Revelations from EU Fan Fest (October 2023)

[Carin-Eri]

I think the general bet around ALphinaud's absence isn't that he's doing/has something spoiler-y, but that he's with something spoiler-y. Possibly Krile with the new magic job, but I'd also suggest that he might be with the trailer-end narrator, who's probably also the Mystery Legs-Haver from 6.5.

...incidentally, what comes first: 6.55, or the Japanese Fanfest?

I'd guess the Fanfest will come first. That's scheduled for January 7th & 8th. The 6.55 release date is a rather vague "Mid-January 2024"

[Iscah]

I'd guess the Fanfest will come first. That's scheduled for January 7th & 8th. The 6.55 release date is a rather vague "Mid-January 2024"

I just remember the lead-up to patch 4.55 before Shadowbringers – Fan Fest was a week earlier, dropped all the dramatic "surprise, you're going to the First!" stuff and completely took the wind out of the MSQ's sails. Then people complained that 4.55 wasn't an exciting patch.

[Carin-Eri]

I just remember the lead-up to patch 4.55 before Shadowbringers – Fan Fest was a week earlier, dropped all the dramatic "surprise, you're going to the First!" stuff and completely took the wind out of the MSQ's sails. Then people complained that 4.55 wasn't an exciting patch.

Oh wow! This was before my time.... I mean, hype is one thing but sounds like they went far too OTT with it there!

In fact, almost feel I was probably at an advantage - I didn't start playing FFXIV until very shortly after Endwalker launched so the 'First' stuff was a surprise to me when I reached Shadowbringers!

[Alleo]

You can see Alphinaud much better in the extended version of the trailer at the end. He still has the same hair and clothes. I do wonder though why he is on the boat but not Alisaie. Well we will know more after the fully trailer release.

Also liking the new job and that the WoL seemingly can have fun again.

[SannaR]

Oh wow! This was before my time.... I mean, hype is one thing but sounds like they went far too OTT with it there!

In fact, almost feel I was probably at an advantage - I didn't start playing FFXIV until very shortly after Endwalker launched so the 'First' stuff was a surprise to me when I reached Shadowbringers!

I was one of those who felt having watched Fan Fest and got told we would be going to the 1st and seeing the Crystal Exarch in the teaser trailer knocked the wind out of the scene where you have that talk in the rift with the Exarch. As for 2.55 and 3.55 you both had the in game reveal before you got the Fan Fest reveal. As up until the NA fan fest for Shadowbringers a lot of the playerbase if not all of it were speculating that we would be going to Garlemald as that was where the story was aiming us to. While having to deal with whatever it was going on with the Scions on the side. But then we got spoiled by Fan Fest as why wouldn't you watch or go to it if you were all caught up and wanted the speculation to end?

[Kesey]

I think the general bet around ALphinaud's absence isn't that he's doing/has something spoiler-y, but that he's with something spoiler-y. Possibly Krile with the new magic job, but I'd also suggest that he might be with the trailer-end narrator, who's probably also the Mystery Legs-Haver from 6.5.

...incidentally, what comes first: 6.55, or the Japanese Fanfest?

At this point I think it's safe to assume Alphinaud is with the new character or interacting with something spoilery.

[Grimr]

i hope the 11 raid series isn't done like nier and is properly integrated into xiv's lore/worldbuilding. it'd be an awful shame if they just walk back old statements about the shards not being the other games.

Honestly we need more nier compared to this expansion myths of the realm it is just no contest. I found the myths incredibly boring while nier was just great. the glamour sets the fight just everything was great compared to this expansion not enough resources theme.

One other thing we do not need another limited class. Blue mage kinda got ruined thanks again to yoshida's nerf. I would rather not level a character from 1 - 100 at this point only for them not to do this or that just make it a regular class alrdy.

[Grimr]

Oh wow! This was before my time.... I mean, hype is one thing but sounds like they went far too OTT with it there!

In fact, almost feel I was probably at an advantage - I didn't start playing FFXIV until very shortly after Endwalker launched so the 'First' stuff was a surprise to me when I reached Shadowbringers!

yeah shadowbringers was great and i don't recall there ever being complaints about going to the first or its msq. It was far better than what we got this time.

[Cleretic]

This fanbase is fantastic at forgetting their own feelings about something before we got the whole story about it. 'Solus Galvus' and Fandaniel were both roundly disliked when they first turned up in patch content, but you'd never know that by how much the consensus changed once we got their 'whole stories'.

To a degree that's good, it means we generally avoid burdening the completed story with the opinions from before it, but it does mean it's very easy for us to forget things like pre-release reception and predictions. Sanna's right, Shadowbringers was actually not especially looked-forward-to at the time; I'm not gonna say it was hated or dreaded (although there probably were doomsayers about it, I'd kinda love it if people could dig those back up), but it was definitely not what people expected or wanted, and we had much less of an inherent assurance of quality. It was actually Shadowbringers that showed us that the writers had strength enough to pull off stories outside of the one they had been telling up to that point, so Shadowbringers itself had a lot of doubt around it, because it had yet to prove itself.

[Vallavia]

I'm not gonna say it was hated or dreaded (although there probably were doomsayers about it, I'd kinda love it if people could dig those back up), but it was definitely not what people expected or wanted, and we had much less of an inherent assurance of quality.

I can certainly speak to my reaction when Shadowbringers was revealed, which was something to the effect of utter bewilderment. I'd only recently started playing and was about halfway through the Stormblood patch MSQ, chomping at the bit for this heavily foreshadowed renewed war with Garlemald that would ultimately never come to pass, and I simply could not imagine how in what little time I had left with the story they could effectively pivot to this wildly different setting, tone, and story. The "effectively" part is debatable (the tonal shift landed pretty well but that whole arc just ground to a screeching halt), but I still remember coming to the end of 5.5 with a resounding feeling of "who asked for this?".

All this to say, staring down the barrel of Dawntrail's release I'm faced with a similar feeling. Shadowbringers indeed proved that this team is capable of executing a seismic story shift that nobody was really expecting, it just remains to be seen if they will. I am admittedly a lot more invested in Dawntrail than I was at the same juncture in Shadowbringers purely because of personal preferences, but I am still somewhat dubious after the good-but-predictable offerings since 6.0.