I'm Frustrated with FFXIV's New Direction

[Mortex]

They intentionally made a scene where sphene refused to tell erenville what happened to cauchia right to his face which was the most blatantly obvious representation that her whole “charming facade” was a crock of shit and then they still wanted us to believe that Sphene and Wuk were forcing some sort of actual bond when they did the final scene

Betrays us once and tells us “ yes I wanted these souls so I started the war” and all scions and characters are like well it’s ok we forgive you and don’t hold any grudges against a person who did invade tural and killed innocent people only for the same person coming in not even 3 hours later and stealing a mcguffin that can do even more dmg while slowing walking through all scions and the main character and just choking picking it up while we stand around absolute idiots.

[Mortex]

This completely ignores the lore of legacy WOL’s and the dubious canonicity of the fact that it’s possible that all players “experienced” legacy and were sent forward by louisoux even if only legacy players “remember” it

The backstory is up to the player but haedalyn had nothing to do with it. Hell the starshower legacy players saw has nothing to do with haedalyn anyway, it’s a natural phenomenon. The only “predetermined” aspect of your player is the fact that you are a shard of azem but that’s how the aetherial sea works

It’s kinda dumb that elpis takes a big chunk of character decisions away (from a random Adventure that has the blessing too “chosen one from back in elpis”) Because it being a time paradox you can say we effectively do give Hydaelyn all that informations on “how to make the perfect warrior of light”. This person dying ?? Was always supposed to happen and was predetermined because you told me about it in elpis. Like we as an individual character are free in our choices now after elpis and then we got the worst after main story patches in endwalker and the worst expansion start story in dawntrail.

[Lydia77]

It’s kinda dumb that elpis takes a big chunk of character decisions away (from a random Adventure that has the blessing too “chosen one from back in elpis”) Because it being a time paradox you can say we effectively do give Hydaelyn all that informations on “how to make the perfect warrior of light”. This person dying ?? Was always supposed to happen and was predetermined because you told me about it in elpis. Like we as an individual character are free in our choices now after elpis and then we got the worst after main story patches in endwalker and the worst expansion start story in dawntrail.

there are several time travel theories. 14 just took this one and i am all for it especially after WE taught frogs to tounge pull and aoe belly slam and last but not least, current behemoth state including METEOR!? ill leave this time travel as it is

[All_Nonsense]

Exactly. It's just felt like a very lazy expansion design wise.
Even the Pelu aren't original, just ripped from X.

To be positive, some of the new areas are bloody lovely visually, but are sadly devoid of a soul with the race designs.

Part of me is starting to wonder just how many veteran team members were pulled off of FF14 and put on FF16. The cracks are kinda showing

[Catwho]

...... you realize that 90% of the monster and race modes in XIV were ripped straight out of other games, right? And tons of races were borrowed from other games? Them having Pelupelu isn't ripping off another game, it's an homage to that game. Same way Triple Triad and the Ivalice raids are.

XIV is called the Final Fantasy theme park for a reason.

[Supersnow845]

...... you realize that 90% of the monster and race modes in XIV were ripped straight out of other games, right? And tons of races were borrowed from other games? Them having Pelupelu isn't ripping off another game, it's an homage to that game. Same way Triple Triad and the Ivalice raids are.

XIV is called the Final Fantasy theme park for a reason.

You know you are supposed to actually do something unique with what you draw inspiration from. All the primals from 14 are based off of summons/enemies/etc from old FF games but they have their own unique twists and designs with their own lore

Something like the pelupelu isn’t “inspiration” because they just took the design from 10 then failed to inject anything uniquely 14 into them, they are just a void of a race based on 10

[GrizzlyTank]

It does feel like they have deliberately been steering away from the things that made FFXIV special, starting with the end of SHB where they prematurely ended half their plot.

For all of ARR's issues, the world still felt mature, something that's been absent from a large part of EW and almost all of DT. Tuliolala and Raz was all sunshine and utopia like, while Sharlaya was neutered from what we had been teased about earlier with their assassinations.

They also don't want to pull in side story to the main-store like what happened with Crystal Tower, Alexander and Omega... Even though that's one of the things truly elevated the story well above that of other jrpgs. How Gaia, Cyella and Unukalhai was largely ignored in our brief void quest.

[CamuiKushi]

Was anyone upset that Estinien got the final blow on Nidhogg in The Aery? I wasn't - that was exactly what I wanted to happen. I didn't need anymore accolades at that point. Estinien had worked his whole life for that moment.

This is an incredibly crucial point that I think the Wuk Lamat defenders keep forgetting: we've been a side character before. This isn't a new thing. Other people have had the limelight and not copped anywhere near as much flak as Wuk Lamat.

It's how she's written that's the problem, not that she's the protagonist of the expansion.

[Daralii]

This is an incredibly crucial point that I think the Wuk Lamat defenders keep forgetting: we've been a side character before. This isn't a new thing. Other people have had the limelight and not copped anywhere near as much flak as Wuk Lamat.

It's how she's written that's the problem, not that she's the protagonist of the expansion.

Our presence didn't feel completely pointless for HW, especially before the Aery got revised and we had to protect Estinien while he used the eye to weaken Nidhogg. It felt pointless for very large swathes of DT, both in story and gameplay.

[Gaddes]

Tuliolala and Raz was all sunshine and utopia like, while Sharlaya was neutered from what we had been teased about earlier with their assassinations.

I think, at least for me, Radz-at-Han gets a pass because it's a very unique circumstance. I thought it was believable that Radz-at-Han would be prosperous and thriving because they basically have a cheat mode enabled with a nigh-immortal dragon as their leader. With that you get dragon's protective power, and more importantly consistency (since he can oversee changes and evolution of his nation over centuries). But more important than that, it being a successful nation really set up an effective narrative shock once everything goes to shit with the Final Days. Seeing it do a complete 180 shift to absolute chaos and ruin is a lot more of an "oh shit" jaw-dropper than if the nation was already problematic or in dire straits. Had it been that, then it wouldn't be such a visual shock honestly... the dramatic shift is one of the things that I think still makes the Vanaspati dungeon so visually arresting to me even now.