Keep in mind FFIV originally came out in 1991.
I really dislike when the story beats are just copy pasted from another FF. No creativity.
Most of the narrative flaws stem from trying to fit a classic single-player FF story into a modern MMO. It didn't feel weird for things to be exaggerated, fast and convenient in a little storybook game with unrealistic pixel graphics like IV or V. Those kind of quick and neat hero stories are out of place in a big MMO world with realistic locations and a detailed history based largely on reality.
This WoL and their party just arrived and made a mockery of everyone's centuries of struggles and oppression. The established rules don't apply any more. Some wild theory they came up with 10 minutes ago just went perfectly in its first practical test, again, and they've now broken another previous limitation of science to save another planet or dimension or something, just in time to the beat of the patch drum.
I was interested in the more grounded Tanaka-era storytelling where you're a standard adventurer, more integrated into the world and subject to its rules. In that kind of environment, the little events become big by contrast to the usual fare. A Garlean general can be a big deal, it doesn't need to be a planet-eating colossal crab or something. And it just makes sense in the context of an MMO that every player is not the one legendary hero who protects all of time and space from calamity.
LOL. You didn't get April fooled, promised! And I also didn't exactly forget this thread! But real life happened and then I didn't manage to read much of the thread beyond what I did previously. And then I got into Eureka *ahem*. I will see if I can get back to reading the thread lol.
Yeah! It was actually pretty nice to not be a cosmic savior or whatever.
This may be why I liked Save the Queen a lot. Yes, you were the WoL...but you were also a soldier on a battlefield. You couldn't be everywhere, do everything, you felt like you were only rushing to do what you could. Outside of the idiot moment in CLL, there wasn't really any one gigantic thing we did by ourselves. The entire region itself made this clear with Duels, Fates, and Critical Engagements, as it was impossible to be everywhere. And in the end, you didn't bring a stop to the threat, you didn't save anything yourself. That's the kind of storytelling we need more in MSQ IMO, the kind where we feel like we're just having to do what we can and nothing more.
Sadly this is how the community treats the expansion where we aren't a glorified all good "hero" like in a show for toddlers:
https://64.media.tumblr.com/2fda2bfc...d4b9886560.jpg
This destroys almost all my hope i will enjoy any little bit of the 7.0 story