7.0 News from Reddit.

[SieyaM]

I just think if they're going to talk about us going on an all new adventure that it would mean all new, not the same people doing the same things with a different setting. We all know full well if the scions are going to a new land together, it's going to fall into the same old story with a different backdrop. The characters can't suddenly become new people that interact with each other in new and interesting ways, we have already spent 5 expansions with them and to have a dramatic shift in their character so suddenly would be ridiculous.

[Thenightvortex]

Wherever the new story goes, please just give us some fresh cool characters instead of the scions and raise stakes.

I've been wanting to see the game becoming a bit more light-hearted and even goofier; we've just gone through a very sad and depressing timeline and i'm not crazy about going through more dark storylines all over again.

I'm even completely open to FFXIV post EW to go completely "anime" because at least i'll smile more and not cry as much. Bring back the silliness and slapstick of Stormblood i say!

Please give us more fish humor.

How was it sad and depressing though? Nobody in the present died except randos, villains and primals. No kingdom was substantially harmed, no lasting consequences at all. They even managed to sprinkle this whole story with goofiness and slapstick with Loporrits.

[AwesomeJr44]

I have no idea why you want to change FFXIV from its origins as a balanced high fantasy story into that. There are other games that suit those specific tastes better than this one ever could.

Because people have the tendency to expect the games they play to bend to their will. FFXIV players go play WoW and expect FFXIV. WoW players play FFXIV and expect WoW. It's like a bunch of Chess players playing Checkers and demanding that the game be turned into Chess. These people came into the game wanting MCU level trash humor and they want the game to become that. The unfortunate part is that it seems the FFXIV dev team has been willing to abandon what the game was to cater to these people.

How was it sad and depressing though? Nobody in the present died except randos, villains and primals. No kingdom was substantially harmed, no lasting consequences at all. They even managed to sprinkle this whole story with goofiness and slapstick with Loporrits.

It was depressingly bad writing.

But in all seriousness, it's depressing to them because there's still some semblance of the old FFXIV, an actual story with stakes and conflict. They won't be happy until it's a slice of life story where everybody is friends.

[MagiusNecros]

If you played FF4 you probably know what gonna happen with Zero (mus) :P

Oh yeah I do think we are going down that road. Zero has a lot of Rydia(last summoner/last memoriate) and Maenad(transaction based persona) vibes but it wouldn't surprise me if my prediction that Zero will turn into Zeromus comes to pass and in classic fashion any true friend of the WoL ends up dead.

Especially since Endwalker was primarily fake death 101 barring Ahewann(real MVP).

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Because people have the tendency to expect the games they play to bend to their will. .

Both sides do this.....
Saying to go back to the writing of Heavenward, saying how things should happen X way, is pretty much doing the same thing.

[aveyond-dreams]

Nothing is more to clear to me now than the fact that FFXIV will not see a successful 10 year plan for Season 2 if they keep this cast around. Their fans will only serve to alienate the rest of the core Final Fantasy playerbase and self-selecting for them will not see us getting a new, refreshing story with more interesting dynamics in the party.

They should consider playing some other games where the main casts are more likeable than the Scions to get an idea of what they're supposed to be doing. Making us go on adventure with the Scions again + Krile and Zero will solve nothing. The wants of the playerbase who built this game's foundations where clear, so in case Twitter drowned them out let me restate them again:

- a 7.0 set in a smaller, more closely-knit region to the scale of Coerthas and Dravania.
- a new cast, with members stacked more in favor of the new rather than the old.
- more interesting interactions between party members.
- no more sad bois as villains or other tropey anime constructs like Meteion and Hermes.
- more stakes for the main cast.
- more high fantasy elements.
- no cosmic-level storytelling until it is actually appropriate.

They could not have been more clear on these issues, and yet it feels like those of us who liked Heavensward and Shadowbringers won't be well-served should we see a repeat of what happened with Endwalker.

[AwesomeJr44]

Both sides do this.....
Saying to go back to the writing of Heavenward, saying how things should happen X way, is pretty much doing the same thing.

Big difference between "We should stick to what worked in the past (aka HW/SHB) as that's why we came to the game all those years ago" and "We should change the game completely to be a slice of life humorfest". One is wanting the game to be the game. The other is wanting the game to be something completely different.

This is the classic fandom invasion cycle. Game/Movie/Show exists. People come in and try to change it. When the original fans protest, they're told to leave. Original fans leave and go to/make a new Game/Movie/Show. People come in and try to change it.

Just let FFXIV be FFXIV. Go watch Marvel if you want low-brow humor and happy vibes all day long.

[aveyond-dreams]

This is the classic fandom invasion cycle. Game/Movie/Show exists. People come in and try to change it. When the original fans protest, they're told to leave. Original fans leave and go to/make a new Game/Movie/Show. People come in and try to change it.

This is precisely what I feel has occurred with FFXIV. It is a tragic state of affairs when those of us who mean well are continuously shut down and treated dismissively by these newer "fans" who in any other case would likely not be playing Final Fantasy games at all had this game not catered to them to the extent that did.

[IDontPetLalas]

That seems to be what some people want....which would just be bad writing IMO.
The Scions are as loved as they are partially because we've been on a Journey with them and grew with them for several years, Even Estinian.
And then we get Varshahn who Joins with us on our Post Adventure, Im not excited because "OOOH LOOK, NEW GUY" but rather that we got to know him and his motivations, and our next Adventure directly relates and ties into a part of him; he lost his sister and wants to find and save her. So him joining us has proper motivation, instead of just being slapped on, just cause new guy.

Currently Im not enthused about Zero. She looks cool and is a badass, but she has no Personality outside of that One Snarky remark about briefly not helping us.
Otherwise she is currently a complete Bore to me. I do hope she becomes more interesting outside of her Fashion and Weapon.

Zero looks like someone based it on Yoshi in his reaper cosplay when reaper was launched and almost built that into (another) poorly disguised avatar for him. It satisfies those people who want some reaper or dark knight bad-ass image but there's not really much depth as yet, just one sole gimmick of "I won't do anything unless there's something in it for me". I would hope to see more of a backstory and more of an actual character.

That being said, I prefer that to "goofy" and while I can take a certain amount of cuteness and goofy, please keep that in Hildebrand and side quests. I've had enough of rabbits- I prefer HW and some drama, and consequences for my decisions and for main character plotlines. Not fluff where no one of consequence ever is in any real danger.

[AwesomeJr44]

This is precisely what I feel has occurred with FFXIV. It is a tragic state of affairs when those of us who mean well are continuously shut down and treated dismissively by these newer "fans" who in any other case would likely not be playing Final Fantasy games at all had this game not catered to them to the extent that did.

That's because it IS happening to FFXIV right now. We're in the invasion cycle. Newer players rushed into the game and demanded that there be no stakes and that everything be fine because they wanted their comfort game but didn't want to put in the effort to find one that already existed. Thus Endwalker had zero stakes and anyone of value was in zero danger for the entire time. Seriously, did ANY of the scions actually get put in genuine danger at ANY point other than the obvious fake out in UT?

I swear, FFXIV is gonna be the next Marvel or Star Wars soon if they don't stop doing this. It's going to be a series where the creators cater to newer 'fans' (which aren't even real fans) while casting anyone who liked the older 'movies' (in this case, expansions) aside. How long until the writers for FFXIV start calling their real fans bigots ala Rian Johnson style for not getting on board with the new direction?