Final Fantasy XIV Hot Takes

I don't enjoy how events with Zodiark played out, and having to fight Hydaelyn.

I've been of the mind that we would've been better served by Zodiark being a much bigger threat than he was in the end. In fact I'd have preferred it if Hydaeyln's 'test' was NOT us having to fight her, but her observing how we'd fare fighting the actual Zodiark.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I don't enjoy how events with Zodiark played out, and having to fight Hydaelyn.

I've been of the mind that we would've been better served by Zodiark being a much bigger threat than he was in the end. In fact I'd have preferred it if Hydaeyln's 'test' was NOT us having to fight her, but her observing how we'd fare fighting the actual Zodiark.

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That didn't just bother you. Zodiark had been slowly built up for like 9 years only to get stomped in 10 minutes like he's some minor antagonist for a small zone story, to then be replaced by even bigger bad that gets pulled out of a magic hat. Sure it subverted my expectations, doesn't make it good though.

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Originally Posted by Disappoint

Stormblood gets overhated by people who only care about story, and most Heavensward/ARR jobs played like garbage, with MCH being the one major exception.

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Ever since around the middle of Shadowbringers I've had the opinion that Stormblood was the best expansion we ever got and probably will get. The MSQ was pretty bad until around 4.3 but the MSQ took up maybe 5% of my playtime and the actual pve gameplay experience was great.

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Originally Posted by Soge01

Did you just assume my gender!? Lol, I'm a man, good sir. xD

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Nooooooooo??????? Sister????? No sister?????

https://media.tenor.com/925LDfyVUGEAAAAi/cute-sad.gif

A lot of the RMT community / pay to access and pay to social (based on faux relationship, or parasocial relationship based only in profit of any kind), is very intertwinned and "discreetly" diffused in several discord to have their hands in a lot of the aspects of the game. What is even sadder is that after a while, you notice they are very well in bed with a lot of discord's moderation if not admins, having a way too large dominance spectrum over the game.

It is even more disappointing to discover and realize that a lot of theses types of person that are the type of individuals that would even ask their ill bed ridden mom or dad well over 60, a buck every time they would ask to bring them a glass of water, are allowed to even run some of these things.

Not a lot want to discuss the reality of these things, when you do, you are isolated and harassed / stalked in game, in most of your activities, if you are not part of the "cool gang" of harassers and rmt trollers and the right discord places that only know to speak in twitch type langage, you are not "kewl" kek and a target.

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Originally Posted by SassyAssassin

Nooooooooo??????? Sister????? No sister?????

https://media.tenor.com/925LDfyVUGEAAAAi/cute-sad.gif

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*Bites your legs*

How DARE you! I shall be tweeting this to your manager and demanding an apology posthaste, REEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I don't enjoy how events with Zodiark played out, and having to fight Hydaelyn.

I've been of the mind that we would've been better served by Zodiark being a much bigger threat than he was in the end. In fact I'd have preferred it if Hydaeyln's 'test' was NOT us having to fight her, but her observing how we'd fare fighting the actual Zodiark.

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Sometimes I have to remind myself that the most anticipated and long-awaited encounter in the game, with supposedly the most ancient and powerful being in-universe, wound up as the early game level X3 trial against a soulless puppet the sidekick villain introduced one (1) expansion ago put on as easily as you would a pair of socks before being obliterated and becoming irrelevant entirely, and I feel very tired.

After EW, FFXIV should have just rebranded to a Visual Romance Novel given how absolutely unwilling they are to threaten any of the main cast at all. Actually scratch that, even VNs do character threats better.

Remember when the Final Days begun and the only people threatened were nameless one-offs or NPCs we only knew for the expansion, and explicitly in a relatively tiny area of the star full of people we just met and have no attachment to? I sure did love watching generic father figure's nameless son die while we stood there doing nothing, allowing the Satrap Whats-his-name get eaten very very slowly. I sure did love all the main cast being whisked away in Ultima Thule as if they weren't being re-summoned in literally less than an hour more of gameplay. I love <same character> so much, guys.

Just kill Yshtola or something already. Graha should have died after Elidibus. There's no reason that Thancred shouldn't have been permadeaded going to Ultima Thule to save everyone else. I'm sick of this "we can solve everything without consequence while everyone else in the universe suffers consequences" approach. Shadowbringers was peak FFXIV, and it's falling downhill *fast.*

I know that a tree can't really be blamed for not having any sense of empathy, but I felt that the Guardian Tree treated that former Pajal child way too harshly in the Endwalker Tank Quest and I don't blame that same kid, now an adult, for becoming a Blasphemy and trying to destroy the dang thing. If he was eventually forgiven and at least given a secons chance to serve the Twelveswood again as something else, then maybe his wife would have lived and he would never have given into despair.

All in all, The Guardian Tree is a dick and deserved the karma it almost received.

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Originally Posted by Soge01

I know that a tree can't really be blamed for not having any sense of empathy, but I felt that the Guardian Tree treated that former Pajal child way too harshly in the Endwalker Tank Quest and I don't blame that same kid, now an adult, for becoming a Blasphemy and trying to destroy the dang thing. If he was eventually forgiven and at least given a secons chance to serve the Twelveswood again as something else, then maybe his wife would have lived and he would never have given into despair.

All in all, The Guardian Tree is a dick and deserved the karma it almost received.

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Speaking of this quest, the fact that they NEVER gave a name to the guard following Kann-E since the first expansion really bothers me. Come on, this guard has been there since forever !

bump, I want to see more hot takes!

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Originally Posted by Jkap_Goat

bump, I want to see more hot takes!

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Then post one yourself.

Arenvald's character arc in EW's Healer role questline was really lame. ｡゜(+｀Д´)゜｡
Let my boy use magic or a gun! The whole stuck in a wheelchair and feeling useless troupe makes no sense in a world where people can battle with magic and magitek.
They let Gosetsu become a healer after retiring as a samurai due to old age, why not let Arenvald DPS or Healer?
They couldn't even be bothered to animate his wheelchair; he could only move via scene transition.
I get it's suppose to be a story of Arenvald learning self efficacy off the battlefield and to act as a foil to Fordola but it was really bland and paint-by-numbers.

Haurchefant was boring and forgettable, and Estinien's association with the Scions has caused him to become boring as well.
Alisaie's obvious attraction to the Warrior of Light is extremely creepy.
Alphinaud and Thancred should've died in Ultima Thule.
Venat should've been held responsible for her crimes.
The ancients deserved a better outcome.
Minifilia sucked as a character.
Y'sthola needs to stfu.

Also, wtf happened to that business with Y'shtola using up her life so she could see? Seems to have just vanished into the aether at this point. Really needs to be touched on again. We know they'll never kill her off, but the least they could do is have the constant drain of her spiritual aether render her unfit for battle or something so we're not subjected to her as often.

Nobody who hates on the Scions actually hates them. They are just starved for a Character Death, especially with a Main Cast Member.
.....and Yshtola's many Fakeouts.

Calling Graha or even Alisaie creepy makes no sense, I wonder if people are just not used to, or never have been cared about by a friend or others.

Estinien is hated for the same Reason Kratos is on the New God of War games.....he has a personality now that hes grown older and wiser, and he is no longer Edgy.
Which I think is a good thing, because Rawr Edgy boy gets old very quick.
Him staying an edgy guy wouldnt have kept him interesting

People that organize hunt trains need to quit acting so entitled. No one has a "right" to any hunt. They aren't something a player or group of players can own.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

Nobody who hates on the Scions actually hates them. They are just starved for a Character Death, especially with a Main Cast Member.
.....and Yshtola's many Fakeouts.

Calling Graha or even Alisaie creepy makes no sense, I wonder if people are just not used to, or never have been cared about by a friend or others.

Estinien is hated for the same Reason Kratos is on the New God of War games.....he has a personality now that hes grown older and wiser, and he is no longer Edgy.
Which I think is a good thing, because Rawr Edgy boy gets old very quick.
Him staying an edgy guy wouldnt have kept him interesting

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You're really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread? Aight. Here you go.

Joke's on you. I really do hate the Scions. Especially Alphinaud and Tataru.
If you think an underage girl being so openly interested in a character that is very clearly an adult (and not even a young adult, considering how much time has passed) isn't creepy, I don't know what to tell you.
People like the new Kratos. What Estinien has going on now is not personality. It's the equivalent of being domesticated. The character just exists in the background, its entire personality replaced with "hurr hurr greater good." Estinien has zero depth. Kratos, on the other hand, transitioned from having little depth to having an incredible amount of it. The two characters aren't remotely similar in any way.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

Nobody who hates on the Scions actually hates them

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No I'm pretty sure I hate them. Character death wouldn't increase my appreciation of any of them, but at least they would be gone.
My hot take is that the Scions are the worst main cast out of any Final Fantasy I've played (which is all of them since IV).
Shadowbringers almost salvaged them by giving them a good amount of focus and individual character arcs, then EW regressed them all to a boring, amorphous mass of single character traits. Where all they do is preach the themes of the story and smile blankly at everything the WoL do.
Krile is the worst of them, she has so little character being used as a sock puppet by Hydaelyn doesn't even faze her. She creeps me out.

EDIT: (By the way the direction of Kratos is the one thing I like the most about new God of War, so it's not all about edge. Like Absimiliard said he's a really compelling character now, which is definitely not something I could say of any of the Scions)

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

My hot take is that the Scions are the worst main cast out of any Final Fantasy I've played (which is all of them since IV).

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Wait, the truth can be a hot take? Huh.

My MSQ hot take is that it's pretty good.

Like, it's not incredible, Hugo award winning, like a lot of twitter would have you think, but it's not a plot hole ridden, inconsistent narrative like the forums love to discuss.

It's just "pretty good" and "kinda fun".

If you want more, or expect more, you're playing the wrong game.

I don't "hate" the Scions but they've overstayed their welcome for the story. ¯\_( ◉ 3 ◉ )_/¯
Y'shtola in particular due to the lack of consequences to her actions and all the fake outs.

Is it wrong that when we started the 6.1 storyline, I thought/hoped she was going to be tempted into join Golbez? To me, they were characterizing her as someone who was starved for knowledge (use finding her sleeping in a pile of books in Old Sharlayan, her essentially pressing the charge into the void, and her having to resist the urge to go crazy in the restricted section in the library) and being willing to do anything to pursuit it and her goals (again, her pressing the charge into the void, even against Vtra's obvious unease to do so, plus humiliating herself with that froth and foam spell). It would have made her this game's version of Kain from IV, which would have been interesting to see how Estinien, this games literal Kain-clone, would reacted and interacted with her.
。+゜(*´>w<｀*)。+゜

Zero is quiet, stoic and aloof
Y'shtola is quiet, stoic and aloof
Estinien is quiet, stoic and aloof
Golbez is quiet, stoic and aloof
Vrtra is ...less quiet, stoic and aloof but still is

Why exactly should I care about anything when apparently not even the main npcs seem to care much either? If I had to describe how I feel about the current MSQ, it'd be the 'pretends to be shocked' memes

https://media.tenor.com/W487-i9HOqkA...astic-kirk.gif

PS: I'm far more invested in the alliance raid story

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Originally Posted by Mimilu

Is it wrong that when we started the 6.1 storyline, I thought/hoped she was going to be tempted into join Golbez?

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I would even take this instead of what we got. I'm so starved for anything new with this damn cast.
The Scions are nothing more than exposition enablers and ego boosters for narcissists at this point. If you're too scared of hurting the popularity of the story by getting rid of them at least do something with their characters!

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

People that organize hunt trains need to quit acting so entitled. No one has a "right" to any hunt. They aren't something a player or group of players can own.

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From my experience running trains (conducted near 100 trains on Lamia), the conductors and scouters are not the people your complaining about. The majority of those who organize trains want the most people as possible to come along (trains are advertised everywhere).
The ones who are entitled are actually hunters who don't spawn or do any trains themselves.
There may be some bad apples running some on some servers but overall, your stance is targetting the wrong people.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

You're really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread? Aight. Here you go.

Joke's on you. I really do hate the Scions. Especially Alphinaud and Tataru.
If you think an underage girl being so openly interested in a character that is very clearly an adult (and not even a young adult, considering how much time has passed) isn't creepy, I don't know what to tell you.
People like the new Kratos. What Estinien has going on now is not personality. It's the equivalent of being domesticated. The character just exists in the background, its entire personality replaced with "hurr hurr greater good." Estinien has zero depth. Kratos, on the other hand, transitioned from having little depth to having an incredible amount of it. The two characters aren't remotely similar in any way.

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Lol what defense Force? Its a Hot Take, Calm Down Buddy. People are always so ready to fight XD
And, its not like she is trying to date you or sleep with you, caring about someone isn't the same thing. So calling her creepy still makes no sense.
I disagree that Estinien is Domesticated, I think he's just Matured, and he has other things going on then "I AM VENGEANCE, DESTROY DRAGONS" same with Kraotos, who became a Family Guy. I think Both Evolutions and Maturity of the characters is good.
But lol, the hate on both characters is pretty small anyway, but from what Ive seen on critiques on them (If you are familiar with QuantumTV for example) people hate on New Kratos and I think with Estinien, because they are no longer edgy Single-minded meathead Killing Machines. (Maybe not Estinien but I digress)

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Originally Posted by Kazhar

No I'm pretty sure I hate them. Character death wouldn't increase my appreciation of any of them, but at least they would be gone.
My hot take is that the Scions are the worst main cast out of any Final Fantasy I've played (which is all of them since IV).
Shadowbringers almost salvaged them by giving them a good amount of focus and individual character arcs, then EW regressed them all to a boring, amorphous mass of single character traits. Where all they do is preach the themes of the story and smile blankly at everything the WoL do.
Krile is the worst of them, she has so little character being used as a sock puppet by Hydaelyn doesn't even faze her. She creeps me out.

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Hey, Ill agree that none of the Scions are really 'compelling' anymore, they went through their arcs, yeah Ill agree. But I dont think there is any reason to hate them or wish them dead (Except Yshtola, but thats only because she's had...what, 3 fakeouts? Either commit or dont waste our time)
And of course, I strongly Disagree about them being the Worse. For me that would be FFXIII, eh maybe possibly XII. But its all subjective. I like the Scions because they are a Group that universally agrees, and get shit done. I like that personally. But thats me.I didnt personally find most of the characters interesting in the other named games.
(Except Snow and Balthier)

Again Ill agree on Kryle, she has nothing going on. I hope that changes. Im sure there is more interesting things with her, but they have yet to do anything with her.
Urianger started out the same, so I believe she CAN still be improved later.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Wait, the truth can be a hot take? Huh.

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It is?....so is agreeing a Hot Take as well?
XD

All of these white-haired characters, and not a single one is 50+.

We need more bad ass old people.

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Originally Posted by ronibosch

All of these white-haired characters, and not a single one is 50+.

We need more bad ass old people.

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Yeah, the RPR questline was pretty sweet. Though the RPR questgiver just acts like the old lady from the Dwarf crafting questline if she had a job stone, lol.

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Originally Posted by Zanarkand-Ronso

Calm Down Buddy. People are always so ready to fight XD

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You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

I don't hate the Scions, but in any story keeping characters in the main cast just for sake of keeping them is plain terrible. Estinien joining for Endwalker, that I didn't mind since Endwalker was meant to be the culmination of (retconned) 1.0+ MSQ, but since then he hasn't had much done other than training some people off-screen? His development is pretty much done. We know he's matured by now. And they don't even bother to give more nods to his foster big brother relationship with Alphinaud anymore since it's not needed, after all Alphinaud also matured and also wrapped up his own character arc after going Sage and his relationship with his father got better.
Thancred was another one that was basically along for the ride in Endwalker. His arc was centered around his sense of guilt and need of atonement for Minfilia, which wrapped up after he was able to let Ryne go in ShB.

I don't know how long they're gonna keep rehashing the same "arcs" for Urianger and Alisaie, but it's gotten as old as Y'shtola's fakeouts. Urianger never has much of a development going for him beyond being a keeper of secrets for the expansion then apologizing for it. The only exception was the meeting with Moenbryda's parents, which was quite rushed and anticlimatic anyway, like the writers had that in their checklist of things to do before the finale but it ended up being limited to 5 minutes of the MSQ.
Alisaie's arcs have been a repeat of "Look how strong and independent I am! Oh no maybe I'm not strong enough :( . NEVERMIND I'm totally fine now!!" every time she has one. Whether she stays or not I guess it doesn't matter.
Y'shtola, the one that gets shat on the most, is, ironically, one of the few Scions that has an unresolved arc.
G'raha doesn't really have any real unresolved arc, but he has the excuse of not having gone on a real adventure with the WoL like he's been wishing for yet. I say this because Endwalker felt more like a series of organized operations by the Doomsday Prevention Squad than an adventure.

So yes, I do firmly believe Thancred, Alphinaud, Estinien and even Urianger shouldn't be in the MSQ active party anymore. Possibly Alisaie as well. But they'd never push that many to the sidelines, if any of them. And I like most of those characters, while I really wouldn't shed a single tear if the two nekos perished somewhere, I aknowledge they're the only ones that absolutely have solid reasons to stay other than being marketable.

One of my favorite things about the first half of Heavensward is how the group we were traveling with cooperated for a common goal but had internal conflict regarding the means and their beliefs (and I include Alphinaud in this, well intentioned as he was). That's VASTLY more interesting than a cast of 7~8 characters that immediately agree on everything like a hivemind and at best argue for comic relief sake. Zero was almost offering something like that, but the current writing direction has less nuance than an MCU movie, and she's quickly converted into being another upstanding member of the r/Scions.

How boring.

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Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

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Aggression? I though he was just getting Excited because he said I was ""really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread""
But....
https://media.tenor.com/BY6ybMD548sA...what-dunno.gif

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Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

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Well he did start with "You're really gonna do the SE defense force thing in a hot take thread?" So yes, it was aggressive. Had he NOT put that line, I don't think one could interpret his post as aggression.

Tis not the first time someone has interpreted something I said as aggression, and I'm sure it won't be the last. S'no skin off my nose.

Anywho, another hot take:
Krile should've been sacrificed to take down Eureka. Her continued presence has added nothing of value to the story.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Tis not the first time someone has interpreted something I said as aggression, and I'm sure it won't be the last. S'no skin off my nose.

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Crazy anyone would, now that you wear a helmet to hide the angry looking man face, before it was understandable, but not now, not like this.

Lalafells shouldn't be a playable race in this game.

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Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

You're construing his dissenting opinion as aggression?... Lmao

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Thing i noticed about very diehard FF fans is they get defensive over negative opinions of the game and they take it personally so yes, they will see it as aggression.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Tis not the first time someone has interpreted something I said as aggression, and I'm sure it won't be the last. S'no skin off my nose.

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Wow that's very patient of you. I guess one needs a lot of it to actively participate on these forums.

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Originally Posted by PeaTearGriffin

Lalafells shouldn't be a playable race in this game.

Thing i noticed about very diehard FF fans is they get defensive over negative opinions of the game and they take it personally so yes, they will see it as aggression.

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That's very true. People who are very invested in this game do take criticism of the game quite personally and will see it as an insult.

Also, what have you against the Lalafells?

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Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

what have you against the Lalafells?

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Maybe the fact they're allegedly adults and Totally-Not-Toddlers™ but a large portion of Lalafell players and the game itself infantilize the hell out of them. Tataru is like 22, not 6, she's not 'kawaii'

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Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

Also, what have you against the Lalafells?

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Maybe the fact they're allegedly adults and Totally-Not-Toddlers™ but a large portion of Lalafell players and the game itself infantilize the hell out of them. Tataru is like 22, not 6, she's not 'kawaii'

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Players advertise their nightclubs and venues with lalafell ERP in PF. It doesnt say it in the pf description but if you go to the advertised websites and their discords theres a lot of this going on. If anybody sees something like this report it immediately.

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Originally Posted by kpxmanifesto

Wow that's very patient of you. I guess one needs a lot of it to actively participate on these forums.
That's very true. People who are very invested in this game do take criticism of the game quite personally and will see it as an insult.

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Originally Posted by PeaTearGriffin

Thing i noticed about very diehard FF fans is they get defensive over negative opinions of the game and they take it personally so yes, they will see it as aggression.

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I didn't even take it as Aggression, nor did I get defensive
https://i.giphy.com/media/14smAwp2uHM3Di/giphy.webp

Matter of fact I agree with alot of what was said.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Anywho, another hot take:
Krile should've been sacrificed to take down Eureka. Her continued presence has added nothing of value to the story.

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Im 50/50 on this. I believe that if a character isn't killed off, then they still serve a purpose, or the author has a different end planned for them.
Like Paplymo.....

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Originally Posted by Allegor

Maybe the fact they're allegedly adults and Totally-Not-Toddlers™ but a large portion of Lalafell players and the game itself infantilize the hell out of them. Tataru is like 22, not 6, she's not 'kawaii'

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Kawaii is simply "cute". An adult can be cute too you know.

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Originally Posted by Absimiliard

Also, wtf happened to that business with Y'shtola using up her life so she could see? Seems to have just vanished into the aether at this point. Really needs to be touched on again. We know they'll never kill her off, but the least they could do is have the constant drain of her spiritual aether render her unfit for battle or something so we're not subjected to her as often.

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To be fair, it was said that it would shorten her life, but that would require the story actually noting the passage of time more than once every other blue moon or so.

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Originally Posted by Thurmnmurmn

Kawaii is simply "cute". An adult can be cute too you know.

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An grown adult acting like a first grader is most definitely not cute, it's creepy

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Originally Posted by Allegor

An grown adult acting like a first grader is most definitely not cute, it's creepy

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you could at least stir the pot with something brutal like lalafells players are like loli lovers just pedos in disguise
y'all trollers are so cowardly in ff always beat around the bush