The MSQ catering to story skippers

[aquarys]

I'm not sure if anyone really brought this up previously, but I have a feeling that a lot of the repetitiveness (and the "tell don't show" dialogue that was employed in Dawntrail) might have been an honest attempt by SE to cater more to story skippers.

I feel like a lot of the heavy-handed goal stating by Wuk Lamat was to ensure that anyone, no matter how much story they skipped in the past or how long of a break they took between MSQ quests, would have a basic idea about what Wuk Lamat's goals were in a particular scenario and how she feels in the moment.

It is very easy to take a break in the DT MSQ and come back a month or even a year later and still understand what's going on, generally speaking. I also think that's one of the reasons why so many people compare DT's writing to that of a Saturday morning cartoon or something. It's simple and easy to understand, and a lot of plot points are simply stated outright instead of left to interpretation.

That being said, a lot of the complexity that some fans were expecting from the story was relegated to subtle hints and references.

I just wanted to point this out as just another way of understanding some of the decisions that SE made with Dawntrail.

[Swordsman]

Ehhh, to me it just looks like the repetitiveness was a result of carelessness and not proofreading any of the quest dialogue.

Edit: Or needing filler dialogue.

[Ahelissa]

Either that, or they're catering to players who do the MSQ over the course of many months. In any case, I really hope they stop doing it and get back to the more concise storytelling of HW, SB, and ShB.

[genuine_stranger]

Either that, or they're catering to players who do the MSQ over the course of many months. In any case, I really hope they stop doing it and get back to the more concise storytelling of HW, SB, and ShB.

This is precisely how it feels going through DT. Cutting down on the repetitiveness and offering a recap at the character selection would've done a lot of good for the story, imo.

[-Teria-]

It's not catering to story skippers. It's turning story watchers into story skippers.
Once I got to the last zone I just kinda started skipping scenes if Wuk Lamat started talking because I was frustrated, I had enough, and I couldn't suffer it or her anymore.
When the zone started and I was told what I had to do what Wuk Lamat had to do in this place, 90% of the character interactions we had with the zone's denizens felt wholly unnecessary and pointless. Knowing what had to be done, there was zero chance I was going to get invested in these people or care about their fate.
This expansion lacked nuance and subtext and everything was spoken so plainly and everything was so overly padded out I had to keep stepping away from it to go do other things.
What truly, truly was the final straw from me was returning to Tuliyolol or whatever (I don't think I'll ever remember how to spell a single zone name south of the bridge) and we see Koana. He asks us "What happened?"
And then we do our usual Warrior of Light thing. Our lips move, we wave our hands around a bit, the screen fades to black. We just recounted the thing we did 20 minutes ago and the story moves on.
EXCEPT WUK LAMAT SHOWS UP AND WE'RE DRAGGED AROUND THE CITY WHERE SHE NOT ONLY EXPLAINS TO KOANA WHAT WE DID 20 MINUTES AGO, BUT DOES SO RIGHT AFTER MY CHARACTER JUST GOT DONE EXPLAINING. AND WE NEED TO GO ALONG WITH THIS ANYWAY. IT'S STUPID. Y'shtola, my friend and fellow Scion, calling up WUK LAMAT ON THE LINK PEARL SHE'S OWNED FOR LIKE THREE DAYS asking "Is Teria with you?" at the end of it instead of just calling me directly was an even bigger spit in the face than that garbage they pulled at the end of the final boss.
My lord sometimes they just pan over to your character's cold, dead stare devoid of emotion in a cutscene just to remind you that you're still in the room and haven't wandered off to go Fishing or something.

So you're damn right I'm going to skip cutscenes when I don't even matter to the story at the end of the day.
I miss Zenos.

[Isala]

Either that, or they're catering to players who do the MSQ over the course of many months. In any case, I really hope they stop doing it and get back to the more concise storytelling of HW, SB, and ShB.

The only reason the MSQ took me as long as it did, is because I had to take breaks from it repeatedly, so I didn't hate myself. I literally did all the EW Fates I skipped, because the alternative was more Wuk Lyse. When FATES of all things are more engaging and enjoyable than the MSQ, you have screwed up.

[aquarys]

Just want to clarify that I'm not defending the writing direction at all. I'm just trying to understand what happened with the story's writing.

[-Teria-]

Just want to clarify that I'm not defending the writing direction at all. I'm just trying to understand what happened with the story's writing.

Oh absolutely.
The story itself just suffers from truly terrible writing. Hiroi has never written anything decent outside of Werlyt and Pandaemonium and I'm convinced he had Ishikawa or somebody holding his hand through it. Everything else he's credited with is dull as dishwater. He should have never been given the reigns of a full blown MSQ and I hope this "You're just an observer" experiment is never repeated. If you want another character to be the main character of the story, that's fine. But the Warrior of Light should always be an active participant and not forcefully held back from doing anything.

[aquarys]

Oh absolutely.
The story itself just suffers from truly terrible writing. Hiroi has never written anything decent outside of Werlyt and Pandaemonium and I'm convinced he had Ishikawa or somebody holding his hand through it. Everything else he's credited with is dull as dishwater. He should have never been given the reigns of a full blown MSQ and I hope this "You're just an observer" experiment is never repeated. If you want another character to be the main character of the story, that's fine. But the Warrior of Light should always be an active participant and not forcefully held back from doing anything.

Just wondering, where do you see the credits for the writing done in FFXIV? I'm curious about who wrote what. I thoroughly enjoyed Werlyt, actually.

Edit: I found this graphic?

[ReynTime]

I hope that's not the case.

Yoshida needs to understand this:

YOU
CAN'T
PLEASE
EVERYONE

The more you try to cater to literally everyone, the more you alienate a portion of the playerbase or incentivize the players to do in-fighting blaming each other for changes one doesn't like.