Generally, do you like the lore/story so far?

[Brightamethyst]

The only time I didn't enjoy the MSQ was Stormblood, which was a slog from launch to the last patch. It had serious pacing issues, they tried too hard to make Yotsuyu sympathetic when she was too cruel to deserve any sympathy, and Zenos was a horrid, flat character of a villain. I enjoyed its side stories like the raids and trial series though.

Stormblood's biggest story issue is that it tried to do too much all at once. Doing Doma and Ala Mhigo at the time didn't allow either of them to get the love and attention they deserved. The split focus made it hard to connect with the stories and characters in time allotted. The best stories in SB came in the from of side quests where there was a laser focus on a single point (Omega, some job quests, anything from the Dotharl tribe, etc.)

[Hazama999]

I'm fine with the lore and story thus far, however I do find Shadowbringers to have a bit of an odd placement in the overall story. This is mostly just based on feeling but it just... felt odd to me to diverge from what Stormblood was seemingly building up to (taking the fight to the Garleans) to travel across time and space to another world and deal with that before heading back to the Source. We got a pretty hefty amount of knowledge about the Ascians and their origins in this expansion... but it's something I would have expected after dealing with the empire. Of course, I ain't writing the story, so it may well be that what we did in the First and all the knowledge we've gained is necessary setup in order for us to progress to... wherever the story's taking us this time (strongly implied to be Garlemald but eh...??).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I felt a distinct sense of... lack of natural continuity in us going from SB to ShB, but again, I don't have this adventure, jarring though I felt it was, may still have a payoff.

[Brightamethyst]

I'm fine with the lore and story thus far, however I do find Shadowbringers to have a bit of an odd placement in the overall story. This is mostly just based on feeling but it just... felt odd to me to diverge from what Stormblood was seemingly building up to (taking the fight to the Garleans) to travel across time and space to another world and deal with that before heading back to the Source.

My guess is that in early versions of the story ShB was supposed to come before SB but rewrites made them switch things around. HW into SB has that same sort of disconnect, with the whole WoD arc feeling weirdly out of place. I'm assuming that HW was originally supposed to flow directly into ShB, and SB directly into the upcoming Garlean drama.

[RyuDragnier]

I'm fine with the lore and story thus far, however I do find Shadowbringers to have a bit of an odd placement in the overall story. This is mostly just based on feeling but it just... felt odd to me to diverge from what Stormblood was seemingly building up to (taking the fight to the Garleans) to travel across time and space to another world and deal with that before heading back to the Source. We got a pretty hefty amount of knowledge about the Ascians and their origins in this expansion... but it's something I would have expected after dealing with the empire. Of course, I ain't writing the story, so it may well be that what we did in the First and all the knowledge we've gained is necessary setup in order for us to progress to... wherever the story's taking us this time (strongly implied to be Garlemald but eh...??).

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I felt a distinct sense of... lack of natural continuity in us going from SB to ShB, but again, I don't have this adventure, jarring though I felt it was, may still have a payoff.

I remember reading somewhere that originally Shadowbringers was written to happen right after Heavensward, but for some reason or another, they went to Stormblood first.

[Miminming]

a little bit complicated for my taste i think even yoshida don't fully understand how all the lore is, the story has it's up and down, but recently was 7.5/10 for me. for an mmo forever it was 9/10, not many mmo has a developed story as much as ffxiv.

[Tracewood]

I've enjoyed it. A little unnerved by how

they handled Elidibus

, but at the same time I'm glad his long arc is over.

Right now they're leaving a small hook in this new Ascian and Zenos, we have zero clue what their plans are, but they're both agents of chaos in a sense. One wants sport, the other is a raving lunatic so anything goes.

I also feel that maybe Bahamut was taken out of the game too soon. Wondering if we get to see a Neo/Zero Bahamut at some point? I mean the Garleans have that secret cloning facility do they not? Surely they didn't just waste it on having clones of Solus...

[Hazama999]

My guess is that in early versions of the story ShB was supposed to come before SB but rewrites made them switch things around. HW into SB has that same sort of disconnect, with the whole WoD arc feeling weirdly out of place. I'm assuming that HW was originally supposed to flow directly into ShB, and SB directly into the upcoming Garlean drama.

Yeah it's cause the WoD arc was used as setup for ShB way down the line at the same time as Ala Mhigo was being set up for SB... But yes, I agree, the WoD arc did leave me going "hell was that all about... anyways..."

There's definitely an art in writing a long-running story like the one found in this game, especially when there are so many moving parts. I think the team hasn't quite perfected the "setup" game yet, but I can see em getting better with it.

[ObsidianFire]

We actually know from the dev team that they had no idea where the WoD storyline would go when they sent the WoDs off to the 1st Shard with Minfillia. The writers didn't even know that we were going to the 1st Shard as of 3.4. They did know we were going to Ala Mhigo by then. In fact... they start writing the next expansion not long after an expansion itself comes out. Mainly because they need to know what kind of zones and enemy models to make long before the launch of the next expansion.

So... Stormblood's story would have been come up with while the Heavensward patches were being made. Just like Shadowbringers was being made while the Stormblood patches were being made. And how 6.0's story is probably already largely known now. The writers need to be far ahead of where the players are in the story so that content can be churned out as fast as it is.

Part of what makes FFXIV so good is that the writers know how to leave themselves plot hooks to go back to and attach new stories to. In such a way that it is incredibly hard to know what certain plot ideas were come up with just by looking at the story itself. We only tend to find out when certain parts of the story were come up with when the story writers actually get asked those kinds of questions in interviews.

[Hazama999]

Eh... Idk. I think it's great that they actually manage to tie things back to points people had not seen in literal years, but dropping the hooks can oftentimes be pretty jarring to the flow of the story as mentioned above, more so if you're dropping said hooks at the same time as setting up the coming expansion... while not knowing what to attach to those hooks. I think a pretty good, subtle hook was Omega. If I recall correctly, the first mention of Omega was by Nanamo and well in advance to its involvement in 3.5 and subsequent SB expansion. Conversations here and there, and other references cryptic enough to allude to something while maintaining subtlety is what I'd consider great hook placement. Ending where 3.4 did only to veer back to Ala Mhigo with 3.5 and beyond felt pretty jarring to me.

Another I'd give them credit for is say, Crystal Tower. By the end of the story, I thought we were done with it... the only thing giving me pause was that cutscene of Nero throwing his thingamagig away and hearing it be active. That aside, I had no reason to believe they'd go back and pick that thread again.

[Cereza]

I honestly love how the story is so far and am excited to see more of Ishikawa’s work. Personally, while I liked Stormblood and fell in love with many characters we met along the way, I found I was bored by the political/wartime story. At times I sort of felt like the WoL was a background extra to Lyse who I found uninteresting. Bringing the story back to focus more on the WoL and up the stakes in crazy ways really drew me in. I am still interested to see the conflicts with Garlemald though. I think for me making it the focus of an expansion was just a bit too much for me. I’ve been very curious for a long time about the WoL past and what may have influenced current happenings, so I’m happy with the direction it’s going.