What is with the constant mistreatment of the Garlean story?(6.1 Patch spoilers)

[aveyond-dreams]

The war against Garlemald as told in Doma was excellent. The war against Garlemald as told in Ala Mhigo was horrendous, because that region is as colorless as it is underdeveloped. Garlemald and by extent the Ascians represented a strong motivator in the story to get interested in. Now they're gone and while they've teased the void, who is to say that it won't suffer the same fate because the new target audience will "lose interest in it" in favor of more slice of life scenes straight of the FFXIV AU high school manga?

[Raoabolic]

The war against Garlemald as told in Doma was excellent. The war against Garlemald as told in Ala Mhigo was horrendous, because that region is as colorless as it is underdeveloped.

It was really odd that Gridaina was so willing to open their borders with Ally McMingo considering the majority of what we knew of them was that they were jerks who tried to overrun Gridana and then got their aether kicked in by Garlamand. Considering the events that lead to the WoL freeing Al Amago it almost feels like the WoL and scions created a power vacuum, pointed to Yda and went, "Look, it's your new leader! :^)" Doma at least felt like you were liberating actual subjugation, Alamode-igo felt real muddled when it came to what the WoL was doing.

I'd like whatever drugs you're having to think the story is going to get as silly as Hildibrand. Like seriously, no main story quest has ever been that silly, ever gotten close to being that silly, not even in Endwalker. A few scenes sprinkled here and there over multiple quests to lighten the mood, yes. But nothing as over the top as Hildibrand.

*Points to haha sleepy catgirl scene*
*Points to loporits*
*Points to haha awkard dragoon*
*points to funny haha graha scenes*
*points to fully rendered, rigged hamburger scene*
I wish I could point to the scene where the game shows what happened during the sundering, but I guess the devs had their priorities. :^)

[RyuDragnier]

*Points to haha sleepy catgirl scene*
*Points to loporits*
*Points to haha awkard dragoon*
*points to funny haha graha scenes*
*points to fully rendered, rigged hamburger scene*
I wish I could point to the scene where the game shows what happened during the sundering, but I guess the devs had their priorities. :^)

None of that is anywhere close to Hildibrand. Hildibrand is the equivalent of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Meaning completely over the top, can't be taken seriously, and you're there for the insane hijinks and laughter. FFXIV's story, even with the current stuff, is more akin to DBZ. While there are funny moments, it's more action-y than anything, and can get pretty dramatic.

[Raoabolic]

None of that is anywhere close to Hildibrand. Hildibrand is the equivalent of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo. Meaning completely over the top, can't be taken seriously, and you're there for the insane hijinks and laughter. FFXIV's story, even with the current stuff, is more akin to DBZ. While there are funny moments, it's more action-y than anything, and can get pretty dramatic.

If we had to make an analogy, it's more like DB Super where the characters feel flat compared to the older writing. Combine that with the new writers doubling down on silliness and reconning established lore and I can say with some confidence that the story is GOING the way of the hilibrand feel. But hey, don't worry about it, I doubt the writers are going to take any of the criticism to heart when the writers are on record telling the players not to think too deeply about the story, lol.

[RyuDragnier]

If we had to make an analogy, it's more like DB Super where the characters feel flat compared to the older writing. Combine that with the new writers doubling down on silliness and reconning established lore and I can say with some confidence that the story is GOING the way of the hilibrand feel. But hey, don't worry about it, I doubt the writers are going to take any of the criticism to heart when the writers are on record telling the players not to think too deeply about the story, lol.

DBZ Super feels a lot like the original Dragonball to me, but I haven't gotten that far in it. That series has been milked to hell and back. Thinking on it though, it does feel like we're winding down to the old ARR story levels. Meaning the calm before the storm, because everybody remembers what we got hit by at the end of ARR's extra patches...

[Iscah]

*Points to haha sleepy catgirl scene*
*Points to loporits*
*Points to haha awkard dragoon*
*points to funny haha graha scenes*
*points to fully rendered, rigged hamburger scene*

*points to Trachtoum*
*points to Mimidoa*
*points to sylphs*
*points to moogles*
*points to JP Haurchefant*
*points to half of ARR being a parade of minor characters in varying degrees of quirkiness*

[Raoabolic]

*points to Trachtoum*
*points to Mimidoa*
*points to sylphs*
*points to moogles*
*points to JP Haurchefant*
*points to half of ARR being a parade of minor characters in varying degrees of quirkiness*

Boy, oh boy. I sure would be steamed if all of those happened in the span of a single expansion. :^)

[EriShvakh]

Correct me if i’m wrong but those are all different expansions

Boy, oh boy. I sure would be steamed if all of those happened in the span of a single expansion. :^)

Would be really awkward if all of those were in ARR, huh?
You know like the guy who only appears before Titan trial
Or lalafell directly connected to Pharos Sirius...
Or ARR beast tribe...
Or little fluffy creatures introduced to you in ARR...
Or a guy you spend whole ARR arc with...
:^)

[Raoabolic]

*points to Trachtoum*
*points to Mimidoa*
*points to sylphs*
*points to moogles*
*points to JP Haurchefant*
*points to half of ARR being a parade of minor characters in varying degrees of quirkiness*

1. a one and done character
2&3. That, i'll give but at least we got a sweet remix of the nightmare before christmas' theme featuring moogles and it is pretty sad when the sylphs are less cringe inducing than the EW era Scions
4. lol, what am I? A weeb?
5. That's a pretty big net you are casting there, lol. Ilbred was pretty silly though. :^)

[aveyond-dreams]

*points to Trachtoum*
*points to Mimidoa*
*points to sylphs*
*points to moogles*
*points to JP Haurchefant*
*points to half of ARR being a parade of minor characters in varying degrees of quirkiness*

Mimidoa leads into the iconic fight against Siren, one of my better memories from ARR. From what I remember he's a little Tyrion-type character that I'm surprised hasn't been called out by twitter as being problematic, and the current localization team would likely shy away from characters like him in favor of fleshing out the intricacies of what pronouns fae creatures use in Il Mheg. Mimidoa is not comparable to something as innocous and inoffensive as the catboy hamburger scene or the cartoon rabbits on the moon.

The Sylphs make the player characters do ridiculous things but they didn't outstay their welcome nor did they implant themselves in a moment as serious as shortly after the demise of Zodiark like the Loporrits did. The Sylphs were a part of FFXIV's world that was charming and fitting, not forceful "light-heartedness" shoved in just for the sake of it.

The Moogles are quite similar in this regard. A Final Fantasy staple, of course they were going to be ridiculous but again didn't outstay their welcome. In Heavensward they were used to payoff an earlier plot point about the Moogle King and watching characters like Estinien and Sigurdu call them out on their nonsense. Instead in EW Thancred just stoically nods and barely has a reaction to learning that the First would be abandoned if they go along with the Loporrits' plan.

I haven't played the JP version so I cannot speak at length about how Haurchefant behaves there but compared to the others characters in Ishgard he was one of the least memorable ones aside from his sacrifice at the Vault. I have very little relevant memories of him otherwise. In any case he wasn't nearly as forceful in the english version as G'raha Tia currently is.

ARR's characters were a lot rougher around the edges and less "tame" than some of the newer characters are. Back then they weren't afraid to go full medieval - now they are for fear of offending the twitter playerbase who cannot handle anything bad happening to their comfort characters nor characters that don't align with modern-day morals. You'll never see another Mimidoa, or anything in that vein with this current writing style, because someone will make a post along the lines of:

"Um, can we talk about how X character is so problematic? I can't believe that SE would enable this kind of mentality ingame like this"

"I can't believe that they really did that to X, do they hate Y group?"

and instead of ignoring these individuals and their circles SE in it's current state would more than likely bend to their whims and curtail the story to fit their worldview. The only way to be safe with those people is to do nothing but memes and jokes. The fact that I may have to cede this territory to them is something that bothers me greatly, I came here for a decent Final Fantasy story and gameplay but it's looking like there may come a point where we end up with neither.