Meaningless Battles...

[Mimilu]

I think the writing in a great majority of this game is fantastic. Many exciting and heartfelt moments. So I don’t share OPs opinion at all. Which is fine, they are entitled to it and it doesn’t impact me one way or another that they decide to denigrate it as lazy.

Except the OP isn't talking about the writing as a whole, just about XIVs overuse of the trope of beating an enemy in an in-game fight, only for them to just hand-swipe it away in a cutscene.
Did you not read the actual post? (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

[ZephyrMenodora]

And which of my previous posts are you referring to?

Are you once again taking things out of context just because you've decided to pick on me then use your alt accounts to upvote yourself?

You could at least try saying something constructive if you disagree with me instead of going on the attack but then I guess we really can't expect better of you.

I’d just ignore this alt account. Still laughing in another thread they tried to pretend to be an anti-drama saint but here they are rudely attacking others and stirring the pot for no reason once again.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Except the OP isn't talking about the writing as a whole, just about the trope of beating an enemy in an in-game fight, only for them to just hand-swipe it away in a cutscene.
Did you not read the actual post? (*≧▽≦)ﾉｼ))

I did. And because I enjoy a great majority of the writing this doesn’t bother me. Narrative needing to move ahead happens. Our WOL is already mostly a Mary Sue I’m a bit tired of always succeeding with no effort.

[Absurdity]

I get the item loss thing but why are you supposed to 'know' that you need to loose. It's supposed to instill tension or establish a threat. Other than that I agree.

That's the thing that bothers me. I'm okay with the story needing me to lose, but then actually make the boss too hard to handle.

Make them an HP sponge that ramps up the mechanics spam until you can't dodge anymore or something, but XIV bosses get slapped around the room in solo fights with ease until they reach 1% at which point they just do their "you lose" move.

It feels cheap because the boss never felt like a threat until the cutscene goes "Ackchyually, the boss was totally too strong for you".

[Mimilu]

I did. And because I enjoy a great majority of the writing this doesn’t bother me. Narrative needing to move ahead happens. Our WOL is already mostly a Mary Sue I’m a bit tired of always succeeding with no effort.

Couldn't you also say that being a Mary Sue is also a problem though too? (●´ω｀●)ゞ ~?
The mixture of the two problems make the story feel forced and/or too predictable. (；´д｀)ゞ

[ZephyrMenodora]

Couldn't you also say that being a Mary Sue is also a problem though too? (●´ω｀●)ゞ ~?
The mixture of the two problems make the story feel forced and/or too predictable. (；´д｀)ゞ

Yes it’s an issue. Our WOL waltzes in and is uniquely more powerful and talented than everyone around them at pretty much anything they set their mind to. They typically out-master people who spent their entire lives on their jobs and crafts in short amounts of time. It’s ridiculous but I’ve come to accept this and still enjoy the writing despite my feelings about how dumb this is.

[Iscah]

Yes it’s an issue. Our WOL waltzes in and is uniquely more powerful and talented than everyone around them at pretty much anything they set their mind to. They typically out-master people who spent their entire lives on their jobs and crafts in short amounts of time. It’s ridiculous but I’ve come to accept this and still enjoy the writing despite my feelings about how dumb this is.

I'm fine with out-mastering people at fighting, but I wish we were a bit less amazing at arts and crafts on top of it. Those quests could easily be more down to earth with less "you're our only hope" business.

[ZephyrMenodora]

I'm fine with out-mastering people at fighting, but I wish we were a bit less amazing at arts and crafts on top of it. Those quests could easily be more down to earth with less "you're our only hope" business.

For sure. It feels like after a couple hours the masters are like “wow you are already as good as I am!” And later better than them on skills my WOL really only does in passing.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I think the issue is HOW the unwinnable battle is presented and not the fact it exists. I wanna say Xenoblade Chronicles 2 does it several times where you are just absolutely SPANKING the enemy. I mean just straight up handing them their sorry butts and the cutscene plays out where they just immediately hand wave you away like you were a fly the entire time.

Um. No. I was beating the crap out if you. Your bar was zero and you barely touched me. The cutscene should reflect that.

If they want it done right...the boss needs to be fast, your attacks do negligible damage and they hit you and you are practically half dead.

Now the cutscene makes sense. You really were a joke to them and that's how it played out in combat.

Also yeah ToD is on my top 10. PS1 was golden age of a lot of JRPGs.

Also this as well. Make the bosses actually hard but aaaaalmost winnable so you dont quickly catch that the fight is unwinnable if it turns out theyre easy

[Zaniel]

Anyone else kind of OVER Square Enix lazy writing? Namely, battles that mean nothing.

Scripted fights that force you to lose, and serious boss battles where winning means nothing.


Winning the battle, and losing in the cut scene is a favourite trope of Square Enix and I'm kind of over it?

Like, give the villian a back up plan, make something else happen. Make my win feel like it mattered.

Quit letting villian's shake off asskickings.

This is a general disease infecting many games, not just FF14. WoW was notorious for this, you finish some giant raid and the cutscene would play, the NPCs would run in and whack the boss pretending they beat him and then he'd run away. This happened constantly at some points it was almost every single fight and was infuriating. They don't do it anywhere near as much in FF14 but it really gives me the shits when they do. The latest instances of this happening was SUPER egregious and didn't even need to happen for the story to continue, they just wanted to introduce a FF trope character.