Story and voice acting future

[TrystWildkey]

I just wrote a Lodestone blog post about the storyline ^^ So I think I'll copy/paste here since I rather agree with the OP.

Some thoughts on the storyline.

The original storyline for 1.0 may not have been that long, but it evoked feelings. It evoked feelings of mystery and adventure. Feelings that there was a lot of depth beneath the characters, the places in the world, and that the world itself was a living, breathing and growing character all on its own.

I spent some time talking to my husband about how I’m considering dropping the game. I told him that there just wasn’t anything in the current game that I really enjoyed. I also mentioned that I’m still here because this is the same dev team that gave us 1.23, so they have to have some things planned for eventual release that I would enjoy.

Then, he asked a question that he had asked before, but I had forgotten.

He said “How much of the 1.23 storyline may have already been planned by Tanaka and his team? Do we know that Yoshi created the storyline? Or, did he take elements that had been planned for eventual release in 1.0 and speed them up to use them for 1.23?”

That really made me think. Because the original 1.0 storyline, and the storyline in 1.23 genuinely felt like a Final Fantasy. I really cared about these characters and really invested in my character and my journey through Eorzea. It had the feels that I always associated with a good Final Fantasy.

The ARR main storyline didn’t make me care about anyone or anything. The only possible exception to that is the Sylphs and Goblins. Maybe it’s their unique way of speaking that makes them stand out as a race and as characters, but I cared more about poor little Noraxia’s lifeless body than I did about Minfilia and Tataru being taken by the Garleans. Yeah, think about that for a moment. Tataru in the original storyline had a personality, had dialogue, and was a character that I really cared about. Now, she gets kidnapped by Garleans, and I don’t care.

The whole ‘main’ storyline felt like a bunch of disconnected side quests to me. I didn’t even bat an eye when Thancred was taken over. I just shrugged and wondered what new hellish dungeon I’d have to go through while stressing that I wasn’t pressing buttons fast enough.

[EmiliM]

Because the original 1.0 storyline, and the storyline in 1.23 genuinely felt like a Final Fantasy. I really cared about these characters and really invested in my character and my journey through Eorzea. It had the feels that I always associated with a good Final Fantasy.

I never played 1.0 but have watched all the cutscenes. I agree that it definitely had more of that Final Fantasy feel (atmosphere, if you will). There is a feeling that you're a part of some grand tale that you've only just started to unravel.

2.0's story is far more... sterile I think is the word. The biggest issue has to do with a lack of continuity and any sense of urgency. None of the key characters and key story developments have any impact outside of those cut scenes, so you don't feel like you're "progressing" through one large story as much as you're simply watching one isolated acting session after another, at the end of which you are simply allowed to go back to doing whatever it is you were doing without any incentive to progress the story because the emotional attachment simply isn't there.

For what it's worth, most of the story so far seems to be packed with nothing but hints and teasers on bigger and grander things hiding just off the horizon. I hope we are simply in a long and slow prologue right now and that SE will wow us with something in the next few patches/expansions (one can hope anyway).