So that 7.1 msq...

[LisseyCrowe]

What I am most worried about with the whole "key" stuff and hints they've dropped so far, is 8.0 is going to be another "visit a new shard" patch when we still have plenty of map to uncover here in Eorzea. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved Shadowbringers and the new lands we got, but I don't want this to be a crutch they keep falling back to.

Definitely my biggest worry as well.

It's weird, I remember thinking at some point how cool it would be to visit the other shards, maybe even all of them. But the more it sat with me the less I desired it: it feels like giving up on the world our characters (both MC and Scions) are from. I want to see more of The Source, how its future is shaping up, its towns/groups/cultures adapting, its secrets discovered, etc. The idea of simply picking up some key and using it to just reset the world state every expansion to visit a new shard sounds incredibly dull to me. I'm sure they could do something cool with it but I can't shake this fear that if they do go down that route it's essentially akin to soft retiring a show and just slapping filler seasons until it's no longer profitable.

[MediocreIndigo]

I think something that really needs to happen in the coming patches is the Alexandrians being made to reckon not just with how wrong and unsustainable their way of life is, but also the fact that Sphene wasn't the benevolent ruler they thought her to be. Something I've seen players get upset over is that Wuk Lamat attends Sphene's funeral and tries to comfort the grieving Alexandrians despite the atrocities she committed against Tuliyollal. On the one hand, I think it makes sense for Wuk Lamat to take a soft approach with them from a pragmatic perspective, as immediately confronting them with the fact that Sphene was a war criminal is probably just going to set back diplomatic efforts, but this isn't the way it's framed within the story. Instead, Wuk Lamat is shown to be doing this because she feels guilty over killing their leader (I should clarify that I think this is more a flaw of Dawntrail's writing as a whole than of Wuk Lamat as a character). I guess it makes sense that she would feel for Sphene considering that she was forced to be evil by her programming rather than of her own free will, but at the end of the day, this is still someone who committed atrocities against Wuk Lamat's people. The feelings of the Alexandrians shouldn't be prioritized over justice for Tuliyollal indefinitely.

[Daralii]

Definitely my biggest worry as well.

It's weird, I remember thinking at some point how cool it would be to visit the other shards, maybe even all of them. But the more it sat with me the less I desired it: it feels like giving up on the world our characters (both MC and Scions) are from. I want to see more of The Source, how its future is shaping up, its towns/groups/cultures adapting, its secrets discovered, etc. The idea of simply picking up some key and using it to just reset the world state every expansion to visit a new shard sounds incredibly dull to me. I'm sure they could do something cool with it but I can't shake this fear that if they do go down that route it's essentially akin to soft retiring a show and just slapping filler seasons until it's no longer profitable.

Endwalker and on has been them trying to speedrun as much of the established lore as they could for no apparent reason. 6.0 rushed through Garlemald, Sharlayan, Thavnair, the moon, and even the past while also establishing that the other civilizations in the universe had either wiped themselves out or were extinguished by Meteion. The MSQ in 6.1 and on rushed through the Bounty and 13th while also going through various other locations in the form of dungeons(variants and normal) and killing everything related to the Twelve. With 7.0 having now crossed off two more continents and another shard, we're left with Ilsabard's cloud donut, Meracydia, Koshu, and the 3 remaining shards assuming we don't just bounce from one to the next during the rest of the patch cycle. It's been such a colossal waste of potential and only makes it harder for them going forward, so I don't get why it happened.

[Jangles]

Endwalker and on has been them trying to speedrun as much of the established lore as they could for no apparent reason. 6.0 rushed through Garlemald, Sharlayan, Thavnair, the moon, and even the past while also establishing that the other civilizations in the universe had either wiped themselves out or were extinguished by Meteion. The MSQ in 6.1 and on rushed through the Bounty and 13th while also going through various other locations in the form of dungeons(variants and normal) and killing everything related to the Twelve. With 7.0 having now crossed off two more continents and another shard, we're left with Ilsabard's cloud donut, Meracydia, Koshu, and the 3 remaining shards assuming we don't just bounce from one to the next during the rest of the patch cycle. It's been such a colossal waste of potential and only makes it harder for them going forward, so I don't get why it happened.

Endwalker was the fault of them trying to capitalize on Shadowbringers' success and keeping the new playerbase hyped up for the big epic conclusion, which honestly made most of it fall flat and just removed so much myctical and mysterious stuff from the world.

When it comes to dawntrail, the current writers and lore consultant are just... not that good. They don't really know how to deliver a compelling and satisfying story so they just resort to blasting us with repeated dialogue and big huge giga impactful (please care about what's happening) events that end up not amounting to anything or straight up devaluing previous story beats, instead of giving us something to care about.

[ZXN]

I was very critical of 7.0 and now that I have done 7.1: it's better then 7.0. Now don't get me wrong, it's still pretty bad, and the bar is still pretty much non-existent. If 7.0's story is Yoshi-P and the devs forgetting to even bring the bar, then with 7.1's story they finally did bring the bar, proceeded to put it flat on the ground, and are now just motioning for it to "Go up" in complete silence and hope it magically starts fucking levitating.

Dungeon was good. But yeah still don't really care much for what we got story wise, and given how 7.1 ended I don't really expect much from 7.2 currently that isn't just players going "yeah it was obvious this was going to happen" the entire time.

[Kaecilius]

Endwalker and on has been them trying to speedrun as much of the established lore as they could for no apparent reason. 6.0 rushed through Garlemald, Sharlayan, Thavnair, the moon, and even the past while also establishing that the other civilizations in the universe had either wiped themselves out or were extinguished by Meteion. The MSQ in 6.1 and on rushed through the Bounty and 13th while also going through various other locations in the form of dungeons(variants and normal) and killing everything related to the Twelve. With 7.0 having now crossed off two more continents and another shard, we're left with Ilsabard's cloud donut, Meracydia, Koshu, and the 3 remaining shards assuming we don't just bounce from one to the next during the rest of the patch cycle. It's been such a colossal waste of potential and only makes it harder for them going forward, so I don't get why it happened.

I really wish they could go back and expand upon locations in future expansions. Hingashi is a prime example of that. We have access to Kugane, but haven't seen much beyond that other than Mount Rokkon, and we certainly have not had access to Bukyo.

My fear is that next expansion is going to be speedrunning two locations yet again (possibly Meracydia since it was on Emet's list, and another shard, since Y'shtola basically looked at the camera and said "as soon as you're done with the patches we're gonna be trying out your artifact") instead of focusing on a single place with a compelling story.

[DiaDeem]

What I am most worried about with the whole "key" stuff and hints they've dropped so far, is 8.0 is going to be another "visit a new shard" patch when we still have plenty of map to uncover here in Eorzea. Now, don't get me wrong, I loved Shadowbringers and the new lands we got, but I don't want this to be a crutch they keep falling back to.

You reminded me how I keep hoping they bring back the West Shroud somehow someday.

[StormChase]

I think something that really needs to happen in the coming patches is the Alexandrians being made to reckon not just with how wrong and unsustainable their way of life is, but also the fact that Sphene wasn't the benevolent ruler they thought her to be. Something I've seen players get upset over is that Wuk Lamat attends Sphene's funeral and tries to comfort the grieving Alexandrians despite the atrocities she committed against Tuliyollal. On the one hand, I think it makes sense for Wuk Lamat to take a soft approach with them from a pragmatic perspective, as immediately confronting them with the fact that Sphene was a war criminal is probably just going to set back diplomatic efforts, but this isn't the way it's framed within the story. Instead, Wuk Lamat is shown to be doing this because she feels guilty over killing their leader (I should clarify that I think this is more a flaw of Dawntrail's writing as a whole than of Wuk Lamat as a character). I guess it makes sense that she would feel for Sphene considering that she was forced to be evil by her programming rather than of her own free will, but at the end of the day, this is still someone who committed atrocities against Wuk Lamat's people. The feelings of the Alexandrians shouldn't be prioritized over justice for Tuliyollal indefinitely.

Something I'd like to see is Wuk Lamat feeling conflicted about Sphene. Not just sadness and guilt, but also anger. This was someone responsible for taking her people and family from her. But she also saw glimpses of the "real" Sphene under the programming. How does she make sense of this?

[BigCheez]

Something I'd like to see is Wuk Lamat feeling conflicted about Sphene. Not just sadness and guilt, but also anger. This was someone responsible for taking her people and family from her. But she also saw glimpses of the "real" Sphene under the programming. How does she make sense of this?

Welcome to FFXIV. As soon as someone reveals their sob story or motivations you have to immediately forget about all the bad things that they've done.

[MediocreIndigo]

Something I'd like to see is Wuk Lamat feeling conflicted about Sphene. Not just sadness and guilt, but also anger. This was someone responsible for taking her people and family from her. But she also saw glimpses of the "real" Sphene under the programming. How does she make sense of this?

Maybe in the coming patches when Wuk Lamat meets what I'm guessing is the real Sphene (not the AI or the imposter), we'll get to see her feel awkward around her because of the things AI Sphene did, but IDK if they'll go that route.