What even was that capstone questline?

[Yeol]

I skipped everything that is skippable. Looks like I didn't miss much. I've already lost faith in their storytelling/writing this expansion.

[Raidoser]

Did they really have to narrow down our dialogue choices to

“People like you don’t deserve to be free”

And

“I will never be on your side”

Like I get it’s a Japanese RPG but this rigid adherence to the flawed state and barely disguised incrementalism is getting really tiring

I miss the time we were able to choose "..." as an dialogue options.
Sometime i wish we got an equivalent of Jack from "Stranger of Paradise" in FF14 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2V1VKlFSDM

[Mawlzy]

I don't like the how the end of the questline had Apyaahi make some legitimate points only for it to segway into a joke about her not wanting to pay for a room. The fact that it played funny music while she was talking about how she had her belongings stolen while she was living on the streets (which is something that happens to homeless people in real life) felt rather mean-spirited.

Sorry for getting political or whatever, but it kind of felt like the writer for this questline was trying to make an anarchist character while not understanding what that ideology actually means. If the intention was to make her a LARPer, then it would be funnier to me, but I don't think that was the intention here.

To me, it felt like the writer was about to make something interesting develop, then an editor came in and said "nah, just wrap this up as soon as possible."

[Velthice]

I'd say I enjoyed the quest, for the little 20 minute ditty that it was, but I felt like it suffered from extreme tonal dissonance at the end

Getting to see the absurd recruiting process followed by an honest conversation with their leader that reveals her very understandable goals that makes you empathize with the character, that was all good.

Where it fell apart was having the wol, our character, completely disregard that only have dialog options that are both basically "perish, criminal scum."
If you wanted us to empathize with the character, why wasn't that reflected in the dialog choices? Then you have the main theme start rocking out during the fight which feels completely unearned because none of the returning characters even do anything aside from the viera archer. And then it all wraps up by being "oh she's stupid, send her to prison" but not before her little mushroom companion phases out which I think was supposed to be sad? Like maybe? I really don't know, because it happened, and the angle almost looked like it was framed to set up an emotional scene, but then it was like, nope nope, start the slapstick scene.

It just felt all wrong at the end. Such a missed landing

[sindriiisgaming]

Firstly, the positives: the instanced fight was fun, and the concept of someone denied freedom becoming an extremist is not a bad idea. You can make a really gripping, tragic story with that.

So what in the seven hells happened? The writing ranged from nonsensical to insulting, more than once flashing back to things that were explained in detail less than five minutes beforehand. I'd say that it's like the writing is for five year olds, only that it also feels like it was written BY five year olds! Every character ranges from indistinguishably bland (I dare anyone to pick them apart without the names in the text boxes) to seemingly brain-damaged. This expansion just keeps managing to make me skip cutscenes in a game where I hadn't skipped a single one before, even on alts.

Where did the wires get crossed? How does "Lighthearted" mean "absolutely devoid of charm, intelligence or quality"? I get that the concept was to make them comedic villains, but do you know who pulled that off? Hildibrand! I laughed out loud so many times at the utter insanity of the Hildibrand questlines, and that's not even limiting it to the animations!

In fact, for as much as the team apparently complains about having no ideas for Hildibrand, the short quest we've gotten so far has been some of the least bad writing in the entire expansion, sharing that dubious honour with the Arcadion quests. Why are those the only decent writing in this entire traincrash, Yoshi P? Is NO ONE doing quality control at all anymore? Does ANYONE even do a final check in any of this?

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here!

im angry at this quest line.. because i am trying to like them, and i liked her a lot.. and then they made her out like some selfish dumb teenager.. they build her up so well and then just make a fool of her

Then you have the main theme start rocking out during the fight which feels completely unearned because none of the returning characters even do anything aside from the viera archer.

i cringed when it played... same kinda cringe that smile inspired.. it felt so forced and meant to stir up some kind of fighting spirit..
dont even get me started on the WOL.. i am starting to dislike my character.. or what feels like a clone of him.. he wouldn't do this.. who is this charlatan wearing the face of my WOL. even in this 1 scene in the desert he got upset he couldn't have the powerful totem.. and im like.. you are supposed to be the hero.. why the hell do you want this? were you not the man who pressed on against emet even when you had literally nothing left in you...

[ovIm]

Firstly, the positives: the instanced fight was fun

Gods I hated the finale of the instanced fight. I was doing it as a tank, cause my power fantasy involves being the one on the front in an epic sword clashing duel. Why was i not allowed to keep aggro on the enemies? Its such a small thing, and I am legit mad about it.

Where did the wires get crossed? How does "Lighthearted" mean "absolutely devoid of charm, intelligence or quality"? I get that the concept was to make them comedic villains, but do you know who pulled that off? Hildibrand! I laughed out loud so many times at the utter insanity of the Hildibrand questlines, and that's not even limiting it to the animations!

The wires got crossed somewhere after 6.1. Really, the decline started before that, but 6.1 was a noticeable drop in writing quality imho. I had that chalked up to CS3 putting all their eggs in the basket that is Dawntrail, to be honest.

Did they really have to narrow down our dialogue choices to

“People like you don’t deserve to be free”
And
“I will never be on your side”

Yes they did. Not even an empathic option of "you are doing it wrong for the right reasons", or a challenging "you are not seeking freedom". The entire premise had so much potential, and it was all squandered.

[LystAP]

Last part felt kind of uncomfortable. The second set of Unbound leaders. All they did was talk, then they were arrested. For what? Speaking out loud? I didn't see them in any of the past quests, so these people probably just got recruited and turned up. And then they get arbitrarily arrested out of association.

[icicleteeth]

Meanwhile all I wanted out of the capstone was all the tacos Br'uk Evu promised us, it has disappointed even those of us who like this goofy stuff

[ovIm]

Thinking about it, everything about this final quest just feels... incredibly off.

Our villain is someone who was kicked out of her village, and was unable to work with the customs of the world beyond. After being wronged and her home destroyed by the authorities, she resorted to extremism. Hells, many of the things she said about Eorzeas nations do ring true. Quite frankly, a lot of the things Apyaahi said do resonate well, and are not out of place in this world.

How come we (both the ingame characters and we, the players) can forgive and redeem Golbez, Fordola, even Yotsuyu (up to a part) and fucking Gaius, but when it comes to Apyaahi, the only solution is jail and chains? All while being played for laughs with that weird song in the background. It just leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.

[Supersnow845]

I can scarcely think of a jRPG protagonist less suited to being the vector of thinly veiled political preaching about the benefits of incrementalism than the WOL considering it’s basically the antithesis of basically every shred of their lore up until this point

They completely missed the “either tell an important story with levity or tell an creative story with humour” memo but regardless everything about this entire quest is just completely tone deaf and seriously reads like “Japanese company doesn’t understand that the entire world doesn’t follow incrementalism nor do they view it as a positive thing so we will make a whole joke about it”