What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[CrownySuccubus]

I'll take more absolute monarchies in game if it actually results in more interesting plots and characters not solely tied to *1* country of all the ones in FFXIV's world, whose dangerously close to being ruined for those of us who enjoyed Garlemald as an Empire rather than another copypasted republic.

Right now we all we have for the most part are a bunch of republics who stoically nod in agreement on pretty much everything, just like the scions.

Yes yes, we get it. You're not interested in anything except European Fairy-Tale Kingdom #74,230.

[aveyond-dreams]

Yes yes, we get it. You're not interested in anything except European Fairy-Tale Kingdom #74,230.

Yeah, because there isn't anything interesting going on with a bunch of republics who are on the same page on 100% of issues, have nerfed their leaders into submission, and have very little in the way of backbones.

Contrast this with individuals like Clive, Garnet, and so on. One kind actually manages to grab and hold onto people's attention beyond the twitter fandoms that form around characters for inexplicable reasons like Zenos.

Why can we not have a Rosaria, or Sanbreque for 7.0? Why can we not have someone like Clive and say, I'm going to do things *my* way and if you disagree then I'm going in solo? Or character growth arcs and funny interactions like those between Zidane and Garnet?

What on earth is G'raha Tia and Alphinaud supposed to do to keep me entertained in Final Fantasy Australia or the New World? Moralize even more about how oppressed some kangaroo tribe is by the local Meracydians who are hunting them for meat in what is supposed to be an empty wasteland? Cause yet more regime change in the colonies of the New World? These are stories that are going nowhere and doing nothing for people outside twitter, who will somehow find fault in the way the situation is handled regardless of how "careful" they go about it.

[CrownySuccubus]

Yeah, because there isn't anything interesting going on with a bunch of republics who are on the same page on 100% of issues, have nerfed their leaders into submission, and have very little in the way of backbones.

Yeah, dude. Because Hien being a dictator totally stops him from being on the same hand-holdy rainbow coalition as every other world leader.

This is a writing problem that has nothing to do with the style of governments being used and everything to do with FFXIV having an extremely hackneyed plot and tendency toward black-and-white morality.

[Brinne]

Gotta say, feels pretty good to be part of the oft-cited apparently terrifying Twitter fandom overlords that love Zenos.

[CrownySuccubus]

What on earth is G'raha Tia and Alphinaud supposed to do to keep me entertained in Final Fantasy Australia or the New World?

Again, pretty sure nobody cares what you personally find entertaining or not.

Moralize even more about how oppressed some kangaroo tribe is by the local Meracydians who are hunting them for meat in what is supposed to be an empty wasteland?

I dunno. Sounds more entertaining than watching King Edgelord sulk because someone told him no, and now he has to walk out of his rat-filled castle and past the dung-filled peasant streets so he can build his fantasy version of Atlas Shrugged somewhere else.

What? If we're reducing entire continents into one specific culture and landscape, this seems like a pretty fair assessement.

[aveyond-dreams]

...

The locations you've just described remind me of Plague Tale: Innocence, a very beloved game that I would highly recommend to most. I would gladly accept medieval, plague-ridden France as a future expansion location than the New World or Meracydia.

[CrownySuccubus]

The locations you've just described remind me of Plague Tale: Innocence, a very beloved game that I would highly recommend to most. I would gladly accept medieval, plague-ridden France as a future expansion location than the New World or Meracydia.

Ah yes. "A good game once took place in a similar setting."

By this logic, since medieval Europe so cliched a setting, combined with Sturgeon's Law, we can also claim that there are far more bad games within that setting than even serviceably decent ones.

[aveyond-dreams]

Ah yes. "A good game once took place in a similar setting."

By this logic, since medieval Europe so cliched a setting, combined with Sturgeon's Law, we can also claim that there are far more bad games within that setting than even serviceably decent ones.

Why you still feel the need to press for discussion on this subject is a mystery. In any case, there are hardly any games that take place in Australia or Africa at all. Possibly because there isn't much interest in visiting those regions, regardless of whatever the twitter crowd is pushing for these days. Even players from Australia and Africa likely have more interest in playing games set in Europe and Asia than the other continents. You want to play a game without gods and the blandest cast in the entire franchise set in a region as niche as the Australian savannah? Go ahead.

The high fantasy/magitek elements that got me and many others interested enough to stick with this game are done and resolved for the most part. You cannot hope to carry me at least with the current writing direction combined with another repeat of Gyr Abania, a slog through a set of zones I cannot fall in love with the same way I did for the far east and Ishgard.

You say you don't care what I'm interested in buying, nor am I interested in sticking through an expansion that is catered around virtually nothing that catches my interest. Whether you choose to deny it or not, Ishgard is responsible for giving players like me a home, Garlemald is responsible for giving players like me an antagonistic force to be interested in, and the Final Fantasy Australia game you seem to champion is in no way equivalent to a world as rich as Spira, it simply cannot be with the current way of handling such locales.

[CrownySuccubus]

Why you still feel the need to press for discussion on this subject is a mystery.

I'm not the one who brought it up. You did.

As long as you say things I don't agree with, or demonstrably false on a public forum, I will continue to debunk it. You yourself may feel free to stop at any time.

In any case, there are hardly any games that take place in Australia or Africa at all. Possibly because there isn't much interest in visiting those regions, regardless of whatever the twitter crowd is pushing for these days.

Yes, let's totally pretend that lack of a subject matter is entirely due to the invisible hand of the market, with no other sociopolitical causes. By the same token, let's also pretend that subject saturation in media is due entirely to viability or success, and not the laziness of publishers; I'm sure the mass saturation of schlock slasher films in the 80s, the abundance of generic WW2 shooters in the early 2000s, and the continued rise of tedious open world sandboxes is completely due to consumer demand and no other reasons.

Whether you choose to deny it or not, Ishgard is responsible for giving players like me a home, Garlemald is responsible for giving players like me an antagonistic force to be interested in

That's all fine. Just to let you know, adding more varied locales into the game isn't going to make Ishgard or Garlemald, or whatever other settings you currently like, go away.

and the Final Fantasy Australia game you seem to champion is in no way equivalent to a world as rich as Spira, it simply cannot be with the current way of handling such locales.

This sounds like a completely nonsensical and arbitrary argument which easily falls apart -- not the least of which because Spira is a place that, while inspired by a specific culture, was still completely created by human imagination. There is zero reasonable argument that the human imagination which was responsible for Spira, or any other locale that you seem to love, could not do the same for a place set in Australia or the surrounding environment of South-East Asia/Polynesia, or any other location on Earth. As has been stated numerous times, you have this ridiculous argument that Australia, which is part of the larger Oceanic region, is a monolithic geography and culture while failing to afford Europe the same oversimplified dismissal.