Warrior of Darkness: Deceptive Marketing?

[LauraAdalena]

Once the story got going, I didn't expect us to be the villains, but I did keep expecting the story to "get dark" (i.e. bad stuff happening to us), and that seemed in quite short supply. I was disappointed that no one important died. I was disappointed that we never had to "harness the darkness" (whatever that could mean). I was disappointed that the light sickness amounted to little more than a couple of sneezes. I was disappointed that the light sickness was cured without us actually intending to fix it, and the excuse was that Arbert kissed your boo-boos better. Bleh.

That ending was so sickly sweet with its "everything's fine and dandy" that it really ended on a sour note for me.

Cool story. But I thought this thread was about the trailer, and not personal opinion on the story.

I still think the "misleading marketing" complaints are overblown. No matter how many people bring up the "master matoya" thing or other minor details. It's a trailer, temper your expectations next time a trailer comes out people. This isn't nearly as bad a misleading trailer as say a trailer that brings up entire details that are never followed up on. At least everything here does get an answer no matter how minor, and I'm fairly certain the biggest moments from the SHB story aren't hinted at at all which gives them more of a surprise when they happen, imo. (although that one trailer after the cinematic one came out did hint at a major spoiler).

[Katie_Kitty]

Being the Warrior of Darkness is a lot like being the tooth fairy. It doesn't mean you have to be literally a fairy made out of teeth. You get the title by doing what the tooth fairy does, and so it is for WoD. You brought back the night as expected, thus you are the WoD. Not deceptive.

[Makeda]

I think it was a little deceptive.

I was not expecting us to be evil. I was expecting dark to be seen as the real good; which we did get on the First.

But then there was all the dialogue of NOCs calling you sinner without context for it. It’s actually a great greeting if context is given. I could see something like members if a Christian-like faith calling each other that as a reminder of imperfection.

But on the First it was just a random word and they could have used “Fred” and had equal impact... as in none.

And why were sin-eaters called that? It isn’t what they do in how the lore sees them...

We had the trappings of an Inquisition world with Lord Vauthry as the chief inquisitor but only in the labels. In the actual story it was just straight normal monsters who overspent on white dye on the mog station...

And not only that... but the final villain is a lord of Darkness and we use light to defeat him... which is basically backwards of the advertising. I expected us to team up with the Ascians to defeat Hydalyn after the media tour reveal that she is a primal. I got more of us being tempered by Hydalyn, with the slight twist that we’re actually a light-side Ascian reborn... to defeat the darkness...

It was a good story minus the flaws with depth behind “sin eaters” noted above... but it was not what it held itself out to be and less than it could have been.

Emit-Selk, as unredeemably evil as I found him to be, was the actual Warrior of Darkness.

Heavensward was the actual expansion where we were the Warrior of Darkness fighting the Light - as a metaphor for heretic vs church.

[monk-dps]

I never expected us to turn evil since that's not how SE writes WOLs ever. I don't see how anyone would think that since this game doesn't give you any freedom in plot ever. Noone will go off script in FFXIV, so other then a title change I never expected or thought we'll be killing innocent people or taking candy from babies. The trailer was just to hype you up, nothing more.

[DynnDiablos]

Just the usual FFXIV, so-called best plot, of nothing really happening. We could see the childish not-really-dark thing coming since we're used to the circus of fake-deaths and other tepid non-events.

If you hate the story so much why do you play a STORY-BASED MMO?

[Barraind]

warriors of darkness are not necessarily 'bad guys

They're generally not. It has, until now, just meant they were given their powers by the dark crystals instead of the light crystals.


As for the trailer, most of us knew it was nonsense and wouldnt be reflected in game that way.

If you hate the story so much why do you play a STORY-BASED MMO?

Because roughly 99.9% of time spent in an MMO has nothing to do with story, and in 14 it's down to maybe 99.7%

[MikkoAkure]

But then there was all the dialogue of NOCs calling you sinner without context for it. It’s actually a great greeting if context is given. I could see something like members if a Christian-like faith calling each other that as a reminder of imperfection.

But on the First it was just a random word and they could have used “Fred” and had equal impact... as in none.

And why were sin-eaters called that? It isn’t what they do in how the lore sees them.

Not every little bit of the background NEEDS to be spelled out or have huge plot meaning. I thought it was just a neat flavor thing that people in a world where everything light-aspected is killing them call each other “sinner”. This also makes sense in the context that their past religion was light-based and now the light is destroying everything.

As far as where “sin-eater” comes from, everyone calls each other “sinner”. Sin-eaters eat people. So something that eats people you call “sinners” are “sin-eaters”. Not sure if that’s the same train of thought the writers are on but it makes sense.

[SerLuke]

I’ll agree the marketing with a bit deceptive... but it helped keep me guessing till the end so I appreciate it =)

[SerLuke]

Because roughly 99.9% of time spent in an MMO has nothing to do with story, and in 14 it's down to maybe 99.7%

Except everything we do in game everything,
we run can somehow be tied back to the story.

I remember running Xelphtol in a 50/60 roulette and someone was all why is the boss summoning Garuda? ... a question which the story answers it’s stuff that that which really makes me appreciate how interconnected the story in this game is to everything else’s

[Alaray]

I never presumed it'd go down a "You're Evil Now" route, but I was thinking it would be a more literal change from Warrior of Light > Darkness, like receiving a comparable blessing from Zodiark on the First (And maybe some more Fray-esque interactions, or a situation where trust wasn't inherently granted to your character). More, I just figured the story behind it would lay down a framework for saying that Hydaelyn isn't 100% Good and Zodiark isn't 100% Bad, and that the good in them was achieving an elemental balance with each other that was out of whack in the First with the Light situation, and that the WoL would ally with Darkness in a more literal sense to restore that balance to the First, even if it made Hydaelyn a technical opponent for a bit. (That was kinda the rough direction I was kinda thinking they'd end up going with the whole "Warrior of Darkness" bit)

Like, I sorta thought it'd go into a more "Balance" direction between the two primordial primals, where they're both necessary lest one's aspect gets out of hand and kills everything. Even at the cost of the WoL's personal reputation.

I'm not upset with the story we got, but it never really felt like I was the Warrior of Darkness. It felt more like The Warrior of Light Who Absorbs Too Much Light to Make it Dark Outside. And then explodes.

I kinda feel the Warrior of Darkness bit was played up to much for what it actually was in the story, and the surrounding interest I had in the whole WoD thing is the one area that made me feel disappointed -- which wouldn't have really happened if it was just framed as "Warrior of Light Restores the Night".