable enough to come quietly. The other leaders of the Eorzean Alliance further made it clear to the Ul'dahn Syndicate that they're not to go public with the charges against the Warrior until they can present concrete evidence, [[{{Realpolitik}} ostensibly because of the unrest that would occur]] if the realm's most beloved hero were accused of something like what the culprit intended. Then ''Heavensward'' comes around, and reveals that things [[SpannerInTheWorks didn't go so smoothly after all]]. [[spoiler:Very little of what happened at what's become known as "the Bloody Banquet" was intended by Lolorito. Teledji Adeledji may have wanted to overthrow the Sultanate and install himself and his fellow Monetarists as the rulers of Ul'dah, but Lolorito recognized that he was already running the show in all but name. He stood to lose far too much and gain far too little by going along with Teledji's plan. As such, Lolorito had the poison intended to kill Sultana Nanamo [[FakingTheDead replaced with a sleeping potion]], and was planning to use his [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem influence]] to publicly acquit the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, including the Warrior of Light, of all charges. But the Scions' refusal to stand down and be brought in by guards -- who, for all they knew, intended to simply execute them on the spot -- [[PoorCommunicationKills spoiled that part of the plan]]. Plus, Raubahn [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe literally sliced Teledji Adeleji in half]] right in front of Lolorito, and it would be all but impossible for Lolorito to ignore this blantant act of murder without giving away his position, forcing him to call for Raubahn and the Scions' arrest immediately.]] |
| 216 | ** In the Leatherworker questline, the leatherwork guildmaster Geva [[SinkOrSwimMentor acts incredibly mean all the time and constantly puts down the efforts of her guildmembers]], rather than rallying them to keep trying harder to surpass her expectations. As Geva is surprised to learn, this is an excellent way of getting people angry at you, even if they're passionate about their work. Geva learns this the hard way when almost the entire Leatherworkers' Guild leaves en masse, tired of listening to Geva constantly belittle the quality of their work, even if she's doing it in a DareToBeBadass kind of way. [[spoiler:This mass resignation leaves Geva running herself to exhaustion trying to complete more work orders than is possible for any one person to handle, even if she's a master leatherworker. It takes Geva apologizing to everyone and vowing to cool her jets a bit that brings everyone back.]] |
| 217 | ** In the ''Stormblood'' Astrologian quests, it's shown that there's a strong demand for geomancers in Kugane, as the local businesses consider their divinations to be essential to success. Unfortunately, this also means that there's no shortage of fraudsters willing to play on the general population's ignorance, aided by a general attitude of "let the buyer beware" and lack of regulatory authority. [[spoiler:And, as Kyokuho is surprised to discover, it's all too easy for a genuine and honest geomancer to be branded a fraud.]] |
| 218 | ** ''Heavensward'' has this apply to a few of the events around Ishgard, especially the Dragonsong War. |
| 219 | *** After Aymeric pushes to end the war between Ishgard and the dragons, the people are resistant to peace. Members of House Fortemps note that peace is generally popular, but some people are staunchly against it. Some Ishgardians even try to sabotage the peace proceedings. Emmanellain de Fortemps, shocked at what he's seeing, wonders why someone would ever try to stop peace talks, which has to be spelled out to him later. [[spoiler:The revelation that the whole affair was started over a thousand-year-old lie on Ishgard's part was never going to be handled well. There are some people who think that Aymeric is making it all up and went about {{Patricide}} because he wanted power. Even those that don't think Aymeric is grabbing at power still want the war to keep going, because otherwise, the deaths of their loved ones will have been AllForNothing. Aymeric notes that this means perpetuating the CycleOfRevenge, but he also gets why people would think that way. Add in long-simmering class divides coming to the surface at the worst possible time due to a power vacuum and the airing of a large amount of dirty laundry by the Holy See, and the entire campaign for peace was ''never'' going to go smoothly.]] |
| 220 | *** The questline for the expansion's Machinist job gives a demonstration of what happens when a nation that has been doing its thing for a thousand years is presented with sudden and noticeable change. The nobility of a nation that trains soldiers all their lives to serve with distinction, and presents them as "better" than lesser folk because of it, doesn't take it well when Stephanivien de Haillenarte suddenly starts attempting to arm that lesser class with cheap, widespread, easy-to-use, and incredibly powerful guns to bolster the nation's defenses. This turns "defending one's homeland" from being a mark of noble pride to something anyone - even the outcasts in the Brume, come the ''Stormblood'' class quests - can do. Stephanivien inadvertenly makes friction between the classes heat up throughout the questline, and is consistently frustrated that he has to keep dealing with the political fallout of wanting to defend his country in the best way he knows how. |
| 221 | ** The Valentione's and All Saints' Wake event tokens are chocolates and pumpkin cookies respectively. These are used to trade in for seasonal goodie. Try to turn the same tokens in next year, and it won't work. The tokens being foodstuffs means that they went stale and became worthless, preventing you hoarding the tokens to easily get next year's goodies. After all, who would want to eat sweets that are over a year old? |
| 222 | ** The EstablishingCharacterMoment for Gosetsu contains such an outcome, but it's PlayedForLaughs. Through sheer determination and a sense of duty, he managed to travel from Kugane to Eorzea in a small boat, intending on finding allies to help him in the liberation of Doma. Naturally, such efforts have left him starving for some food. Gosetsu, ever the {{Determinator}}, says that he won't listen to "the feeble grumblings of an empty belly" and that "duty comes before all". He psyches himself up, takes one step... and falls flat on his face from exhaustion and hunger. |
| 223 | ** In one Dark Knight quest, the Warrior of Light ([[TakeOurWordForIt apparently]]) gets drenched in blood and, following the advice of their mentor, doesn't bother to wash any of it off. When they return to the quest giver, he is horrified and quickly sends them on their way once he's done thanking them. |
| 224 | ** In ''Stormblood'', every village you come across in Garlean occupied territory is [[DespairEventHorizon completely and utterly broken]]. The people live in destitution and suffer under Imperial taxation, conscriptions, and general cruelty. The people have lived like this for 25 years, and [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror have come to accept it as their lot in life]]. Lyse keeps trying to rally the peoples' spirits, and is consistently rebuffed each time, to the point that she's shocked when people tell Lyse that they don't want her help. They believe that so long as they keep their heads down and obey, nothing worse will happen. As such, every time Lyse and the Scions arrive to offer aid and a chance at fighting back, they're met with fear and hatred for it. Everyone in Ala Mhigo knows what they have is awful, but to take any action would mean they'd be butchered by the Empire. But when the Warrior of Light becomes a HopeBringer as they always do, [[HopeCrusher the Empire stomps it out]], stopping an uprising before it starts. Starting LaResistance isn't as easy as it sounds when there are eyes and ears everywhere. |
| 225 | ** The [=YoRHa=]: Dark Apocalypse story ends with [[spoiler:the Android invasion having been successfully stopped, but the fallout still lingers. Anogg and Konogg are still at fault for meddling with these affairs and letting them in, and the townfolk aren't quick to forgive them for nearly destroying their home. The destroyed town also doesn't fix itself immediately; it takes weeks to restore it back to its original state, enforced by the rebuilding questline being on a weekly basis. And even when the town is rebuilt, Konogg disappeared under the belief that he no longer belongs, and all the self-improvement doesn't guarantee he'll want to come back. Bridges have been burned.]] |
| 226 | ** Part of the main questline in ''Endwalker'' shows what happens when a nation extends an olive branch to another that it's been at war with for ages. [[spoiler:When the Scions and the Eorzean Alliance show up in Garlemald, many of the citizens dismiss the Warrior of Light as a butcher, including an NPC who thinks the Warrior is a monster for killing several of their friends when the Warrior stormed the Praetorium. Also, several citizens still believe the Eorzeans to be "savages", and they don't think that the Eorzeans genuinely want to help them, [[CassandraTruth even though that really is the reason the Scions are there]]. This is demonstrated by Alphinaud's shock when he offers assistance to a small group of Garleans in an abandoned village, only for two sisters from this village to try and brave the ice of the frozen Garlean countryside rather than accept any help from them. The two who flee end up [[ShootTheShaggyDog dying meaninglessly and tragically for their efforts, their deaths having accomplished nothing]]. While Alphinaud thinks that [[IShouldHaveBeenBetter he should have said something else]], he also comes to tacitly admit that years of propaganda and bad blood weren't going to be solved by extending the olive branch, no matter how genuine their intentions.]] |
| 227 | * SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: |
| 228 | ** A quest description in Limsa Lominsa reads "Mordyn would like to make you a completely legal proposition." The person he sends you to talk to welcomes you to "the Seventh Sage, purveyors of the finest spices from the East. All of our products are guaranteed obtained through completely ''legal'' means." [[spoiler:This turns out to be true - he's "a heavily armed trader" who "engages in a form of ''trade'' with Garlean ships." Since the Garleans are waging an aggressive war against Eorzea as a whole, [[{{Privateer}} raiding and sinking their supply ships]] is the only form of piracy that's still legal and officially sanctioned in Limsa Lominsa.]] |
| 229 | ** Another quest gives the player a succulent bone to give to a wolf. Said bone "was not made using a plump Lalafell". |
| 230 | ** When venturing to the Copperbell Mines for the second time after completing the main story of ''A Realm Reborn'', you'll be met by a Stone Torch who insists that your [[DudeWheresMyRespect meager talents]] are unneeded and that there are absolutely no more hecatonchieres in the mines. After the both of you hear a bloodcurdling scream, he has this to say: |
| 231 | --->'''Stone Torch:''' Ahem. [[ImplausibleDeniability I know not what you just heard]], but it was most certainly ''not'' the tortured scream of some unfortunate miner being consigned to the maw of a bloodthirsty giant birthed from the godsforsaken depths. |
| 232 | * SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: The Ultimate Trial ''Dragonsong's Reprise'' has a checkpont after the first phase so that you can immediately start at the begining of the second phase if the party wipes afterwards, an oddity considering that a big part of the difficulty of Ultimate Trials is CheckpointStarvation. [[spoiler: This is the only checkpoint you get, and the rest of the trial is longer and more complicated than any trial before. Plus, you later have to repeat the enrage portion of the first phase, but this time you need to use a Tank Level 3 Limit Break and healing to save Haurchefant at the same time.]] |
| 233 | * SwallowedWhole: |
| 234 | ** The fight against the Cerberus involves having one alliance getting shrunk and then being eaten by the monster to fight it on the inside while the other alliances continue fighting on the outside. The party that gets swallowed up will build up cumalitive damage from the beast's digestive juices while they attack the stomach wall and defend themselves from creatures inside. Destroying all parts of the stomach wall causes the boss to collapse and become immobilized while the party gets forced out via regurgitation. |
| 235 | ** Losing by certain conditions against Bismarck treats you to a scene of the massive primal sailing towards you mouth agape, implying to swallow you and the entire mini-island whole. |
| 236 | ** A few other bosses will do this to one player at a time, basically taking them out of the battle for a while while damaging them through digestion. |
| 237 | * {{Symbolism}}: The expansions making up the game's first MythArc are themed after the cycle of day and night. ''A Realm Reborn'' represents sunrise, ''Heavensward'' represents daytime, ''Stormblood'' is sunset, ''Shadowbringers'' is nighttime, and ''Endwalker'' represents the beginning of a new day. |
| 238 | [[/folder]] |
| 239 | |
| 240 | [[folder: T]] |
| 241 | * TacticalSuperweaponUnit: Of the three HumongousMecha units available for use in the PlayerVersusPlayer mode Rival Wings (which is between teams of 24 players and some AI {{Mooks}}, and features some elements of TheSiege), Brute Justice stands head and shoulders above the rest. Its RocketPunch can heavily damage structures or stun players to open them to being demolished by its WaveMotionGun. It also possesses a flamethrower to melt waves of mammets and players unfortunate enough not to get out of the way in time. As a tradeoff for all this power, Brute Justice can only be used by a team that has lost a tower, making it purely [[BackFromTheBrink a comeback tool.]] |
| 242 | * TakeThatAudience: |
| 243 | ** Adventurers starting in Gridania are told by Miounne to only put their ''proper'' name in her ledger as, in her words, there is a special corner of Hell for those who use "amusing aliases" for official work. Many an MMO player is guilty of using some pretty ridiculous character names. |
| 244 | ** A scene with a disbanding party pokes fun at players that bicker at their party for not doing their jobs in battle properly; two of the party members blame the healer for not healing their leader fast enough, getting him killed in the process while the healer blames the victim for running outside of the range of her healing magic. It takes a ''much'' darker turn during the events of the hard-mode version of Tam-Tara Deepcroft, where the healer who got blamed for the death of her fiance snaps and uses a dark power to merge the man's head and soul onto a body, but said body [[CameBackWrong was an Ahriman]]. The healer then commits suicide by jumping into a BottomlessPit once you defeat the monstrosity and she goes out with a creepy smile. |
| 245 | ** A humorous one occurs when unlocking the Rogue class, post 2.4. Players, typically having long stuffed away or discarded their starting gear, often end up spending their first few levels in their underwear when starting a new class. SE took notice of this, and has the Rogue Guildmaster informing the player that he's gotten quite annoyed at the recent influx of new rogues showing up wearing nothing but their smallclothes after getting their first daggers, so he'd like it if you came back to speak with him after equipping both your first set of daggers ''and'' [[PleasePutSomeClothesOn appropriate rogue attire]]. |
| 246 | ** Complaints were made by the fans that one of the pre-order items for the ''Heavensward'' expansion was yet another chocobo chick minion. Namely, a black chocobo chick, which already existed in game as a "veteran" bonus for loyal players, with the only difference being the ''Heavensward'' pre-order one wears a courier's hat rather than still being half in its shell. Not to mention the boredom of there already being a half-dozen other chocobo chick minions. The devs caught wind of this, and decided to intentionally poke fun at the player's complaints, by making this one actually fly around the player, rather than walk around, and had this message on its description from the Minion list: |
| 247 | --->"Spiteful claims that this adorable black chocobo hatchling is, in fact, simply another plain yellow chocobo colored with pine tar in a feeble attempt to prey on prospective buyers have only fueled the natural-born flyer's passion to take to the skies." |
| 248 | ** The story for the 2022 Moonfire Faire festivities centers around R'fhul Tia, now an adventurer of some renown and experience, becoming obsessed with his image after taking two less-experienced adventurers under his wing. He subsequently makes a fool of himself because he doesn't take the Eorzean Nimble Warrior challenge seriously, resulting in his pupils leaving him in disgust. He later reconciles with his mentees after he discards his vanity and recaptures what it means to be an adventurer. In short, the entire story is a thinly veiled jab at player mentors who are more interested in the internet cred their status gives them than being actually helpful resources to new players. |
| 249 | * TakeYourTime: In true JRPG fashion but with some additional MMO flavor. There are several times throughout the story where a villain of some sort will be in the process of enacting the final schemes of their plan and there is a sense of urgency to stop them, but there is nothing stopping you from often just leaving and playing games in [[MinigameZone the Gold Saucer]] instead. Furthermore these climatic showdowns are often in dungeons and trials, which players must queue for in order to access, so depending on what class you are playing and role to player ratio for them you may also end up waiting an additional 15-30 minutes before you can go save the world. If you check with [=NPCs=] in the area or beyond the exit, especially in ''Stormblood'' and onward, one or more of them might have a HandWave explanation for why you can leave the area freely without risking the mission. |
| 250 | * TakingTheBullet: |
| 251 | ** [[spoiler:Ser Haurchefant]] dies trying to block a magical spear meant for the Warrior of Light. It breaks [[spoiler:Haurchefant's shield]] and pierces his heart, which kills him a short while later. |
| 252 | ** In ''Endwalker'', the Warrior throws themselves in the path of a magical attack intended for [[spoiler:Hythlodaeus]], getting sent hurtling off a raised platform down to the clouds below. [[spoiler:The Warrior is then rescued by Venat and Argos, who ferry the Warrior to safety while Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus are left behind before Kairos is activated.]] |
| 253 | * TalentVsTraining: Despite his dedicated study of aetherology, Ejika Tsunjika feels he will always be overshadowed by those who are simply gifted in the craft. It is for this reason that he is so [[TheResenter resentful]] towards the Warrior of Light who is gifted with the Echo and the Blessing of Light. |
| 254 | * TalkingIsAFreeAction: Averted, though not with actual talking but with the echo flashbacks. Most of the time when you get one, you are in a completely safe situation so nothing bad can happen. But two times in Stormblood, an echo flashback occurs at a bad time. The first time happens when the Warrior of Light and Alisaie are interrogating an Imperial soldier they captured. When the Warrior of Light goes into a flashback, the soldier tries to use the moment to cut them down, but Alisaie manages to kill him first. Later, one of the less important Scions who is also an Ala Mhigan who has a weaker use of the echo has an echo flashback in middle of a battle and nearly gets killed for it. |
| 255 | * TalkLikeAPirate: Everyone in Limsa Lominsa, obviously. |
| 256 | * TastesLikeChicken: Parodied with an NPC at the camp in Outer La Noscea where he's clearly eating a chicken leg and says "Tastes like chicken...because it ''is'' chicken." |
| 257 | * TaughtToHate: |
| 258 | ** The prejudices of Ishgardian society are perpetuated by the nation's dogmatic adherence to 1,000 years of faith and tradition: |
| 259 | *** The rift between noble and commonfolk is enshrined in the Halonic faith, which dictates that the nobility descend from the members of the Knights Twelve who survived their battle with Nidhogg. Count Charlemend de Durendaire, the head of the highest of the Four High Houses of Ishgard, specifically teaches his nephew Ronantain to be an UpperClassTwit who abuses the privileges of his birth. [[spoiler:Following revelations about the truth behind Ishgard's founding, Charlemend is ashamed of his former conduct and has Ronantain volunteer with him at a newly opened hospital in the Firmament to slowly undo the prejudices they were taught.]] |
| 260 | *** Similarly, the Halonic faith encourages Ishgard's 1,000-year-long ForeverWar against the dragons of Dravania. Children are taught that honor and glory can only be found in service to the Holy See, with the highest accolades going to those who can kill the most dragons. Thus, Ishgardian society is focused on committing genocide against their sworn enemies. [[spoiler:Following the end of the Dragonsong War, Ishgard's vendetta against the dragons slowly subsides, with some dragons even visiting the city in the spirit of new friendship and understanding.]] |
| 261 | ** The Garlean people are taught by their government to hate all other races as "savages" for pushing them out of their ancestral homeland in modern day Corvos and for not being as technologically advanced as them. Overcoming this prejudice is a major challenge in ''Endwalker'' when [[spoiler:the Ilsabardian Contingent brings humanitarian aid to the ruined Garlemald]]. Thankfully, not all Garleans buy into this bigotry, with some children like Volusus not showing any signs of it. |
| 262 | * TeamMom: "Mother" Miounne, the proprietor of the Gridanian Adventurers' Guild. She is very warm and welcoming to the player, and when they advance to certain points in the low-level portions of the main questline she tells them she is SoProudOfYou, or simply comments on how you know how to make "Mother" proud. If you talk to her after completing the final quest in the 2.0 storyline, she'll express happy surprise at your return, and ask you to sit and regale some greenhorn adventurers with your tales (though you don't actually do that). |
| 263 | * TechnicolorEyes: Au Ra have an option for "Limbal Rings", which is a second and much more striking ring on the outside of their irises, and you can color both the rings and the actual iris separately. Combined with the option to have a race with heterochromia, an Au Ra can have their eyes be at least three different colors. |
| 264 | * TeleportationSickness: |
| 265 | ** At one point in ''Endwalker'', the Warrior of Light, Thancred, and Urianger must take a trip to another continent with a prototype aetheryte. Normally, one can simply travel to any given aetheryte and attune it, but as none of them had ever been to that continent before and time was of the essence, they used the prototype to get there. The scientist warned that they may experience some aether sickness upon arrival, but it becomes clear that she undersold the effect as all three are knocked flat on their asses by a violent bout of nausea seconds after arriving and can barely move for a while without risking throwing up. |
| 266 | ** During the Fisher role quests for the Studium, the Warrior of Light is partnered with T'laqa Tia, a scientist with a condition that causes him to experience aether sickness upon attempting ''any'' manner of aether manipulation (simply attuning to an aetheryte is enough to make him throw up). At one point, he needs to travel to Thavnair and is forced to use the aforementioned prototype. You arrive after the worst of his sickness had passed, but it was apparently a disgusting sight to behold. It also apparently caused him to hallucinate in the process. |
| 267 | * TeleporterAccident: |
| 268 | ** The "Flow" spell is considered a ForbiddenDangerousTechnique for good reason: its users rarely come out where they intended or unscathed, ''if at all''. [[spoiler:This is what happens to Thancred, Y'shtola, and Minfilia following the storyline of ''A Realm Reborn''. While Thancred managed to emerge from the Lifestream afterwards, he was robbed of the ability to manipulate aether, leaving him unable to use magic at all. Y'shtola had to be retrieved from the Lifestream with help, and even then, she lost her eyesight as a result, forcing her to use a technique to visualize the aether around her. Meanwhile, Minfilia never re-emerged and eventually became the avatar for the Mothercrystal (though this was, at least, an intended effect on Hydaelyn's part, since She had become too weak to communicate with her chosen after protecting them from the Ultima Weapon).]] |
| 269 | ** Even for conventional teleportation, people can be lost to the Lifestream if anything were to happen to the aetheryte at their destination mid-teleport. This is why aetherytes are watched by armed guards 24/8 and maintained by trained aetherologists to prevent such things from occuring. |
| 270 | * TeleportersVisualizationClause: The [[EvilSorcerer Ascians]] are able [[VillainTeleportation to teleport virtually anywhere at will]], disappearing into a black fog on command and potentially kidnapping others with them. Combined with their non-corporeal bodies, this means there's almost no place they don't have access to, which allows them to remain one step ahead of the Scions to plot their next move. However, they don't seem to be able to teleport to places that haven't been to already, hence Lahabrea needing to acquire a special key to access the Allagan research facility of Azys Lla. [[spoiler:This ability is later revealed to be a product of the Echo, and Zenos gains access to it as well after turning himself into a Resonant.]] |
| 271 | * TemporaryOnlineContent: |
| 272 | ** A good deal of the content related to the pre-ARR 6th Umbral Era storyline was permanently removed from the game upon the release of ARR (2.0), as it was intended as a reward for players sticking with the game during the rebuild. This goes from relatively minor Lodestone achievements (some of which were only available between 2 patches!) to several storyline quests. There is also a unique Goobbue mount that could only be obtained in that time. |
| 273 | ** Many seasonal event rewards also fall under this, even though the events they come from are an annual thing. Past event goodies are eventually put on the XIV Online Store for players that missed said events, though the one involving crossovers are an exception. |
| 274 | * TemptingFate: |
| 275 | ** Subverted. Eynzahr says that he would like to claim that the vessel he's commandeering is nigh-unsinkable. But given that he's up against the Lord of the Whorl, he wouldn't dare tempt fate like that. |
| 276 | ** In patch 2.55, [[spoiler:Alphinaud's words at the alliance celebration--in which he celebrates their successes and declares that a new age of peace is about to descend on Eorzea with the re-entry of Ishgard into the Alliance--absolutely reek of this. Naturally, things fall apart rapidly shortly after, with the assassination of the sultana and the Crystal Braves betraying the Scions.]] |
| 277 | * TerminalTransformation: |
| 278 | ** Near the end of ''A Realm Reborn'', it's revealed that it's possible to summon a primal into oneself and control it. However, the effects of tempering still apply and eventually the person would lose their minds and suffer a DeathOfPersonality if the summoner does not possess the Echo as Ysayle does. [[spoiler:Elidibus implies that this would have been Yotsuyu's fate had the Warrior of Light not struck her down first.]] |
| 279 | ** In ''Shadowbringers'', the "touch" of certain sin eaters can transform others into more sin eaters, resulting in a near complete DeathOfPersonality and no way to reverse the transformation into a ravenous beast out to kill others. [[spoiler:The Warrior of Light nearly succumbs to the same fate after taking in the Light of all five Lightwardens. Ryne manages to forestall the transformation long enough for them to cure themselves by expending it as a Blade of Light against Emet-Selch.]] |
| 280 | * ThanatosGambit: The ultimate endgame of [[spoiler:the Griffin -- to allow so much death, despair, hate, horror and vengeance from his "resistance" members as they're crushed by the Empire that they give rise to a brand new Primal. The Griffin/Ilberd's suicide is enough to give the creature life at last.]] |
| 281 | * ThankingTheViewer: |
| 282 | ** [[spoiler:As end of a MythArc beginning from 1.0, ''Endwalker'' sets aside some credits runtime to highlight the major leads of the game. At the very end of it it has one space reserved for you, the Warrior of Light, as the main character of the story and a key member of the game's livelihood.]] |
| 283 | ** The Rising 2023 does this at the end of its questline, to celebrate a very special occasion: the tenth anniversary of ''A Realm Reborn''. |
| 284 | --->''With mem'ries shared, yet all our own\ |
| 285 | As one we brave frontiers unknown...\ |
| 286 | Thank you for ten years!'' |
| 287 | * ThatsNoMoon: Dalamud isn't really a moon but a prison for Bahamut! The Binding Coils of Bahamet and the Crystal Tower quests then reveal that [[spoiler:this was no mere prison either, but a way to use Bahamut's immense power to help gather solar energy, much like the Crystal Tower itself. Emperor Xande of the Allagan Empire however, used it to gather the power of darkness for his own purposes]] |
| 288 | ** As it would turn out, [[spoiler: the second larger moon, Menphina, could also be considered artificial as it was created by Hydaelyn to be used as a prison for Zodiark. By the time of the main storyline, it's has become almost fully transformed into a starship intending to ferry the people of the planet far far away in a worst case scenario.]] |
| 289 | * TheAlliance: The Eorzean Alliance that was formed from the unity of the 3 main city states during the first Garlean war that happened 15 years before the start of the game. [[spoiler:Events in the Grand Company questlines have you reform the Alliance due to the threat the empire suddenly poses... again.]] |
| 290 | * ThematicSequelLogoChange: Once the game was relaunched the subtitle "A Realm Reborn" was added, showing the letter "O" in flames, representing the meteor that destroyed the world (this was the reason in-universe for the game being offline for a time before it was launched again, this time fixed). |
| 291 | * ThemeMusicPowerUp: |
| 292 | ** [[spoiler:In the finale of ''Shadowbringers'', FallenHero Ardbert's reveal as an AlternateSelf of the Warrior of Light and his subsequent HeroicSacrifice to fuse with them, strengthening them enough to fight off the corrupted Light of the Lightwardens (thereby both dooming Emet-Selch's plan ''and'' providing the Warrior with the strength needed to defeat him for good) is accompanied by the ''Shadowbringers'' [[AutoBotsRockOut rockin' main theme]] - carrying over as the first phase music of the FinalBoss.]] |
| 293 | ** [[spoiler:In the finale of ''Endwalker'', just before you get wiped out by the Endsinger, the screen momentarily darkens...then the prayers of the Scions cuts through, giving you a power boost from beyond accompanied by an arrangement of both Maker's Ruin, which played at several such moments in the past, and Footfalls, the expansion's main theme called "With Hearts Aligned" as you triumph over despair incarnate. Song of hope, indeed.]] |
| 294 | * ThemeSongReveal: Every Primal boss fight with lyrics has them sung either from the perspective of the Primal itself, or the perspective of its worshippers as they extol the Primal. Every fight, that is, except one: [[spoiler:Shiva, the Lady of Frost]]. There is a [[WillingChanneler very]] [[ImmuneToMindControl significant]] reason for this. This later also applies to [[spoiler:Tsukiyomi, aka Yotsuyu]], once again with good reasons for it. |
| 295 | * ThereIsNoCure: |
| 296 | ** In the ''Stormblood'' White Mage questline, Sanche suffers from a heart condition that makes exerting herself dangerous and she often collapses from being out of breath while desperately trying to chase off any Gridanians who could meet her daughter Gatty. While the Warrior and Sylphie are able to gain her trust to try to treat her, Master E-Sumi Yan admits Sanche's condition is too severe to save her even with a powerful White Mage and a Padjal conjurer tending to her. [[spoiler:Sanche succumbs to her illness at the end of her questline, as a voidsent named Camamotz made her ill to drive Gatty mad with grief and feed on their aether.]] |
| 297 | ** In ''Shadowbringers'', the dwarves of Tomra once suffered from a plague known as "stoneblight" that was inevitably fatal and had no cure, forcing the village elders to isolate the afflicted deep in the mines to avoid infecting the rest of the village. This swift and decisive action is said to have saved the Tomran dwarves, who revere the elders' actions as a NecessaryEvil a century later. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} as in truth, Lamitt, one of the Warriors of Light from before the flood, was able to venture deep into the ruins of Ronka to devise a cure from the ancient magics there. The formerly stoneblighted dwarves were none too happy about being left for dead and decided to remove their helmets and leave Tomra in protest. To maintain order and their own political standing, the elders exiled Lamitt along with the stoneblighted dwarves, who all perished in the Flood, allowing the Elders to [[WrittenByTheWinners perpetuate their own self-serving narrative]]]]. |
| 298 | * TimeLimitBoss: |
| 299 | ** Extreme, Savage, Unreal, and Ultimate enemies have moves that will instantly cause an unavoidable TotalPartyKill attack. Each boss will only use this attack if they're not defeated quickly enough, which effectively means that such {{Superboss}}es have a time limit. Moves of this nature are commonly called an "enrage" by the community. |
| 300 | ** Outside of the hardcore raiding scene, a few Trials and {{Superboss}} FATE enemies also have TotalPartyKill moves as well, though they tend to be relatively rare. For instance, the FinalBoss of the main story for ''Shadowbringers'' has a move that will instantly wipe out the entire party if it's not defeated fast enough. The difference between those moves in the Main Story quests and those found in the hardcore raids is that the cast times for the former tend to be a lot longer. |
| 301 | * TrainingFromHell: In the Monk questline, the Warrior of Light shares their training regimen with the monks of the Fist of Rhalgr. This includes ten-thousand reps of Bootshine to hone their swiftness, ten hours of doing nothing but Arm of the Destroyer to increase their strength, and using Fists of Earth ten-thousand times to bolster their endurance. While the Warrior does this often enough to make it look like a light warmup, the hardened monks are utterly winded by the experience. |
| 302 | -->'''Widargelt:''' ''[wheezing between gasps for air]'' Such brutal training... small wonder you're so strong... |
| 303 | * TransformationTrinket: |
| 304 | ** The Return to Ivalice questline introduces a form of auracite, a special crystal, that induces transformations in the user. The auracite records strong desires of those near it, then takes the aether of the user, amplifying it and imprinting the desire on their very being, before reforming them physically in a new form befitting the desire. |
| 305 | ** [[spoiler:Yotsuyu]] used a hand mirror, a treasure of Kojin worship, as an aetherical focus to summon and transform into the primal Tsukuyomi. |
| 306 | * TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Implied by the description of an Ul'dahn merchant wou meet during the Goldsmiths' questline. |
| 307 | -->'''Roroton's Calling Card:''' Both sides of this tiny square of hard parchment are packed with the life and times of traveling Lalafellin entrepreneur Roroton. |
| 308 | * TheUnfought: A boss fight with Siren is set up...but you only wind up taking out her minions. Patch 2.1 introduced the Pharos Sirius where Siren awaits and is fought there. |
| 309 | ** The giant Kraken at the end of Hullbreaker Isle initially; you only force it to leave by fighting its tentacles. Then like Siren above, Patch 2.4 introduced the Hardmode version of Sastasha with a rematch against the Kraken at the end, instead of just its tentacles. |
| 310 | ** Ramuh and Leviathan were this in the main story among the Primals, but were also added in later patches. |
| 311 | ** In ''Stormblood''. [[spoiler:The Four Lords post-game storyline is about the impending unsealing of the most powerful auspice, Kohryu. The other auspice keep mentioning the extreme power possessed by Kohryu and how the player character is very alike to Tenzen, the hero who sealed Kohryu. So savvy players will assume that the re-sealing will ultimately fail leading to a fight with Kohryu...instead the re-sealing succeeds and the threat of Kohryu is over without a fight.]] |
| 312 | * TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: |
| 313 | ** The Praetorium marks the end of the game's first main story arc of [[spoiler:the Garlean Empire having suddenly made their move after the steady build up the entire game.]] After that the story consists of dealing with The Binding Coil of Bahamut to start a new subplot. Since patch 2.1 onwards, the plot picks things up where the main story left off following the player's victory. |
| 314 | ** In ''Heavensward'', [[spoiler:the final zone is Azys Lla, a FloatingContinent created by the Allagan Empire, which imprisons both the elder dragon Tiamat and the game's iteration of [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI the Warring Triad]]. The final dungeon proper is the Aetherochemical Research Facility at the heart of the ruins, from which Thordan plans to seize the Triad's power for his own.]] |
| 315 | ** In ''Stormblood'', [[spoiler:Ala Mhigo itself, the culmination of the Warrior of Light's struggle of liberation against Zenos yae Galvus and the Garlean Empire.]] |
| 316 | ** In ''Shadowbringers'', [[spoiler:you experience a flashback to the fall of Amaurot, the capital of the ancient civilization that would become the Ascians. Here we see first-hand the horrors that drove the ancients to their initial summoning of Zodiark, and the beginning of the downfall of their once magnificent empire. The first two-thirds of the dungeon are set against the backdrop of a modern, art-deco inspired city that wouldn't look out of place in [[VideoGame/BioShock Rapture]], burning as it's assaulted by eldritch horrors. It culminates in an AstralFinale where you view the unsundered Source from space, seeing how far-reaching the devastation is.]] |
| 317 | ** In ''Endwalker'', [[spoiler:you travel through The Dead Ends, which projects flashbacks of once thriving stars that fell to oblivion one way or another, the stars that Meteion once watched over and witnessed them dying out. The first one you see is an aquatic planet that fell to pestilence, the second one destroyed itself in warfare, and the third is a golden utopia that rendered life meaningless.]] |
| 318 | * TimeLimitBoss: Extreme Trials and Savage Raids, while typically have a time limit from an hour to 90 minutes, have boss fights that last for only a fraction of the duty's time limit before the boss unleashes an attack that will wipe out your party. You're allowed to retry the encounter as many times as your timer allows before the duty fails and kicks you out. |
| 319 | * TimeyWimeyBall: [[spoiler:The Crystal Tower from the First. It is the Crystal Tower from the Source, only several centuries into the future. The 8th Umbral Calamity destroyed the social order of the Source, but the remnants of civilization studied the Crystal Tower until they had the technology to open it. They then used the notes that the Scions left about Primal summoning and the Allagan portal technology in the tower to invent time travel, and the technology from Omega to allow inter-dimensional travel. The Warrior of Darkness is able to save the First from destruction and Reunion, averting the BadFuture, but the alternate timeline tower does not vanish.]] |
| 320 | * TimeZonesDoNotExist: It will always be the same in-game time no matter what continent [[spoiler:or planet]] you travel to. The writers don't even try to HandWave this, but it's a deliberate AcceptableBreakFromReality: the factor of calculating time zones would complicate things for both the servers and the players without really adding anything to gameplay, except maybe FakeDifficulty for the gathering professions (as various "rare" resources and fish can only be found at certain in-game times). |
| 321 | * TitleDrop: From the final cutscene in the 2.0 storyline: |
| 322 | --> [[spoiler:'''The three leaders of the Grand Companies:''' Let it be writ that on this day...by the light of the Crystal...Eorzea ushered in a NEW era! The Seventh Astral Era is come! And thus ours is a realm reborn!]] |
| 323 | ** Parodied with the hairstylist quest where a rather eccentric 'aesthetician' declares people that are transformed by his hairstyling work "a beauty reborn". |
| 324 | ** While we're on the topic of puns and snowclones, the quests needed to get your relic weapons are called "A Relic Reborn". |
| 325 | ** In a straighter use, you can buy a brand of champagne called "Realm Reborn Red" during the rising event, using it has the action load as "a Realm Reborn". |
| 326 | ** Starting from ''Heavensward'', the end of each respective expansion's Main Scenario ends with the expansion's title; "Heavensward", "Stormblood", "Shadowbringers", and "Endwalker" are all quest titles at the end of their stories. |
| 327 | *** For ''Heavensward'' in particular, the bodyguards of the Archbishop of the Church of Ishgard are collectively named the Heavens' Ward [[spoiler:and are the final bosses of the 3.0 storyline.]] |
| 328 | *** Additionally, ''Heavensward'' is being narrated by Count Edmont de Fortemps as he writes his memoir, titled "Heavensward". |
| 329 | ** Occasionally, titles from the post-Main Scenario patches are utilized in achievements, such as "A Realm Awoken", or to cap off the storyline like the expansion titles. It took until ''Stormblood'' to make the latter a regular occurrence. |
| 330 | ** Shows up for Patch 3.5[[note]]The Far Edge of Fate[[/note]] itself in the Baelsar's Wall dungeon for a line of dialogue: |
| 331 | --> [[spoiler:'''The Griffin]]:''' I'll give you a glorious end, Warrior of Light! Come! See what awaits you at the far edge of fate! |
| 332 | ** ''Endwalker'' has an additional one in "You're Not Alone": [[spoiler:After the Scions sacrifice themselves to alter Ultima Thule's landscape, the Warrior of Light is left the last one standing, with only burdens on their shoulders and the Voices from the Past echoing from their adventures. In this segment, the game gives you the "Endwalker" status, which forces you into walking speed as you make your way to the final confrontation with Meteion.]] |
| 333 | --> [[spoiler: Endwalker: Walking alone unto journey's end, the burden weighing heavy.]] |
| 334 | ** In the Japanese version of Endwalker, the Dead Ends dungeon was called "The Final Fantasy: Remnants". [[spoiler:It is also a very literal title as it is an illusion of the ruined worlds in their final days]]. |
| 335 | ** 6.1, titled "Newfound Adventures", does a reversal of the previous examples, being the title of the very first quest of the patch to mark the beginning of a new story, and begins a trend of having their patch titles used as a card at the start of the Main Scenario. 6.2, "Buried Memory", returns to making the patch name the story's capstone quest. |
| 336 | * TitleThemeDrop: |
| 337 | ** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1s4D27bTbU "A Cold Wind"]], the title theme for ''Heavensward'', plays towards the end of the cutscene where [[spoiler:Nidhogg interrupts your peace conference and tries to murder Hraesvelgr]]. |
| 338 | ** During the ''Stormblood'' storyline, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZGb7ZMC_ig the title theme]] plays whenever you set sail for a new locale. |
| 339 | * TimedMission: |
| 340 | ** FATE missions always have time limits, as part of their dynamic nature. They'll spawn when the RandomNumberGod feels like it and end some minutes later (usually ten or fifteen, though some larger ones can go as long as 30), and if you haven't accomplished the goals by then, well, too bad for you. |
| 341 | ** Instanced duties also universally have time limits, but this is less part of the challenge and more a way to [[AntiFrustrationFeatures prevent undergeared players from spending eleven hours trying to accomplish tasks they simply aren't ready for]]. |
| 342 | ** The FATE against Odin takes the trope to the next level; alongside with the standard FATE time limit, when Odin reaches low HP it will begin preparing [[OneHitKill Zantetsuken]]. Failure to beat him before the move is readied results in everyone in the FATE being instantly KO'd and the FATE immediately ending in failure, regardless of the time remaining on the clock. |
| 343 | ** The Forbidden Land, Eureka has a three-hour time limit. Unlike other instanced duties, this is pure AntiPoopSocking. |
| 344 | * ToBeContinued: Every content patch and expansion ends with a black screen and a short Haiku in golden text that graciously recaps the overall feel of the patch, and gives a slight hint towards the next. |
| 345 | * TomeOfEldritchLore: The forbidden tome ''Necrologos'', implied to be a book used in rituals to summon demons - I'm sorry, ''[[NotUsingTheZWord voidsent]]''. It figures in a number of guildleves that have the basic formula of "gather up fallen pages from the Necrologos, then beat down whatever fiend is summoned from the pages." |
| 346 | * TookALevelInBadass: "Meteor Survivor", the Midlander guy in the opening cinematic for the first version of the game. He's a rogue-like archer in the opening cinematic. By the time of the ending cinematic depicting the release of Bahamut, he's clad in heavy armor and wielding a giant axe. In the ''Heavensward'' trailer, the same Midlander character makes an appearance as he ditches his axe and Warrior attire to become a Dragoon. In the ''Stormblood'' trailer, he takes up the garb of the Monk to spar with Lyse then is shown in the robes of a Samurai. Then in the ''Shadowbringers'' trailer, when confronted with an [[LightIsNotGood angel]], he starts as an archer then cycles through Warrior, Dragoon, Monk, Samurai as each job is defeated before finally crushing his opponent as a thematically appropriate [[DarkIsNotEvil Dark Knight]]. Finally, in ''Endwalker'', he manages to singlehandedly fell an EldritchAbomination without breaking a sweat as a Paladin. |
| 347 | * TopHeavyGuy: Titan is built with a massive frame and huge arms, but he has a small waist and short legs. The Amalj'aa beastmen also have a similar build, but it's not as extreme. |
| 348 | * TournamentArc: The Omega raid. |
| 349 | ** The Stormblood Paladin chain is built on this as well, also crossing over with the Gladiator's Guild. |
| 350 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: Qiqirn are just ''crazy'' for eggs. |
| 351 | * TragicIntangibility: The ''Shadowbringers'' features a shade cannot interact with the world around him, apart from speaking to the Warrior of Light. Tragically exemplified when he attempts to warn and rescue two soldiers from an incoming [[LightIsNotGood angel]], begging for this to "please work" before he passes straight through the creature, his axe finding no purchase. [[spoiler:Made the worse because it is Ardbert's shade, the one who inadvertedly caused the angels, known as Sin Eaters, to appear in the first place.]] |
| 352 | * TrialByOrdeal: The theocratic nation of Ishgard has been at war with dragons for a thousand years. In that time, there have always been defectors who side with the dragons and try to destroy Ishgard from within. To root out these heretics, the trial by ordeal is the Witchdrop, a deep chasm in Coerthas. The accused are brought to the Witchdrop among a priest of the Holy Sea, an inquisitor and a squadron of archers. After their rights are read, the accused is tossed into the chasm. A heretic would either be rescued from the fall by their draconic masters or would ingest dragon blood to become a dragon themselves. In either case, the archers would make short work of the guilty and any accomplices. If the accused fell to their death, they would be deemed innocent post-mortem and would be absolved of their sins and enter Halone's halls. |
| 353 | * TrailersAlwaysLie: Combat in ''1.0'' was nowhere near as flashy as in the CGI intro trailer. ''A Realm Reborn'', however, had its combat redesigned to be much closer to that in pre-rendered cinematics. |
| 354 | ** Though more of a clerical goof, when the cinematics team was given the task of creating the Heavensward trailer, they were given the art for the wrong dragon. [[spoiler:The dragon that appears is Hraesvelgr, the dragon you ally with. It should've been Nidhogg, one of the main antagonists]] |
| 355 | ** The trailer for patch 3.2 briefly shown a scene with the player confronting General Rhauban in an arena of flames, both drawing their weapons. Without any context, the trailer made it appear that the Flame General had sided with the Ascians. [[spoiler:In truth, this was simply the final fight in a friendly battle royale between the city states, similar to an Ishgardian equivalent to the original Olympics.]] |
| 356 | ** Averted with the Stormblood trailer's opening... sort of. The first scene involves the Warrior of Light stand-in sparring with Lyse, in a new outfit. This actually does happen near the end of the expansion's main story, though it doesn't show most of the actual brawl... and because the Warrior in this case is there specifically to spar, not meditating and seemingly ignoring Lyse. |
| 357 | ** The trailer for ''Endwalker'' places a ''very'' heavy focus on the Moon, putting on all the airs that Anima will be the first Trial boss, and that the GrandFinale will be an AstralFinale on the Moon's surface against Zenos hijacking Zodiark. [[spoiler:This is completely false. Anima is just a ''dungeon'' boss, and while we ''do'' go to the Moon for a showdown with Zenos, he is abruptly sidelined by Fandaniel hijacking Zodiark instead, who becomes the first Trial boss in place of Anima ''and'' Zenos. And this all happens before the expansion's mid-point, so the real GrandFinale is quite a bit further off.]] |
| 358 | * TrailersAlwaysSpoil: |
| 359 | ** While not spoiling anything in the ''Heavensward'' storyline proper, its trailer does spoil a significant event from ''A Realm Reborn,'' to the point that the official Website/YouTube upload warns people ahead of time about this. |
| 360 | ** Patch 4.4 has [[spoiler:Thancred, Y'shtola, and Urianger collapse after some sort of vision that all the Scions are experiencing, with Kan-E noting that she cannot sense a soul within Thancred's body, when he is the first to collapse.]] A few months later, a teaser trailer for 5.0 comes out, and in it [[spoiler:we see Thancred up and running about, looking just fine (without the usual eye-patch even), implying that they get their souls back in time for the next expansion.]] |
| 361 | ** The teaser trailer for ''Shadowbringers'' also teased an event that was very likely to happen next where the story was currently at: the [[spoiler:"final" confrontation with Zenos at Ghimlyt Dark]] |
| 362 | ** The launch trailer for ''Shadowbringers'', which included in-game cutscenes, had one particularly [[WhamLine wham-tastic]] line that a lot of people were surprised was even included prior to the release of the game: |
| 363 | -->''Solus:'' But, they are Gods after a fashion, yes. The eldest and most powerful...[[spoiler:of Primals]]. |
| 364 | ** Played with in regards to Innocence. Pre-release material revealed it as a prominent Primal-esque trial encounter in ''Shadowbringers''. What they didn't reveal was [[spoiler:Innocence is Lord Vauthry]]; however, going into the fight having seen the prerelease artwork will have one realise [[spoiler:Vauthry is referred to as Innocence at the start of the fight, and will very likely turn into the more [[BishounenLine aesthetically pleasing]] angel seen in the artwork]]. |
| 365 | * TrainingDummy: |
| 366 | ** Some settlements will have wooden dummies that you can attack to gauge your damage and practice your rotation. You can also see an NPC using a dummy as well. Eventually, dummies became placeable outdoor furniture items, so you (or more likely, your Free Company) can place up to three at your house. |
| 367 | ** Patch 3.2 introduced the Stone, Sky and Sea personal instance which pits you against a training dummy scaled to have the defenses and HP of a given end-game boss. While it doesn't show you your raw numbers[[note]]though players have made [[http://ffxiv.2digitalgames.de a tool]] to let you reverse-engineer your DPS from your dummy results[[/note]] or teach you mechanics, success in destroying the dummy within the time limit proves that at the very least you can pull your weight against the real thing DPS-wise. |
| 368 | * TransformationIsAFreeAction: Often handwaved by a "down for the count" mechanic, in which a boss switching phases will do something or other to bring the raid to its knees beforehand. Justified in other battles, such as the [[spoiler:Eden Shiva]] fight, in which she covers her downtime between transformations with a variety of mechanics. |
| 369 | * TranshumanTreachery: Ishgardian Heretics who side with Nidhogg's brood will often, as a final show of their devotion for the dragons or hatred of Ishgard, drink the blood of a dragon, which due to [[spoiler:the murder of Ratataskr by the Knight Twelve a thousand years ago]] will transform them into various kinds of draconic monsters. |
| 370 | * TrashTheSet: 1.0 ends with Eorzea getting razed by Bahamut. |
| 371 | * TraumaButton: Patch 5.2 reveals [[spoiler:this is the real source of the Echo. If a person who is [[{{Reincarnation}} a sundered]] Ancient (such as the Warrior of Light) witnesses falling stars, meteors, comets, etc., then it triggers their past self's memories of the Final Days of Amaurot. This awakens them to a fraction of the power they wielded--the Echo. It doesn't have to be an actual event, either--an illusion is enough to press the button, which both Elidibus (in the patch itself) and Hydaelyn (to awaken people to the Echo, thus allowing them to hear Her) take advantage of.]] |
| 372 | * TravelMontage: ''Stormblood'' features several of these whenever the Warrior of Light and the Scions travel to a new area. |
| 373 | * TreasureMap: Starting at level 40, Disciples of the Land can find treasure maps that show a small portion of the world map where the treasure chest is located. Every chest is rigged to unleash monsters on you and defeating all of them will grant you access to the loot inside, which is usually gil, crafting materials, and sometimes rare armor or accessories. Each map has different tiers of loot depending on what material the map is made out of. There's also an Unhidden Leather Map that you can sometimes get from a treasure hunt, which is basically a bonus map for you to use and its treasures may sometimes contain ''very'' rare loot. |
| 374 | ** The top tier map for each expansion also recommends going with a full party - because it potentially can open a portal to a special dungeon with even more loot. |
| 375 | * TronLines: This seems to be a recurring feature of Allagan technology. Amon's cape is covered with glowing blue lines, [[spoiler:as is Xande's body.]] |
| 376 | * TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Lalafells can provoke this reaction among players. While the Lalafells you interact with are undoubtedly adults, it can be a little jarring to hear them talk dirty or act ruthless, which many of them, especially in The Syndicate, frequently do. |
| 377 | ** The touched slyphs kind of fall into this despite their cute fairy appearance, they totally fine with threatening or trying to kill. One beast tribe quest has one tell you they're going to gouge your eyes out. |
| 378 | * TrueCompanions: The Heaven's Ward have this dynamic, particularly Janlenoux and Adelphel. They're villains, and the group contains a couple of genuine scumbags, but they ultimately seem to be of one mind and [[spoiler:lay down their lives together for Thordan's sake.]] |
| 379 | -->'''Ser Adelphel''': With me, Ser Janlenoux! |
| 380 | -->'''Ser Janlenoux''': Ever and always, brother! |
| 381 | * TrueFinalBoss: The final route of each Variant Dungeon, which requires piecing together the knowledge gained from all the other routes to figure out the steps needed to unlock it, ends with a unique boss that caps off the dungeon's story with a massive discovery: |
| 382 | ** The Sil'dihn Subterrane has [[spoiler:the Thorne Knight, a Mammet warrior created by a a joint team of Amalj'aa and Ul'dahn minds to fight the ZombieApocalypse and is currently guarding a horde of knowledge proving the past alliance between the two peoples]]. |
| 383 | ** Mount Rokkon has [[spoiler:Enenra, a tsukumogami that corrupted the monk Gorai and kickstarted the demon takeover of the mountain. Defeating it stops the demons for good and allows the less corruptible Hancock to take possession of its true form, preventing it from causing havoc again.]] |
| 384 | * {{Tsundere}}: {{Invoked|Trope}} by the independent Au Ra female retainer personality -- she constantly stammers things like "I-It's not like I wanted you to stay or anything", but if you dismiss her after she returns from a venture, she lets the mask drop for a moment, declaring "Ye can't seriously expect me to humor yer fetishes all the time, can ye?" |
| 385 | * TurnsRed: Ifrit and Garuda get significantly more difficult when you reduce their health below 30%, and Titan does the same after shattering his heart, which is generally the point where an unsuccessful party goes to pieces. It'd probably be easier to list the Primals that ''don't'' use this trope in some form. |
| 386 | ** Yiazmat and Construct 7 in the Ridoranna Lighthouse raid both literally turn red when low on health signified by Yiazmat casting "Growing Threat" and Construct 7 casting "Annihilation Mode". This massively reduces the delay between their attacks, reducing casting time for attacks and increasing their movement speed. In the case of Yiazmat it also causes him to spam his more annoying attacks one after the other and in the case of construct 7 causes some of his attacks to have increased duration. |
| 387 | * TwistEnding: The ending of 4.3 played with a lot of player's theories on where the story was headed. [[spoiler:While many players correctly predicted that the supposed-to-be-dead Zenos was now Elidibus' [[DemonicPossession meat puppet]], the real twist came from the repeated faux-foreshadowing of the Scions warning not to let anyone see them inspecting Zenos' grave. Predictably, an Ala Mhigan soldier sees the act. Less predictably, the soldier in question is '''Zenos himself''', BackFromTheDead via BodySurf using his artificial Echo. While this possibility was also explored by the players, many thought that it would only be one or the other, not ''both''.]] |
| 388 | [[/folder]] |
| 389 | |
| 390 | [[folder: U]] |
| 391 | * UnconventionalWeddingDress: The game allows players to dress for their wedding however they like. While the game offers a wedding dress (which, if paying for the wedding, can be dyed in any color), it is possible to marry naked, in full armor or in a GoofySuit. |
| 392 | * UngratefulTownsfolk: |
| 393 | ** Averted for the most part. The Warrior's deeds make them FamedInStory and people are shocked that a world-famous hero would come to their aid, thanking them profusely for it afterward. This is especially noticeable in Ishgard, where ''everyone'' refers to them as the Savior of Ishgard and as "Master" or "Lady" after ending the Dragonsong War. This becomes particularly helpful in the last leg of the Red Mage questline, as an obstinate priest about to cast X'rhun Tia into the snow for requesting heretical documents quickly changes his tune after realizing that X'hrun is a friend of the Savior of Ishgard. |
| 394 | ** Played straight in the Dark Knight questline. A merchant at the Moraby Drydocks begs the Warrior's aid in retrieving his stolen goods after they were taken by Qiqirn bandits. But the Warrior winds up doing this so messily that said merchant demands recompense after said goods are soaked in blood. That's when Fray ''flips out'' and tears into the guy for having the gall to complain after the Warrior fights so many battles only to get treated like shite by the people they saved. |
| 395 | * UndesirablePrize: Many of the hard mode version of some dungeons in the ''A Realm Reborn'' content will have some good gear to obtain after a tough boss fight. Many other times, the chests will contain nothing but crafting material, which you will likely be unable to use or sell on the market for a good price (due to the market being flooded with the items) unless you're a crafter yourself that can take advantage of the materials and make them into items to be sold. Later patches changed it so that both gear and crafting items always appear. |
| 396 | * UnexpectedGameplayChange: |
| 397 | ** The Hard Blow side quest in ''Stormblood'' has you proving the effectiveness of a blowgun to an NPC by going into first person and shooting targets. A few other side quests also make use of this mechanic. |
| 398 | ** The "Merchant for a Day" side quest has you tending to a stall and pitching sales to customers that approach. |
| 399 | ** The Rising event in 2017 has a dungeon crawler mini game with a password that has to be decoded. |
| 400 | ** Endwalker features [[spoiler: An extended sequence in which you inhabit the body of a rank and file Garlean soldier, who is so weak they fall over from a single fight, don't naturally regenerate health, and can't use any form of magic or special abilties outside two modest buffs. The segment plays out more like a survival horror game than an MMORPG, with you scrounging for supplies to heal yourself and progress.]] |
| 401 | * UnfinishedBusiness: In the post-story quest of the 2018 Little Ladies' Day event, you encounter a white-haired girl desperately looking for her parents' jewelry as she lost them during the festivities. After you help her find them, she asks you to take them to a man named Tobyn at Crescent Cove and thanks you for being her seneschal for the day. [[spoiler:Tobyn informs you that the girl was in fact his late aunt, who was kidnapped by human traffickers disguised themselves as seneschals who lured in young girls to sell to the highest bidder. Your actions granted her spirit peace, allowing her to move on as no one is able to find her afterward.]] |
| 402 | * UnflinchingWalk: Okay, so you're not actually walking, but when The Manipulator is destroyed in the final floor of Alexander Gordias it collapses in a heap and explodes. As the camera zooms out to show your party they all have their backs to it as it blows up. |
| 403 | * UniquenessDecay: Happens to All-Rounder [[GuestStarPartyMember Duty Support]] [=NPCs=] that can use multiple jobs. When the system was introduced, the only such character was [[TheArchmage Crystal Exarch]], and he was only usable for a single, early expansion dungeon. Later patches allowed him to be used in more dungeons, including in his real identity [[spoiler:G'raha Tia]]. ''Endwalker'' introduced two more such [=NPCs=] ([[spoiler:Venat and Emet-Selch]]), which were also only usable for a single dungeon and it made sense considering who they are, while also allowing Urianger to change his job for a single duty. Then Patch 6.2 went all out and introduced no less than three new All-Rounder [=NPCs=] ([[spoiler:Ysayle, Haurchefant and Varshahn]]), while also allowing both Alphinaud and Y'shtola to change their roles for specific duties. |
| 404 | * UniquenessRule: |
| 405 | ** Green gear acquired from dungeons and blue gear acquired from raids typically come with the "Unique" modifier, meaning that a player cannot own two of that item at once. This also means that it's impossible for a player to equip two identical rings that have the Unique modifier. |
| 406 | ** In Triple Triad, you are only allowed to play one copy of a card in your deck under most circumstances. In addition, players can only have one 5-star and one 4-star rarity in each of their decks, preventing someone from simply stacking high-rarity cards to overpower a less experienced player. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard However, the NPC players are not subject to the same rules.]] |
| 407 | * UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Halicarnassus, the final boss of Haukke Manor (Hard), can become this thanks to PowerCreep working against the party. Her gimmick is that she summons adds, which she eventually eats to deal raidwide damage based on how much health the adds had left. The last add she summons is Lady Amandine, but if Halicarnassus falls below a certain health threshold when Amandine is out, she will instantly consume Amandine. Combined with the massive PowerCreep much of the level 50 content suffers from, this leads to the very likely possibility of Amandine being consumed at full health, which will wipe the party. The only way around this is to stop damaging Halicarnassus once her health is low enough to summon Amandine. |
| 408 | * UnscrupulousHero: 30 minutes in Ul'dah/Thanalan is usually enough to put any discussions of "the good guys" to bed. The Syndicate-backed government is astonishingly corrupt, merchants are often seen openly bullying civilians, and even the Immortal Flames are described as being the most bellicose of the three Grand Companies. |
| 409 | ** The Sultana does genuinely care about the people and wants to institute reforms and help the disenfranchised... but she has virtually no power to actually do so under the current system -- she's little more than a figurehead... and some parties are interested in her losing the support needed to be even that, for fear of her gaining more power and fighting the city-state's corruption. |
| 410 | * TheUnpronounceable: Seeker of the Sun and some Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te names have aitched H'es in them that most people have to give an uncomfortable phlegmy, hissing noise to make. Only other Miqo'te can reliably make this noise in-universe, so names like this tend to either have a second, softer pronunciation for the sake of dealing with other races, or (for the sake of simplicity) drop the H entirely. |
| 411 | * UnreliableNarrator: |
| 412 | ** The framing device for [[spoiler:Ultima Weapon's]] hard mode. After telling a minstrel about the story of how you defeated [[spoiler:Ultima Weapon]], it's implied that you relive a heavily embellished and abridged memory of the encounter through his music. The same set-up is used for the Savage raids and various other non-canon difficult encounters. |
| 413 | ** The Encyclopedia Eorzea is a real life book created by the lore team to give a rich insight almost everything seen in the game and the history of civilization up to the end of the 3.3 story. While most of the book's content is considered to be truth according to WordOfGod, the team also stated that the book is written mostly in character from an unseen and unnamed NPC in the game and the book has some biases as a result. What also makes the statement even funnier is the book was discovered by fans to have a lot of errors in regards to names, dates, and other facts due to the lore team's mistakes, which would be quite realistic since such a book would very likely to have some form of errors. |
| 414 | * UnwinnableByDesign: Dungeons and boss fights all have a time limit and it is possible that you can't win simply because you don't have enough time left to beat them. Some primals and many bosses in raids also have a hidden "enrage" timer where if the party takes too long to kill the boss, said boss will OneHitKill everyone. |
| 415 | * UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: [[spoiler:Momodi gives the Warrior of Light a message to meet with Alianne at a specified place. She never shows but [=he/she=] finds a suspicious vial at the rendezvous point. Upon returning to The Quicksand, Momodi advises [=him/her=] to keep it just in case. The same vial would be used as evidence to pin the Sultana's murder on the Warrior of Light.]] |
| 416 | ** In Endwalker, a depressed merchant learned that his contract had been cancelled [[spoiler:kickstarting the blasphemy crisis in Thavnair.]] |
| 417 | * UselessItem: |
| 418 | ** Various tiers of potions, ethers, and elixirs can be useful to new players, but the amount of HP/MP they recover is pitiful when you're at a high level and all the potions have cooldown, meaning you can't use other potions or other related items for a few minutes. Likewise, Phoenix Downs, which are difficult to obtain, only work if the user is not in battle and if the target is in the player's party. Most players will just opt to respawn and return to the party rather than suffer the Weakness status or wait for the party's healer to revive them with a spell even in the middle of the battle. The introduction of the Palace of the Dead boosted the potency of healing potions and they have become useful again due to the player's HP being at much lower values and the possibility of having a group with no healers. Phoenix Downs also get a use in the palace for the same reason. |
| 419 | ** Elemental ward potions, which were supposed to boost your resistance to an element, were practically never used due the effect being too marginal to make any significant difference. Eventually, their effects were removed entirely (along with elemental materia and most elemental resistances as a whole), with the in-game justification that all the remaining potions had "aged" into a concoction that acts as weapon or armor dye (ironically, making the potions much more useful than they originally were to most players) |
| 420 | ** Materia for combat classes are generally worthless, though it is zig-zagged. For a new player or a player that is leveling up a new class, melding materia on your gear is pointless since you will have your gear replaced fairly often until you hit the level cap. Even at the level cap, a lot of the end game gear can't even have materia melded onto them. Hardcore raiders (back when the Binding Coil of Bahamut was new) managed to make materia useful by melding them onto gear that was a step below the best gear and then use a ''lot'' of materia to help offset any weakness the gear might've had. However, materia once again became useless by 3.0 due to the developers trying to make the Alexander Savage raid much more difficult by using more complex and difficult mechanics, which means people couldn't simply beef up their stats and hope for the best), along with changing the secondary stat bonuses gear would have. 3.2 attempts to compromise by allowing players to meld materia onto end game gear, but they cannot overmeld (putting more materia than the number of slots available). |
| 421 | * UselessUsefulSpell: |
| 422 | ** Averted for most spells and abilities. Most enemies are vulnerable to handful of debuffs and even crippling ones like Stun and Sleep work quite well. Of course, there's stronger enemies and bosses that can resist certain effects. Naturally, PVP makes all sorts of debuffs not only be handy, but also vital in strategies that can turn the tide of battle. |
| 423 | ** Shockingly, played straight for some limit breaks. A tank's limit break involves the use of barriers on the party that can either reduce damage or even make the party invincible for a few seconds, which would be handy except that a healer can easily negate the damage done to the party. Certain 8-man encounters avert this by giving the boss an arena-wide instant-kill attack that must be mitigated by a tank's level 3 limit break; this is usually signaled by the Limit Break gauge filling much faster than normal as the party attacks the boss. Healers have a limit break that can heal the entire party, which is handy for low level healers, but it quickly gets outclassed by a healer's stronger healing spells. A level 3 limit break for a healer can fully restore the party's HP and fully revive KO'd allies without inflicting the Weakness debuff (reduces attack stats by 25/50%), but the person using the limit break is rooted in place for several seconds and the revived players are forced to accept the raise, which means they could get attacked without having time to get away and recoup. Also, due to hidden enrage timers on many high-end boss fights, chances are good that if you have enough people dead to warrant using this, your group probably isn't doing enough damage to win the fight in time. |
| 424 | ** A prime example is Monk's One Ilm Punch. An attack that offers the game's one and only player-available dispel effect. You'd be forgiven for forgetting that the attack even exists because the amount of enemies that are affected by it can be counted on one hand, and the amount of those that are bosses at endgame levels can be counted with one finger. To top it off, the attack has pathetically low potency, and absurdly high TP cost, to the point where whatever damage you make up for by removing a buff is immediately lost by reducing your DPS and potentially burning out your TP. ''Stormblood'' changed the skill to be a bit stronger and causes a stun effect instead before it is removed altogether in ''Shadowbringers''. |
| 425 | ** The Lancer's Feint weapon skill. It's primary purpose is to inflict the Slow status, with a max duration of 20 seconds. However, at Level 50, enemies are either completely immune to Slow, such as Primals and bosses, or die so quickly, there's no point using it. The ones who aren't immune, but also have the HP to make somewhat worthwhile, likewise build resistance with each usage until Slow hasn't been used on them for over a minute, each time cutting duration by about half with each usage, and takes time away from a Dragoon doing what they do best, ultra focused high output burst damage. Final nail in the coffin? Black Mages get an ability on a less than a half-minute recast that inflicts a slightly lower duration Slow, but also includes Heavy with it, doesn't cost anything to use and is instant cast, while those of the Arcanist class and its jobs, get Shadow Flare, which provides a 30 second long, reduced effectiveness (but not resistance increasing) slow for any enemy inside of it who isn't immune to slows. The revamp of the skills in ''Stormblood'' changed the skill completely where it reduces the target's strength and dexterity by 10%. It's also a cross role skill. |
| 426 | ** Some of Black Mage's ice spells falls squarely into this, as Freeze was an area-target spell which inflicts the relatively useless Bind effect. On top of its low damage, it grants only one Umbral Ice stack, and casting it in Astral Fire removes the effect without replacing it with Umbral Ice, making it only useful for showing off to other players. As of the release of ''Shadowbringers'', it no longer has to be area-targeted and can be fully transitioned from Astral Fire to a full stack of Umbral Ice, while the Bind effect is replaced with one stack of Umbral Heart. Blizzard II was iffy from the start, as it is a burst effect centered on the caster. This means that your squishy mage has to wade into the middle of a pack of enemies to hit them with it, inviting extra damage from enemy cleaves and burst effects designed to hit melee. The spell rework in Shadowbringers made it become even less useful though, since it lost the Bind effect with nothing to compensate for it. As of Shadowbringers, Fire II falls into this category once you pick up Freeze; its DPS and mana cost make it strictly inferior to spamming Freeze (which is faster to cast and effectively free under Umbral Ice III) or, once you hit level 50, alternating between Freeze and Flare. |
| 427 | ** Out of all the ninjutsus accessible from the Mudras, Hyoton has the lowest potency for a single-target attack, with only Bind effect for it, and even then, it is dispelled the moment the target is attacked. While Hyoton itself remains as useless as ever in ''Shadowbringers'', a high-level Ninja is capable of upgrading Hyoton's mudra with Kassatsu into "Hyosho Ranryu", which multiplies its potency well over fourfold on top of its guaranteed critical hit, making it the hardest hitting Ninjutsu available in the Ninja's arsenal. Then Patch 5.1 buffed Hyoton's potency to 400 on top of the overall Ninja job revamp, making it more useful even without upgrading it into "Hyosho Ranryu". |
| 428 | ** While still on the subject of binds, there is the Summoner's Tri-Bind spell (originally called Tri-Disaster before Heavensward). Like Hyoton and Frost, it does low damage, has a mediocre status effect, and takes more MP to cast than any of Summoner's other spells with the exception of Summons and Ruin III. On top of all of that, Summoner can cross-class the previously mentioned Blizzard II from Black Mage, which takes less MP than Tri-Bind, does more damage, and (though centered on the caster) hits in a bigger area (5 yalms as opposed to Tri-Bind's 3). |
| 429 | ** Some abilities start out as borderline useless when first acquired until they receive passive upgrades or synergy with other abilities. The monk's Mantra is a great example - it's a 5% increase in healing power to the entire party, which is effectively nothing, that is, until a few levels later where you get its related trait, at which point it becomes a 20% healing increase, which is not only significant, it can be life-saving. ''Stormblood'' would revamp most of traits so that skills would have a fixed potency instead of relying on a trait to make them stronger. |
| 430 | ** ''Stormblood'' introduced several new skills that could be used across several jobs, but a good chunk of them are pretty worthless. Drain has an extremely low potency and only a portion of the damage inflicted is absorbed to your HP. A Red Mage can dualcast it and Black Mages can use Triplecast with it, but it's hardly worth the MP cost. Erase heals a party member and removes one debuff, but the cure potency is extremely low and it has a high cooldown while Esuna can remove debuffs as quickly as you can cast it. Break is used by almost nobody due its very poor potency and the additional effect of causing Heavy is hardly needed. Arm's Length prevents knockback and draw in effects and inflicts Slow on the target that used said effects, but buff only lasts 5 seconds and most targets that do cause knockback/draw in are immune to Slow anyway. Crutch works exactly the same as the Paladin's Tempered Will skill, which removes Heavy and Slow, except Crutch can only be used on a party member and it's too situational to have slotted when you can have something more useful and frequently used instead. Foot Graze and Leg Grze causes Heavy and Bind respectively and both are almost never used by any ranged DPS due to most enemies being immune to such effects anyway. |
| 431 | ** Elemental crafting is borderline useless. The purpose behind the "Brand/Name of X" abilities for crafters is to let them increase progress at a decent rate when dealing with a recipe associated with an element. Only a handful of recipes deal with elemental crafts while the rest do not. The concept of elemental crafting was absent entirely in ''Heavensward'', and ''Shadowbringers'' rolled all these spells into Brand/Name of Elements, which is available for all crafting classes until its removal in ''Endwalker''. |
| 432 | ** Skills that inflict Sleep, Bind, and Heavy are generally never used since most enemies are either immune to the effects or will shake off the effects (except heavy) when attacked since most players will gather as many enemies as possible in one spot and burn them down with AOE spam. However, Palace of the Dead and Eureka has the status effect work quite effectively on most enemies, which is handful for crowd control and solo play. |
| 433 | ** Rescue is a healer skill introduced in ''Stormblood'' where it can pull another player towards you. The ability is ''very'' situational since you have to time the pull just right to yank someone out of danger. Time it wrong and you'll very likely either screw the player over in their damage output/rotation or even pull them ''into'' an attack (it's just as bad with lag). Due to high accident potential with Rescue as well as people using the skill to troll other players, you'll likely get yelled at or be accused of trolling. Ergo, most healers don't bother using Rescue at all unless they know exactly what they're doing. |
| 434 | ** Crafters' Specialist Actions were ''probably'' DifficultButAwesome, but they leaned way too hard on the "difficult" side of that equation. Being reliant on "Whistle While You Work" stacks, which automatically decremented whenever a Good or Excellent condition randomly came up, made the whole thing too RNG-based for most people to even bother trying. Patch 5.1 massively simplified the pool of skills crafters, though there are a few skills that require Good or Excellent to pop up that don't make them worthwhile for when you want to craft a bunch of something. |
| 435 | ** Reprisal, Addle, and Feint are damage reducing moves that don't often get used in regular content since typically the damage enemies do can be healed through anyway. They're really useful in harder endgame content howver, where attacks really do hurt and you don't want your healers burning more MP on healing than they have to. |
| 436 | *** Even then, however, Addle and Feint can be useless depending on the situation. Addle affects Mind and Intelligence, making it useless against purely physical foes; Feint works on Strength and Dexterity, making it ineffective against magic users. Certain major bosses will use both kinds of attacks, but if they don't, or if one type of damage is underutilized (or overpowering regardless of the damage type) this can eliminate the effectiveness of those skills for the respective job types. Fortunately, Reprisal just always works. |
| 437 | * UseYourHead: The Level 50 Goldsmithing quest sees [[spoiler:Roroton]] take down the Jade Fox by way of a Rugby-style headbutt to the chest. This is especially hilarious, given that [[spoiler:Roroton is a ''Lalafell'']]. The headbutting hero is completely fine afterwards, even though his target had armor on at the time; must have a strong skull. |
| 438 | * UtilityMagic: |
| 439 | ** Thaumaturgy was originally magic used in funerary rites for the ritual cleansing and preservation of corpses, and was later adapted to combat -- for obvious reasons, Player Characters only learn the latter application. |
| 440 | ** Conjurers play an important rule in Gridanian society and culture, but players do little of what that entails outside of class quests. |
| 441 | ** Arcanistry is magic used by formulaic spells and mathmatical equations. Besides the obvious combat applications, the reliance on math makes them excellent as bookkeepers and customs for ships coming into Limsa for trade. Most Carbuncles are also trained to sniff around ships to find contraband like a drug sniffer dog. |
| 442 | ** Astromancy is introduced to us as a concept in ARR, where it is used by the Observatory to track the Dragon Star and its potential effects on the war with the Dravanians. It is only after we learn the Astrologian quest that we discover its other potential applications through the Sharlayan school, both combat and non-combat, as well as the side applications of the in-universe equivalent of Tarotmancy of reading the future, though these are dismissed as superstitions or even heresies by the Ishgard. Of course, once again the [=PCs=] generally only care about the combat applications, with card draws never being usable in the main story outside of combat applications, and us never even really studying the Dragon Star as the Ishgardian Astrologians do. |
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