This story is really underwhelming - it's opened to mixed reviews.

[localareanetwork]

I have never considered skipping a msq story before and as someone that actively enjoyed Stormblood, me considering it this time is a shocker for me. I couldn't care less about Wuk Lamat. She just feels like Lyse but infinitely worse.

[Araxes]

I am glad my Wife and i are not the only ones who think that way.

We both really struggle to stay engaged with the story cause it feels like ARR 2.0 but with much less danger.
Wuk Lamat is just drop dead boring and every second line has something about Peace in it. YES we got it now you want peace, good Gods.
I wish we could have went with her Miqo'te Brother instead.

Literally the first expac where we both are skipping cutscenes cause they all feel like one sentence streched out into half a book.

[Racen]

I'm very much enjoying the story.

[LittleArrow]

I'm really not having fun with this story. I've never felt more like an uninvolved side character / parent chaperone in the entire 10+yrs of playing this game than in this story. I never felt like a sidekick in Stormblood or even Heavensward. I always felt like I was driving the story when I was on the run or the underdog with my tail between my legs after getting decimated by an enemy. Even when NPC's needed my help and WERE the main character of their part of the story (Lyse / Hein), I was still driving the resolve in conflict.

I really dislike standing around watching Wuk Lamat figure out what to do. I find it extremely unfun to watch a bunch of clowns bully, harass, and cause conflict while being held back arbitrarily with, "Oh don't worry, they'll get theirs." If that's the case, then don't put it in the story!!! This way of writing is making me hate Wuk Lamat, she's incompetent, inconsistent, and not at all endearing because of this writing. It's making me want to skip cutscenes because I know nothing is going to happen.

Also, the excuse of "we're on holiday / vacation! We're taking it easy!" is so frustrating to hear, because we've been in FAR worse situations that could easily fall into this writer's trap of making the main character pointless or a side character in a video game and they wrote it beautifully (all of ARR, all of Heavensward, a large portion of Stormblood).

If I didn't want to be the main character I would watch a movie, not play a video game.

EDIT: Just a sidenote, this story is seriously setup for me to love. Going to get into spoilers for the first beginning sections:

The Pelupelu and Hanu sections were so classic Final fantasy. I loved going in and learning about their culture through these very creative ways of fixing their problems. The music and settings reminded me so much of classic FF9 (my favorite FF). Yet, everytime there was possible conflict, everytime there was a problem I just stood around and pinched my chin or looked disappointed in Wuk Lamat.

I should be loving these stories but I'm not, I'm annoyed at a character that I originally found endearing because this writing doesn't know how to balance our main character and telling the story of Wuk Lamat without totally erasing us from the driver seat and instead just says, "Oh yeah thanks for your help!

[Shialan]

It's crazy how people can't handle not being the god slaying super hero MAIN main character.

[Rhysati]

I have never considered skipping a msq story before and as someone that actively enjoyed Stormblood, me considering it this time is a shocker for me. I couldn't care less about Wuk Lamat. She just feels like Lyse but infinitely worse.

This is me as well. I rather enjoyed Stormblood while everyone around was talking about how badly written it was. I certainly don't think it was a masterpiece or anything, but it was good enough. This, however? So far I've actually found myself aggravated and saying out-loud: "I don't care!" before skipping the rest of a boring cutscene about the intricacies of cotton weaves in a turtleneck sweater(used something that isn't real so I don't spoil anything for someone, but it may as well be real).

It's crazy how people can't handle not being the god slaying super hero MAIN main character.

I can handle that just fine. My favorite times in MMORPGs have been when I'm just some nobody adventurer trying to make a name for myself. Classic World of Warcraft, Everquest, Lord of the Rings Online....all properties where you aren't some epic hero.

But in FFXIV we ARE an epic hero. We are the chosen one. We literally have saved not only our world, but other worlds. And now we are on a boring journey to help the new main character collect 3 flowers to make a flower crown for a kitty cat so she can become Hokage. That's not just not being an epic hero, it's being a sidekick in a bad children's cartoon.

[CosmoBabylonia]

I have never considered skipping a msq story before and as someone that actively enjoyed Stormblood, me considering it this time is a shocker for me. I couldn't care less about Wuk Lamat. She just feels like Lyse but infinitely worse.

Just to give you an idea, I logged into the forums to shitpost because of how the narrative has been so far.

[Regis_Paran]

Literally the first expac where we both are skipping cutscenes.

I'm the same. And it makes me sad, becaue I really, really wanted to like this expac. But it just won't let me So far the only thing I really like is Tuliyollal theme (even if it's completely out of place for this location).

[LittleArrow]

It's crazy how people can't handle not being the god slaying super hero MAIN main character.

Yeah you're right, it's crazy I'm playing a video game that is a media that specifically puts you in the driver seat of a story instead of every other media like, I dunno, movies, books literally anything other than a video game, and those of us that would like to be the driving force of conflict resolution is instead wanting to be the MAIN MAIN SUPER SLAYING CHARACTER!! That's exactly what many of us are asking for!

Definitely not asking to not be silent side characters twiddling our thumbs waiting around for another character to choose what will happen instead of us being reasonably written and integrated into the story.

Right, I want a power trip, not a well written story. Crazy how they did just that with 3 other expansions that had your character NOT the main character.

I'm in crazy town taking crazy pills.

[GoatOfWar]

Who could have guessed that a vacation themed story wasn't going to be interesting.