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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️

@cleretic.bsky.social

380 followers 280 following 2.7K posts

FFXIV lore and story dork, political tragic. She/her, trans woman! Check out #ffxivlorevids for most of my FFXIV lore and story videos! Discord: https://discord.gg/gB6hJSpj5j Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/cleretic

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · Sep 14

New FFXIV video day! Let's talk about that big reveal in 7.3, everything it could mean...

And all the reasons it's a terrible idea they shouldn't have done. And how even if there's good ways to take this, it might have already done the worst damage it could.

youtu.be/G49MkQpQkf8

#ffxivlorevids

Final Fantasy XIV's story may have just made its biggest mistake.

YouTube video by Cleretic

youtu.be

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 12h

Part of me suspects she's in the roster BECAUSE she's such an easy transition.

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 12h

I'm pretty sure she's here because they BARELY had to change her outfit for a modern AU.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 12h

We don't have enough information to go off, but every character on the site has an alternate render in their usual design, so it might be that they're immediately available alt costumes or something?

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 12h

The main thing I'll grant is that, for better or worse, I 100% buy that every character is wearing an outfit they themselves would have picked out.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 12h

Oh hey that new Dissidia game revealed the starting(?) lineup, and--

wait how the fuck is the FFXIV rep GAIA!?

I mean sure, let's rock, but what series of decisions led to this being the end result?

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 13h

I'm trying to think of the lowest-grade one that could win while still being 'a universe'. Like, the world of the Elder Scrolls could beat them, but that's only one-ish planet.

I'm going with Sonic. I don't think the 40k universe could stop the Sonic cast even on the terms of a 40k story.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/2621030/...

And finally, Your Holy and Virtuous Heretic, which I can best describe as 'Shin Megami Tensei and Daggerfall put in a blender'.

Dread Delusion was my favorite game of last year, and this game REALLY reminds me of it in a lot of ways.

Your Holy & Virtuous Heretic on Steam

A first-person, turn-based journey into the occult. Who will stand with Aleister at the end of days?

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

A real curveball by not being a video game: Spacewreck Salvage, an actual, physical board game about competitively salvaging wrecked spaceships.

aethermon.com/spacewreck-s...

There's not much to show online right now, which I wish I'd known before, I would've taken some pictures!

Spacewreck Salvage - Aethermon

aethermon.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/4083130/...

Against the Horde, a deckbuilder that's essentially trying to be a single-player Hearthstone.

My one negative is their use of gen AI art, which I really hope they rethink, because looking at everything else in the game already they REALLY don't need it.

Against the Horde on Steam

A roguelike deckbuilder where you can customise your deck with thousands of unique cards. Upgrade, draft, and buy new cards, and use powerful items on a unique battlefield that favours battlefield mov...

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/3789050/...

The Indigo Initiative, which looks to be shaping up to be what I wished Control was: an explorative adventure game that's basically set in the SCP Initiative.

Really what I'm getting across here is 'everyone needs to make more Metroid Prime games'.

The INDIGO Initiative on Steam

A first-person puzzle adventure where you harness fire, water, electricity, and magnetism to solve multi-step puzzles and explore atmospheric realms to restore balance before reality collapses.

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/2126810/...

Memory's Reach, a a puzzle-centric Metroidvania.

I'm gonna be honest: I gravitated to this because this just looks like a REALLY good Metroid Prime riff, and I want nothing else from life than 'more Metroid Prime'.

Memory's Reach on Steam

Memory’s Reach is a first person puzzle-adventure metroidvania. Explore labyrinthian megastructures, solve mind-bending puzzles, and wield fantastic alien technology in a quest to reveal the legacy of...

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/2369850/...

Dolven, a card game-centric tactical RPG. And while the game itself looks great (and is releasing REALLY soon), the thing that really caught my attention on the show floor is that they're also making a physical card game version of it!

Dolven on Steam

Dolven is a narrative-driven tactical RPG where combat blends party-based skills with poker-style card combos. Command your mercenaries in grid-based battles against the dungeon master and his horde o...

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/1910910/...

Sinthetic, a cyberpunk action RPG focused on juggling between different party members on the fly.

The greatest complement I can give this game is that it's entirely accurate for me to call it 'Xenoblade Runner'.

Sinthetic on Steam

Step into the dystopia that is Vacancy City. In an open-world, action-RPG featuring a combination of elements from Western and Japanese RPGs. Join the ragtag squad of unlikely allies led by the vetera...

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

store.steampowered.com/app/2878580/...

Key Fairy, a pacifist bullet hell with a really fascinating artstyle. I love seeing a game that tries to change the core 'verb' of its genre, so a bullet hell where you don't shoot things is fascinating.

Key Fairy on Steam

A hand-drawn, pacifist, folkloric, bullet-hell. Grapple and dance around monsters to collect their shattered stars, weave your way through twisting paths, encounter strange folk, uncover ancient magic...

store.steampowered.com

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 18h

In the spirit of the Steam Next Fest and just beign at PAX, I'm gonna pull an @caseyexplosion.bsky.social and do a quick rundown of the games that stood out to me there, most of which have demos!

(You're gonna see common themes, those mostly stem from the fact I have specific tastes.)

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 23h

Yeah those are all just Proper Nouns. They are not explanations, or motivations.

I don't want a title for the sake of it, I want to know why should I want these things, what the Shattering actually did.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

Deep Space Nine had the heroes set up a field of space mines as a huge triumph! It was great!

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Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

Which I didn't play because I found World pretty underwhelming, unfortunately.

I did realize I forgot Clair Obscur doing this once... but then I remembered that was one of my most hated scenes in that game largely because of that moment.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

To a degree that's a problem that damn near EVERY game has, especially in the era of voiced cutscenes.

Like, I'm trying to think of a game that had characters talking over each other (that was actually intentional) and the only one I can call up is the original FFVII.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

'Swing and a miss' compliments can suck worse than actual insults sometimes.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

But in this context, it's not really about bringing them to the table (although I do think that's possible). It's about taking them off; the Hearers have sweet fuck-all of a defense if you're ALSO going 'the Elementals are on our side'.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

Why wouldn't they play both sides? They can't tell the difference between people, and from the EW tank questline we know how the pre-Gridanians got their support last time.

You do that yourself, and keep to the agreement? I think the Elementals just go 'fuck yeah, two cakes'.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

Then at best, the playing field is equalized; the Elementals openly back both sides, and can't be used as a cudgel against others.

At best, you just got nature itself to join the revolution.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

I'm gonna go for a moonshot here on what I think is the REALLY juicy way to take this angle:

The Hearers only hold the institutional power they do because they support the Elementals. But the Elementals don't hold that much loyalty.

I think you could get the Elementals to support someone else.

Cleretic, FFXIV Lore Dork 🏳️‍⚧️ @cleretic.bsky.social · 1d

I disagree that the Elementals are even weak; frankly, I think you lose that fight. But why aim at the thing even you agree isn't responsible, when the hearers themselves are right there?