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

[Hyperia]

I have a feeling that 6.1 to 6.55 is an experiment to see if we will like small self contained arcs in patches with no overarching themes. I know it was also a test of the junior devs as each dev in each team got their own patch to work on, that’s why the consistency felt off.

I hope they learned what they wanted out of this so 7.0 and onward will be better.

[NekoMataMata]

I have a feeling that 6.1 to 6.55 is an experiment to see if we will like small self contained arcs in patches with no overarching themes. I know it was also a test of the junior devs as each dev in each team got their own patch to work on, that’s why the consistency felt off.

I hope they learned what they wanted out of this so 7.0 and onward will be better.

I hope that's the case, but I don't have any faith considering how the statements Yoshi P made about the relics. They seem to be focusing on the more numerical data. Even when they do seem to take feedback, they seem to immediately jump to the opposite extreme like with how they handled the alliance raid changes.

Anyways, I don't really think smaller arcs are a particular good idea. I know people complain about ARR's lengthy story investment, but to me that's part of what makes a lot of the story good. You're invested in the develop of various characters, and how they change and grow. It's not impossible for a smaller arc to implement those ideas, but it is more difficult.

So hopefully they either improve at it, or they start building up a new multi-expansion story arc (even though it seems like they're fearful of doing that).

[Khryseis_Astra]

To me, the last Myths of the Realm raid really sealed off EW for me. At that point, you can pretty much call the whole story arc done. And I think that’s why the last patch gets split in two… I expect the next half of the MSQ to be the big ramp-up to Dawntrail. Whether you consider Alliance raids part of the main story (which I do) or just side content, they still had some loose story threads to tie up, so they did, and I was happy with it. I enjoyed the Zero story too… not sure at this point if it’s just filler or if it will actually have some tie-in to the new story arc they’re building with Dawntrail or not. I could definitely see a story that ties together all the shards somehow, including those we haven’t visited yet. Or maybe they’ll bring the focus back to this world, since there’s still cloud covered continents we haven’t explored, and we’re starting off with one in 7.0. At this point, who knows?

One thing to keep in mind is that it will probably all flow together better in hindsight. I started in the Stormblood patches, so everything up til that point, I got to experience as pretty much one story, no waiting months in between for the next chapter to come out. I imagine if I had started earlier and played through some of the other patches as they were released, I might’ve had some “where are they going with this?” moments. I didn’t really experience that with the SHB or EW patches, because at that point, we all knew where the story was going, to the grand finale.

I guess my point is, I’m content to wait and see what happens. I play this game primarily for the story, the world, it’s characters, and I haven’t been disappointed yet. Right now they’re transitioning from the old to the new… but I feel like it’ll all come together in the end.

[Payadopa]

Honestly, it feels like they are putting the hedge trimmer to good use. YoshiP mentioned in an interview once that he wanted to tell a different story but out of respect to XIV he feels obligated to finish old story threads.

Now the Garleans are written out of the story, as is the 13th and the 12. It feels less like a send-off and more like finisher, if that makes sense. I don't mind too much but the story is way, way too predictable and lacks stakes. And I don't mean anime stakes like saving the world/universe but "human" stakes. And the WoL being the bestest at everything is not helping. Getting a bit boring with how buddy buddy every NPC is. Ul'dah is nice to slaves, Gridania's spirits are cool with everyone, Limsa only pirates from bad people now etc etc. It's pretty boring, actually.

[Oizen]

I find it funny the garleans are going to live in rubble and that abandoned subway for the rest of the game's existance and every call back we see to them for the rest of time will be them saying "we're working on it".

Be thankful your fave isn't dead and didn't so much as get their own Unending Codex entry this very patch, and wasn't reduced to an accessory to two other characters' instead

I disagree, my favorite scion is papalymo and I'm glad he got a satisfying ending rather than becoming a pointless chariciture puppet like all the other scions that repeat the same character beats every single story they're in.

[Atelier-Bagur]

I find it funny the garleans are going to live in rubble and that abandoned subway for the rest of the game's existance and every call back we see to them for the rest of time will be them saying "we're working on it".



I disagree, my favorite scion is papalymo and I'm glad he got a satisfying ending rather than becoming a pointless chariciture puppet like all the other scions that repeat the same character beats every single story they're in.

Too bad he died too early. Dude didnt get enough screentime imo

[Hallarem]

First of all, I enjoyed the patch story more than some parts of the main MSQ in 6.0. Mainly due to Endwalker feeling like they crammed two expansions into one. Horrible pacing mixed in with some amazing story moments. I'll never forgive them for shafting Garlemald though, we could've had anything from a civil war arc there where we stand on the side of the populares (the more reasonable part.) maybe some Legions joining our cause and rebuilding Garlemald from that. But instead we get story leftover Zenos that I'm a 100% sure the devs didn't know what to do with napping on his chair with a glass of wine like Cersei Lannister in season 8 of game of thrones.

- I like Zero, she's a great addition, I hope we see more of her.
- The patch did it's job, it wasn't amazing due to the fact that we REALLY don't get to make a change in the 13th because lets be real here. Unless they somehow explained it, REAPERS would be completely retconned unless they changed how they functioned, so they shot themselves in the foot there. So story limbo it is forever most likely. But we're getting there and there's progress, good moments with characters from the 1st.

- ONLY WORRY I have is that the writers are leaning way too much on "Friendship and friends" trope. My top worry has always been that the writing becomes too anime tropey and just an off-set Hildibrand storyline. I don't mind a comedic nod here and there, but IM WATCHING. I remember puddingway absolutely ruining a moment in EW by just walking in. "People just died" -> Insert puddingway walking in pretending to be a zombie.

[aveyond-dreams]

I'm glad he got a satisfying ending rather than becoming a pointless chariciture puppet like all the other scions that repeat the same character beats every single story they're in.

If only the present writing could understand this concept, of allowing for satisfying endings via character death/sacrifice rather than letting characters stay on far too long after their expiration date. Now all we have left is a cast that is way too preachy to put up with, and another expansion more of them.

[GrizzlyTank]

First of all, I enjoyed the patch story more than some parts of the main MSQ in 6.0. Mainly due to Endwalker feeling like they crammed two expansions into one. Horrible pacing mixed in with some amazing story moments. I'll never forgive them for shafting Garlemald though, we could've had anything from a civil war arc there where we stand on the side of the populares (the more reasonable part.) maybe some Legions joining our cause and rebuilding Garlemald from that. But instead we get story leftover Zenos that I'm a 100% sure the devs didn't know what to do with napping on his chair with a glass of wine like Cersei Lannister in season 8 of game of thrones.

Yeah, the story honestly peaked overall during the lead-up to ShB with the battle agains Garlemald and the ShB side content battling the weapons and Bozja. So really saddened that they opted to cut that plot line in favor of finishing the Ascian story.

Though at the same time, the remaining few Garlean legions aren't completely done so they might pop up as new city-states late on.

- The patch did it's job, it wasn't amazing due to the fact that we REALLY don't get to make a change in the 13th because lets be real here. Unless they somehow explained it, REAPERS would be completely retconned unless they changed how they functioned, so they shot themselves in the foot there. So story limbo it is forever most likely. But we're getting there and there's progress, good moments with characters from the 1st.

Not to mention that it would be dumb to have us figure out how to fix the 13 so quickly when the ascians couldn't do it. Least not until the scales were tipped in Zodiarks favor.

[HyperiusUltima]

Not to mention that it would be dumb to have us figure out how to fix the 13 so quickly when the ascians couldn't do it. Least not until the scales were tipped in Zodiarks favor.

The one thing I liked about 6.5 was the fact they did not leave Gaia out of the MSQ here. I would’ve been mega disappointed if they completely forgot about her after her and Ryne made friends and kicked Mitron’s ass. I took the time to appreciate the patch for the nostalgia(because let’s be real: The Nostalgia is huge in this one, from the Baron theme in the Lunar Subterrane all the way to Zeromus).

My big problem stems from the fact that Zero’s progression was not very telling until the end because of her demeanor; most times when there’s character development, there’s something that happens to make them be that way or change. I know people got tired of the ‘milady’ hat tips, but it was used as Zero’s way of expressing her feelings I believe - what they should’ve done is take her monotone demeanor and grow out of it. Sure, they did by the end, but the whole change into a PLD was literally too on the nose. I get it, I really do; but I was expecting something more climactic than turn into PLD and overcoming darkness. They rushed her progress at the end to make everything fit.