Review of 6.3 Story Content

[aveyond-dreams]

Ok so basically what I can gather from the last several long-winded essays is that if I’m expecting anything other than a game handled with kiddie gloves that god forbid has anything to do with the more fleshed out Final Fantasy worlds/writing then I should just leave. Cool. There’s no point sticking around in a game that has seemingly completely betrayed me at every turn - 6.4 will either be the final nail in this coffin if Pandaemonium ends in some nonsense that fawns over Venat again or makes further mockery of Lahabrea.

Whatever this has become it no longer resembles the way this game was back in Heavensward. What a mistake it was to get invested in a game that I thought would take itself seriously. And yet, FFXVI seems to have embraced those elements. A contradiction I’ll never understand as to where CBU3’s true interests lie. One thing is for certain is that this game didn’t have half as many controversies when the team members of FFXVI were in charge, I’ll certainly take the regime of Maehiro/Koji over whoever is steering the FFXIV ship now.

[FirstGearFirstGear]

You could just stay unsubbed this time. That would probably be better for everyone involved.

[DiaDeem]

With all due respect OP: Your opinion is as valid as anyone else's and you're in your right to drop the game at your heart's desire if you're no longer happy with it. What I can't understand is the entitled, rude, confrontational and provocative attitude.

You do you, but yikes...

[aveyond-dreams]

You could just stay unsubbed this time. That would probably be better for everyone involved.

Or the game could fix itself and revert back to the way it was before we had 700+ page threads about what a disaster the story was or people being disappointed each time their favorite jobs get hit with an unwanted rework. Goodness knows that you would be just as well off and those of us who wanted a decent FF video game instead of a spotify subscription would actually find some enjoyment in the current game.

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

Welcome Back Aveyond-Dreams
Looking foreword to your Next Ranting Review in 6.4

[VelKallor]

<snip> Cool. There’s no point sticking around in a game that has seemingly completely betrayed me at every turn -.

Its up to you, but in all truth, from every single "essay" that YOU have written ( You have repeatedly ignored or dismissed anyone who doesnt ascribe to your unbelievably entitled view on what YOU want the game to be....never mind that no one else wants what you want, you think you are the ultimate arbiter of what is good - newsflash: you aint ) you seem to not like anything about the game at all.

On top of that you are literally throwing out the contents of a deep dungeon you havent even SEEN yet..what are we to think?

BTW It was YOU who said " other games we should be playing" ( YOUR WORDS ), so again, what can we take away from that?

I am not saying you should leave, I am not saying you should stay, thats totally your call. Tbh, what grates on me, and on others, is your persistent claim that "you speak for a majority" when you clearly DONT, your so called "source" are a few malcontents on that toxic Reddit site,where if you dare argue with the Hivemind you are downvoted to hell and SILENCED, that you seem to think that you are the best person to decide for others on what the game should and should not be?

You arent.

The game has "betrayed" you?

I cant even make head nor tails of where THIS comes from, "betrayed you"...the game "owes you" something?

So Ill ask , who are YOU to decide for me or for others what we should or should not enjoy? Based on your own "rightous outrage'?

Final nail'? Hyperbole much?

This repeated perception of yours that if the game doesnt go the way you want, then it will fail..literally beggars belief..how DID the devs and writers manage before you came along to send them back to the path they have sadly "strayed from'? Only the shadow knows..

Whatever this has become it no longer resembles the way this game was back in Heavensward.

Well no it isnt. The Dragonsong War is over. BTW talk to any crafter, they will say the same thing, HW crafting SUCKED, a lot of the changes from then to now have been, IMHO, for the better

What a mistake it was to get invested in a game that I thought would take itself seriously. And yet, FFXVI seems to have embraced those elements.

16 isnt an MMO, isnt in the same universe. FF 14 isnt FF 4 either. Your point is?

[VelKallor]

( cont....)

A contradiction I’ll never understand as to where CBU3’s true interests lie. One thing is for certain is that this game didn’t have half as many controversies

What controversies would that be....aside from your own strident demands that the devs do what you say, that is...

when the team members of FFXVI were in charge

They are. YoshiP is in charge of both. Or had you forgotten?

, I’ll certainly take the regime of Maehiro/Koji over whoever is steering the FFXIV ship now.

The guy that is steering the ship is the same guy who took us from 1.0 to 6.3, making this game an absolute giant in the process.

Or the game could fix itself and revert back to the way it was before we had 700+ page threads about what a disaster the story was

We have seen your "fixes" and I have asked this before, you have of course ignored it: what makes you think that what you want will be in any way popular or what the players even WANT? How do you know what will be well received and what wont? How do you know whether or not these supposed 'fixes" wont result in a mass exodus?

How do you know with any certainty that the wishes of others even remotely reflect your ideals? You dont ...do you?

or people being disappointed each time their favorite jobs get hit with an unwanted rework. Goodness knows that you would be just as well off and those of us who wanted a decent FF video game instead of a spotify subscription would actually find some enjoyment in the current game.

Im enjoying myself immensely..so guess what. What you want isnt what i want. Not even close....in a way you are headed down the same cul de sac Blizzard did, "this is our game and our vision, we dont care what you want or dont like"..see theres your "ideas", and outside this absolutely miniscule message board are millions who are loving the game as it is.

So: how do you intend to address this fundamental disconnect?

[FirstGearFirstGear]

Or the game could fix itself and revert back to the way it was before we had 700+ page threads about what a disaster the story was or people being disappointed each time their favorite jobs get hit with an unwanted rework. Goodness knows that you would be just as well off and those of us who wanted a decent FF video game instead of a spotify subscription would actually find some enjoyment in the current game.

The game doesn't need to fix itself. You enjoy citing other people's opinions when you think they support yours, so I'll do the same. Endwalker currently has 90 rating on Metacritic, same as Shadowbringers and four points higher than Heavensward. It has a Very - Mostly Positive on Steam. Reviews were universally positive at time of release and it won a raft of awards, including most recently Best Ongoing Game at the 2022 Game Awards. It sold so well that Square Enix specifically cited it as a major driver of their 2021 profits.

By ever reasonable metric, Endwalker is a success and people want more of it. Why should CBU3 listen to a 700 page thread of people with no ability to critically analyze a story?

[VelKallor]

It sold so well that Square Enix specifically cited it as a major driver of their 2021 profits.

It sold so well they had to take it off the market as they couldnt handle the influx

Writing on the Final Fantasy XIV website, producer and director Naoki Yoshida explained that the sheer amount of people playing Endwalker has far exceeded Square’s server capacity. In order to try and alleviate the long wait times for players logging in, the company has decided to stop selling Final Fantasy XIV to new players to temporarily stem the tide of incoming server traffic.

Kinda makes you look at Aveyond and go hmmmm..doesnt it........

[MoofiaBossVal]

I went into this patch with low expectations and still came out disappointed.

Four archfiends were killed with zero effort in two patches. There is no tension, no suspense. There are no stakes. Nobody will get hurt, let alone perish. It's not even a matter of "if" Azdaja will be saved. There is no doubt as to how the stories will turn out now. No reason to stay invested in the story.

It has been over a year since the Scions disbanded... and yet they're still the main cast, just with the addition of Varshan and Zero. Same formulaic conversations of scholars standing around nodding and being polite and speaking empty platitudes and sciencing up the magic.

I don't care about any of the current storylines. That would be fine... if the GAMEPLAY in the video GAME was fun. Unfortunately there isn't any fun content releasing. Teleporting onto a platform to fight a strictly choreographed boss fight isn't very fun. No grind zones to spend hours and hours in this expansion with at least some amount of character customization. Not even new limited jobs like Beastmaster.

Whatever FFXIV wants to be - a visual novel or a MMO - it needs to be good at it. Either have good gameplay and/or have good story. Endwalker is not succeeding at either.

The role-playing solo duties are probably best in the game of all solo duties in my experience. They are a limited preview of jobs you may not have unlocked/played, they allow you a different perspective for once and more importantly - they are the best fine-tuned solo duty fights there are, definitely better than where you play yourself.

I found the level 70 Red Mage solo instance to be way more engaging. It was a decent challenge, died on my first attempt. I can't recall having ever lost a role-play solo duty. They're pretty braindead easy.

At this point I just want them to get the void storyline over with so I can see if the story beats in 6.5/7.x kindle a semblance of the passion I had for the game originally.

I've been hoping that 7.0 was when there would be a turn around, but I'm starting to think that that's a cope, just like when I had hoped that the post-6.0 storyline would be better since theoretically the writers would be able to write a story and characters they are passionate about right now rather than rushing plot threads they apparently lost interest in. Seems like the game's current tone and story direction might be here to stay.

I think there's one major point everyone's overlooking.

This is a filler arc. It's not meant to be 'life-changing philosophical storytelling' like Endwalker was, or a 'flawlessly written post-apocalyptic isekai' like Shadowbringers. It's basically "Hey, we need a short story involving an established threat, to lead into the next major story arc. I know, let's do an FF4-inspired story that deals with the voidsent, they've been quiet for a while".

Still could've written a story where the antagonists are actually threatening and maybe had some victories.

It took LITERALLY the base game plus 2 expansions to even build up to Shadowbringers but you want them to bring out something amazing right away?

I never thought ShB's MSQ was as amazing as the fanboys hyped it up to be. I thought it was a decent fantasy adventure story, but my favorite story arc was ARR (and to a lesser extent, HW and base Stormblood). The bad guys felt powerful and threatening and sometimes succeeding in killing the heroes and the heroes didn't feel like they were invincible or could accomplish anything they wanted. I was interested in seeing if and how the heroes would try to achieve their goals and what happened when they got foiled or had to compromise.

I can only hope that they eventually see reason or if nothing else consider whether its worth the pushback they've been getting for the way they've handled the story of Endwalker and finally ground themselves next expansion with another Heavensward. Preferably with a Bloody Banquet scene on the side. We've been long overdue for one. I want to relive the joy I had back in 2.55 when all the worst characters in the game were banished from the story, if only for a time.

From interviews it seems that Shadowbringers was written almost immediately after Stormblood launched, and Endwalker within a few weeks of ShB's launch. I fear that the next expansion would have been decided upon within a few weeks after Endwalker's launch, perhaps before the lore Q&A where Yoshida got blindsided by reactions he clearly had not anticipated.

Something had to be sent to the chopping block and I’d rather it be this patch’s monster-of-the-week gimmick.

Why does anything have to go to the chopping block? Stormblood was releasing trials, deep dungeons, multiple dungeons, raids, alliance raids, and grind zones each patch. The quantity and variety of content has drastically decreased since then, despite the game having exploded in popularity. The game should be pumping out at least Stormblood levels of content quantity and variety, if not more so.

Whatever this has become it no longer resembles the way this game was back in Heavensward. What a mistake it was to get invested in a game that I thought would take itself seriously.

I don't think it was a mistake. I've seen this happen before with other franchises, such as Trails. There is no way to predict that there is going to be a massive creative shift by the creators who then throw out stuff they promised earlier on as they lose interest and the narrative becomes increasingly puerile and divorced from what was originally setup.