Dear SE

[Syln]

Let's agree that we disagree

As far as i'am concerned, it was the best alliance raid since this game release and i'm really sad that this cross over is finished.

[Osteichthyes]

Mechnically I love it. Mostly really interesting fights that allow for skilled players to maintain near 100% uptime while making you think.
Music is NieR tier.
Story has potential if they were to flesh it out, doubtful unless these next few weeks really add something MAJOR.
Implementation.....non-existent. Could have been a separate game.
As someone who didn't play NieR I wonder how many references I miss, and how much things would make more sense. I mostly just have a TON of questions that I doubt will ever be answered.

Would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the concepting stages. Since the FFXIV team and Yoko are huge lore nerds (and quite possessive about the lore in their franchises). I can only imagine that there was a lot of back and forth over what should or should not be in the raids.

[Leloa]

I feel the same, and then they can't even reward us with cool Nier like weapons for glamour

[Ravor]

I always love raid and i thought that Nier raid is more dynamic and enggaging than most other alliance raid

My issue is more toward storywise, yes, nier is only crossover so the story has to be kinda connected but also not really connected at the same time, but I didnt really felt the stake honestly

I will still hold my judgment until the weekly quest is done with the story

as Raid, Nier is easy 8 out of 10 as a whole for me, it should be 9 if not because of the story aspect

[TarynH]

I don't mind crossovers. This crossover just didn't connect. It wasn't integrated well. They didn't take time to explain why Nier was in FFXIV. A crashed space station simply wasn't enough to do that. It did nothing to draw me in as someone who didn't play Nier. Which, if you're going to make a three part raid out of something, the story should at least draw you in.

The story, however, never went anywhere. Much like my character, I found myself doing a lot of "well that was weird" looks throughout the story. Most of what was happening had to be explained by a friend that played Nier, because they did nothing to explain things in-game. (I'd be shocked if they even could.) Sadly, I still found myself not caring at all about Nier. (Why should I buy the book, when the back cover can't spark interest?)

The story was also uninspired and lazy. Felt like everything was stuck in that "no time to explain" moment, and the payoff was coming in the end. Instead, it just ended with a thank you note. I could have skipped the story and gotten the same amount of knowledge about the subject matter. And don't get me started on the Skyrim-esc books we got to read by going back through the areas. (They even gave up on that in the end.)

I thought the areas were ugly and boring. They didn't fit with the aesthetics of FFXIV. The Tower alone was lazy even in its simplicity. It felt like we were in another program like Omega. But unlike Omega, the complete detachment from the FFXIV aesthetics made it jarring. Even in the "unfinished" areas of Omega, they still looked finished on an aesthetic level. (Like they meant to look unfinished by design, not like someone's first run with Blender.)

Most of the fights felt forced to fit the raid standard, and became bland because of it. It went from pink balls, to even more pink balls. Most likely due to the lack of enough substance to draw upon from the source material. The second raid was a one-and-done for me. I don't even remember the bosses. This coming from someone that used to enjoy the middle raids in a series. ST was probably my favorite. I cringe thinking about the most boring one being the one I'll end up grinding for gear before 6.0. I'm sure I'll get tired of it and settle for going into 6.0 with 510 gear on most of my jobs.

Overall, this raid series felt like someone slapped an abstract painting in the middle of a solid narrative masterpiece. It simply didn't fit.

[Bright-Flower]

The Tower certainly could have used some more varied visuals.

The white tower/cyberspace areas aren't 'bad' imo but having the first 3/4 of the raid be just that wasn't great.

They could have for example drawn from Nier Replicant visually for the Knave of Hearts and Hansel & Grettle encounters, and saved the cyberspace thing for the Red Girl boss who actually makes use of it by incorporating the hacking mini game stuff from Automata into the mechanics and boss arena.

The final boss arena is gorgeous but they could have done a lot by say, having us fight the Knave of Hearts in the Library from hte first Nier and Hansel and Grettle in the temple area thing they're fought in.

[Jojoya]

Let's agree that we disagree

As far as i'am concerned, it was the best alliance raid since this game release and i'm really sad that this cross over is finished.

It's not truly finished yet. They've already told us doing the weeklies will unlock more of the story until you finally reach the "real" end.

[Puremallace]

Please never do a 3 part cross-over raid ever again. If this was supposed to make me want to play Nier it achieved the opposite.

I had zero clue what was going and even after watching videos explaining it I was even more confused so yeah I agree.

[Doozer]

Please never do a 3 part cross-over raid ever again. If this was supposed to make me want to play Nier it achieved the opposite.

I mean, Automata isn't even really that good to begin with. The first one, Gestalt/Replicant, is pretty good though. People often forget it even exists, however.

[ItMe]

It's not truly finished yet. They've already told us doing the weeklies will unlock more of the story until you finally reach the "real" end.

True, but I don't know how much we should expect from those...
I'm not gonna pin my hopes on the weekly quests doing so much narrative heavy lifting.