Why are some people "disappointed" by the 6.X patch story?

[CNitsah]

That is to say if 8.0 ends up being "Lightbringers" or something similar thats going to suck.

I don't know. First still had people in it, so a possible story with them. 13th would be much more limited in term of having its own interesting stakes further than what we already had. Plus 6 zone of the dark world would be... monotonous. I'd rather see either a raid alliance, raid, trial series or exploratory zone tackling that story.

[IvoryHawk]

It's simple, people were spoiled in Shb, EW it's objectively weaker in every single way after the main patch resolved the threat, we went from "there's a godlike being controlling Lunar primals and we don't know his full motif other than to destroy everything we hold dear" this is called high stakes, we know we will possibly win, but it gives us an "oh no, but we're gazing to the moon, how do we even GET to the moon, what's on the moon!" feel, everything about the end of Shb set up a high stakes storyline that was resolved too fast in EW, and now we have no stakes, we just know that we're going to a new island while dealing with the 13th that also had no stakes, nobody came out worse, everyone won, we forgave the enemy yet again, one that was literally torturing our ally's sister, but "he thought he was doing the right thing!" so did Emet, the only reason that was done well was because he got memory wiped, Golbez was just evil, no consequences for actions made AT ALL, and for that reason, it was disappointing.

The lack of VA in this patch was also lame, some scenes didn't even have music till half the way through, i thought i was playing muted.

[HeyMcFly]

It's okay, feels like another 'with friends, we can do anything!' bit.
"y'shtola explains everything, again." Please mary sue cat lady, just go away.
You could predict where this story is going mostly. I hope the writing changes pace and becomes more interesting.

I did love the return to the Crystarium, But I loved Shadowbringers and welcome any chance to go back.

[Oizen]

I sure do love winning because of the real super power of teamwork

[Cilia]

Filler plot with an overdone aesop, all as part of an extended reference to a game they may not have played. Next?

[Atelier-Bagur]

Ive said this on another thread but I believe the sole reason why people just stopped caring for the 6.X patch story is mostly tied to the fact that the whole 13th arc was the focus for the entirety of the post patch cycle, rather than it being a small arc.

In previous post patch expansion stories; you usually had a multiple different arcs that kept the post patch msq fresh and interesting.

For example in the 3.X story, you had the end of the Dragonsong War, followed by the Warriors of Darkness, followed by the return of Illberd and his plan to instigate war for the liberation of Ala Mhigo which nicely tied us to Stormblood.

in the 4.X story, you had the whole Yotsuyu arc, followed by the looming battle with the Garlean Empire and intermingled within those two major plots, we had the mystery of the Scions being soul sucked away to parts unknown one by one that lead to Shadowbringers, so there was major mystery involved with these factors.

and in the 5.X story, we had the Elidibus arc spliced with the Scions trying to return to the Source; thus officially concluding our adventures in the First, then this was followed by the return of Zenos and the rise of the Telephoroi that leads to Endwalker.

But basically with 6.X we didnt have any differing plot points for the audience to engage in intrigue and interest for 7.0. It was entirely focused on our adventures in the 13th and what makes it worse is that the half of its mystery is gone because the story patches were easily predictable thanks to reusing characters and plot beats from a previous FF game (being FFIV). So it was very understandable that many players would just not feel as engaged with it even though the story concept was interesting.

[OgruMogru]

Ive said this on another thread but I believe the sole reason why people just stopped caring for the 6.X patch story is mostly tied to the fact that the whole 13th arc was the focus for the entirety of the post patch cycle, rather than it being a small arc.

In previous post patch expansion stories; you usually had a multiple different arcs that kept the post patch msq fresh and interesting.

For example in the 3.X story, you had the end of the Dragonsong War, followed by the Warriors of Darkness, followed by the return of Illberd and his plan to instigate war for the liberation of Ala Mhigo which nicely tied us to Stormblood.

in the 4.X story, you had the whole Yotsuyu arc, followed by the looming battle with the Garlean Empire and intermingled within those two major plots, we had the mystery of the Scions being soul sucked away to parts unknown one by one that lead to Shadowbringers, so there was major mystery involved with these factors.

and in the 5.X story, we had the Elidibus arc spliced with the Scions trying to return to the Source; thus officially concluding our adventures in the First, then this was followed by the return of Zenos and the rise of the Telephoroi that leads to Endwalker.

But basically with 6.X we didnt have any differing plot points for the audience to engage in intrigue and interest for 7.0. It was entirely focused on our adventures in the 13th and what makes it worse is that the half of its mystery is gone because the story patches were easily predictable thanks to reusing characters and plot beats from a previous FF game (being FFIV). So it was very understandable that many players would just not feel as engaged with it even though the story concept was interesting.

Seeing it all listed out like that feels so bad lmaoooo

Alphi and Alisae stood next to that train for 2 years!

[chizLemons]

Othan than many of the reasons listed here (being one very long, dragged out plot point, the WoL not having to be there at all, being a copy paste of a game I didn't even play, weird pacing, a lot of solutions that don't make sense and contradict what we've heard before), what bothers me the MOST is the character writing.

Zero had potential in 6.1, then she just didn't any development at all for 3 whole patches - literally she would only tip her hat and ask the same questions over and over again, get the same answers, then get confused about the concept of friendship - then in 6.5 she suddenly felt like a different person and we didn't really see it growing. Her overused tipping of the hat was annoying, too.

Estinien just being there for nothing, doing nothing, just...there. Literally only thing he did for the plot after 6.1 was fanservice in 6.4 (which I do enjoy, but shouldn't be the only contribution of a character to the plot).

Y'sthola just solving everything offscreen and having all the knowledge. Her solutions also came out of nowhere. Those devices by Cid that we didn't even get to see the logic behind them?! She is starting to get so overused and forced that I dislike her now.

And for me personally, the WORST offender of it all: why are the writers avoiding G'raha Tia?
He is by far the most knowledgable Scion in regards to traveling between shards, he knows the First like no one else, he controls the Crystal Tower AND he would love to be there adventuring with the WoL. We PROMISED HIM adventures and not AT LEAST trying to invite him feels mean. Did we forget our promise in Ultima Thule?
Y'shtola namedrops him during two patches and didn't even think of inviting him? Didn't even give us an excuse of WHY he couldn't be there?! Is a small square piece of paper with instructions from him enough to use the tower? Wouldn't he like to me informed of what was going on and be there when we got back?! It makes absolutely no sense. We didn't even get to see him there at the end while Krile was opening the letter or something.
(And he was barely a character during the Alliance quest for Thaleia, too. His lines were so generic that he could be replaced by any other NPC and we wouldn't notice. Though to be fair, the same could be said for Krile.)

For me it all feels either very out of character, or just plain bad character writing. I honestly can forgive a few plotholes and less than exciting solutions to problems if the characters are written nicely, I'm here for them. Now I'm frustrated about both the characters AND the overall story.

[Alec97]

Overall, the 6. x story is just more of the same lazy writing the writers keep getting praised for when it seems they’ve barely read a book.

The game continuously shows poor writing, lousy pacing, contrived plot elements, and weak character introduction and development, certain characters are overdeveloped and should have been retired when their arc concluded. The fact that they have continued means they take up time in the narrative which could be used to develop other characters along with decreasing the stakes of the situation as you have a character which is so experienced they can fix almost anything. This is why people were so excited when the Scions were supposedly shutting down because that meant new characters, new stories, new problems instead it's more of the same.

You can't have an interesting story with stakes when your team have ridden the great space coaster to the end of the universe to destroy the divine embodiment of fear, depression and anger. Showing they have blown the scope of their narrative to marvel levels of stupidity which is impossible to reverse. No enemy going forward will be able to compete in raw physical power and influence with a god who could rot the planet by thinking about it.

The world-building is weak, continuing a trend of telling instead of showing, as well as killing anything interesting about the setting itself a few patches after it is introduced. The game has an identity crisis with how it utilises themes, which are either so weak they might as well be non-existent or so vital that it fails to do them justice, along with a heavily twisted and warped sense of morality and logic which questions the motives of supposedly good characters which sends mixed messages. This forces the player gameplay-wise to agree with something they might find morally objectionable because the writers can’t think outside their paradigm.

The writing you see in 6. x is the same quality standard without the hype of finishing a significant arc.

[WillIrishclover]

I kinda enjoy this thread starting off with

"yeah I like the story" in march

and descending to "man for real this story was shit" in October.