Live Letter Thoughts

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

the plot of Season 2 could have fully disconnected itself by starting with a true new adventure not based off pre-existing plot

How many Episodes are in a Season for the TV shows you watch?
Its weird you call 6.1 season 2, when there is Hundreds of hours and Hundreds of Episodes across 12 years of Story-telling.
But that just counts as Season 1 in your mind XD

[Soge01]

"I need more power. I need more crit buffs."

[TaleraRistain]

among those of us who approach the story from both a more analytical view

There you go again, with the passive-aggressive insults to anyone who doesn't share your viewpoint. Because of course it's not remotely possible that others with different viewpoints aren't just as analytical and simply approached things from a different perspective. No, only by embracing the One True Viewpoint can you show that you're serious about the story and analyzing it in the correct manner.

[hagare]

The manner in which she was depicted in Endwalker and in which 6.2 is set to portray her as such is a matter of controversy among those of us who approach the story from both a more analytical view or those who were fans of the antagonist faction.

[VelKallor]

No, only by embracing the One True Viewpoint can you show that you're serious about the story and analyzing it in the correct manner.

Aveyond's attitude is reminiscent of the kind of armchair expert I keep seeing, claiming that they can do it better or "know better what people want"..without asking them and without the skills or talent that can even begin to approach Ishikawa-san's level of writing.

His continued claims or assertions that he speaks for anyone other than himself is testament to that fact.

This alone:

I am not interested in hearing arguments against this basic principle

says volumes.

I was allowed ( Ive mentioned this before ) to sit in on a conference call during a specific game's beta test phase...( mind you with the specific order not to say one word OR ELSE, i was there to listen and learn ) in a branch of an MMO planning stage, the call involved maybe twenty people, writers, artists etc...the sheer complexity of what was being laid down was..staggering. Expacs arent done in a few days or months..the planning and implementation takes years to refine, analyse, tweak, rewrite, coordinate, not just art but things like making sure the right voice actors were ready ( and dont get me started on what happens when all of a sudden an entire section has to be revoiced because the writers had a brainwave...)..all the pieces have to come together to make it work.

( Sorry , no notes survive, they were jettisoned / shredded in moving house decades ago. I also dont want to talk about one of my house moves where I had to get rid of 600 books..that still hurts )

I enjoyed Endwalker thoroughly, moments of terror, absolute heartbreak, id already done the CUL DoH quests, so that scene he seems to hate so much with food from the Last Stand had me smiling ear to ear....that scene with Urianger?

He was terrified of what they would say to him, expecting them to tear him to pieces, blame HIM for her death..instead what we saw was a mother's love and forgiveness...look closely at that scene, his hands were SHAKING, his normally calm and measured voice cracking, not just with emotion but with relief...look at it from his viewpoint, what could he say, how could he explain it to them when the people he had taken such pains to avoid out of fear were finally there..there was nowhere to run.

That one scene gave him closure, and to my mind at least, was a fitting farewell for Moenbryda.

No game is perfect, no story flawless, there were imperfections, there always will be, thats what story writing is like, you cant please everyone. All I can say in response is that, for those I know who have played it, the feedback I have seen (and no not from some of the misery guts in here who would find flaws in ANYTHING ) says they smashed it out of the park.

As to where 6.2 takes us? I dont know, Im glad I dont know, and I am VERY MUCH looking forward to it.

[Lustre]

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand FINAL FANTASY FOURTEEN ONLINE: ENDWALKER. The themes are extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of existentialism most of the dialogue will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Meteion's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into her characterisation- her personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these lines, to realise that they're not just entertainment- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike FINAL FANTASY FOURTEEN ONLINE: ENDWALKER truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the nuance in Venat's existential catchphrase "Forge ahead", which itself is a cryptic reference to Tom Mills's musical epic Close In The Distance. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Y'shtola's genius rebuttal of the Ea unfolds itself on their computer or television screens. What fools.. how I pity them.

[VelKallor]

Narodnaya Volya

Oh lord..I had to look that one up.

Nice people.

*shudder*

[VelKallor]

Video from Meoni, more details on 6.2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGSI2UQKm_U\

Ooo more on Tataru's questline as well. Good lord we get a Gene Kelly emote, Titania wings, new crafted gearsets......roll on 6.2!!!!

Speaking of gearsets, is there any word if we get upgraded accessories for DoH / DoL?

[SentioftheHoukai]

Aveyond's attitude is reminiscent of the kind of armchair expert I keep seeing, claiming that they can do it better or "know better what people want"..without asking them and without the skills or talent that can even begin to approach Ishikawa-san's level of writing.

His continued claims or assertions that he speaks for anyone other than himself is testament to that fact.

This alone:



says volumes.

So.... what ARE the credentials for "being on Ishikawa's level", anyway? Do you even realize how ridiculous you sound right now? This is literally grade schoolyard bullying level rebuttals, here.

"Let's see YOU do better!"

"Get on my level!"

These are comebacks that are near universally ridiculed as having lost the argument, or simple memes and/or jokes.

Also, most reasonable people tend to stop listening to accusations of "armchair expertise" from posters with a known and verifiable/recallable history of....huh, what do you know? ARMCHAIR EXPERTISE without merit.

[aveyond-dreams]

While I appreciate the work done by Ishikawa for Shadowbringers I would much prefer to see either the return of Maehiro or Matsuno, if not both together, to try and tackle the story moving forward. It is unlikely we will ever know the truth of who is responsible for what specific decisions over the course of Endwalker's writing, but it is clear that the reception to this expansion's story is quite different compared to the mood of the playerbase in 5.0 and 3.0.

I still maintain that moving forward, FFXIV should decide to what sort of world it wants to portray and what sort of story they will tell. Will it be a well-crafted world full of fleshed out regions such as Ishgard, or ones that are visited all too briefly such as the way in which Endwalker portrayed its various locations? Will the story take on its tone during Heavensward or Shadowbringers, the expansions that were received most well by the playerbase, or will it continue with the use of misplaced "relief" moments of Endwalker or out of place slice of life/humor sequences of 6.0 and 6.1?

Being able to express this alternate perspective is the key for FFXIV to see continued success. I cannot be honest and simply be content with all of the story content that they put out, naturally for all of us there will be parts that work and don't work for us. Unfortunately, there were numerous issues that I found with the recent writing that I feel are important to call attention to, so that the game can at the very least improve upon such things moving forward even if they can no longer retroactively be corrected. Personally, it is in my interest for this game to hold on to its more positive reputation and work on its problems so that it does not develop a negative one. Criticism may be difficult to hear at times, but it is necessary if FFXIV is to maintain its current crown and not be displaced by other MMORPGs that are set to release in the future, or by the resurgence of older ones.

As I have stated previously:

Some players need to understand that there comes a point when defending the errors made by the game would be to its detriment and hinder its ability to improve. Being told that I need to voice my posts differently makes me want to disengage from the greater conversation altogether and leave everyone to their business. It truly feels that because some people do not like those of us who frequent this thread, that they readily paint our ideas as bad despite the fact that should they instead be pitched officially by someone like Yoship, they would probably have no issue with them.