A recent fundamental problem with FFXIV

I want to be clear on this: I don't mind and actually quite enjoy all of the references to the Final Fantasy series in the game. I haven't play all of the previous games, but I've played enough to catch the references here and there and have looked up some others. Having enemies and various summons from the other games turned into Primals and making raids themed around them is great! It's only when the game starts directly lifting characters and plot beats from the old games that it starts to feel lazy and uninspired for me, like the 6.x patch series MSQ. Like I love FFX, it's very close to my heart, but I don't actually want Titus, Yuna, or any of the FFX cast (or renamed characters very obviously based on them) to show up in the main story, ever. It would feel lazy and pandering.

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Originally Posted by ROOTFayth

dunno about the ff7 part, FF7 rebirth is probably going to be GOTY for me, dawntrail is going to be disappointment of the year

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Maybe if you enjoy fanfiction-tier stories about timelines and dimensions and stupid shit like that.

Tbf the twelve stuff is uninteresting a pretty nothing , i don't think it was " sidelined" more so they had nothing for it and your quest effectively making it so they don't have to consider them when writing new content going forward. I feel the same about gridania not progressing as much as the other arr cities ( and tbh the expac cities too ). Its not being sidelined they have nothing for it , its a hold over from a different game made by different people and have no interest in it really.

I think it is a matter of how. There is a difference between having an in game reference to a previous title, or revisiting a theme. But it is another thing when it starts to feel as if the game is screaming at you, "Look, we have The Thing You Used To Like here in this expansion! Please like it for no better reason than that you nostalgically remember another game."

The Crystal Tower and a lot of other callbacks worked just fine on their own in FFXIV even if you didn't know the earlier titles, because they were well built-up and embedded in the lore of FFXIV itself.

Having Alexandria in Dawntrail gets more of a, "Why is this even here?" response from me. This isn't integrating one of my previous experiences, this is more like airdropping a tacky souvenir of one into a place where it doesn't even meaningfully connect to the game I am currently playing.

I for one was complaining even back in Ivalice raids - Just lifting entire characters and locations from Tactics/XII felt really off.

Crystal Tower worked a lot better because all the leg work they made making sure it made sense with Allag and the Void (and let's face it, III had a rudimentary enough plot it's a lot more easy to repurpose elements of it).

Still, the bottom line is that both were at the time side-content, not main story, with CT being elevated to MSQ only after they let it stew long enough and made sure it was ingrained in the lore of FF14 specifically. Not writing an original story that stands on its own before starting to lean in on the references is what is starting to grate me.

I don't mind past FF references if they're handled in a way that makes them organically fit into the setting and feel like their own thing.

The Crystal Tower raids were fine to me in that respect, but the Ivalice ones were not.

Unfortunately, the DT alliance raids are shaping up to be a case of the latter.

Now if they only pulled references from other games, like Starcraft!