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

[SpitbreakFTW]

Eh. I can see the problem, sure. But I guess it didn't bother me any more than the 10,000 other missions we do where our mission is to spar with or weaken some type of target without killing them. If I can shoot somebody with a steampunk shotgun at short range and have them just down on their knees and panting in the next cutscene, I've already checked out of expecting realistic wounds regardless of the level of violence.

That's not a bad point. But still, how many conscripts and useful idiots did I butcher in Castrum Meridianum and the Praetorium and in Ala Mhigo and Doma and Giblet Dark and NOW I'm supposed to believe I can just non-fatally bonk everyone over the head. Now wonder Livia STILL hates me I kind of screwed her SPECIFICALLY. Really, Lucina should be at least a little annoyed that I slaughtered her sister when I, apparently, could have just bonked her on the head.

I guess ultimately the problem is the incredible laziness with which they tried to breeze through this casualty-minimizing invasion. It would not have been hard to include the Conquerer's Chain from the beginning (which would totally justify how the WoL didn't kill anyone), show or at least admit to SOME casualties amongst the actual military contingent we had to fight, highlight an explicit plan to tactically use magic to non-fatally engage the enemy instead of throwing Estinien at them.

He could have been given a linkshell and told to jump and report what he sees so proper less-than-lethal forces could be best deployed.

I like the point raised about the Ragnarok. It's such a large ship that it felt weird that so few people ended up boarding it.

It ties in to why I consider some elements of the storytelling in ESO and WoW to be superior. They leave room for the 'everyman' to get on board and go somewhere exotic and fanciful. Whether it be Draenor through the Dark Portal in WoW or Molag Bal's domain of Coldharbour. FFXIV spends far too much time building up the player character and the Scions as these uniquely special individuals who can go anywhere and accomplish anything but it quite simply doesn't feel earned to me at all.

The "Chosen One" garbage is a weird problem in a lot of MMOs, even ESO. Why do clods pick that kind of story for a game that, by necessity, has thousands of "protagonists" running around on a server?

FFXI did it a lot better. The player character was just a Level 1 guy that trundled into town and started doing stuff that needed doing. A lot of leveling up and Right Place Right Time later, they're widely known and trusted by rulers to handle some real live problems. Which is generally a more satisfying Hero Arc than "God chose me lolololol" and actually kind of fits into an MMO.

FFXIV, of course, is the worst case of "I AM THE COMPLETELY UNIQUE CHOSEN ONE JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE ON THE SERVER" ever.

.

Oh yeah I omitted a lot of that because exactly what was going on with time travel and what a ruinous idiot Venat seems to be (seriously sundering man was a pointlessly idiotic action that accomplished nothing positive and almost got everyone killed) would have been worth a whole different tl;dr post.

Though I would like ANY explanation for how, in that cutscene as we travel back to The Present, the sky is burning when the Unsundered have APPARENTLY already summoned Zodiark. And if they haven't summoned Zodiark (explaining why the sky is burning), and then VENAT sundered man, when did Zodiark EVER get summoned to be on the Moon forestalling the Final Days? And regardless, how did VENAT in VENAT form have the power to sunder man and CREATE THE MOON and imprison Zodiark just by waving her sword around? And how did she become Hydaelyn AFTER doing that? Why would she even need to become Hydaelyn after that?

Did literally ANYONE proofread the first draft of this clown plot before they just went ahead and produced it?

I feel like any time there's 5 or more characters on screen everyone, including the villains, and especially the WOL, collectively loses over 50 points of IQ.

Most of them, at this stage, were sitting at about 50 IQ to start with

Another Mass Effect post. I am almost finished with Mass Effect 3. Only have the Citadel DLC, Priority: Horizon, Priority: Citadel Headquarters, and Priority: Earth left.

I hate to rob your joy here, but that is the exact point at which I felt the quality of that story begins to plummet.

[Misplaced_Marbles]

FFXI did it a lot better. The player character was just a Level 1 guy that trundled into town and started doing stuff that needed doing. A lot of leveling up and Right Place Right Time later, they're widely known and trusted by rulers to handle some real live problems. Which is generally a more satisfying Hero Arc than "God chose me lolololol" and actually kind of fits into an MMO.

Except the WoL was preordained to be the chosen one the moment they divulged the future to Venat. "Right place at the right time" has a different ring to it when the master of puppets has been pulling the strings for 12000 (or however long it was) years in advance, so everything would be as it was. The WoL isn't just A chosen one like the rest of the warriors of light, they're THE chosen one.

[Rosenstrauch]

I hate to rob your joy here, but that is the exact point at which I felt the quality of that story begins to plummet.

Well, I am nowhere near done with halfway or so through with the Citadel DLC and, let me tell you, I pity the dead who can no longer know such joys.

The whole DLC has been a riot. The actual plot was over and done with pretty quickly, and now it's just a mountain of night life and character moments. And as completely out of sync with the tone of the rest of the game as it is, I can't help but love it. It's like it's all taking place in its own parallel universe where ME3's plot isn't really happening.

It's easy to compartmentalize away, is what I'm saying. Also, I romanced Garrus back in ME2, and frankly every single moment of that romance has been worth it. But especially this one:

I only wish I'd been expecting it, so I could've flooded my screenshots folder or recorded it.

I'm actually a little worried about starting Priority: Cerberus HQ, 'cause I get the feeling it will lock me into the endgame upon completion and I don't want to miss a single moment of this glorious DLC.

... but I should probably stop being off-topic and discuss FFXIV instead. Yeah, the reinforcement of the player's Chosen One status really rubbed me the wrong way, too. I had to stop and wonder something about that.

If Azem were to learn of Venat's ambitions for their soul, how would they feel? Would they gladly lie down and die so that one day they would reincarnate into Venat's "Light of the Future"? Or would it destroy them inside, knowing their whole life is nothing more than a means to an end for their own mentor?

I kind of wanted to explore that with Ashes, but I can't really find the room for it to have Atlas discuss it.

[Lauront]

... but I should probably stop being off-topic and discuss FFXIV instead. Yeah, the reinforcement of the player's Chosen One status really rubbed me the wrong way, too. I had to stop and wonder something about that.

If Azem were to learn of Venat's ambitions for their soul, how would they feel? Would they gladly lie down and die so that one day they would reincarnate into Venat's "Light of the Future"? Or would it destroy them inside, knowing their whole life is nothing more than a means to an end for their own mentor?

If it's the former/bolded, that will be my last straw.