What happened to SB (story)?

[Zarabeth]

I really enjoyed the SB story. I'm sorry for those who didn't.

[Verdan]

Who? I watched every cutscene throughout the story and I can't remember a single important character dying. Maybe a couple of weak side characters but those characters are rarely memorable in the first place.

I donno how to even respond to this, two characters died in HW to save us

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

I donno how to even respond to this, two characters died in HW to save us

I honestly struggle to even recall them or their names. Apparently one of them was the FFXIV equivalent of Danganronpa's TeruTeru, who I sorely wished to take a knife to because he was both sorely annoying and excessively creepy, but who's the other one? The elf ruler bloke? I'm pretty sure he's still alive cause I vaguely remember running into someone that at least looked like him in SB, but who else could it be? HW was sorely lacking in memorable characters at all. IMHO, YMMV, etc etc.

Estinien? The big white dragon thing?

[Aquaslash]

I have a strong hunch that Ala Mhigo is very quickly going to erupt into civil war. There were several different generations with opposing ideals; which they tried to touch on with Fordola but failed to follow through on it. Ala Mhigo seems to be its own worst enemy. Gaius took advantage of their own infighting to conquer them. Even Ilberd said they were a bunch of good for nothing bums who wanted handouts

[RaizeGraymalkin]

So TLDR you're quitting because you didn't like the story? Huh?

[Duelle]

Fordola at least had well-intentioned motives, even if I think they were a mask for her lust for power. Yotsuyu is just a broken twisted ugly human being and there is no way the scenario writers can make a redemption arc for her feel believable, IMO. I'll be pleasantly surprised if her future story has any more depth to it beyond, "a filthy Doman saved me, I guess they're not all bad".

Out of the two, I see Fordola becoming the antagonist by the end of the expansion; she not only knows how to fight, but is also a resonant. I have a feeling Yotsuyu us going the way of noble sacrifice to redeem herself or play the amnesia card (I get visions of Hisui's "good" ending from Tsukihime, but adapted to Yotsuyu).

So TLDR you're quitting because you didn't like the story? Huh?

You're allowed to quit if you don't like the story. The shitty lore behind Mists of Pandaria combined with other gameplay factors I hated are what led me to quit WoW, for example.

----------------------------------------

I've been neutral to the story. There's been good and bad, but I agree that it feels weird to get involved in what is essentially a political thing. Especially when you take into account that the Scions are supposed to be independent. Most of the times the WOL has clashed with the Garleans, it's been because of Allagan technology they were seeking out. I get that the whole story revolves around us doing Lyse a favor by helping out in the liberation of her country, but I won't deny that it felt strange.

One might say that we got involved back in HW, but we were sort of on our own for that one. It was the WoL, Alphy and Tataru, a destitute trio that had to basically earn their keep to help their hosts.

[Lozza]

I've had this conversation in a lot of LS lately. As a number of others have said here SB has been my favourite. SB really is a story about the characters, the events aren't anywhere near as important as the characters and their motivations. I am sad Zenos died at the end, though I thought his death scene was interesting I felt it wasn't quite earned. I really wish my character had spent more time with him. He was my enemy yes, I hated him yes, and I never really understood his motivations, the story sort of danced around the edges of things, teasing that there might be something more interesting there, but ultimately there was no real pay off. "My enemy. My friend" it was a good suicide speech but as I said I didn't feel the story had quite earned it in respect to the relationship between my character and Zenos.

Outside of that minor dissatisfaction with the WoL/Zenos relationship I liked most of the characters. Lyse was a little all over the place in a few sections of the story which while a little odd didn't bother me overly much, I liked her. Alphi... well I've never like him and the number of times I felt he was treating his sister like a little girl irritated me. Love Alaise, I liked Conrad too though it was clear he had a "I'm going to die" marker over his head right from the first time you meet him. And I can't wait to see what they do with Yotsuyu and Fordola in the 4.x content.

[seraseth]

To me both ARR and HW felt like epic saga type stories. SB felt like 2 small campfire stories. Well written and enjoyable stories, but still small side chapter stories.

But I think the biggest problem I had with SB story was that I suddenly didn't feel like the main character anymore. I felt like this was Lyse's story, and I was just the muscle tagging alongside.

That'd be fine in other games cause they're like that from the start, but in this one, up till now, the msq has always been 'your' adventure, 'your' story.

[Lukha]

I agree with most of this, I've still got some story to go, but I'm having to force myself through it; the only part I've really enjoyed so far was the episode on the Azim Steppe, which was all to short.

I also find myself rather resenting Lyse and Alisaie for their parts in the story. Lyse I could live with even though her backstory is pretty stupid, but (as my FC mates have heard a dozen times by now) just about everything Alisaie does makes me hate her just a bit more. I LIKE diplomacy, thank you, and while I could have respected her for wanting to take a different approach, I feel like she spends a lot of her screen-time putting down her brother, usually when he's not even around, in a pathetically transparent attempt by the writers to both pump her up as a character and curry favor with the small but loud section of the playerbase who dislike Alphinaud and found all the politics in Heavensward frustrating.

The breaking point for me was her suddenly screaming about how Alphinaud TOTALLY can't swim, but SHE swims like a fish, out of nowhere, several scenes removed from her brother's last appearance. It was extremely weird and tonally inappropriate, and really just made her seem like the sort of nasty person who makes mean jokes about people who aren't around to defend themselves. If he'd actually been around and she'd been doing it to directly tease him, it would have felt...almost like a cute sibling rivalry thing, with maybe a few shades of her being self-conscious and childishly trying to make herself look better to the rest of the group by putting him down. STILL not the most likable personality trait, but an understandable one.

I guess the writers REALLY wanted to make us like her, and somehow it never occurred to them that having a character we barely know constantly take pot-shots at one we've spent the better part of four years of story becoming attached to might actually hurt their case?

And that's not even touching on how out of character Yugiri was, or how she was barely around when this should have been their chance to flesh her out and give her enough screen time to justify all the love she gets. Or how Yotsuyu was written as a cackling, irredeemable villain right up until you defeat her and unlock a sudden infodump about her tragic past? It's just bad writing, and should have either been uncovered piece by piece well before you go to Doma castle, to give you an actual feeling of conflict in going up against this person who legitimately deserves your pity despite her evil actions, or left out of the MSQ entirely and made fodder for a sidestory.

But really, all the problems come down to the story being rushed. I'm not saying that SE rushed production or anything; the STORY itself rushed by trying to cover too many things in one great glut. We rushed through liberating TWO entire nations in just ten levels worth of story, so we ended up glossing over or speeding through a lot of things that should have been major turning points in the story. Liberating Doma felt anticlimactic, and even losing Gosetsu, the only character in 'your party' with a personality, barely warranted a pause to mourn him, and then you literally ditch the victory celebration to rush back to Eorzea, like it hasn't been fine without you for the past few months the Doman campaign would realistically have to take, and won't keep long enough for you to take ONE NIGHT to actually enjoy having accomplished something.

4.0 should have ended with Doma's liberation, and Ala Mhigo should have been saved for 4.1+; the game would have been much better for it.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Snip.

I disagree with quite literally all of this. Alphinaud has quite literally been the single worst part of the entire FFXIV MSQ, from roughly level 5. Alisaie, on the other hand, has been an absolutely amazing character since her introduction at the Coils at level 50! I earnestly wish we have the chance to finally get rid of that Alphinaud dead weight, especially if we can say goodbye to him with an incredibly snippy "Good riddance". One of the highlights of this expansion was watching that dribble of a flat character finally stop being treated like some kind of godly twitch instead of the worthless pansy he is!

All IMHO of course.

I guess the writers REALLY wanted to make us like her, and somehow it never occurred to them that having a character we barely know constantly take pot-shots at one we've spent the better part of four years of story becoming attached to might actually hurt their case.

Alisaie's been around for four years as well. I take it you never did any endgame content back in 2.X did you? Alisaie was the star of that show, and it was mysteriously better despite Alphinaud being just a hanger on.