Please don't harass people for ignoring/disliking the story

[aveyond-dreams]

Yeah FFV is just a goofy game with a light hearted tone where the plot mostly exists to get you from place to place while the real focus is on the gameplay and the job system.
I was just using it as an example that an FF game doesn't always necessarily entail a deep storyline.

FFV's humour was in-line with its game world and not composed of jarring additions like hamburgers against the backdrop of an incoming apocalypse. While others may continue to misrepresent me as they wish, the game is not better off for it. Endwalker to date has managed to reach levels of controversy that have surpassed that of Stormblood and for all the promise of 10 more years of FFXIV, never more has this game's future been this imperilled.

[Avoidy]

In any other medium, if people were literally paying to skip the majority of your story that they already paid for in the first place, you'd re-asses and wonder what you as a storyteller could do differently.

I believe post-ARR destroys player trust and their belief that the writers are capable of telling an interesting story. When you read a book or watch a film or enjoy a comic, there's always gonna be buildup, and the audience generally trusts that there'll be payoff for that buildup. When the payoff is sufficient, the reader's trust is rewarded and the reader knows "okay, I know I can trust this writer to deliver." In post-ARR's quests, there is loads and loads of boring filler text. And lots of players sit through this quite patiently, thinking "I trust the writer to deliver on this quest," but in the end the quest just amounts to "go here, grab thing. go there, kill thing." So eventually player trust in this regard falters; the player sees "I can't trust you to deliver an adequate payoff here," and the player begins simply clicking through the endless written dialogue panels for filler quests. After this is repeated 87 times, the final post-ARR cutscene happens and at last we receive the payoff for what's been slowly (and boy do I mean slowly) building up this entire time. For a lot of people, this payoff is more than adequate, and they venture into HW with high hopes. But for some, they checked out ages ago. It's just how it is. You can't blame those people for checking out; everyone admits that post-arr is like, the most boring part in the game by a mile. Even the devs agree, it's why they cut bits of it out. This idea of feeling let down by the writers extends to job quests as well, btw. For example, my first job was WHM. The WHM job quests are some of the worst in the game. When I finished those, I was reluctant to give the other job quests a fair shake, because my trust in the writing team was shaken.

This early-game issue could be remedied by simply going back and using all the skills they've picked up over time, and implementing them in the early story. Give ARR cutscenes nicer animations so they don't all look so stiff. Revoice that section, all of it, so that you cover the unvoiced sections and don't have jarring moments where suddenly everyone turns british and the player doesn't understand why. Edit out all the stupid fetch/filler quests; you're not stalling for heavensward anymore, you don't need these to take as long as they used to. And maybe give actual EXP for post-expac quests from old expansions, so people can feel some sense of progression and reward as they trudge through it, idk. The community blaming players for hating a story that doesn't even try to grip its audience early on, isn't helping. You can be a slow burn, but if you're a slow burn for 500 pages people are gonna close your book and walk away.

[RukoBoshi]

Yeah FFV is just a goofy game with a light hearted tone where the plot mostly exists to get you from place to place while the real focus is on the gameplay and the job system.
I was just using it as an example that an FF game doesn't always necessarily entail a deep storyline.

That's true, it was a pretty simple game story wise, especially compared to the crazy antics of other FF games.
But i really liked the cast of characters, maybe even more than in some other games curiously.
Effortlessly badass looking character like Faris for example, she was really cool.


Not gonna lie, i like Krile but would have loved having a pirate based on Faris in game as a FFV representation.

[Ameela]

Revoice that section, all of it, so that you cover the unvoiced sections and don't have jarring moments where suddenly everyone turns british and the player doesn't understand why.

I agree with all of your post except for this bit, I see this sentiment repeated a lot but I believe it'd be the wrong move to do this.
Regardless of how you feel about the voice acting quality it'd just be disrespectful considering the hours of work those original actors put in, especially when the experience wasn't exactly the most accommodating if their accounts are to be believed.
Is it ideal? Obviously no, but it's a part of the game and one that took a considerable amount of effort to create, so it should remain as is.

[aveyond-dreams]

In any case, the bulk of players that sustained FFXIV's population have been disrespected enough, with those of us after a good story having been betrayed in a horrific manner in Endwalker with this catastrophic conclusion to 10 years of a story that we were all hoping would have a good conclusion. Instead we got Meteion, Hermes, and Venat shoved down our throats combined with an overstayed visit paid to the Loporrits and the Scions doing a funny every so often. Spare me the indignity.

I shouldn't have had to rewrite and offer an alternative, more satisfying conclusion to this saga myself, seeing as the MSQ was unable to. The sand in this game's hourglass is running out, slipping through numerous cracks and instead of being patched and repaired we have the same defense squad insisting that everything is fine and that those of us who can see the signs should just leave. Because goodness forbid those of us who can recognize and appreciate better storytelling be catered to as opposed to those who seemingly would be content with just about anything, which is roughly where I'd categorize Endwalker.

[MonsutaMan]

I don't understand the story beyond the cataclysm. I don't dislike FFXIV's story; just don't get it.....Cant dislike something you don't quite understand.

I am by no means a novelist gamer, whom reads and narratives everything. I am more of a fast skimmer. However, in most FF games, I could gauge what was going on. The game also forced me to stop skimming, due to intrigue. XIV does a poor job of grasping the gamer.

XI did a better job with the story. Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Conclusion. I was aware of where I was in regards to each of these 5 elements 100% of the time in XI. I have no idea where I was in XIV......Only after I beat the 1st Arc, but it was still ambiguous to me.

XI did a great job using the atmosphere and character development to signal the Exposition, Climax and Conclusion. XIV's characters just ramble, and send you to fetch that quest that throw me off......."You want me to do what, at this time!?"

[Ameela]

I don't understand the story beyond the cataclysm. I don't dislike FFXIV's story; just don't get it.....Cant dislike something you don't quite understand.

I am by no means a novelist gamer, whom reads and narratives everything. I am more of a fast skimmer. However, in most FF games, I could gauge what was going on. The game also forced me to stop skimming, due to intrigue. XIV does a poor job of grasping the gamer.

XI did a better job with the story. Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Conclusion. I was aware of where I was in regards to each of these 5 elements 100% of the time in XI. I have no idea where I was in XIV......Only after I beat the 1st Arc, but it was still ambiguous to me.

XI did a great job using the atmosphere and character development to signal the Exposition, Climax and Conclusion. XIV's characters just ramble, and send you to fetch that quest that throw me off......."You want me to do what, at this time!?"

I definitely think a weak point with XIV is how willing it is to just throw a wall of text at you and expect you to actually get anything out of it. I'm more tolerant to it now with thousands of hours into the game but back when I first started if a character's dialogue box had more than two full lines? I just checked out and hoped it wasn't too important.



Something like this would be a lot more palatable if the second sentence was a separate textbox.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

not composed of jarring additions like hamburgers .

Lest we forget, this dreaded Hamburger scene that is SUCH a Cardinal Sin, happened BEFORE the Final Days.
But hey, lets just continue to pretend it interrupted everything

[Deveryn]

Yes, heaven forbid the game that's rife with so many references to more than just its own predecessors decides to throw a meme or two in the lighter parts of the story.

Someone should get their ass on youtube and try to comment on how horrible the story is and see how that goes. Then we might remember them.

[aveyond-dreams]

Like clockwork the same bad faith posters continue their work of twisting my positions to make them appear more unreasonable than they truly are:

FFV's humour was in-line with its game world and not composed of jarring additions like hamburgers against the backdrop of an incoming apocalypse.

For those unacquainted with individuals such as the ones on the previous pages, there are no circumstances in which they warrant a direct response. Do not reward passive aggressive and disingenuous behavior with attention unless it is to call them out on their characteristic nonsense.