A Storyteller’s Point of View on Final Fantasy XIV

[DPZ2]

Papalymo and Yda are who I consider Author inserts. they show up, do their thing, and leave. they add nothing to the sequence.

I myself thought "they show up, provide some foreshadowing, mysterious references (for those with no knowledge of 1.0), find you interesting in a 'you are not a Hero yet' way, and attribute your brief visit to Unreality to being sick due to a surfeit of aether" (as well as help you beat what are, essentially, monsters for which you are currently not prepared at level.

The only thing you have to decide is whether the story in the game, along with the gameplay itself, is enough to keep you interested in playing. If the story line authors were interested in playing by the rules one uses to write books, they would have written a book.

Visual media (which includes games) have to play by a different set of rules. Rules that written media finds frustrating as heck. This thread is the equivalent of comparing the storyline in an animated feature, where the visuals are just as, if not more, important to the story than the dialogue, to Lord of the Flies.

[SannaR]

This is a person that does not know the game's lore and characters. They should at least be given the opportunity to revise their own opinions as they go along.

I was just disagreeing with them on their labeling of Yda and Papalymo or if he started in Ul'dah or Limsa the other two who show up and help you out with those two starter quests versions of the angry treeants. And that due to them seemingly sticking to only the MSQ that it might be impacting their understanding as to why people are putting a random nobody adventure in charge of things. As even doing some of the under lv 10 side quests would at least to me explain why it's so common for such a thing to happen. Yda and Papalymo also sort of tell you the things I brought up as to who they are. I just wouldn't label them as an author insert. I'd label a different pair as such.

[Jojoya]

Addendum

As of the time I am posting this, my subscription has expired. The only way this affects me is that I will not be able to play beyond the last MSQ level 59 quest.

Actually, it means your journey has ended unless you choose to subscribe. Once an account has been converted from the free trial to a paid account, you must be subscribed to continue playing on that account.

You would need to create a new account under the free trial and start with a new character if you wished to continue without paying. If I remember correctly, SE has temporarily stopped selling gift game time codes while they implement a store update so that would not be an option to reactivate your account if someone wanted to buy you game time as a gift. I think they're tentatively set to resume at the end of this month.

Also, the free trial includes all the level 60 content through patch 3.55 so you wouldn't get stuck at the level 59 MSQ. Your MSQ journey would finish with the patch 3.55 lead in to Stormblood.

[Lustre]

Unfortunately OP, this game has a massive problem with "tell and dont show". Practically everything is like that. There are a few occasions where we get to play as an NPC later on which do add some well needed reasoning for why things are happening but generally it's just a "chosen one" shonen plotline, that matures a lot in ShB only for it to go backwards in the last expansion and completely makes the entirety of what came before pointless and redundant, accompanied with a swamp of plotholes and shoddy reasonings, macguffin story devices created on a whim. If you're looking at the games story from a neutral, unbiased perspective, and not that of the average GCBTW viera with years of sunken cost spent, oh boy you're in for a frustrating ride. I'd be very surprised if you made it there to be honest. Most people drop out before even reaching HW.

ARR is particularly bad for sizing up the game as a whole because it was a time when they still hadnt figured out what the game was going to be, what the tone should be like etc. For that reason you see much more "offensive" (by today's standards) stuff in ARR than in the others. Nonetheless I hope you continue, it's nice to see outsider perspectives on such things.

[DPZ2]

Nonetheless I hope you continue, it's nice to see outsider perspectives on such things.

We are all outsiders when playing through the game for the first time. There is always a sense of wonder in the first playthrough, as long as one comes to the game with few expectations. The game currently has players from the ARR period and FFXIV 1.0, as well as each and every expansion afterward. It has always had a growing population of players.

Video games are an in-the-moment media that do not properly scan as written works. Literary criticism is a poor methodology for assessing a video game, especially when here, when the critic is working with localized text rather than the original Japanese.

There are two problems, as I see it, with this so-called 'neutral, unbiased perspective'.

The first is that if one plays the game as it was written, the MSQ is only one of several avenues necessary in exploring the story line. Context appears to be disjointed to the OP because they've ignored half of the early story by ignoring side quests. Half of the early story is made redundant from a leveling perspective because the XP from the MSQ is high enough to ignore them.

The second, as I've stated before, is that Visual media is not Written media. Visual media in the form of a video game is more than reading the MSQ quest texts. It requires an awareness of what is happening visually, as well as mechanically. There is more to becoming a Hero than working through a few quests. A player's attitudes to what is going on are of particular importance as well.

As an example:

On my first trip to Gridania, I shared a coach with a lovely man with the palest green eyes I've ever seen.

As we talked, he asked me "What was it that first attracted you to the life of an adventurer?". I did not know how to respond. The typical answers of "Fame, Fortune, Power" do not ring true for me.

It is desire, I think, to grant aid to those who cannot afford it; to protect those without power to protect themselves; to acknowledge every life in a world where fame so often overshadows all else.

Bremondt seemed to understand the silence. As we said farewells upon our arrival, he gave me a ring, and he said to me "Become the sort of storied personage I can brag about havin' met ..."

Years later, I met him again on another coach while fleeing for my life, a savior with pale green eyes.

I still have the ring, after all of these years. And I do my best each day to be that person he saw I could become.

Dal S'ta, Memorii

[DPZ2]

Half of the early story is made redundant from a leveling perspective because the XP from the MSQ is high enough to ignore them.

I wanted to clarify something here. The problems of becoming an MMO with 10 years of content, is that there is a need for early players who learn about the later expansions through media exposure to reach the current expansion as quickly as possible.

Some MMOs make this happen by dumping you into the current story, whether you wish it or not. FFXIV has created an environment in which you can go through the main storyline without working through the large number of side quests to level. This is not because those side quests are irrelevant, it is just that they are not necessary to progress through the storyline itself.

One will find that the last two expansions rely less on side quests to provide the 'flavor' than earlier, because the design teams have recognized that fact. For ARR, on the other hand, they had no way of knowing how long (or if) the game would last, so side quests were an important part of the leveling process.

I still encourage new players to go through those side quests with an alternate class/job at level.

[Payadopa]

Unfortunately OP, this game has a massive problem with "tell and dont show". Practically everything is like that. There are a few occasions where we get to play as an NPC later on which do add some well needed reasoning for why things are happening but generally it's just a "chosen one" shonen plotline, that matures a lot in ShB only for it to go backwards in the last expansion and completely makes the entirety of what came before pointless and redundant, accompanied with a swamp of plotholes and shoddy reasonings, macguffin story devices created on a whim. If you're looking at the games story from a neutral, unbiased perspective, and not that of the average GCBTW viera with years of sunken cost spent, oh boy you're in for a frustrating ride. I'd be very surprised if you made it there to be honest. Most people drop out before even reaching HW.

ARR is particularly bad for sizing up the game as a whole because it was a time when they still hadnt figured out what the game was going to be, what the tone should be like etc. For that reason you see much more "offensive" (by today's standards) stuff in ARR than in the others. Nonetheless I hope you continue, it's nice to see outsider perspectives on such things.

Goes to show that videogames and books are different entities. Level 10 abilities are not cool looking. NPCs that proclaim something is urgent are always lying in a meta gaming kind of way. Quest markers are a 'modern' scourge.. I mean QoL. Programming an actual item that's being exchanged takes away too much from other stuff I'd wager. Granted, some games make it easier in terms of suspension of disbelief.

With that being said, I don't think criticising a videogame for not being a book is an apt way. The rest I find interesting, honestly. It's not like it's not valid criticism. I could just do with less of the high-and-mighty attitude. Looking forward to the rest.

[kindar1]

Actually, it means your journey has ended unless you choose to subscribe. Once an account has been converted from the free trial to a paid account, you must be subscribed to continue playing on that account.

Ahh, okay, then things weren't explained to me clearly when the game was gifted to me. that means I'll have 5 days, give or take, to make it back to where I played left yesterday. this is going to hurt more for Kidarian, since I was on my way to reaching level 40, but Dantie's only just left Gridania, so one or two intensive plays should bring whoever the new character is to that point, especially since I won't have to stop every few minutes to write down my impressions.

Also, the free trial includes all the level 60 content through patch 3.55 so you wouldn't get stuck at the level 59 MSQ. Your MSQ journey would finish with the patch 3.55 lead in to Stormblood.

then FF14 will have longer to convince me to buy a subscription

[kindar1]

(https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/w...rithold_Broken)

And we return to Galfrid in time to stop a crisis, or so we are told. A large shadow is scaring people inside a dungeon.

“Listen well, for we haven’t much time.” Galfrid
<groans> Me

At least, there’s a reason why us. Everyone else is off fighting an incursion.

Just because of how time doesn’t matter, I’m tempted to take hours before continuing the quest, but it just won’t matter.

Once we arrive, we are informed that 5 people are still stuck inside and we are needed to ‘see them out of harm’s way’. An interesting detail is that they say nothing of me saving the leader of the group. We rescue them, fight a golem, and our two author inserts show up. And we get a vision where we get a bit more back story through bad dialog.

When we’re back we find out the ritual to calm the wood’s protectors failed due to whoever interfered, but it doesn’t matter, the author inserts will send word and another group will come to do the ceremony. I won’t comment on the guard outside who knows far too much about what took place inside to be innocent.

Again, our unwarranted heroism is proclaimed, and then we are sent back to the town.

On returning to Mother Miounne our heroism is again proclaimed, and immediately sworn not to speak of it. As part of our reward (or you know, to bribe into silence) we can now get a room in the inn, and take on jobs from the Guildleve. There is talk of a festival I should attend, then we are done.

So, where to start? Unless they are incompetent, the guards should have been able to save everyone but the leader, and that is only because the golem would have been woken and they would have had to flee. Then, the reason my help becomes needed is to help take the golem down so a new ceremony could be performed.

that small of a change would have made the guard look competent while still creating a situation where I’m needed.

As with too many of the quests to date, my only purpose is to kill something so the story can happen around me. I don’t have an actual impact on the story.

I think that is the biggest flaw in Final Fantasy XIV. I as a player and main character, have no agency, or even the illusion of agency in how the game will progress.

[Alesteir]

Interesting thread. Will keep an eye on it.