Why are some people "disappointed" by the 6.X patch story?

So I don't see it a lot, but often enough to question why. But I've seen several instances of people annoyed/disappointed/frustrated by the current 6.X patch story.
Some of the main complaints I've seen are:

• It's not as epic as the rest of the stories. Well of course when compared to the epic build up that was Endwalker, and the conclusion of a 10 year long story, of course this new story might feel "weaker"

• It's just filler. We knew it was going to be filler. They never said it wouldn't be. And just because it's filler doesn't mean it's bad.

• The story came out of no where. Most stories do, and as you go forward in them, you learn more, and how they connect to eachother.

So why all the complaints?

True the narrative might suffer a bit because it is being delivered to us in segments, but that's not so different from manga and anime releases either.

It may be filler, but that doesn't automatically make it a bad story. Plus it incorporates elements from the Final Fantasy series that people wanted for a while.

And none of the elements in the story seem to come out of "no where". Everything still connects neatly into the lore/story of FFXIV as a whole.

You could just, "not like it", but these complaints feel like something, "more".

What are peoples thoughts?

So far I really like the post EW content. But I love void stuff in general so this was guaranteed to tickle my fancy.

I loved it, and don't look at it as filler. It's between major story arcs, sure, but it's a story of it's own.

EW ended with the idea that the scions were going to pretend to disband and not work together, yet as of the last patch every single one of them is involved in the "Suddenly Golbez" plotline.
They even did a big character reveal moment for Thancred this patch, a character who did next to nothing in the EW story itself.

I dont know, it just feels un-earned and very predictable in a shonen kind of way.

it feels a little slow

but i guess thats what happens when you spend from 6.1 to 6.5 setting up the 7.0 story

its not terrible, but it does feel a little like filler

Story is not bad, but since the end 6.2, we have basically all the infos to get to the end of the story, but instead story feels thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread. While nice, that story is not rich enough to last for all the 3 last patches, and a lot of people seem to see it. The elements there are not bad (the whole garlemald thing should have had its own storyline, (something like the Tataru quests, no dungeons or Trials, maybe?) that would have permitted to actually develop that plot. Now we have not enough of it truly be interesting, but too much to not feel like a distraction from the main storyline. Same goes with the scions all making cameo's. Especially the 6.3 twins one.

My opinion on this is that the choice to get the trials back in the msq is the reason why the pacing is so unsatisfying to many.

There's a lot of detailed posts out but you probably won't read anything lengthy so I'll shorten it up.

6.1 and 6.2 were fantastic. On release and even still looking back(and you could see the forums had a lot of praise during that time too). 6.3 and 6.4 felt a lot like filler/fanservice. It's not that we didn't get useful information to further the story and build up to 7.0, but the ratio of useful information to unnecessary is pretty bad.

Then there's some people that aren't a fan of the return of the scions and feel that they are being forced back into the story for fanservice purposes(and probably just sunken cost fallacy on SE's party too).

Oh, and as for the idea of filler being okay... I don't really think it matters. Filler can be good or bad. It's pretty obvious that most patches are just filler/build up to the expansion. That doesn't mean the content released can't be good. I just didn't find 6.3/6.4 that exciting. There's a few good moments, but the rest of it's kind of meh.

So, for me, and usually I am not as picky, e.g., willing to give the benefit of the doubt on some things in the past, but...

1. That all trials are contained within the story made it very predictable as to how it was going to end up, either 1 of 2 ways, double Golbez or Golbez + a sacrificial dragon, when I saw the pacing the route was plainly obvious to where I was just waiting for him to do it. - I will say if they do continue this route, I can't see the story itself being overly enthusiastic in future post-expansion patches.

2. The story of Garlemald felt very ARR-esque. - In this regard, Garlemald deserves a lot better.

3. For many people, they liked having the comedic aspect completely separate of the MSQ, allowing for the MSQ just to get straight to the point - But with this they effectively integrated elements that were previously only seen in Hildibrand.

4. [Edit: It felt like at times 2 different people were working on the same dialogue/cutscene]

Nice to see some balanced takes. Agree a certain amount of it can feel slow at times so there can be pacing issues.

I think like the 1st, the 13th could have had enough material to be a full expansion and a storyline fitting of the void. Instead we get piecemeal parts of the void, it's very specific and segmented. I know many weren't interested in a 13th expansion, but given how long the voidsent have been an issue I think it could have warrented it's own full storyline in a few years from now.

For example in 6.4, I could have done with less fetch quest/preparation, however realistic it may have fleshed out parts of the world, and more 13th. Why wasn't the dungeon the chasm leading down to Golbez' lair, instead of a random isle to collect aether? We could have had a harrowing journey/dungeon down to him. Especially because we have a quest where we find the chasm and look at it, but never go there. It was like "Oh...it's his shadowy lair." Then, "Don't worry, he likes to visit a few feet from where we are now for no obvoius reason so we don't have to go down there."

I did like the new dungeon we got, but the lair is an easy story setting that could have been a 2nd dungeon if we still got 2 per patch.

Overall I'm just gobbling up Final Fantasy 4 nostalgia so it's clouding my abilities to be more critical.

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Originally Posted by Kaurhz

1. That all trials are contained within the story made it very predictable as to how it was going to end up, either 1 of 2 ways, double Golbez or Golbez + a sacrificial dragon, when I saw the pacing the route was plainly obvious to where I was just waiting for him to do it. - I will say if they do continue this route, I can't see the story itself being overly enthusiastic in future post-expansion patches.

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I don't know, with a richer story, this could totally work. To me the problem lie with the fact that structure is not fit for the current story. But overall, I agree with you.

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Originally Posted by CNitsah

I don't know, with a richer story, this could totally work. To me the problem lie with the fact that structure is not fit for the current story. But overall, I agree with you.

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With a richer story that isn't involving the conclusion of an arc -- Maybe. But overall with such a short space between trials it is just generally going to lead to less flushed-out development with encounters -- Either this or too many things happening at once. Neither of which I think is particularly good, but we'll see.

This isn't gonna become incredibly bloated like that one Really Big Thread™ is it?

I personally have really enjoyed it. Since I started playing I have wanted to know more about the Thirteenth/The Void, and so far I have been really happy with what lore revelations we have got. Loved the insight into Void culture and how they interact with each other, plus the Contramemoria which expands on what we have learnt about that event in previous patches (Said characters even have updated dialogue). 6.2 honestly is up there in my top fav 3 patches because of it. Golbez is an interest take on the classic character (Am I the only one who thinks he has a very sexy voice? Yes? Ok…) and I adore Zero. She has a fascinating personality which we have seen melt over the last few patches, and she just looks cool too. Its also fascinating that we technically saw her during Endwalker with Zenos, and its adds a bit to his character when we learn that he twisted and ‘abused’ her for his own power. Its had some dips at times sure, .1 and .3 in particular fell a little flat I think, and whilst I like what they are doing with Galemald I kinda wanted to see such things happen in its own story rather then be a well, B plot in this. Plus its strange how the best written content in these patches are hidden in the Four Fiends side quest that I bet most players either ignored or did not even realise existed haha. but name a story which is flawless?

I can see why people are disappointed, given how the post-expansion patch are usually the grand crescendo to the Expansion story, it can be jarring to get this somewhat smaller side story. We are in new territory with 6.x, and I think its not controversial to say EW could have perhaps used these patches to expanded its own story a bit. This is how the devs wanted to do it however, and I am OK with it. Curious to see how much this effect the future plot. I was sure that 7.0 would feature us going the Meracydia with Azdaja but now I am not so sure… I do think this is setting us up to go there eventually at least, a bit like how SB was set up in HW’s patches.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

It's not as epic as the rest of the stories. Well of course when compared to the epic build up that was Endwalker, and the conclusion of a 10 year long story, of course this new story might feel "weaker"

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It's neither epic, nor "new beginning" as they said it will be. Instead, we immediately rejoin with Scions, we still have Gift of Light for some reason, and here we go jumping shards and saving world once again. I fully expected to go back to grounded adventurer vibe as they said we would.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

It's just filler. We knew it was going to be filler. They never said it wouldn't be. And just because it's filler doesn't mean it's bad.

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If you want to go into technicalities, then yes, they never said that it's not going to be filler. Who would want to admit that their story is a filler though? They originally said that 6.1 will be start of new arc, and I think it would be fair to assume that it won't be filler. After all, what story starts with that?

And sure, filler doesn't have to be bad, you could say that Lost Children in Berserk is filler since much wouldn't change if you skipped it. Problem is, that Lost Children is actually great story, unlike this fan-service filled filler story, with yet another 20+ years old FF cameo and nothing of substance.

Here's what they said before EW release

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Beginning in patch 6.1, this will mark beginning of entire new adventure, separate from the Zodiark x Hydaelyn saga.
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From 6.1, we will have even greater story.

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If you want to stand by technicalities, then I guess you're right, but my idea of "even greater story" isn't a filler that lasts 5 patches (but could be condensed to 2-3).

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Originally Posted by Eloah

The story came out of no where. Most stories do, and as you go forward in them, you learn more, and how they connect to eachother.

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Well, I sure would like to learn more about how they connect to each other. I would much rather learn that than to spend my time watching fan service/wannabe funny cutscenes.

Let me ask a question - if they condensed story and removed dungeons, do you think this story would resemble more an MSQ or regular Trial storyline?

I'm fine with 6.x story for the most part, but do notice it slowing down a bit. Then again, this entire thing feels like a trial series being stretched out to serve as filler until we finally start our new story in 7.0.

I'm one of those people who isn't really a fan of the 6.X story. I'm willing to forgive it because I acknowledge that it's kind of just filler really, but idk, there's just *something* about it that feels like it's missing something. Maybe it's the lack of connection to established characters and plot, but the quality of it just doesn't engage me and it kind of worries me about the quality of the future stuff, and whether I'll care about it as much when it's a new story that'll likely be pretty detached from the past 10 years.

Also, I'm just not really a fan of Zero. For a while she felt like she was just an edgy brooding coolguy that was being played completely straight, which is just boring to me. There's a light at the end of the tunnel though with her becoming more of a "real person", and a certain FF4 plot point I kind of expect/hope her to mirror along those lines, but for now I just don't care for her all that much, and I hope that if she ends up becoming a 7.0 party member that she becomes more interesting by then.

edit: I will say that I like the FF4 fanservice aspects of the fights though. Only parts I'm disappointed about on that front are that Scar didn't get his own trial fight / didn't get his Phase 2 form, and that I really wanted a decidated "all the four fiends" fight like in FF4.

The current story is really strong... and it is not like the others or continued by the other expansions but draws many things to an end and starts up something new.

There is quite a bunch of people that can't handle change at first and is deep within scared and afraid of new things.. that is why you see that some is against it, you see that in the real world as well with things.

Currently I like the change... getting to bury somethings that should had been burried for good with ARR/HW and some new things is going to happen, I don't think we have seen the best of FFXIV yet and that is is about to come, now I wish they make the next raids as in the next expansion as tough as the coils was.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

• It's just filler. We knew it was going to be filler. They never said it wouldn't be. And just because it's filler doesn't mean it's bad.

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that was the limp defense of last patch's story too lol

Because it drags. Because it's predictable. Because it's been about 20% original lore versus 80% fluff and tedious FFIV reimagining. Because the characters go absolutely nowhere as there's nowhere for them to go and Zero's character arc ended as soon as it arrived. Because if you are not actually a fan of IV, playing through the villains and story beats picked up from it is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Because it's a year's worth of wasted patch time padding out what feels like a filler arc on a road to nowhere and could have been better utilised doing anything else.

There's quite a list to choose from.

So stories/tropes vibe better with some but not others. Literally impossible to please everyone. Just because some hate it doesn't make it bad. Just because some love it doesn't make it good either. All a matter of perspective.

I just feel like we need to let the old scions go and make way for new ones. They already finished their character arcs, so having new blood will revitalize the game. They've already laid out the foundation for such: Zero, Krile, Vrtra, and we could even bring Jullus on board. Could you imagine a Garlean scion? We could also give the B team of the scions some time in the spotlight if we need to swell the ranks, more. That alone would make for a FAR more diverse cast rather than having a dozen white-haired Sharlayan scholars. If only Zero's and Jullus' arcs weren't so abrupt...

I lost it when they were trying to analogize. 6.4, while not the most boring, was one of the more bad writing decisions I've come across for 6.X. When someone says "kill" I actually expect something dire to happen, but this whole expansion has been this in a nutshell:







lolno.



And it's a shame since I like Zero's concept and fashion style, but her execution was really annoying to me. I didn't even mind the big baddies until 6.4 hit. Now I don't even care whatever they decide to do. The raids were pretty decent tho, but that's just mainly me liking our involvement with the Ascians in the story-line better.

I was happy with the void stuff up til I finished this latest patch. It feels like they are really stretching this plot to have brought us to the thirteenth for a final showdown with Golbez to have us go backwards again because we couldn't possibly face Zeromus?

But even then they did absolutely nothing to set Zeromus up or establish why we should be afraid of him. It was just dropped as a reason to retreat and then see you again in four months.

Every story arc has a beginning, middle and end, this arc feels like it should have ended with this patch. I don't think doing msq from .1 to .5 is going to be that great for the story. It's way too dragged out, especially now that it's 4 months between the patches.

It's not particularly good.

Personally it's a bit weaker because they clearly took the planned 8-man storyline, which are generally decent but lack a lot of the more meaty writing, and called it the MSQ instead of actually making an MSQ story.

6.1 and the very earliest part of 6.2 felt like their own storyline and were generally good imo. Then they just decided to phone it in and do half the usual work while passing it off as the full deal.

As some have already mentioned, it feels like a trial storyline but with extra padding to make it able to pass as MSQ.

Our initial foray into the void was when I was most interested in it, but it's been waning since then, now to the point I genuinely groaned at Golbez's predictable "I've already won!" moment.

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Originally Posted by Eloah

So I don't see it a lot, but often enough to question why. But I've seen several instances of people annoyed/disappointed/frustrated by the current 6.X patch story.
Some of the main complaints I've seen are:

• It's not as epic as the rest of the stories. Well of course when compared to the epic build up that was Endwalker, and the conclusion of a 10 year long story, of course this new story might feel "weaker"

• It's just filler. We knew it was going to be filler. They never said it wouldn't be. And just because it's filler doesn't mean it's bad.

• The story came out of no where. Most stories do, and as you go forward in them, you learn more, and how they connect to eachother.

So why all the complaints?

True the narrative might suffer a bit because it is being delivered to us in segments, but that's not so different from manga and anime releases either.

It may be filler, but that doesn't automatically make it a bad story. Plus it incorporates elements from the Final Fantasy series that people wanted for a while.

And none of the elements in the story seem to come out of "no where". Everything still connects neatly into the lore/story of FFXIV as a whole.

You could just, "not like it", but these complaints feel like something, "more".

What are peoples thoughts?

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The story is lazy. The scions disbanded at the end of 6.0. What do we do IMMIEDIATELY IN THE NEXT PATCH?!?! More shenanagins with the "disbanded" scions. Oh joy.

I'm tired of being the savior of the universe.

I'm tired of existential crises.

I'm tired of the scions as a whole.

We were given the impression that we would set forth, and become just another adventurer, free from all of our titles. Yet we are thrown immiediately back into solving world ending problems with the scions whom we are sick to death of seeing. The patches so far have not set us up for that journey - but instead yet another one with the scions, with the same cliche world ending catastrophes. No thanks. Why not take a risk and change things up? Why can't the scions be put on the sidelines while we pickup a new cast of allies? Wheres the adventure, not as the warrior of light, but instead a traveller amoung the masses? This doesn't make me excited for 7.0 I want the WoL's power turned down going into the future.

I actually like just how direct villain Golbez is.
He is playing his cards fast and loud, and the stakes are clear.
Also I am glad his voice actor really hams it up, especially in the trial.

I see it the same way I see TV shows.
Even for your favorite show, you have seasons you prefer over the others.
And our current season of FF16 is a bit disappointing following the last one.
But hey, still like the show :)

I have never played FF4 so I have no nostalgia towards any of the characters or plotlines. That being said it has just been boring for me. 6.1 took a long time to say we have a portal to the thirteenth. 6.2 was fine as it introduced characters and the general plotline and I thought it was good. 6.3 was boring to me pretty quickly and I ended up skipping most of the CS. Probably not gonna bother with the rest MSQ till it's all done and I come back in 7.0. I think overall my issue is that I don't care about any of the characters and the ideas are just bland to me. Maybe 6.4 is better than 6.3 but 6.3 really cemented my lack of care for the game in general.

After going from Dynamis primal of existential despair of the universe to this it feels very underwhelming.

I can't believe I am saying this but this filler storyline could have been improved by whedonesque/Marvel humor of WoL and scions trolling the villains. But the writers decided to make it serious, yet failed to to make us care about the void world, Zero etc. enough. And Zero still feels as forced companion.

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Originally Posted by Amenara

I have never played FF4 so I have no nostalgia towards any of the characters or plotlines. That being said it has just been boring for me. 6.1 took a long time to say we have a portal to the third. 6.2 was fine as it introduced characters and the general plotline and I thought it was good. 6.3 was boring to me pretty quickly and I ended up skipping most of the CS. Probably not gonna bother with the rest MSQ till it's all done and I come back in 7.0. I think overall my issue is that I don't care about any of the characters and the ideas are just bland to me. Maybe 6.4 is better than 6.3 but 6.3 really cemented my lack of care for the game in general.

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I kinda share the sentiment, honestly. I mean, I want to give it a chance, since it is a fresh start afterall, but so far it just...hasn't engaged me, I daresay it even bored me. I haven't even finished the 6.4 MSQ because I just feel "meh" about it, even though I already know we're fighting Golbez. We're facing off the final boss and my reaction is "meh"... I feel bad about feeling "meh"

One of the problems is, that it does not really know what it wants to be.

6.1 did a great set-up for a light-hearted "20 minutes adventure"...but last I checked we're saving the world(s) from global invasion of the desperate voidsends, while also trying to bring back the lost greatwyrm and discover the inter-shard travel (while we're at it).

6.2 was about the exploration + world\character-building, it was a new story "out of nowhere", but it felt good. Something new to see, something interesting to learn.

6.3 was about....finding some ceruleum for poor garleans (because the entire lake of ceruleum was not enough? Apparently?)And about teaching Zero some cuisine. The tags of our "adventure" change to more epic, as Rubicante hints at Golbez' Big Bad plans. Also, everything that Y'shtola was doing between the patches blows up.

6.4 was about teasing 6.5. And it's the only thing which it was good and effective at. They had even recruited Thancred for that job. He's literally a walking teaser (yes, wolcred fans, the pun intended). He shows up, comments on his trust in WoL (and Ryne, apparently), foreshadows .5, and vanishes away. It did not help that they had spoiled EVERYTHING in their trailer this time...probably has somehting to do with quality\quantity of story, it was just enough to fill the trailer, and there wasn't much to hide for the surprize....if you exclude the fact, that our Trial Vilian somehow not only survives the beating, but also goes full ARR after we "win". Also, Y'shtola goes for another mid-patch researching CD, because that's what she does (at least this time her previous efforts did not blow up....just yet) The world is in danger and desperately needs saving, and WoL's their only hope.

So, we get a set-up for something like "Skalla, but bigger and better", but we end up with (mediocre) "epic" world-saving plot. It's neither here nor there. Not too epic, because of how thin it is (and because funny bunny scenes don't highlight epic achievements in general). Not very "adventure"-ish, because the objectives. People who never played FFIV don't have any attachments to all those names and locations, but I also see some disappointment from those who did play it.

I'd be pleasantly surprized to be wrong about how it all ends. Memory-crystal-based Zeromus is going to have last moment change of heart (after we beat him in trial, of course), and not-Goldbez is going to be ashamed of his millenia-long plan, and they somehow would fix The Wheel, and save their worlв, giving release to all those unfortunate souls. Yshtola'll find a way to redirect light from the First, and Ryne and G'raha are going to help. Feel free to quote me wrong when it hits, because I'd be 200% happy to accept my mistakes.

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Originally Posted by NRieh

I'd be pleasantly surprized to be wrong about how it all ends. Memory-crystal-based Zeromus is going to have last moment change of heart (after we beat him in trial, of course), and not-Goldbez is going to be ashamed of his millenia-long plan, and they somehow would fix The Wheel, and save their worlв, giving release to all those unfortunate souls. Yshtola'll find a way to redirect light from the First, and Ryne and G'raha are going to help. Feel free to quote me wrong when it hits, because I'd be 200% happy to accept my mistakes.

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My bet we somehow will use excess light of the First to restore balance to the 13. Gobez et co give big "suicide by cop" vibe, like we are being baited in restoring Aetherial sea in 13 and bringing all voidsent to rest by killing them permanently somehow.

I wasn't disappointed by the MSQ, but I was a little disappointed by Pandaemonium, particularly:

How little attention Athena got. P12 was also a disappointing fight because of it. Compared to previous raid series, Eden's Promise, M&F Omega, Alexander Prime. She didn't even get a phase transition let alone a second form. We just got budget Fox News Hydaelyn instead.

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Originally Posted by NRieh

I'd be pleasantly surprized to be wrong about how it all ends. Memory-crystal-based Zeromus is going to have last moment change of heart (after we beat him in trial, of course), and not-Goldbez is going to be ashamed of his millenia-long plan, and they somehow would fix The Wheel, and save their worlв, giving release to all those unfortunate souls. Yshtola'll find a way to redirect light from the First, and Ryne and G'raha are going to help. Feel free to quote me wrong when it hits, because I'd be 200% happy to accept my mistakes.

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I am still so annoyed that this whole story arc has so far been ignoring what Unukalhai and Cylva been doing on the First. We literally have two characters from the 13th that are trying to get the Light from the 1st to the 13th and the WoL is just pretending that he does not know that. I get it, that is "optional side quests" but so is the raid that features Ultima the High Seraph, who whe just learned was most likely the source of the Heart of Sabik and Athena going fully crazy with her desire.

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Originally Posted by Ultran

I am still so annoyed that this whole story arc has so far been ignoring what Unukalhai and Cylva been doing on the First.

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That's what happens when you gate important lore and characters behind the grind-wall. And it's not just some minor weekend grind, it's 4 roles at 80 + complete HW trial series. The story arc should have been "Crystal-Towered" long time ago, with adjusted requirements.

I usually have nothing but praise for the MSQ since, until now, I don't recall being particularly disappointed by it. Underwhelmed at times perhaps, but not disappointed.

However, 6.4 did disappoint me, mostly because the left us with a trope that they've used a few too many times already throughout the MSQ. Namely the "All According to Plan" trope - which is described as follows:

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That one little phrase in its various forms - "All According to Plan", "Exactly As Planned", "Just As Planned", and others - is all it takes to cause even the most monumental apparent loss to be completely turned on its head. Was the villain Crazy Prepared enough to insure that even his failure somehow turns into a victory? Did he prepare a plan only just incompetent enough that the heroes could predictably defeat him? Or was The Plan something else entirely?

Well, we're not going to find out anytime soon. In all likelihood he's relying on the Unspoken Plan Guarantee to catch everyone off guard so that we can proceed to the real plot. Stay tuned next week for the exciting new development!

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Pretty accurate for how things played out, isn't it? And again - far from the first time we've experienced this, although I feel Ilberd and Fandaniel did it better.

And to top it all off, the classic 'Evil Gloating' trope also came into play. I mean, Trollbez was on his knees, Azdaja (whilst still corrupted) was free and his weapon had dissolved. Great! So what do we do? We just stand there whilst Trollbez monologues at us. Which, predictably, leads to the situation taking a turn for the worst to the point of "oh no - we're powerless against this threat that we totally could've prevented! Run away, back to the Source so we can form another convoluted contingency plan!".

For the first time, I can't really say I particularly care about what comes next.

6.4 story was:

bla bla bla, feelings, bla bla, laser, bla bla, repair, interesting scene that gets omitted 5 seconds later by the generic you beat me but you didn't beat me, bla bla, we must flee, bla bla we can still free her.

Aspho was:

bla bla, my mom is back, bla bla, it's elidibus again, bla, why mom, bla bla, mom still likes sciene, son genetic twist that had no impact on her bad persona, bla bla, ok let's kill her again, bla, we were the Ascian oof ok, bla bla my time has come.

Eh, I will say the pandemonium raids at least gave us a villain that was unrepentant and evil till the end, which is a rare thing in FF14.