Dark Ages of the game - My opinion on the state of the game

[Jeeqbit]

Genuinely curious. What highs do you feel are in the MSQ? What was fun and exciting, pre-Heritage Found?

Finding the city of gold, it was really cool how they did it with it in the background creeping towards you in Skydeep Cenote.

Learning all about the giants and being on top of the mountain like that.

Fighting Valigarmanda.

Learning about the battle and Wuk's father in Yak T'el.

Pretty much anything and everything that involved Gulool Ja Ja.

If nothing else, Bakool Ja Ja was a fun and comical villain... until he wasn't.

Finally meeting the legendary Ketenramm, long assumed dead and a historical figure.

Although a sudden theme change, I can dig a zone stereotyping westerns.

As for Wuk, what I don't get is how people compare her to Lyse.

Mainly in that Stormblood was Lyse's story with her as narrator and the idea seemed like she would eventually lead Ala Mhigo, a similar overall premise, but there was another more qualified person for that job and SE couldn't ignore it - Raubahn. And the fact the story was split between two unrelated sections of the map like Dawntrail.

[ChrysOCE]

Finding the city of gold, it was really cool how they did it with it in the background creeping towards you in Skydeep Cenote.

Learning all about the giants and being on top of the mountain like that.

Fighting Valigarmanda.

Learning about the battle and Wuk's father in Yak T'el.

Pretty much anything and everything that involved Gulool Ja Ja.

If nothing else, Bakool Ja Ja was a fun and comical villain... until he wasn't.

Finally meeting the legendary Ketenramm, long assumed dead and a historical figure.

Although a sudden theme change, I can dig a zone stereotyping westerns.

Mainly in that Stormblood was Lyse's story with her as narrator and the idea seemed like she would eventually lead Ala Mhigo, a similar overall premise, but there was another more qualified person for that job and SE couldn't ignore it - Raubahn. And the fact the story was split between two unrelated sections of the map like Dawntrail.

Fair enough. Personally, I found nothing about those zones or the MSQ exciting.
City of Gold was actually probably the only part that was a highlight, granted. The travel into Mamook and the literal travel to the Gold City. It's such a pity the actual MSQ part was so rubbish...

Ketenramm had no meaning to me. He might have been a historical figure in the story but, really, was a nobody to me. When was Ketenramm first even mentioned, in MSQ?

Personally, I hated Shaaloani. Absolutely boring to me, with it's western setting and overall MSQ plot. The whole western vibe seemed like such a strange thing. Just because there is some South/Central America themes, some Native American - well, better have Cowboys and Indians. Maybe there are other places, in FFXIV like that, and I just haven't noticed them. But that zone, in particular, just felt like lazy design.


But Lyse wasn't a overpowering figure, present in practically all quests, requiring you to speak to her and accompany her throughout the MSQ, from start to finish. It is not really a similar comparison to their presence within the MSQ.

[Hallarem]

Fair enough. Personally, I found nothing about those zones or the MSQ exciting.
City of Gold was actually probably the only part that was a highlight, granted. The travel into Mamook and the literal travel to the Gold City. It's such a pity the actual MSQ part was so rubbish...

Ketenramm had no meaning to me. He might have been a historical figure in the story but, really, was a nobody to me. When was Ketenramm first even mentioned, in MSQ?

Personally, I hated Shaaloani. Absolutely boring to me, with it's western setting and overall MSQ plot. The whole western vibe seemed like such a strange thing. Just because there is some South/Central America themes, some Native American - well, better have Cowboys and Indians. Maybe there are other places, in FFXIV like that, and I just haven't noticed them. But that zone, in particular, just felt like lazy design.


But Lyse wasn't a overpowering figure, present in practically all quests, requiring you to speak to her and accompany her throughout the MSQ, from start to finish. It is not really a similar comparison to their presence within the MSQ.

Worst part is that the whole Ceruleum / progress vs the natives plotline belonged to the Whalaqee, one of the only things we knew about the New World before we entered. Whalaqee were reduced to a crafting sidequest in this expansion, and we didn't get to see their ceruleum rich home turf. And what was the reason? A 100% because they were too scared to tackle a natives vs progress storyline, stealing natural resources from a tribes holy land. Because people on twitter would have started to screech. Look at how they are already doing it because of armor someone is wearing (The conquistador saga). Instead we got soft cowboys who shoot soft rubber bullets to solve their disagreements, and chill natives whose problems with traintracks are solved with 5 minute trainwhistle tech. The MSQ has become soft, it used to tell nuanced stories from multiple angles, now we get this.
If you don't want to tell "sad stories" anymore, like Yoshi P said after 16, then pass the baton to someone else, because you can't earn happiness in stories without setback. You can't respect the intelligence of your audience if you tell soft non-stakes stories with horrible pacing.

[Mawlzy]

Worst part is that the whole Ceruleum / progress vs the natives plotline belonged to the Whalaqee, one of the only things we knew about the New World before we entered. Whalaqee were reduced to a crafting sidequest in this expansion, and we didn't get to see their ceruleum rich home turf. And what was the reason? A 100% because they were too scared to tackle a natives vs progress storyline, stealing natural resources from a tribes holy land. Because people on twitter would have started to screech. Look at how they are already doing it because of armor someone is wearing (The conquistador saga). Instead we got soft cowboys who shoot soft rubber bullets to solve their disagreements, and chill natives whose problems with traintracks are solved with 5 minute trainwhistle tech. The MSQ has become soft, it used to tell nuanced stories from multiple angles, now we get this.
If you don't want to tell "sad stories" anymore, like Yoshi P said after 16, then pass the baton to someone else, because you can't earn happiness in stories without setback. You can't respect the intelligence of your audience if you tell soft non-stakes stories with horrible pacing.

Having done the Blue Mage questline I was expecting the tensions introduced there to appear in DT. It really did feel like cowardice by the writers that they were completely ignored. It also added to the sense of dislocation mentioned in other threads that the MSQ barely acknowledged its own lore.

I guess part of the point of DT was to create a clean break with the previous arc, but in that case the writers need to add future mystery and a compelling reason to care about what happens next.

The fact the Arcadion series is mentioned by many as a story highlight is pretty telling when it was a weak knock-off of WWE.

[Jeeqbit]

Fair enough. Personally, I found nothing about those zones or the MSQ exciting.

I do all the sidequests too, so I got some extra context on the giants outside of the MSQ as well. But there was a lot that was part of it as well. I fought Valigarmanda with Duty Support and it likely takes away from it if you don't do it with the characters present.

Ketenramm had no meaning to me. He might have been a historical figure in the story but, really, was a nobody to me. When was Ketenramm first even mentioned, in MSQ?

I forget where specifically but I remember it was mentioned in the lore over time as him being the person who found the new world and brought items home, but any quest or lore piece about him just implied how he must have perished by now. So I was really happy, that just for once, something in this game was present-tense. To me it was like seeing things about the allagans and then the twist is they are still around actually.

Maybe there are other places, in FFXIV like that, and I just haven't noticed them.

There are. Ishgard is a stereotype of the UK. Kugane is a stereotype of Japan and its apparent "ninjas and samurai". They absolutely take every opportunity to add the common tourist destinations to the game that are popular purely due to stereotypes, and their own country isn't immune to that as Kugane proved.

But Lyse wasn't a overpowering figure, present in practically all quests, requiring you to speak to her and accompany her throughout the MSQ, from start to finish. It is not really a similar comparison to their presence within the MSQ.

Right so I think what most people must be drawing comparions to is the other aspects which I mentioned.