What happened SE?

Square has ever been the pinacle of storytelling and emotional rollercoaster throughout every game. I played all Final Fantasy I-XV and I got to say, I expected more from an MMO based on the game.

My main gripes are this....

1. storyline, there is no real "red thread" about this all, it is an endless amount of "go there, do this" and it does not connect togather in a good way.

2. emotional attachment. SE use to rule the world with the storytelling, Opera scene in FFVI ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgZXiHfNt0M ) and the ghost train, and this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLCE6xQEXoQ) it is awesomeness, and this is only a mere fraction of the events. In the MMO there is no such thing, there is an detachment between the hero and the storyline, there is no real emotional bond.

3. Voice acting. That is among the BEST ways to give a story life, need MORE voice acting. and FMV, Final Fantasy games use to be famous for their FMV.

I never expect much from a MMO storyline so I'm not disappointed on that aspect.
I still think you're a bit harsh with your critics about the story, because there is lot of story elements going on globally.
However unlike single player Final Fantasy games where it feels our character is at the center of story, in FF XIV regardless of the importance of the hero, it feels more like our character is just a guest or just a passing witness. The simplified cutscenes where our hero just basically nods or emote back does not help that feeling.

About the emotional attachment, yes I agree. But in single player FF games, you control and bond with your NPC teammates along the story. They're basically most of the time with you and story elements are strongly tied to your companions as well. There is no such thing in FF XIV because your teammates are simply other players. There is no NPC engaged with you beside during the limited cutscenes time, so there is no practical form of attachment to them.

Voice acting is really what I'm missing from the game. After being spoiled by other MMO with full voice over and deeper cutscenes such as SWTOR, I cannot stand anymore the pack of text bubbles throw at us during FF XIV cutscenes. While I initially did read every chat bubble during cutscenes when the game was just released, now I still watch the cutscenes but I skip every dialogue :p

As for why technically the game is not as deep and polished than a single player game, I think it's mostly due to time/cost constraint. Developping a game with a massive client-server architecture and multiplayer gameplay is a lot more complex than just developing a single player game.

About the emotional attachment, yes I agree. But in single player FF games, you control and bond with your NPC teammates along the story. They're basically most of the time with you and story elements are strongly tied to your companions as well. There is no such thing in FF XIV because your teammates are simply other players. There is no NPC engaged with you beside during the limited cutscenes time, so there is no practical form of attachment to them.

SWTOR, their system of companion works really well and you can still be in groups and team and it works excellently., thats just one example of having a sidekick.
True... I am most a solo player because i have had a LOT of guilds through my many years of MMOing and I got jaded, so many good friends gone from gaming etc
so I rather not trust or build such bonds again because it does hurt when a long time friend quits playing and you split.

Oh and in regards of voice acting, I think its because SE produces for the japanese as well as english speaking countries and it would not be cost effective to buy actors for both parts.

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Originally Posted by Jotunhammer

Oh and in regards of voice acting, I think its because SE produces for the japanese as well as english speaking countries and it would not be cost effective to buy actors for both parts.

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Japanese, English, German, French, Korean and Chinese

Those are just the ones I know of. But I believe they talked about extending it into middle and south America to which would add at minimum Spanish and Portuguese to the mix Having all that text for every little thing in the game is extensive enough, think about providing voice for all that as well.

As much as I would absolutely love voice acting for everything I would much rather see them add more wandering npc's into the game to make things feel more lively. In most games these days only crucial npcs are static, then there are tons wondering around doing their business, shopping or playing or just going for a stroll. Same with wildlife, there are no bugs or critters, just big things you kill. The world as it is seems really dead.

Coming from 1.0 they did tons then to create an emotional bond. My whole ls was on voice chat that last night and even the "manliest" of guys were crying when dalamud struck and we saw our precious world go up and Lou get enveloped by Bahamut's wrath. That did carry over for many of us come 2.0. Idk how it is now but I still have a soft spot for many npcs and was horrified when others kicked the bucket.

The fetch quests really do get tedious tho so I could see that breaking the emotion down a bit.

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Originally Posted by Jotunhammer

SWTOR, their system of companion works really well and you can still be in groups and team and it works excellently., thats just one example of having a sidekick.

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Yes, it's something SWTOR did well for the companions (I'm talking about the story attached ones, not the cash-shop ones). Not only SWTOR allows you to bring your companions (one at a time sadly :p) in open world but inside instances as well, and they are directly part of the story. Nothing as emotional as a classic FF SP game but still enough to have to enjoy their interaction and to bring them with you in battle.

I would have loved something similar in FF XIV.

My response...

1. FF14 definitely has a continuous meta story. It takes a while to come into focus but as the game progresses it becomes very apparent. I suspect that 2.0 was rather rushed and so was somewhat messy. After all they basically had to rebuild the game in the space of about 2 years and even then had a lot of limitations due to the systems they had to work with. Admittedly I am looking at this from the perspective of a lvl 60 character who is up to the latest MSQ. If your lvl 50 you have a much different perspective.

2. I would say events that play out from 2.55 up to now have quite a few very emotional moment. Case in point, there was a point in the HW story where I always knew someone had reached because they would inevitably type 'NOOOOOOOOO!!!!' In the FC chat. The DRK storyline was amazing. Again, you notice they didn't have much of a chance to do this in 2.0. In 3.X you spend a lot longer getting to know the people your working with.

3. They Voice act a lot of the MSQ cut scenes but it takes a lot of money to voice act large portions of the game and ambient dialog. The only way they could reasonably do this would either result in less story scenes or a higher sub. The first I wouldn't like and the second I think the majority of players wouldn't like. Beyond that there are system and AI limitations.

Are you upto Heavensward, OP? That's where the story telling gets really good and is on par with the single player games. (but then drops the ball after you defeat the last boss) but what's good or not is subjective and despite saying that I still think XIV is weakest entry in the series slightly beating FFXIII when it comes to story telling and impact.

The localization took me out of the game mostly but I switched to Japanese text midway through 3.2 to help with that, the writing is certainly better I'll have to go through all of ARR again with Japanese text and voices...it wont get rid of the fetch quests though :p

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

I would much rather see them add more wandering npc's into the game to make things feel more lively. .

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I think they want player characters to do that, that'd imply the game is dead if they start adding in random npc's to fill up some space.

I will admit, MSQ up to 2.5ish was a little "Trope-filled." I saw a lot of turns coming here and there. Some bits and pieces did catch me off, and they did a good job of making the Scions palpable and the 'source' for your relationship. Once you hit the HW stuff, though, hoo-buddy are you in for a world of emotional journey. I absolutely ADORED the stories for HW, and it's steadily climbed up my 'favorite story-based MMO' list. And it all culminates so well.

Anyways.

I get where you're coming from, but I don't think they dropped the ball too hard on this one.

I think I have to revise my earlier statement, having JUST today come to heavenward and played through the 7th Astral Era Quests there was a LOT better
storytelling and I was feeling more part of it, the only thing is the constant lack of action from the hero, nodding every time and miming is kind of put off

but other than that, sweet lord it has been WAY more fun than the ascent to level 50 and starting machinist and having fun doing tons of FATE etc, it is given me a new set of looking at things.

So yeah, im happy I did not give up every time I felt it was nothing but a ball bouncing grind, and the way 7th Astral Era Quests ended, that REALLY ticked me off.....
so yeah some emotional attachment scored SE, GG and well done.

Glad you're finally enjoying the story more. Hopefully Stormblood will not be good too :)

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Originally Posted by Yasuhiro

I think they want player characters to do that, that'd imply the game is dead if they start adding in random npc's to fill up some space.

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Not all zones stay busy forever, especially starter zones, that's true for just about every game out there. It doesn't imply the game is dead by any means, if anything it means that people are out exploring. It's worse for new players to log into a starter city and see a handful of afk ppl and statue npcs imo. Even if they took the npcs that are there and just made them wander around instead of unmoving, dead behind the eyes types it would be an improvement.

SE tho, they always do their own thing, and usually about 5+ years behind the rest of the worlds game developers so it's to be expected I guess.

I can't agree with you more Jotun. I am in a small, basically closed to all but very selective recruiting FC and that's fine for me. After 16+ yrs of MMO gaming I have had enough of the basic fodder of these types of players. Jaded is my middle name now :)

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Originally Posted by MicahZerrshia

Not all zones stay busy forever, especially starter zones, that's true for just about every game out there. It doesn't imply the game is dead by any means, if anything it means that people are out exploring. It's worse for new players to log into a starter city and see a handful of afk ppl and statue npcs imo. Even if they took the npcs that are there and just made them wander around instead of unmoving, dead behind the eyes types it would be an improvement.

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My bad, I see what you mean now I was seeing it in a narrow minded point of view. Now that you mention recently I've come to notice how many static NPC's there are.
In Ishgard there's a couple still wondering what letter is what near the marketboard, wouldn't it be nice to see them move elsewhere from time to time?