7.1 MSQ Is Actually Pretty Funny If You Think About It

This post contains spoilers for 7.1 MSQ, so please click off if you haven't played it. Also excuse my writing since not that great with long posts

I know there's a lot more nuance to the MSQ than what appears, but from the perspective of someone who doesn't really care about the MSQ at the moment it's just... hilarious. I may get some details wrong so forgive me, but anyways...

You're telling me the kid that we promoted to an orphan invited us to the funeral of the lady that we killed? Are you serious? This is so inappropriate that it's kinda hilarious, even if we are on good terms with Gulool Ja and the funeral is to help the people of Alexandria cope with the concept of death, it's just... geez, what a start.

From there we have the orphan kid ask us to help him learn more about his mother. Okay, fair enough. But then we have the echo flashback between Zoraal Ja and Teeshal Ja, and we learn that Gulool Ja's inception wasn't out of love or romance, but literally just a performance bonus because Zoraal Ja was just... okay with whatever and the lady decided she wanted him to put a baby in her.

Hell, it's made even worse because her attraction to him was just her admiring him from afar, I don't think they really even talked. It's also made even worse by the fact that the lady thought that having him put a baby into her and then showing him the baby would somehow turn him into a responsible father when it just turned Zoraal Ja into a deadbeat who wanted nothing to do with his child.

Like... people try to do a similar tactic in real life and it never works, so seeing it in FFXIV is just wild. We seriously just witnessed the inception of a deadbeat father as part of the FFXIV 7.1 MSQ. It's just so stupid yet so funny simultaneously

And then there's the portion where we're trying to get the Rroneek off the train tracks.

Personally, I thought the part where we did chores was fine, though I can't get over how Koana spent like... what, an hour following around a Rroneek, watching it eat and take dumps and suddenly he's gained a newfound respect for them and would literally die for a Rroneek he's never met, and even begins to treat them like people.

It's such a wild 180, I know that he's trying to be respectful of cultures and understand other people's perspectives but it's a bit funny how overenthusiastic he is about the Rroneek after following one for a little while. Went from thinking positively about them to literally ride or die with the darn things.

Also, the predator that I'll dub 'Crystal Deviljho' that conveniently appears also ends up being a convenient plot device for making a device to scare off the Rroneek, and also gives a different orphan (Koana) closure because one killed his parents and made him realize his parents didn't hate him after all. (I guess that makes 2 orphans we helped this patch)

Though I don't think it was ever officially confirmed if the couple that fought off the Crystal Deviljho was his parents. Koana just kinda took the idea and ran with it, maybe his actual parents really did abandon him and the couple are completely unrelated parents.

Also, Spleen randomly returning just feels like a reality TV show where they randomly bring back the fan favorite, complete with the memory altering. I also don't get why we don't just... kill her again? It's not like she can hop back over to other bodies, at the very least we can wait till she's alone and kill her dead instead of spending time investigating

Anyways, for the people disappointed in the 7.1 MSQ, I hope this at least gave you a new perspective on the story. I won't say the writing is good, but it is funny, like a cheesy reality TV show. I know there's holes in my points but the writing is just so ridiculous I felt compelled to make a post

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lady decided she wanted him to put a baby in her

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Yeah, with DT for sure FFXIV writing went pure trash tier anime :D

Half of it was stuff that should have been in the 7.0 MSQ, and the other half with galool and the ending should have taken up more of it

Did Koana ever even mention he resented his parents before he outright said it while regretting he had done so? His arc with hating his parents until he finds thr truth about them is such a played out trope, you could see it coming a mile away

Not gonna play Smile while they rebuild the train?

I Feel like the WoL could have been absent from this whole story arc and nothing would change.

With how powerful Wuk had gotten by the end of the 7.0 story, she should have no problem going to that facility or putting down that dinosaur thing. We are only there cause shes sandbagging HARD to keep us around

It was pathetic and I don't to play this crap anymore because of it. Body horror was the direction they wanted to go in? Did David Cronenberg get hired as a writer?

Lizard lady wanting a baby in her to the point of creating scientific monstrosities for a chance at a booty call isn't too far off course for FFXIV, especially when you consider Y'shtola's whole motivation for researching cross-shard travel is because she's thirsty for a Ronso guy in The First.

The only thing I will say is that that lady looked at Zoraal Ja with a degree of thirst that I have never seen anyone look at a lizard man with, and I am friends with several scalies and furries.

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Originally Posted by VeyaAkemi

The only thing I will say is that that lady looked at Zoraal Ja with a degree of thirst that I have never seen anyone look at a lizard man with, and I am friends with several scalies and furries.

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Bakool Jaja fans in shambles right now.

zarool ja being a deadbeat father was relatable lmfao. I couldn't take it seriously. i was half expecting jeremy kyle to walk out and ask why he failed the lie detector
https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img.../1949378_1.jpg

Teeshal Ja: "Look at this baby."
Zoraal Ja: "It looks kind of like me"
Teeshal Ja: "He's our son."
Zoraal Ja: "WHAT?! How did that happen?
Teeshal Ja: "Did . . . did no one tell you how babies are made?"
Zoraal Ja: "I can't be a father for some reason! AGH, I'm going insane or something. I'm going to go get some milk!"

10/10 writing there. Really makes me glad that this guy was a serious villain at some point.

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Originally Posted by Hypnotic13371337

Did Koana ever even mention he resented his parents before he outright said it while regretting he had done so? His arc with hating his parents until he finds thr truth about them is such a played out trope, you could see it coming a mile away

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Been a bit since doing the MSQ, of course, but I seem to recall it was one of the places (that we get more with Koana than anyone) where they showed instead of telling us. I don't think he came out and said the words but his body language and the phrasing used in what he did say conveyed the feeling. For as little as we saw him in he MSQ, Koana has always felt like one of the better fleshed out characters. He had character growth and we saw that growth come into play here when we worked on a solution that wasn't just shoving tech at the problem but figuring out how tech could work hand in hand with tradition.

I just wanna know why daddy issues are so prevalent in storylines Hiroi writes or oversees.

I wasn't expecting anything from 7.1's story/writing but it still would've been nice to be offered something of substance outside of the last moments.

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Originally Posted by GartredZW

Teeshal Ja: "Look at this baby."
Zoraal Ja: "It looks kind of like me"
Teeshal Ja: "He's our son."
Zoraal Ja: "WHAT?! How did that happen?
Teeshal Ja: "Did . . . did no one tell you how babies are made?"
Zoraal Ja: "I can't be a father for some reason! AGH, I'm going insane or something. I'm going to go get some milk!"

10/10 writing there. Really makes me glad that this guy was a serious villain at some point.

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I took that more as him assuming that he wouldn't be able to have children considering he himself was already considered a "miracle" since two-headed/hybrid Mamool Ja were believed to be sterile.

Not to say it wasn't goofy regardless.

If memory serves Koana mentioned something about WL being abandoed by her parents - *like him* (which supposedly made him want to bond with her).
Of course, we know from 7.0 that WL was not, in fact abandoned at all. On the contrary. But let's say the tiny foundation was there.

Still, the resolution to his issue is laughably fast. The same with the train. It's like writers went through some check list for matters to solve and it didn't matter *how*, it was only important that it was done.

I facepalmed so many times during 7.1... From the invitation to the funeral (small mercy I could even reply that it's inapproppriate), to Gulool Ja becoming a tech wiz kid to Koana deciding to die for a single cow to Sphene double "rebirth"...
Holy hell... I think I'll replay 5.1-5.3. I need a palate cleanser.

All the segments inside Solution 9 certainly made me dislike the Alexandrians more and more. They are all simply petulant, incompetent children in adult bodies (admittedly not their fault). It makes it impossible to take them seriously, they are too simple minded to be a credible threat and too pathetic and irresponsible to empathise with, you can't feel bad for them because of how vile(?) and dependent their society is. From a writing hook perspective I suspect most people just want to leave them and never see their society again. Which is not great from the angle of trying to build up some sort of narrative tension or interest in your world building.

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Originally Posted by Andevom

Lizard lady wanting a baby in her to the point of creating scientific monstrosities for a chance at a booty call isn't too far off course for FFXIV, especially when you consider Y'shtola's whole motivation for researching cross-shard travel is because she's thirsty for a Ronso guy in The First.

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A little off-topic, I know - but I really don't get why anyone would think that.

I mean, granted he was affectionate toward her and there it was somewhat implied that he might have had romantic feelings toward her - but I don't recall anything that specifically indicated that she reciprocated those feelings.
So whilst there is little doubt that she'd like to see him again, I really don't think it'll have anything to do with them forming a relationship.

And that aside - looking from the meta perspective, the writers are NEVER going to have a significant NPC enter a relationship with another for various reasons.

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Originally Posted by Zaniel

All the segments inside Solution 9 certainly made me dislike the Alexandrians more and more. They are all simply petulant, incompetent children in adult bodies (admittedly not their fault). It makes it impossible to take them seriously, they are too simple minded to be a credible threat and too pathetic and irresponsible to empathise with, you can't feel bad for them because of how vile(?) and dependent their society is. From a writing hook perspective I suspect most people just want to leave them and never see their society again. Which is not great from the angle of trying to build up some sort of narrative tension or interest in your world building.

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I've had the same thoughts. They made these people too alien, too inhuman, for me to care about them. It's astounding when the same game has literal Dragons that act more human than the Alexandrians, and I can sympathize with their plight way more than "Oh no, death means people don't come back! We have to REMEMBER it happened too?! Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!"

I should not be rooting for the villain to make something horrible happen to this place and its people, just because there's the CHANCE it might make it actually interesting, but here we are.

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

Been a bit since doing the MSQ, of course, but I seem to recall it was one of the places (that we get more with Koana than anyone) where they showed instead of telling us. I don't think he came out and said the words but his body language and the phrasing used in what he did say conveyed the feeling. For as little as we saw him in he MSQ, Koana has always felt like one of the better fleshed out characters. He had character growth and we saw that growth come into play here when we worked on a solution that wasn't just shoving tech at the problem but figuring out how tech could work hand in hand with tradition.

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at least someone on the forums still has a working brain

I am just sad we didn't get more... side content because legit the alliance raid is the most interesting we got in this patch like the story was good until you learn how the omg I forgot his name already... the little blue lizard learn his birth it was legit crap not gonna lie

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

A little off-topic, I know - but I really don't get why anyone would think that.

I mean, granted he was affectionate toward her and there it was somewhat implied that he might have had romantic feelings toward her - but I don't recall anything that specifically indicated that she reciprocated those feelings.
So whilst there is little doubt that she'd like to see him again, I really don't think it'll have anything to do with them forming a relationship.

And that aside - looking from the meta perspective, the writers are NEVER going to have a significant NPC enter a relationship with another for various reasons.

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Kinda off topic i guess, but your signature makes me nostalgic of when the story was good. Now we have shitty plots like Dawntrail, when we were eating good at SB finale and Shadowbringers. ;-;

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Originally Posted by Mainasu

I've had the same thoughts. They made these people too alien, too inhuman, for me to care about them. It's astounding when the same game has literal Dragons that act more human than the Alexandrians, and I can sympathize with their plight way more than "Oh no, death means people don't come back! We have to REMEMBER it happened too?! Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!"

I should not be rooting for the villain to make something horrible happen to this place and its people, just because there's the CHANCE it might make it actually interesting, but here we are.

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Amen to this.
I still sympathize with the Dragons of Heavensward more than the Alexandrians. Those creatures that are SO SCARED of dying that they use SOULS to give themselves extra lives. And wonder why children born are either sickly or have reduced birthrates.
Burn the entire society to smoke and ash I say.

On that note. I do like how those Alexandrians who leave the doom are struggling to live within Eorzea and experiencing actual stress, such as being unable to use simple magic or start a fire. And people are actively trying to help them.
I do find that tasteful from a writing standpoint---Not everything is perfect.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

A little off-topic, I know - but I really don't get why anyone would think that.

I mean, granted he was affectionate toward her and there it was somewhat implied that he might have had romantic feelings toward her - but I don't recall anything that specifically indicated that she reciprocated those feelings.
So whilst there is little doubt that she'd like to see him again, I really don't think it'll have anything to do with them forming a relationship.

And that aside - looking from the meta perspective, the writers are NEVER going to have a significant NPC enter a relationship with another for various reasons.

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Romance does happen. But its hidden in sidequests. Agreed though msq romance is a no-go while some of the FF series are known for their couplings. Because some fans are way too volatile, weird and might lash out and reeee

I skipped it but reading the comments here makes me glad i did.

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Originally Posted by EchoingPulse

Amen to this.
I still sympathize with the Dragons of Heavensward more than the Alexandrians. Those creatures that are SO SCARED of dying that they use SOULS to give themselves extra lives. And wonder why children born are either sickly or have reduced birthrates.
Burn the entire society to smoke and ash I say.

On that note. I do like how those Alexandrians who leave the doom are struggling to live within Eorzea and experiencing actual stress, such as being unable to use simple magic or start a fire. And people are actively trying to help them.
I do find that tasteful from a writing standpoint---Not everything is perfect.

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I really do feel as if they should've added a moment where we briefly reflect on something we once heard Venat say under not completely dissimilar circumstances: "So please, open your eyes. To try and reclaim those lives we lost by sacrificing yet more isn't wisdom. It is weakness"
Because I honestly did feel something of a callback to her saying that when 'Sphene' suggested starting a suicide cult.

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Originally Posted by Mainasu

I've had the same thoughts. They made these people too alien, too inhuman, for me to care about them. It's astounding when the same game has literal Dragons that act more human than the Alexandrians, and I can sympathize with their plight way more than "Oh no, death means people don't come back! We have to REMEMBER it happened too?! Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!"

I should not be rooting for the villain to make something horrible happen to this place and its people, just because there's the CHANCE it might make it actually interesting, but here we are.

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they are prawns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMpbdrLWxG4

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I really do feel as if they should've added a moment where we briefly reflect on something we once heard Venat say under not completely dissimilar circumstances: "So please, open your eyes. To try and reclaim those lives we lost by sacrificing yet more isn't wisdom. It is weakness"
Because I honestly did feel something of a callback to her saying that when 'Sphene' suggested starting a suicide cult.

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DT's writing so far has seemed averse to referencing anything from before DT apart from all the "Hear, feel, think"s in 7.0, which were even cut down on for the English text.

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Originally Posted by Zaniel

All the segments inside Solution 9 certainly made me dislike the Alexandrians more and more. They are all simply petulant, incompetent children in adult bodies (admittedly not their fault). It makes it impossible to take them seriously, they are too simple minded to be a credible threat and too pathetic and irresponsible to empathise with, you can't feel bad for them because of how vile(?) and dependent their society is. From a writing hook perspective I suspect most people just want to leave them and never see their society again. Which is not great from the angle of trying to build up some sort of narrative tension or interest in your world building.

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Exactly. I can kind of see where they want to go with this. It's potentially not bad. I'm aware it's not actually finished as a story yet, but these issues should have been at least addressed in 7.0
Take Eulmore for example. We're meant to spend all our time there in endgame content. Despite it being an unsettling place of sociopaths who don't see the poor who live outside as people, but mere playthings to be paid in scraps of food. Then Vauthry runs away, and there's a potent revelation amongst the people that they were wrong. There's a genuine effort by Chai-Nuzz to make amends, and prove that he and his citizens can be better. That's all in 5.0, and it's enough to make me fine with idling there in endgame. There's more to do, and we indeed do more in the patch content and side quests, but there's a start.
Now compare it to Solution 9. There's pretty much nothing from them in 7.0. We're told repeatedly that the regulators and their memory-erasure is all consensual, and that just puts the blame from Sphene or Zoraal Ja back to the individual. We're told to be cautious and not trust anyone here, but then are forced to pick between what factory made food we want to eat, then outright forced to drink an "energy drink" that's so potent as to be banned from sporting events. I don't want to do that, please don't make me. My Warrior of Light doesn't even drink alcohol.

Back to the point, We kill Sphene, declare the son of a foreign invader as their new king, then go back to Tuliyolal. We don't hear anything about what the people of Solution 9 really think about these events aside from being glad Zoraal Ja is gone. They don't even know how evil Endless-Sphene was yet, or that we killed her. They're just still stuck in their ways of using the Regulators. It makes me feel uncomfortable just idling there crafting. It's like I'm undercover and just trying not to step out of line. This is from a purely roleplaying standpoint, but doing so should be intended for players to get immersed.
It also doesn't help that it seems like we're dealing with the soul issue in the raid series. Meaning that it's doomed to semi-canonicity forever.
I think in 7.0, that shutting down the Endless should have returned the memories of the deceased to the people, and this should have been the catalyst to abandoning the regulators. Seeing their anguish at remembering dozens of loved ones whom they've lost would do a lot to garner sympathy for them, and if a couple people started comforting eachother and assuring them that they can persist and forge ahead, then that's all you really need for a start.

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

I really do feel as if they should've added a moment where we briefly reflect on something we once heard Venat say under not completely dissimilar circumstances: "So please, open your eyes. To try and reclaim those lives we lost by sacrificing yet more isn't wisdom. It is weakness"
Because I honestly did feel something of a callback to her saying that when 'Sphene' suggested starting a suicide cult.

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I think the difference is that the ancients were spurred to their decision out of weakness and an enormous calamity that rendered the world nearly uninhabitable. Zodiark was an act of desperation and it's natural to want to rescue others from their sacrifices. the Alexandrians have been doing this for centuries. Only the few people in Alexandria who refuse to wear regulators have ever experienced grief, so the thought of facing it is overwhelming to the point that it's easy for them to retreat back into their original lifestyles. Venat is calling her people out for a rash decision, while trying to say the same to the Alexandrians would be like telling them to give up what has become a daily necessity. It's just not that simple.

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Originally Posted by Mainasu

I've had the same thoughts. They made these people too alien, too inhuman, for me to care about them. It's astounding when the same game has literal Dragons that act more human than the Alexandrians, and I can sympathize with their plight way more than "Oh no, death means people don't come back! We have to REMEMBER it happened too?! Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!"

I should not be rooting for the villain to make something horrible happen to this place and its people, just because there's the CHANCE it might make it actually interesting, but here we are.

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I mean, these people have artificially dodged an untimely death for centuries and had all memory of the dead stripped from them willingly just so they wouldn't have to process grief. Of course their reaction is going to be different if there's almost no one alive who has experienced grief. The whole concept of a "funeral" is downright alien to them and they're awkwardly trying to reproduce it from comparatively ancient records in their struggle to grasp what moving past death is like.

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Originally Posted by Zaniel

All the segments inside Solution 9 certainly made me dislike the Alexandrians more and more. They are all simply petulant, incompetent children in adult bodies (admittedly not their fault). It makes it impossible to take them seriously, they are too simple minded to be a credible threat and too pathetic and irresponsible to empathise with, you can't feel bad for them because of how vile(?) and dependent their society is. From a writing hook perspective I suspect most people just want to leave them and never see their society again. Which is not great from the angle of trying to build up some sort of narrative tension or interest in your world building.

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Yeah, I think the majority of players when they see the Alexandrians aren't going "Aww, poor sheltered babies", they're instead going "Someone needs to slap them across the face with reality because these people NEED to get used to living like literally everyone else."

We're literally facing the consequences of continuing to coddle them by not taking away the regulators in the fact that their memories are being manipulated by them and that's caused a whole can of worms because now "Sphene" can just waltz back in.

The setup for the next portion of the MSQ honestly feels like something that could only work if everyone was grossly incompetent (They are) instead of a believable and compelling story beat

When you put it that way it honestly make me think of the craziness that happens in America’s daytime soap operas more than cheesy reality TV. Maybe that’s why I didn’t mind it so much it was unknowingly reminding me of my childhood watching Passions and Days of Our Lives on snow days.

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Originally Posted by Dogempire

Yeah, I think the majority of players when they see the Alexandrians aren't going "Aww, poor sheltered babies", they're instead going "Someone needs to slap them across the face with reality because these people NEED to get used to living like literally everyone else."

We're literally facing the consequences of continuing to coddle them by not taking away the regulators in the fact that their memories are being manipulated by them and that's caused a whole can of worms because now "Sphene" can just waltz back in.

The setup for the next portion of the MSQ honestly feels like something that could only work if everyone was grossly incompetent (They are) instead of a believable and compelling story beat

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Something tells me that this is going to be the major character development Lamat is going to get. She'll finally realize how destructive the regulators are to their society and learn a lesson on how being a leader means making choices that your citizens may not like in the moment, but will make them happier and more successful in the long term. (despite the fact that this line of reasoning really only works when dealing with children.)
She'll have the realization that all of us had immediately, and she'll be praised for it, while we're in the back nodding away waiting for our chance to compliment our illustrious Vow of Resolve.

I'm still a proponent of the "Wuk Lamat is a Primal" theory. It would retroactively make things make a lot more sense, and would give us an excuse to kill her.

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Originally Posted by Sayari

But then it finally ended and off we went, and the story started with Koana (yay!) and I was starting to enjoy it (catbois everywhere!) until he threw himself in front of a giant charging animal to protect a... herdbeast. That's where the story lost me again.

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I didn't mind that part too much. The rroneek are important to the hhetsarro and you could make the argument that because he had that resentment from being abandoned he had closed himself off to that part where he could connect with them in the same way. It even gives some explanation to why he was to obsessed with technology when we first meet him. Now he's tapping into that part he shied away from before and connecting with the rroneek in the way of his people. I also found it sweet that because he learned how to allow technology and tradition to work hand-in-hand (which was why he was here trying to find a workable solution), he found the answer to his abandonment. And if the hhetsarro are open to it, could possibly share that technology with them so they can keep their camps safe and prevent that happening to another child.

The hunter was a little deus ex machina but I didn't mind that too much. We've had similar coincidences in past stories.

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

I didn't mind that part too much. The rroneek are important to the hhetsarro and you could make the argument that because he had that resentment from being abandoned he had closed himself off to that part where he could connect with them in the same way. It even gives some explanation to why he was to obsessed with technology when we first meet him. Now he's tapping into that part he shied away from before and connecting with the rroneek in the way of his people. I also found it sweet that because he learned how to allow technology and tradition to work hand-in-hand (which was why he was here trying to find a workable solution), he found the answer to his abandonment. And if the hhetsarro are open to it, could possibly share that technology with them so they can keep their camps safe and prevent that happening to another child.

The hunter was a little deus ex machina but I didn't mind that too much. We've had similar coincidences in past stories.

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If they wanted to do something like that, it needed to be structured so that it felt like there was time for him to learn, contemplate, and come to a decision. It all happens way too quickly and just feels stupid and abrupt.

I think we can all agree that the pacing for DT in general is abysmal compared to the previous expansions. It almost feels like Square has the game at metaphorical gunpoint with SBI holding THEM at metaphorical gunpoint after they let them in; everything feels toxically positive ("forced"), mediocre at best, and rushed. It doesn't feel like Final Fantasy at all; even the tactics games had better flow and pacing. Even the Ivalice raid from Stormblood had better pacing and storytelling. I'm starting to wonder if THIS is what we can expect from future content regarding FFXIV with Yoshi being forced to the front to 'smile' and wave. There's a whole lot of smiling but not a lot of cheer.

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Originally Posted by Daralii

If they wanted to do something like that, it needed to be structured so that it felt like there was time for him to learn, contemplate, and come to a decision. It all happens way too quickly and just feels stupid and abrupt.

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I'll agree there. It's the type of story arc that probably should have been the focus of its own patch. That would allow Koana to visit other places relative to the issue and have those revelations over time. Or introduce it in one patch but have it come back front and center in a later patch. I liked the story beats, just not the pacing.