The hell were they thinking when doing "Newfound adventure" back on 6.1???

[Atelier-Bagur]

This arc was a test to see how the community reacts to small, self contained arcs and not a grand arc similar to what we finished. From what I have seen, most want a large multi-expansion story with smaller arcs within.

Actually its really most likely yet another impasse within the story team and the main dev team where they understood where the 6.X series was going to go but the trial series team really wanted their story to focus on the 4 Elemental Fiends because cool FFIV reference. And since the story was taking place within the 13th alongside whatever their intended version of the MSQ, what prolly happened was a compromise between the team in integrating the trial series and its msq at the same time.

This wasnt the first time, the FFXIV devs had conflicts with where they intended to do stories such as the lost Garlemald expansion that was supposed to be Shadowbringers. Of course this is all just speculation, but its the theory that makes the most sense to me considering how they develop both story and content. Their process tends to be an organized mess.

[EverQuest]

I don’t think people think it’s a literal beach vacation at least the whole time although will probably go to the beach.

It’s just that the story will be so mid it may as well be a beach vacation because at least that’s nice to look at.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

It was one probably light-hearted statement amid a whole presentation of what we would actually be doing and seeing there. People for some reason have seized on it as if he walked on stage, said "we're off to the beach!" and showed nothing but shots of the Scions doing tourist stuff.

Except, he's had interviews after fanfest where he's said it is a vacation arc, the 6.5 MSQ has told us we need to take vacation three times, and he recently said they want to provide players with the "ultimate catharsis" after Endwalker finished the previous arc. By all accounts, 7.0 isn't going to be that serious and anyone expecting it to be are setting themselves up for a major disappointment when the narrative turns out to be super self contained with little to no stakes that linger afterwards. Will there be a villain and conflict? Always, he even said as much at fanfest that while it's a vacation story, its still an FFXIV expansion. Obviously though, with his catharsis and lowering the stakes comments, it's not going to be world ending, it's not going to even be high stakes. I suspect it'll be something relating to the Rite of Succession and some mustache twirling doof is going to pop up, screw up what's going on by trying to unearth/awaken an ancient evil to conquer Tural and we'll take that down near the end; probably in the city of gold.

That said, I find it sad that many are starting to discredit everything that's been said about Dawntrail's narrative; he's said a lot, is foolish and only this playerbase would willingly do so because they've convinced themselves that SE lies about the game all the time. I don't believe this is the case with your statement, to clarify, I'm just bothered by the sudden negativity and lack of trust they have for a dev team and director/producer who have an incredibly solid track record of not blowing smoke up our behinds.

Either way, its far more than one statement at fanfest and more like a dozen-plus across fanfest and various interviews afterwards. Its not a one-off statement in the slightest.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

This wasnt the first time, the FFXIV devs had conflicts with where they intended to do stories such as the lost Garlemald expansion that was supposed to be Shadowbringers. Of course this is all just speculation, but its the theory that makes the most sense to me considering how they develop both story and content. Their process tends to be an organized mess.

Correction: Garlemald expansion was supposed to be 6.0, not 5.0. After the success and critical acclaim of Shadowbringers, they pushed the ending of the story ahead by a full expansion.

[Raikai]

It's because that's literally a 'new' adventure, or to label it better: sidequest. I think the branding is what misses the mark a little bit, because the storyline is no different from any other (raid, trial, alliance raid) sidequest with 'chapters' through patches.

I feel that could really be a Trial side storyline and instead of resolving the Hydaelyn x Zodiark at 6.0 breakpoint, they could have done it through the whole patch cycle. Even if they kept the same narrative premise they did for Endwalker, it would make a lot of sense to finish at the Moon with Zodiark, and 6.3 or 6.4 being the Endsinger herself. This way there would be a lot of room to make more of Garlemald plot (Having Anima being the actual trial 2) if we think there would be 2 extra zones to play with.

[Absurdity]

I wouldn't mind if they did self contained stories for each future expansion similar to ff11 instead of another multi expansion arc.

I wouldn't mind if I hadn't seen what the "self contained stories" look like with the 6.1-6.5 patches. If this is the future of the story then they quickly need to come up with something else to draw players in because the gameplay sure doesn't fill that purpose anymore.

[Iscah]

he even said as much at fanfest that while it's a vacation story, its still an FFXIV expansion.

That right there is why I am not bothered by the "beach vacation" thing. It's still an FFXIV expansion – visiting interesting settings and dealing with local goings-on in each of those locations. I'm not at all in denial that the overarching plot will likely be lower stakes than the preceding expansions; I'm just not bothered by that prospect.

At the same time, the fact that it is an FFXIV expansion means that the plot is going to be something more complex and engaging than ten levels of "relax on the beach", which seems to be what people are picturing when they object to the base concept of the game as shown thus far.

As for your final paragraph, I've read it several times and I'm still not sure exactly who you're calling foolish or whether you're including me in "the playerbase" as if everyone who plays the game has the same take on things.

[Hazama999]

I actually had wondered the same thing since even 6.1.

What was the point of all that talk of throwing away titles and starting anew and whatnot if we were going to go headfirst into the Void within the span of two patches? I understand that ultimately it's damn near impossible for the WoL to "go back" to being a simple adventurer. After everything they've been through, and especially after Endwalker, you don't just go back to being that level 1 rando who walked into [starter city] unsure of wtf to do... That said, some manner of de-escalation of stakes before another rise is what I'd like to have seen. 6.1 was not enough. We started on what appeared to be an adventure on the more mundane side of things and then we practically rocketed into an interdimensional romp featuring FFIV.

Again, I get that that kind of adventure is bound to eventually come up after all we've been through... But I really would have rather something much more mundane for just a little while longer. I'm glad that we're seemingly getting some of that with Dawntrail, but yes, TC, the start of 6.1 felt rather jarring considering what followed.

[Aniya_Estlihn]

As for your final paragraph, I've read it several times and I'm still not sure exactly who you're calling foolish or whether you're including me in "the playerbase" as if everyone who plays the game has the same take on things.

Generalized statement, not directed at you, no. My apologies. A bit of venting due to the mass amounts of negativity and naysaying or people suddenly acting like Yoshida is the devil incarnate because sometimes he misspeaks, things are lost in translation or get pushed back. A bit of a knee-jerk addition to my reply that wasn't really all that necessary, so again, my apologies. Not directed at you at all and more just a generalized "rebuke" of current prevailing trends among more vocal facets of the playerbase. Edit: I've added something akin to what I just said here to my previous post. Sorry for the confusion or implied aggression you might have felt from me, not my intent at all.

I do agree that the 'relax on the beach' vibe is a bit weird from people. Surely there will be instances where our character does relax, as they've implied it, but that's likely going to be reserved for moments of levity between each major story beat akin to how we had a massive dinner with the Scions in Endwalker.

[Volgia]

I kind of wanted the scions to take a break, have us meet new people and have new character dynamics, and maybe meet them later to see what they were doing. But it seems it's headed to the same main cast. It makes me have this feeling of "wow, they really can't think of anything new can they", but idk sniffing all that copium rn and hoping they surprise me.