Dream scenario: NieR Replicant trial crossover.

[Iscah]

A lot is because the horrible implementation left a really bad taste in people's mouths. We lost the chance to get relevant lore about the First or somewhere else on the Source in the Alliance raid for that expansion. That wouldn't have been as bad if Yoko Taro had remotely tried to connect the raid series to the setting.

Given the heavy crossover nature of it, I don't mind it "not connecting to the setting" but it needed to be a coherent stand-alone narrative that was enjoyable to play, and it failed at that.

[TaleraRistain]

Given the heavy crossover nature of it, I don't mind it "not connecting to the setting" but it needed to be a coherent stand-alone narrative that was enjoyable to play, and it failed at that.

If it were a one-off trial like Monster Hunter then it can get away with that. Not the alliance raid series of an expansion. Especially not how we've seen just about all of them connect back into the MSQ now.

And it was also an awful stand-alone narrative, if you even want to try to call it a narrative. I'd love to know the politics behind that because I can't imagine the XIV team looked at that and went "Yep, that'll work".

[Iscah]

If it were a one-off trial like Monster Hunter then it can get away with that. Not the alliance raid series of an expansion. Especially not how we've seen just about all of them connect back into the MSQ now.

It's more like... because it's a crossover that seems so disjointed from the fantasy setting of the First, and it's clearly being shoehorned in just because it needs to go somewhere, I don't particularly want to see it become a building block of this story's world.

Maybe if they went the route (as most of the other crossovers do here) of being a copy of the basic concept that fits into its transplanted setting, that would be okay – but it seems determined to be the real NieR universe crossing over into this one, and I really dislike the prospect of a whole second franchise with its own convoluted worldbuilding becoming an integral part of this game. Because of that, I prefer it to be as walled-off and disconnected as possible, and to not be acknowledged as canon outside of itself.

[TaleraRistain]

It's more like... because it's a crossover that seems so disjointed from the fantasy setting of the First, and it's clearly being shoehorned in just because it needs to go somewhere, I don't particularly want to see it become a building block of this story's world.

Maybe if they went the route (as most of the other crossovers do here) of being a copy of the basic concept that fits into its transplanted setting, that would be okay – but it seems determined to be the real NieR universe crossing over into this one, and I really dislike the prospect of a whole second franchise with its own convoluted worldbuilding becoming an integral part of this game. Because of that, I prefer it to be as walled-off and disconnected as possible, and to not be acknowledged as canon outside of itself.

Oh I don't want it connected to the lore of XIV either. I never wanted anything Nier related here but I at least wanted to see the same respect that was given the Crystal Tower and Ivalice connections. It also didn't necessarily have to be on the First. We could have gone back to the Source for the alliance raid and connected it to the Allagans or something. And you're right. The way it was done was like the real Nier crossing into XIV. We're not the dump game for Nier. XIV has its own lore and world-building and any crossover, even a temporary one, should respect that or never happen.

[Rowde]

It's more like... because it's a crossover that seems so disjointed from the fantasy setting of the First, and it's clearly being shoehorned in just because it needs to go somewhere, I don't particularly want to see it become a building block of this story's world.

Maybe if they went the route (as most of the other crossovers do here) of being a copy of the basic concept that fits into its transplanted setting, that would be okay – but it seems determined to be the real NieR universe crossing over into this one, and I really dislike the prospect of a whole second franchise with its own convoluted worldbuilding becoming an integral part of this game. Because of that, I prefer it to be as walled-off and disconnected as possible, and to not be acknowledged as canon outside of itself.

Again with the "fantasy" motif non-argument
Final Fantasy as a franchise has been weaving sci-fi and fantasy together in their mainline titles for decades now and FFXIV is no exception

The whole catalyst for ShB is because a bunch of scientists and engineers from an alternate timeline built a freaking time machine with allagan technology and traveled back through space and time to create an alternate history

Not an alternate shard a whole other alternate universe presumably with it's own shards and where the Ascians succeeded in their rejoinings and the WoL died
I keep hoping and hoping that it will be revealed that this was another Graha fib and we'll do something in the msq to send Graha back to the past and close the loop because you want to talk convoluted? dealing with a "many worlds" universe on top of the sundering of etheirys is arguably already one step more convoluted than the nier/drakengard universe since history could presumably infinitely diverge on any of the 14 shards in any universe

also eden is a major plot/lore point on the first
and while eden could be a primal we also definitely go inside eden and see it filled with the usual and familiar allagan tech
so the Flood of Light was also ostensibly caused by sci-fi space wizards mis-using science and magic

and the final sci-fi element I'd like to address is the dwarf tribal quest culminating in the creation and assembly of a freaking a modern/sci-fi/steampunk laser tank
completed separate from the nier tech but definitely utilizing allagan tech via the CT knowledge (which technically shouldn't be there)


So a Puppet's Bunker crashed on the First somehow and unleashed androids on the local populace? Sure
What isn't on the table when dealing with a many worlds universe?

[Raoabolic]

So a Puppet's Bunker crashed on the First somehow and unleashed androids on the local populace? Sure
What isn't on the table when dealing with a many worlds universe?

Hey peter, remember the time a boss monster threw the Square-Enix building at the alliance? I wonder where she got that from.

[Rowde]

Hey peter, remember the time a boss monster threw the Square-Enix building at the alliance? I wonder where she got that from.

Oh you want to talk about how that other sentient alien robot race made us fight a haunted train, a possessed painting, a war mech that augments it attacks with pixel art, and a god-power infused jester in the prior expansion cause I also wonder where it got the knowledge about those things from?

Some where in it's travels across teh multiverse i presume

[Raoabolic]

Oh you want to talk about how that other sentient alien robot race made us fight a haunted train, a possessed painting, a war mech that augments it attacks with pixel art , and a god-power infused jester in the prior expansion cause I also wonder where it got the knowledge about those things from

Some where in it's travels across teh multiverse i presume

So the world of drakenguard and by extension our world is in the FFXIV multiverse? Why not, let's go full dissidia/KH. lol