Why are some people "disappointed" by the 6.X patch story?

Beyond the base story everything else has just felt like filler, and I assume to a degree it is. They prolly just needed something quick for for the patches while our big new adventure likely wont start till 7.0. Wouldnt be surprised if this all wraps up 6.5 and we get something out of the blue for 7.0.

I've expected a fairly slow start or not anything really mind blowing since post EW is just the start of an Arc really cant compete with ShB/Main EW
i still enjoy it though

This is how I feel about the current story/storyline: I did not expect any epic actions or the like. What I wished for though was for new characters and new worldbuilding. We are adventuring again for the first time in a long while instead of world saving. Wet our appetites with new horizons. New people.

Since it was told they had already planned the next 10 years in a broader way, I expected some setup. Some new threats and mysteries that will be resolved in later expansions. While I do like Zero, the story itself plays a lot of the plot beats of Final Fantasy 4, and I know this game by heart. FF14 never used plots of other games directly, but just some references or themes. This feels almost like copy and paste with the slightes adjustment.

To me right the story feels like the usual trial story took over MSQ. And it does not seem to lead into future plot developments, but is done presumably with 6.55 latest and then we move on with Dawntrail. So there is nothing connecting the current story with some meta story or threats and also not Dawntrail. Also characters who would be interested in saving the Void are also not here (why?) like Unukalhai. I do not even know if our actions are even changing the void. And even if, the void was also just a means. Yshtola wanted to travel to the First and shard travel in general. So the void was just a street to that goal. But I do not see that desire of hers allign with Dawntrail. Why go to the New World when you can go to the Void in with that maybe to the First?
I do not understand it.

Mostly just disappointed with the pacing. The ideas are really good.

The Lunar Subterrane felt like a less invested Amaurot. It was nice graphically, and the story was touching, but I simply wasn't nearly as emotional invested as I feel I should have been. I didn't feel anything from The Abyssal Fracture. Just another world ending threat, but without proper build up it just felt like one of those times. The music was good though.

To put things into perspective, I think 6.1 and 6.2 were exciting and very welcome - we’re starting a new story, then suddenly throws in the 13th - what people have been slavering over for lore about since time immemorial. We got that in 6.2 and got hit with Scarmi and Barbie, along with Trollbez hiding his motives.

I appreciate what they were trying to do here, but I think they made an error by throwing in just a sprinkle of Garlemald…While I don’t mind more of it, could’ve easily been a Restoration type side quest chain to help them rebuild - but with getting them to work on their own two feet. That was what we got with the trade deal for Garlemald - Magitek for Necessary Goods. I would have enjoyed to get into the politics more because they started getting into it…then went back to geopolitics instead of Garlemald’s.

6.4 wasn’t any better. Cool Moon by the way, love the music and recreation of that theme - but yeah, let’s just look down at our villain’s lair, then visit a grave where we find a CONVENIENT PLOT DEVICE to fight Golbez and his bad dragon he corrupted directly. Throw hands, beat Golbez, but then whoop de do we wind up with a world-ending situation because SOMEBODY DECIDED TO FEED AN ELDER DRAGON TO A VOIDSENT DIRECTLY.

And here we are now. I was expecting a mini-venture through the void into a Trial Set that would be optional - not mandatory. Would’ve made a great side, tbh, like how we had the Warring Triad, but noooooo. We had to throw it into MSQ! What they should’ve done is focus on Garlemald and prep towards Dawntrail since a hero needs downtime after saving the world the umpteenth time. GIVE THE MAIN CHARACTER A BREAK. That’s what 6.1/6.2 felt like. A breath of fresh air for 6.1 especially. Please, for future post-patch Dawntrail, consider this.

SPOILER

6.5 was ok. Except for the fact we didn't interact with Azdaja after she was saved. WTF? we spent one year and and half on that storyline, and we didn't even get to interact with her. It feels like that storyline lacks a closure on that aspect, like if they just wanted to dump that part.

Truth to be told, I wondered if she was able to talk in her new body, until at the very last quest, she is a npc with optional dialogue.

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

SPOILER

6.5 was ok. Except for the fact we didn't interact with Azdaja after she was saved. WTF? we spent one year and and half on that storyline, and we didn't even get to interact with her. It feels like that storyline lacks a closure on that aspect, like if they just wanted to dump that part.

Truth to be told, I wondered if she was able to talk in her new body, until at the very last quest, she is a npc with optional dialogue.

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I don't really see that as an issue. You can already imagine the dialogue being something along the lines of "Thank you for saving me," and just being generic fluff.

I'm kind of impressed at how badly the miserable pacing of 6.4/5 killed what little interest in the story I had because basically nothing significant actually happens outside of the 13th and you spend 90% of those respective MSQs just reacquainting yourself with people.

At the end of the day it really did just feel like a trial storyline that was given MSQ treatment for whatever reason.

I didn't mind the story but because the stakes were so low, no new threads or worldbuilding introduced to set future mysteries up so every single patch has just been reiterating that Zero needs to rely on others as if it's the first time we're meeting her. Sure that's because she's meeting lots of people for the first time but it just kept happening right the way up to the final confrontation and it just felt a little 1-dimensional.

The thing that scares me is the post story of an expansion usually always sets up the next two expacs.

ARR set up HW directly, and Stormblood with the apperance of Yugiri and introducing Doma as a concept
HW set up Stormblood directly, and ShB with the Warrior of Darkness plotline
and so on

That is to say if 8.0 ends up being "Lightbringers" or something similar thats going to suck.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

That is to say if 8.0 ends up being "Lightbringers" or something similar thats going to suck.

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I don't know. First still had people in it, so a possible story with them. 13th would be much more limited in term of having its own interesting stakes further than what we already had. Plus 6 zone of the dark world would be... monotonous. I'd rather see either a raid alliance, raid, trial series or exploratory zone tackling that story.

It's simple, people were spoiled in Shb, EW it's objectively weaker in every single way after the main patch resolved the threat, we went from "there's a godlike being controlling Lunar primals and we don't know his full motif other than to destroy everything we hold dear" this is called high stakes, we know we will possibly win, but it gives us an "oh no, but we're gazing to the moon, how do we even GET to the moon, what's on the moon!" feel, everything about the end of Shb set up a high stakes storyline that was resolved too fast in EW, and now we have no stakes, we just know that we're going to a new island while dealing with the 13th that also had no stakes, nobody came out worse, everyone won, we forgave the enemy yet again, one that was literally torturing our ally's sister, but "he thought he was doing the right thing!" so did Emet, the only reason that was done well was because he got memory wiped, Golbez was just evil, no consequences for actions made AT ALL, and for that reason, it was disappointing.

The lack of VA in this patch was also lame, some scenes didn't even have music till half the way through, i thought i was playing muted.

It's okay, feels like another 'with friends, we can do anything!' bit.
"y'shtola explains everything, again." Please mary sue cat lady, just go away.
You could predict where this story is going mostly. I hope the writing changes pace and becomes more interesting.

I did love the return to the Crystarium, But I loved Shadowbringers and welcome any chance to go back.

I sure do love winning because of the real super power of teamwork

Filler plot with an overdone aesop, all as part of an extended reference to a game they may not have played. Next?

Ive said this on another thread but I believe the sole reason why people just stopped caring for the 6.X patch story is mostly tied to the fact that the whole 13th arc was the focus for the entirety of the post patch cycle, rather than it being a small arc.

In previous post patch expansion stories; you usually had a multiple different arcs that kept the post patch msq fresh and interesting.

For example in the 3.X story, you had the end of the Dragonsong War, followed by the Warriors of Darkness, followed by the return of Illberd and his plan to instigate war for the liberation of Ala Mhigo which nicely tied us to Stormblood.

in the 4.X story, you had the whole Yotsuyu arc, followed by the looming battle with the Garlean Empire and intermingled within those two major plots, we had the mystery of the Scions being soul sucked away to parts unknown one by one that lead to Shadowbringers, so there was major mystery involved with these factors.

and in the 5.X story, we had the Elidibus arc spliced with the Scions trying to return to the Source; thus officially concluding our adventures in the First, then this was followed by the return of Zenos and the rise of the Telephoroi that leads to Endwalker.

But basically with 6.X we didnt have any differing plot points for the audience to engage in intrigue and interest for 7.0. It was entirely focused on our adventures in the 13th and what makes it worse is that the half of its mystery is gone because the story patches were easily predictable thanks to reusing characters and plot beats from a previous FF game (being FFIV). So it was very understandable that many players would just not feel as engaged with it even though the story concept was interesting.

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Originally Posted by Atelier-Bagur

Ive said this on another thread but I believe the sole reason why people just stopped caring for the 6.X patch story is mostly tied to the fact that the whole 13th arc was the focus for the entirety of the post patch cycle, rather than it being a small arc.

In previous post patch expansion stories; you usually had a multiple different arcs that kept the post patch msq fresh and interesting.

For example in the 3.X story, you had the end of the Dragonsong War, followed by the Warriors of Darkness, followed by the return of Illberd and his plan to instigate war for the liberation of Ala Mhigo which nicely tied us to Stormblood.

in the 4.X story, you had the whole Yotsuyu arc, followed by the looming battle with the Garlean Empire and intermingled within those two major plots, we had the mystery of the Scions being soul sucked away to parts unknown one by one that lead to Shadowbringers, so there was major mystery involved with these factors.

and in the 5.X story, we had the Elidibus arc spliced with the Scions trying to return to the Source; thus officially concluding our adventures in the First, then this was followed by the return of Zenos and the rise of the Telephoroi that leads to Endwalker.

But basically with 6.X we didnt have any differing plot points for the audience to engage in intrigue and interest for 7.0. It was entirely focused on our adventures in the 13th and what makes it worse is that the half of its mystery is gone because the story patches were easily predictable thanks to reusing characters and plot beats from a previous FF game (being FFIV). So it was very understandable that many players would just not feel as engaged with it even though the story concept was interesting.

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Seeing it all listed out like that feels so bad lmaoooo

Alphi and Alisae stood next to that train for 2 years!

Othan than many of the reasons listed here (being one very long, dragged out plot point, the WoL not having to be there at all, being a copy paste of a game I didn't even play, weird pacing, a lot of solutions that don't make sense and contradict what we've heard before), what bothers me the MOST is the character writing.

Zero had potential in 6.1, then she just didn't any development at all for 3 whole patches - literally she would only tip her hat and ask the same questions over and over again, get the same answers, then get confused about the concept of friendship - then in 6.5 she suddenly felt like a different person and we didn't really see it growing. Her overused tipping of the hat was annoying, too.

Estinien just being there for nothing, doing nothing, just...there. Literally only thing he did for the plot after 6.1 was fanservice in 6.4 (which I do enjoy, but shouldn't be the only contribution of a character to the plot).

Y'sthola just solving everything offscreen and having all the knowledge. Her solutions also came out of nowhere. Those devices by Cid that we didn't even get to see the logic behind them?! She is starting to get so overused and forced that I dislike her now.

And for me personally, the WORST offender of it all: why are the writers avoiding G'raha Tia?
He is by far the most knowledgable Scion in regards to traveling between shards, he knows the First like no one else, he controls the Crystal Tower AND he would love to be there adventuring with the WoL. We PROMISED HIM adventures and not AT LEAST trying to invite him feels mean. Did we forget our promise in Ultima Thule?
Y'shtola namedrops him during two patches and didn't even think of inviting him? Didn't even give us an excuse of WHY he couldn't be there?! Is a small square piece of paper with instructions from him enough to use the tower? Wouldn't he like to me informed of what was going on and be there when we got back?! It makes absolutely no sense. We didn't even get to see him there at the end while Krile was opening the letter or something.
(And he was barely a character during the Alliance quest for Thaleia, too. His lines were so generic that he could be replaced by any other NPC and we wouldn't notice. Though to be fair, the same could be said for Krile.)

For me it all feels either very out of character, or just plain bad character writing. I honestly can forgive a few plotholes and less than exciting solutions to problems if the characters are written nicely, I'm here for them. Now I'm frustrated about both the characters AND the overall story.

Overall, the 6. x story is just more of the same lazy writing the writers keep getting praised for when it seems they’ve barely read a book.

The game continuously shows poor writing, lousy pacing, contrived plot elements, and weak character introduction and development, certain characters are overdeveloped and should have been retired when their arc concluded. The fact that they have continued means they take up time in the narrative which could be used to develop other characters along with decreasing the stakes of the situation as you have a character which is so experienced they can fix almost anything. This is why people were so excited when the Scions were supposedly shutting down because that meant new characters, new stories, new problems instead it's more of the same.

You can't have an interesting story with stakes when your team have ridden the great space coaster to the end of the universe to destroy the divine embodiment of fear, depression and anger. Showing they have blown the scope of their narrative to marvel levels of stupidity which is impossible to reverse. No enemy going forward will be able to compete in raw physical power and influence with a god who could rot the planet by thinking about it.

The world-building is weak, continuing a trend of telling instead of showing, as well as killing anything interesting about the setting itself a few patches after it is introduced. The game has an identity crisis with how it utilises themes, which are either so weak they might as well be non-existent or so vital that it fails to do them justice, along with a heavily twisted and warped sense of morality and logic which questions the motives of supposedly good characters which sends mixed messages. This forces the player gameplay-wise to agree with something they might find morally objectionable because the writers can’t think outside their paradigm.

The writing you see in 6. x is the same quality standard without the hype of finishing a significant arc.

I kinda enjoy this thread starting off with

"yeah I like the story" in march

and descending to "man for real this story was shit" in October.

I have a feeling that 6.1 to 6.55 is an experiment to see if we will like small self contained arcs in patches with no overarching themes. I know it was also a test of the junior devs as each dev in each team got their own patch to work on, that’s why the consistency felt off.

I hope they learned what they wanted out of this so 7.0 and onward will be better.

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Originally Posted by Hyperia

I have a feeling that 6.1 to 6.55 is an experiment to see if we will like small self contained arcs in patches with no overarching themes. I know it was also a test of the junior devs as each dev in each team got their own patch to work on, that’s why the consistency felt off.

I hope they learned what they wanted out of this so 7.0 and onward will be better.

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I hope that's the case, but I don't have any faith considering how the statements Yoshi P made about the relics. They seem to be focusing on the more numerical data. Even when they do seem to take feedback, they seem to immediately jump to the opposite extreme like with how they handled the alliance raid changes.

Anyways, I don't really think smaller arcs are a particular good idea. I know people complain about ARR's lengthy story investment, but to me that's part of what makes a lot of the story good. You're invested in the develop of various characters, and how they change and grow. It's not impossible for a smaller arc to implement those ideas, but it is more difficult.

So hopefully they either improve at it, or they start building up a new multi-expansion story arc (even though it seems like they're fearful of doing that).

To me, the last Myths of the Realm raid really sealed off EW for me. At that point, you can pretty much call the whole story arc done. And I think that’s why the last patch gets split in two… I expect the next half of the MSQ to be the big ramp-up to Dawntrail. Whether you consider Alliance raids part of the main story (which I do) or just side content, they still had some loose story threads to tie up, so they did, and I was happy with it. I enjoyed the Zero story too… not sure at this point if it’s just filler or if it will actually have some tie-in to the new story arc they’re building with Dawntrail or not. I could definitely see a story that ties together all the shards somehow, including those we haven’t visited yet. Or maybe they’ll bring the focus back to this world, since there’s still cloud covered continents we haven’t explored, and we’re starting off with one in 7.0. At this point, who knows?

One thing to keep in mind is that it will probably all flow together better in hindsight. I started in the Stormblood patches, so everything up til that point, I got to experience as pretty much one story, no waiting months in between for the next chapter to come out. I imagine if I had started earlier and played through some of the other patches as they were released, I might’ve had some “where are they going with this?” moments. I didn’t really experience that with the SHB or EW patches, because at that point, we all knew where the story was going, to the grand finale.

I guess my point is, I’m content to wait and see what happens. I play this game primarily for the story, the world, it’s characters, and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Right now they’re transitioning from the old to the new… but I feel like it’ll all come together in the end.

Honestly, it feels like they are putting the hedge trimmer to good use. YoshiP mentioned in an interview once that he wanted to tell a different story but out of respect to XIV he feels obligated to finish old story threads.

Now the Garleans are written out of the story, as is the 13th and the 12. It feels less like a send-off and more like finisher, if that makes sense. I don't mind too much but the story is way, way too predictable and lacks stakes. And I don't mean anime stakes like saving the world/universe but "human" stakes. And the WoL being the bestest at everything is not helping. Getting a bit boring with how buddy buddy every NPC is. Ul'dah is nice to slaves, Gridania's spirits are cool with everyone, Limsa only pirates from bad people now etc etc. It's pretty boring, actually.

I find it funny the garleans are going to live in rubble and that abandoned subway for the rest of the game's existance and every call back we see to them for the rest of time will be them saying "we're working on it".

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Originally Posted by Tsiron

Be thankful your fave isn't dead and didn't so much as get their own Unending Codex entry this very patch, and wasn't reduced to an accessory to two other characters' instead

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I disagree, my favorite scion is papalymo and I'm glad he got a satisfying ending rather than becoming a pointless chariciture puppet like all the other scions that repeat the same character beats every single story they're in.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

I find it funny the garleans are going to live in rubble and that abandoned subway for the rest of the game's existance and every call back we see to them for the rest of time will be them saying "we're working on it".



I disagree, my favorite scion is papalymo and I'm glad he got a satisfying ending rather than becoming a pointless chariciture puppet like all the other scions that repeat the same character beats every single story they're in.

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Too bad he died too early. Dude didnt get enough screentime imo

First of all, I enjoyed the patch story more than some parts of the main MSQ in 6.0. Mainly due to Endwalker feeling like they crammed two expansions into one. Horrible pacing mixed in with some amazing story moments. I'll never forgive them for shafting Garlemald though, we could've had anything from a civil war arc there where we stand on the side of the populares (the more reasonable part.) maybe some Legions joining our cause and rebuilding Garlemald from that. But instead we get story leftover Zenos that I'm a 100% sure the devs didn't know what to do with napping on his chair with a glass of wine like Cersei Lannister in season 8 of game of thrones.

- I like Zero, she's a great addition, I hope we see more of her.
- The patch did it's job, it wasn't amazing due to the fact that we REALLY don't get to make a change in the 13th because lets be real here. Unless they somehow explained it, REAPERS would be completely retconned unless they changed how they functioned, so they shot themselves in the foot there. So story limbo it is forever most likely. But we're getting there and there's progress, good moments with characters from the 1st.

- ONLY WORRY I have is that the writers are leaning way too much on "Friendship and friends" trope. My top worry has always been that the writing becomes too anime tropey and just an off-set Hildibrand storyline. I don't mind a comedic nod here and there, but IM WATCHING. I remember puddingway absolutely ruining a moment in EW by just walking in. "People just died" -> Insert puddingway walking in pretending to be a zombie.

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Originally Posted by Oizen

I'm glad he got a satisfying ending rather than becoming a pointless chariciture puppet like all the other scions that repeat the same character beats every single story they're in.

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If only the present writing could understand this concept, of allowing for satisfying endings via character death/sacrifice rather than letting characters stay on far too long after their expiration date. Now all we have left is a cast that is way too preachy to put up with, and another expansion more of them.

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

First of all, I enjoyed the patch story more than some parts of the main MSQ in 6.0. Mainly due to Endwalker feeling like they crammed two expansions into one. Horrible pacing mixed in with some amazing story moments. I'll never forgive them for shafting Garlemald though, we could've had anything from a civil war arc there where we stand on the side of the populares (the more reasonable part.) maybe some Legions joining our cause and rebuilding Garlemald from that. But instead we get story leftover Zenos that I'm a 100% sure the devs didn't know what to do with napping on his chair with a glass of wine like Cersei Lannister in season 8 of game of thrones.

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Yeah, the story honestly peaked overall during the lead-up to ShB with the battle agains Garlemald and the ShB side content battling the weapons and Bozja. So really saddened that they opted to cut that plot line in favor of finishing the Ascian story.

Though at the same time, the remaining few Garlean legions aren't completely done so they might pop up as new city-states late on.

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Originally Posted by Hallarem

- The patch did it's job, it wasn't amazing due to the fact that we REALLY don't get to make a change in the 13th because lets be real here. Unless they somehow explained it, REAPERS would be completely retconned unless they changed how they functioned, so they shot themselves in the foot there. So story limbo it is forever most likely. But we're getting there and there's progress, good moments with characters from the 1st.

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Not to mention that it would be dumb to have us figure out how to fix the 13 so quickly when the ascians couldn't do it. Least not until the scales were tipped in Zodiarks favor.

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Originally Posted by GrizzlyTank

Not to mention that it would be dumb to have us figure out how to fix the 13 so quickly when the ascians couldn't do it. Least not until the scales were tipped in Zodiarks favor.

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The one thing I liked about 6.5 was the fact they did not leave Gaia out of the MSQ here. I would’ve been mega disappointed if they completely forgot about her after her and Ryne made friends and kicked Mitron’s ass. I took the time to appreciate the patch for the nostalgia(because let’s be real: The Nostalgia is huge in this one, from the Baron theme in the Lunar Subterrane all the way to Zeromus).

My big problem stems from the fact that Zero’s progression was not very telling until the end because of her demeanor; most times when there’s character development, there’s something that happens to make them be that way or change. I know people got tired of the ‘milady’ hat tips, but it was used as Zero’s way of expressing her feelings I believe - what they should’ve done is take her monotone demeanor and grow out of it. Sure, they did by the end, but the whole change into a PLD was literally too on the nose. I get it, I really do; but I was expecting something more climactic than turn into PLD and overcoming darkness. They rushed her progress at the end to make everything fit.

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Originally Posted by HyperiusUltima

The one thing I liked about 6.5 was the fact they did not leave Gaia out of the MSQ here. I would’ve been mega disappointed if they completely forgot about her after her and Ryne made friends and kicked Mitron’s ass. I took the time to appreciate the patch for the nostalgia(because let’s be real: The Nostalgia is huge in this one, from the Baron theme in the Lunar Subterrane all the way to Zeromus).

My big problem stems from the fact that Zero’s progression was not very telling until the end because of her demeanor; most times when there’s character development, there’s something that happens to make them be that way or change. I know people got tired of the ‘milady’ hat tips, but it was used as Zero’s way of expressing her feelings I believe - what they should’ve done is take her monotone demeanor and grow out of it. Sure, they did by the end, but the whole change into a PLD was literally too on the nose. I get it, I really do; but I was expecting something more climactic than turn into PLD and overcoming darkness. They rushed her progress at the end to make everything fit.

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I don't think it was PLD, those are the weapons she has during the contramemoria war before she became a voidsent, no? Exactly why I wish we'd have Zero for longer, too juicy of a character to toss away after all that development, to see how she further develops.

I wished Unulkahai had been a more than sidenote though, a character actively trying to heal the 13th being just a sidenote mention is a bit of a miss from SE tbh. I hope they are saving it for ACTUAL voidcontent, but who knows.

While I totally understand the complaints, I do feel like people are way too hard on the patch MSQ imo. I think maybe its been caught in the crossfire of other more legitimate grievances about EW.

While it did drag a little, I think there’s a lot to like overall. For one I think Zero and Golbez are great characters and I found the latter to be another interesting villain. Another thing I enjoyed is that it felt like a mini void expansion, and it drives this home by going the extra l miles with small areas you can explore in the 13th.

It also doesn’t really feel like filler to me since the void has been an often touched on but never fully resolved part of the world for a while now. Also it has a lot of fun small moments like Y’shtola’s magical girl scene

Not perfect by any means but it’s not the “garbage” people make it out to me. Even Shadowbringers had pacing issues during the patches

Not much to say other than the 6.x stuff bored me enough to skip cutscene for the first time in the MSQ. For whatever reason I just never connected with the story or the characters and I am just glad it's over so hopefully we can move onto something completely new with DT.

No Cecil, Rosa, Kain, Edge, or Rydia but all of the major villains ((spoilerish)) sorta and a main character that screams "Original character do not steal!" The dialogue was atrocious and Zero gets shoved into every scene as suddenly everyone's best friend. She does at least get her face kicked in a few times and have to grow from it which I do appreciate.

But that didn't start here. It started at the end of Stormblood then got worse in Shadowbringers before really ramping it up in Endwalker. Whoever took over writing completely sidelined everything up to Shadowbringers and mostly ignored it in favor of the story they wanted to tell and the narrative has suffered for it.

That being said, I would FAR rather go on adventures in the 13th as opposed to going off on Happy Trails.

Myths of the Realm's was horrific. It was like? What's even the point. Lol. Sigh. Like, what was the reason for that. It was getting all exciting, and then THAT'S what they did????? THAT'S what they did!??!? And now we're back to tired boring same old scions. That's it. Just focus back to yshtola everyone!!!! Really sick of the main cast now, at this point every patch I'm praying for them all to die. Very tired of them finding ways to keep forcing the main characters to remain the main characters at all costs. Don't you dare like anyone else!! Get BACK to aw'ing at tataru!!!

I'm really curious when some of you started playing, because MSQ interlude patches have always been at this level to me. It feels like par for the course.

SB: Black rose, black rose, more black rose teasing for months that ultimately amounts to nothing because Zenos deals with it offscreen.
SHB: Boring logistics busywork to do with getting Eulmore standing on its own two feet again, painfully slow soul vessel research.
As for HW, I actually started playing in gordias but its been so long I honestly cannot remember what happened during those patches. Whatever happened it didn't stick in my mind.

The only interlude patch that has ever had anywhere close to expansion launch hype was 5.3. That was the Seat of Sacrifice trial, as well as the scions and G'raha finally returning to the source. Not every patch is fortunate enough to host that kind of payoff, and serve as the actual MSQ epilogue like that. Endwalker wrapped everything up in 6.0 and had to start fresh from there.

I feel like a lot of people joined after Shadowbringers (I can see your join date) and got to binge two great MSQs and all the 5.x content at one go, and now have to deal with what a normal patch story cadence is like. I mean, it's not a bad thing to have high expectations, but it's going to be very hard to top that.

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Originally Posted by Myon88

I'm really curious when some of you started playing, because MSQ interlude patches have always been at this level to me. It feels like par for the course.

SB: Black rose, black rose, more black rose teasing for months that ultimately amounts to nothing because Zenos deals with it offscreen.
SHB: Boring logistics busywork to do with getting Eulmore standing on its own two feet again, painfully slow soul vessel research.
As for HW, I actually started playing in gordias but its been so long I honestly cannot remember what happened during those patches. Whatever happened it didn't stick in my mind.

The only interlude patch that has ever had anywhere close to expansion launch hype was 5.3. That was the Seat of Sacrifice trial, as well as the scions and G'raha finally returning to the source. Not every patch is fortunate enough to serve as the actual MSQ epilogue like that. Endwalker wrapped everything up in 6.0 and had to start fresh from there.

I feel like a lot of people joined after Shadowbringers (I can see your join date) and got to binge two MSQs and all the 5.x content at one go, and now have to deal with what a normal patch story cadence is like. I mean, it's not a bad thing to have high expectations, but it's going to be very hard to top that.

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I've been playing since 2.4 and it's definitely the worst it's been. It's worse this time because of a number of factors, imo. We have no exploratory zone. We have no relic grind. We have no sub stories or major plot points to ruminate on. No build up, nothing to look forward to. We had no trial story separate from msq that would allow for some variation in story that wasn't the same "I wanna manifest in this world and die" plot that BOTH of the storylines we got this patch featured. There are way fewer dungeons recently and while yeah zzz dungeons big deal, but I'm really missing the lack of variety. People are bored of the 2 minute meta. IS is solitary and unimpactful and the only reason I'm doing it is for the glam rewards NOT the content itself in any way shape or form. Criterion dungeons are not incentivized enough, are hard enough that they require the same amount of coordination and interpersonal planning as a savage but with no rewards. Not to mention the savage mode having stupid arbitrary healing limitations and identical mechanics to criterion. The loot system is garbage.

Sure every patch has suffered from one or two of these missteps and plenty of their own but it's just been a constant barrage of compromises and half-baked ideas. and to top it all off we saw the imo underwhelming conclusion of 2 storylines that set nothing up, demystified and narrowed the world building that the game has spent 10 years establishing. It's very dispiriting.

Well, I have my own opinion on the other game systems too, but I won't share as it isn't relevant to the 6.x story. I'm just saying patch stories have always been this whelming to me, not great not terrible.

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Originally Posted by Myon88

Well, I have my own opinion on the other game systems too, but I won't share as it isn't relevant to the 6.x story. I'm just saying patch stories have always been this whelming to me, not great not terrible.

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yeah I kinda nestled the aspects I had with the story/presentation along with everything else because it felt good to reel it off XD but I also feel it's necessary to kinda include all the factors for why people would be less tolerant of a weaker storyline than usual. If everything else was satisfying the lower impact story wouldn't be so egregious. But the point I made about the 2 storylines we got this patch being quite similar and how it has stymied the worldbuilding at large still stands XD Also HW into SB storyline introduced the warriors of darkness, they beat up a bunch of primals and then minfillia disappears.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Myon88

I'm really curious when some of you started playing, because MSQ interlude patches have always been at this level to me. It feels like par for the course.

SB: Black rose, black rose, more black rose teasing for months that ultimately amounts to nothing because Zenos deals with it offscreen.
SHB: Boring logistics busywork to do with getting Eulmore standing on its own two feet again, painfully slow soul vessel research.
As for HW, I actually started playing in gordias but its been so long I honestly cannot remember what happened during those patches. Whatever happened it didn't stick in my mind.

The only interlude patch that has ever had anywhere close to expansion launch hype was 5.3. That was the Seat of Sacrifice trial, as well as the scions and G'raha finally returning to the source. Not every patch is fortunate enough to host that kind of payoff, and serve as the actual MSQ epilogue like that. Endwalker wrapped everything up in 6.0 and had to start fresh from there.

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I started playing in the ARR open beta back in 2013, just never bothered joining the forums until SB.

As for the individual post patch stuff, as an example I think SB actually had the best for me. It was focused on the politics of Doma and Garlemald, Eorzea and Garlemald, as well as Garlemald's internal politics which I liked. It had the conclusion to the Yotsuyu story, the return of Zenos, and we meet Emet Selch and learned more about the Ascians. It gave us Gaius and his hunt of the Ascians and also started the soul sucking of the Scions to the first so we were figuring out what was even going on with them.

Obviously it's all a personal opinion and I am just a fan of what SB did in the post patch story.