New story writer for 7.0

[SentioftheHoukai]

From the time Yoshi-P came in to take over FFXIV back in 1.0, he set it up to be a "Final Fantasy Theme Park" and began first introducing FF content (classic FF jobs with their more fantastical-looking armor) into what was otherwise a super medieval, realistic, and mature setting. ARR ended up doubling-down on that and it's in the DNA of the game now. He's gone on record multiple times to describe the game as his life's work and he's never leaving, despite other projects being added to his load like FFXVI. While there are some mature moments, the thematic direction of FFXIV has been very apparent since then and it's a bit late to complain about it now 10 years later.

If you think there isn't some strange disconnect between the general level of mature storytelling of ARR/HW/ShB and frickin' Endwalker, than I'm not sure what to tell you as I'm reasonably certain we're not living in the same universe. Operating on entirely different logical wavelengths.

I do often find myself wondering how different the story would be if it didn't have to get the Yoshi P seal of approval; particularly after the mention of Endwalker having to go through several drafts before he accepted one of them and his...weird takes about certain characters.

Kage said it best, Endwalker was influenced by the big green dinosaur man up top way too much and his influence needs to be severely curtailed if Final Fantasy XIV wishes to have a future worth taking pride in.

As far as Ivalice/Bozja, Matsuno himself said that Bozja's storyline is already finished. There's nothing left for us to do there, the country has been liberated. Dalmasca could have been explored further with side-content in a new expansion but the Bozja content apparently had a negative reception among the Japanese playerbase and even to this day I think the way they did Castrum and Dalriada was stupid and I'm still waiting for them to change those. I don't see how Ivalice has anything to do with us doing Hildebrand relics though. SB and ShB relics had nothing at all to do with any relic storylines before them except "Gerolt is there", and the first Ivalice content was alliance raids, not relics.

You neglected to mention a critical piece of context here. Ivalice/Bozja is done because they cut Matsuno off and wouldn't let him tell the story he wanted to tell there, wrapping it up rapidly and incompletely in field notes. It's a rather similar scenario to Endwalker, the formerly two expansions it was and Ishikawa's intended story. As I said, Yoshida NEEDS to have his influence over this game's direction curtailed if it wants to survive into the planned next 10 years.

[MikkoAkure]

You neglected to mention a critical piece of context here. Ivalice/Bozja is done because they cut Matsuno off and wouldn't let him tell the story he wanted to tell there, wrapping it up rapidly and incompletely in field notes. It's a rather similar scenario to Endwalker, the formerly two expansions it was and Ishikawa's intended story. As I said, Yoshida NEEDS to have his influence over this game's direction curtailed if it wants to survive into the planned next 10 years.

Bozja wasn't cut early. Where is your source on this? Dalriada and the end of the relics were in 5.5. Were they supposed to have a ShB patch 5.6 just to keep extending Bozja content? You claimed this same exact thing a month ago so I guess I'm going to have to link the same thing again I posted in response to you before this time too:

We're veering off-topic, but Yoshi-P said in an interview in Famitsu last year that it wasn't hastily wrapped up and Matsuno wasn't fired or dismissed.
reddit link/

Matsuno himself said earlier than that in tweets that Bozja finished in 5.55 and they're liberated. There's nothing premature about Bozja and nothing more they can do with it. There was a thought to continue Dalmasca after Bozja eventually, and that idea was the one that is probably canned, but it seems like it's still up in the air.

Relevant bullet points from that thread if links are scary:
-Matsuno did not have as much say over this content than Return to Ivalice, because he wasn't the focus of the content this time around so the dev team had the most say about everything.
-Yoshida highlights the field records are almost exactly as Matsuno wrote it and he didn't change anything (so they didn't panic write the epilogue in the field record, it was planned).
-They are aware of the field records hinting at a future for the story, and Matsuno said it is envisioned to continue after the liberation of Dalmasca (so there was always going to be some sort of time gap)
-Yoshida said that if they would make it (a story after the liberation of Dalmasca), he would like to see it in the style of the relic content in 5.25 (which was the journey through cid's memories, basically story content with a trial at the end).
-It seems like the general feeling from them (Yoshi-P and Matsuno) is that players are tired of war stories especially during COVID times and they don't want this kind of weight. Yoshida said this is what FFXIV's world is and it will obviously divide people to live in a world rife with conflicts.
-It seems (not sure) it is the reason Matsuno doesn't want a war for the liberation of Dalmasca but a story that happens after that.

[Striker44]

Kage said it best, Endwalker was influenced by the big green dinosaur man up top way too much and his influence needs to be severely curtailed if Final Fantasy XIV wishes to have a future worth taking pride in.

And for every person who says this, there's 10 people pointing out that they love EW, are extremely proud of it, and are entirely pleased with the current direction of the game. You might not feel that way, by acting like some almighty arbiter of truth when you're giving a personal opinion just comes off as very immature. Personally, I hope Yoshi-P continues his involvement as he's been doing. There's a reason EW has the highest playerbase, highest late-patch retention, and is usually ranked among the Top-2 expansions (along with ShB).

[AwesomeJr44]

And for every person who says this, there's 10 people pointing out that they love EW, are extremely proud of it, and are entirely pleased with the current direction of the game. You might not feel that way, by acting like some almighty arbiter of truth when you're giving a personal opinion just comes off as very immature. Personally, I hope Yoshi-P continues his involvement as he's been doing. There's a reason EW has the highest playerbase, highest late-patch retention, and is usually ranked among the Top-2 expansions (along with ShB).

"How dare you have a different opinion than the mainstream one!!!! You must respect my majoritah!!!!" -every Striker post ever.

Do you have ANY other lines?

[Cleretic]

"How dare you have a different opinion than the mainstream one!!!! You must respect my majoritah!!!!" -every Striker post ever.

Do you have ANY other lines?

Do you have any other snarky responses than one single image, or is your entire discourse stuck in early 90s teenage edginess?

[AwesomeJr44]

Do you have any other snarky responses than one single image, or is your entire discourse stuck in early 90s teenage edginess?

I'll get a new image when he gets a new line. This one still fits too well.

[SentioftheHoukai]

And for every person who says this, there's 10 people pointing out that they love EW, are extremely proud of it, and are entirely pleased with the current direction of the game. You might not feel that way, by acting like some almighty arbiter of truth when you're giving a personal opinion just comes off as very immature. Personally, I hope Yoshi-P continues his involvement as he's been doing. There's a reason EW has the highest playerbase, highest late-patch retention, and is usually ranked among the Top-2 expansions (along with ShB).

I struggle to see what precisely you believe yourself to be accomplishing with this stagnated, near constant party line. Maybe I'm an immature overlord arbiter of truth, maybe I'm not. But it doesn't matter. I disagree with you, you disagree with me and frankly I'm not gonna waste the time and energy arguing that nonsensical point with you. I come here to say what I came to say and leave, not to convince or be convinced by others whose authoritarian behaviour really doesn't reflect much better on them than what they perceive mine to.

Do you have any other snarky responses than one single image, or is your entire discourse stuck in early 90s teenage edginess?

I'll get a new image when he gets a new line. This one still fits too well.

When the other person lacks creativity so that they constantly regurgitate the same party line, they aren't WORTHY of any extra effort they themselves refuse to engage you with, Cleretic. As for your honored self, it may behoove you to reflect on if it truly makes you appear to be some righteous moral paragon if your only discourse can be quoted as '90s teenage edginess'. You can't convince anyone if you can be best described as '90s Hermione-style holier-than-thouness'. Such fails to convince anyone, humans don't respond well to it.

I'd certainly really enjoy that story, but I think we're in a weird place to approach it. The angle for post-6.0 seems to be that to do whole new stories that aren't tied too heavily to everything that came before (with the Thirteenth being a uniquely strong position for transitioning there, since it's technically an old loose end but one that's never really gotten explored), which is completely fair and probably smart, but it leaves certain parts of the story in weird states, and the Empire and their previously-occupied territories is probably the biggest. Yeah, they're in a position where an epilogue would probably be interesting, but it kinda can't be the main story if they want to do a clean break that people don't have to worry too much about pre-existing info for.

Which honestly I think is probably better, because there's not much that story could do that wasn't already done by 4.x and Bozja, especially if it's a 'main' story that therefore has to somehow incorporate a large amount of combat; Bozja was already retreading a lot of the same notes as Stormblood. Garlean stuff is best suited for the sideline right now, the sort of content that actually is completely fine with centering stuff that isn't combat or broad audience appeal. We've wrung 'Garlemald and occupied territories as a core for combat content' dry, but we haven't really tapped into it for crafting and gathering content, nor for 100% story-driven content like Hildibrand or The Paths We Walk; the closest we got to the latter was Omega's 6.1 questline, but that didn't dwell on them long.

See, that's the crux of the issue though. Square clearly can't decide if they actually WANT to have a 'clean break' from pre-existing plotlines and threats and the post-EW patches proves this. We very well COULD HAVE had new adventures, new plotlines, and perhaps most importantly new and differing and diversive cast members, but instead we're stuck with at least three Scions at any given time and are already right back to pre-existent, high-stakes threats in the Void. As it is, 'Newfound Adventure' lasted for like.... 3 quests of a single patch.

If Square wants us to believe we're getting any Newfound Adventure, they're failing at it SO HARD right now. It comes off as more of a convenient excuse, which is a really shitty precedent that Endwalker established as prevalent that it would benefit them to break from.

[Slatersev]

I struggle to see what precisely you believe yourself to be accomplishing with this stagnated, near constant party line. Maybe I'm an immature overlord arbiter of truth, maybe I'm not. But it doesn't matter. I disagree with you, you disagree with me and frankly I'm not gonna waste the time and energy arguing that nonsensical point with you. I come here to say what I came to say and leave, not to convince or be convinced by others whose authoritarian behaviour really doesn't reflect much better on them than what they perceive mine to.





When the other person lacks creativity so that they constantly regurgitate the same party line, they aren't WORTHY of any extra effort they themselves refuse to engage you with, Cleretic. As for your honored self, it may behoove you to reflect on if it truly makes you appear to be some righteous moral paragon if your only discourse can be quoted as '90s teenage edginess'. You can't convince anyone if you can be best described as '90s Hermione-style holier-than-thouness'. Such fails to convince anyone, humans don't respond well to it.



See, that's the crux of the issue though. Square clearly can't decide if they actually WANT to have a 'clean break' from pre-existing plotlines and threats and the post-EW patches proves this. We very well COULD HAVE had new adventures, new plotlines, and perhaps most importantly new and differing and diversive cast members, but instead we're stuck with at least three Scions at any given time and are already right back to pre-existent, high-stakes threats in the Void. As it is, 'Newfound Adventure' lasted for like.... 3 quests of a single patch.

If Square wants us to believe we're getting any Newfound Adventure, they're failing at it SO HARD right now. It comes off as more of a convenient excuse, which is a really shitty precedent that Endwalker established as prevalent that it would benefit them to break from.

Perhaps you struggle with counting, and if so apologies, but we spent all of 6.2 with exactly 2 Scions. One character introduced in base EW, and one new character who was only properly introduced in 6.2 itself. None of the other Scions showed up at all.

[SentioftheHoukai]

Perhaps you struggle with counting, and if so apologies, but we spent all of 6.2 with exactly 2 Scions. One character introduced in base EW, and one new character who was only properly introduced in 6.2 itself. None of the other Scions showed up at all.

Yes, you got me. I disagree with you, therefore I cannot comprehend basic mathematics and arithmetic and completely flunked the entirety of junior high. Excellent counterargument. Aveyond got that right I suppose, the 'state of the defense squad' indeed. But honestly? It's no biggie. I'm used to personal attacks by now, apologies for that.

[DPZ2]

If Square wants us to believe we're getting any Newfound Adventure, they're failing at it SO HARD right now. It comes off as more of a convenient excuse, which is a really shitty precedent that Endwalker established as prevalent that it would benefit them to break from.

Come now. The Expansions have always been built out to resolve the current expansion in the x.3 release, which is not out yet, with x.4 and x.5 gearing up for the next expansion. Newfound Adventure won't actually start showing up in-game until next April at the earliest.

The title in 6.1 was more aspirational than declarative. We're no longer dealing with Primals, Ascians, or World-destruction.