7.1 - More Wuk Lamat

Looking at the messages from the beginning of this thread after playing through 7.1. As I expected, the panic ended up being for nothing. The devs listened to player feedback and she doesn't take up as much of the spotlight in the patch storyline. Then again, knowing the forums, I expect that a lot of people here aren't going to be satisfied unless she's removed from the story entirely (which obviously isn't happening since she's a major character in this expansion). In any case, I'm glad that the devs are taking feedback to heart without caving to the people arguing in bad faith.

Wuk Lamat wasn't the issue in this patch even if absolutely no change came to how her character was written (which is a negative by the way), but as I just mentioned, she isn't the main issue at all and is just being used at a scapegoat at this point, even if I also do flinch a little every time she's mentioned or appears on screen as I know associate her character with the huge decline in the quality of writing.

The funeral came off as emotionless, detached and awkward. Both Koana and Gulool Ja having completely unbelievable and poorly fleshed out backstories that also came off as simultaneously forced and uninteresting really did not sit well with me, especially the whole Zoraal Ja and Gulool Mommy thing, it was just handled in such a catastrophically poor manner.
A lot of people give X.1 patches flak for being uninteresting, but I genuinely enjoyed 3.1, 4.1, 5.1 and even 6.1 (even for its uneventful simplicity until the rest of the EW patch quests ended up terrible), I can sit through the political babble and wrapping up loose ends from the main story, but THIS, oh this was just both irrelevant and botched.

The only thing I can give this patch is that the last few minutes have an interesting set up, whereas the game and level design team did a great job on the atmosphere, setting and boss designs of the dungeon, but the WRITING is probably the worst I've ever had the displeasure of sitting through for all the time I've played FFXIV, and that's not a good sign when it was the writing and storytelling that attracted so many players to this game in the first place.

I am not finished the 7.1 msq yet, but since someone mentioned that there are 7 quests this time, I guess I have one quest to go.

Like Yoshihara above, I also flinched and frowned the moment Wuk appeared - and yes because seeing her I fully expect to be annoyed. I'm pretty sure even my character didn't look all that delighted to see her either. Her entrance as usual is jarring and out of nowhere. I honestly cared more about the conversation the NPCs were having.

I do like that they toned down how irritating she was in 7.0 - so far she hasn't acted like a complete buffoon or said anything truly stupid. She has been in every quest so far, so nothing has changed there. So far there has been only 1 scene with any voice acting - so much for the argument about all the voice acting they would need to work on lol.

I agree the funeral wasn't very moving at all - especially with the speech given by some new NPC we never met or have any attachment to.

I did enjoy the dungeon - it was creepy and I like that type of setting. I am interested in where they are going with this is how they end up introducing the beastmaster class. Added bonus - with Graha also available, I got to leave Wuk behind. Why a child travelled with us rather than staying behind off screen with Wuk - I have no idea.

As a catguy I did personally enjoy the quest involving Koana learning about the tribe his parents came from - but that would be mostly because I could see my own character being a part of a similar tribe rather than the tasks being that interesting.

Hopefully the remaining quest or two is decent.

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Originally Posted by MediocreIndigo

Looking at the messages from the beginning of this thread after playing through 7.1. As I expected, the panic ended up being for nothing. The devs listened to player feedback and she doesn't take up as much of the spotlight in the patch storyline. Then again, knowing the forums, I expect that a lot of people here aren't going to be satisfied unless she's removed from the story entirely (which obviously isn't happening since she's a major character in this expansion). In any case, I'm glad that the devs are taking feedback to heart without caving to the people arguing in bad faith.

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Make no mistake, even if I thought the patch-msq was fine, I have not forgiven the main-story.
I'm still very much in the "writers need to be replaced asap"-camp and I will sign any petition to get rid of them and Wuk Lamat.

Also, the patches up until 7.3 are already written, so this was not a result of feedback, but alas, no reason to forgive anything.

They seem to think that because a few people agree with their strongly worded opinion in the game forum, everyone agrees with them. Just put them on a throne at Square Enix headquarters so they can tell Yoshi P and the gang how it ought to be done.

Im just gonna throw it out there that the VA for Vrtra/Varshahn didnt get flak in the forums because they did an actual good job.

Anyone trying to downplay how offensive Wuk's accent in the english VA sounds, seriously needs to reconsider if borderline racism is okay for them

For the record, im Latino too, and I switched the voices to JP starting from 7.1 and it will stay like that untill Wuk is gone from MSQ, and the JP VA does a really good job

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Originally Posted by Fivefold

They seem to think that because a few people agree with their strongly worded opinion in the game forum, everyone agrees with them. Just put them on a throne at Square Enix headquarters so they can tell Yoshi P and the gang how it ought to be done.

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And some ppl will look at a dwindling population, the lowest ratings ever, actual valid criticisms both on the forums and off of it (even reddit, which by itself is telling) and seem to think that everyone else is the problem and that their precious is perfect in every way as they try to keep the people actively causing these problems, who are curently telling us how it ought to be done, on the throne. Not knowing that their stalwart defense of the many obvious flaws of a product is actually helping to slowly dismantle the thing they claim to love so very much. Remember this little bit of wisdom: if you hug something too tightly, even though it's because you love it, you're going to kill it.

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Originally Posted by Fivefold

They seem to think that because a few people agree with their strongly worded opinion in the game forum, everyone agrees with them. Just put them on a throne at Square Enix headquarters so they can tell Yoshi P and the gang how it ought to be done.

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It's not just a few people. There were also polls where Wuk was among the least-liked characters even in Japan. It's failed writing all around.

If you think the above you haven't been paying attention. Which is fine - but it's wrong to draw conclusions it's just a few people here.

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Originally Posted by ZephyrMenodora

It's not just a few people. There were also polls where Wuk was among the least-liked characters even in Japan. It's failed writing all around.

If you think the above you haven't been paying attention. Which is fine - but it's wrong to draw conclusions it's just a few people here.

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Definitely not a good look when a character is being put front and center in a new expansion and the character can't even break into the Top 10 of the Japanese fan poll. I think even Wuk Evu took a Top 10 spot.

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Originally Posted by Barachim

Definitely not a good look when a character is being put front and center in a new expansion and the character can't even break into he Top 10 of the Japanese fan poll. I think even Wuk Evu took a Top 10 spot.

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It's pretty embarrassing. They really thought making her the lead, and by an overwhelming amount of screen time compared to everyone else, was going to result in her having way more fans than she actually does. They wrote her to have a very strong personality, it's just it's strong in ways most people find off-putting. Really missed the mark.

In 7.1 she seems to have lost a lot of that personality and she's becoming more of a flat character. I can't tell if that's really a win or not.