Echoes of Vana'diel FFXI Alliance Raid

I just realized why I don't think I'm enjoying this raid storyline so far... It's the same reason why Endwalker's didn't vibe as well:

The pacing and the stakes.

DT and EW Alliance Raid storylines feel like as if I'm watching a long movie divided by commercials. The standalone chapters don't give me a sense of 'competion'... Let me think, what the 2 raids we have so far, in Echoes, actually mattered for? The first one to introduce Prishe, and that's all. We could just skip every other fight and stick to the story happening outside of the actual raids and it wouldn't change much. The Shadow Lord and the last boss of this one are cool, but they could be replaced by anything and it wouldn't matter. I didn't play FFXI, but I feel this is only happening to give some sort of fanservice rather than trying to make a solid storyline in all corners.

As far as I remember, the previous Alliance Raids, even Nier, each installment had some sort of major objective/happening tied to the last boss of the raid fights, and that made me much more invested in each 'episode'.

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Originally Posted by Raikai

I just realized why I don't think I'm enjoying this raid storyline so far... It's the same reason why Endwalker's didn't vibe as well:

The pacing and the stakes.

DT and EW Alliance Raid storylines feel like as if I'm watching a long movie divided by commercials. The standalone chapters don't give me a sense of 'competion'... Let me think, what the 2 raids we have so far, in Echoes, actually mattered for? The first one to introduce Prishe, and that's all. We could just skip every other fight and stick to the story happening outside of the actual raids and it wouldn't change much. The Shadow Lord and the last boss of this one are cool, but they could be replaced by anything and it wouldn't matter. I didn't play FFXI, but I feel this is only happening to give some sort of fanservice rather than trying to make a solid storyline in all corners.

As far as I remember, the previous Alliance Raids, even Nier, each installment had some sort of major objective/happening tied to the last boss of the raid fights, and that made me much more invested in each 'episode'.

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Yeah the current explanation is... Sareel Ja is... bored and trying to find a new vessel for Gulool Ja Ja? And he thinks that depending on which boss kills us, that'll be the one? And so he needs to recreate Lower Jeuno and other random adventurers? I dunno, the dude seems hopelessly out of his league and like his plan has gotten away from him. I was kinda hoping he'd die in part 2 and part 3 would have us pitted against the likes of Promathia or Eald'narche or Nag'molada or something. He's really not a compelling villain and his plan is kinda dumb. At this point I'd settle for Kupenreich.