Can 7.0 focus on a storyline without the philosophizing

[IkaraGreydancer]

The "what happens" and "why" really aren't that big of a problem. Hermes being Amon is a cool concept in my humble opinion.

It's the writing that's the problem, and we really don't quite need more "the power of friendship" or inane fanservice/anime-style "slice of life" moments in the writing.

These concepts themselves are not the problem. Slice of life is actually important to a story, for example by demonstrating how Thavnairians are recovering from the Final Days. Slice of life such as having Zero looking at Estinien's abs is not.

Sure there should be a balance there in terms of how SoL is handled but is 10 secs of ab staring really a point to make about it being used badly? It was there then it wasn't in a blink. Not every single scene in a game needs to to be important to the overarching story. Sometimes characters just have fun. FF games have always been this way.

Power of friendship didn't beat, Ultima Weapon, Niddhogg, Emet or Zenos. That theme was only heavy against Endsinger and that made sense. Now do we need that again going forward? No. Odds are it won't happen for awhile to that degree. Saying we don't need fanseevice in xiv is also odd, because XIV is literally fanservice incarnate. It's an integral part of the game for better or worse. XIV has never been some super dark edgy game that's super serious all the time. Many claim ARR and HW were but replying these will show you that's not the case. The cast was just smaller.