SE: Please tone it down a hair

[Darkillumina]

The thing that bothers me the most isn't the overlong dialogue nor the archaic grammar.

What absolutely sends me up the wall is that every quest or significant event is a terrible pun. Seriously, a little humor is good but every damn quest? "In for a Garuda Wakening" Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill it.......The list goes on and on.

[OJtheLIONKing]

The thing that bothers me the most isn't the overlong dialogue nor the archaic grammar.

What absolutely sends me up the wall is that every quest or significant event is a terrible pun. Seriously, a little humor is good but every damn quest? "In for a Garuda Wakening" Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill it.......The list goes on and on.

Eh, for that I say let them have their fun. I absolutely love just groanworthy bad puns (I think Stephen Fry is the one who made me a convert). I find it a little exciting to see what terrible puns the new batch of quests will have after each patch comes out.

[Jacien]

I miss back in the 90s when RPGs came with warnings "The ability to read is required to properly enjoy this game".

Perhaps this game should come with it too. People always in a hurry and expect things to be as basic as possible.

I for one enjoy the multitude of dialects and "fancy talk" in this game, and I have no problem reading it.

Pokemon has the warning on the back of the game, the newest ones even.

[bobbygunz]

You know what I find wrong?

I find it wrong that you guys think I have a problem with HOW they speak. I don't.

I repeat. There's nothing wrong with how they speak.

The problem is that the paragraphs are not related, they shove dialogue in for lore that's out of context, making the the speech disjointed and hard to read. It's bad storytelling plain and simple. It reads like one person was in charge of every paragraph and never consulted with each other.

There is nothing wrong with how they speak. There's everything wrong with how it's being written.

I'm far more interested in hearing why Nael is present at every primal summoning. Seems to me like he's behind the primal fights and not the beastmen.

Why don't we chat about that, eh, Legatus?

Yeah there's a time and a place for that. But when we're talking about Primals and Dalamud and Garleans and "struggle" x6... you don't think that's a little much?

Too much exposition is just as bad as too little. You overwhelm the audience and lose it.

I actually agree that it's not perfect, and the overall narrative is quite disjointed too, and not least of all the dialogue itself, but I just thought it was funny how you used the "struggle" example when that was scarcely even a flaw in his speech nor really exemplary of the problems with FFXIV's dialogue at large.

[Zuellni]

The thing that bothers me the most isn't the overlong dialogue nor the archaic grammar.

What absolutely sends me up the wall is that every quest or significant event is a terrible pun. Seriously, a little humor is good but every damn quest? "In for a Garuda Wakening" Ifrit Bleeds, We Can Kill it.......The list goes on and on.

"A Threat of Titan-ic Proportions."
"Shiva Me Timbers!"
"A Rumah Therapy"

[Rjain]

This thread got entirely out of hand.

Now it's a battle of opinions. You like XI quests but don't like XIV quests? Great, go play XI. XIV quests not gonna change just because you're bitching.

This is a pointless topic because it's 50/50 based on who likes it and who doesn't, and a lot of the people just skip it anyway.

I will reiterate again that I personally enjoy most of the NPC chatter in this game, along with quest dialogue (and especially the quest and achievement names). In XI? /doze every single time. There were only a small handful of quests in XI where I was actually interested in what people were saying. In this game, I pay attention almost every single time. Which goes to prove it doesn't matter what anyone in this thread is saying at this point, even myself, because it's all opinion.

[Majidah]

I'll take HiirNoivl's post and analyse the dialog, since people still don't seem to be getting the point...

Garlemald owes you a great debt, adventurer. Wholly without our prompting, you have now felled the primals of both fire and wind. Such ability and devotion commands even mine own respect.

Hey you beat ifrit and garuda!

You would do well to see reality for what it truly is─cold, cruel, unforgiving. No words could do justice to the great deeds that I have done, nor the countless hardships I have endured in their doing.

Nothing of interest is said in this paragraph.

Corpses litter the fields and choke the streets, and still your gods remain silent─utterly indifferent. Such gods are not fit for worship. As they gaze impassively upon our corpses, so let us gaze upon theirs. The gods are dead to us─we have no need of them.

Nothing of interest is said in this paragraph.

So please, by all means, persist. Struggle to your heart's content. Struggle however you see fit. Struggle long. Struggle oft. And when at last you tire of struggling...summon up your courage and struggle some more!

"Keep at it". And nothing else is said in this paragraph.

For with every act of defiance, another drop of Eorzea's lifeblood shall be given over to the red moon. The crystals, the land, the primals─the power of all shall burn bright and shine down upon this realm a glorious purifying light!

I'm not sure if he's just babbling some more or there's actual meaning to this.

(And this isn't even the end of the text)

Bottom line: SE needs to be concise and to stop adorning empty spaces with bells and whistles. Specially when they end up as five paragraphs of no content.

Those "old english" fanboys can have their cake, but please do it on dialog that's actually relevant... and when writing it, SE, ask yourself "would a person give a speech to a stranger in a conversation? would the stranger stand there and listen for 10 minutes while the other one speaks nothing of interest?"

If the answer is no, then don't write it. It makes no sense.

[KaplanHomahru]

I have no problem reading/understanding what is being said in game, I think the amount of dialogue for most things currently is appropriate. I hope the devs don't see the thread and start "dumbing" stuff down.

'Nothing of interest is said in this paragraph' ... REALLY? Lol. Just because it isn't spoon fed to you in simple sentences. "you killed garuda" "garuda power bad" "garuda power go meteor" doesn't mean they aren't explaining important concepts.

I do admit that some things (especially the more mundane quests) are long winded and can be trimmed a bit, but for the most part I like the direction they're going in.

[Elexia]

I have no problem reading/understanding what is being said in game, I think the amount of dialogue for most things currently is appropriate. I hope the devs don't see the thread and start "dumbing" stuff down.

They will if they want to keep up with "2012 MMORPGS."

[KaplanHomahru]

No, people can just check their journal for the tl;dr and FFXIV can be an awesome niche game ;D