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

[Shaedhen]

I can only imagine what they'll do with the Vana'diel saga if it's this team of writers from the MSQ. Gah I hope we don't have an annoying guide through the dungeon... please just let us go through it.

Hopefully it will be different writers, and maybe with some input from the XI guys as well. It's the only thing that I hope honestly.
If they ruin the XI crossover after ruining the IX one, the two I'm the most fond of, I would just be terribly sad.

[LittleArrow]

So wow the end credits even annoyed me... I just kept saying shut up... >_<

I skipped it. That Smile song is the worst song I've ever heard from this game. Nothing about that song sounds like it belongs to any expansion or the base game. It belonged in a Disney movie.

Hopefully it will be different writers, and maybe with some input from the XI guys as well. It's the only thing that I hope honestly.
If they ruin the XI crossover after ruining the IX one, the two I'm the most fond of, I would just be terribly sad.

I truly hope so. Like you FF9 is my favorite Final Fantasy of the series and I haven't even mentioned how frustrated I was in the story with how poorly they handled those references. Just name drops with nothing else. Albeit, that's how they usually handle these sorts of things, but it felt like such a rich final fantasy and they wasted their chance with it.

[DarkMasamune]

So wow the end credits even annoyed me... I just kept saying shut up... >_<

I couldn't stand the song in the end credits. It was so annoying and useless. Didn't feel earned in any way. It felt corny and out of place. Had to skip.

So yeah I'm done with the story and to be honest it wasn't one for me. I'm happy for anyone who thought it was great but imo it was bad and full of clichés. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, we just followed Naruto everywhere.

The only thing I actually enjoyed was

The area in the forest (nice callback to the Macalania Forest in FFX btw) and the story around the Skydeep Cenote (althought the "bad guy not really being a bad guy but is truly a crybaby with a heavy burden and that justifies his terrible actions and/or attitude" is quite a big cliché in of itself).
Also, enjoyed little Gulool Ja. A shame he's only used to push the "sins of our fathers" cliché, once again.

So yeah, didn't really hold onto the rest of the story. Nothing stayed with me and that's a shame. I didn't feel a huge rush or urgency or emotions while doing the last boss. It just felt like a chore really (althought the mechanics were cool).

[Ramiee]

Same here. I'm really worried the raid will turn out rough, especially with the horrible ending they gave the 12. Everytime I see an NPC in the game say the 12 and or refer to their favorite sailor moon guy I just think.. oh poor guy, no clue you're really praying to a big ol' machine.. such a shame.

I can only imagine what they'll do with the Vana'diel saga if it's this team of writers from the MSQ. Gah I hope we don't have an annoying guide through the dungeon... please just let us go through it.

Yeah this kinda annoys me too.
The entire spiritualism of the lore has become very mechanical in nature, there are no real gods or goddesses and even then the spirituality disappeared after Heavensward. I think I would of preferred if the gods and goddesses were never personified because all we got out of it was lore being made redundant and honestly a very boring ARaid series.

[Astral145]

Underwhelming? More like snore fest. SB all over again but worse.

[Nebelheim]

I'm hoping they don't screw up the ff11 raids with the collab or involve wuk lamat somehow the ff9 references I felt weren't great considering it was just a few names and music tracks from 9. I was optimistic about dawntrail but after completing the story I feel it wasn't that great and the music was a step down and didn't have the final fantasy sound to the music. I still have hope for the ff11 raids that they don't screw it up somehow since that's one of my favorites along with 9 and hope they bring in the original ff11 team to co-develope.

[Hallarem]

Yeah this kinda annoys me too.
The entire spiritualism of the lore has become very mechanical in nature, there are no real gods or goddesses and even then the spirituality disappeared after Heavensward. I think I would of preferred if the gods and goddesses were never personified because all we got out of it was lore being made redundant and honestly a very boring ARaid series.

Yeah one thing that really annoys me with mainly japanese rpgs is that they kill the spiritualism, "kill the gods" "gods bad" not everything needs to be revealed, not everything needs an explanation, you can just have gods you pray to, you don't need to know whats beyond the veil, you don't need to explain every bit of magic in a Sharlayan classroom.

[ForteNightshade]

So yeah I'm done with the story and to be honest it wasn't one for me. I'm happy for anyone who thought it was great but imo it was bad and full of clichés. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, we just followed Naruto everywhere.

I genuinely wish we followed Naruto everywhere. At least he struggled and failed once in a while.

[Ramiee]

Yeah one thing that really annoys me with mainly japanese rpgs is that they kill the spiritualism, "kill the gods" "gods bad" not everything needs to be revealed, not everything needs an explanation, you can just have gods you pray to, you don't need to know whats beyond the veil, you don't need to explain every bit of magic in a Sharlayan classroom.

It is a jrpg problem but I will say it does extend to other MMOs too. For example in world of warcraft one of the main religions the holy light got personified in these creatures called the Naaru which were made of pure holy light. So now you kinda see all the spirituality of the priests and paladins as praying to a weird alien creature. It really ruins the atmosphere.
I for sure think the Japanese obsession with killing gods and explaining gods/gods bad is really cringe.

Having the Holy See and all of Ishgard worshipping Halone was a neat cultural story telling device for Ishgard but it's now ruined to me because I directly met Halone and defeated her in battle. Hell as a Paladin we are supposed to be followers of Halone too.
I think spirituality is honestly one of the most important parts to fantasy. What makes Lord of the Rings so magical is the spirituality in the world and the wonders it brings. Knowing everything that happens in the background of a fantasy world removes that wonder.

[Rannie]

I couldn't stand the song in the end credits. It was so annoying and useless. Didn't feel earned in any way. It felt corny and out of place. Had to skip.

I skipped it. That Smile song is the worst song I've ever heard from this game. Nothing about that song sounds like it belongs to any expansion or the base game. It belonged in a Disney movie..

the song probably wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't done as a southern gospel choir type song... also the lyrics sounded familiar, however with Erenville doing his exposition of tell not show over the lyrics made it completely annoying for me. which btw don't get me wrong I do love me some Erenville but even then when Shb ended as well as Endwalker... when they showed those endings they didn't have that type of exposition along with music with Lyrics in it.