What's the point with that quite lackluster story in Endwalker?

[Theodric]

So FFXI is a lot like Eureka and Bozja but with much more depth? I kind of regret not getting into it back in the day though my backlog of games is already immense.

As for story related gripes...I can only feel indifference towards Dawntrail. If I do end up buying and playing it, I'll likely just become a cutscene skipper. I don't care about the Scions and there isn't even an attempt to throw a meaningful bone to anyone who didn't want the Ancients/Ascians, Garleans and the Void to all be pushed into a state of irrelevance.

I'd point to the Fall Guys crossover as an excellent representation of the game's current state - it legitimately felt like playing through a fever dream. I guess if nothing else it shows how important it is to not only maintain consistency when building a world in terms of its story but in regards to tone and aesthetics.

To counter the 'u just h8 fun m8' rhetoric, I'd point out that my second favourite game in the franchise is FFIX. That game had a pretty cutesy art style and plenty of comic relief but it knew when to play it straight and when to have the 'moments of levity' that FFXIV increasingly insists on pushing with greater frequency.

[MikkoAkure]

As for story related gripes...I can only feel indifference towards Dawntrail. If I do end up buying and playing it, I'll likely just become a cutscene skipper. I don't care about the Scions and there isn't even an attempt to throw a meaningful bone to anyone who didn't want the Ancients/Ascians, Garleans and the Void to all be pushed into a state of irrelevance.

The Ancients/Ascians are all dead and the Garlean Empire no longer exists so I’m not sure what you’re expecting. The story doesn’t have anything to gain by lingering over the leftovers of old plot threads. FFXI keeps it fresh with new villains every expansion and it’s passed time FFXIV did the same and went into something new for the first time in a decade.

Keeping the Scions around as “the main characters of FFXIV” going around wherever the plot demands and having plot happen to them like it’s a long-running battle anime series is certainly a choice but it’s certainly better than having to face Zenos again and again, or the dregs of an Empire that’s already collapsed and that we’ve fought in every single expansion already, or a secret Ascian C-team of black masks who would pale in comparison to the Unsundered in both power and presence, or yet another Golbez doing Golbez things.

I don’t see how fighting the same enemies over and over when they have less power and influence than before is compelling. Those stories have already been told, the obstacles have been surmounted, and the characters, the game world, and the plot have moved on.

[Vyrerus]

So FFXI is a lot like Eureka and Bozja but with much more depth?

Kind of. I mean, the Lost Actions and Pnmemes or whatever in Eureka are somewhat similar / give similar feelings to certain spells and Job Abilities in FFXI, but FFXI's gameplay is a tad simpler in execution. Example: Double Edge is more or less Souleater from XI. You take damage to deal more damage.

It's front loaded with the depth. Learning what something does precisely is very key to playing well, as well as knowing the timings and things for Skillchains and Magic Bursts. There's a lot of tiny optimizations and distance checks for monster moves.

A lot of planning for the more complex fights goes into entirely denying a monster part of its arsenal either through TP denial, spellcasting denial, or both.

But you can brute force a large portion of the game with just knowing the Attack Delay reduction cap is 80%, and that you get there through 25% gear haste, 45% magical haste, and 10% job ability haste or any combination of the three (and JA haste can come from traits like Martial Arts or Dual Wield).

You get yourself attacking as fast as possible = build TP as fast as possible = Weaponskill as fast as possible = skillchain as fast as possible = kill monster asap.

The meta comes in from gear being able to be swapped mid combat, so this allows players to modify their stats in real time (with server latency delay/input delay of course). Real players swapping gear can realistically swap pretty well, but nowadays optimizers make LUAs and program their swaps to be automated, sometimes even their weaponskills*, and this leads to fight performance "vanilla" players can't match.

Example: You can begin casting a spell in gear that will make you cast it faster. Then mid cast you can swap into gear that will make it deal more damage. Then you can swap right near the end back into the Fast Cast gear to get a recast reduction as well. For lengthy spells a vanilla player can do this NP. For faster spells, it takes automation to do reliably.

* - I've read multiple times that automated WSes actually WS more slowly than real player input for some reason.

[Vyrerus]

Heh, I guess subs and 2 week free login ran out again. *pours one out for my trancer homies*

I wish the Endwalker zones, and heck the SHB zones too, had done more with swimming and diving.

[Xirean]

Heh, I guess subs and 2 week free login ran out again. *pours one out for my trancer homies*

I wish the Endwalker zones, and heck the SHB zones too, had done more with swimming and diving.

It's a bit hard to get behind swimming/diving as a feature when it's exclusively an exploration mechanic. We can't fight underwater/in the air like other mmo's to make it more usable of a feature.

[Rein_eon_Osborne]

It's a bit hard to get behind swimming/diving as a feature when it's exclusively an exploration mechanic. We can't fight underwater/in the air like other mmo's to make it more usable of a feature.

I'd love to be able to fight underwater or at least while afloat on water.

I never noticed that we even have a death animation on water until that time I stupidly cast Repose on one of the Phooka around Il Mheg's castle then jump off the cliff, thinking that I already mounted my mount to get away. (I can't 'cause in combat lol)

It was hilarious.

[Rolder50]

This thread's getting awfully close to 1000 pages

[Hyperia]

Heh, I guess subs and 2 week free login ran out again. *pours one out for my trancer homies*

I wish the Endwalker zones, and heck the SHB zones too, had done more with swimming and diving.

I have a feeling that swimming didn't turn out how they hoped and it wasn't a smashing success. As such, they are probably focusing their efforts elsewhere.


As to the mood of Dawntrail, I really hope it will focus more on fun and more hopeful or lighthearted stories. There is enough sadness / depression / gloom / doom / etc in Endwalker to last a lifetime and beyond.

[Ryskim]

Everything is well explained in the story. It is absolutely your opinion if there's something you don't like. For me, the only thing I did not like is how they presented Garlemald. I mean, we finally get to go there and see the place and it's... underwhelming and destroyed. For an empire that has been pictured so powerful over many expansions, it feels... small, and unimportant. I mean, Ul'dah is bigger than Garlemald...

Everything else feels okay to me. The cause of the Final Days had to be unexpected, and unexpected it was until we traveled to Elpis.

The best in the expansion for me is the Reaper job, which I wanted from the release of the game (as DRK, but okay) and Zenos/Zero/The Thirteenth.

I hope they give us now a dark/death themed caster too. Dawntrail is not going to deliver that, though. Most surely Geomancer is coming.

[Reap00]

This thread's getting awfully close to 1000 pages

It also has nothing to do with the actual thread topic any longer. SE should pin it forever so the children can stop bumping it hoping to validate their opinion.