Crossover events and breaking immersion

[Cryixian]

This might be an unpopular opinion, but I personally don't like crossover events with long lasting rewards that don't quite fit with the game lore/story line.

It feels like watching a Lord of the Rings movie that is interrupted with X-Men adds, taking you out of the immersion.

I understand some players like crossover events and their rewards, but there should be a line drawn on what's a fitting crossover and what isn't.

Isn't longer a role playing game when you break character and story rules.

I don't know. Biggs and Wedge have been around since at least 1994's Final Fantasy 6, and they're Star Wars characters. I actually smiled when they showed up with Cid, as it reminded me of my childhood playing the older games. It felt like fan service of other franchises, than ripping me out of immersion.

[Raltar]

I remember the alpha threads where people complained giving the player characters the option to jump would ruin immersion.

We then went through pages where people were suggesting things like adding a cooldown to jump.

I haven't taken immersion complaints seriously since.

What......?

[Renato]

I don't know. Biggs and Wedge have been around since at least 1994's Final Fantasy 6, and they're Star Wars characters. I actually smiled when they showed up with Cid, as it reminded me of my childhood playing the older games. It felt like fan service of other franchises, than ripping me out of immersion.

That's a little different though. I've always seen Biggs and Wedge as more as an easter egg than anything. They've honestly come to be their own characters in the FF franchise pretty much only sharing the name. I wouldn't exactly say it's a crossover when they're not specifically from Star Wars.

I actually agree with the OP and I normally take this stance whenever this topic comes up. I always use PSO2 for example. For those who haven't played it, it began an a sucessor to PSO but then they began having crossovers every freaking month. Anything from Godzilla to Guilty Gear and even FFXIV with Odin randomly showing up as a boss. No backstory or anything, just cool costumes and weapons for your character to win in a gatcha (with real money) or puchase from the market boards and an Emergency Quest where you fight Odin himself. Even now, the game has lost it's identity going from a game about space mercenaries to becoming a high-school, shonen to a high-fantasy game. FFXIV already doesn't really have an identity that much outisde of it's story, cities and some of the characters as most of them are from past games anyway. It's basically a melding pot of FF and SE at this point which I actually enjoy. But the "this person/creature is from another world" thing is getting old.

As far crossovers go, I'd be cool with games that fit the mold of FF. Valkyrie Profile, Bravely Default, past FF games, even some of the mobile games like Mobius and Exvius. I'm still hoping for a Chrono Trigger/Cross-over. The Dragon Quest crossover was cool because DQ and FF are so similar that it fit right in. MH was ok but I feel like it didn't work well having a fight similar to the actual game without the actual gameplay mechanics. Nier feels really dumb...someone mentioned DMC some weeks ago which I feel would be out of place. I enjoy the game as much as the next person but everything doesn't need to be crossed over with.

[ElazulHP]

Eh... I go back and forth on this topic. Though if I really want an immersive experience I'll go play a single player game where I don't need to worry about running into someone wearing a Frog suit driving a flying car lol...

[MaethusXion]

What......?

Yes, there really were people that thought JUMPING was immersion breaking. Since then we've added:

Dragon Quest
Other Final Fantasies (Tactics/Ivalice, 11, 13, 15, and I'd be completely surprised if they didn't do a 7Remake crossover when the time comes)
Yo-Kai Watch
Garo
Nier Automata

And these are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head, I'm 100% sure there's more I forgot

[Ransom]

But imagine the possibilities if they went all out on immersion breaking:

Stranger Things crossover event with Upside Down dungeon that rewards Wind Up Eleven minion and Max's skateboard for a mount.

Calvin and Hobbes crossover event that rewards a Hobbes minion that is alive on your screen and a stuffed toy on everyone else's.

MST3K crossover event with Torgo trial fight that rewards Crow and Servo minions that trash talk your performance.

Area 51 Invasion crossover event raid with bosses that use the 'probe' mechanic. Rewards Saucer mount that plays the five tones.

[CazzT]

MST3K crossover event with Torgo trial fight that rewards Crow and Servo minions that trash talk your performance.

OK, this is one cross over I would love to have. Crow and Tom mocking me constantly? I would actually use a different minion than Midgardsormr for that!!

[Kaisha]

Crossover stuff breaks your immersion but not catgirls in scantily clad outfits wielding a giant sword?

[Nixxe]

Yes, there really were people that thought JUMPING was immersion breaking. Since then we've added:

Dragon Quest
Other Final Fantasies (Tactics/Ivalice, 11, 13, 15, and I'd be completely surprised if they didn't do a 7Remake crossover when the time comes)
Yo-Kai Watch
Garo
Nier Automata

And these are the only ones I can remember off the top of my head, I'm 100% sure there's more I forgot

Things like Yo-Kai and Garo don't bother me at all because they're basically just holiday events (even if they aren't in a holiday format) and have no real story relevance. I'm more annoyed with things like the entire 24 man raid just being a gigantic FF 12/Tactics rehash rather than anything original. The upcoming one is going to be Nier, and while I loved Nier Automata and will gladly take the cosmetic rewards, I'd rather have a FFXIV original story.

[Catwho]

Canon dimension hoppers:

- Gilgamesh is confirmed to be the original from FFV and has the ability to warp from world to world
- Shantotto from XI had the canon ability to warp herself from world to world, and accidentally allowed an evil clone and a "good" clone (not really) of herself to take her place
- Lightning from XIII had the canon ability to warp from world to world
- Noctis from XV has the canon ability to warp.... but how he got to XIV is still being chalked up to a Niflheim experiment that went awry

The other crossovers fall more under the "thin areas of reality leaking into each other." I think of XIV as being not unlike Discwold. On Discworld, the amount of latent magic is so large and overpowering that the very rules of reality are bent, and the barrier between worlds often grows thin, so that ideas and things from other places regularly leak into that world.

For XIV, replace "latent magic" with "aether" and it's much the same. The worldbuilding itself accepts that we are but one of 14 mirror dimensions and we become the immersion breaking dimension hoppers in 5.0 - so other ideas, things, and people hopping dimensions over to ours isn't that strange after all.