A worry/rant about storylines till now (very very minor spoiler warning)

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

Cliffhangers can work but only if you still have a satisfying conclusion to the core story you've been working through. Otherwise they're just a cheap hook to get you to buy the expansion. Sadly, this one is closer to the latter.

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Agree is not that cliffhanger endings are bad, but the narrative and story cohesion has to lead to that cliffhanger.
There a serious lack of logic in the actions before and during the ending.

Spoilers ahead, read at your own risk:

-You are the Warrior of Light, you've killed primals, gods, empires, ancient machines....but you are captured by 3 random guards. Unless your toon is a complete idiot, you can figure out a set up and carve your way out with your sword/axe/lance.
- Not only that, every other Scion, Merlwyb, Kan-E, Raubahn are useless kids threatened by 5 armed guards and Teledji.
- Merlwyb and Kan-E watch Raubahn arm getting chopped and "they leave", that completely against their character, specially Merlwyb.
- Minfilia saying "Haydelin told to stay"....it's a big deux ex machina, or "we didn't had any idea" to make Minfilia dissapear.
- For this ending to also work, you shoudn't be able to enter Ul'dha or Mor Dhona freely again, or some guards should at least do something....but if you go there and talk to the NPCs everyone says they don't believe the story about you, so why are you looking for asylum in Ishgard then?

And also lets not forget the time paradox with Alberic, Ishgard Azure Dragoon and champion.....the same guy who hated you, fought you, pleaded to Nidhogg for power and you kill in the final DGN quest.
Now you find he's still alive, he doesn't hate you anymore and ohh yeah, fights against Nidhogg after asking him for power

Those are the things that make the ending not work, not the fact that it ends in a cliffhager

I wouldn't have minded a solo instanced fight (like many we had to do throughout the story) where we fight off these soldiers, but no matter what we still lose due to being overwhelmed with numbers.

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Originally Posted by myahele

I wouldn't have minded a solo instanced fight (like many we had to do throughout the story) where we fight off these soldiers, but no matter what we still lose due to being overwhelmed with numbers.

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I kept hoping for a scene like that too :( at least where we TRIED anyway, we slay gods on a daily basis here, a group of adventurers could destroy a city state if they got bored.

But

When those soldiers came to arrest you and you do NOTHING?! I coulda killed em all with my pinky but nope, they still tie me up. Really? No fight for being set up?

Name ONE (good) TV series that didn't set up a cliffhanger at the very end of a season to hook people up and serve as a sort-of prolog into the next season.

LOST had it, Stargate SG-1 had it (going as far as making the season finale and the next season premiere forming a double episode sometimes), Battlestar Galactica had it, Heroes had it in the (only good) season 1, Even movie trilogies like Star Wars and Matrix and Back to the Future had it, for crying out loud. Even THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS had it...

The only kind of story that doesn't have it are the ones who are completely episodic, like most sitcoms (even tho Friends and How I Met your Mother had some pretty rough ones in some seasons), and some movie trilogies in which every movie is a self-contained story with no interconnection (like Indiana Jones).

Bottom line, cliffhangers aren't bad, mmkay? (and thanks for mantaining this thread spoiler-free, I'm away from my town on business and won't be able to play till friday. Carry on :)

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Originally Posted by kyuven

Also doesn't mean they're going anywhere.

If you inject finality into a story, then your audience is less motivated to come back.
The key is wrapping up storylines and starting new ones. XIV just integrates new stories with the current ones so it's harder to see.
Also, Japanese writers suck at endings. It's more in their culture to focus on the beginning and middle, than the ending.

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Not sure where you heard that. Theres plenty of well written endings out there.
It's more to do with audience expectation more then anything else.


That said they really went over the top with this particular ending. While I saw every single betrayal (literally all!, im somewhat amazed by that. Usually I have half the characters wrong.) coming miles away, they really did a good job at having me go ''wow, didnt expect them to go that far with it''.
Not sure if that counts as a spoiler, because yeah. I think they made that part pretty obvious patches ago.

Also, as a FC just put it when I asked him if there wasnt anything off with the ending message:

''I have to keep my eyes heavensward for 3 months, and I know my neck doesnt like that''

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Originally Posted by AlexionSkylark

LOST had it, Stargate SG-1 had it

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lol, SG1 did the end-the-story-then-add-another-one like some people were 'asking' in place of cliffhangers and it was absolute trash. The series would have been better without all that ori BS.

Weird thing I have aside those "FEELS" story is, my character started at Limsa as Arcanist, but how the hell my character know the caravan on Ul'dah like I've ride his caravan before and Momodi?

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Originally Posted by Eul

Weird thing I have aside those "FEELS" story is, my character started at Limsa as Arcanist, but how the hell my character know the caravan on Ul'dah like I've ride his caravan before and Momodi?

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My caravan was the one from Gridania, which was also my starting zone. What color was the balloon in your cutscene?

Also, there are THREE caravan guys who look the same and are brothers or something. You will see them one at a time in the Scion's base during 2.0 questlines, and eventually you see all three of them together. They each wear a different color, representing the city state you first met them in.

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Originally Posted by Gunspec

My caravan was the one from Gridania, which was also my starting zone. What color was the balloon in your cutscene?

Also, there are THREE caravan guys who look the same and are brothers or something. You will see them one at a time in the Scion's base during 2.0 questlines, and eventually you see all three of them together. They each wear a different color, representing the city state you first met them in.

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When you started on Limsa, you don't ride caravan. You ride a ship and there's no Alphinaud and Alisaie.

It's the OP again. Wanting to clarify my feeling of displeasure and where it lies.

Like my examples, the ending of the 7th umbral era aka the defeat of Gaius was what I considered a well done closure/ending. Even though, I made it sound like it wasn't. My bad for that. The story arc ended and after the credits you get hints of something else brewing. It's also why I think CT ending felt to me like it ended on a good note. It couldn't really be called a good ending with a certain someone being left behind and the two other people...doing something(really wish that part was more elaborate...)


However, we are now left not with a cliffhanger but a giant chasm. Instead of closing doors and giving closure on some things. The story ends up opening new ones instead. CT storyline did it well. They planted the seed of a possible continuation.

While I feel that this patch storyline could have easily been the opening quests/cutscenes of the expansion itself. It leaves me with a foul taste in my mouth. I enjoy the storyline a lot. Always have and always will. I would even say that by biggest urge to play is due to the storyline. But I feel cheated out after being forced to keep playing for months on end, while waiting for storylines that come with months delays inbetween(not ranting about this method, it's an mmorpg after all).

I'm now getting the message. "Hey! I know you love the story. So we decided to prolonge it. And guess what, you can only view it if you buy our expansion. How awesome are we!"

And last I remember, I don't need to pay the producers of Lost and The Walkind Dead to be able to watch the next season... (Don't be a smartass and say that I still pay for the cable. Because I'd simply reply that I pay a monthly ffxiv sub+internet connection to compare :p)

I don't think there's a problem with the stories always being interconnected the way they are. I'm not commenting on whether or not the storytelling itself is good, but the concept of interweaving all of it gives you more of a sense of the world being a cohesive network of characters and interactions rather than a story occurring in an absolute vacuum. It's meant to be more of a living world rather than finishing the storyline and just leaving you in a sandbox where maybe one day they'll tell another, mostly or completely unconnected story. For example, do you think people would like the show Lost as much as they did if each season ended with everything being answered? Instead of opening more questions as they answered previous ones? I certainly don't think people would like it as much if every season the stories had just about nothing to do with each other except for the setting.

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Originally Posted by Eul

When you started on Limsa, you don't ride caravan. You ride a ship and there's no Alphinaud and Alisaie.

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There are the twins in the limsa opening, they sleep in the ship.