in from the cold is so stupid

[CaptainLagbeard]

Personally, I disliked every perspective of the quest.

Gameplay wise, it's badly done. Bunch of unnecessary running from one end of the instance and back because sequence breaking is bad. And the combat there has the complexity of a level 4 Gladiator.

In terms of story, all it does is remove all impact from The Tower of Babil and the Zodiark trial because Fandaniel just casually straight up tells you Anima is made from Varis' corpse and that the Zodiark trial is coming.

People say that as narrative point it tries to establish how much more powerful the WoL is compared to regular people, a difference that's basically a commonly known fact...

[OhNooo]

People say that as narrative point it tries to establish how much more powerful the WoL is compared to regular people, a difference that's basically a commonly known fact...

I can see how the instance was supposed to put this into perspective, but then I think they completely dropped the ball once you're done and catch up with Zenos. So you just spent that whole time struggling to fight against regular garlean soldiers and then you're able to just throw a knife and it immediately destroys Zenos' avatar? Then you knock Zenos over like it's no big deal? But not only that...the whole thing is never mentioned again. So I was left feeling like ok what was the point in all that except to get me at the edge of my seat but then say psyche that's it!

ETA: And apparently Fandaniel can teleport you away whenever he feels like it but we never see it happen again.

[Elodie_Einsbern]

I can see how the instance was supposed to put this into perspective, but then I think they completely dropped the ball once you're done and catch up with Zenos. So you just spent that whole time struggling to fight against regular garlean soldiers and then you're able to just throw a knife and it immediately destroys Zenos' avatar? Then you knock Zenos over like it's no big deal? But not only that...the whole thing is never mentioned again. So I was left feeling like ok what was the point in all that except to get me at the edge of my seat but then say psyche that's it!

ETA: And apparently Fandaniel can teleport you away whenever he feels like it but we never see it happen again.

The whole thing was garbage story telling from top to bottom. And it could have been amazing if done right. I still find it mind blowing how people just give the entire setup a free pass. Let alone the ending of it

Fandaniel is a sundered ascian, and yet he can freely teleport us away and disable us in the blink of an eye. No narrative buildup as to how he could accomplish this, it just "happens". After seeing our character disabled in that chair from the launch trailer, I was left wondering how they would do it. But they couldnt even go the cheap route of having Fandaniel find some Allagan tech that lets him disable a target. Or use a Garlean to betray us, which would have totally been in character. And been so much more satisfying to see from a storytelling perspective as we were trying to help them.

Instead he just yeets us, and they never bother to say how to the player. Leaving this enormous plot hole in the process. Why didnt Emet Selch, Lahabrea, or Elidibus just teleport us into a damn lava pit and kill us if it was this easy? Or any of the disposable rank and file sundered Ascians? The reason was simple, before this, the target had to be disabled or be willing to be teleported. None of which happened to us. Instead we were teleported away and then disabled with no explanation as to how he did any of it. And then uses the body swap tech.....*slow clap*.....well done amazing top tier writing

I expect this kind of writing from dollar store novels. But it just gets a free pass because 14's writers cant screw up. I liked the majority of the expansion, dont get me wrong. But this entire section was garbage

[Imoye]

I expect this kind of writing from dollar store novels. But it just gets a free pass because 14's writers cant screw up. I liked the majority of the expansion, dont get me wrong. But this entire section was garbage

Unfortunately, there are a lot of FFXIV players that give everything story-related a free pass for unknown reasons. I've seen the same arguements in context of the ridiculous quest in Labyrinthos where you have to run around and talk to EIGHT random NPCs. Whenever someone rightfully points out how stupid it is, these very same people say "it's not that bad"; "I think it's OK"; "actually, I kind of enjoyed it"; "everything shouldn't be easy" etc.

I will never understand people giving bad design a free pass. "In from the Cold" is just a ridiculous quest. Even if you give it a pass lore-wise; technically it's just an extremely tedious and poorly designed quest seemingly made to waste players' time.

[Atelier-Bagur]

Unfortunately, there are a lot of FFXIV players that give everything story-related a free pass for unknown reasons. I've seen the same arguements in context of the ridiculous quest in Labyrinthos where you have to run around and talk to EIGHT random NPCs. Whenever someone rightfully points out how stupid it is, these very same people say "it's not that bad"; "I think it's OK"; "actually, I kind of enjoyed it"; "everything shouldn't be easy" etc.

I will never understand people giving bad design a free pass. "In from the Cold" is just a ridiculous quest. Even if you give it a pass lore-wise; technically it's just an extremely tedious and poorly designed quest seemingly made to waste players' time.

Its not that at all. Some people genuinely enjoy those story moments because they knew what the designers were going for and appreciated how it was presented. Its obvious some people dont like it, but I personally didnt think the quest was bad at all. It was great for what it did in terms of story telling.

[Floortank]

The whole thing was garbage story telling from top to bottom. And it could have been amazing if done right. I still find it mind blowing how people just give the entire setup a free pass. Let alone the ending of it

Fandaniel is a sundered ascian, and yet he can freely teleport us away and disable us in the blink of an eye. No narrative buildup as to how he could accomplish this, it just "happens". After seeing our character disabled in that chair from the launch trailer, I was left wondering how they would do it. But they couldnt even go the cheap route of having Fandaniel find some Allagan tech that lets him disable a target. Or use a Garlean to betray us, which would have totally been in character. And been so much more satisfying to see from a storytelling perspective as we were trying to help them.

Instead he just yeets us, and they never bother to say how to the player. Leaving this enormous plot hole in the process. Why didnt Emet Selch, Lahabrea, or Elidibus just teleport us into a damn lava pit and kill us if it was this easy? Or any of the disposable rank and file sundered Ascians? The reason was simple, before this, the target had to be disabled or be willing to be teleported. None of which happened to us. Instead we were teleported away and then disabled with no explanation as to how he did any of it. And then uses the body swap tech.....*slow clap*.....well done amazing top tier writing

I expect this kind of writing from dollar store novels. But it just gets a free pass because 14's writers cant screw up. I liked the majority of the expansion, dont get me wrong. But this entire section was garbage

I have my problems with Endwalker, but this is not one of them. The meticulously detailed scene you're looking for isn't in the game because it is far less interesting than the one we got. The unanswered question you are burning to see answered, is answered. They used the technology developed by the "soul extraction" boss from the Ala Mhigo dungeon whose name I forgot. He says it right in the cutscene. I'm sure you've had your soul sucked out during that boss fight at least once. Everyone has. If it can happen to you in the instance, then it is plausible that your WOL got caught off guard by the teleport and "hit with the mechanic" so to speak a moment later.

Why does your imagination need to be spoon fed? It is far less interesting to see the details of what happened piece by piece than to just move forward with the scene that we got. They waved away the boring sequence with a quick explanation so we could accept it and move on with something far more dramatic and enticing.

Fandaniel is a sundered ascian, and yet he can freely teleport us away and disable us in the blink of an eye. No narrative buildup as to how he could accomplish this, it just "happens".

You get moved around and teleported against your will all the time in instances. Do you cry foul about that too? Considering the thread you're ranting in, the answer is probably yes.

Why didnt Emet Selch, Lahabrea, or Elidibus just teleport us into a damn lava pit and kill us if it was this easy?

I've stood in lava in this game. Wouldn't have killed the WOL.

More seriously, though.

1) Emet-Selch wasn't trying to kill us until the final MSQ of the story. For the entire rest of it, he was testing us, genuinely curious to see if we were rejoined enough and thus enlightened enough to be considered his peers. When he found that we weren't, his next plan was not to kill us outright, but to nefariously accelerate the process of us becoming a Lightwarden, a far more horrifying punishment than death at that point. Did you even read Shadowbringers?

2) Lahabrea was certainly arrogant, and perhaps that is why he didn't just teleport us into the heart of a volcano. But it might have had more to do with Lahabrea underestimating us, or simply not having a volcano handy. But I expect that Lahabrea considered that such an alternative would not have been able to stop us. We get teleported into terrible situations all the time, including in the fight with Nabriales, where we get forcibly warped into a primordial space and hit with multiple meteors and it doesn't really bother us. Perhaps Lahabrea's approach is hands-on because he doesn't trust a volcano to be able to deal with Hydaelyn's champion.

3) Elidibus has a far more personal reason for wanting our destruction in 5.3, and everything he does is calculated to make us understand what a colossal thing we have torn away from him. Only then could he carry out our destruction. In his mind, this requires summoning the essences of heroes across reality to imbue himself with the primal archetype of the Warrior of Light and make us fraudulent. A bit grandiose, but I think he considered a volcano an inadequate means of dispatch at that point.

Perhaps the distinction you are so confused by is the one the writer is trying to make obvious. Fandaniel is a small Ascian with much smaller ideas than his predecessors.