My Review of 6.1 Story Content

[aveyond-dreams]

Oh for the love of-I don't know how to explain this in simpler terms than this: G'raha Tia's desire/sexuality is irrelevant because it would be just as creepy regardless of whether I played a male or female character. We don't have an option to say no and to tell him to stop. Add that to his already strange appearance and you have something that simply isn't palatable.

And yeah, hereditary ruling classes and things like empires/kingdoms are kind of important pillars to most fantasy worlds? Garlemald and Ishgard were the most interesting concepts/locations that got me to stay on in this game back when it was just generic forest village+pirate land+generic desert land ruled by Lalafells? Now that the story has shifted away from those locations I need to find new places to get attached to.

At least the story is pivoting towards the void, it looks cool and is unlikely to be subject to the goodie goodie democratic government styles of the Source. For a blessing it seems that even Y'shtola is now actively pursuing a goal and her character finally has purpose again, justifying her continued presence on screen. G'raha Tia though? He is written as a sidekick who I want nothing more than to get rid of. He isn't my Exarch anymore, he's become insufferable.

Although I do feel the need to clarify this: I do not have anything against the voice actor for him, I *loved* his voice in Shadowbringers back when his character wasn't in the state that it was in now. It was fitting, soothing, and a joy to listen to. Now his voice doesn't match what his character has become, but that is absolutely in no way the fault of the actor. This is an issue whose root cause is in the writing and direction of the character, which is built around pandering to his fans and shoving him down everyone else's throats at every available opportunity.

It is roughly analogous to this: I do not blame a server at a restaurant for serving me a badly made dish when the mistake occurred in the kitchen under the direction of the chef.

[SannaR]

So, what you're really saying is you didn't like that G'raha is now able to show the adoration he's had for the WoL since very early on in the Crystal Tower raids more openly as he doesn't have a lot of responsibilities or a heavy burden on his plate. The guy goes from being envious of us being at the fore of the van while traversing all of the Crystal Tower raids and admiring us somewhat from afar. To getting over the selfish want to not go to stasis (forever) for 200 years where in a now alternative time line gets woken up and asked if he wants to travel back in time to save the very same person he already admires who's deeds felt like they happened just yesterday. Only to hit the miss the mark by a hundred years (which is debatable if it was really an oppsie or not). Who then got thrust into a position of power in needing to keep a world from being just right for a rejoining so that when it'd be time to alter history and save the hero he admired it could happen.

The responsibilities and burdens didn't go away until after everyone got back to the source and then we get thrusted into dealing with well all of EW. He is also a mixture of two different versions of himself. Now he's free to do whatever and free to show his affection. Even if for some it feels like it's being shoved down one's throat. I feel we'd get the same kind of behavior from other npcs if they also felt they were allowed to show how they really feel about the WoL if they could be weighed down less by their own responsibilities and burdens. It's why I love running around with Nanamo when she's trying to be incognito. She still keeps in mind her duties to her people while also showing us how she is when not wearing the crown.

[aveyond-dreams]

You can show admiration once or twice but to quote a phrase I cannot remember where I originally heard, "It's not gonna be the greatest story ever told if you're gonna tell it every 5 minutes." The more it's said, the less impact it has. Just like after how many nations turned into democracies in wake of Ishgard's reformation, in the Garlemald role quest felt like just it was repeating the same thing all over again.

In any case, G'raha Tia is "expressing his admiration" far too frequent to the point of parody, enough is enough. And yes, having responsibilities or goals for characters to work towards is important to justify the fact that they are taking up space on my screen. G'raha Tia has no goals at the moment, therefore, I would much rather see someone who is actually doing something. Or better yet, have characters who can argue and disagree with the player character.

When I played Dragon Age Origins, characters like Morrigan often questioned my decisions and so did Alistair depending on what kind of route I was going for. Here, everyone just nods and agrees on practically everything. You cannot tell a story worth listening to if the cast is going to be this ideologically homogenous. Estinien butting heads with Ysayle made for something interesting to watch, especially with how much both grew over their journeys. Now, all that has been replaced with an excessive wasted budget on animating G'raha Tia and a magical girl sequence for Y'shtola.

G'raha Tia's growth has remained stagnant throughout Endwalker, and destroyed his reputation from Shadowbringers.

Y'shtola's reputation was already in tatters in my eyes because of her constant fakeouts, and did not grow at all during Shadowbringers or Endwalker.

Thancred's arc ended in Shadowbringers and his character experienced no progression in Endwalker.

Urianger fulfilled a fun, whimsical role in Shadowbringers but in Endwalker he was reduced to being king of the moon rabbits and was tied into the worst round of MSQ filler quests since the trolley arc in Shb.

These characters, bar Y'shtola, no longer have a goal to pursue. With no focus left to give them, get them off my screen and bring in new cast members with all haste. I had hoped that this patch would have introduced at least 1 new main party member, but it seems even that couldn't be managed.

The only thing remotely indicative of that could be Varshahn, but I do not know if he will fill the role of a fighting party member given his humanoid form is that of a child. I'm not opposed to him joining the party at all-but at least give him a battle job if he must tag along.

[CrownySuccubus]

I mean, this was NEVER going to be Dragon Age. In that game, Zevran, Alistair, and Morrigan all can and will leave your party if you make certain choices. Western RPGs are built with the goal of the player creating their own custom avatar that veers down unique story branches. JRPGs, except for VERY rare exceptions, are not. And certainly not within the Final Fantasy franchise. Doesn't matter if you like Sorceress Ultimecia or feel sympathy for Ardyn, or just wanna go full Chaotic Evil and help Kefka. You will only ever help the players destroy them. No matter how much you treat Aeris or Tifa like crap in the early game, both of them are still viable love interests until one of them dies and the game ends. No matter what choices you make, people aren't going to stop treating Noctis as the prince.

Gonna have to also disagree on the matter of G'raha Tia's (or any other character's) "growth". As I've mentioned elsewhere, Endwalker is narratively equivalent to the last "disc" of a traditional FF story. All of the character growth and development already happened between 1.0 - 5.0.. In "Hero's Jouney" terms, the character arcs are now entering the "Return" phase, where the heroes return to their roots to show how their particular arcs have changed them and will help the places they come from. That's literally what happens when the Scions return to Sharlayan (especially the twins confronting their father), when Estinien helps a dragon meet his destiny, and when Urianger refuses to lie to his friends again and finally mourns his closest friend alongside her parents.

I will agree that, if the Scions are going to continue to be the focal characters, they will need new arcs and growth going forward. But Endwalker serving as a final culmination of their original arcs works well enough.

[IkaraGreydancer]

You can show admiration once or twice but to quote a phrase I cannot remember where I originally heard, "It's not gonna be the greatest story ever told if you're gonna tell it every 5 minutes." The more it's said, the less impact it has. Just like after how many nations turned into democracies in wake of Ishgard's reformation, in the Garlemald role quest felt like just it was repeating the same thing all over again.

In any case, G'raha Tia is "expressing his admiration" far too frequent to the point of parody, enough is enough. And yes, having responsibilities or goals for characters to work towards is important to justify the fact that they are taking up space on my screen. G'raha Tia has no goals at the moment, therefore, I would much rather see someone who is actually doing something. Or better yet, have characters who can argue and disagree with the player character.

When I played Dragon Age Origins, characters like Morrigan often questioned my decisions and so did Alistair depending on what kind of route I was going for. Here, everyone just nods and agrees on practically everything. You cannot tell a story worth listening to if the cast is going to be this ideologically homogenous. Estinien butting heads with Ysayle made for something interesting to watch, especially with how much both grew over their journeys. Now, all that has been replaced with an excessive wasted budget on animating G'raha Tia and a magical girl sequence for Y'shtola.

G'raha Tia's growth has remained stagnant throughout Endwalker, and destroyed his reputation from Shadowbringers.

Y'shtola's reputation was already in tatters in my eyes because of her constant fakeouts, and did not grow at all during Shadowbringers or Endwalker.

Thancred's arc ended in Shadowbringers and his character experienced no progression in Endwalker.

Urianger fulfilled a fun, whimsical role in Shadowbringers but in Endwalker he was reduced to being king of the moon rabbits and was tied into the worst round of MSQ filler quests since the trolley arc in Shb.

These characters, bar Y'shtola, no longer have a goal to pursue. With no focus left to give them, get them off my screen and bring in new cast members with all haste. I had hoped that this patch would have introduced at least 1 new main party member, but it seems even that couldn't be managed.

The only thing remotely indicative of that could be Varshahn, but I do not know if he will fill the role of a fighting party member given his humanoid form is that of a child. I'm not opposed to him joining the party at all-but at least give him a battle job if he must tag along.

Yeah they no longer have goals...that tells me you skipped cutscenes and don't know shizz. That's all I needed to read to know for sure that you're a clown

[aveyond-dreams]

Given how little substance any cutscenes involving G'raha Tia or Krile are, can you blame me if I choose to do so? Their nebulous task of "rebuilding the Students" means nothing to me. Goodness knows I have no interest in becoming a "student of Baldesion," that's the only possible way to downgrade from being a scion at this point, and would give this writing style a full go ahead to make the April Fool's FFXIV school manga a reality in game.

[IkaraGreydancer]

Given how little substance any cutscenes involving G'raha Tia or Krile are, can you blame me if I choose to do so? Their nebulous task of "rebuilding the Students" means nothing to me. Goodness knows I have no interest in becoming a "student of Baldesion," that's the only possible way to downgrade from being a scion at this point, and would give this writing style a full go ahead to make the April Fool's FFXIV school manga a reality in game.

THERE IT IS FOLKS PLAIN AS COULD BE. It's that the Scions don't have goals, it's the fact this guy doesn't deem them worthy enough.

So I take it the goals have to do with you the WoL to be acceptable to you...yet you crap on Graha for being close. You're one of those people that can never be pleased, I see that now

[aveyond-dreams]

THERE IT IS FOLKS PLAIN AS COULD BE. It's that the Scions don't have goals, it's the fact this guy doesn't deem them worthy enough.

Yeah, rebuilding a university club doesn't interest me. I bought a Final Fantasy game not a Persona game. I want to go on an adventure with people who aren't all scholars from Sharlayan. The cast as it is now is too ideologically similar and bar Y'shtola now actively pursuing the void, there is nothing the rest of them are doing that is remotely interesting.

I would rather "Join the expedition to the Void with a band of warriors" or "Fight the Dragonsong War" than,
"Help rebuild the Students of Baldesion." Two of these are decent enough premises for a Final Fantasy game, the other is something that could be mistaken for a visual novel.

I'm not particularly difficult to please either. Have characters that come from different places and that can disagree with each other. That isn't asking much. Have characters with goals we actively see them pursuing in order to justify their continued presence. Do not overload serious characters with excessive meme moments and let the player decide who they want to be "admired" by instead of forcing it onto them.

What is controversial about any of these basic requests?

[Zero-ELEC]

.

The mild-queerphobia that I quote is more about the part that you find his appearance strange and off-putting by default, rather than about how you react to his hero worship.

And I disagree wholeheartedly that an hereditary ruling class and empire/kingdoms being absolute for fantasy, especially Final Fantasy. You often talk about medieval-ish fantasy as a monolith but ignore that you're talking about western medieval fantasy (mostly French/Spanish/British in origin). Further still, most locations in Final Fantasy XIV are not "goodie goodie democratic [governments]" as you claim is the norm. Even among the starting cities you find boring... aren't that. There's the pirate-like thalassocracy of Limsa Lominsa, the oligarchic theocracy of Gridania, the puppet hereditary monarchy and its monetarist rulers of Ul'dah. And outside of that, only in Eorzea mind, you have the nomadic tribes of Paglth'an who hold council often in times of war, the matriarchal hereditary ruling class of the four chieftains of Xelphatol, the theocracy and structured caste system of O'Ghomoro, the non-hereditary monarchy of the Indigo Deep sahagin, the... autonomous collectives of the twelveswood sylphs and moogles, the "free nation" of Idyllshire, the hereditary monarchic clans of Ok'Gundu, Ok'Zundu and Ok'Vundu, the hivemind of Loth ast Gnath and the guild collective of Loth ast Vath and indeed, the representative democracy of Ishgard and the loose republic of Ala Mhigo.

Outside of that, besides the Garlean provinces we have no knowledge of, Garlemald and the Garlean Empire itself had a senate despite being a hereditary monarchic empire, Doma is and was a hereditary monarchy, Hinganshi is an isolationist shogunate, Dalmasca has hopes of regaining it's kingdom status, Bozja and its supposed meritocracy, Radz-at-Han and its sham hereditary monarchy, really an autocratic satrapy with no hereditary component, and whatever the heck Werlyt is.

.

... The Students of Baldesion is a research institution named after its founder, Galuf Baldesion, not an actual student body. It's more akin to an independent research group that owned land and conducted experiments and such. Their thing was that they were studying the Echo and other aetheric matters. It's not a "university club"... It's why they take requests for surveys and such.

[aveyond-dreams]

snip.

I'm not going to bother responding to the first part of your post because it is little more than an attempt to paint me as something that I am not, moving on.

The pirates of pirate land aren't allowed to do pirate things anymore, the forest nuns in Gridania are boring and literally don't do anything, and Ul'dah was intriguing until it simply wasn't. Are you seriously bringing up Paglth'an, a dungeon we will never visit again? It's going to take a lot more than that to keep my interest. The beast tribes have nothing left of value now that they no longer do the beast tribe thing of summoning primals every now and then.

Dalmasca's plot was finished on a note, the writers don't seem to want to do anything in the far east for the time being, and at present I only tolerate Radz-at-Han/Thavnair because of Vrtra. I cannot wait to bounce off the Source where nothing is happening and every nation just stoically nods and agrees with each other, much like our currently bland cast.

Thank you for the lore exposition on the Students of Baldesion but I'm not interested in being a researcher, I'm interested in fighting things and exploring. Adventurer, Warrior of Light, even Scion as much as I despise being associated with them are all leagues better than being called "the Student." Goodness. They can go play with their aether devices without my involvement.