Am I the only one disappointed with nier ending? (spoilers)

[CKNovel]

Everything story wise was disappointing.

The story lives in its own bubbles and will not allow you to know more or have any impact now or the future.
Crystal Tower allowed to learn about the calamity, Mhach to learn more about the void, voidlings and Mhach (Ampador had dungeons) hopefully we get more Mhach lore with Reaper.
Ivalice set up a massive story that started in the past to be completed in the present that would continue into Bozja and maybe something more in the future if we can believe the Field logs, or maybe they're just telling the end.

If Nier was completely removed, nothing would be lost except a bit of the dwarfs village culture that could've been explained through Dwarves tribes quest or side quest.
Nier additional ending was just "Hey, can you find that guy? We've seen him there" into "I couldn't find him" with a cliché cutscene "I can't live without you ".

IMO, Nier brought 3 important things:
-Musics
-Glam that can be dyed.
-Models that can be reused in the future.

[Ardyvald]

I feel like some of you forget one primordial thing : this is a collaboration, based on a non-FF game

As far as I'm aware of (correct me if i'm wrong), none of the collaboration were impactul on the FFXIV storyline/universe (not even FFXV or FFXIII collabs, which is a bit odd, but fair enough).
They were just "bonuses", things "added, out of this world". they were not meant to tie deeply into it.

The only difference this time would be the tremendous amount of content spent (I would have said wasted but this is my own opinion, it doesn't count here) on that collaboration (3 raids and I-know-not many quests).

In the end, this is just a non-FF collaboration.

I'm sorry, but reading you all made me kind of "happy" (well, a consolation lot would be more accurate) they didn't seem to try to tie Nier in FFXIV

[Destati]

Speaking as someone who has never played Nier (though I have watched several analysis videos on the series and I played part of the first Drakengard many many many years ago), at best I expected a story that... didn't have an ending that petered out the way it did. I might not have fully understood what was going on, but the story would at least feel conclusive.
I was hoping that the song "Birth of a Wish" would have appeared in the raids with an orchestrion scroll to go with it and we'd be able to get a pod mount too but alas neither happened.
I enjoyed running Copied Factory and Puppet's Bunker and I appreciate having the dyeable gear and all the other goodies but it's a shame that the story took a nosedive. Overall I had a better time with it than Ivalice though, but that's just me.

[Iscah]

I feel like some of you forget one primordial thing : this is a collaboration, based on a non-FF game

As far as I'm aware of (correct me if i'm wrong), none of the collaboration were impactul on the FFXIV storyline/universe (not even FFXV or FFXIII collabs, which is a bit odd, but fair enough).
They were just "bonuses", things "added, out of this world". they were not meant to tie deeply into it.

I can't speak for others, but my issues with the raid have nothing to do with it "not tying into FFXIV lore" - in fact I'm glad it didn't try to - but rather that it fails to properly establish its own internal lore to make that stand-alone story enjoyable. Basic storytelling concepts like giving the audience the information they need to understand the significance of things - if not at the start, then in a way that you understand it in hindsight when you reach the end.

Instead it introduces a whole lot of fragments of ideas and just keeps piling them on, never bothering to explain them. The crossover characters barely even talk to you, let alone give you any reason to care about them.

If it was a typical one-shot collaboration where the crossover characters are clearly just here to set up a fight and leave again, I'm not so bothered. But this is set up as a complex, arching narrative and it totally fails to deliver anything of interest.

In any case I'm not really seeing people in this thread saying it should have integrated into the wider lore - though a few (myself included) are mourning the hypothetical FFXIV-lore-based alliance raid we might have gotten if the series wasn't dedicated to this underwhelming crossover.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I feel like some of you forget one primordial thing : this is a collaboration, based on a non-FF game

As far as I'm aware of (correct me if i'm wrong), none of the collaboration were impactul on the FFXIV storyline/universe (not even FFXV or FFXIII collabs, which is a bit odd, but fair enough).
They were just "bonuses", things "added, out of this world". they were not meant to tie deeply into it.

The only difference this time would be the tremendous amount of content spent (I would have said wasted but this is my own opinion, it doesn't count here) on that collaboration (3 raids and I-know-not many quests).

In the end, this is just a non-FF collaboration.

I'm sorry, but reading you all made me kind of "happy" (well, a consolation lot would be more accurate) they didn't seem to try to tie Nier in FFXIV

Being a crossover doesn't excuse it from being disappointing.

Leaving aside the "we could've gotten something else instead" arguments (because that's blaming it for what it isn't, rather than what it is), this story makes little sense, starts in media res and never explains anything, and doesn't so much end as it just stops.

Where did the Copied Factory and Puppet's Bunker come from? Who knows, just go kill some robots.

What was the purpose of 2P and the white androids? Who knows, just go kill some robots.

Where was 2B before her dramatic appearance? What was she doing off-screen? Who cares, just go kill some robots.

And then we get to the epilogue weekly quests. What's wrong with Glagg? Who cares, have a music roll. Where's Konogg? Eh, have a vague cut scene.

As a standalone story for people who've never played Nier Automata, it's weak and doesn't really go anywhere. As a crossover for people who played Automata but not Drakengard (which, despite the name and advertising of the event pointing only at Automata, is really where a lot of the plot elements came from, so there's another problem), it's full of holes. Either way, it's unsatisfying and disappointing.

[MrPresident]

The story was too disjointed. It just felt like an 80s/90s sitcom where a random celebrity shows up in the story even though it makes no sense.

WoL: 2B from Nier Automata?! What are you doing here!

*live audience begins cheering*

[Akimori]

There was a story?!

[Tlamila]

Ok I'm thorn about this.
I too am disappointed that nothing was explained. The part fo story that came with Puppet was good and it felt like they finally got into explaining stuff, but then Tower was a total mess. A lot of stuff happened in there none of which was ever explained. I was hoping it would get explained in the epilogue but nope. And I dislike Tower in general because all that white literally hurts my eyes.

On the other hand, I liked the epilogue by itself. Removed as a means to explain anything, but taken instead as an epilogue to the personal story of Anogg and Konogg, it was a great and emotional ending. I really loved those cinematics that conveyed all the pain, especially the detail of the eye twitching. And at the end, I guess we got an open ending. I'd think that all of us can deduce that he ended up suiciding because the pain was too strong, and that's conveyed by him rejoining his lost sister, but some could hope that she actually came back and they can live happily together ever after.

[Pepsi_Plunge]

I feel like some of you forget one primordial thing : this is a collaboration, based on a non-FF game

As far as I'm aware of (correct me if i'm wrong), none of the collaboration were impactul on the FFXIV storyline/universe (not even FFXV or FFXIII collabs, which is a bit odd, but fair enough).
They were just "bonuses", things "added, out of this world". they were not meant to tie deeply into it.

Those collabs where events which came and where gone like 2 weeks later. NIER got all three alliance raids of the current expansion and some sidequests which will be in the game forever. For a collaboration this is way too much content in the first place [especially because it is a non FF game], but since this content is staying for good and will be played over and over in daily roulette or for upgrading coins, a proper "tie into it" in fact should be demanded.

[Alleo]

I feel like some of you forget one primordial thing : this is a collaboration, based on a non-FF game

As far as I'm aware of (correct me if i'm wrong), none of the collaboration were impactul on the FFXIV storyline/universe (not even FFXV or FFXIII collabs, which is a bit odd, but fair enough).
They were just "bonuses", things "added, out of this world". they were not meant to tie deeply into it.

The difference is that old collaboration did not take away the whole 24 man raid for a whole expansion...they were small, sometimes grindy events that gave you glamour, pets and weapons (maybe some music too) and other than those things they bascially left no mark on the game.

This is canon...this is what we got as a raid for the first shard. A shard that still had lots of secrets left and that we will probably never visit again in that regards. So yes I am a bit salty that we probably lost our chance at awesome lore for something so badly that even some of the nier fans are not happy with it...

If they have put Nier behind a long grindy event like Garo and gave us a raid about ronka or something like that I would have not complained and imo both sides would have gotten something out of it.