I really DO hope Alexander's story steps up, but I don't think it can top Coil's.

[Zumi]

The threat is he is a primal summoned by the goblins you have to stop that threat or it will drain the land of life energy.

[Theodric]

They should kill off Cid or another major character to make Alexander feel like a threat. Imagine if, once activated, Alexander Tempers Cid and we're forced to put him out of his own misery - without any convenient plot devices to spare him. It'd show that there's a lot at stake. Aesthetically I find Alexander to be pretty cool, though I'm not too fond of Goblins since they're a bit too comical and don't feel like a threat.

[RiceisNice]

Throw in some Allagan tech that ends up hijacking Alexander. That'll give it a persistent threat and shoo away the gobbie clowns.

The threat is he is a primal summoned by the goblins you have to stop that threat or it will drain the land of life energy.

That's if we take what they say for face value. The matter of fact is, unless the area drastically changes per context patch, there is no sense of urgency or persistent danger other than the fact they said so

[Whocareswhatmynameis]

They should kill off Cid or another major character to make Alexander feel like a threat. Imagine if, once activated, Alexander Tempers Cid and we're forced to put him out of his own misery - without any convenient plot devices to spare him. It'd show that there's a lot at stake. Aesthetically I find Alexander to be pretty cool, though I'm not too fond of Goblins since they're a bit too comical and don't feel like a threat.

You want to kill Cid?!?!? WTH is wrong with you dude?!?!?!? Cid is the man!!!!

[Colorful]

You want to kill Cid?!?!? WTH is wrong with you dude?!?!?!? Cid is the man!!!!

Right? I don't think I can take the death of another character I actually like. I'd rather Alexander gets off its lazy butt, crushes Milde and finally obliterates all goblins like so.

[NolLacnala]

flinging you into the future, where Yoshi-P's evil producing is law

You make it sound like Yoshida wasn't in charge of 1.18 and on

But yes, Alex feels alarmingly tacked on, we can only hope it reaches Coil's climaticness...climaxyness...Michaelbayness?

[Theodric]

You want to kill Cid?!?!? WTH is wrong with you dude?!?!?!? Cid is the man!!!!

I've never really cared for him. He's a poor excuse for a Garlean - I'd much prefer someone like Drace or Gabranth to be the main Garlean character that we frequently interact with. Someone with sympathetic motives who remains loyal to their homeland - which would, in my opinion, be much more engaging than Cid. But that's just me.

[AstralKaos]

You enter a brightly coloured crystal cave, go forward and are met by a UFO, you then fight this UFO as a "barrier" to see if you are worth going forward. The ADS is downed, and you progress forward and enter an even larger cave full of mysterious and alien structures... as you look forward there you see it -- The wing of the supposedly dead Dreadwyrm itself encased in crystal... the very same monster that caused the Calamity, you're probably pondering many things as you walk forward. Also the same guy that perished is viewed in this scene.

Compare that to Alex... you enter a rusty brown and bronze submarine-like corridor, run through some steam, and then your "ADS" encounter for this, to judge your worth, the very first thing you fight... is the Wizard of Oz's TINMAN! And what teamwork is needed, maybe a coordination to silence? Nope, nothing but the OT to grab adds. You then go forward and down a water slide into another dull room and meet... a robot that should topple under its own upper armament's, all while some random tag-along with a scar watches you scratching.

Yeah... Coil beats Alexander in the first stage...

To save time, I wonlt compare the other stages and will instead summarize my opinion of Alexander in a line: I don't like it, its theme, its loot, its story, the Goblin's, the design of the areas, the music... ahem, yeah, I really don't like it.

[Alisa180]

I see a lot of complaints about Alexander's story, and I think its time I offered my two cents.

Let's start from the beginning: A Realm Reborn opened with a literal bang, with Bahamut and the Calamity. From the moment Bahamut appeared and rained destruction, there was the implied promise that the players would eventually face down the primal for themselves. This was the promise surrounding Binding Coil, that we would eventually get a piece of the dragon we saw in the End of an Era cinematic. And of course, it eventually delivered.

However, as we know, only a relatively small percentage of the population got that chance. For the rest of us, well, we were SoL. For a more casual player, that *bites*, since we never got to wrap up the loose ends from End of an Era, which for many newcomers (including myself) was their very first exposure to FFXIV. It's similar to how in World of Warcraft, only the raiding population got to face down the Big Bad until they released Looking for Raid. WoW gets away with this more easily thanks to it's more disjointed way of delivering the story. (As an aside note, one of my favorite things about FFXIV is how quests actually prompt you to enter DF to enter dungeons and trials. This allows the instances to be more smoothly integrated with the story in a way WoW's instances never are or will be.) FFXIV less so, partly because its much more lore-focused.

To drive home the point, FCoB got a full-fledged *CGI cutscene,* Flames of Truth, which was essentially the missing second half of End of an Era. You can imagine how some were upset they never got to see this proper once they found out.

With the casual players upset that they never got the chance to experience Binding Coil's story, this led to requests for a 'story mode' for the next raid. They didn't want to be burned like that again. Hence, we got Alex NM. The problem, unfortunately, is that Alexander lacks any sort of build-up during the MSQ. In 2.0, you're adventuring in the shadow of Bahamut and the Calamity it caused, the Seventh Umbral Era. Bahamut had been established as something we would be able to face long ago. Alexander wasn't even in the picture until after the 3.0 MSQ. In short, it meant Alex would naturally lack the 'epicness' that Binding Coil had the privilege of having thanks to End of an Era.

I'm taking Alex's story as it is, and it really isn't that bad when you aren't comparing it to Coil. But its lack of MSQ ties hurts it for players who were expecting something 'epic' like Coil again. End of an Era was a one-time thing. There was no way that was going to happen.

[Zumi]

I'm taking Alex's story as it is, and it really isn't that bad when you aren't comparing it to Coil. But its lack of MSQ ties hurts it for players who were expecting something 'epic' like Coil again. End of an Era was a one-time thing. There was no way that was going to happen.

Would you rather the raid been about invading Nidhoggs lair with several dragon themed bosses instead?