Does FFXIV Hate Politics Now? [Spoilers for Dawntrail 7.1]

[Wasselin]

One of the things that made A Realm Reborn so great was its rich political intrigue. Ul’dah’s Monetarists schemed against the Sultana, Limsa Lominsa’s pirates chafed under the Admiral’s rule, and Gridania was boiling over from tensions with the Duskwight Elezen and Ala Mhigan refugees. These conflicts made the world feel alive, layered, and grounded in real-world issues. Politics were central to the story, driving the narrative and building a complex world.

Fast forward to Dawntrail, and that political tension feels almost entirely absent. Take the Yok Huy, who gave up a vast empire that subjugated much of Tural, including the Pelupelu. While the story does mention that some people feel “uncomfortable” around them and there are a few Yok Huy who want to return to their status as conquerors, there’s little exploration of the lasting impact of their conquests. The Pelupelu, who were once enslaved by the Yok Huy, now seem to have completely forgotten or don’t care about their former subjugation.

Or consider Shaaloani, a region inspired by the American West. The discovery of ceruleum deposits has led to the construction of railroads and other industrial projects, which in our real history was a disaster for the native people. Yet, the local Hhetsarro people magically coexist with the industrialists drilling into their land. There’s no exploration of displacement, cultural erasure, or conflict over resources—instead, the two groups live side by side in harmony, a magical train horn solving all problems.

These are just a few examples of a trend in Dawntrail: political conflict is either absent or mentioned only as a token, with no real exploration of its consequences. Clearly the writers wanted a lighter tone after the heavy stakes of Endwalker, but it comes at the cost of the moral complexity and political realities that made the previous places feel alive.

I hope that future patches or expansions will bring political intrigue back. FFXIV’s world feels most alive when it grapples with the messy, conflicting interests of its inhabitants.

Am I off base? Do you miss the politics of earlier expansions?

[OverTheHill]

The MSQ writing had none of the subtlety or skill of the older expansions. It’s like the writing staff totally immersed themselves in the holiday theme a bit too much.

[MoofiaBossVal]

Yeah. My enthusiasm diminished during the later ShB patches. What hooked me on FF14 was ARR through Stormblood's focus on local geopolitical conflict that was not handwaved away, and the tension that arose from that. These peoples have existed for hundreds or thousands of years before the present, having a history of bloodshed and beliefs. Though our heroes might be all loving do-gooders, they cannot handwave that away overnight. Merlwyb must break a treaty because she lives in an imperfect world where that is simply the least bad option available to her. Nanamo cries in despair that though she is a princess, she cannot magically fix her country. The Syndicate and the Monetarists remain in power, slavery and the bloodsands and the hired private armies like the Brass Blades continue to remain a thing. Ala Mhigo and Doma regain their sovereignty, but still remain ruined and most of their able body men are dead, crippled, or return home with guilty consciences, with their women having been used for comfort or having grown old and lost their beauty. And so on. There is heroism in this setting, but what is done cannot be undone. There is no pristine ideal world to be seen here.

Starting in the Shadowbringers patches, the writers embark on handwaving away all of the unpleasantness in the setting, at the expense of FF14's realism and feeling of weight. All of the pirate crews now magically obey Merlwyb when they weren't doing so before and now there is peace with the Sahagin and the kobolds, no more shortage of land or resources, the prior bloodshed has evaporated. The enmity between Gridania and the Ixal and the tempered Sylphs, and between Ul'dah and the Amal'jaa evaporates overnight. Garlemald is destroyed offscreen and then we - who killed hundreds or maybe thousands of their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons - waltz in and pass out bowls of soup and now everyone is sociable, with only a few "disgruntled" people, let alone anyone trying to assassinate the enemy's great hero and the scourge of Garlemald. The great foreign adversary that binded the Eorzea Alliance together is gone, but everyone is still acting like a happy globalist alliance rather than focused on what is the in the best interests of their own country which would conflict with another, and mean the breakdown of the Eorzean Alliance. And so on.

You go to the Void and all of the problems get handwaved away overnight. You go to Tural, a newly established empire barely 80 years old featuring lots of different tribes and races spread out across two continents with their own needs and own prior bloodsheds, and said empire is not in peril of collapse. Wuk Lamat was an unpopular claimant and yet she gets crowned and the masses who cheered for the two popular claimants are nowhere to be seen, not even expressing disgruntlement. Everyone now magically accepts and roots for Wuk Lamat now. The first week of Wuk Lamat's rule is tarnished by an invasion and attack on the capital with the souls of people being utterly destroyed, and Tural requiring the benevolence of a foreign dragon unit to repel the invasion. This would not inspire confidence in Wuk Lamat's rule, and yet no dissent is to be seen.

It is difficult to care when the world does not feel like a real place, the things that are happen do not seem plausible, and there is tension, no suspense that we may or may not succeed and the world may or may not wind up better or worse off.

[Hallarem]

Garlemald being destroyed offscreen (endwalker) = SE: "Nah, cba to write all that political intrigue in an expansion"
Nophica in the raid (endwalker) = "The elementals love you, they are just misunderstood" = Any politics and nuance in Gridania is done and swept under the rug, what duskwight and keeper mistrust?
(At least they didnt sweep religion under the rug)

To be fair, Shadowbringers was a world ending situation, not much room for politics there except in small ways. Endwalker partially too, but I'm not forgiving that expansion for pressing the pedal towards this issue and actually the "world ending" was ONLY Radz-at-han being bombed for an afternoon, so yeah. Endwalker doesnt get a pass, they were lazy even with their world ending threat.

Endwalker I think was the true axe to the head of any worldbuilding and politics, they are just focusing on grand sweeping things like their themes and some world ending threat.

Radz at han = No politics with nobles who according to items and lore exist but are hidden somewhere, no nuance. Its just a happy nation of alchemists who are neutral and when the dragon ruler is revealed they accept him
Garlemald gone because pacing sucked and Endwalker was two expansions mashed into one
Not a really in depth look into Sharlayan either, just grr grr grumpy council and gleaners
Dont even get me started on the stupid beast tribe quests that basically tried to erase all the planets being erased by resurrecting them or some trite. I skipped most of the cutscenes because the concept annoyed me
Where are the stakes? Everything is earned way too easily, Vrtra's arse shows up to save Tuliyollal with a text message and no conversation (offscreen) and he non-dialogue cutscenes to the rescue because they agreed on a "treaty" mid-invasion? in like an hour? how lazy/incompetent are they with this? They could have cut so many filler cutscenes for actual cutscenes with story, meaning and worldbuilding.

Dawntrail just doubled down on that non-committed unearned happiness and I felt like I was on some weird scripted tour of North Korea, where they are only allowed to show us a facade of happiness.

I'm half expecting that the eon long warring tribes of the Steppe will be solved in one dialogue of "Oh yea, we had a meeting with all the tribes we have been kidnapping and killing for centuries and decided that from now on we will solve our differences with tea and dumplings over at Reunion because one of the main cast talk-no.-jutsud us into it." this is how HORRID the writing is at the moment.

[Hallarem]

Or consider Shaaloani, a region inspired by the American West. The discovery of ceruleum deposits has led to the construction of railroads and other industrial projects, which in our real history was a disaster for the native people. Yet, the local Hhetsarro people magically coexist with the industrialists drilling into their land. There’s no exploration of displacement, cultural erasure, or conflict over resources—instead, the two groups live side by side in harmony, a magical train horn solving all problems.

Best part about this is that the Whalaqee got pushed to the sideline, because they WERE actually supposed to be in odds with people trying to exploit their homelands ceruleum deposits, that they consider sacred and the earths "lifeblood". Whalaqee and blue magic was supposed to be a big part of the New World, it was practically the only thing we knew about the New World aside from Mamool Ja.
But I think they wussied out of a conflict between natives and industrialists and we got cowboys with RUBBER BULLETS and white bread miqo'te nomadic buffalo herders, that dont care about the railways until they do, but it gets solved by said one hour invention of a train whistle that makes both parties happy. NO CONFLICT

[Dorito_Burrito]

Garlemald being destroyed offscreen (endwalker) = SE: "Nah, cba to write all that political intrigue in an expansion"
Nophica in the raid (endwalker) = "The elementals love you, they are just misunderstood" = Any politics and nuance in Gridania is done and swept under the rug, what duskwight and keeper mistrust?
(At least they didnt sweep religion under the rug)

To be fair, Shadowbringers was a world ending situation, not much room for politics there except in small ways. Endwalker partially too, but I'm not forgiving that expansion for pressing the pedal towards this issue and actually the "world ending" was ONLY Radz-at-han being bombed for an afternoon, so yeah. Endwalker doesnt get a pass, they were lazy even with their world ending threat.

Endwalker I think was the true axe to the head of any worldbuilding and politics, they are just focusing on grand sweeping things like their themes and some world ending threat.

Radz at han = No politics with nobles who according to items and lore exist but are hidden somewhere, no nuance. Its just a happy nation of alchemists who are neutral and when the dragon ruler is revealed they accept him
Garlemald gone because pacing sucked and Endwalker was two expansions mashed into one
Not a really in depth look into Sharlayan either, just grr grr grumpy council and gleaners
Dont even get me started on the stupid beast tribe quests that basically tried to erase all the planets being erased by resurrecting them or some trite. I skipped most of the cutscenes because the concept annoyed me
Where are the stakes? Everything is earned way too easily, Vrtra's arse shows up to save Tuliyollal with a text message and no conversation (offscreen) and he non-dialogue cutscenes to the rescue because they agreed on a "treaty" mid-invasion? in like an hour? how lazy/incompetent are they with this? They could have cut so many filler cutscenes for actual cutscenes with story, meaning and worldbuilding.

Dawntrail just doubled down on that non-committed unearned happiness and I felt like I was on some weird scripted tour of North Korea, where they are only allowed to show us a facade of happiness.

I'm half expecting that the eon long warring tribes of the Steppe will be solved in one dialogue of "Oh yea, we had a meeting with all the tribes we have been kidnapping and killing for centuries and decided that from now on we will solve our differences with tea and dumplings over at Reunion because one of the main cast talk-no.-jutsud us into it." this is how HORRID the writing is at the moment.

There was never a Garlemald expansion in development. There was an idea that it could be one, but it was ultimately decided that it wouldn't work.

[Red-thunder]

One of the things that made A Realm Reborn so great was its rich political intrigue. Ul’dah’s Monetarists schemed against the Sultana, Limsa Lominsa’s pirates chafed under the Admiral’s rule, and Gridania was boiling over from tensions with the Duskwight Elezen and Ala Mhigan refugees. These conflicts made the world feel alive, layered, and grounded in real-world issues. Politics were central to the story, driving the narrative and building a complex world.

Fast forward to Dawntrail, and that political tension feels almost entirely absent. Take the Yok Huy, who gave up a vast empire that subjugated much of Tural, including the Pelupelu. While the story does mention that some people feel “uncomfortable” around them and there are a few Yok Huy who want to return to their status as conquerors, there’s little exploration of the lasting impact of their conquests. The Pelupelu, who were once enslaved by the Yok Huy, now seem to have completely forgotten or don’t care about their former subjugation.

Or consider Shaaloani, a region inspired by the American West. The discovery of ceruleum deposits has led to the construction of railroads and other industrial projects, which in our real history was a disaster for the native people. Yet, the local Hhetsarro people magically coexist with the industrialists drilling into their land. There’s no exploration of displacement, cultural erasure, or conflict over resources—instead, the two groups live side by side in harmony, a magical train horn solving all problems.

These are just a few examples of a trend in Dawntrail: political conflict is either absent or mentioned only as a token, with no real exploration of its consequences. Clearly the writers wanted a lighter tone after the heavy stakes of Endwalker, but it comes at the cost of the moral complexity and political realities that made the previous places feel alive.

I hope that future patches or expansions will bring political intrigue back. FFXIV’s world feels most alive when it grapples with the messy, conflicting interests of its inhabitants.

Am I off base? Do you miss the politics of earlier expansions?

The senior writers went off to FF16 and are probably working on the unspecified project.

[Supersnow845]

The senior writers went off to FF16 and are probably working on the unspecified project.

The storyboards for 16 were done in like HW. It’s more likely a problem of Japanese culture where people get promoted out of useful positions into useless positions but it’s considered extremely rude to refuse the promotion

The lady who did ShB and the dark knight quests (I can’t remember her name) was promoted out of the writer position before DT’s storyboarding, it’s likely they didn’t have anyone talented enough to replace her

[Gurgeh]

I agree massively with OP
The lack of politics now, given that every expansion FEATURES A NEW LOCATION AND IT'S PEOPLE is stark.
It used to be there.
If there is no politics, then you can never again have a 'collective' as antagonist.
There was no politics to dish off in DT.
The nearest was spat between those Hroth and Galools or whatever they were, and it was over something I forget and dint care to look up. Taco ingredients or something stupid?
Politics needs to be relatable to be recognisable unless you want to spend 'huge' amounts of time on world building.
It made emperor twin head, vapid.
It made the Tuliyolal peoples seem quaint and parochial.
The Garleands had real substance. The plight of the AlaMhigans has real substance.
The ShB post Trials story line was devastating.
The whole backdrop was political. Without that the antagonists made no sense. And that is what I would say about how Emperor two heads turned Tuliyolal into an empire. It made no sense. Yes he did some impressive things but none that make you take orders from him forever more, and build him a huge palace.
I have my concerns about XIVs vested interests, and the certain of the markets it's published in.
Well it's not going to be my problem if they are beholden to sensorship. I'm already going elsewhere for my entertainment, and none of it is other SQX IPS. I don't like action games. XVI was an alien button mash, I had no idea how to play it and never finished it. I'm not interested in XVII for the same reason, I don't get on with action games in fact XIV is probably the most action game I've ever played seriously, and learning has been slow compared to almost all other players, and thanks to logging, I question ever more if the style is net enjoyable.

[Valence]

Now instead the WoL simply gets to bully the homeless in the name of the government.